Kirkus - Tor/Forge Blog

Starred Review: The Providence of Fire by Brian Staveley

December 30, 2014May 15, 2024torforge

Comparing Staveley to the likes of George R. R. Martin and Joe Abercrombie, Kirkus concludes that The Providence of Fire is “Brutal, intriguing and continuing to head toward exciting events and places unknown.”

Brian Staveley’s The Providence of Fire got a starred review in Kirkus!

Here’s the full review, from the December 15 issue:

The heirs of the murdered Annurian Emperor Sanlitun take separate paths toward uncovering and defeating the coup that toppled their father in this sequel to The Emperor’s Blades (2014). Kaden, the uncrowned emperor tutored as a monk, vainly seeks answers and aid from the Ishien, a vicious cult devoted to defeating the immortal, emotionless Csestriim who are apparently at the heart of the conspiracy. Kaden’s younger brother, Valyn, and his band of elite warriors struggle across the steppe toward the imperial seat at Annur, only to encounter a vast army of the nomadic Urghul, seemingly poised to invade. And the dead emperor’s eldest, Princess Adare, having discovered the true assassin of her father—the Empire’s regent, head general and her lover, Ran il Tornja—attempts to secure her own army, that of the fanatic worshipers of the goddess Intarra. At every juncture, the siblings confront constantly shifting truths concerning why their father died and who deserves their trust. Following in the footsteps of George R.R. Martin, Joe Abercrombie and the like, Staveley doesn’t hesitate to treat his protagonists harshly, subjecting them to utter privation and pain, devastating betrayals and the vast uncertainty that results when long-distance communication between potential allies is impossible (ah, for the magical equivalent of a cellphone!). But none of this feels gratuitous; all is in the service of the series plot, which remains gloriously unpredictable, although it’s at least clear by the end of this installment that an affectionate reunion among the three imperial siblings has been ruled out. Brutal, intriguing and continuing to head toward exciting events and places unknown.

The Providence of Fire will be published on January 13.

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Starred Review: Steles of the Sky

April 25, 2014May 15, 2024torforge

“Considering the trilogy as a whole, the overused term masterpiece justifiably applies.”

Elizabeth Bear’s Steles of the Sky got a starred review in Kirkus!

Here’s the full review, from the March 1st issue:

Wrapping up Bear’s complex and beautifully rendered historical-fantasy trilogy (Shattered Pillars, 2013, etc.).
Necromancer and blood-sorcerer al-Sepehr, head of the Nameless assassin cult, arranged to have his daughter Saadet impregnated by Qori Buqa, Khagan of the nomad horse-warrior Empire, whom he then murdered. Re Temur, Qori Buqa’s nephew and the true heir to the Khaganate, decides to raise his banner at Dragon Lake, site of the Khagan’s vast abandoned palace—but how to reach it? Perhaps his companions, the wizard Samarkar, Hrahima, a huge human-tiger Cho-tse warrior, and the silent monk, Brother Hsiung, can find a way through the magic doorways created by the extinct Erem Empire. But Erem magic is deadly poisonous—Brother Hsiung is already half-blind from attempting to study it. Edene, Temur’s woman, escaped from al-Sepehr by stealing a green Erem ring, which gave her command of the ghuls, a slave race created by Erem, and control of the toxic Erem magic and all poisonous creatures, but an evil presence within it whispers to her—and she’s carrying Temur’s child. She must also deal with a djinn who, appearing sporadically and unpredictably, sometimes offers help while admitting he’s bound, against his will, to al-Sepehr. Various other groups—wizards, warriors, empresses, survivors of the civilizations broken by al-Sepehr’s treachery—converge on Dragon Lake.
These and other narrative strands progress and interact through fully realized characters whose personalities and motivations arise from the dazzlingly detailed cultures and landscapes from which they derive. If there’s a disappointment, it’s the bipedal tiger Hrahima, a vigorous presence whose background and motivations remain largely unexplored. Notably, apart from the hero and his antagonist, all the leading characters are women. It all adds up to an eminently satisfying conclusion.
Considering the trilogy as a whole, the overused term masterpiece justifiably applies.

