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 to be 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

Dust of Dreams
Steven Erikson
Tor, Jan 19 2010, $17.99
ISBN: 9780765316554

East of the Letherii Empire lies the Wastelands and the Glass desert where Malazan 14the Army Commander Adjunct Tavore leads her troops, the Bonehunters into exile. Joining them on their excursion is the Letherii imperial legions under the command of Brys Beddict. Expected to meet them are the Perish Grey Helms and Khundryl Burned Tears, but they are betrayed as they try to cross the Kingdom of Bolkando at the same time on the Ar’kryn plains while the Barghast White Face clans deal with treachery from within also. While all this military movement and treachery occurs, the Shake seeks their ancestral home the First Shore, which will cause an ancient reawakening.

As these various races of mortals and ascendants come together, the sky is on fire. Also as the heavens seem under a growing inferno, a god has escaped imprisonment to return to regain his lost power spreading Darkness over the continent. The allies know they go to war to die as the enemy is much more powerful, but ironically though they bravely face their mortality, each knows they fight to protect an empire that has exiled them.

This is the first of the a two part climax to the Malazan Book of the Fallen saga and though much of reaching the finish line will be in the last half, Dust of Dreams has plenty of action including a superb cliffhanger. There is the usual too much internal introspection by seemingly a zillion of the quadrillion cast, which makes keeping score as always complicated and convoluted. Still fans of the saga will enjoy the set-up as Steven Erikson seems ready to end the epic on a high note if the quality level of first part of the final duology is held up in part two.

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

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

Spider’s Bite
Jennifer Estep
Pocket, Jan 26 2010, $7.99
ISBN 9781439147979

Gin Blanco is a resident of the Ashland Asylum for two weeks. In group therapy she explains she kills people as she is the notorious Spider, the most feared assassin east of the Mississippi. She prefers to use mundane ways to commit homicides, but can use her Stone or Air elemental powers if needed. No one in their right mind until they are dead would believe the Spider is a female as gender bias is strong in Gin’s line of work. Her paying job is to kill the shrink, but she also adds the rapist orderly as pro bono; 30 seconds and both are dead.

A client hires Spider to kill whistle-blowing businessman Gordon Giles. However, the Air Elemental who hired her through her handler Fletcher Lane brutally murders her mentor as going after Giles was a trap. The killer made one critical mistake by failing to eliminate Spider. This one is personal, but what has made Spider the best assassin is she knows when to partner. She teams up with Ashland police detective Donovan Caine, who loathes her for killing his partner, but wants her too perhaps because he is the rarest species in Ashland, which has every form of supernatural and natural essences. He is an honest cop.

From the opening comment that her name is Gin and she kills people for living and throughout, this is a grim urban noir fantasy starring a killing machine who leaves behind quite a body count. The death toll leads the audience to wonder what the hell she puts inside her barbeque at the Pork Pit. Fast-paced and filled with action within a dark atmosphere, readers will enjoy following Spider’s escapades as she works the Carolina case taking one bite at a time but getting closer to the killer with each step.

Harriet Klausner

Eternal Hunter
Cynthia Eden
Kensington Brava, Jan 2010, $14.00
ISBN: 9780758234285

In Louisiana, ADA Erin Jerome conceals that she is an Other from her human compatriots in the District Attorney’s office. What makes it difficult to conceal her nature is someone seems to know what she is. That person stalks her by torturing and then killing anyone who even slightly upsets Erin.

Fearful as she knows broken corpses are not a good way for an ADA to live especially to go out on a date, Erin hires shapeshifting bounty hunter Jude Donovan to stop her killer from giving her anymore courting presents. He recognizes immediately what she is and who she is to him. Jude will keep his soulmate safe even if it means searching the Bayou inch by inch to find her Other “mate”. However, although Erin sense who Jude is to her, she hides her maternal roots from him fearing he will leave.

The key to this exhilarating bayou romantic fantasy is the variety of Other species are developed enough to feel genuine. That critical element makes the suspense seem real as Erin and readers know how dangerous the serial killing stalker is. Jude is terrific as an Alpha Male when it comes to his mate’s safety and understands the clever psychopath he hunts is an amoral Alpha. Sub-genre fans will appreciate Cynthia Eden’s strong paranormal “triangle”.

Harriet Klausner

My Zombie Valentine
Katie MacAlister, Angie Fox, Marianne Mancusi and Lisa Cach
Leisure, Jan 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780843963601

“Gentlemen Prefer Voodoo” by Angie Fox. Voodoo practitioner Amie Baptiste concocts a love spell to bring her soulmate to her. However she would ask for her money back if some other voodoo queen sent whom the magic brought forth to her.

