Welcome to part two of “Ten Books, a Thousand Pages,” where I read the first hundred pages of ten books released this year. (Part one is here.) My rules for the books I picked:
- They need to have been written in 2012.
- They need to be sci-fi or fantasy titles.
- They need to be sitting someplace front-and-center at the bookstore.
With any luck one of these will make a perfect Christmas present for your favorite book geek. Or a present for yourself, if someone put a bookstore gift card in your stocking.
Origin by Jessica Khoury
I know why the rules exist.
Two words: The Accident.
Who would like this book: young adult readers of science fiction with kick-ass female main characters.
The main character of Origin is refreshingly confident. I’ve read a lot of books lately with angst-ridden characters, shy people, or characters who feel like they’re less-than-perfect. But Pia has grown up her entire life knowing she’s literally perfect, the product of decades of scientific research at a hidden lab in the Amazon. Pia cannot be hurt, cannot get sick, and will live forever. There’s only two things bothering her: she wants the scientists to let her in on the research so she can begin creating more people like herself, and she’s wondering exactly what the world is like beyond the fenced-in borders of the lab. She’s also gotten too fast for anybody to keep her in anymore.
While Pia is supremely confident, she’s not annoying about it. And Khoury describes her little world, with all of the scientists she calls Aunts and Uncles (mostly because many of them are actually related to her) in such an interesting way you don’t get bogged down in details. The plot flows very well, and while the writing isn’t as sophisticated as an adult novel, it’s still a very fun read.
Will I Finish Reading It: Yes, because at the 100 page mark there’s some kind of disaster looming in the near future that promises to be interesting. Plus she has a pet jaguar, and there’s no way I can resist that.
Ironskin by Tina Connolly
A small touch on her skirt made her gasp, almost shriek. In the dim light she saw a tiny figure with blond curls stretch out a hand.
At the other end of the hallway.
Who would like this book: fantasy readers, and people who like their romance on the dark and subtle side.
Despite the description on the cover that reads “A steampunk Beauty and the Beast,” Ironskin is neither. It’s Victorian, but not particularly steampunk, and the story it’s actually retelling is Jane Eyre.
One of several books published this year that portrays faeries as something extremely dangerous, Connolly does it very well. The Great War was devastating to humans, not only because it killed most of the generation’s young men, but because of what it did to some of the survivors. Humans wounded by faerie shrapnel will never heal, and the curses buried in the wounds (hunger, fear, rage) spread to everyone near them. So the main character wears a half-mask of iron that hides her ruined face and protects her loved ones.
It’s not a romance novel, but the love story in it is very sweet and slowly told. You can feel the main character falling in love despite herself, without it being too cloying or trite.
Will I Finish Reading It: Yes, because the main character is about to try a new remedy for faerie wounds that I’m starting to think is a very bad idea.
Dark Currents by Jacqueline Carey
When I lost control of my temper, things…happened.
Who will like this book: readers who like their fantasies modern and sexy.
Jacqueline Carey’s newest book takes place in a little tourist town just off of Lake Michigan. It’s a modern-day story, there just happen to be faeries, mermaids, and ghouls trying to make a living as well. The main character works for the police department in a kind of “paranormal investigator” role, though her short temper makes her difficult to work with at times. But being the daughter of a literal demon will do that to you.
Like all of Carey’s books, Dark Currents has a sexy side, though by the 100-page mark we’ve only seen people talking about sex, so I’m just assuming it’ll get more graphic later. There are a lot of pop-culture references that are going to make this book awfully dated ten years from now, but for right now they still work. (Plus there’s been one very subtle Twilight joke, which I always enjoy.)
Will I Finish Reading It: Definitely. I like the town and the main character, plus the supporting cast (which so far includes a werewolf on the down-low and a former movie star who is not a mermaid but still enjoys the heck out of a good pool) is very fun.
Slow Apocalypse by John Varley
There’s no way those fields are connected. This is twenty-five hundred miles from Saudi Arabia. The damn bug is airborne.
Who will like this book: readers who are tired of the whole zombie thing, but still enjoy a frighteningly realistic end-of-the-world story.
I’ll admit it, I picked this book because I thought I’d hate it. I love all the older John Varley books (Steel Beach, Golden Globe, and Persistence of Vision to name a few) but his more recent books, starting with Red Thunder, have really disappointed me. He’s been going with a straightforward, almost childlike style of writing that people are calling “Junior Heinlein” that I think is just awful. So when I saw he had a new book out, I thought “Ah, here’s my chance to have one book in the article that I can comfortably tell people not to buy.” Imagine my surprise when I actually liked it.
The title Slow Apocalypse is appropriate, because the events leading to the apocalypse happen very gradually. First there’s a biological agent that can permanently solidify oil reserves, created by a scientist as revenge for the death of his lover on 9/11, and dropped into an Iraqi oil field. Then the bacteria becomes airborne, and infects all of the world’s oil fields, one by one. A writer living in Los Angeles learns of this before it reaches the US, and has a little time to prepare for the devastation he knows is coming. Because think about it: if all the oil in the world becomes useless, how soon before everything changes?
It’s not the Varley style of writing that I always loved, but he seems to have left the “Junior Heinlein” style behind, thank goodness. And it’s incredibly well-researched and thought out.
Will I Finish Reading It: Absolutely, though probably not around the holidays. After reading just the first hundred pages I had a tough time shaking it off. Looking around at everyone else in the bookstore, I had the weirdest feeling of dread and suspicion, wondering “how much would it take to push these nice normal people to the point where they’d beat me up for my cup of coffee?” Maybe the book will have a happy ending, but it’s a pretty depressing read, if an interesting one.
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
There was no movement but for the dragons shifting uneasily in their seats and Orma, pressed up against the railing, absurdly flapping his hat at me.
I was too drained to find him embarrassing.
Who would like this book: while it’s marketed for young adults, anyone who’s a fan of fantasy and dragons will enjoy this one.
Music, math, disguised dragons, and medieval intrigue make for a very entertaining book. Hartman’s first book can’t be dismissed as “just a young-adult novel,” it’s very sophisticated and extremely well-written.
The young assistant music-mistress at a respected conservatory is hiding a terrible secret. Never mind the fact that her father forbid her to play music, now she has a dragon for an instructor and a crowd of personalities in her head that will either unlock the secrets of her past, or drive her crazy. Or both.
Will I Finish Reading It: Are you kidding? I’m reading it now.
Merry Everything, everybody.