Oct
2014

The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett

categories: Review

troupe

FANTASY/HORROR/HISTORICAL FICTION

TITLE: The Troupe
AUTHOR: Robert Jackson Bennett
PUBLISHER: Orbit, 2011

THE BOOK: In an undefined turn-of-the-last-century time when vaudeville was still going strong, we meet young George Carole, a piano player at a small Vaudeville theatre in the middle of America somewhere/nowhere. Sixteen-year-old George is working at Otterman’s theatre for only one reason:  he hopes his father will play there someday so he can finally meet the man. But when he does finally track down his father’s vaudevillian troupe, nothing goes as planned.  His father, Hieronymus Silenus, is involved in something bigger and scarier than a simple entertainment and when George see the Silenus troupe play, his life is changed forever. Between the creepy puppet act, the tantalising dancing of the beautiful Colette, and the mesmerizing song that ends the act, George is fascinated.  But it is his encounter after the show with a spooky gray man who sucks all the light out of the world around him that decides George to sign on with the Troupe. Because Silenus is somehow using his show to battle back all the evil of the world.  Or is he? (more…)


Oct
2014

Hot Books for Santa Ana Days

categories: Featured Microgenre

While the rest of the country is enjoying crisp fall days, colorful foliage, and excellent sleeping weather, Southern California had Santa Ana winds blowing through over the weekend. If you’ve never heard of the Santa Ana winds, they are supposed to drive people a little crazy.  Raymond Chandler has a typically awesome quote:

“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Ana’s that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. “

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Oct
2014

Urban Fantasy versus Paranormal Romance

categories: Featured Blend, infographic

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(click to embiggen!)

Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance.  There seems to be lots of people who love one but not the other.  In most classification schemes and in my book (The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Blends), urban fantasy is technically a subgenre of fantasy, and paranormal romance is a subgenre of romance (just as the names imply!), but the reading reality has always seemed more fluid to me. I read a lot of series that fall under one or another of those subgenre headings, and I’ve never been particularly fussy about what label gets printed on the spine.  When I was in charge of ordering paperbacks for a library, I was forced to care about this issue, as I would be the one that would decide whether a book went on the “ROMANCE” spinner or the “SF/FANTASY” spinner. And believe it or not I found  it surprisingly difficult at times.  Sometimes I would violently disagree with the way the publisher had chosen to market a series. Maybe it was a book that had a cover and a subject heading that screamed romance and I thought it would appeal as much (or more) to fantasy fans.  Maybe the book was all moody urban fantasy on the outside but all steamy romance between the covers.  It was then that I started to think about these books all living on more of a spectrum: all books that shared a real-world, present day fantasy landscape and almost always included a crime/puzzle/mystery plot line. The difference was simply in the amount of romance.

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Sep
2014

Readers’ Advsiory Guide to Genre Blends

categories: New Releases


I am happy to announce the publication of my new book, The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Blends, officially coming out from ALA Editions tomorrow, October 1 (although it’s been  available and shipping from booksellers for a couple of weeks).  The book is part of a wonderful series edited by Joyce Saricks and Neal Wyatt, which usually focus on a particular genre or format and give in-depth advice for librarians engaged in serving readers.  My volume is a little different, as it covers not one genre but all of them, analyzing the books that blend genres together. (more…)


Sep
2014

Genre Blend New Releases for October 2014

categories: New Releases

Every month there is another batch of new books that don’t fit neatly into one genre. Here are some of the genreblended books coming out in October 2014.  Usually there is a bias towards books with a SF, Fantasy or Horror element, but this month these is also a bonaza of romance coming out, especially regencies. Genres are listed in my best estimation as to the order of prominence to the story. For example, if the first genre listed is SF, that is probably the first audience for the book. What are you most looking foward to?

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Sep
2014

Banned Books Week

categories: Uncategorized

banned venn

 

This is one of those things that isn’t true, but feels true. If someone thinks a book is the best book every written, there is someone who wants it banned from schools and libraries.  If there is a book that has been banned, it is someone’s favorite book of all time.

Because it is Banned Books Week, and as I librarian I’ve always loved this annual time when we celebrate the freedom to read, I was checking over the list of most banned and/or challenged books.  ALA has a lot of nice resources on their banned books week site including a list of the 100 books most challenged in the first decade of the 21st century.  In other words, RECENTLY.  And as usual, it makes me so sad that there are so many marvelous books that people want to surpress.  I grew up in a house full of books where I was allowed to read anything I wanted, whether it was appropriate for my age or not.  I WAS NOT HARMED.  I’m a (mostly) well-adjusted functioning member of society.  No book ever hurt me or scarred me. So yeah, I think banning books is just about the most pointless thing a person can do with their time and energy. (more…)


Sep
2014

GIVEAWAY: The Witch With No Name by Kim Harrison

categories: Giveaway

witchwithnonameI am a lucky, lucky girl.  As part of my work reviewing for Library Journal, I get a lot of books sent to me.  As much as I would love to keep them all, I don’t live in a TARDIS. So I’ve decide that occasionally I will cull the shelves and give away some books to readers of the site. Sometimes they will probably be galleys, but I thought I would kick things off with a lovely, pristine finished copy.  The Witch with No Name is the 13th and last book in Kim Harrison’s fantastic Hollows series.

