Nick Bryan

book review

Traitor’s Hope by Virginia McClain – Review

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This is part of the blog tour for Traitor’s Hope, the new book from Virginia McClain. Much like myself, Virginia is a Jukepop Serials alumni who spun her webserial from that site off into a series of self-published novels.

She’s good people, always very supportive of the Hobson & Choi series and her books are reliably fun (here’s my Goodreads review of the first one if you like context) so I jumped at the chance to get involved with the sequel’s release. Let’s do this.

Traitor’s Hope – a short essay

Here, then, we return to the pseudo-Japanese world of Gensokai, where lifelong friends Taka and Mishi – the heroes from the first book – are discovering that keeping the peace might be almost as hard as winning the war. Like many second-books-in-series, there’s a greater focus on character-building here, a little willingness to let the people breathe and talk to each other rather than rushing headlong into the story.

It also provides a chance for more world-building and a greater sense of the wider universe, which helps contextualise some of the more out-there fantasy elements. The magic system remains one of the best parts, well integrated into the world, story and combat. But perhaps most importantly of all, it gives the author the chance to describe really cool stuff. One element that’s definitely remained consistent between books is McClain’s gift for a visceral action scene.

The characters other than Taka and Mishi also benefit a lot from the extra space, and supporting cast member Kusuko in particular gets a lot of interesting development – she’s probably the break-out character of the series, at this stage. Certainly, I know seeing what happens next to her is probably my biggest incentive to come back for the next one.

This second-book task of expanding on the world means the plot isn’t quite as propulsive as the first one, but I think that’s expected. It means that when the faeces hits the fan again – and it definitely will – we care all the more about what happens to the cast. Mishi’s worries over her violent nature become a little laboured over the course of the whole book, but if I had genuine reason to believe I might flip out and kill my friends at any moment, I’d probably worry about it a lot too.

In short – a strong continuation to a good series. Builds upon the strength of Blade’s Edge, makes the world of Gensokai deeper and more interesting and keeps the characters moving forward. I’ll definitely be back for book three.

Hot Chunky Information

Want to know more about the book and/or blog tour? Here’s all the words you could possibly need, or click here to go to the website of the company running it.

About the Book:

Title: TRAITOR’S HOPE (Blade’s Edge #2)
Author: Virginia McClain
Pub. Date: October 14, 2017
Publisher: Artemis Dingo Productions
Pages: 284
Formats: Paperback eBook
Find it: Amazon, Buy The Paperback, Goodreads

Traitors lurk around every bend. Mishi’s mind is betraying her, and she fears her kisō and katana will betray her next. Taka’s heart abandons her for a person she cannot possibly trust. Now that the two friends are obliged to help re-establish peace in the land of Gensokai, the only question is where the next betrayal will come from and if Mishi and Taka will have the strength to survive it.

About Virginia:

Virginia thinks dangling from the tops of hundred foot cliffs is a good time. She also enjoys hauling a fifty pound backpack all over the Grand Canyon and sleeping under the stars. Sometimes she likes running for miles through the desert, mountains, or wooded flatlands, and she always loves getting lost in new places where she may or may not speak the language.

From surviving earthquakes in Japan, to putting out a small forest fire in Montana, Virginia has been collecting stories from a very young age. She works hard to make her fiction as adventurous as her life and her life as adventurous as her fiction. Both take a lot of imagination.

She recently moved to Winnipeg with her husband (a Manitoba native) and their dog.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Tour Schedule

Week One:
10/9/2017- Two Chicks on Books– Interview
10/9/2017- Blushing Bibliophile– Review
10/10/2017- Arvenig.it– Guest Post
10/10/2017- Bibliobakes– Review
10/11/2017- Kati’s Bookaholic Rambling Reviews– Excerpt
10/11/2017- Ashley M. Delgado– Review
10/12/2017- A Dream Within A Dream– Excerpt
10/12/2017- Don’t Judge, Read– Spotlight
10/13/2017- BookHounds YA– Guest Post
10/13/2017- Adventures Thru Wonderland– Review

Week Two:
10/16/2017- Novel Novice– Excerpt
10/16/2017- Nick Bryan Dot Com– Review
10/17/2017- Books at Dawn– Guest Post
10/17/2017- YA and Wine– Excerpt
10/18/2017- Fire and Ice– Spotlight
10/18/2017- A Gingerly Review– Review
10/19/2017- My Nook, Books & More– Excerpt
10/19/2017- Jena Brown Writes– Review
10/20/2017- Seeing Double In Neverland– Interview
10/20/2017- Ramblings From An Alternate Reality– Review

BEST OF 2014 – Books

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My original plan, as threatened in last week’s podcast/film/music summary, was to dig into my favourite books and comics of the year in this single post. However, due to circumstances beyond my control (me banging on for too long), I am going to leave this one with just the books and return to the comics at a later date. Probably quite a soon later date, as I still harbour the ambition of getting these blog posts out before 2014 itself ends, and I still gotta do the TV as well.

