The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold, read by Lloyd James

Complex and believable characters and an intricate religious system lie at the heart of The Curse of Chalion. The people of Chalion practice a “Quintarian” philosophy; that is, they worship the five gods: the Father, the Mother, the Son, the Daughter, and the Bastard. To the north of Chalion lies Roknar, whose people deny the Bastard his divine status. This religious schism leads to war, with Chalion victorious, but at a great cost: the heirs of the royal household are cursed thereafter, dooming them to torment and ruin.

Lupe dy Cazaril, a former page, castle-warder, and soldier, returns to Chalion after a harrowing ordeal as a Roknari galley slave and acquires the position of tutor to Iselle, sister to the heir of Chalion. Cazaril soon finds himself in the middle of the political machinations of the royal court, and to save his pupil from an unpleasant marriage, he realizes that he must be willing to sacrifice his own life to protect Iselle’s future. But Cazaril’s service to Iselle does not end there, for he must also find a way to break the Golden General’s curse that’s plagued her family for generations.

One of benefits of hearing, rather than reading, a high fantasy novel like this one is that the actor handles all of those tricky fantasy-world pronunciations for you; in this, and every other aspect of this recording, narrator Lloyd James excels. Subtle tonal shifts distinguish James’s characters, enabling him to voice males and females of all ages, of upper or lower castes—all with equal acumen. Different accents succeed in making foreigners indeed seem foreign, including a wonderful Roknari dialect spoken by the groom Umegat.

Bujold’s science fiction has always adapted well to audio; I present as evidence, the Miles Vorkosigan novella “Borders of Infinity” (download it free at www.dendarii.co.uk/MP3). Now, with The Curse of Chalion, Bujold proves that her fantasy does as well.

Originally appeared in Amazing Stories

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The Draco Tavern by Larry Niven
Tor, 2006, $24.95

The Draco Tavern is a hangout for interplanetary travelers – a sort of Mos Eisley Cantina but without all the droids and blasters. Which is not to say it doesn’t have it’s fair share of drama—It’s got just as much as Mos Eisley, but it’s of a much more intellectual variety. Rick Schumann established the Tavern near the Mount Forel in Siberia, after the Chirpsithtra—humanity’s first alien visitors—set up a spaceport there.

Schumann is the first-person narrator of these tales, which all take place in or around the Tavern, and whose topics run the gamut from religion to interspecies commerce, from the nature of predators and prey to the possibilities of immortality.

Each of the stories is very short—most would be considered vignettes—and as such there is not much room for character development that goes much beyond the surface. Despite that, however, there is much to like about these tales; they are thought-provoking and mostly do exactly what speculative fiction sets out to do—evoke a sense of wonder while making the reader think. The stories are uniformly well-crafted, and though none stands out they work together taken as a whole; the only questionable inclusion is "One Night at the Draco Tavern," which is not a story, but is instead a transcribed skit that was put on an SF convention.

That one minor flaw aside, the book is full of strong, idea-driven SF that’s sure to satisfy Niven’s fans and readers who like their SF hard.

Originally appeared in Shimmer Magazine

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Intergalactic Medicine Show published my review of The Dresden Files, the new SCI FI Channel series based on the books by Jim Butcher.

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Intergalactic Medicine Show just published my review of the upcoming SCI FI Channel miniseries, The Lost Room, which airs Dec. 11, 12, and 13.

[Excerpt:] The key to room 10 of the Sunshine Motel is highly unusual for a couple of reasons. One, there is no room 10. Two, it seems to fit into any standard doorknob with a tumbler lock. And three, when you use the key to open the door, it takes you into a motel room–room 10 of the Sunshine Motel, which doesn’t exist. The motel room is pretty strange, too; for quite a lot of reasons actually, but what you first learn about it is that when you leave the room, it takes you wherever you want go.

Watch the show. It’s pretty good. Let me know what you think!

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Intergalactic Medicine Show published my October book reviews today. This month, I review Wings to the Kingdom by Cherie Priest, The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld, and Majestrum by Matthew Hughes.

