Reminder: Flyleaf Books hosts Alex Bledsoe for Wisp of a Thing tomorrow (Wednesday, July 10) at 7 pm

Posted on 2013-07-10 at 02:27 by montsamu

Author Alex Bledsoe grew up in Tennessee, and the Smokey Mountains on the Tennessee / North Carolina border are the setting for his “Tufa” novels: “No one knows where the Tufa came from, or how they ended up in the mountains of East Tennessee.  When the first Europeans came to the Smoky Mountains, the Tufa were already there.  Dark-haired and enigmatic, they live quietly in the hills and valleys of Cloud County, their origins lost to history.  But there are clues in their music, hidden in the songs they have passed down for generations….”

The first Tufa book, 2011’s The Hum and the Shiver, was named one of the best novels of 2011 by Kirkus Reviews, and I’ve “read” it myself — well, I listened to Stefan Rudnicki and Emily Janice Card narrate it for me in audiobook format. I loved the interplay of music and magic in a contemporary New South setting of veterans returning from the Middle East, unemployment, and the isolation of the mountain, and have been looking forward to checking out book two, the just-published Wisp of a Thing. I’ll get my chance — and so can you! — tomorrow night at Chapel Hill’s Flyleaf Books [Facebook Event] as Bledsoe visits for a reading and signing.

For Wisp of a Thing, Bledsoe creates a new stand-alone story rather than a direct sequel. Here’s a couple reviews of the new book:

“Rob Quillen, a folk singer whose girlfriend died in a plane crash, seeks out the mysterious Tufa people in search of the song he believes will mend his broken heart. Though the Tufa appear to be a racially ambiguous Appalachian subculture, they’re actually descendants of the Fae, capable of strange magics. Hunting his song, Rob becomes caught up in the fate of Curnen, a troubled girl under a terrible curse, and Stoney Hicks, a Tufa man who has been carelessly seducing and destroying women with his magical charms. Bledsoe brings a real warmth and a messy humanity to his modern-day fairy story, with strong characterization and a passionate love of music. Set in the same world as The Hum and the Shiver, this stand-alone novel feels more heartfelt and is written with a lighter touch, fulfilling all of the first book’s early promise and hitting the sweet spot between glossy and gritty.” -Publishers Weekly

“This beautifully handled drama of Appalachian music and magic once again comes complete with fascinating characters, a persuasive setting and intriguing complications. Bledsoe’s on a roll.” –Kirkus (starred review)

Alex Bledsoe is the author of “The Hum and the Shiver, ” as well as the novels in the Eddie LaCrosse series: “The Sword-Edged Blonde, Burn Me Deadly, ” and “Dark Jenny.” He grew up in west Tennessee and has been a reporter, editor, photographer, and door-to-door salesman. He now lives in a Wisconsin town famous for trolls where he writes and spends time with his family.

Posted in events | Tagged alex bledsoe, flyleaf books

Sam on Carolina Book Beat, Monday July 8 at 10 AM

Posted on 2013-07-08 at 01:57 by montsamu

Whew! Sorry for a lot of radio silence from me of late; bought a new house (don’t worry — it’s still in Durham of course) and took a long-planned family vacation, which with two kids running amok was not particularly restful, and then have been dealing with moving and then cleaning and fixing up the old house for sale, etc. I know I have a ton of emails and Tweets and other various messages (luckily no subpoenas of yet) to get to and respond to. So much to do! But first…

I was on Carolina Book Beat to begin the year with a year in review/year in preview of local and regional books, and I’m scheduled to give a “Bull Spec Magazine update on new books” tomorrow morning — and of course sneak in some mentions of some upcoming events as well. (Alex Bledsoe at Flyleaf Books, an Ehmm Theory signing at Ultimate Comics, Jenna Black at Flyleaf Books, the annual NC Browncoats charity screening of Serenity at the Raleighwood Cinema, a just-announced Jay Posey launch signing for Three at the B&N of Southpoint, and of course the August 3rd Bull Spec Summer Speculative Fiction Event at Quail Ridge Books — for starters.)

I’ve very much enjoyed my chats with Audrey and Paul and am looking forward to tomorrow. In terms of books, I’m hoping to mention recent releases such as Rich Dansky’s Vaporware and Mur Lafferty’s The Shambling Guide to New York City, along with forthcoming local and regional books such as Nathan Ballingrud’s collection North American Lake Monsters, Jenna Black’s Replica, Jay Posey’s Three, Kelly Gay’s story in the Carniepunk anthology, and David Drake’s latest Books of the Elements novel, some local book news such as Alex Wilson’s Writers of the Future story and Monica Byrne’s debut novel being set for a 2014 release, other anticipated sf/fantasy books this summer and fall, and… well, the list goes on and is so long. Tune in tomorrow morning from 10 AM to 11 AM (Eastern Time) on WCOM 103.5 FM, catch the live webcast from www.wcomfm.org, or wait a bit and download the post-air-date podcast.