If you want to see how my tastes have evolved, you can consult the 2013 equivalent of this blog post. For now, though, let’s dig into the best printed prose stories of the year, most of which I read digitally.

YA – Why, eh?

My major shift in books-direction this year was to start reading YA, because I’ve begun to socialise with a lot of YA-likers and also (inevitably) started to wonder if I could write it myself. So, if anyone else wants a good entry point, I’ll lay out the best of my mostly-scifi/fantasy sampling.

I’ve read The City’s Son and The Glass Republic by Tom Pollock, the first two in his Skyscraper Throne trilogy set in a fantastical London. Although the first one is a strong opening adventure that set out a potentially fascinating world, the second was a year-highlight, a genuinely excellent emotional journey through cool concepts that I’d recommend to anyone. Must track down the third one. (By which I mean: I’ll buy it when it gets cheaper on Kindle.)

Elsewhere in the YA exploration, Pantomime by Laura Lam is a lovely, fragile book about Micah Grey, a teen coming to terms with his own identity under confusing circumstances – and also set in a circus. Control by Kim Curran is the sequel to her alternate-reality-wrangling scifi book Shift, and in a similar way to the Tom Pollock series, the first one does some interesting world building, but the second is the one which really made me pay attention. Happily, the third and final part is coming soon.

Also read The Curse Workers trilogy by Holly Black, about magical con-men, and although they never quite top the excellent first book, it’s all an exciting adventure.

At the younger end of the target-age spectrum, but also among the most excellent: Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens is a mega-likable school detective story and Close Your Pretty Eyes by Sally Nicholls is beautifully characterised and creepy. Very creepy.

Aged To Perfection

I’m going to creep back towards adult novels now, via the bridging method of fantasy author Joe Abercrombie. I read the last two books in his adult trilogy The First Law, as well as his new YA book Half A King this year and all were great. The biting wit and intense adventure are strong across the board.

Tore through The Cormorant, the most recent in Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black supernatural crime series too, and it’s the best one yet. The first two were fun adventures, but this third part was blow-me-away good, and I’m pleased to hear it should be continuing this year with Thunderbird. His urban fantasy book The Blue Blazes was fun too.

I also read Feed by Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire) and although I’ve not read her work before, I did enjoy the combination of genuinely creepy horror plotting and someone writing about the internet/blogging in a way that suggests they actually understand it. All too rare.

Getting into sundry other territory now, I also liked:

  • The Mad Scientist’s Daughter, a sweet robot-romance by Cassandra Rose Clarke
  • Fight Or Flight by Chele Cooke, the second in her Out Of Orbit scifi adventure series
  • Deadlines, a weekly newspaper-crime serialised thriller by Chris Brosnahan
  • Gun Machine, a heavily armed crime novel by noted comic writer Warren Ellis
  • Mayhem, Jack-The-Ripper-esque gritty crime by Sarah Pinborough.

Phew. I read a lot of books this year, and that was just over a third of them.

I refrained from listing my own book, as that seemed like supreme arrogance, but if you want to see The Girl Who Tweeted Wolf on a similar list, you can head on over to Nimbus Space here. Just popping that in. Coming soon: the comics!

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) – Thoughts On A Book

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Just finished reading The Cuckoo’s Calling, the first crime effort by J.K. Rowling, best known for being written under the pen name of Robert Galbraith and concealed for a short period. Eventually, of course, the truth emerged, and although the fun ended, sales went through the roof.

But plenty already written about that, and sequel The Silkworm was released recently with the unsecret identity still in place. I read The Cuckoo’s Calling as if it were a story (and in many ways, it is), how did it hold up? What thoughts did I have? (Some mild spoilers, though nothing explicit really.)

The Casual Cuckoo

First up, for anyone who found The Casual Vacancy a bit of a rambling polemic, this second adult effort is much more story-shaped. In fact, compared to her other work, it’s unusual how heavily it buys into and works within genre conventions.

Rowling/Galbraith does a good job of populating said story with strong characters and memorable personalities. With so many people under the Suspect category, each getting one or two scenes to shine, it helps having all be memorable and easy to define. Although, even with Rowling’s gift for the easy-to-place personality, I did feel a few tugs of “Wait, which one was that again?” by the end.

Because, yes, this book is very long. And I say this as someone who thought most of the Harry Potter books were a fair enough length. (Except Order of the Phoenix, that was ridiculous.)

The Doom Bar’s Calling

The mystery itself is a well-drawn, believable one, armed with fun twists and turns to keep us guessing. Maybe could’ve used a midway mega-twist to keep everyone excited through all that length, but the resolution remained satisfying.

Lead gumshoe Cormoran Strike gets plenty of depth and development, plus amusing drunk moments. He also drinks Doom Bar, a respectable ale.

Basically, it felt like many good origin-of-series stories (see also: the Guardians of the Galaxy movie and last weekend’s Doctor Who Capaldi debut) – focusing on introducing the lead character and putting them through a standard storyline, psyching us up for when they face a more terrifying threat next time.