Steles of the Sky will be published on April 8th.

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Starred Review: Valour and Vanity by Mary Robinette Kowal

April 15, 2014May 15, 2024torforge

“Combining history, magic and adventure, the book balances emotional depth with buoyant storytelling.”

Mary Robinette Kowal’s Valour and Vanity got a starred review in Kirkus!

Here’s the full review, from the April 1st issue:

Renowned glamourists Lord and Lady Vincent become the victims of an elaborate scam that leaves them in dire straits until they conceive of a daring strategy to strike back.

After an extended voyage with her family, Jane and Vincent are anxious to find some time to themselves, traveling to Murano. They have a letter of introduction from the prince regent and hope to work with an artisan to experiment on infusing glamour—magical illusions of sight, sound and light—into glass. On the way, they’re waylaid by pirates, then rescued by a fellow passenger who takes them under his wing in the city. Without papers or money and with Vincent suffering a concussion from the attack, they’re grateful for the gentleman’s help. Once they make progress on their revolutionary glamour process, however, they’re detained by the local police and accused of fraud. Realizing their “friend” is a con man who has disappeared with all their notes and finished work, Jane and Vincent are left broke, in debt and under suspicion: “They had no funds and no friends at all. The only resources they had were the clothes upon their backs, and even those they owed money for.” Unable to find employment, Vincent becomes dispirited, especially when he must depend on the meager salary Jane manages to secure from a nearby convent. Things look up when a chance sighting of one of the crooks enables Vincent and Jane to turn the tables on them: “[S]he could see his mind working and putting together pieces of a plan, as surely as if he was plotting a glamural.” Kowal continues her creative Regency-set Glamourist Histories series with a clever, captivating plot that culminates in a magical heist storyline. Before we get there, though, we are treated to a touching examination of a loving marriage under duress and the connections and collaborations these extraordinary partners must create and reaffirm with each other and those around them in order to thrive.

Combining history, magic and adventure, the book balances emotional depth with buoyant storytelling.

Valour and Vanity will be published on April 29th.

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Starred Review: Afterparty by Daryl Gregory

April 8, 2014May 15, 2024torforge

“This taut, brisk, gripping narrative, dazzlingly intercut with flashbacks and sidebars, oozes warmth and wit. A hugely entertaining, surprising and perhaps prophetic package that, without seeming to, raises profound questions about the human mind and the nature of perception.”

Daryl Gregory’s Afterparty got a starred review in Kirkus Reviews!

Here’s the full review, from the March 16th issue:

An eye-popping glimpse of a near future when designer drugs are commonplace, from the author of Raising Stony Mayhall (2011, etc.).

It’s a future where anybody with a chemjet printer and a recipe from the Internet can create designer drugs. In Toronto, biochemists Lyda and her genius wife, Mikala, IT whiz Gil, finance specialist Edo and lab tech Rovil start a company dedicated to developing a drug that would combat schizophrenia. They achieve success with Numinous, but the drawbacks, alas, become apparent too late: It’s addictive, the effects are permanent—and those who take it gain the unshakable conviction that a personal deity accompanies them. Worse, after taking a massive overdose—how this all comes about emerges only gradually—Lyda stabs a now-estranged Mikala to death, or so it appears. Gil takes the blame; Edo goes hopelessly crazy; Rovil seems functional. Declared insane, Lyda’s locked up along with her invisible companion, a guardian angel called Dr. Gloria. While incarcerated, Lyda learns that a drug very much like Numinous has hit the street in the form of a sacrament dispensed by a new church. To prevent an epidemic of psychotic zombies, she must escape, locate the other survivors of the original five and put a stop to it. She’ll need the help of Ollie, a brilliant but drug-ravaged intelligence analyst. Among the obstacles they’ll negotiate are a drug-dealer gang of Afghan women; Native American cigarette smugglers who take great delight in outwitting the U.S. Border Patrol; and Vincent, a psychotic assassin who farms miniature buffalo in his living room.

This taut, brisk, gripping narrative, dazzlingly intercut with flashbacks and sidebars, oozes warmth and wit.