Carolina Book Beat has a pretty solidly speculative focus this early summer, with other upcoming shows of interest:

• July 22 - Rhonda Riley, Fiction, The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope (date to be confirmed)
• August 5 - Karen Lord, Sci-Fi, The Best of All Possible Worlds -- Barbados sf/f author Lord is the headliner (among such an amazing lineup!) for the August 3rd event at Quail Ridge Books, and has additional events on August 4 (Orange County Library in Hillsborough), and August 5 (Chapel Hill Library and Flyleaf Books)

• The Kings and Queens of Roam by Daniel Wallace (broadcast 5-6-2013) Daniel Wallace once again brings to the reader a tale of what it is to be human demonstrated by playing out a story in a setting of magic and mystery.
• Bull Spec Magazine of Speculative Fiction, Publisher Samuel Montgomery-Blinn (broadcast 1-7-2013)
• Bull Spec publisher Samuel Montgomery-Blinn (broadcast 1-2-2012) Sam talks about the importance of fantasy and science fiction in the world of literature and about the why and how of his involvement in the world of publishing.
• The Postmortal  by Drew Magary (broadcast 2-6-2012) Imagine a situation where a simple medical procedure would halt the process of natural aging.
• Kingdom in the Balance/The Source by Debra Killeen/Diana Bastine (broadcast 9-19-2011)  Sister authors, Killeen and Bastine, have each come up with good reading fantasy novels that fit into the young adult category.
• The Magician King by Lev Grossman (broadcast 9-5-11) Here is an invitation to enter another world, a world of magic, challenging, oft times dangerous, but always offering the possibility of achieving all one might wish for.
• Journal of a UFO Investigator by David Halperin (broadcast 2-7-2011)  A book within a book, within a book, Halperin, UNC Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, offers a universe of experience from which the reader can choose.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged carolina book beat

The Exploding Spaceship Release Day Edition Part 2: Review of Noah's Boy by Sarah A. Hoyt, Beginnings by David Weber et al. and Wolf in Shadow by John Lambshead

Posted on 2013-07-03 at 03:52 by angelablackwell

Review of Noah’s Boy by Sarah A. Hoyt (Baen, July 2, 2013, trade paperback)

Noah’s Boy is volume three in the Shifter series of urban fantasy from Sarah A. Hoyt. In this universe, people shift into all types of creatures from mice to dragons. Kyrie and Tom own The George, a shifter attracting diner in Goldport, a college town in Colorado. Rafiel, their customer, friend and a local policeman, is investigating several unexplained deaths, many of which appear to be shifters. So in their efforts to police their own, Kyrie, Tom and Rafiel try to sort out who the killer is because they think he is a fellow shifter.

Things get more complicated because the Great Sky Dragon sends a female dragon to be with Tom, even though Tom the dragon shifter is with Kyrie the panther shifter. Rafiel the lion shifter sort of liked Kyrie but now really wants another female shifter who floats his boat. Circumstances put the girl dragon with Rafiel for an extended period of time and they both are interested so perhaps this is the end of the love triangle with a dragon, a panther and a lion.

While they are investigating the murders, the Great Sky Dragon is killed by the murderer and while he is regenerating there is a power vacuum among the dragons. Tom is determined to be the heir and he steps in so things don’t get out of control until the Great Sky Dragon returns.

The three end up investigating an aquarium and an old amusement park looking for the killer. These locations make for some interesting battle scenes and heroic rescues. The three meet some new shifter friends along the way as well as Rafiel’s lady dragon, Bea. The shifters in the story have made their own family out of people like themselves who accept them.  The characters are all very interesting, with Kyrie and Tom having a very interesting relationship which finally can be resolved because of information from older shifters. Tom’s relationship with his father continues to evolve, but conveniently snow keeps him in Denver until the very end of the book. Hopefully we will see more adventures of this self-made family of shifters.

Review of Beginnings: Worlds of Honor #6 by David Weber with Charles E. Gannon, Timothy Zahn and Joelle Posey  (Baen, July 2, 2013, hardcover)

Well, for readers of the Honorverse since the beginning, we have been waiting twenty years to know the full stories of how Honor’s parents met on Beowulf while at medical school and how Honor ending up bonding to Nimitz. Finally, in this volume those stories are told.

“Beauty and the Beast” tells of the first encounters of Alison Benton-Ramirez Chou and Lt. Alfred Harrington. Of course nothing is as simple just meeting on campus; they do that, but then an adventure comes along to sweep up both of them and Alison’s brother Jacques, who is in the Biological Survey Corps. Being a Harrington means Alfred is as much a trouble magnet as his daughter will be. It is interesting to see what Honor’s parents were like when they were young and she most definitely inherited some of her nose for trouble, shooting acumen and intelligence from the Harrington side as well as the Beowulf side.

“The Best Laid Plans” tells of how Honor at almost 13 is even worse at avoiding trouble than she is as an adult. Her plans to get her mother a birthday present go horribly wrong and she has to save herself and a couple of treecats. One of the treecats is of course, Laughs Brightly, whom Honor calls Nimitz.

These two stories are told with wit and give more insight into characters that appear regularly in Honorverse books. Every reader of the Honorverse, even if you have only read the YA Stephanie Harrington series, should read these stories.

Two of the stories in the volume tell of times in the history of the Honorverse. “By the Book” by Charles E. Gannon takes place in 250 P.D. which is 525 years before the colonization ship left for Manticore. It tells the story of Lt. Lee Strong of Earth Union’s Custom Patrol Officer Corps as he investigates a hijacking and a sabotage incident on Callisto, where the Outbound colony ships are built. It gives a fascinating look at the politics of the factions in the Earth Union. Lt. Strong is an interesting character who comes from a future US and perhaps we can see what type of fallout happens to him as a result of the events in the story if he can make a return visit to Worlds of Honor in a later volume.

