Across the Face of the World by Russell Kirkpatrick

According to Amazon, ACROSS THE FACE OF THE WORLD (USA, Canada, UK) by Russell Kirkpatrick does not release until January 1, but since I saw it in Book-a-Million the other day, I thought I might as well announce it. I have a copy, courtesy of Orbit books, and I plan to start reading next week. Since it is a rather lengthy tome (736 pages), I have lined up several guest reviewers who will hopefully be able to put up some reviews in the meantime.

From a tiny snowbound village, five men and women are about to embark on a journey that will change their lives -and the destiny of their world.For two thousand years, since he was cast out from Dona Mihst, the fabled Undying Man has been plotting his revenge on the Most High. The Destroyer's plans of vengeance are nearing fruition-and he will allow nothing to stand in his way.But one man has escaped from the Destroyer's prison, and even though the Lords of Fear ride in pursuit, he will bring word to his people. It will be up to his sons, Hal and Leith, together with a small group of villagers, to warn their world of the coming war.

It sounds fairly exciting, but the reviews I've seen so far have been mixed. Robert at Fantasy Book Critic and John at Grasping for the Wind were both ambivalent, but they ultimately found it too geography-intensive. We'll have to see if I agree.

The author keeps a blog at his website. As a professional geographer, he has worked on several atlas projects. You can see his Australia cover at his website, and I like it much better than the UK/USA/Canada cover. The author has an older website here, and while it is dated, it has lots of maps!

I have to admit that the very title of this novel is somewhat intimidating. Sometimes I really like quest novels, but other times it seems like I am forced to watch while the main characters go about every second of their lives while on the road. I have no problem at all when an author says, "three weeks later, they arrive" rather than make me live through page after page describing those three weeks. From what I'm reading on Robert and John's blogs, I may be in for some agonizing scenes. However, I'll try to read with an open mind. This book is coming at a good time for me, because it has been a long time since I've read a quest novel.

Debut Coverage Elsewhere

I constantly accumulate links to other debut coverage in the sidebar to the left, but every couple of weeks I like to call attention to debut news and reviews on blogs elsewhere. Here's the latest round-up.

Thunderer by Felix Gilman releases today, but Robert is way ahead of me, as usual, with his review. He's already mentioning it as a possible favorite for 2008!

SMD has reviewed another small press novel over at The Fantasy and SciFi Lovin' Book Review. This one is The Longevity Thesis by Jennifer Rahn and he gives it mostly high marks.

Mark Rose over at Bookgasm is somewhat mixed in his review of Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell.

Over at Grasping for the Wind, John seems to have enjoyed Rosemary Jones's Crypt of the Moaning Diamond. Rosemary also offered me this novel, but at the time, I was booked. I'll probably go ahead and pick it up on my next bookstore trip; John makes it sound fun.

Lawrence over at the Gravel Pit is not wild about Brian Francis Slattery's Spaceman Blues: A Love Song. He calls it the weirdest book he read in 2007.

The prolific Robert has mixed feelings about Across the Face of the World by Russell Kirkpatrick. This is up next on my reading list so I'm feeling a bit of trepidation.

To end on a more positive note, Pat at the Fantasy Hotlist was quite happy with The Devil You Know by Mike Carey. He makes it sound like it might be more my cup of tea than I thought it would be.

I'm expecting two guest reviews in upcoming weeks, plus two interviews (one which I still have to actually write). I should be done with Auralia's Colors in the next day or so. Once I finish it, I'll post my favorites of 2007 list.

AURALIA'S COLORS - Plot Threads

I am just over halfway through Auralia's Colors by Jeff Overstreet. Now that I no longer have any other novels competing with it, I should be able to get along much quicker.

It's difficult to summarize this book. The people of House Abascar live under oppression. All things with color must be given as gifts to the king, and the people can only wear drab clothing. The exceptions are favored ones of the house, who can earn various colors. The Queen of House Abascar declared that this time of no colors would be the Winter of Abascar, and it would remain Winter until she declared that it was Abascar's Spring.

Except the Queen has since disappeared, and the Winter has dragged on for two decades.