A hugely entertaining, surprising and perhaps prophetic package that, without seeming to, raises profound questions about the human mind and the nature of perception.

Afterparty will be published on April 22nd.

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Starred Review: The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan

February 18, 2014May 15, 2024torforge

“This, the second of Isabella’s retrospective memoirs, is as uncompromisingly honest and forthright as the first, narrated in Brennan’s usual crisp, vivid style, with a heroine at once admirable, formidable and captivating. Reader, lose no time in making Isabella’s acquaintance.”

Marie Brennan’s The Tropic of Serpents got a starred review in Kirkus Reviews!

Here’s the full review, from the February 15th issue:

The second adventure (A Natural History of Dragons, 2013) for the doughty Isabella Camherst, a dragon-obsessed young lady of Scirland determined to pursue her research in an age when educating girls in science and philosophy is frowned upon.

Previously, Isabella accompanied naturalist and explorer Lord Hilford to chilly, mountainous Vystrana in search of rock-wyrms, during which time she lost her husband and subsequently gave birth to a son. Now, Hilford is organizing an expedition to the tropical continent of Eriga, where several new species of dragon await study. Rejecting stay-at-home motherhood, Isabella eagerly agrees to join the expedition. Too old and frail to travel himself, Hilford will be represented by his assistant, Thomas Wilker, who, as a commoner, faces obstacles similar to those Isabella confronts as a woman. Natalie, Hilford’s granddaughter, causes additional complications; refusing to be married off by her father, Natalie takes refuge with Isabella, who arranges to smuggle the girl along on the expedition.

But Eriga, so they find, presents a whole new set of problems. Bayembe, their destination, is threatened by its warlike neighbor, Ikwunde, with only the jungle swamps of Mouleen, known as the Green Hell, between. So before her dragon research can proceed, scholarly yet iron-willed Isabella must negotiate male hostility and prejudice, political infighting, the commercial and imperial ambitions of the Scirlings, heat, disease, arrogant big-game hunters and the cultural imperatives of the Erigan people. And during her adventures in the Green Hell—the book’s finest section—Isabella will find sociology as important as natural history and the key to preventing a brutal war. This, the second of Isabella’s retrospective memoirs, is as uncompromisingly honest and forthright as the first, narrated in Brennan’s usual crisp, vivid style, with a heroine at once admirable, formidable and captivating.

Reader, lose no time in making Isabella’s acquaintance.

The Tropic of Serpents will be published on March 4th.

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Starred Review: The Goblin Emperor

February 18, 2014May 15, 2024torforge

“spellbinding and genuinely affecting drama…Unreservedly recommended.”

Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor got a starred review in Kirkus Reviews!

Here’s the full review, from the March 1st issue:

Eighteen-year-old half-goblin Maia, the despised youngest son of the Emperor, lives in wretched circumstances, exiled from the Imperial Court and overseen by his brutal cousin, Setheris. But then a courier arrives with the news that his father and elder brothers have been killed in an airship crash. Stunned and disconcerted, Maia must take his place as the rightful Emperor of the Elflands. Armed only with his quick wits, empathy and natural humility, his first task is to face down the arrogant and contemptuous Lord Chancellor, Uleris Chavar, and insist that he be crowned before his father’s funeral. Alone and friendless, bewildered by the complex politics and economics of the court—and soon informed that his father’s death was caused by sabotage, not accident—Maia finds the burden almost unsupportable. He comes to rely on Csevet, the courier who becomes his secretary, for information and advice and on his guards Cala and Beshelar, who are sworn to protect him. Gradually he finds ways to solve intractable problems. He treats servants as people and women as equals, an approach that wins him many admirers but also enrages the more traditional nobles. Addison patiently and tellingly paints in the backdrop, mingling steampunk elements and low-key magic with imperial intricacies. There are powerful character studies and a plot full of small but deadly traps among which the sweet-natured, perplexed Maia must navigate. The result is a spellbinding and genuinely affecting drama.
Unreservedly recommended.

The Goblin Emperor will be published on April 1st.

