Review - Black City Saint by Richard A. Knaak

I've been meaning to read Richard A. Knaak for ages, especially his Dragonrealm books. He writes a whole slew of the WarCraft books as well and I've only heard good things. He did not disappoint.

From what I know, Black City Saint is a bit outside Knaak's normal wheelhouse, opting for Urban Fantasy instead of Epic Fantasy and he proves he can handle this genre quite deftly.

We start out with your typical exorcism where Nick Medea's got to get rid of some paranormal problems from a lady's house. I was instantly drawn in when he mentions that only people with an actual magical problem, someone who's been touched by magic, could even contact Nick.

He does the deed and we quickly find out he's actually a 1600 year old gatekeeper between the realms of the real world and faerie. He received this position by slaying the dragon, but the problem came when the dragon fused with him in the process leaving Nick with a constant companion ... who is always trying to control him and pretty much destroy everything.

I thought the dragon was a really great touch, though at times it almost focuses too much on how the dragon needs to be kept in check. Nick is constantly fighting him, especially in the most difficult moments, and often gives in only to have to real him back.

As if Nick doesn't have enough problems, but the gate is open and the darkest part of Faerie, the Wyld, is making its way into the real world.

Oh, and did I mention this was all set in the prohibition era where rival gangs lead by the likes of Al Capone are thriving?

But Nick is not alone, he has companions, outcasts from Faerie who owe Nick their lives to assist. A lycanthrope named Fetch, a fawning almost-human exile named Kravayik, and a few more and some ghosts too.

The action really gets going when a new job comes in and the client happens to be the reincarnation of his love, Cleolinda, who happens to die horribly each and every time she is reincarnated. Nick would prefer that not happen this time.

With this eclectic cast of characters and almost-constant action, Black City Saint was an absolute blast to read from the very first page. I knew it was going to be good when I was glued to that first scene where Nick was casting out the Wyld in his first client's house and it only got better from there.

Black City Saint is the Dresden Files meets The Great Gatsby. The setting is perfect for a supernatural battle amidst bootlegging underground bars and rival gang shoot-outs. What could possibly be better than that?!

4 out of 5 Stars (highly recommended)

Review - Superposition by David Walton

For some reason I'm always impressed when something both entertains me and educates me. It's as if all those years of torture schooling gave me unreasonable expectations.


But that is the case here. David Walton's Superposition is a fun romp through quantum physics. Jacob Kelly is a brilliant physicist who is confronted by an old friend who pretty much destroys his life.

His old friend has some secrets, mostly involving his scientific research and he arrives at Jacob's house, uninvited, and points a gun at Jacob's wife. He shoots, but nothing happens to her. He's discovered something big, but this discovery ends up with Jacob on trial for murder.

The whole book switches back and forth between two viewpoints. One is the present time where Jacob is figuring out the mysteries surrounding his friend's odd behavior, the other time period is Jacob on trial for the murder of that same friend. All of this is told in the first person.

As an attorney, I was actually quite impressed with Walton's grasp of the courtroom. I spend quite a bit of time there and just ask my wife, she can't stand watching shows with any amount of court. But I can't help it, the stuff Hollywood does in a courtroom tends to make no sense at least half the time.

Walton does a great job, however, making the courtroom both realistic and entertaining, which is why Hollywood tends to not follow the realistic approach I'm lead to believe. And the worst part is, the District Attorney has a pretty great case against Jacob only made worse by the fact that the real explanation is absolutely ludicrous.

Throughout the entirety of the book, you're also learning a lot about how quantum physics work. How probability plays more of a role than just about anything and how that is just about impossible to wrap your mind around because how can probability have anything to do with things that exist!

And that's not to say the narrative gets bogged down in explanations, it's a smooth thriller and the science only adds to the wonder.

I quite thoroughly enjoyed Superposition and probably mostly for how much I get to bug people with my new found knowledge of particle physics. It's a fascinating concept on display in an entertaining read. Highly Recommended. The finale of this duology, Supersymmetry, comes out September 1, 2015 from Pyr.

4 out of 5 Stars.

Giveaway Winners - Two Books From Pyr Giveaway

As I explained in the giveaway post, the first winner of the giveaway had the opportunity to pick which book he wanted and the second winner at least gets a book right? I just got in contact with one of the winners (the one that needed to pick a book!) and now we're ready to post the results.

Choosing The Barrow by Mark Smylie, our first winner is Matthew Beaty from north Carolina.

Choosing (with no choice in the matter) Blood and Iron by Jon Sprunk is Eric Schwartz from Kentucky.

Both these books look excellent and I'll be jumping into Blood and Iron myself very soon.