The other tale from the past is “A Call to Arms” by Timothy Zahn, which is set in 1538 P.D. in the Manticore system. It tells the story of Lt. Travis Uriah Long of the RMN. This is at a time when many ships are being un-mothballed and larger numbers of personnel are being trained because of the dangers to small systems from raiders and mercenaries, in addition to the danger of another military invading. Manticore is attacked by mercenaries hired by a corporation and this story tells of the naval battle from Lt. Long’s point of view. It is interesting to see how some RMN traditions are already going strong by this time, and how the officers there for political reasons cause just as much trouble as they do in Honor’s time. This is a well written naval battle story.

The last story is one taking place in the time immediately before and after the attack on Manticore and Grayson by Manpower. Grayson still has a long way to go before women are treated equally, so midshipwoman Claire Bedlam Lecroix has to deal with all types of comments, insults and verbal abuse from her fellow officers. Her captain decides he will be rid of her before he leaves Blackbird yard so he promotes her to Ensign and gets her transferred to another ship, the GNS Manasseh.

The crew on this ship act a bit better than that of the GNS Ephraim but soon everyone is too busy to take much notice she is female. GNS Manasseh arrives at Blackbird Yard just 6 hours after the attack, so Ensign Lecroix heads up search and rescue efforts.  From her shuttle she sees that the area where her two cousins lived is just pulverized debris. The GNS Ephraim along with the all the other ships in dock was destroyed. The Protector’s brother comes on board to travel to Manticore and Lecroix’s shipmates bring to his attention the problems she is having with her family and steadholder and much to her embarrassment, he takes everything very seriously and sorts it out. It would be interesting to see Ensign Lecroix experience the Manticore system and Steadholder Harrington, so hopefully she will make appearances in later stories. This is a great look at Grayson from an ordinary female’s perspective and gives a great deal of insight into what Honor changed by her presence there, but shows how much is still to be done.

Review of Wolf in Shadow by John Lambshead (Baen, July 2, 2013, trade paperback)

Wolf in Shadow by John Lambshead is an urban fantasy set in an alternate London which has a Millennium Dome instead of a Millennium Wheel (now called the London Eye). Witches and magic are part of society with daemons and vampires being only a rumor to most people, but such creatures do exist in this alternate world in a way. Magic can open doors to other dimensions which are not at the same time point as the present day so you can end up in Roman, pre-Roman, Victorian, or even early 20th century settings when you step through into the Otherworld.

The main characters in the story are Rhian, a Welsh girl who runs to Tower Hamlets, East London after her boyfriend is killed at a protest rally in Ealing, West London, her landlady and friend Frankie and her boss at the Dirty Duck/Black Swan, Gary. She also meets some government civil servants and a strange man named Max, for whom she feels a strange attraction. James’ death is so recent that feeling an attraction to anyone seems wrong, but Max keeps intruding into her life. He gets her and Frankie to work for him to solve some magical crises. Frankie is a witch and gets Rhian to be her assistant because she can see the magic even though she isn’t a witch. Rhian’s friends and coworkers soon discover the wolf inside her as they try to fight a magical terrorist’s plot to open a large hole deep into the Otherworld. The greedy man who hires people to make the hole only wants a market disturbance so he can make a fortune, but hungry bad guys from inside the Otherworld want through.

Rhian is a very interesting character. Physically, she appears to be just a petite little mouse of a girl, but her inner nature is that of a wolf, and when it manifests she becomes a wolf, both physically and mentally, but with a slight human conscience. Her interaction with the many male characters in the story reveals a great deal about how much she understands them, even though she is young. Many of the male types could be encountered at any local pub in London. Rhian is a strong female character and the males react to her in realistic ways, so her London pub is frequented by gentlemen, college students who tend to be slightly drunk before having the nerve to speak, and the usual sexist pigs any female who has walked into a bar has met. You can see Rhian’s character strengthen by the way she deals with the different types of men as the book progresses.

Lambshead’s London feels very real and the geography is quite like modern London with some obvious differences because it is an alternate world. Don’t go looking for the Black Swan/Dirty Duck in the neighborhood mentioned in the book, because in our universe it was demolished years ago (Not to be confused with the still vibrant Black Swan/Dirty Duck in Stratford-Upon-Avon).

Rhian’s shock at getting off the tube and discovering her West London prejudices had her getting a wrong impression of East London was amusing and very accurate. As an East Londoner for weeks at a time for several years, Your Humble Reviewers had several occasions where young adults from West London asked whether where we lived in East London was safe. East London is like many other urban neighborhoods: in the business areas, you need to stay out of dark places when all the offices are empty and the busy sections with night life are fine if you pay attention to lighting and foot traffic. Rhian notices the poor lighting, but in her young Welsh naivety continues into the dark area, so she is at fault, not the city.

The ExCel center which is the setting of a major scene in the book is the location for LonCon 3, the 2014 World Science Fiction Convention, but hopefully it won’t be invaded by a bad magic portal full of evil elves while everyone is there.

This book is a fast-moving urban fantasy with strong mythologically-based magic but also characters with cool guns and cars. The London setting is well done, the geographical detail bringing to mind Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London/Midnight Riot setting of a modern slightly magical London. It is nice to see a non-US urban fantasy setting from Baen. Hope we get to see these characters and this setting again in the near future!

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship

The Exploding Spaceship Release Day Edition Part 1: Review of Thieves' Quarry by D.B. Jackson and Crazy in the Blood by Lucienne Diver

Posted on 2013-07-02 at 18:52 by angelablackwell

Review of Thieves’ Quarry by D.B. Jackson (Tor, July 2, 2013, hardback)

Thieves’ Quarry is the second book of Ethan Kaille’s adventures as a thieftaker conjurer in Boston in 1768. It’s September and tensions are high as British ships are arriving and it is rumored that many troops are going to land in order to deal with the rebellion situation.

