New Fantasy Debuts

Locus Magazine had an entry last week in their Monitor: New Books section about Jennifer Estep's Karma Girl, but it seems more like a paranormal romance, so it may be a bit out of my realm of expertise. The reason for my reluctance? Well, with Magic Lost, Trouble Found, I have enough of a background in fantasy to get a kick out of magical containment boxes and to appreciate the freshness of a sexy goblin. Were I to suddenly jump into paranormal romances, I would not have that sort of insight. However, it looks like a fun book, so I wanted to give it a mention.

Appearing on this week's entry is Lane Robins's Maledicte, a dark fantasy with a soul-selling protagonist.

I've been watching the Monitor section for several months now, and there is almost always a debut author listed in their weekly New Books section. In fact, I may be missing some, because last week's Monitor mentioned Magic Lost, Trouble Found, but did not identify Lisa Shearin as a debut novelist.

Thanks and Blog Changes

A hearty thanks to The Toasted Scimitar for adding me to their blogroll! And many thanks to Kristin for her nice little blurb about this site. Thanks, guys!

I've added a few boxes to the right, including a link to MLTF on Amazon so you can rush out and buy a copy. I also added links to book titles ("Filter Posts by Title") so you can jump straight to the reviews without enduring entries like this one.

I'm working on a better way to link to the Amazon site by clicking on the book's cover. Blogger doesn't seem to provide a way to do this so I'm going to have to brush out my HTML and make my own wigit. But time has been at a premium this week, so it will have to wait until the weekend.

MLTF - Contacts are Everything

Raine has some valuable contacts. I don't want to give anything away, but she knows people in all the right places. There is nothing wrong with making friends. She even does nice things for them. Gotta like that.

I've finally encountered one of the scoundrels from her past. And oops! I don't want to give that away, either. Suffice to say that he is intriguing.

I had a laugh-out-loud moment when a police-officer type called for a "containment box" to hold a suspicious magic item. How many D&D gamer types would have loved to had containment boxes when transporting dangerous artifacts? I know that Frodo would have loved to have one. Temptations from the One Ring? No problem! I've got this handy little box here in my Bag of Holding!

Of course Raine can't use one -- she has this TINY problem when she tries to take off the amulet (which is evident from the cover blurb, so I don't feel like I am giving anything away).

Still enjoying . . .

MLTF - Finished Chapter Five

I love the way Chapter Six starts:

You know it's going to be a bad day when you can't get privacy inside your own head.

This is why I love first-person novels. You just can't get this sort of connectedness with a character when its written in third person. Besides, its impossible to head-hop when writing in first person.

Anyway, that first sentence is going to make it REALLY hard for me to put this book down and go to bed. Not that I'm complaining.

Chapter Five was meaty with information. I finally know how old Raine is. I hate it when authors refuse to give an exact age for their character. Raine discovers several nasty things about the amulet, which by now she is quite stuck with. And the hottie elf Guardian tried to cast a spell on her.

Oh, and did I mention that she kicked him in the nether regions when they first encountered each other? There's nothing like first impressions!

MLTF - Progress Report

I picked this book up for odd ten and twenty minute intervals throughout the day. New characters are popping up like daisies. There is this mysterious Guardian character who seems to be some sort of elven hottie who also happens to command a platoon of other Guardians. There his Raine's uncle and his student, who is a sort of kid-brother type to Raine.

She's also in touch with this elven intelligence network, which I find intriguing.

There's a lot of background information being fed to the reader at this point. I kind of wish the author chose to bring such info up as needed, because sometimes I find it a bit hard to keep up with. But since I haven't had a good stretch to read today (I have a young disabled daughter), that may be my own fault.

Next Review

I'm already planning my next review. Emily Gee has written Thief with No Shadow, and it looks very good. I found her book on Locus Magazine's list of new books. Her website is interesting because it has a book trailer, and its the first example of a book trailer that I've ever seen. She also has a MySpace page.

MLTF - Initial Impressions

I purchased Magic Lost, Trouble Found at Border's yesterday. I found it quite easily on the fantasy and science fiction shelves, with the spine turned out. There were three copies. I chose the pristine copy in the middle. (Not that it will remain that way.)

Were I the author, I would have been rather pleased with the cover art. It features a tall young woman with reddish-blond hair, a smug expression on her face, holding a sword that has its tip in the ground. The girl is not too pretty or sexy. You can tell by the cover that it is meant to be a fun read.

And the first chapters provide just that. I found that it took a few pages for the story to suck me in, but it did. Raine--the half-elven main character--is loyal and protective over her friends. She is concerned for society as a whole when she learns that a group of baddies wants this amulet. I detect a strong Janet Evanovich influence. I would be very surprised if the author had not read the Stephanie Plum series. However, Raine is no Stephanie Plum--she can handle some tough situations.

One thing that I absolutely got a kick out of was the sexy goblins. Who knew goblins could be sexy? Shearin's goblins are tall, thin and elf-like, except for the gray skin and the fangs. They apparently have this dangerous appeal, and so there are lots of half-goblins running around. In fact, I think it might have been fun to make Raine half-goblin, rather than half-elf.