I promise this was an international giveaway, but this is just how the cards fell (and by cards I mean Random.org). I can't say my wallet wasn't a little happy about it, but I would have been just as happy with an international winner. Promise. :) Thanks to all the entrants and congrats to the winners!

Giveaway - Two Books From Pyr: Blood and Bone by Jon Sprunk and The Barrow by Mark Smylie

Well, it's over. The bar exam has come and gone and I'm back to work full time. It's still a bit of a transition time, but I wanted to start getting back to the blog. And what a better way to start than with a giveaway?

Pyr's been good to me the last few weeks. I just got a couple finished versions of books I already received the ARC for, so yet another time I get to ask, why not?

These are the books up for grabs:

Blood and Iron (Book of the Black Earth #1) by Jon Sprunk

The Barrow by Mark Smylie - Check out this review from Sarah.

I like having multiple winners because it gives more people a chance to win. This seems obvious, but instead of doing two separate giveaways for these books, having two winners means that there can't be the same winner for both books. It could happen, just saying.

Which brings me to my point, this giveaway will go like this: the first person's name who is drawn will get the first choice and then the second person gets what's left over, the poor soul. Does that work for you?

If you'd like a chance to win one of these two titles, just follow the exceedingly simple instructions below:

E-mail me your name and address at onlythebestsff@[removethis]gmail.com, with "Blood and Pyr-on" as the subject of the email (or at least something that lets me know what the email is about). This goes without saying, but double emails get you disqualified.

Snarky comments increase your chances of winning and win bonus entries for future giveaways. I'm happy to say this is open WORLDWIDE as long as delivery doesn't require the mounting of an expedition into remote wilderness.

Jon Sprunk Interviewed

Over the last couple years I've been heartily enjoying The Shadow Saga (Pyr) by Jon Sprunk and this last week saw its stunning conclusion in print. My interest in this series was first piqued when I saw the excellent Michael Komarck cover for Shadow's Son (see below) and it's been a great ride since.

This trilogy revolves around an assassin named Caim and his Fae (and invisible) companion, Kit. While starting off centered around assassination, the series evolves into a much more epic adventure filled with action.

Thanks to Jon for stopping by, he was nice enough to let me pepper him with questions even as he had a very busy week due to the release of the final volume in The Shadow Saga, Shadow's Master.

Check out my reviews for Shadow's Son, Shadow's Lure, and Shadow's Master.

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• Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your debut work, The Shadow Saga?

Of course! I live in central Pennsylvania with my family. My first fantasy novel, Shadow’s Son, was published in the summer of 2010 by Pyr Books. Since then volumes two and three (Shadow’s Lure and Shadow’s Master, respectively) have been released, and the books have also been published overseas in eight or nine languages.

Shadow’s Son tells the tale of a lonewolf assassin named Caim who gets pulled into a government plot involving an extinct dynasty, a powerful religious body, and a particular brand of dark magic. In the subsequent books, Caim goes back to his homeland (and beyond) to track down the people who killed his father and abducted his mother.

• The Shadow Saga has been called good ol’ fashioned sword and sorcery, being compared to such greats as Michael Moorcock and Fritz Lieber. Is this an accurate assessment? How would you categorize the series?

I remember when I was pitching the first book, I just called it fantasy, or maybe ‘dark’ fantasy because of its themes, but since then the series has been deemed sword & sorcery, which I think is awesome because I grew up on Moorcock, Leiber, Howard, and so on. But I don’t get too hung up on categories. Hell, on Amazon the first two books are placed under “Historical Fantasy,” for what that’s worth.

• What book got you into fantasy? Was there anything that made you think, “I can do that?” Also, what is a book we should drop everything to read?

I don’t recall any single book that made me realize fantasy was the genre for me, but I’m sure all the Conan books I read as a kid didn’t hurt. The Lord of the Rings was certainly instrumental (although I never thought I’d be able to match it in scope or grandeur).

As far as recommending a book, there are too many to list. I think The Black Company (Glen Cook) was revolutionary. Robert E. Howard, although a flawed person (aren’t we all?), wrote some marvelous stories. Same with H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith.

• Caim is the ultimate assassin, but he’s got heart as well. How did Caim come about and how much is he a part of you?

Let me answer that in reverse order. Caim is nothing like me. Although I started training in various martial arts when I was ten years old, I work studiously to avoid the kinds of violent situations where Caim feels most at home. Then again, both Caim and I have little patience for assholes, so you never know . . .

When I was planning the series, my main character was originally going to be a break-in artist. A cat-burglar who would avoid fights rather than engage. Yet as I fleshed out the story, I realized that I wanted a more visceral experience that included violence. That’s when I remembered a few chapters of a novel I had written years before and abandoned, about an assassin who gets betrayed by his employer and goes on a homicidal rampage. I took that character and retooled him to fit the story of Shadow’s Son. And the rest is history.