As the ships sit offshore, Ethan watches his brother-in-law talk to some British Naval officers who have come onto the dock.  Later when he reaches his dwelling, his brother-in-law who has never come to his place before, brings the officers around to speak to Ethan.

This leads to Ethan taking a case to solve a murder for the crown, and in the process becoming friends and partnering with some people he thought were enemies and some he never knew might be friends. As usual Ethan’s generally kind nature gets him into trouble at every turn. To add to the situation, the troops are landed and the place some are to be quartered has men holed up in it refusing to give up their place to the soldiers. Tempers are short and trying to deal with anyone is likely to lead to violence first and questions later.

Ethan of course sorts the mystery out in the end but not before finding out much more than he wanted to about the darker sides of conjuring.

Jackson’s revolutionary Boston feels very real. Sites on his map match sites in our Boston of today and particularly for anyone who has walked the Freedom Trail and visited historical sites in the city, it is very easy to imagine yourself transported back in time.  The characters are engaging and even the supporting ones have depth. Some new supporting characters in this volume give Ethan a few surprises in how they relate to him so it could make for interesting story twists in later books. Jackson’s history background is used to good effect to explain how different factions feel (even Mr. Adams gets to explain himself in this volume) and to explain about the resentment toward soldiers and the concerns of business owners. But there aren’t great dumps of information, nor information stuck in conversation which doesn’t need to be there. If you like historical fiction, mysteries or non-medieval fantasy with a bit of magic then this is a good read.

Review of Crazy in the Blood: Latter-Day Olympians Book 2 by Lucienne Diver (Samhain, July 2, 2013, trade paperback)

The FBI drops a case on Los Angeles private investigator Tori Karacis when they think it has some oddities which she might know about due to her previous case at the Le Brea Tar Pits. She is more interested in finding her missing uncle and keeping her boyfriend, police officer Nick Armani, out of trouble. Tori‘s world includes aunts and uncles who talk like the Greek gods exist and a grandmother who runs the world’s biggest Greek god gossip rag. In a previous case the god Apollo had to give Tori ambrosia in order to keep her alive, but it’s addictive so Tori has been trying to stay off of it. This leads to some embarrassing moments with Nick and another debt owed to Apollo.

Tori’s apartment got trashed in her previous adventures, which resulted in the arrest of three gods, so she is living in the apartment belonging to Armani’s missing partner (well, the police think he is missing…) but the FBI manage to find her there. They seem to think she knows more about the weird stuff than she is telling, and of course she does, but not anything that would help them.

She ends up taking a trip to the Napa Valley to try and locate her uncle (her partner in the PI business) who was conducting an investigation when he went missing. Along the way she gathers an entourage of helpers: her best friend Christie, her drama queen office manager Jesus, two FBI agents named Rosen and Holloway, her boyfriend Nick Armani and Apollo, Greek god and porn star.  The love triangle with Tori, Nick and Apollo has everyone pushing each other’s buttons until the situation with open gates of Hades is so close to world-ending that Nick and Apollo actually work together. Tori is, apparently, the police for the gods and their relatives.  Her granny’s gossip column is making waves because it contains Tori’s exploits and it usually contains the truth. Tori’s entire problem is due to godly marital issues, so even though she is tired of dealing with godly messes, she sorts it out in the end.

The Latter-Day Olympians setting is quite interesting because Greek gods run around in the modern world and many have newer occupations which relate to the events of their written exploits, like Apollo is a gorgeous blonde who makes porn movies and Odysseus (Tori’s uncle) is a private investigator.  There is some use of magic or godly powers, even by Tori and plenty of fighting. There are lots of nice looking people in the book and even some monster pets from myth. When gods start stomping around in the normal human world they tend to leave death and destruction behind, so Tori tries to keep them happy where they are so they stay away.

Tori and her supporting cast are all fleshed out characters with complex personalities and realistic quirks and fears. None of the characters are stock archetypes so sometimes their actions or decisions can surprise you, particularly the athletic, very handsome and fit policeman, Nick Armani, who goes wildly against the pudgy, doughnut eating stereotype policeman.

If you like urban fantasy with a touch of magic, mythological based fantasy or the Rick Riordan books then this series is a good read for you.

Note for parents: These are not teen books, however the main character is a twentysomething at the beginning of her career and they would certainly interest teens. The books don’t have any language or descriptive sex which would be objectionable for older teens. Anyone who has read Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and/or Rick Riordan shouldn’t have a problem with the content of these books.

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship

Comics events updates

Posted on 2013-06-29 at 12:58 by montsamu

The Chapel Hill Comics event with Lisa Hanawalt for My Dirty Dumb Eyes originally scheduled for Saturday June 29 has been postponed until the fall. But! They’ve added a Saturday, July 6 My Little Pony comic event with cover artist Elena “Yamino” Barbarich.

