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This is a blog meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine to spotlight upcoming books. This week we're featuring picks chosen by SQT and Jim.



 



Jim's can't wait to read selection is:



 Greatshadow by James Maxey

 Publisher: Solaris

 Date: January 31, 2012

 pages: 448



  Greatshadow is the primal dragon of fire, an elemental evil whose malign intelligence spies upon mankind through every candle flame, waiting to devour any careless victim he can claim. The Church of the Book has assembled a team of twelve battle-hardened adventurers to slay the dragon once and for all. But tensions run high between the leaders of the team who view the mission as a holy duty and the super-powered mercenaries who add power to their ranks, who view the mission primarily as a chance to claim Greatshadow's vast treasure trove. If the warriors fail to slay the beast, will they doom mankind to death by fire?



I loved the first two books in James Maxey's A Novel of the Dragon Age trilogy (Bitterwood and Dragonforge) - and the third one is sitting on my shelf waiting for me to read. This is a new trilogy of books from Maxey, unrelated to the previous series, so it's a great way to check out an author who might be new to you without having to catch up on a series.



 SQT's can't wait to read selection is:

Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Date: April 20, 2012

Pages: 320



From the author of the New York Times bestselling Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, comes UNHOLY NIGHT, the next evolution in dark historical revisionism.



They're an iconic part of history's most celebrated birth. But what do we really know about the Three Kings of the Nativity, besides the fact that they followed a star to Bethlehem bearing strange gifts? The Bible has little to say about this enigmatic trio. But leave it to Seth Grahame-Smith, the brilliant and twisted mind behind Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to take a little mystery, bend a little history, and weave an epic tale.



In Grahame-Smith's telling, the so-called "Three Wise Men" are infamous thieves, led by the dark, murderous Balthazar. After a daring escape from Herod's prison, they stumble upon the famous manger and its newborn king. The last thing Balthazar needs is to be slowed down by young Joseph, Mary and their infant. But when Herod's men begin to slaughter the first born in Judea, he has no choice but to help them escape to Egypt.



It's the beginning of an adventure that will see them fight the last magical creatures of the Old Testament; cross paths with biblical figures like Pontius Pilate and John the Baptist; and finally deliver them to Egypt. It may just be the greatest story never told.



I'm intrigued by Grahame-Smith's willingness to tweak the Bible to tell what sounds like a very imaginative story. I definitely have my eye on this one...

In the four quarters of the Scarpen water is provided to the people by the Stormlord and the Rainlords who keep the land alive with their power over water. But the Stormlord is dying and there are no Rainlords strong enough to move the storms that bring water to the cities. The Rainlords decide to go on a desperate search for a new Stormlord, even venturing into the poorest quarters in hopes of finding a water sensitive strong enough to save their way of life.



Shale is a young man barely surviving among the waterless of the Gibber quarter. Shale doesn't tell his alcoholic father that he can sense deep pockets of water out in the desert because of a deep wariness among their people that mistrusts anyone that demonstrates any water sensitivity. So Shale hides from the Rainlords so his ability won't be discovered-- which leads to an opportunity for those who want to overthrow the rule of Stormlords to use Shale for their own mission to return the land to a time of random rain.



Terelle was born in the Gibber and started out life as one of the waterless, but she has come to dread the life she faces in the snuggery more than a life without a water allotment. As the day looms when she will be sold into her first night of prostitution Terelle desperately searches for a way out of her circumstances but her escape into a new life comes from an unexpected place. Terelle learns there's more to water magic than she ever knew and her destiny has been shaped for her in ways she could never have imagined as she gets caught up in a larger conspiracy that threatens to change the world forever.



The Last Stormlord is a return to the kind of fantasy I grew up with; a style that puts a strong emphasis on world building with a strong magical foundation. Larke does a fabulous job of creating a believable world with varying cultures. The details she includes regarding the way people dress, look and behave paints a vivid picture of the place the characters inhabit and that alone makes this a book worth mentioning. Likewise the magic, which is centered around the manipulation of water, is skillfully crafted with time spent on explaining how it works and why it is important. The most believable aspect of the story were the little things-- like the outrage over stepping in a mud puddle as a flagrant waste of water.



