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The Emerging World of Steampunk Fiction

by thomas_b on April 9, 2012

Cherie Priest's Boneshaker

Cherie Priest's Boneshaker

By Holly Hibner and Mary Kelly — Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction. The term was coined by K. W. Jeter, who was trying to categorize his own works and those of authors like H. G. Wells. It often includes alternate history –usually of the Victorian era in Britain or the “Wild West” United States – and modified technology based on steam power and mechanical components like gears and levers. Steampunk also incorporates Victorian-style fashion, architecture, and art, but modified to fit a speculative, or futuristic, vision from the Victorian perspective. This genre has gained popularity in recent years, especially as video games like Final Fantasy, Myst, and Thief have become more main stream and movies like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and The Prestige were nominated for various academy awards. Steampunk is popular with those who associate with goth and punk lifestyles, and also industrial music fans. It is a throwback to historic times, but re-imagined with technologies and even anti-establishment messages of the current times.

Classic titles like J. K. Jeter’s Infernal Devices (1987) and Tim Powers’ The Anubis Gates (1983) are standards in this genre. Newer, but also established steampunk titles include China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station (2000), Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker (2009), and Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan (2009).

The Half-Made World

The Half-Made World

Here is a list of titles and series published in 2010 and 2011 for fans of steampunk:

The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman (2010)
Demonic spirits battle for supremacy. Technology is created and humans are used as weapons. One lone man knows how to save humanity: a senile, old General. Based on a steampunk re-imagining of the American west.

The Hunter, Book 1 of Legend Chronicles by Theresa Meyers (2011)
This steampunk western includes vampire and demon hunters. This is a great example of mixed genres: horror, fantasy, and science fiction with a futuristic western setting.

Ganymede, Book 4 of Clockwork Century series by Cherie Priest (2011)
This is the latest in a series of books set in the 1880s western United States. The Civil War is raging, and this alternate history adds the technology of a submersible ship that could change the war’s outcome. Airship pilot Andy Cly, who is trying to turn his shady, underworld life around, may be the man to figure out how the ship works.

The Iron Duke

The Iron Duke

The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook (2010)
A corpse is dropped from an airship, and found by Rhys Trahaearn. Together with a detective, they find out that the victim was involved in a conspiracy and no one in England is safe. Of course, there are zombies and infestations to be overcome while saving everyone from disaster.

Cold Magic, Book 1 of the Spiritwalker trilogy by Kate Elliott (2010)
Cold Fire, Book 2 of the Spiritwalker trilogy by Kate Elliott (2011)
Magic and science collide as an Industrial Revolution rages. The mages believe that the scientists will bring civilization to an end. One orphaned girl is caught in the middle. This is a great read-alike for fans of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.

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Does Successful Series Fiction Pigeonhole Science Fiction Authors?

by thomas_b on March 24, 2012

Dragonflight

Dragonflight

By Don D’Ammassa — The passing of Anne McCaffrey last year reminded me that as with most good things, there is a down side to success, though not necessarily for the one who succeeds. McCaffrey’s career began during the 1950s, featuring a series of long stories about a sentient starship which were collected as The Ship Who Sang in 1969, arguably her most interesting book though virtually forgotten now. She produced several good short stories including “Dragonrider” and “Weyr Search”, which became integral parts of her first novel of Pern, Dragonflight, in 1968. The novel was very popular, leading to nineteen sequels by the time of McCaffrey’s death and with the promise of more to come from her son Todd. There were also associational books exploring the culture of the planet Pern as well as a detailed atlas.

The appeal of the Pern novels was at least in part because they could be read as either science fiction or fantasy and thereby attracted readers from both groups, which don’t entirely overlap. Pern was a fairly primitive planet whose culture resembled those found in the majority of other worlds fantasy novels being published at the time, and it featured dragons, although they were rationalized in scientific terms. Other aspects of the planet also approximate magic and the overall tone was one of high fantasy.

Although fans of the series were undoubtedly happy that McCaffrey devoted most of her writing time to continuing her chronicles of Pern, others were disappointed that she narrowed her horizons. Her occasional non-Pern science fiction novels were occasionally interesting but they also were almost invariably parts of truncated series and they lacked the diversity of her earliest work. Given the potentially much larger financial return for a new Pern novel, McCaffrey’s concentration on her centerpiece series is understandable. I can’t help but wonder, however, if she might have been a more interesting if less financially successful writer if she had diversified.

