VampCon announcement

So friend of the site and all around awesome guy Armand Inezian has a new book that is out now, and I apologize for not getting the word out sooner, because as I said, Armand is awesome. That link above is to his writing blog/website. Check it out.

Armand's new book VampCon is a dark fantasy thriller, and I'll let the ad copy speak for itself:

“Kill the stoker and the shifter and the priest!”

The vampire who turned Jonathan Stoker did so as a joke: what fun to turn a man named ‘Stoker’.

But life is no joke for Jonathon. He’s fled his family, every vampire he meets attacks him, and he’s consumed by blood urges. Ten years after his mortal life ended, the blind and striking Arial Lockhart delivers Jonathan’s invitation to the Vampire Congregation in Boston. It isn’t a request; Arial’s summoning spell warps time and space to ensure every vampire attends

Of all the many horrors Jonathan discovers at this murderous congregation, worst of all is to find his mortal son, Jake, has come searching for him. And Jake’s just fallen in love… with a vampire!

  “Kill the stoker and the shifter and the priest!”

Jonathan learns that Arial’s invitation is far more than a summons to the congregation: it is an invitation to fulfill his destiny, because the stoker, the shifter, and the priest are the only ones who can defend the vampire and mortal alike against the demon invasion.

But only if they can stay alive…

“Kill the stoker and the shifter and the priest!”

Now, and I only speak here from my somewhat biased position atop my ivory tower, this sounds like a fantastic read. I wholly suggest you check it out, or at least give it a preview. VampCon is sold in these places:

Available in paperback from amazon.com   |  amazon.co.uk 

and Kindle: amazon.com   | amazon.co.uk  and ePUB: Smashwords  | diesel  | Kobo 

Please do us both a solid and check it out. 

Angelmaker

Hello, and sorry for the delay from last week. I wanted to finish the book and get over my cold. I have now done both these things. There was also some drama-brooding, but everyone has drama-brooding, so best get over it and do what I do best:

My verdict is as follows. Book of the year. Hands down, my pick for book of the year, unless there's a genre book that solves all the problems I've been brooding over, or grants all my fondest wishes or something right around the corner. This is easily one of the best things I've read. I'm kind of pissed off I don't own it.

The bad bits have to do with some pacing issues and a tendency Harkaway has to follow multiple threads until he can finally lock down what he's focusing on, but this in no way takes away from the overall presentation, which twists and turns its way along until finally the brake-lines get cut and the book slams home with a climax that is altogether surprising and satisfying. Full analysis below.

Announcement: Health Delay

Hi guys. Caius here. I'm taking a little break recently as I caught some kind of nasty head cold/almost flu sort of thing* and am spending a lot of time either sleeping or in a haze of NyQuil and tea**. Angelmaker will go up, as scheduled, but with a slight delay, as I need to spend more time resting and less time reading about clockwork bees and ninety year old lesbian superspies***. So, hope this finds you well, and see you Sunday!

-Caius


*I apparently caught it from the internet. Nasty bug going around that my friends caught, and suddenly I wake up one morning with my head packed full of cotton, and crap in my throat and nose.
**And anyone who's tried to read while over-medicated or asleep can tell you, it's beyond even superhuman capabilities to pay attention to what you read. Especially the asleep bit
***Well, at least Nick Harkaway's trying to return to form...

Good Omens

The basic rundown is: Most of you, gentle readers, have already read this book. You know it's good, you probably already own it, and I don't need to tell you anything. 

For those of you who don't know this fantastic book, here's the other rundown: This is a comic fantasy about  an angel and a demon trying to stop Armageddon, as various parties run around preparing for it and trying to avert it. Read this thing at all costs. It's funny, the dialogue is great, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are two absolute grandmasters in their craft, and it's a book I wish I could write, but I'm not nearly this good. Even if you don't think you like a comedy about the apocalypse, then you should read it anyway just so you know why you don't like it. Seriously. Trust me*. Full analysis, as always, below.

*I mean, you guys have this far. Have I really steered you that wrong?

Noir

So, once again, because it's gone over pretty well, here are the essentials: Noir by K.W. Jeter is a horrifying, deranged masterpiece that is less cyberpunk and more somewhere uncomfortably between biopunk dystopianism and cosmic horror. With a side of good old-fashioned Burroughs-style paranoia. It's very good, but also very dense, both in detail and plot, to the point that it sometimes comes unhinged and breaks down. The other major bone of contention is the part in the middle of the book where Jeter gleefully describes what happens to copyright offenders, which is one part tract on the glory of copyright (and how anyone who disagrees is a "hippie" and delusional) and one part what the author would like to do to people who pirate intellectual property, all of which comes off as whiny and ranty. Still, while it is a challenging book, it's very well-written, and overall the cool ideas and the way the plot finally comes together overshadow this. I like this book, though you should get it out of the library or borrow it from someone else. It's not worth a buy. Full analysis after the jump.

Another Reveal: Reaping Me Softly

Long time readers of the site know of my good blog-friend Kate Evangelista. Well, Kate's releasing her next novel, and because I think she's really cool (and also because I'm a little shameless), I decided, "Well, why the hell not? Let's reveal the next cover." So here, courtesy of AToMR Book Tours, is the cover for Reaping Me Softly, along with a quick synopsis.

Book description: 

Ever since a near-death-experience on the operating table, seventeen-year-old Arianne Wilson can see dead people. Just as she’s learned to accept her new-found talents, she discovers that the boy she’s had a crush on since freshman year, Niko Clark, is a Reaper.

At last they have something in common, but that doesn’t mean life is getting any easier. All while facing merciless bullying from the most powerful girl in school, Arianne’s world is turned upside down after Niko accidentally reaps the soul of someone she loves. This sends them both into a spiral that threatens to end Arianne’s life. But will Niko break his own Reaper’s code to save her? And what would the consequences be if he did?

I think this sounds like a damn good book. Maybe not within my purview (conflict of interest, among other things, prevent me from reviewing it*), but really, really cool. Reaping Me Softly is set to debut with a book tour on the week of Halloween. Look for any related posts then.

*As a rule, the only overt supernatural romance novels I will do at present are Christopher Moore novels (Bloodsucking Fiends**, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, etc.)

**Hey, it's a relief Christopher Moore didn't write two terrible sequels that threw a brick through the window of the original novel, right? Yeah, I thought so, too.

Here's a Thought: David Fincher's Romantic Comedy

So I decided to try something a little new: I have these weird theories rattling around in my brain, and since I have this forum for them, I might as well let them out. A warning, though: Not all of these are book-related. Still, I hope you join me for this new venture, as I think it might be cool. Also, hi, friend* who requested this. Hope it pans out.


 DISCLAIMER: So it goes without saying that there will be a lot of spoilers in this. If you are worried about spoilers, then you by all means don't have to read the article**. I'm sure it'd probably ruin the experience a little for you anyway. But I feel like this is a viewpoint that hasn't yet been explored, so I might as well do it here. Furthermore, I'd like to apologize, as some of the logic will be a little faulty. I'm kind of working with severely warped takes on tropes here, so there's a chance not all of it will shake out and exactly conform to what I want to say, but hopefully I can get my point across just enough.