But when it came to characterizations "The Last Stormlord" didn't bring the same level of credibility that was brought to the setting. There is some attempt to put the characters into "good" and "bad" categories with some shades of grey, but mostly they got mired down in the usual stereotypes. The two main characters Terelle and Shale are, thankfully, fairly well done. Because we're allowed to follow their progress from youth to young adulthood there is the opportunity to see the necessary growing pains of a character we're meant to empathize with. But rarely are we given the chance to bond with any other characters in a meaningful way. Most of the "good" guys are the kind of people who have been raised in circumstances of privilege and have little concept of hardship. When confronted with a bleak future they're quick to shore up their own circumstances as the expense of others-- and that aspect of the story is believable. But when obvious solutions are presented the characters display a level of obtuseness that's hard to get past. Some characters are allowed to ambiguously hover between good and bad but they are only ones credited with any intelligence while everyone else seems confused or insistent on taking the most illogical position available.



Certain threads of the story also have a kind of repetitious nature. For example: both Shale and Terelle take up apprenticeships without really trusting the motives of their mentors. Additionally all the romantic relationships seem founded more on overdone misunderstandings than any kind of natural progression.



Overall "The Last Stormlord" was a book I had to push myself to finish reading. The world-building is first rate and the detail oriented way Larke built her society was the main attraction for me. But the personalities of her characters fell flat. Their interactions sometimes felt forced and always hovered on the edge of being a cliché. I wanted to like the book enough to finish the whole series because there is some real quality in Larke's writing, but I never connected to the characters enough to want to invest in reading the full trilogy.



3 out of 5 stars.

Fantasy Faction is launching a fantasy writing contest on February 1, 2012 and wanted to get the word out.



This is a wonderful contest that looks to put undiscovered talent in an anthology alongside authors like Mark Lawrence, Myke Cole, Jon Sprunk, Michael J. Sullivan, Adrian Tchaikovsky and others. There are six spots available in the anthology as well as cash prizes being offered. You can find the rules for submissions HERE.



Get your stories polished up and ready to go!

Power Rangers in Space is widely regarded as the greatest season in Power Rangers, and it's not hard to see why. After Turbo, Studio execs knew that a drastic change in the series was required in order for Power Rangers to keep breathing. The result, something that I thought of at the time as jumping the shark, was to take the series into space.

But space wasn't the only change made in Power Rangers in Space. Individual zords were done away with, and even when they came back, they were no longer ridden into battle the same way they were before. The Red Ranger, rather than being a natural leader and a friend to the Rangers from the start, was a loner and outsider- a Space Elf, if anything. But these were just the most superficial of changes.

No, the real change was the scope, and the villains. Dark Specter, the ruler of the United Alliance of Evil, loomed like a shadow over everything the Power Rangers had ever accomplished. We saw Lord Zedd, Rita Repulsa and Divatox, vanquisher of the Turbo Rangers, literally brushed aside in favor of Astronema, played by the then twenty-something Melody Perkins. For the first time, we had a villain who was young and had an air of mystery about her (nobody ever asked about the origins of Rita, Zedd or Divatox), who embraced the attentions of the young audience and was damned sexy to boot (more on that next time, I promise). She was also a diverse actor with no Megaranger footage to speak of.

Astronema's lieutenant, Ecliptor, was the first morally grey villain on the show. Despite being dedicated to the team of evil, Ecliptor was an honorable opponent, an honest warrior who sided with the strongest side, raised Astronema for Dark Specter, and generated audience sympathy without raising too many questions as to why he would stay with the Alliance, save for one gamble toward the end of the season that I'll get to in a minute. Ecliptor was not only the Goldar of this season, but in many ways he was also the Lord Zedd, and one of the most powerful sentient threats the Power Rangers have ever faced. E.Z. Peterson of Toku Time has stated on Twitter in regards to his Top 10 Power Rangers Villains episode, had Astronema not taken the #1 spot, the top two villains would have been Ecliptor and Darkonda.

If Ecliptor is the more machine than man warrior that we love to hate, Darkonda, his counterpart, is the one that we just hate. Darkonda is a vicious brute, Boba Fett if you crossed him with Jabba the Hutt and Grand Moff Tarkin with just a hint of Darth Maul. He literally has nine lives (you even see him keeping score at one point) and only Ecliptor can face him in a fair fight- if Darkonda ever fought fair, that is.