Posted in Uncategorized

July Newsletter: ConTemporal, Writers of the Future, Alex Bledsoe, Ehmm Theory, Jenna Black, and Can't Stop the Serenity

Posted on 2013-06-28 at 03:13 by montsamu

Vol 3. No 7. June 27, 2013:

I'm sneaking this into the end of June because tomorrow (Friday, June 28) has two noteworthy events to mention before we turn the page into the events of July:

• ConTemporal, the Triangle-area-based Steampunk-centered multi-disciplinary convention for authors, artists, makers, costumers, musicians, gamers, fans, and more, opens its second year, at the North Raleigh Hilton. The "Port" opens at 3 pm, with programming getting started at 5 pm and continuing all weekend.
• Chapel Hill's Flyleaf Books hosts Jamil Nasir for his new sf novel Tunnel Out of Death (Tor Books), along with local writer Alex Wilson for the publication of the latest anthology from Writers of the Future, which includes Wilson’s prize-winning story. Billed as a "dual reading", this event starts at 7 pm. [Facebook event]

But looking back at June again, one category of thing jumps out at me: podcasts. Here's a quick rundown of a few to check out from June:

• Getting Paid - Episode #2 - Freelancing and Scoring the Perfect In-House Job by Gabe Dunston: "In this episode I talk with illustrator, Robb Mommaerts. He is the artist behind some of Cryptozoic’s new products such as the Food Fight game and The Lookouts comic."
• Mating Habits of the Modern Geek - Episode #23 - Hints and the Friend Zone: What You’re Probably Missing by Kelley Hightower: "In this episode, Sean Ryan and I discuss several different hints, clues, and tells for determining if that special someone you have your eye on may feel the same about you…or whether it’s time to stop bothering them. We explore the less-than-erogenous zone that is the Friend Zone, and why to women, Friendship is Magic while men avoid it like the plague."
• The Shambling Guide to New York City - Chapter 8 by Mur Lafferty -- a chapter by chapter podcast of a new audiobook published in late May by Hachette Audio. (More Mur news I can't resist sharing, among so much: a great write-up from io9, "Now This is the Urban Fantasy Heroine We Want", and the inclusion of The Shambling Guide to New York City in the LA Times' summer reading list.)

-Sam

UPCOMING EVENTS, JUNE 2013

27-30 (Thursday to Sunday) — ConTemporal 2013 at the North Raleigh Hilton, beginning with the Thursday evening guest of honor dinner and continuing all weekend, as this Steampunk-themed convention is back for a second year. Guest of honor Ursula Vernon, along with Lee Martindale, Tom Smith, toastmaster Sal Sanfratello, and more. More info: http://contemporal.org/

28 (Friday) 7 pm — Flyleaf Books hosts Jamil Nasir for his new sf novel Tunnel Out of Death (Tor Books), along with local writer Alex Wilson for the publication of the latest anthology from Writers of the Future, which includes Wilson’s prize-winning story. [Facebook event]

29 (Saturday) 6 pm to 9 pm — Chapel Hill Comics will host Lisa Hanawalt on Saturday, June 29, from 6pm until 9pm, when she will sign her new book, My Dirty Dumb Eyes. More info: http://www.chapelhillcomics.com/content/?p=3158UPDATE 7/29: This event has been postponed until the fall.

29 (Saturday) Late to Later — Pittsboro’s Davenport & Winkleperry hosts THE CLOCKWORK BALL: A Steampunk Party.

JULY 2013

Posted in newsletter

Friday Quick Updates: Studio Ghibli, George Takei, ConTemporal, Jamil Nasir and Alex Wilson, and The Clockwork Ball

Posted on 2013-06-22 at 01:50 by montsamu

Friday, June 21: It’s quite a week NEXT week, with George Takei leading a musical trip through science fiction at the North Carolina Symphony ahead of year two of the Steampunk convention ConTemporal, a joint event with Jamil Nasir and recent Writers of the Future winner Alex Wilson, and another Clockwork Ball at Davenport & Winkleperry. And, starting this weekend at Durham’s Carolina Theatre, is Part 2 of The Studio Ghibli Collection film series, starting tonight with Kiki’s Delivery Service and Pom Poko and continuing tomorrow with five additional films, some running as long as Thursday, others only here for a few days.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

JUNE 2013

21-27 (Friday to Thursday) — Durham’s The Carolina Theatre hosts Part 2 of The Studio Ghibli Collection film series, starting tonight with Kiki’s Delivery Service and Pom Poko and continuing tomorrow with five additional films, some running as long as Thursday, others only here for a few days.

27-28 (Thursday and Friday) — A sf-themed even from the NC Symphony: ‘Join George Takei, “Mr. Sulu” of Star Trek fame, as he guides you through the galaxy accompanied by music from E.T., Star Wars, Close Encounters, and,of course, Star Trek.’ Go to http://ncsymphony.org/events/index.cfm?view=details&viewref=calendar&detailid=1019&eid=1752&sdate=6%2F1%2F2013 for tickets.

27-30 (Thursday to Sunday) — ConTemporal 2013 at the North Raleigh Hilton, beginning with the Thursday evening guest of honor dinner and continuing all weekend, as this Steampunk-themed convention is back for a second year. Guest of honor Ursula Vernon, along with Lee Martindale, Tom Smith, toastmaster Sal Sanfratello, and more. More info: http://contemporal.org/

28 (Friday) 7 pm — Flyleaf Books hosts Jamil Nasir for his new sf novel Tunnel Out of Death (Tor Books), along with local writer Alex Wilson for the publication of the latest anthology from Writers of the Future, which includes Wilson’s prize-winning story.

29 (Saturday) 6 pm to 9 pm — Chapel Hill Comics will host Lisa Hanawalt on Saturday, June 29, from 6pm until 9pm, when she will sign her new book, My Dirty Dumb Eyes! More info: http://www.chapelhillcomics.com/content/?p=3158

29 (Saturday) Late to Later — Pittsboro’s Davenport & Winkleperry hosts THE CLOCKWORK BALL: A Steampunk Party.

