Tag Archives: Night Shade Books

The Flames of Shadam Khoreh and the Lays of Auskaya by Bradley P. Beaulieu

Posted on May 9 2013 by Justin | 4 Comments

flames of shadam khoreh bradley p beaulieuThe Winds of Khalakovo, the first installment in Bradley P. Beaulieu’s Lay of Anuskaya series, was raved about on this blog in 2011. I acquired the follow-up, The Straits of Galahesh, several months before it was released in 2012. Unfortunately, the first fifty pages felt impenetrable even after reading them a dozen different times. When Beaulieu announced the upcoming release of the final volume, The Flames of Shadam Khoreh, I committed myself to finishing the second novel in order to read the conclusion. Despite a long, arduous struggle through Straits of Galahesh that never really abated, I’m so pleased to call Flames of Shadam Khoreh a rousing success that exceeds all of the expectations placed on it by Beaulieu’s exceptional debut.

Beaulieu’s third book begins nearly two years after the events of Straits of Galahesh. War has moved from the islands to the mainland, and the Grand Duchy knows its time may be limited.… Read the rest

Night Shade Books: What went wrong?

Posted on April 4 2013 by Justin | 51 Comments

Last August I got an email from Jason Williams, publisher and majority owner of Night Shade Books. He said he’d been paying attention to Staffer’s Book Review and he wanted to pick my brain about the direction Night Shade was heading. My thoughts ranged from:

  1. Wow — someone in publishing cares what I think (to. . .)
  2. Why the hell does anyone in publishing care what I think?

Little did I know that the mere existence of this email was a sign that Night Shade Books was seriously dysfunctional. Williams and I went on to have a lengthy email exchange and several phone calls over the following week. These talks resulted in me doing a very slight amount of consulting for him. I’m not going to reveal too many details from these exchanges, but a few might dribble out here and there as some of them aid in the telling of a good story.… Read the rest

Duck and Covers: Beauty and the Crashed Spaceships

Posted on March 28 2013 by Justin | 4 Comments

I’ve read Erin Hoffman first two books, Sword of Fire and Sea and Lance of Earth and Sky. Truth be told, I didn’t find either particularly good, although the world she created is incredibly rich. In fact, they feel at times like exactly what they are. . . novels written by a video game designer. In my experience style trumps substance in the video game world, and that feels like a reasonable criticism of Hoffman’s books.

However, I don’t want to undersell the sheer creativity of the series which is really tremendous and for some readers will provide a really enjoyable reading experience. All of that aside, the covers to her novel by Dehong He have been consistently tremendous (art direction by Lou Anders). Here’s the cover for the final volume in the series, Shield of Sea and Space:

shield of sea and space erin hoffman… Read the rest

2012 Juice Box Award: Debut of the Year

Posted on March 5 2013 by Justin | 3 Comments

Juice Box AwardOf the one-hundred books I read in 2012, nearly one quarter of them were first time authors. I read slightly more last year (28), which makes some sense considering that 2011 was a far better year for debuts than 2012. Regardless, I would happily stack up this year’s Juice Box short list against last year’s. Oddly, none of this year’s best debuts were written by women, a fact that surprised me after reading so many excellent debuts from women a year ago. I’ll chalk it up to noise, especially considering my 2013 reading thus far has included numerous excellent debuts from female authors.

Interestingly, despite some of the harsh criticisms I’ve levied toward Night Shade Books’ 2012 list, two of their debuts make the cut here, matching last year’s number. I lauded them a year ago for their outstanding new author program, and I hope it’s something they can continue to champion.… Read the rest

A recent reading log. . .

Posted on March 1 2013 by Justin | 4 Comments

I write this post with trepidation  It’s a gross departure from what Staffer’s Book Review has been about since day one. Nevertheless, the new job, the death of my father-in-law, Christmas, an increasingly needy three year old, and my general slacking of my duties as a blogger, has found me desperately far behind in my reviewing. In an effort to catch up, and get back on top of my pile, I present my “as-yet-unreviewed-reading-log-from-late-November-to-February”, or at least half of it:

 

 

RAPTURE-COVER-FINALRapture by Kameron Hurley — Of all the books on this list, Rapture is the one I’m most comfortable reviewing in a few sentences. That’s mostly because I’ve done nothing but sing Kameron Hurley’s praises with the previous two volumes God’s War and Infidel. Rapture continues the pattern and provides a tremendous ending to the series. I can’t help mentioning that there are moments in all of Hurley’s books that will scour your soul with moments of utter bleakness.… Read the rest

2012 Juice Box Award: Most Disappointing Book of the Year

Posted on February 28 2013 by Justin | 8 Comments

Juice Box AwardAdmittedly, this is the Juice Box no one wants to drink. It’s like the equivalent of the Coastal Cooler Capri Sun. No eight year old should have to suffer that abomination in their lunchbox. By the same token, the books that make this short list really shouldn’t have been foisted on to unsuspecting genre fans. Nevertheless, here we are. Unlike our eight year old comparison points, it’s pretty hard to do a lunch room swap with a bad book.

