City of Night
Michelle West
Daw, Feb 2 2010, $25.95
ISBN: 9780756405984

In the capital city of Essalieyam Empire Averalaan lies the under city beneath the streets. Very few of the surface dwellers know that life below ground exists. Rath, estranged from his family, seeks valuables from the land below to sell to those above. Also seeking valuables from the undercity in order to survive are the nomadic, street urchins led by Jewell “Jay” Markess. She is a grateful to Rath for taking her off the streets and mentoring her on how to live off the undercity treasures.

Life inside of Averalaan is getting harder. Children are disappearing without a trace including some from Jay’s den. There’s a demon dissonance hovering over the city and Rath investigates what is going on. His inquiries lead to Lord Cordufar and his mistress; bot of whom are not human and dangerous to Rath, Jay and others. He also learns that a demon can take over the body of a person and retain their memories. Jay is a seer who has three identical visions of Cordufar’s mistress. This is significant as it spells out danger especially when Jay also has visions that Rath will die unless he takes precautions to prevent a demon from subsuming him Jay tries to keep Rath safe while he attempts to insure her future if he dies.

This is a super action oriented investigative fantasy in an incredible world as Michelle West makes her empire and capital seem as if it comes from ancient history books rather than her imagination. The cast is strong especially the lead couple who are clearly devoted to one another with each wanting to keep the other safe. However, , it is the city and its undercity that spellbinds the audience as no one knows what is coming to the surface from below.

Harriet Klausner

Bound By Sin
Jenna Maclaine
St. Martin’s, Dec 29 2009, $7.99
ISBN: 9780312946180

In 1862 France, the Righteous vampire team consists of Cin, Michael, Justine and Devlin. Their mission is to hunt down rogue vampires who kill humans. Of the quartet, Cin is the unique one as before she was changed she was a hereditary witch. She and Michael are lovers and have been for a while.

Adrien Boucher kidnaps Claire Gordon; taking her from her home in London to Savannah. He makes it clear to Cin’s witch ancestry that the ransom is the Greek urn the vampiress refused to hand over to him. Rushing across the Channel to obtain information on her third cousin’s abduction, Cin promises the victim’s mother Raina Macgregor Mahone to rescue Claire. She and her three allies sail across the Atlantic to the United States where the Civil War is raging as Adrien awaits them in Georgia.

The third Cin historical fantasy (see Wages of Sin and Grave Sins) is a deep moving tale that not only brings the quartet across the Atlantic, but provides a profound look at death during the short stay in London. Her second cousin Raina looks just like Cin’s Aunt Maggie (Raina’s late grandmother) who died a decade earlier and she last saw her back in ’28. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action, but also provides enough tidbits like the time to cross the ocean to anchor the era. Jenna Maclaine provides her audience with a super entry as Cin’s sinful world seems to be getting increasingly dangerous.

Harriet Klausner

Grimmer Tales: A Wicked Collection of happily Never Stories
Erik Bergstrom
Plume, Dec 29 2009, $16.00
ISBN: 9780452296022

These are fun short shorts animated endings to famous fairy tales. Pinocchio has a nose that turns into a serial killer’s weapon every time he lies (that goodness it is that body extremity rather than a lower woody) and Rapunzel whose hair proves how dangerous living with long locks can prove. Other entries involve Goldilocks tasting the porridge of gang members, Hansel and Gretel going into sugar shock with an insulin treatment facility nearby, and Mary and her lamb serving in Nam. These are amusing takes on the classics, but the reader needs to decide whether the price is worth about a dollar per minute of fun.

Harriet Klausner

Geosynchron
David Louis Edelman
PYR, Feb 16 2010, $16.00
ISBN 9781591027928

When MultiReal technology failed to provide anymore probability solutions to decision making, civil war explodes between Len Borda and Magan Kai Lee while rebellion mounts elsewhere as Quell has escaped incarceration and has found a willing ally Josiah. The human solar system looks on the verge of a second Autonomous Revolt; the last destroyed much of civilization centuries ago.

While the proponents behind MultiReal struggle with the realism that their program is gone, they also deal with law suits. Suddenly, in the chaotic void appears MultiReal-D. It is the same as its predecessor except it can provide multiple time lines for up to 60 seconds; expanding probability mathematics to incredible degrees, bur may be too late as the legal suits expand and the hostilities grow while Natch is nowhere to be seen even as he receives desperate virtual pleas from Surina..

