Part steam punk novel, part vampire novel, The Rift Walker: Book Two of the Vampire Empire is another rousing success for the book’s two authors.

(Read the review for The Greyfriar: Book One of the Vampire Empire)

The story starts off with Princess Adele set to marry the American, Senator Clark, as she chooses duty to country over the love in her heart. However, she detests the man… which she does not hide very well to just about everyone (including her husband-to-be). Nonetheless, she is off to marry the arrogant man.

Meanwhile, the Greyfriar (also known as the vampire, Prince Gareth) gets wind that there is to be an assassination attempt on his beloved during her wedding. He hastens to Alexandria to stop the attack and rescue Princess Adele at any cost. At the wedding, Adele says her vows (but doesn’t sign the marriage contract yet) when Gareth, in his Greyfriar costume, suddenly bursts into the ceremony and whisks Adele away, very much to the chagrin of her spurned fiancee, Clark. Together again, the duo flees to the south, where nobody would think to look for them.

The pacing of the book slows down in the middle as Adele and the Greyfriar are struggling to remain hidden from her father’s men and the men of Senator Clark. More focus here is put in their evolving relationship, and the typical talk of how Gareth, who is weakened by sunlight and heat (which is why the British Empire relocated to Alexandria in the first place), is going to live with Adele in the future.

The story is good but I found it a bit slower than the original. The action sequences are better in this novel, though, as the Greyfriar and Adele are coerced into fighting for a king in an allied nation against a particularly nasty nest of vampires who reside high in the African mountains. The pacing of the action scenes are vivid, messy and intense — precisely what an action sequence needs to be.

Overall, this book is a solid follow-up effort to a resounding success, which is hard to do. Very rarely is the sequel better than the original, but this one comes close to matching its predecessor. The writing was tight and the characters were driven, something I was particularly enthused about. These were not two-dimensional cardboard cutouts, but real, confused, thrilling individuals who react to their environment and situations. It’s amazing that their behavior is consistent and yet unpredictable at the same time, which shows the skill of both the writers.

Once again the cover is amazing. Though they always say to “never judge a book by its cover”, The Rift Walker can be eye-catching when placed on the bookshelf.

This book, and its predecessor, is a definite must-buy. Buy it for your friends or yourself. No one will be disappointed with it.

—Reviewed by Jason

K. V. Johansen’s epic fantasy novel, Blackdog, promised an epic story, masterfully woven plots and adventure throughout the 500+ page book.

Sadly, it failed to live up to expectations.

The novel begins with the goddess Attalissa, in her recently reincarnated human form (a young child), about the partake in a ceremony when the citadel built in her honor (and where she lives) is attacked. Her protector, a legendary creature called the Blackdog, urges her to leave with him after he scents the familiar stench of a magician. Attalissa reluctantly flees with the Blackdog, who is severely wounded in their escape and he shifts to his full-dog form — which is an excellent premise but the author doesn’t show or even tell you when the change really occurs — to protect the young goddess. He drags them into town where, with his dying breath, passes on the spirit of the Blackdog to a young trader who is fleeing the town’s destruction.

The man is nearly driven mad as he flees with Attalissa into the desert, leaving the water (Attalissa’s source of power) behind. The young trader, Holla-Sayan, struggles to adapt his new inner beast with his old job as a trader and merchant. However, the tension ratchets up as he flees with his caravan and the young goddess further and further away from the site of the citadel’s massacre. The beginning is filled with promise, a beautiful picture and the setting for one hell of a story.

…three hundred pages of nothing later…

I love a good story, but the author beat me over the head (repeatedly) with her world building and settings. She would build up an action sequence, get you nice and primed for something that belongs in a Mack Bolan novel, then promptly glosses over the actual action and suddenly the picturesque mountains were there once more. Beautiful mountains, people talking and… nothing.

It’s like I was reading a fantasy version of Sense and Sensibility — you know, those famous novels where 19th century British people sat around, drank tea and talked? Written by somebody my English professors swore was a brilliant author? Was lauded for its excellence, and yet every single average person not an English major who tried to read it instantly fell asleep?

