July 2017 - Gary David Gillen

Bane and Shadow by Jon Skovron

Bane and Shadow by Jon Skovron, Book #2 of Empire of Storms

Introduction

Hope and Red from the first novel of this series have become Bane and Shadow for this novel. Hope is the only woman who has ever been trained in the arts of the Vinchen Warriors, a type of monkish kung-fu sect. She has taken on the persona of the dreaded pirate once called Dire Bane. She sails the seas with her pirate crew chasing the imperial ships of the emperor and the evil sorcerers called biomancers. Red has claimed his birthright as a noble and is now part of the emperor’s inner circle. He is being trained by the biomancers as a weapon. What will Hope do when she finds out how far the biomancers are prepared to go down their evil ways and what will Red do when he is faced with potentially fatal intrigues at court?

Summary

Hope’s story starts with her pirate ship attacking the flagship of Imperial Admiral Brice Vaderton. He will become an interesting viewpoint character later in the book. Hope’s crew discovers that the biomancers have been taking young girls to the island of Dawn’s Light for an unknown evil purpose. Hope is determined to discover the secret and defeat the biomancers. They look for ships and supplies at New Laven. Nettles returns to her old life as a thief and a gangster to get the ships and supplies. She becomes an important viewpoint character. Hope takes her flotilla to Dawn’s Light and fights the biomancers.

Red has taken his birthright as the Lord Pastinas. He goes to court at the Imperial Palace on Stonepeak and is trained by the biomancers as an assassin. He becomes friends with the emperor’s heir, Prince Leston. Red flirts with wealthy, witty, and beautiful Lady Merivale Hempist but remains devoted to Hope. He must determine who has been murdering the common people of Stonepeak. The murderer is stealthy and is called the Shadow Demon.

Recommendation

This is a great fun novel. The mash-up of genres continues from the first novel called Hope and Red. Hope and Red have clear motivations and struggle to achieve their objectives. The only problem is that this is a middle novel. Their final confrontation with the biomancers will not occur until the third novel. I wish that Hope and Red had some scenes together in this novel. Brigga Lin has a couple of good scenes but should have had more to do in this novel. The third novel is called Blood and Tempest and is scheduled to be released in November 2017. I have ordered it and I plan to read it ASAP.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of Bane and Shadow by Jon Skovron.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29877824-bane-and-shadow

This is the link to my review of Hope and Red by Jon Skovron, Book #1 of Empire of Storms

Hope and Red by Jon Skovron

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, Book #1 of the Old Man’s War series

Introduction

In Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, two things have happened to John Perry recently. His wife had unexpectedly passed away and he decided to join the army. It’s not just any army. The Colonial Defense Forces will only take recruits on their seventy-fifth birthday. All recruits are taken off of the earth and are never heard from again. The novel opens on his seventy-fifth birthday at the gravesite of his beloved wife. He says goodbye to her and heads to the CDF recruitment office. He has no idea what will happen to him next, but he has nothing left to keep him on the earth and so he enlists.

Summary

John Perry changes as part of the enlistment process. He must succeed to graduate boot camp. The recruits serve a term of ten years, but the survival rate is less than 30 percent. He is very practical and advances in the CDF by using his wits and a lot of luck. At the end of their term, the recruits can become colonists on a new planet or re-enlist in the CDF. The CDF protects the colonies. This novel follows John Perry at the beginning of his term of service.

Recommendation

To me, this novel is a mixture of many military science fiction novels of the past mixed up with new ideas making a great new novel. It takes the themes of pro-militarism and the boot camp to soldier coming of age from Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, But, there is also a sense of loss of humanity by the protagonist and the conflict of fighting the other from The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. I was also reminded of Deathworld by Harry Harrison for the “anything can kill you” mantra of the CDF members. I highly recommend this novel and intend to read the many sequels.

Links

I received this novel from a Tor.com newsletter. Tor sends one free e-book every month to newsletter subscribers. I have copies of The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and A Fire on the Deep by Vernor Vinge.

The Tor.com newsletter is at http://read.macmillan.com/tordotcom/newsletter-signup/

This is the link to the Goodreads page of Old Man’s War by John Scalzi.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36510196-old-man-s-war

This is the link to my review of Lock In by John Scalzi. FBI agent Chris Shane has Haden’s Syndrome and interacts with the world through an android. Chris must solve a murder caused by an android.