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News: Starred Review for Rudy Rucker’s Hylozoic

April 8, 2009May 13, 2024torforge

Rudy Rucker’s Hylozoic receives a *starred* review in the April 15th issue of Kirkus Reviews!

They call it “Serious, uproarious fun, with brain-teasers and brilliant ideas tossed about like confetti.”

Full review:

HYLOZOIC
Author: Rucker, Rudy

Review Date: APRIL 15, 2009
Publisher:Tor
Pages: 336
Price (hardback): $$25.95
Publication Date: 6/1/2009 0:00:00
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2074-2
ISBN (hardback): 978-0-7653-2074-2
Category: FICTION
Classification: SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY

A star is assigned to books of unusual merit, determined by the editors of Kirkus Reviews.

Sequel to Postsingular (2007), Rucker’s yarn of a future where everything—animals, rocks, the planet Earth—is conscious, telepathic and often irrepressibly chatty.

This weird future stems from the exploits of teenager Chu, who strummed the Lost Chord on a golden harp to unfurl the eighth dimension and unleash limitless computing power. Though based on respectable extrapolations of current physics theories, Rucker’s approach takes a high-comic trajectory with a satirical edge, adding plot and imagery evidently inspired by the paintings of medieval Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch. Once everything’s telepathic, there’s little or no privacy, and the Founders—Chu, friends Thuy, Jayjay and many others—do pretty much as they please. Chu strives to become more connected and less fixated. Thuy writes hypertext novels. Jayjay, addicted to the “high” afforded by deep communion with Gaia, spaces out. However, various alien species take notice of the now conscious Earth. While brain-surfing toward a (temporary) pinnacle of omniscience, Jayjay encounters a talking pitchfork, Groovy, and his girlfriend Lovva (the harp who played the Lost Chord). Groovy betrays Jayjay into the clutches of the Pekklet, an invading alien who quantum-entangles Jayjay and forces him to reprogram large blocks of matter; the objects affected lose their “gnarl,” becoming dull and predictable and allowing colonists from distant planet Peng to project themselves into Earth’s reality and take up immovable residence. Chu, meanwhile, meets big trouble of his own.

Serious, uproarious fun, with brain-teasers and brilliant ideas tossed about like confetti.

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News: Starred Kirkus for Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress

December 11, 2008May 13, 2024torforge

a Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress receives a Starred Review in the December 1 issue of Kirkus!

They call it: “Arrestingly ambiguous and persuasively set forth—in the best science-fiction tradition, guaranteed provocative no matter what your personal opinions.”

STEAL ACROSS THE SKY
Author: Kress, Nancy

Review Date: DECEMBER 01, 2008
Category: FICTION
Classification: SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY
A star is assigned to books of unusual merit, determined by the editors of Kirkus Reviews.

Kress (Dogs, 2008, etc.) returns to science fiction with this yarn about alien contact, genetic engineering and life after death.

In the near future, aliens arrive on the moon and announce that they must make amends for a grave injustice they caused the human race 10,000 years ago. To that end, these Atoners need 21 Witnesses who will travel to seven planets seeded with human stock by the Atoners. In due course, Italian-English grad student Lucca and waitress Cam are chosen to visit Kular A and B respectively; mission controller Soledad remains in the mother ship and remotely pilots shuttles for Lucca and Cam. Cam encounters a monolithic, brutal and appallingly bloodthirsty culture where a game, Kulith—something like chess, monopoly and poker all rolled into one—determines everybody’s destiny. On Lucca’s planet, meanwhile—altogether a gentler, more peaceful place—evidence mounts that the people can perceive and converse with the recently dead…an explanation Lucca rejects. Once all the witnesses return to Earth, a compelling picture emerges: on half of the planets visited, the inhabitants can indeed see and chat with the recently dead. The Atoners explain that those inhabitants carry a gene that allows them to do so. On the other planets, and Earth, the Atoners deleted the gene. (They don’t explain why.) On gene-less Earth, chaos ensues, as Kress skillfully explores the consequences of her ideas, evidently with sequels in mind.

Arrestingly ambiguous and persuasively set forth—in the best science-fiction tradition, guaranteed provocative no matter what your personal opinions.