I really wanted to like this book, because (outside of breaking two of my three Fantasy writing rules) it was everything I wanted. There were gods walking the lands, there were interesting characters running about, decent plot hooks and a compelling villain. But… nothing happens.

Nothing.

Happens.

I could see what the author was trying to do in this book and, quite frankly, could have pulled it off with some judicious edits (primarily, about 1/3 of the book). The characterization (when I knew who we were reading about) was fairly decent, and the story line (which I loved) could have worked better had there been less chatting and scene painting and more “Getting this show on the road”. I understand that it’s hard to cram 15+ years into a 500 page book, but there could have been more scenes with the young goddess finding her powers and less tea (metaphorically, of course).

This novel misses despite the beautiful tapestry it paints. I’d say “borrow” it, to be generous, but this was a novel I had no problems putting down when anything else (Netflix, video games, my cat) came over to distract me. And while I am easily distracted at times, if a book is good nothing in this world can pull me from it. Sadly, Blackdog didn’t hold my attention.

—Reviewed by Jason

The Doctor and the Kid by Mike Resnick

The Doctor and the Kid is the sequel to The Buntline Special (reviewed here).

The Doctor and the Kid opens with Doc Holliday in Leadville, Colorado, preparing to be admitted to a sanatorium for his consumption.  Of course, Doc isn’t quite ready to give up the ghost just yet, and still gambles like a fiend, all while drinking like a fish.  This comes back to haunt him when he loses spectacularly at cards, losing all his savings, including the money for the sanatorium.  Big Nose Kate, still at war—er, in a relationship with Doc, is less than thrilled by the mess, and refuses to give him a helping hand.

So what’s a doctor-gambler-shootist to do?  Why, find the biggest bounty that exists and take it!  Wyatt Earp reluctantly tells Doc about the largest bounty available, ten thousand dollars for one Billy the Kid.  That’s more than enough to make sure Doc can live as comfortably as one can with advanced tuberculosis.  Wyatt warns Doc that the Kid is very skilled, much younger, and much healthier.  Doc’s bullheadedness comes to the fore, and the two have a rather potent disagreement about going on the hunt together, leaving Doc on his own.

Of course there’s a catch to the bounty.  Geronimo, through one of his shape-shifting warriors, informs Doc Holliday that Billy the Kid is protected by Hook Nose.  Between the two medicine men, they have been powerful enough to stop the United States from advancing across the Mississippi.  He makes an offer: in exchange for destroying a magically protected building (it withstood cannon bombardment without as much as a dent!) atop sacred burial ground, he will break Hook Nose’s protection over the Kid.

With so much magic at work, the only people who can help are Ned Buntline and Thomas Alva Edison, whose mission is to find a way to counter the medicine man’s magic and allow the United States to fulfill its Manifest Destiny.  Between the three of them, surely anything is possible.

…hopefully.

Mike Resnick doesn’t disappoint in the second book in the Weird West series.  The story builds fast, and is constantly entertaining, with dialogue that is read-out-loud funny.  The characters are varied and rich, human, rather than cardboard cutouts of historical figures.  The West itself is Weird, of course, but not jarringly so, with advancements taking hold slowly.  It’s extremely believable, which contributes to the fun.  There’s several surprises in store, ones that even Doc Holliday didn’t see coming.

The Doctor and the Kid is a fun, enjoyable read.  I utterly enjoyed this book, and can’t wait to sink my teeth into the third one that’s hopefully coming soon.

—Reviewed by Samantha

Smart and sexy, in depth and detailed; those are just a few words I would use to describe G. J. Meyer’s The Tudors, the complete story of England’s most notorious dynasty.

I started off thinking I knew quite a bit about the infamous Tudors — most specifically, Henry VIII. Imagine my surprise upon discovering this wonderful book about the entire Tudor dynasty, starting with Henry Tudor, a quiet and studious man whose claim upon the throne of England was about as weak as any. Nonetheless, after a quick battle with Richard III, king of England, Henry VII suddenly found himself king of a small but growing nation.

Meyer’s portrayal of the Tudors is not flattering; indeed, most of the Tudor dynasty’s triumphs the author portrays throughout the book are vastly overshadowed by the amount of atrocities and dark deeds that led to those triumphs. The majority of the book revolves around the life and times of the most notorious of England’s many kings: Henry VIII. Unfair or not, this polarizing figure of English history, through barbaric acts and a somewhat innocent idealism, ensured that the dynasty of his father would live on throughout history.