JULY 2013

10 (Wednesday) 7 pm — Flyleaf Books hosts Alex Bledsoe for Wisp of a Thing, book two after The Hum and the Shiver in his new contemporary fantasy series.

11 (Thursday) 7:30 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts STEPHEN KIERNAN for The Curiosity. “The Time Traveler’s Wife meets Michael Crichton in a powerful debut novel about a man frozen in ice for more than a century, who reawakens in the present day.”

Posted in Uncategorized

The Exploding Spaceship goes to Con Kasterborous and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center!

Posted on 2013-06-18 at 22:12 by angelablackwell

Con Kasterborous ( www.conkasterborous.com ) is a Doctor Who convention in Huntsville, Alabama, which also happens to be the location for the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the US Army’s Redstone Arsenal.  Con Kasterborous was until this year a rather small local convention where area fans came to groove with other Doctor Who fans after the season was over. But this year marked the first time they had a media guest, Caitlin Blackwood, who played young Amelia Pond during Amy’s and Rory’s time in the TARDIS. Attendance at the convention tripled and they are looking for a larger hotel for 2014. Huntsville fans are no strangers to running conventions because ConStellation has been running yearly since the 1970s, when Your Humble Columnists were young local fans in the area.  This resulted in a new convention with a very well trained staff. They were very organized, had very obvious security personnel (all staff had color-coded shirts according to function, sort of like the brightly- colored Daleks of recent seasons), and worked very hard to make sure the extremely large crowd for the convention space all had a good time while staying safe.

The dealer’s room was fantastic as the local FYE and Books-a-Million stores had ordered extra Doctor Who merchandise and brought it across the parking lot to the hotel. Also there is a local SF shop which has 3 stores in the area and they had brought merchandise as well.  Huntsville’s chain shops have always catered to a very SF-heavy crowd because the newer shopping areas all are located near most of the contractors who work for Marshall and the Arsenal as well as being near an Arsenal gate.  In the 70s and 80s, NASA publications were frequently featured as local interest publications in the bookstores and the SF section of the Waldenbooks then was nearly half the store. Even today the stores have more geeky merchandise than the same stores in other locations.

Caitlin Blackwood is now a charming twelve year old who is already getting her adult height, rather than the nine-year old who filmed the series. She is a dancer and a veteran of several conventions on both sides of the Atlantic, so she handled the crowds and the microphone with grace and charm. On Saturday, the autograph and picture session ran for longer than they had planned in order to get everyone through who was in line when they called a cutoff. Caitlin signed for nearly 2 hours, and was starting to look tired but she is a pro and never complained.

They stopped between signing and pictures to let the poor child have some cake, which she must have been dying for, because all the fans had been getting cupcakes off the table and munching while they waited in line. After 2 hours, any 12-year-old’s patience would be at an end after seeing everyone else in the room having cake, but you couldn’t because no one wants frosting on their autographs.  She didn’t complain, and was very lady-like with her eating, not wearing any afterwards, unlike some fans who had various colors of frosting on them the rest of the day. The Doctor Who-themed cupcakes and TARDIS cake were definitely a hit with everyone, even if some frosting went places it probably shouldn’t have. The fans included many children because of Caitlin’s presence and the fact that many Huntsville fans had got together and made more little fans. Some families had 3 or 4 generations present, which was great to see.

Costumes spanned the generations too, with people from infants to grandparents wearing costumes. It was fun to see many people in store bought costumes, because this is really the first year that any have been widely available in the US. Having chains like Hot Topic, FYE and Books-a-Million carry Doctor Who wear has really changed the clothing choices for DW fans.  Even people without costumes seemed to all have at least one Doctor Who shirt in their weekend wardrobe.

No DW convention is complete without a TARDIS and this convention had two! And a working Dalek!

The Dalek was remotely controlled by a Doctor cosplayer and he had quite a sense of humor, so the Dalek scared several little Doctors who approached not realizing it talked and moved. It even gave some adults a fright when it was still and quiet, and then suddenly would blare out “EXTERMINATE!” or “THE DOCTOR MUST DIE!” when someone walked in front of the gun and sucker. On Sunday he used  a very short version of the Dalek scream to make it sound like the Dalek had done too much partying on Saturday night and was cursed with the burps, which gave us all a laugh, even if the children didn’t get why he was “burping”.

The convention had excellent panels with Caitlin doing a question and answer session, a group of podcasters talking about their work, and artist Kelly Yates talking about working on the IDW Doctor Who comic books. Kelly is a friend from Greensboro, NC but we had never seen him do panels alone before. He did a great job and showed us some great behind the scenes things. Hopefully next year they can plan to connect his tablet to a projector (he has already agreed to return for 2014).

In addition to the convention, we visited the U.S. Space and Rocket Center (www.rocketcenter.com) again. We are members of the museum because we are in Huntsville several times a year. This time in addition to the displays of the Pathfinder shuttle, the Saturn rockets and the IMAX dome, there was a special exhibit on black holes which gave up to date information on theoretical information as well as information gained from astronomical research.  It was interesting and informative. There are two Saturn V rockets at the center, one suspended in sections in the Davidson Center, which is the new building built to house it, and a vertical one in the rocket park outside the Davidson Center.  To someone who saw the Saturn IB become part of the Huntsville’s skyline in 1970, walked under it in amazement as a very small child, then saw modern construction of overpasses and interstates hide it, the vertical Saturn V has returned Huntsville’s skyline to its proper look. It is even protected by law now so no construction can hide the rocket from the skyline. For first time visitors to Huntsville who come in from the airport or Interstate 65, it is quite a sight to see. Caitlin and her mom were quite amazed by it when they first arrived.