While Darkonda is the last villain introduced to the series, he really finalizes the tone of PRiS. A bounty hunter that can be seen visiting seedy cantinas, laying traps and having a mysterious relation to the past of the main characters on both sides? This show may blatantly borrow from Star Wars, but it does so in an original way. Every Star Wars similarity is an obvious reference and homage, making Power Rangers in Space a unique blend of Star Wars, Power Rangers, and something new- something with a main villain who both the Silver Ranger and the audience want to spend the night between episodes with every time she's on screen.

Now that I've mentioned Zhayne, I should say he's the one real disappointment of the season. He's not a total joke like some later Rangers, but he's the first real instance of a sixth ranger who could really help whenever he wants, but the Sentai footage doesn't allow that. They make some effort to blatantly write him out of episodes he doesn't need to be in, but that's the thing, it's blatant every time. This may be nostalgia talking, but when the Green Dragon Ranger couldn't make every fight, we believed the excuses, and they felt natural. Here, we have scenes like Cassie blatantly telling Zhayne to sit the fight out and rest. Add that to scenes talking about the Silver Ranger's awesome reputation when we never see him doing anything that his friend and partner Andros can't do, and the Silver Ranger just seems like a pretty wrapping on an average character. After the Green Dragon Ranger, the White Ranger, the Gold Ranger, the Blue Centurion and the Phantom Ranger, this is all too obvious and comes across as a let down. This wouldn't be the first time that the writers had trouble matching the needs of the Sentai footage to a new story in regards to the team's trump card, though.

It's obvious that I love this show, even as an adult, and I would probably need a full review to talk about everything that I want to, but I'm going to start easing this commentary out. I promised I would talk about the one time Ecliptor and Astronema questioned their alliance to evil, so that will be the last thing I mention here. This was really a huge gamble for the show- Astronema develops various allegiances to the Red and Silver Rangers, and openly questions if she's on the right side while coming to enjoy the company of the whole team. Ecliptor's allegiance as a surrogate father is of much greater import to him than the Alliance, so he backs her up.

There were three ways to go forward with this plot. The first, and probably most predictable route, would be to eliminate or heavily weaken the Rangers' new allies, allowing Darkonda and possibly a new enemy to rise in their place. The second route would be to allow them to step in as extra not-quite Rangers, similar to how Ninja Storm would have a two-man Ranger team in addition to the main team and the sixth Ranger.

The third route- the route Saban chose- was to take Astronema and erase her character, leaving her under the cyborg control of Dark Specter. This left Locutus- I mean, Astronema- as an even more ruthless, deadlier enemy that the Rangers could not bring themselves to attack.

I was really iffy about this when I first saw it, but the In Space writing team pulled it off. I still think more could have been done with these characters, but I understand why they made the choice they did, and I maintain that it was a better decision than having never had the redemption plotline in the first place. Ultimately, it was much less contrived than creating a new Big Bad in the eleventh hour, or even letting Darkonda run the last group of episodes.

I said I'll this commentary a while ago, so about the two-parter that was supposed to end Power Rangers for all time, all I'll say is that it does its job extremely well, in addition to setting the foundation that Lost Galaxy would come to be built on.

Bill Silvia is a regular contributor at Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' News & Reviews. You can find more of his content at http://www.MiBreviews.com

I wasn’t all that happy with my last Star Wars book review (Revan), so I’m going to try something a little different this time around. The first part of this review (The Summary) will be geared towards the casual fan, those who have some interest in Star Wars, but don’t read all the books and just want to know if this book will appeal to you. This is probably where the majority of readers of this blog will be able to stop, as you’ll get my recommendation in that section. Then I’m going to go more in-depth with my review, which is really meant for the big Star Wars fans (for those who come to see my thoughts). I’ll be far more nit picky there, more spoilery of the story, and will hopefully feel better about my overall analysis of Darth Plagueis. So without further ado:





The Summary:





Who the heck is Darth Plagueis and why should you care? Well for those paying attention during Revenge of the Sith, he’s a Sith Lord that Palpatine/Sidious refers to when talking to Anakin just before his fatal decision to turn to the dark side. “The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise” in which we learn that a Sith may have learned how to use the Force to stave off death itself. In this novel, we learn that Darth Plagueis was Palpatine’s master, and we follow his apprenticeship up through the point where Palpatine becomes Supreme Chancellor of the Republic during The Phantom Menace.