And it did a decent job, although (again much like that Who episode), it probably didn’t need to be quite as long to achieve that. Definitely worth a look if you like J.K. Rowling or a good meat-and-potatoes murder mystery.

(And yes, I’m aware that this book does demonstrate a more-than-slight resemblance to my own Hobson & Choi books in the early chapters, although that does clear up in later days. The dangers of following the same genre-lines.)

Best of 2013 – Books and Comics Edition

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I’m off home for Christmas tomorrow, I should be packing a bag, so it seemed an ideal time to type up the second installment of my 2013 cultural intake summary! This time: Books and Comics!

If you want to see my movies, music and podcasts of choice, that was last week. TV to follow next, once I’ve formed an opinion on the Doctor Who Christmas special.

But first, it’s time for stories told in page format. From a wide perspective, the big development this year was my moving entirely digital in both these areas. I can comfortably read digital comics on my widescreen monitor (though if anyone wants to buy me a tablet for Christmas, don’t let me stop you), and started properly using my Kindle all the time. It’s great, my room is much less drowning in paper. But what was I reading, exactly?

Books

A Dance With Dragons - George R.R. Martin

My biggest single reading project this year: consuming most of the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin – the books being adapted as Game of Thrones on the telly. I finished the second book just after Christmas last year, and am coming to the end of the most recent volume now.

I’m not a huge epic fantasy person, but I have enough sci-fi/fantasy tolerance to deal with the tropes and detailed worldbuilding moments, and the the real hook of these books is the characterisation, the way everyone has a motivation and an angle. If you enjoy the sprawling scope of the TV show and want more, then believe it or not, there’s loads more characters in the books. Now, I can join in waiting for Martin to write the next one, which sounds like a damn good party.

Going way back in the past to established literary classic territory, I also read The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, which was short but perfectly formed, a nice balance between black humour and the genuinely disturbing. Also The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, which is every bit the tearjerker you’ve heard. The trailer for the film still makes it look awful though.

London Falling - Paul Cornell

Consumed A Serpent Uncoiled by Simon Spurrier and London Falling by Paul Cornell, both by comic authors whose work I’ve enjoyed, both great stuff with unique voices on the crime genre. London Falling has a sequel coming and has recently been optioned for TV, all good news.

Also: The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, ultimately rewarding but very slow to get going. The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie was an excellent action-heavy introduction to a fantasy universe and I’ll be continuing the trilogy very soon. Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig married a cool concept onto a memorable character with style.

That’ll probably do – and yes, I’m aware none of those books came out in 2013. If you want a complete list of my reading, complete with star ratings, I keep my Goodreads profile fairly up to date.

Comics

Lazarus - v1

2013 saw me re-enter reading comics in the biggest way for a while. The biggest reason for this is probably the rise of digital, finally bringing new comics down to a price I was actually willing to pay. I was also put on to a few interesting new books – the best of these was probably Lazarus by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark, about a seemingly unkillable warrior in a future universe of warring families, struggling with herself both inside and out.

Just as reliably good was the longer running Chew by John Layman and Rob Guillory, in which a detective investigates messed up crime and food-based superpowers. I finally caught up with that book this year, and although I’ve now fallen behind again, it remains a fun, surprising and blackly hilarious bundle of joy.

I also read the first volume of Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra’s The Manhattan Projects – more overtly sci-fi than I often go, but a lot of ideas and clever plots being thrown around and I imagine I could get a lot of re-reads out of that. Imagine an aggressively adult Doctor Who.

I read a few bits by Kieron Gillen this year too – his Journey Into Mystery for Marvel and Phonogram for Image with Jamie McKelvie. JiM probably spoke more to me personally, but the craft on display in Phonogram is undeniable. Next stop: Young Avengers.

It never feels like I’m properly reading comics unless I’ve got something by Garth Ennis on the go, and currently it’s Hitman, his 90s series for DC about a superpowered contract killer in the superhero universe of Superman and Batman. Once again, a brilliantly executed black comedy with a real human heart. I always like those.

Superior Spider-Man #1

Superhero-wise, I’ve mostly been reading random snippits from Comixology sales, but Superior Spider-Man has been consistently great and I’ve also just checked out All-New X-Men and the current Wonder Woman, both of which make old icons seem impressively new and interesting.

Lastly, and as a reward for anyone who read this far, one of my favourite comics of the year is available free online (and in print, if you like paper books) –  Crossed: Wish You Were Here is a free weekly webcomic which makes a zombie-esque Apocalypse seem tense, human and horrific in a way I’d almost forgotten they could. Written by the earlier-mentioned Simon Spurrier, it’s really good. His X-Men: Legacy run is worth a look too, and the firmly surreal mini-series Numbercruncher.

That blog post was way longer than I intended, but the list still seems frustratingly incomplete. Dammit. Still, I must pack those Christmas presents now. Take it easy, blog-readers. I might manage some kind of Christmas broadcast on here before the big day, but if not, hope it’s great.