The final Jump 225 is a great finish to a terrific technological science fiction thriller. Somehow David Louis Edelman paints his vision even darker and grittier than in the previous extremely dark and gritty tales (see Infoquake and MultiReal). A sort of cyberpunk modernizing of WarGames, Geosynchron is superb story as the complex myriad of subplots come together in Natch who must choose mankind who treated him like excrement or himself who is his only true love; MultiReal-D would predict bet your life on the latter as that is the overwhelming odds.

Harriet Klausner

Darkship Thieves
Sarah Hoyt
Baen, Jan 5 2010, $16.00
ISBN: 9781439133170

Athena Hera Sinistra never wanted to go into space as why would anyone in their right mind give up standing on solid rock although freedom is far away from feudal earth. Still she is on board her father’s vessel when she awakens to someone entering her room at shipnight. Not afraid she takes out the intruder, who is Andrija Baldo head of her father’s goons.

She flees in a life pod hoping to find help to rescue her father and others aboard the vessel she just abandoned. However, Athena finds herself on the run from assailants as the reach of the ruling Patricians is light-years, but she also realizes for some unknown reason they want her captured alive as they have opportunities to kill her from a distance but don’t. Her nightmare has just begun.

The Darkship Thieves is a super space opera with a great heroine, strong support cast and a believable Hoyt Galaxy with a dictatorial oligopoly feudal government. The story line is faster than the speed of light even in artificial gravity yet in many ways it is a coming of age under extreme pressure thriller with a deep moral underpinning involving genetic transforming of humans. With a mystery as to why the enemy wants the heroine alive to enhance the outer space tour, fans will relish riding along side Athena as she provides a first hand account of her survival escapades to survive in the Hoyt Galaxy.

Harriet Klausner

A Dog At Sea
J.F. Englert
Dell, Dec 29 2009, $7.99
ISBN: 9780440245414

He has an extremely high IQ and loves to read a variety of boojs; unusual traits in a canine. Randolph the Labrador and his less intelligent human companion Harry are on a canine cruise in which both species have the freedom of the Nordic Bliss as poop decks have different meanings. Ostensive the duo are enjoying their time at sea; but actually are following a clue to Imogen, Harry’s beloved human love and Randolph’s mistress. Fearing for Randolph and Harry in that order, she faked her death because a bad person with influential allies wanted control of her uranium fortune.

On board they meet Milton Tabasco, TV’s dog “mutterer”, who hypnotizes canines with his voice. At the Captain’s Table for dinner, Milton and his wife Kitty argue and she storms out of the dining room. Later, Randolph and Harry see her crying on the deck. Soon afterward they learns she jumped overboard and is assumed dead. Randolph sniffs Tabasco and concludes Milton killed his spouse. However the smell changes to regret so Randolph wonders if his original olfactory conclusion stinks. When someone else dies in a box that Milton uses as part of a magic trick, Tabasco was nowhere near the victim at the time of the murder. Randolph investigates and scents another homicide, but has to find a way to tell the tone deaf authorities who the killer is; he comes up with a devious brilliant plan.

Reminding me of my late Max (who understood the spelling of words like pizza and treat) and I am sure other readers of their brilliant dogs, Randolph loves to eat, eat, and eat yet always takes into account the best interest of his BF. In his third canine caper (see A Dog About Town and A Dog Among Diplomats), the sentient dog is at his best as he expects to dine, poop, sleep and dine, but the ship staff wants him to lose weight. His perspective (on the murders, the inquiry, exercise, and dieting, etc.) makes for a wonderful anthropomorphic whodunit.

Harriet Klausner

Except the Queen
Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder
Roc, Feb 2 2010, $23.95
ISBN 9780451462732

The two Fae sisters, Serana and Meteora accidentally uncover a secret that at a minimum would ruin the reputation and credibility of the Fairy Queen. Before they can react, the pair loses their magical skills and looks, separated and exiled to Earth.

Serana lands in the strangest world she has ever seen, New York City; Meteora likewise feels the same way about Milwaukee. Serana meets a homeless boy who suffers from dark apocalyptic visions; Meteora meets a young girl with an incredible tattoo on her neck that could only mean an artist with magic powers who wants to kill the beholder of his work. Soon all will conjoin as the mortal and Fae realms are threatened with total destruction.

This is a great urban fantasy with an atypical feel to the story line that enhances the otherworldly tale. Fast-paced from the onset, fans will welcome the siblings as each struggles with adjusting to the world of the mortals. The sisters make the thriller work as their adaptation is slow and before they can partially adjust, they are caught up in a save two realms scenario. Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder team up with a winner as fans see New York and Milwaukee through the eyes of “political immigrants”.