In addition to the museum, which is also a visitor center for Marshall Space Flight Center, there are tours of Redstone Arsenal including Marshall Space Flight Center available. Camps are available for all ages through Space Camp, Space Academy, and Aviation Challenge.

The ultimate in geeky weekends away: Con Kasterborous and a trip to the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The next convention will be held in June of 2014, but the location is still being determined due to this year’s large crowd, so watch the website listed at the top of the review!

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship

Friday Quick Updates: Merrie Haskell at The Regulator, "Fierce Reads Tour" including Leigh Bardugo at Quail Ridge Books, Free RPG Day, and more

Posted on 2013-06-14 at 20:03 by montsamu

Friday, June 14: It’s a packed weekend with two readings tonight and two all-day events on Saturday. Tonight’s readings are: Merrie Haskell for her new middle-grade fantasy Handbook for Dragon Slayers at Durham’s The Regulator Bookshop at 7pm; and (also at 7 pm) Quail Ridge Books hosts a stop on a 5-author YA sf/f tour, “Fierce Reads”, including Shadow & Bone author Leigh Bardugo. Tomorrow, the all-day events include Free RPG Day at gaming stores throughout the area, as well as Ultimate Comics’ “Best of the Triangle” cookout. (There’s also a Triangle Reddit Meetup for Global Reddit Meetup Day 2013, which starts at 1 pm at Durham’s Geer Street Garden on Saturday as well.) See you out and about! And below is an updated handy handout flyer in web and print editions, along with the events calendar through the end of the month. (ConTemporal! Alex Wilson and the Writers of the Future! George Takei! Exclamation points!)

-Sam

[handout-2013-06-14.pdf]

UPCOMING EVENTS, JUNE 2013

14 (Friday) 7 pm — Durham’s The Regulator Bookshop hosts Merrie Haskell for new middle-grade fantasy/adventure Handbook for Dragon Slayers, which “mixes magic, mythical creatures, thrilling action, and a wonderful cast of characters.” More info: http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/event/merrie-haskell

14 (Friday) 7:00 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts “Fierce Reads Tour” as “Five fantasy and sci-fi authors join us with their new books! ANNA BANKS, Of Poseidon and Of Triton; LEIGH BARDUGO, Shadow & Bone and Siege & Storm; JESSICA BRODY, Unremembered; EMMY LAYBOURNE, Monument 14 and Monument 14:Sky on Fire; and GENNIFER ALBIN,Crewel.” For ages 12+.

15 (Saturday) — Quail Ridge Books hosts fiction author KHALED HOSSEINI – With And The Mountains Echoed.

15 (Saturday) — Free RPG Day at gaming stores worldwide. “Established in 2007, Free RPG Day works with participating hobby game retailers and RPG publishers to bring new and exclusive RPG quickstart rules and adventure modules into the hands of gamers.” More info: http://www.freerpgday.com/

15 (Saturday) — Ultimate Comics is hosting a “Best of the Triangle” celebration cookout for being voted best comic shop in The Independent Weekly’s yearly poll. Free food, drinks, etc.

27-28 (Thursday and Friday) — A sf-themed even from the NC Symphony: ‘Join George Takei, “Mr. Sulu” of Star Trek fame, as he guides you through the galaxy accompanied by music from E.T., Star Wars, Close Encounters, and,of course, Star Trek.’ Go to http://ncsymphony.org/events/index.cfm?view=details&viewref=calendar&detailid=1019&eid=1752&sdate=6%2F1%2F2013 for tickets.

27-30 (Thursday to Sunday) — ConTemporal 2013 at the North Raleigh Hilton, beginning with the Thursday evening guest of honor dinner and continuing all weekend, as this Steampunk-themed convention is back for a second year. Guest of honor Ursula Vernon, along with Lee Martindale, Tom Smith, toastmaster Sal Sanfratello, and more. More info: http://contemporal.org/

28 (Friday) 7 pm — Flyleaf Books hosts Jamil Nasir for his new sf novel Tunnel Out of Death (Tor Books), along with local writer Alex Wilson for the publication of the latest anthology from Writers of the Future, which includes Wilson’s prize-winning story.

29 (Saturday) 6 pm to 9 pm — Chapel Hill Comics will host Lisa Hanawalt on Saturday, June 29, from 6pm until 9pm, when she will sign her new book, My Dirty Dumb Eyes. More info: http://www.chapelhillcomics.com/content/?p=3158

29 (Saturday) Late to Later — Pittsboro’s Davenport & Winkleperry hosts THE CLOCKWORK BALL: A Steampunk Party.

[See the June newsletter for events further down the line.]

Posted in Uncategorized

The Exploding Spaceship Reviews New Wen Spencer, Orson Scott Card, and Ari Marmell

Posted on 2013-06-14 at 02:11 by angelablackwell

Review of Eight Million Gods by Wen Spencer (Baen hardcover June 4, 2013)

Eight Million Gods is the story about a young adult American author named Nikki Delany, who is on the run from her mother, and she runs to Osaka, Japan where she has friends from the internet. While in Japan she is doing research for her second novel; the book is under contract and she is really stressed about completing it on time, because her muse strikes suddenly and causes her to write in torrents but the multiple scenes of her stories don’t always meet until the end so she stresses out until the story starts to come together.