Into this House comes Auralia, who has a gift with weaving colors from things found in nature. Another key character appears to be the ale boy, who has no name that he knows. Auralia says that she knows his name, but she cannot pronounce it. Anyway, the ale boy has a way with fire. An exiled mage has a gift with stone. And the Captain of the Guard, Arc-robin, who enforces all of the King's edicts, seems to key into the story in a significant way.

Despite its somewhat leisurely opening, this novel is shaping up to be very good.

To Catch a Mermaid by Suzanne Selfors

I've been meaning to post my thoughts on TO CATCH A MERMAID by Suzanne Selfors for some weeks now. I don't usually read children's novels and I probably will demur in the future, except for young adult. I did my homework on this novel and read a bunch of other reviews out there, and none of them are in the least bit negative.

The writing itself is great. It's about a boy named Boom Broom who brings home a wild baby mermaid (actually more like a toddler) from a reject seafood bucket. The merbaby brings a curse that Boom must break in order to save his sister. The merbaby can also grant wishes. His sister promptly falls in love with the cranky merbaby, and refuses to be parted from it. Adding angst to the story is that before the start of the novel, Boom's mother was carried away by a twister. Boom is an appealing character, despite his struggles with greed. There is almost no violence in the book.

The beginning of the novel is quite humorous, with crazy situations such as Boom's sister Mertyle wishing for some buttery corn, then Boom going outside and presto! The field next door is filled with buttery corn growing on the stalk, ready to eat. Mertyle cannot seem to wish for anything practical, but there doesn't seem to be any limit to her wishes, so why should she bother?

The high point of the story comes when Mertyle contracts ich from the merbaby. Anyone who has ever kept a fish knows about fish ich, which is spelled ick in this book. For a while it is quite funny, but after this part, the book took a turn for me. I realize that Boom was concerned for his sister, but from then on, the story was too much of a downer, in my opinion.

One problem that authors have in writing children's lit is how to separate the child from the parent. It must be done, because any responsible parent would prevent their child from having dangerous adventures. Harry Potter and Tom Sawyer were both orphans. Huck's father was a drunken drifter. Many children's novels simply take place in boarding schools. In this novel, Boom just can't count on the important people or institutions in his life, including:

• His father, who developed agoraphobia after the twister carried away Boom's mother, and keeps himself locked in the attic in case another twister comes. He does manage to bestir himself toward the end and help his children, but he's never exactly inspiring.

He announced that the twister would return, then he locked himself in his attic studio and asked for weather updates through the keyhole. Except for his dashes to the bathroom, or an occasional appearance in the kitchen to obtain something to eat, he had rarely been seen since. The world beyond the front porch had proven itself to be unpredictably dangerous, and Mr. Broom had decided to avoid it entirely.

• School, for the principal is a sadistic meanie who is so keen to catch kids getting in trouble that she keeps a telescope in her office so she can spy on the kids in the playground. However, I'm willing to give the author a pass on this one, because mocking schoolteachers has a long and glorious tradition in kid's lit, possibly beginning with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

• The Church, which was so awful that Boom cannot dredge up a single positive memory of his dead mother taking him church.

He knew that Winger would be at church, suffering through a long, boring service in a starched-up shirt and a tie. Then he'd sing off-key in the choir's back row. Boom used to go to church with Mrs. Broom. She always stuffed her purse with hard candies, to help Boom get through the blah, blah, blahs that never made much sense. Why was everyone so worried about the next life when there was so much to worry about in this one?

• God, who doesn't seem answer prayers. However, Thor might.

"All Mighty Thor, God of Direct Viking Descendents, show us your mercy and send us wind."

Mr. Jorgenson stood and raised his arms.

"Help us, Mighty Thor."

Boom didn't care who answered their plea -- be it a Viking god, the god of Winger's church, or a green menace from the sea. Was it too much to ask for the universe to look kindly upon him just one time? One stinking time?

The people who do help Boom include the oddball members of the Sons of the Vikings, a flaky fish store owner and the fisherman who let Boom rummage in his fish bucket. It's meant to be whimsical, I think. Most of the other adults are greedy, apathetic or just plain evil.

If I had read this when I was twelve years old, that quote about the afterlife would have really bothered me. Why would you want to bring angst to the child of a Christian family? (I'm assuming the author was writing about a Christian church, since the description fits Christian churches.) Do you write for children because you love them, or do you have other reasons? The prayers to Thor bothered me as well, but at least it fit into the whole "Sons of the Vikings" storyline. The anti-church/afterlife statement sort of came in out of nowhere. It seemed like editorializing to me. If I had been reading for pleasure, it would have been the point at which I would have put the book down.

It is possible, I suppose, that the author was merely careless and meant no harm. The second book (for there appears to be room for a sequel) will tell if this is so, if any more such statements appear.

That's not the only thing that bothered me about this novel. We all hear laments about the decline of reading in children. If this book represents today's children's literature, then I can only say, "Who can blame them?" This book was hard to get through. There's no rousing adventure, little that uplifts. The final struggle dragged on and on and was filled with despair. The ending, while happy enough, was more of a relief than anything else. Even Shrek was more uplifting than this novel. The theme in Shrek is the classic beauty lies within story. The theme for this novel? Maybe something like, "Life is tough, kid. Get used to it."

*

I spent a few weeks sitting on this review because the author was really quite lovely, and when she sent me a copy, she even autographed it. In the end, I decided to go with the adage that "a bad review is better than no review." Maybe she will find something helpful in the honest perspective of a reader who was really looking forward to this book, and who ultimately felt disappointed by it. Maybe some of you will want to purchase it in order to read it for yourself.

In any case, I have decided that in the future, I will only accept review copies from publishers or publicists. I love being in touch with authors, but I need a sense of detachment -- at least at first -- if I'm going to review their books. I have already adjusted my "about" post to reflect this policy.

How Much is Fantasy Debut Worth?

I found this at Pat's.

My blog is worth $44,598.66.
How much is your blog worth?

It's not worth as much as Pat's, but hey -- that it's worth anything to anyone (besides me) is just a thrill.

My Annual Winter Cold

Yes, I have my pre-Christmas cold. I'm just glad that I have it now and not next week. So, things will be blog-lite for a day or so. I do have one serious review almost ready to post, but I need to do a last-minute quote-check against the book and I just don't feel like doing it right now.

Next week, I'll have debuts to announce again! Lots of them! One from this Friday and three on the 26th!

My First Blurb!

My first Featured Debut here has also resulted in my first blurb! Lisa Shearin has recently posted the bookmarks for her second book, Armed and Magical on her blog. And with all her other blurbs is mine! Here are the bookmarks:

And on the reverse is my blurb!


It's attributed to SFFWorld because I did a reader review there. Cool, huh?

Next Featured Debut - Auralia's Colors

I decided to finish reading Auralia's Colors, and I'll make it my featured debut tomorrow in order to motivate myself to get going. Not that I am disliking the story. But I did have a lot of author-sent books to read, and I rank them higher in my reading stack than books that simply arrive in the mail. By the way, I no longer have any author-sent books in my stack, so I'll be reading those publisher-sent ones pronto.

My first post on Auralia's Colors is here. In it, I was having a tough time. I've actually read quite a bit since then and the action did pick up. The story intrigues the hell out of me, so this is not going to be one that I will give up on easily. Plus, I've been following Jeff's blog, and he seems like quite an interesting guy. And he is a very busy blogger!

I feel like I lost focus for a while and I let myself get sidetracked and overwhelmed. It is very easy to allow yourself to get buried in books as a blogger! However, I'm back on track in time for the new year. I have a couple of guest reviewers who are busy reading books, and I hope to be able to post their reviews in the coming weeks. It's a good thing, too. Next on my reading stack is Across the Face of the World by Russell Kirkpatrick, and I think it is going to keep me busy for weeks!

I have not heard of any major publisher debuts since the end of November, and none show up on my calendar until the last two weeks of December. I'm keeping an eye on Locus Magazine's Monitor for the ones that got away, but things appear to have really slowed down in the publishing world. From what I understand, this is typical.

I also have an interview coming up with Janet Lorimer, author of Master of Shadows. I was especially interested in interviewing her because I don't often get the chance to interview such practiced authors. I hope to post her interview next week. (First I need to actually write it and send it to her!)

Master of Shadows - Final Review

First, I must post a disclaimer. Janet and I have been exchanging friendly emails since before I started reading her book. She was also kind enough to send me an autographed copy.

MASTER OF SHADOWS by Janet Lorimer begins like this:

Once upon a time, toward the end of the 20th century . . .

With a single sentence, Lorimer establishes the mood of the entire novel. And there, she starts a familiar story--Beauty meets the Beast and goes to live with him in his enchanted castle. Or, he COULD be a beast. Since he is always shrouded in a cowl, she doesn't know for certain.

In the story, Louvel hires Ariel to categorize the books in his extensive library. Ariel has a master's degree in Liberal Arts--a proper degree for a the daughter of a wealthy man--and she is delighted to have a chance to actually use it. Also, since her father's mysterious death, she rather desperately needs the money. While she is doing the job, Louvel insists that she stay in his mansion. There is no good road to and from the mansion, and staying elsewhere just is not practical. Louvel has very specific, odd and mysterious rules that he insists she follow. However, when her curiosity gets the better of her, Louvel begins to fear that she will uncover his secrets.

In fact, the story is bursting with secrets. Everyone has them; Ariel's father, Ariel's former fiance and her future father-in-law. And some of them are left to the reader to figure out.

At times, I wished that the timeframe of the story was clearer. All I know is it is "late in the 20th century". I'm thinking early 90s. Computers were available, but their use was not yet widespread. Ariel must write letters; she cannot send emails. The setting is also unclear, with references to "the city" and "the village". I believe the author did all this on purpose, to promote a sort of fairy-tale vagueness.

Late in the book, Louvel says this:

. . . "my secrets are dark ones that would devastate you. I cannot bear the thought of your love spoiled by the hate, the disgust, the horror you would taste if . . ."

After reading this, I expected nothing short of Louvel having a demonic nature. The truth turns out to be rather less dark.

In an earlier post, I said that this story reminded me of an old Kathleen Woodiwiss story. That comparison did not hold true. However, the comparison I made to Victoria Holt proved to be close to the mark. This novel is romantic suspense written like a fairy tale, although the prince is unlike like any hero I've ever read before. (No rippling abs here!) This fairy tale has a dark and entirely modern underside. The villains in the story operate very much in the shadows. And it has two mysteries, neatly woven together.

Lorimer is a seasoned writer, with years of experience writing children's fiction under her belt. And it shows. I loved the way she adapted her metaphors to the current setting. For example, if the characters were eating, she might compare something with a golden color to melted butter. Her verbs are all active ("a stab of guilt") and her dialog effortless to follow. The novel shows solid research, some which I fact-checked and found to be true.

I can call it a fairy tale, but I hesitate to call it a fantasy. It has moments that seem like magic, like when in Silas Marner by George Eliot, Silas finds his stolen gold. In this novel, Beauty discovers just who is the true Beast. I've always loved stories like this, where the mundane seems magical. If you enjoy reading delicious little romantic suspense novels that keep you up late at night, this novel would work for you.

What is UP with Google?

First, Google arbitrarily turns off the ability for blog commenters to input their URL when they (1) don't feel like logging in, or (2) they don't particularly like Blogger's profile page, or (3) they maintain blogs elsewhere. I managed to find a way around that, and I plan to put up a post on how to set up that in the very near future (hopefully tonight).

Now, my Google reader is acting decidedly wonky. (Yes, that is a technical term. I've spent 11 years in IT, so I know.) The sidebar now superimposes itself over the rest of the page when you click on it. It's either a bug or a hideous new feature, and it's been that way since last night. If you actually try to use the thing, it makes your browser crash (which has happened every time, today).

What's up? Now I'm not only considering fleeing to WordPress, but I'm considering switching to another feed reader such as Bloglines. This blog is supposed to be about fantasy debuts, for crying out loud, not about problems with Google. One gets the impression that Google is spending so much time acquiring companies and slapping the Google name on them that they are not paying much attention to things that matter to customers.

Until I get set up elsewhere (or Reader gets fixed) I guess I'll catch up on everyone's blogs the old fashioned way.

Rant over. Thanks for listening.