• What is it about assassins that you like so much?

I don’t particularly like assassins, although in another life I think I might have been a good one. I like reading about assassin though, because they break one of the basic rules of society. Thou shalt not kill. And once you go there, turning back is extremely difficult. That was the story I wanted to tell in this series, about one very flawed man’s attempt to redeem himself. Or at least to make sense of the shambles his life has become.

• Kit is one of my all-time favorite characters and one of the things that really sets this series apart. What was the inspiration for her? Who came first, the world (including shadows), Caim, Josey or Kit?

Kit is a happy accident. I didn’t have her in my initial outlines. Yet, when I started writing that first scene with Caim in the duke’s castle, Kit just appeared. And she’s been flitting in and out of Caim’s life ever since. I think some of my inspiration for her might have come from Tinkerbell as played by Julia Roberts in the movie Hook, her unrequited longing for Peter. For a kid’s movie, it’s a very grown-up sentiment.

The story idea came first, including the primary characters. Things like setting and the shadow magic came later.

• Who is the character you most enjoyed writing, had the hardest time writing? (I guess they can be one and the same too)

Caim and Ral were the easiest. Their sections seemed to ‘click’ in my head without too much anxiety. Kit was more of a challenge when I had to write her perspective in the later books. Maybe I was self-conscious about trying to get her Fae-ness “just right.” And all the villains are pretty smooth for me. I like the darker sides of people.

• How did you come up with the language for the Northmen? I’ve been known to speak some German and I noticed at least a bit of Scandinavian influence.

I’m no Professor Tolkien, so don’t dig too deeply!

For the Northmen, I knew I wanted them to resemble the various tribes of northern Europe, so I started with Old Norse as a basis for the words and names, and changed them a bit to make it more unique.

• Do you have any plans to go back to the Shadow Saga now that it's finished, whether it's sequels, prequels or novellas?

The short answer is: not at this time. I think there's still a lot to explore with Caim and Kit and Josey (and Hubert, too), but I'm a one-project-at-a-time kind of guy and all my energy is going into this new book.

• What else do you have in store for us? I know there’s some mysterious “work in progress” going on, can you tell us more about it?

There’s always something in the works. Up next is an epic fantasy series centering around two soldiers captured by a foreign land ruled by wizard-kings (and –queens). These soldiers both fight to be free again, but their battles take them down divergent paths.

• What kind of writer are you, there’s always discussion about outliners versus free-writers? Do you fall into any of those? And what was the hardest part about writing this series?

I’m an outliner. It’s just how my brain constructs a story.

The hardest part of writing this series was how to end it. Ending a novel is difficult enough for me as I try to pull together all the storylines and themes into something satisfying. Concluding a series is like that, but harder because you’re drawing that last novel to a close while at the same time pulling together the whole saga. Or, at least I tried to.

• Any advice for wannabe writers in getting published or just plain writing something people want to read?

There are a few things I’ve picked up that are as near to “rules” as I can see.

One, read. If you don’t love to read fiction, falling so deeply into a book that you lose track of time, writing as a profession probably isn’t for you.

Two, write. A lot. I write almost every day. That includes Christmas, my birthday, my wife’s birthday, and every day in between except when I’m on vacation.

Three, develop patience. Just about every aspiring author imagines their first book will be published, resulting in a life of fame and wealth. The reality is somewhat less impressive. You’ll likely write several books (including months of revising and re-revising each one) before you get published. This means years of toil for no pay and no accolades. Get used to it. Because once you are published, riches and awards are the exception, not the rule. You might be the next J.K. Rowling, or you might die penniless and unknown. If you have talent in any other profession, I advise you (strongly) to pursue that instead. But if you simply cannot not write….

Four, develop a thick skin. Once you are published, your beloved book will be out in the cold, cruel world where people will trash it, mock it, and publically ponder whether or not you are an imbecile. If you are easily discouraged by negative criticism, save yourself a lifetime of abuse and take up knitting.

• How much of an impact do you think social networking, either through your own efforts or others has had with your series?

At first, I would have said none. But over the last couple years I have gained a small (but loyal!) social media following. They help me spread the word about my work, so I think it depends on luck and how much you put into it.

• Do you read every review of your books and does anything that is said influence anything you do?

I read all the ones that I know about. The interwebz is a huge place, so there are probably things said about my books (and me) that I never see. I like knowing how the series is hitting people. I don’t know if it actually influences me, except that if I saw the same criticism again and again and I thought it was valid, I might try to address it in future works.

But probably not. I’m a stubborn bastard at heart.

• If you were to see someone reading your book in public (like on a bus or something) what would you do?

Smile and go on with my day.