Lock In by John Scalzi

My First SF Book

Introduction

My first SF book that I owned and read was The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Summary

My book is a reprint that promoted the 1975 movie of the same name. Burroughs wrote three short novels that were published in Blue Book Magazine in 1918. The stories were The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forget, and Out of Time’s Abyss. All three are included in this edition and added up to a total of 249 pages. I believe that I got it sometime in 1977, about 40 years ago. This was the first novel that I had ever read for fun and it started me on the path to making reading a part of my daily routine. Soon after that, I subscribed to Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, as it was known back then. Then, I enrolled in the Science Fiction Book Club and had all the books that I wanted.

Recommendation

My First SF Book is a fun quickly-paced science fiction/fantasy adventure story. It has the lost world theme and an interesting method of alternative evolution included in this world. It is just the perfect story for that pre-teen boy to pick up.

I watched the movie many years later. There are six black and white stills from the movie included in this edition. I remember the plesiosaur and the pterodactyl the most, pictured below.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13552142-the-land-that-time-forgot

Goodreads is a website where you can review books that you have read and you can also put books on a to-read list. Using Goodreads has changed how and what I read. Using Goodreads got me thinking about My first SF book that I owned, The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This is the link to a post I made about using Goodreads.

How Goodreads changed my reading habits.

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi, Book #1 of The Interdependency.

Introduction

Cardenia’s father is dying. Once he passes on, she will become the emperox of the Interdependency. She is not ready and there are tremendous complications facing her immediately. Can she guide her interstellar empire through these problems or will her empire fall?

Summary

Humans have expanded to the stars by using a medium through space called the flow. The flow only travels to certain star systems, but the flow can move and star systems can be lost. One thousand years before this story the Earth is lost to her colonies. The colonies form an empire called the Interdependency. Families are grouped in Houses and each House has a monopoly on one trade good or one technology. The flow is changing. There are three main POV characters in this novel; Cardenia (the future Emperox Grayland II), Kiva Lagos (heir to the House of Lagos), and Marce Claremont (the physicist son of the physicist who first discovered the Flow’s change). Cardenia’s first problem is that the flow is changing and how it changes will determine how she will respond.

Recommendation

This was a fun novel to read. The dialogue was humorous and witty. I liked reading each of the three main POV characters. The novel’s ending featuring Nadashe Nohamapetan’s comeuppance was appropriate. It feels like the first novel in a series, it is, and I’m ready for the next novel.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page for The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30078567-the-collapsing-empire

This is a link to my book review Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey, the first book in The Expanse series. This book is a space opera set entirely within the solar system and is similar to The Collapsing Empire.

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

Writing Progress Report July 2017

This is my Writing Progress Report July 2017.

Happy Fourth of July

Writing Progress from June 2017

I wrote six blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for June 2017 linked below.

Writing Progress Report June 2017

Typed Chapter 4 of An Assassin in New Marl City

Edited Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of An Assassin in New Marl City.

Started Chapter 11 of An Assassin in New Marl City.

Start Chemithurgy short story and prepare it to submitting it to a writing workshop.

The stories 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, and Grognard can be sent to other magazines.

Events from June 2017

Graduation party on June 3, 2017.

Attended Cleveland Indians game on June 27, 2017.

Registered for Cleveland Inkubator which is on July 29, 2017.

Writing Goals for July 2017

Continue to work on An Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (100000 words total). Finish chapter 11, write Chapter 13, and write Chapter 14 of the novel this month.

Edit Chapters 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 of An Assassin in New Marl City.

Write first part of Chemithurgy short story.

Write a chapter of Torso novel.

Polish and submit the stories White Bracer, Mage Squad, Time Traveller One, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit 4 Humors, Space Station Sunyata, and Grognard to other short fiction magazines.

Planned Events for July 2017

Attend the Cleveland Inkubator at the Cleveland Public Library on July 29, 2017. Sponsored by Literary Cleveland. It is a one day writing conference.

This is the link to the Literary Cleveland website.

https://www.litcleveland.org/

Purchase an e-book cover for An Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Put the first ten chapters of An Assassin in New Marl City into the writing program Scrivener.

Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for An Assassin in New Marl.