[Excerpt:] Although billed as the second book of a trilogy (following the excellent Four and Twenty Blackbirds), Wings to the Kingdom stands completely on its own. You should read Four and Twenty Blackbirds first, but only because it’s a great book; you don’t need to have read it to enjoy Wings. One unusual thing about Wings, as the second book of a trilogy, is how different in tone it is to Blackbirds; whereas Blackbirds felt like a modern take on classic gothic horror, Wings feels much more like a contemporary horror novel. Or a better way to put it might be to say that Blackbirds was more of a literary horror novel, while Wings is more of a fun and Buffyesque one. Which is not to say it is in any way inferior; Priest somehow manages both modes with equal skill.

Go read the whole thing and tell me what you think!

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Intergalactic Medicine Show just published the latest installment of Camera Obscura, in which I review the new NBC superhero drama Heroes.

[Excerpt:] The dream sequence opener was the first clue that Heroes wasn’t exactly going to be full of original thought. The pilot is your standard comic book superhero origin story, given the Unbreakable treatment–which is to say, treated in a more realistic light: no spandex, just people with freaky powers. But its most grievous sin is the characters’ rather uncanny resemblance to the X-Men. Not only because they appear to be mutants, or the next step in human evolution, but also because some of the characters have direct X-Men analogues. For instance, Hiro has the same abilities as Nightcrawler; Claire, Wolverine; Peter, Storm (or any of the other flying X-Men). Stan Lee should consider suing somebody.

Go read the whole review and tell me what you think!

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Intergalactic Medicine Show just published the latest installment of “Camera Obscura,” in which I review the new CBS post-apocalyptic drama Jericho.

[Excerpt:] CBS is positioning the show as a family drama, not as science fiction. Or as a publicist pointed out to me, it is post-apocalyptic, but “based on events that could actually happen,” so not really science fiction. While that phraseology is mildly insulting to the science fiction fan, I think I know what CBS is trying to say. Jericho is attempting to be Alas, Babylon, not A Canticle for Leibowitz. What it might also be trying to say is: there’s nothing original here that hasn’t already been done in SF, but it might seem new and fresh to a mainstream audience.

Go read the whole review and tell me what you think!

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The latest installment of my book review column, STRONG MEDICINE: Books That Cures What Ails You, has just been published in Intergalactic Medicine Show.

In this column, I review Paragaea by Chris Roberson; James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips; and Map of Dreams by M. Rickert.

[Excerpt:] Will our intrepid heroes find the portal home, or will they be stuck on Paragaea forever?

If that last line doesn’t clue you in to the very essence of what Paragaea is all about, then the novel’s subtitle, “A Planetary Romance” (a term harkening back to the days before science fiction was called science fiction), surely will. It’s neo-pulp; that is, it’s written in the tradition of the pulp masters of the past–Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard, et al.–but is written in a modern style more accessible to contemporary readers. Roberson knows his pulp well and has fun exploring and reinventing the tropes of that era, and he does so in a fresh, original, and–most importantly–fun way. And like Burroughs’s Barsoom stories, Roberson’s Paragaea is otherworldly swashbuckling action-adventure at its finest.

Go read the review and then come back and tell me how awesome it is.

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The latest installment of my book review column, STRONG MEDICINE: Books That Cures What Ails You, has just been published at Intergalactic Medicine Show.

In this column, I review three first novels: Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora; Nick DiChario’s A Small and Remarkable Life; and David Louis Edelman’s Infoquake.

[Excerpt:] Imagine you could do to your body what you can do to a browser like Firefox–you can install plug-ins to make it do a variety of tasks that you (but not everyone) would find useful, and if there’s something about the standard operating procedures that irritates you, you can just go in and tweak the code to make the offending annoyance stop. Tired? Don’t down caffeine; just run a program to wake you up. Need to tell something private to your friend while in a room full of people? Don’t leave the room; just use the ConfidentialWhisper program, which is essentially technological telepathy.

Go read the review and then come back and tell me how awesome it is.

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Intergalactic Medicine Show just published the latest installment of my column, Camera Obscura, in which I review the pilot episode The Amazing Screw-On Head, which premieres on July 27 on SCI FI, and is currently available as a free streaming video on SCI FI Pulse.

 Read the review!

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