However, Henry VIII is only part of the story, a part of the grand tapestry that Meyer weaves easily in a narrative voice that keeps the reader interested and involved. The historical notes are spot-on, and Meyer’s admits when a few suppositions are just that, a drastic change of pace from some historians who assert that their guesses are genuinely accurate and not just that.

This book actually inspired me to go out and pick up another book, one about Edward VI, the ill-fated reformer son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Henry’s third wife. I was fascinated by Meyer’s painting of Edward, though, including the delicate dance that his two older sister must do around him, specifically Mary, Henry’s daughter with Catherine of Aragon, a devout Catholic who is at opposite ends of her Reformist younger sibling. Because the Reformation, originally derided by Henry VIII but later it’s unofficial champion with his fourth marriage, to Anne of Cleaves, a member of the powerful Reformer clans of Europe.

Of course, it’s Henry and history, so you know it didn’t take long for that to end…

I loved this book and the history it brought back to life. The Tudor dynasty will forever remain one of the most enigmatic  families of all time, and the author does a fantastic job of bringing them back to life. A definite must-have book for the history buff in us all.

–Reviewed by Jason

The elegant solution to some problems is to cut to the source. Everett Singh, hero of Ian McDonald’s thrilling Planesrunner (Pyr), does just that in this science fiction/steam punk filled adventure.

Singh is a brilliant young teen who is the eldest child of a scientist who is on the verge of something spectacular. However, before Everett can figure it out himself, his father is kidnapped – and Everett’s world is turned upside down.

He goes to the police but they don’t believe him. When he shows them video proof, something strange happens. The police alter his video and tries to say his father was not kidnapped, but simply ran off somewhere. Everett, wisely, had email him a copy of the altered video and replays it later, confirming his suspicions: the police are lying.

That night, Everett receives a very strange app on his iPad with a note attached. It is for him, from his dad, sent before his kidnapping. Everett cracks the code and quickly realizes that there is something much deeper, much more powerful going on that his dad was involved with, and he begins to think it may have something to do with alternate realities.

Everett convinces the mysterious government agency running the exploration of his dad’s theories into letting him come in to give them the app his dad had sent him. Instead of giving them the app, though, Everett leaps through the gate and ends up in a steam punk style London, where oil does not exist.

This story was a lot of fun to read, with Everet”s single-minded determination to rescue his father at all cost coming across as a very strong father-son connection — something a lot of YA books seem to lack. He’s a very realistic teen, with the thought process of an advanced mind which still lacks some maturity. Basically, he is a well-portrayed teenager.

McDonald does a lot of research into the steam aspects of the novel, but it does not take away anything from the overall novel. Everett’s quest to rescue his father is first and foremost, despite the other dangerous adventures which occur to Everett in the alternate London.

The author has a great story hear, and with no conclusive ending, the sequel should be just as fun. A great story for all.

–-Reviewed by Jason

The writing team of Sharon Lee and Steve Miller have delivered another winner with their latest Liaden Universe (TM) novel, GHOST SHIP.  This novel is a direct sequel to FLEDGLING and SALTATION (previously reviewed here at SBR) as it continues the story of pilot Theo Waitley, who is half-Liaden through her father, the man she knows as scholar of cultural genetics Jen Sar Kiladi.  But Theo’s father’s real identity is Da’av yos’Phelium, the former Delm of Korval; Da’av is also a Captain of the Liaden Scouts, which help to explore the galaxy and enjoy cultures of all sorts, including Terran, Liaden, and even Yxtrang (the last being a hereditary soldier caste).

But this is also a sequel to the “mainline” Liaden Universe novel sequence that ended with I DARE, which means Theo’s story isn’t all that’s going on here.  This may confuse you if you haven’t read all the other Liaden Universe novels, but if you bear with it you should enjoy reading about Theo’s half-brother, Val Con yos’Phelium, Delm Korval, and Val Con’s wife and Delmae (co-Delm) Miri Robertson Tiazan, Surebleak Head Boss Pat Rin yos’Phelium (also called Jonni Conrad), and many others.