But, this Juice Box Award isn’t for bad reads. No, sir! It’s for books that promised to be great and fell flat on their face. Sometimes that means an average book. Sometimes is just means it isn’t as good as it could be, which was surely the case with last year’s winner (er.. loser?) George R.R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons. Regardless, onward!

I present the Most Disappointing Books of the Year:

 

#5) Railsea & Redshirts

railsea redshirtsBoth of these novels clearly fall into the ‘not as good as they could be’ category because neither is particularly bad.… Read the rest

2012 Juice Box Awards: Best Small Press

Posted on January 21 2013 by Justin | 2 Comments

Juice Box AwardA year ago I would given this award to Night Shade Books without hesitation. They were publishing consistently good novels, most of which were debuts, that felt polished. 2012 not so much. Their debut line-up slipped noticeably, although there were several standouts, and even their more seasoned authors felt untouched by the editorial process.

Who then wears the crown for 2012? With Pyr, Angry Robot, and Jo Fletcher off the table thanks to the backing of a larger publisher (Prometheus, Osprey, and Quercus respectively), the remaining presses are small even compared to Night Shade.

For me, it comes down to two: Small Beer Press and their outstanding commitment to fabulist (and other) fiction and ChiZine Publications’ weird/dark list. There are other very good small presses –Pandemonium, Prime, Tachyon, and Subterranean, to name a few — but none that maintain the standard of interesting points of view as my two finalists.… Read the rest

A Kickstarter I Support and Encourage

Posted on December 6 2012 by Justin | 3 Comments

Lest These Stories Be ForgottenLast year I read The Winds of Khalakavo and called it fantasy meets War and Peace, or something like that. Brad Beaulieu merged the epic fantasy tradition with a very Russian aesthetic, and it worked brilliantly. I went on to read his co-authored novella (with Stephen Gaskell) Strata and continued to be impressed.

Then, I got a chance to meet Beaulieu at Epic ConFusion 2011. He’s a gracious, articulate guy who I had several tremendous conversations with over the course of the convention. He recently announced a project to collect his prolific short fiction, most of which comes from before he was a published novelist, in a single volume. It’s on Kickstarter now and for a $5 contribution you get an eCopy of the collection and The Winds of Khalakavo (and if he gets to $3,000 you’ll get a copy of its sequel, The Straits of Galahesh). That’s a hell of a deal.… Read the rest

Smugglivus 2012–My Contribution

Posted on December 5 2012 by Justin | 1 Comment

Book Smugglers IconAna and Thea from the Book Smugglers contacted me a few months ago and asked me to write a post for their annual Smugglivus event. They ask their guest writers to

[look] back at their favorite reads of 2012, and looking forward to events and upcoming books in 2013.

But, since I’m not one for binary discussions I went off the reservation. They may not invite me back, but I took the opportunity to talk about something very important to me, both as a consumer and as a father. Namely, that the socially created false dichotomy of boy/girl media is tragic and dangerous.

When I wrapped the post up, sitting at around 1100 words, I knew I hadn’t done the topic justice. It requires several thousand more words and significantly more insightful examination of sales trends and publisher behavior. Nevertheless, I hope the point itself is sufficient. How can a book be any good when it ignores half of humanity?… Read the rest

Infidel by Kameron Hurley, a rewrite

Posted on November 9 2012 by Justin | Leave a comment

With Kameron Hurley’s final novel in her Bel Dame Apocrypha being released, I thought it would be appropriate to rerun my God’s War and Infidel reviews at A Dribble of Ink, before publishing a review of Hurley’s concluding volume, Rapture.

I had a problem though, I didn’t really think my review of either of the first two novels was all that good. They were both written in my first six months as a blogger, and I thought they deserved better. So I rewrote them — never an easy thing to do. Here’s Infidel:

Infidel_Kameron_HurleyThere’s a fine line between dark and compelling and horrifying and off-putting. When a story comes right up to the line without crossing it a certain dichotomy comes into existence whereby I want to look away and forget about it, but can’t. No author in recent memory walks this line better that Kameron Hurley whose second novel, Infidel, compliments that description perfectly.

… Read the rest