“Bring Out Your Dead” by Katie MacAlister. Zombie life coach and English instructor to the undead Ysabelle Raleigh meets Sebastian, a vampire who claims she is his long lost beloved. She scoffs at his insistence though she thinks he is kind of cute. He must persuade her that he is serious and not just handing out a line for a quick bite in between battling despondent zombies and a teenage vampire. This entry was published as part of the Just One Sip anthology.

“Zombiewood Confidential” by Marianne Mancusi. Unaware that art imitates life even in horror movies; makeup artist Scarlett Patterson accepts a job on a B horror flick in order to work with actor Mason Marks. She quickly learns real life contains its share of horror.

“Every Part of You” by Lisa Cach. Angelica Sequiera visits the plastic surgeon for a minor fix but ends up on a date with Tom Haggerty.

These four lighthearted paranormal romances are fun fantasies starring heroines who are unsure whether to run from or towards their beloved.

Harriet Klausner

This Crooked Way
James Enge
PYR, Oct 2009, $16.00
ISBN 9781591027843

After his failures and defeat (see BLOOD OF AMBROSE) enchanter Morlock Ambosius flees on his horse Velox; he hopes to buy time to regroup and try again. Instead a stone beast attacks the enchanter and his steed. Morlock survives, but Velox vanishes.

Morlock searches for his horse while heading to Sarkunden where he runs into the Sorcerer Slash who says to call him Charis before pleadings with Morlock to help him; the enchanter reluctantly agrees to do so. On his quest he meets new allies, who initially fear the legend, but as they get to know him befriend him.

This is an exciting fantasy that focuses on the meandering travels and dialogue of an exiled enchanter and the associates he meets on his crooked trek towards and into the Kirach Kund where the Khroi rule by killing outsiders. Those people the protagonist meets on his dangerous journey tell much of the tale as they relate their initial fear and dread of the aloof unflustered enchanter but become friends with him once they discover his human flaws make him more like them than the frightening superior being they expected to encounter. Thus his quest is clearly humanized by the secondary cast. Although the climax is relatively smaller and much diminished in comparison to the roar of THE BLOOD OF AMBROSE, fans will relish the second saga as the well written character driven THIS CROOKED WAY comes across as a deeper look into the lives of wizards, sorcerers, and one particular enchanter.

Harriet Klausner

The Prince Of Frogs
Annaliese Evans
Tor, Sep 2009, $6.99
ISBN: 9780765361677

In 1750 in the Kingdom of Myrdrean, after kicking the butt of an ogre mob (see NIGHT ROSE) Rosemarie is happily married to the vampire Lord Gareth. Still in spite of her marital bliss, she misses her dear friend and long time Fey de la Nuit partner and advisor for the past century fey Ambrose Minuit. Through her dreams however Mother demands she kill her spouse.

Recently, though she loves her mate and misses her best friend, Rosemarie still waits for the happily ever after while knowing she should have known better having been awakened from a century nap without the required kiss. She knows her spouse is hiding something from her and she wants to know what it is. Gareth wants to tell but cannot as he still hopes it will go away although he knows deep in his heart it will not leave unless he and all he loves especially his cherished Rosemarie are dead.

The continual adventures of Rosemarie is a charming historical romantic fantasy as Gareth tries to protect Rosemarie from his past, but like many males (vampire, human or otherwise) fails to understand the courage and obsessive need to get involved with his mate. He should have known better that Rosemarie by her nature (of being a female and not just a Fey de la Nuit) would get into the middle of the action; all he had to do was ask the ogre crowd. Fans will appreciate Annaliese Evans’ lighthearted Georgian era frolic as Rose has to kick butt of his bloodline heritage if the newlyweds are to stay wedded (and alive) as it takes a woman to do the ancestral cleansing.

Harriet Klausner

Belong To The Night
Shelly Laurenston, Cynthia Eden and Sherrill Quinn
Kensington Brava, Sep 2009, $14.00
ISBN: 9780758238863

“The Wolf, the Witch and Her Lack of Wardrobe” by Shelly Laurenston. In Smithville, Jamie struggles with controlling her bewitching paranormal skills. Wolfshifter Sheriff Tully knows Jamie has him bewitched. When they team up to fight a rogue pack, both has trouble focusing on the invaders.

“In the Dark” by Cynthia Eden. In Miami leopard-shifting FBI agent Sadie finds that her ex-lover Liam isn’t dead, but he is not what one would say is alive except in a lower extremity. They team up to go after a serial killing leopard-shifter, but both have trouble focusing on the predator.

“City of the Dead” by Sherrill Quinn. In New Orleans, witch Dori and vampire Sabin seek her missing brother and to obtain the stolen powerful the Eye of Bastet amulet. Cajun cop Jake assists them in preventing a demon from witch genocide on All Hallows Eve.

These three urban fantasy police procedural romances are superb fun due to a strong cast (especially the good guys and gals) who make the paranormal seem genuine.

Harriet Klausner