But for now, we’ll stick with Theo’s story, since it’s the easiest to explain.

At the end of SALTATION, Theo was in big trouble.  Her love interest, Scout Pilot Win Ton yo’Vala, was gravely ill and only meeting up with a strange ship that’s taken an interest in both Theo and Win Ton has any hope of aiding her.  Yet this ship, the Bechimo, is skittish; this is for good reason, as Bechimo is both sentient and sapient.  The Liadens, as a whole, mostly don’t know what to do with the very few AIs who’ve obtained Bechimo’s status, though luckily for Bechimo, Clan Korval is among the few major Liaden Clans which approves of such as they have one working for them, Jeeves, a “security logic” that’s actually the remains of a major defense computer complex.  And, of course, Theo is aligned with Clan Korval, though she’s not exactly a member as of yet, because of her father and half-brother; this helps Bechimo not be blown to bits (murdered, as it were) out of hand by the Liaden Scouts.

As Bechimo is Win Ton’s only hope, no matter how nervous Theo is over Bechimo’s sentience, she does her best to become accustomed to Bechimo, and of course the ship also does his best (as Bechimo views his essence as male) to accommodate to her, because Theo is the Bechimo’s presumptive new captain and is the senior pilot available.

Of course, with Win Ton gravely ill, Theo needs another pilot to help her, and manages to acquire one in retired Juntavus Boss (and pilot) Clarence O’Berin.  Clarence was stationed on Liad, and knows Theo’s father very well in Da’av’s primary identity (meaning Clarence and Da’av used to do a great deal of business together, as both were allied most of the time as to what the best interests of Liaden commerce were and should continue to be).  The Juntavus have a bad reputation as some of them are thieves and murderers; however, they are quasi-legitimate, and Clarence himself is definitely a good guy who’s trying to go completely legit.

Along the way, we find out that Theo is still very bad with people (something I noted before; this is her one, major flaw and makes her much easier to understand despite her prodigious abilities in piloting, mathematics, self-defense, and more).  But that, alone, would not make a book no matter how interesting a character I find her to be, so it’s good that Lee and Miller wisely show Theo having various adventures, including some for the Uncle (whom I mentioned quite often in the preceding review for THE CRYSTAL VARIATION omnibus; yes, it is indeed the same, exact Uncle, as apparently he uses a cloning apparatus quite regularly), they show her grappling to explain what’s happened to “Jen Sar Kiladi” to her mother, Kamele, and certainly, Theo’s trials and tribulations with Bechimo are more than worth the price of admission.

However, the book fails, ever so slightly, to flesh out the ending; while I’m more than willing to wait to find out what comes next for Theo, Da’av, Win Ton, Clarence, and Bechimo, I should’ve had a better idea of why Val Con left Surebleak (the new center of operations for Clan Korval) than GHOST SHIP gave me; that this information is available elsewhere in the Liaden Universe as a novella doesn’t quite cut it even though, by happenstance, I have read the novella in question.  There just isn’t enough there for readers who aren’t as up on their Liaden Universe exploits as I am to figure out what’s going on, I fear, and that’s a shame.

But this is, at most, a minor quibble, because otherwise, GHOST SHIP is a worthy addition to the overall Liaden Universe and capably continues Theo’s journey for good measure.

It does, however, require that I split the grades, something I’ve not done previously with regards to Lee and Miller’s novels here at SBR.  I rate GHOST SHIP as an A-minus for newer readers, but a solid A for long-time readers.  (Either way you slice it, I want a sequel to GHOST SHIP ASAP, so I can get my next Liaden Universe “fix.”)

— reviewed by Barb

———–

Note:  For long-time readers of the Liaden Universe saga, you’ll get a chance to see most, if not all, of the regular characters from previous books in addition to the ones I’ve mentioned.  I, particularly, appreciated seeing Anthora and Ren Zel, two of my favorite characters from Plan B and I Dare, along with Pat Rin’s lifemate, Juntavus Sector Judge Natesa the Assassin (real name: Inas Bhar).  This adds a great deal of zest to an already richly flavorful soup, and is most welcome.