Harriet Klausner

Young Flandry
Poul Anderson
Baen, Jan 2010, $13.00
ISBN: 9781439133279

“Ensign Flandry”. In 3019, Terran Empire Imperial Navy security chief on Planet Starkad Commander Max Abrams recruits intelligent and debonair in spite of his young age Dominic Flandry as an ensign, a glorious title for a field agent. The assignment can prove dangerous as Terran is at war with the Merseians with Starkad as a war zone. However, Flandry uncovers something so nefarious; both sides in the combat want him dead.

“A Circus of Hells”. In 3021, Lieutenant Dominc Flandry is posted on planet Ironclaw, a backwater orb 200 light-years from Sol. The Merseians are cruising nearby so Flandry knows that the ennui he expected would not be for long especially after he runs into Tachwy the Dark in Old Town. Flandry meets with Citizen Ammon who assigns him to investigate mineral deposits on the moon Wayland with a female partner Djana. However, they find much more than just some uranium.

“The Rebel Worlds”. In 3025, former Admiral Hugh McCormac leads dissenters against the increasing corruption of the Terran Empire, but in Betelgeuse he is put on military trial by ambitious Governor Shelund at a time when the Merseians are making noise in the demilitarized zone. On Terra Vice Admiral Sir Ilya Kheraskov gives Lieutenant Commander Flandry a vessel to command and sends him to the remote zone to keep the wild races from revolting for the first time in over four decades. Planet side he rescues McCormac’s beautiful wife Kathryn and falls in love.

These are three exciting reprints of the first Flandry tales. The hero is a James Bond-Hans Solo who accepts the fact that the Empire is collapsing due to its size, corruption, and bad leadership, but Flandry and others like Abrams and Kheraskov remain loyal, tough and do their best. Although at times the back story of the fall of the Terran Empire overwhelms the action especially in books two and three, fans will enjoy the adventures of this young swashbuckler in space.

Harriet Klausner

This Is Not a Game
Walter Jon Williams
Orbit, Jan 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780316003162

At college, they became four friends because of online gaming. Charlie, BJ, Dagmar and Austin were able to turn their love for Internet gaming into a thriving business with each having a different prime role; although their fortunes and misfortunes vary. However, the financial crash has crippled their firm leaving their affluence and influence in jeopardy.

Even more dangerous is the situation that one of them finds herself in. Alternate reality game designer Dagmar finds herself trapped when rebels and riots threaten everyone in Jakarta. She has no real way out of Indonesia, but has a virtual escape path. Over the net she contacts the online gamer community and manages to escape the country. However, once back in Los Angeles, Dagmar finds herself in the middle of real homicides including one of them and a wizard using online tools to manipulate finances while the world struggles with the greater crisis. She uses what she learns to create a new game with the “Group Mind” competitors solving clues leading her, she hopes, to the culprit, but not the Russian Mafia.

Perhaps the scene in a restaurant in which a hostess stays on her cellphone ignoring Dagmar the customer sets the tone when the gamer draws a flow chart on the placemat. Fans will relish this strong thriller as the blur between reality and virtual is almost zero. Ironically the social networking commentaries make the plot believable but also slow down the faster than wireless networking story line. Still this is a terrific look at aging gamers as reality and virtual converge in their minds, but with a Russian Mafia professional hit man the only reality is a speeding bullet.

Harriet Klausner

State of Decay
James Knapp
Roc, Feb 2 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780451463104

America is at war, which is nothing new, as America is always at war. However, the all voluntary army has maintained its constant readiness by offering incredible benefits to those who sign up. Rather than face death in some foreign land, a soldier can enlist as a revivor; a person who to dies before serving, but is revived as a reanimated corpse with cognitive skills intact and no need to eat live humans due to an implant although battlefield atrocities have been reported as Commanders remove the chip inhibiting the flesh obsession.

FBI agent and non-revivor veteran Nico Wachalowsk investigates illegal trafficking of reviver sex slaves. However, his inquiry leads him instead to illegal shipments of military weaponry including revivors. At the same time his former girlfriend police officer Faye Desalia is trailing a serial killer. When the couple compares notes, they find one link, the leading contractor for revival technology, Heinlein Industries. They are soon joined by cage fighter Calliope Flax and psycho psychic is Zoe Ott as the two cases take twists unforeseen by either Nico or Faye as the overseas wars are coming home to roost.

This is an intriguing futuristic Americana thriller in which the atmosphere and ironically what is implied but not said (for instance what war is this as seemingly eternal conflict makes them all the same) in some ways overwhelms the prime conspiratorial plot. The story line is action-paced with the zombie concept fresh and the psychic idea not while the fearsome foursome is. Although the conspiracy is over the top of the Pentagon, fans will appreciate this entertaining look at the future of the industrial-military-DC convoluted complex.

Harriet Klausner