Things take a turn for the strange when someone starts making her books into reality. At least that’s what Nikki thinks when it happens the first time and she is questioned by the police, but the truth is actually much stranger. It is a tale with Japanese gods, mothers who aren’t what they seem, tanuki, a kitten, a much loved adoptive father, and a scary guy with catlike moves.

Japanese mythological characters are running around on the streets of Japan but aren’t noticed by most people.  Nikki tries to sort out the mess caused by the gods fighting and at the same time change the end of her story so everyone doesn’t die. She meets some really interesting people and makes a good friend along the way. She also discovers her writing is indeed a gift from the gods and with practice is better at controlling the mad urges to write which hit her in times of stress.

For fans of anime, manga or Japanese culture, this book offers a wonderful immersion into that culture. Descriptions of everyday life are very detailed: food, drink, finding a place to live, and the general attitude toward Americans. Nikki is a very quirky but highly detailed character who immediately gets sympathy because of her crazy politician mother who is constantly trying to disrupt Nikki’s life (and who, as it turns out, has some secrets of her own).  There is plenty of action with swords, magic…and blenders.

Eight Million Gods offers a fresh look at urban fantasy without Western ideas of werewolves and vampires in it. As with all Wen Spencer’s work it is easy to read, so if your anime fan doesn’t read then you might get them to try this.

Review of In Thunder Forged Iron Kingdom Chronicles The Fall of Llael: Book One by Ari Marmell

This is the first tie-in book based upon the Warmachine steam-powered fantasy game and the Iron Kingdoms roleplaying game, but that being said, we don’t play either of those but still enjoyed the book. The background is interesting and complex and the politics would probably be more detailed in the game material, but the characters and the plot did not depend on the reader knowing anything ahead of time.

It is a steam-tech fantasy wartime adventure but it is from the viewpoint of different individuals, not from a group or unit, when a unit is dealt with it is from the sergeant’s point of view.  There is cloak and dagger espionage as well as battles in the book. It is an interesting take on steampunk because the world’s tech is steam power but the world is very magic heavy so technology combines the two.  War robots are steam and magic powered.  Alchemy is also used to good effect. There are even mages whose only magic is done on guns or ammunition so they can’t miss and shots sometimes have special effects.

The character at the focus of the espionage scenes is Garland, a bright, charming female who uses all her gifts to get what she wants. She also makes interesting use of all the layers of clothing common in fancy female dress.  Sergeant Bracewell is in charge of a small unit of soldiers; bravely leading by example, she is devoted to her troops and will do anything to keep them safe.

When Garland and Bracewell team up with the assistance of female knight Lieutenant Laddermore on behalf of Cygnar, it results in great amounts of gunfire, explosions and running.  The bad guys (section three of Khador) are led by another strong female character named Vorona. Vorona and Garland keep trying to blow each other up but neither is successful. Both sides want the alchemical formula needed for a new weapon.  All this makes for some complex characters who interact with others from their side and the opposite ones in interesting ways.

Hopefully other volumes of the Iron Kingdom Chronicles will feature some of these characters. Most tie-in books are badly written and are aimed at a demographic who wants sexist depictions of women so it was a pleasant surprise to find a well written one with strong female characters who wear clothing appropriate for their professions.

Review of Earth Afire : The First Formic War Volume 2 of the Formic Wars by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston (Tor hardback, June 4, 2013)

This book is part of a newer series in the Ender’s Game universe which looks at the Formic Wars. It is the story of Captain Mazer Rackham of the New Zealand Special Air Services from the time before his appearance as a major character in Ender’s Game.

While everyone is denying the validity of images of alien attacks which have been posted to the web, Mazer is sent to China to train their pilots to operate the new planes their government has purchased. While he is there the Formics blow up some news shuttles and a UN ship on their approach to earth.  This sets everyone on high alert as the Formic send down landers into southeast China.  The Chinese lock down all access to their satellites so Rackham and his team can’t get any intelligence.  They steal one of the planes and go to the countryside where there is no jamming and land.

There are two narrative threads, one of a boy named Bingwen and his family and friends who are in the Formic landing zone in southeast China which starts as a separate thread but merges with the Mazer Rackham thread and then a thread which is set off of earth and follows the people who are trying to do something about the Formics, Lem and Rena. Their thread is not complete in this volume, but they manage to get in the same place and start to plan, so volume three will probably see action against the Formics from them.

Mazer helps rescue the Chinese peasants and then a little later they return the favor. As Mazer travels to the alien lander, he tries to get Bingwen to safety since he is alone now, but Bingwen won’t go. The interplay and discussion of war between them gets Mazer thinking about children and war, some of his thoughts give a clue as to where the idea for Battle School came from.

Mazer and Bingwen are both very interesting characters. You can see Bingwen is sort of like Ender but his upbringing makes him have a slightly different view of things. This time period shaped much of the Mazer we see in Ender’s Game so it is interesting to see the events which changed him. Most of Earth’s governments and the off-planetary government entities are made to look like idiots as a result of the Formic War, so some major changes will be coming. At the time of Ender’s Game, society infrastructure has completely changed in attitude, so it will be interesting to watch things change over later volumes.

The book is a well written adventure story but it is more of a war on the ground version of events than other things we have seen in this universe. It will be interesting to see if this view continues or if we will get more overall or off-earth views of the war in later volumes. The off-earth views in this volume are not of people at war yet, but they are trying to get new technology on-line to get rid of the Formics so they will be more important later. If you are an Ender’s Game fan, then this is a good read. Note that while the book is not marketed at teens, it is a safe read as the war scenes are not graphic and major portions of it have child characters.

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship