I was fortunate enough to know about Phillipa Ballantine before I saw this particular book on the bookshelves at my local bookstore, so I didn’t hesitate to purchase it and try it out.  To anyone who is familiar to podcasting and podcasting novels, the name Phillipa Ballantine is a hallowed and legendary one.  Her incredibly popular book, “Chasing the Bard,” rose Ms. Ballantine to fame, and I would highly suggest that you check it out if you get the opportunity.

Geist is her debut novel published from a large publishing house, specifically Ace Books by way of Penguin.  It follows the story of Sorcha Faris, a Deacon in the Empire known as Arkaym as she investigates what appears to be a breaking down of the natural order and rules of Geists.

I’m always impressed when fantasy authors go out of their way to really create their own worlds, getting away from what I believe are the cliched elves, dwarves and the like.  Ms. Ballantine creates a world that is rich with geists, or malevolent ghosts of the deceased that cross over from the Otherside to torment the living.  The Deacons, apart of the Order, use their powerful Runes inscribed on gauntlets and strops to send the geists back to the Otherside.  Actives of the Order have all the power to defeat geists, but it’s their partners, Sensitives, who have the power to see the geists.  Sorcha Faris is the most powerful Active in the Order, and Merrick Chambers is among the most powerful Sensitive.

Ms. Ballantine introduces a host of great characters.  Headstrong redhead Sorcha Faris, is confident in her own abilities as a Deacon, but her marriage is another matter. Sorcha’s young partner Merrick Chambers is fresh out of Abbey with no field experience, but he’s stronger than he appears.  Raed Syndar Rossin is both sarcastic and brave, even though he is the exiled and deposed Prince of the Empire.  He carries with him a curious and unique curse to assume the form of a geistlord when in danger of geist attack.  Throughout the book, Raed is known as the “Pretender” to the Throne, his father the “Unsung,” and the current Emperor is sometimes referred to as the “Usurper.”

Honestly, when I first read the word “Usurper,” in association with the Throne of the Empire, I almost put this book down and called it a day, for fear of some type of similarity with George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire.  Fortunately Ms. Ballantine’s story was nowhere near similar.

She has created a world that was engrossing and complete.  Her attention to detail throughout the entire book, is immaculate, and it was obvious she probably lived in this world while she was writing it.  Anyone who knows Phillipa Ballantine’s work, knows that she has a love for steampunk, and she chooses to add a little bit to this book as well, with the addition of airships.

This book is highly recommended as a short, light, fantasy read from a highly talented author.

In the coming weeks I shall be reviewing the second book of the Order, Spectyr. Stay tuned for that!

Mike Resnick has a track record for some of the best science fiction ever written.  He ranks as one of the leading award winners, and has a writing career spanning over half a century.  And yet his last book in the Starship series, ending the “Republic” period of the Birthright Universe left something of a sour taste in my mouth.

As I finished it, I tried to pinpoint what exactly I desired.  It wasn’t plot, this book had that.  It wasn’t action, this book definitely had that.  I think it was something between believability and a true suspension of disbelief.  It was also the sheer number of plot holes.  That was pretty scary.  At times it seemed that this book’s mission was to chart how many coincidences could be plotted so that the book’s characters could achieve what they desired.  It was slightly disturbing at times.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Starship series, it began with Starship: Mutiny.  I read this book several years ago, and it was quite good, a very light military science fiction tale, not too much jargon and just the right amount of action.  I liked it enough to keep reading the series.  The only thing that really kept me going through each of the books was the lightness of them.  They don’t require much to follow them, there aren’t intertwining story lines, or complex arcs.  1 main character, 1 main story line, and every plot point connected with the main character: Wilson Cole.

Formerly one of the most decorated officers in the Republic’s Navy, a 3 million ship force spanning thousands of populated worlds, Wilson Cole was one of my favorite science fiction characters.  He was funny, smart, and upheld his principles.  This is still somewhat true after I finished this book, but he was tarnished by some of its events.

At the end of the book, in one the last appendices, Mr. Resnick goes into detail about what he believed each of his Starship books was truly about, and the questions that he tried to raise.  While it could be a small spoiler, he explains that one question he tried to raise in this book was the purpose of torture, and whether a situation may justify its use.  Yes, Cole forsakes his principles to commit harsh interrogation and walk the fuzzy line between it and torture.  The previous book, Starship: Rebel also had elements of this in it.  To say that Mr. Resnick’s execution of his questions failed may be a little harsh, but I did expect a tad bit more from one of the masters of science fiction.

I mentioned earlier that suspension of disbelief wasn’t really kept through the entire book, and I truly believe that it’s the very premise that’s hard to stomach.  Wilson Cole, on a ship that’s nearly 80 years out of date wages war on a Republic with nearly 3 million ships in its Navy and tears it down not by winning tactically, but through other smarter means: propaganda and the like.  While I won’t spoil the actual ways that he does it, it does seem rather incredible to say the least.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh.  Looking back on the entire series, I can see that it’s probably not meant to be the most serious science fiction tale.  It’s not Asimov’s Foundation, and it’s probably not meant to be.  It’s most likely meant to be a fun, light, military science fiction romp, and it does succeed at that.

The entire series, if charted, took me about 15 days to read.  If you have 15 days to spare, take a read of the exploits of Wilson Cole and leave a comment below on what you thought!

If it’s anything, my short time in this point of the Birthright Universe does make me want to read other tales of the Birthright Universe, if only to escape for a few minutes from the more complex tales I’ve been reading.

This book was more enjoyable than the second book in the five book series!  I finished the entire book in 1 day.  That’s right.  1 day. 298 pages, in one day.  Truly amazing read, light, quick and leaving me wanting more.  But I have to wait since my local library has yet to stock the latest two titles!

In this novel, Wilson Cole aboard his flagship, the Theodore Roosevelt, must find an equilibrium between morality and mercenary in the Inner Frontier.  Wilson doesn’t allow them take any assignments that are morally questionable, including anything that might harm too many innocent people.  Saving innocent people is something entirely different, and even though he is a mercenary, Wilson loves doing that for free.

Wilson and the crew make more memorable friends along the way, such as the Platinum Duke who owns Singapore Station, and Jacovic the former Commander of the Fifth Teroni Fleet.  In total, an excellent read!

I’m 150% sure that I enjoyed this book far more than it’s predecessor, Starship: Mutiny, which I reviewed a while back.  This book took a while longer to read since I had family over and the like, but once I got into it, I finished more than 150 pages in less than 3 hours.  It was a party.

Like the first book, this one revolves around Wilson Cole and the Theodore Roosevelt, as they decide they’d like to be pirates now that they’ve fled the Republic.  This adventure has more interesting characters, including a “fence” or dealer that calls himself David Copperfield and enjoys dressing up in the styles and clothing of that era.

A thoroughly enjoyable read was made even more enjoyable as Wilson Cole “finds himself,” in this book, and finds out that he isn’t cut out for the Pirate life, and he must do something in that Navy-esque type of way.  Good on him, and I await the next book, Starship: Mercenary.

After Cole is sent to the Theodor Roosevelt, for conduct unbecoming of an office[although it really wasn't], he must work with others that the Galactic Navy believes as bad officers and enlisted personnel.

Overall, I believed the book was exceptionally good.  Resnick’s humor throughout the novel was very well executed, and his writing style and voice clearly showed that he deserved the many awards he has received in his long and illustrious career as a science fiction writer.  The only drawback that I saw, was that besides the main character the others were very superficial.  Taking the alien Forrice, a Molarian with three legs and facial features like mush out of a blender [or I'm presuming from what I could read from the book], he has no depth or clear back story to him besides that he’s old friends with Wilson Cole and has a great sense of humor.  The length of the book was probably the main detracting factor from this, and I would have liked if Resnick could have written a longer, more indepth book.  However, the length did lend to the fast paced plot that Resnick wrote.  This entire book probably only spanned 2 weeks, and it was a wonderful, thrilling, 2 weeks.  There are 6 appendixes to the book, chronicling the nature of the universe that Resnick has created, and they include some very useful information if you care to read them. I read some of it, since much of it can be inferred from the actual novel.  Appendix Three actually has all of his other books that are set in the same universe [the Birthright Universe], and it says that there are 4 more books in this series [the Starship].

I plan to read all of them.  Bravo Mr. Resnick.

After several long months of reading Contagious by Scott Sigler, I finally finished.   I don’t really have much to say about this book besides that it was freakin’ amazing.  When I first began to read it, I had no idea that it had a prequel…which didn’t detract from reading this one at all. Of course, I didn’t know a lot of back story, but that didn’t really matter all that much from the story.

A basic synopsis would be that a deadly contagion from outer space takes over human beings and lays “hatch-lings” in their body.  Once these hatch-lings, hatch, they pull themselves free from the human host and try to build gateways to contact their home world and bring over an army or some force to take over the planet.

The best part of this novel is that 95% of the story is grounded in hard science, and EVERYTHING is explainable.  Scott took a great deal of time researching and understanding how everything would work.  This one of the things that makes Scott’s books amazing.  By the end of the book, I was so interested in Scott’s references to army machinery and aircraft, I searched every one of the technical names he used, and I found ALL of them.  Scott knows his shit.  Seriously.

I’m not sure this book had that many flaws.  A warning to the queasy, he does talk about some graphic details, like blood, gore, etc. but it’s pertinent to the story versus just some Quentin Tarantino shit.  He does also drop the “f-bomb” alot…which means that if you ever have read this blog, you wont mind reading the word “fuck.”  But, he doesn’t over use it like some of the modern screenwriters do.  He uses it when necessary.  It’s a humanizing characteristic when he uses it, and it really expands on the character’s emotions and their back story.

When he went on his “Stank Tour” to promote this book, I went to see him when he stopped in Falls Church, Virginia.  He’s a great guy to listen and talk to, and the way he explained his writing and why he uses what he uses, was really enlightening.  Most of the techniques he uses is to expand the characters and make them believable.  In public he doesn’t drop the “f-bomb” a lot, but if you ever read his blog at http://scottsigler.com  you’ll see he does use it himself.  I’m spending a lot of time on this profanity issue because some people really have an issue with reading profanity, or even hearing it.

Great book overall…highly recommended.