Terms like "home security", "pays the rent on time", and "cooling my heels" pop up regularly. I am ambivalent about it. On the one hand, it gives the book a breezy voice. On the other hand, they jar me out of what is supposed to be a medieval fantasy. I can understand that it might have been awkward for the author to try to find medieval substitutes. However, J.V. Jones (wow! she has a weblog now!) succeeded quite humorously with Bodger and Grift.

I am on page thirty-five, almost at the end of the second chapter, and a new character has just arrived on the scene. (Like I said, I read slow.) I'll try to post every night.

MLTF - Sample Chapters

Since Lisa Shearin has posted two chapters of Magic Lost, Trouble Found online, I thought I'd go ahead and get started. I don't have the book yet, so I can't give my initial impressions of the cover art and the jacket copy. I will do that when I have the book in my greedy hands.

If you want to read along, chapter one is here.

I'm having a bit of trouble with tags for the title of this book. Blogger keeps trying to split the title into two tags, because it contains a comma. Putting the title in quotes does not help. Therefore, I will have to tag the title of this book without a comma.

Magic Lost, Trouble Found

For my first live review, I intend to purchase Magic Lost, Trouble Found by Lisa Shearin. I read about her book on Kristen Nelson's e-newsletter and it looks hilarious. However, I will not be able to buy it until this weekend.

Why This Site

I've been thinking about starting this site for quite a while.

Whenever I hear of a book by a debut author that zooms to the top of the bestseller charts, I take notice. After all, as a writer, it is my job to try to determine what made that book so successful. Here is a short list of book that I might not have otherwise read, had they not been wildly successful debuts:

• The Bridges of Madison County
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Eragon

Of these, I enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) Harry Potter the best. J. K. Rowling is a master storyteller and I learned a lot from her.

Oftentimes, when I go to the bookstore, I go specifically to find a debut book. Green Rider by Kristen Britain is one such book. Rhapsody by Elizabeth Haydon is another.

Since I read so many debut novels, I decided to start Fantasy Debut. Fantasy Debut is where I will post my reviews of debut books by fantasy authors. I will read books that meet the following qualifications:

1) It must be published by a major publisher. No small press, no POD, no E-books. There are plenty of other blogs that review such books. Since debut books fly off the presses every month, I don't have time for anything more. I don't even have time to review every debut book that is released every month. I've whittled this down to a nice niche that should keep me busy without overwhelming me.

2) It must be a fantasy novel. By "fantasy", I mean that if I were to go to a bookstore, I would most likely find it in the fantasy/science fiction section, or in the fantasy Young Adult section.

I have several reasons for this requirement. The key reason is that the first book you read in a genre tends to be the most memorable. The first modern fantasy series I ever read (back in the 80s) was Dragonlance (actually a series), which I think tends to get a bad rap these days. I have never forgotten Dragonlance, and for a few years it was the standard by which I judged other books in the genre. I have never read, say, a paranormal romance. Therefore, I would not be a good reviewer of such books. I am willing to stretch this to include light SF, but no hard SF. (I do enjoy hard SF, but I have not read enough of it to be a good reviewer.)

3) It must be an author's first book by a major publisher. By this I mean that this is the book that could get the author into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. It's ok if the author has published other small press or POD books.

These will not be typical reviews. I will take full advantage of blogging technology. In other words, I will blog on your book as I read it. I will make every effort not to give too much of the plot away. I do not read quickly, so expect it to take me about a week to read your book. I will make every attempt to finish it. If I am unable to finish your book and I set it aside, I will attempt to articulate why. I am not a paid reviewer and I will not continue to read books that are a chore for me to read. However, I very rarely set books aside so I don't expect this to happen much.

I will not mock your book. In having your first book published, you have made a significant achievement and I admire you for it. But, I will be truthful in what worked for me, what didn't work for me, and what I wish you had thought of.

Books I tend to like:

• Historical fantasy. I am a big Stephen Lawhead fan.
• Futuristic fantasy. I like blends of SF and fantasy.
• Mythological fantasy, especially with historical mythology.
• Different fantasy. I like new ideas.
• High fantasy. However, I tend to judge these a bit more harshly than others, since there is so much of this out there. Thinly disguised elves will earn frowns from me. If you have an elf or fairy in your story, I prefer if you just come out and say so.
• Christian fantasy. Miracles are good.
• Dark fantasy, with several caveats (see below).

Books I tend to dislike:

• Vampire stories. I'm not interested in protagonists that have to devour humans or human blood. "Psionic" vampires might interest me, however.
• Stories about ultra-powerful characters. I like reading about humans.
• Deal-with-the-devil stories. However, I wouldn't mind reading such a book when the main protagonist is trying to save someone who made a deal with the devil.
  
• Blood and gore horror. Horror should have a supernatural element and should scare the hell out of me, not gross me out.
• Christian bashing, either overt or subtle. I'm no fundamentalist, but I don't like to see my beliefs trashed, either.

I will review books by authors who have more than one book out, but I will only review their first book. For example, I might review Eragon, but I won't review Eldest. Books by new authors will take priority. I will always bump such books up to the top of the list (although of course, I will not stop a book in mid-review). Caveat: there are so many new books coming out all the time that I may not have much time for these.