Fans of the series have been following Rachel Morgan since she first stormed out of Inderland Security with a bounty on her head in Dead Witch Walking and they will be anxious to see how it all ends for Rachel, Ivy, Jenks and Trent.  Although the proportions vary from book to book, the series is a blend of fantasy, mystery and romance. Author Harrison had a lot of loose ends to tie up after playing in the same universe for 13 books and she does a good job of giving long-time readers satisfying answers. With all the humor and heart fans expect, as well as high-stakes action, this is a great end to one of the best series in urban fantasy. I reviewed it over at Library Journal in the August 15 issue.

My thanks go out to HarperCollins, who sent me the book.  If you would like to enter to win this book, just be sure to leave comment by Friday, September 26 and I will use a randomly pick a winner.  Since I’ll be mailing this out myself, this giveaway is limited to the U.S.


Sep
2014

Pirate Week: Space Pirates

categories: Featured Blend

I’ll end this series of posts with some of my favorite pirates — space pirates.  Science fiction has a marvelous subgenre known as space opera.  The name comes from both soap operas and also from horse opera, which was a nickname for westerns. But for me, what space opera most resembles are nautical adventure stories.  Most of the time the action takes place in and around spaceships, with the nomenclature and hierarchies of naval life that haven’t particularly changed from the 17th century. And like any good shipbound adventure, sometimes you’re gonna get pirates. In some of the “space navy” series the pirates are a traditional foe that the naval forces are trying to control. Sometimes the pirate forces are more like mercenaries that have crossed a line. As tempting as it was to include mercenaries (especially my favorites, The Dendarii Free Mercenaries from Bujold’s Vorkosigan books) I wanted to stick to those operating truly outside the rules. So as your last homework for Talk Like a Pirate Day, here are some science fiction pirates. (more…)


Sep
2014

Pirate Week: Romance Pirates

categories: Featured Blend

gentlerogue2There’s something irresistible about a pirate.  They live outside the law, they have ultimate freedom to sail about wherever they please, and they take what they want.  I mean, sure… those can be the characteristics of a fantastic villain as well. Romance novels are full of villains.  Alpha-type anti-heroes with what would be a poisonous level of testosterone in real life are perfectly acceptable in a romance novel, as long as they never hurt animals or children. And romance is the bastion of the misunderstood hero in villainous clothing. When pirates appear in romance novels (and good gravy, do they appear), the seeming villain often turns out to have a secret squooshy soft center, at least where the heroine is concerned.  Romance pirates are often trapped by circumstances in the piratical life, and perhaps all they need is the love of a good woman to retrieve them to the bosom of polite society.  Or maybe that loving woman will sail off happily over the horizon with her pirate.  Either way, there are probably dozens of pirate romances out there.  Let me introduce you to a few:

windflowerThe Windflower by Laura London Top Pick!
Written by husband and wife team Tom and Sharon Curtis, this is the one.  If you’re only going to read one pirate romance (and yes, I know most people will never EVER read romance, much less pirate romance), this is the one to read.  I had heard about this book for ages on romance sites like Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and never could find a copy (paperback copies, USED, were selling for almost $100, if you can believe). I finally borrowed one, and got to read the story of Merry Wilding and the crew of The Black Joke. Merry is a terribly sheltered young woman as the novel starts in 1813. She plans a trip to Europe and sets sail from New York only to fall into the clutches of pirate Devon Crandall. Crandall thinks Merry is the mistress of his greatest enemy (cue the misunderstandings!) and yet finds her irresistible.  What seems like the epitome of Old Skool romance with the milksop innocent and the rape-threatening hero (oh yeah, that happens) is elevated by its execution and by the marvelous full cast of characters that the authors assemble on board this unconventional pirate ship. So, so happy this has been re-released and is available for new readers. (more…)


Sep
2014

Pirate Week: Fantasy Pirates

categories: Featured Blend

Yesterday I pulled together a list of traditional historical fiction pirates.  While they might not have been as plentiful in the real world as they are in the novels of naval adventure, there is no doubt that pirates really did sail the seas of history. But the idea of pirates is too irresistible not to borrow for other genres. So how about some piracy on imaginary seas? Fantasy has a long tradition of stories of high adventure, with swordplay and settings that hint at history while taking all the imaginative liberties the genre is known for. And some of these action-packed, magical tales even include pirates.

wakeofthebloodyWake of the Bloody Angel by Alex Bledsoe
The series of novels featuring sowrd-for-hire Eddie LaCrosse are always fun, and all feature action and swordplay.  It was inevitable, I suppose that he would cross paths (and swords) with pirates one day.  That day arrives when the woman who runs the bar where he has his office asks him to find the pirate she loved and lost. His ship, The Bloody Angel, disappeared years ago and Eddie enlists the help of a pirate queen to search for the pirate’s fate. This series is funny, fast and a little ridiculous, but in a good way. (more…)