The book is broken up into thirds. In the first section, Plagueis fulfills his destiny as a Sith and eliminates his own master. While he senses that the Sith goal of finally defeating the Jedi is close at hand, his own personal goal is to learn how to keep himself alive indefinitely in order to rule over this galaxy which will fall to the Dark Side. In order to do that he must learn to control the Midicholians within a person, to force them to do things that are unnatural. But he does also feel the need to continue the plan to destroy the Jedi, and his secret life as a Muun Banker allows him to use his finances to manipulate governments into conflict – including the planet of Naboo. It is there that he first meets young Palpatine, and eventually learns that he is a powerful Force user, taking him on as an apprentice.





The second part of the book skips ahead ten years, where Palpatine is now an aide to the Senator from Naboo. Palpatine begins to gather the people who will help him rise to power in the Republic around him, as he orders the death of his friend and mentor in order to rise to his seat in the Senate. Finally, in the third part of the book, the time is just before the opening of The Phantom Menace, where Plagueis and Palpatine’s plans are finally coalescing. But the best laid plans may yet be undone by the presence of one boy from the planet Tatooine.





Despite the title, this book is at least as much about Palpatine as it is about Plagueis, and if the idea of learning more about one of the most important characters in the Star Wars saga, then this book is for you. The other reason you may want to check out this book is if you’ve always wanted more detail around the political machinations that led to the opening of The Phantom Menace (the Trade Federation Blockade of Naboo) as well as hints at how the Republic is falling apart and why the Separatist movement comes about, igniting the Clone Wars. Just don’t expect an action-packed novel, nor any point of view other than that of Plagueis or Palpatine. Like the Bane books, this is told strictly from the point of view of the Sith, thought there are some appearances by some famous Jedi (like Qui-gon Jinn and Obi-wan Kenobi). There were times near the end of the book that I could tell there were other stories that have been written (which I haven’t read) that this book is referencing, but it shouldn’t cause too much of a problem for new readers (it didn’t for me). It’s not the purest example of a standard Star Wars novel (big action, larger than life heroes in derring-do situations), but it is a good read and a strong novel fulfilling its purpose of giving much more depth to these characters and the overriding story behind the movies and the TV show. If that sounds appealing to you, check out Darth Plagueis.





The Details:





This is in many ways the Holy Grail of books for Star Wars fans, filling in a very important part of the saga – sometimes answering questions you didn’t even know you had. James Luceno, well known as someone who an encyclopedia-like knowledge of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, is the perfect author to write this book. He adds little tid-bits on every page that the really hard-core fans will catch, from references to the Celestials and Rakata to planets, events and characters from The Clone Wars TV series as well as layering in plenty of new information for fans to mull over.





I mentioned before about Luceno explaining away questions you didn’t know you had – for instance, all those various Dark Side users the Emperor seems to gather around him in the Expanded Universe. Between Mara Jade, Sedriss, Vader… that “Rule of Two” thing that meant so much to Bane seems more like guidelines than a code. Of course, the reason all these additional Dark Siders are around is because they were created before the prequels (and the Rule of Two was introduced), but Luceno comes up with a great way around the “problem” – Plagueis already recognized that the time was coming to a close for the Rule of Two, and he passed on that idea to his own apprentice.





At the same time, I felt there were some flaws to the book. The first section of the novel is a bit of a bore, it doesn’t really pick up until the introduction of Palpatine, and even then it only starts to really get good when he kills his own family and becomes Plagueis’ apprentice. The lack of action throughout the book is a bit of a letdown – it’s a shame that in the last third that we couldn’t have followed some of these missions that Maul went on – I suspect that would have added the action I was seeking. I’m sure that these are stories I haven’t read (in the short stories featuring Maul printed elsewhere, as well as the novels Shadow Hunter and Cloak of Deception) as opposed to Luceno just skipping over the “good stuff”, but the story could have used more punch either way. I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of Palpatine’s fighting abilities – to back up what we finally see from him in Revenge of the Sith, and that could have been used both during his training period (in the second part of the book) as well as in the third. I was hoping for a duel between him and the Jedi son (Ronhar Kim) of his mentor, the former Senator from Naboo – but it seems even this is told in a later story.





Another issue I had was Plagueis himself, he just wasn’t that fascinating to me, and ultimately he wore out his welcome a bit by the end. I was wondering where the hell the Darth Sidious I know was when Plagueis kept talking about being his co-Chancellor of the Republic and sticking around way after his time as Master should have been over. I had trouble believing Palpatine would suffer his Master as long as he did, and that they were still working together during the events of The Phantom Menace. I think it was a mistake to have Plagueis still be alive at that point – I would have thought the whole reason for Sidious to wonder if his master had achieved the impossible was when he meets Anakin and discovers how the boy was created by the Force. With Plagueis still alive, there’s no question he had nothing to do with the creation of the Chosen One.





Not that I disliked the way in which Anakin’s conception was dealt with – this book makes it fairly clear that it was the will of the Force itself, and not any one person, who created the child. In fact, it seems to be alluded to that the Force did it just as Plagueis and Palpatine achived what they believe was one of their first victories over the Jedi, tipping the balance of the Force to the Dark Side and obscuring the Jedi’s ability to see the future – as a kind of counter-balance to that event. I just think it shouldn’t have been made so obvious to Palpatine that that is what had happened – that question should have been one of the many reasons why he would ultimately choose to pursue Anakin as his apprentice.





I also question where the idea ever came about that Plagueis was supposed to be Palpatine’s Master came from (the way he speaks about it to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith, it sounded more like an “old tale of the Sith” to me), but I’m sure that isn’t James Luceno’s fault, he’s just running with something that was already established elsewhere. But I don’t mean to harp only on the things I didn’t like as much about the book, the truth is I couldn’t put it down at times. You just get the sense through the whole thing that secrets you’ve been waiting for are going to be revealed, driving you to read that next page. I loved all the links to The Clone Wars, and the clarity it helped provide behind the creation of the Clone army and the connections between all the players.





I don’t think anyone but James Luceno could have written this book, anyone else would have made a complete mess out of it. The fact that it is such a gripping novel, that it stays together so well even as it tries to make sense of so many different plots, is entirely to his credit. Just as I felt after reading his books Labyrinth of Evil and Dark Lord, Luceno is at his best when writing in the prequel era of Star Wars, filling in these gaps and telling stories featuring these characters – I didn’t really care for much of anything I’d read in this era prior to his work, and I can only hope that he’ll get the chance to tell another story set during this time as well. But Darth Plagueis could also be seen as his Star Wars magnum opus, and it’s not a bad way to finish up should this be his last work in that Galaxy Far, Far Away.

This weekend Amazon is running a Friday-the-13th special on "The Heretic" by Joseph Nassise and you can download a copy for free on Friday and Saturday.





At the end of the First Crusade, the church created a monastic military order known as the Knights Templar. Now, rising up from the ashes of history, they are the Vatican's last defense in the war between good and evil...



AN ANCIENT ARMY REBORN

Cade Williams is no ordinary man. His ability to cross over to the other side makes him uniquely qualified to command the Church's special operations division. As a modern-day Knight, Cade can use the curse that has scarred his soul as a weapon against the forces of darkness. But a new kind of unholy war is brewing -- and soon Cade may be the last man standing...between the living and the dead.



AN ANCIENT MYSTERY RESURRECTED

The desecration of Templar cemeteries has sparked a full-scale investigation. Cade and his team suspect that a cabal of necromancers is behind it all. Their purpose: to claim the legendary powers of a lost holy relic for their own ungodly campaign. For Cade, there's only one way to stop them -- by tracking the dead himself...crossing the most sacred of battle lines...and facing his own terrifying demons.



Follow this link to download your copy on your laptop or Kindle device-- the Kindle app for the iPad and iPhone works really well too.

Jim Hines did a fantastic post in which he attempted to pose in the same fashion as the women on genre book covers do-- with some pretty awesome results.



Here's a sample.

To see the rest of this post go HERE.





But what really elevates the awesomeness of this is Genrereview's own take on the same thing-- only she adds some male poses to the mix.



Here's a sample.









































To see more go HERE.



Not only are the poses funny, but they really illustrate the weirdness with which women are depicted on the covers of popular fiction.



Enjoy!