This is not a situation peculiar to McCaffrey. A similar case is Marion Zimmer Bradley, who also got her start in the 1950s. Bradley wrote space opera, often in the style of Leigh Brackett, and created the planet Darkover, whose human inhabitants included a strain of people who had a telepathic ability that verged on magic. During the 1960s the series dominated her output as she jumped back and forth in time to fill in parts of the planet’s history and to develop the culture in more detail. As was the case with McCaffrey, her occasional novels outside the series were for much of her career largely unremarkable and for twenty years she concentrated on Darkover and its tempestuous relationship with the Terran Empire.

Unlike McCaffrey, Bradley eventually broke the mold. The Mists of Avalon (1982) was an Arthurian fantasy with a feminist viewpoint, and it was immensely popular, overshadowing the Darkover novels and spawning several related books of its own. Although Bradley didn’t abandon Darkover, it became only one strand of her writing from that point forward, and Bradley consequently became a much more interesting and unpredictable writer.

Another example is Piers Anthony. His short fiction first appeared during the 1960s, but it was his novels – starting with Chthon in 1967 and Sos the Rope and Omnivore, both in 1968, that established him as a potentially major writer. Samuel Delany, Harlan Ellison, Joanna Russ, J.G. Ballard, and others were in the process of remaking the science fiction genre at the time and experimentation was welcomed. Anthony’s early novels fit well in this trend, dealing with psychosexual plot elements, unusual settings, convoluted characters, and inventive situations. Macroscope (1969) was a contender for the Hugo award and Anthony was regarded as one of the most interesting and innovative – and sometimes controversial – writers in the field.

Then came A Spell for Chameleon in 1977, the first Xanth novel. It was a change of pace for Anthony, whose work changed directions so often that it was not immediately obvious how significant the book would turn out to be. The novel is a light fantasy adventure with humorous undertones and taken alone is a very nice book. It was wildly popular and following the pattern already described, it came to dominate Anthony’s output and has done so ever since despite his frequent diversions in other directions. As of this writing there have been 35 Xanth novels, with no end in sight. Some of Anthony’s non-Xanth work has been quite good, but it rarely approaches the imaginative quality of his first dozen novels and often falls into shorter series of rather similar stories.

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Tolstoy’s War with History and the Creation of War and Peace

by D_Burt on March 2, 2012

War and Peace

War and Peace

Arguably, the greatest of all historical novels, Tolstoy’s War and Peace found its shape and eccentric structure – part historical chronicle, part family saga, and part philosophical disquisition on human existence, free will, and historical necessity – in Tolstoy’s assault on the historical practices of his day. In the process, Tolstoy pioneered the means and methods that historical novelists have drawn on ever since. I will consider Tolstoy’s conception of history and the historical novel as the foundation for an understanding of the aims and advantages of historical fiction.

One of the crucial factors in Tolstoy’s launching War and Peace was his experience teaching history to the children of serfs on his estate in the school he founded. He discovered that he was unable to rouse their interest in the distant past, but stories connected to 1812 and the French invasion succeeded in capturing their imagination. Reading extensively historical accounts of the period, Tolstoy was struck by their biases, misconceptions, and avoidance of the forces of ordinary life that Tolstoy was convinced contribute more to shaping events than any ruler, diplomat, or general. Tolstoy had participated in the siege at Sevastopol during the Crimean War, and the contrast between his experiences and historical accounts also contributed to this view. Historians, Tolstoy concluded, are as much storytellers as novelists in their selection of data for emphasis and significance. As novelists contrive noteworthy patterns of meaning, historians similarly distort when they concentrate on single causes for historical events when in fact there are infinite causes, each as valid as another, and when they attribute the determination of events to the will of so-called great men, like Tsar Alexander or Napoleon.

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace, therefore, can be seen as a new kind of historical narrative that contrasts the reality of history as people experienced it with the unreal picture presented by historians. Tolstoy, therefore, alternates between a historical chronicle of events, involving actual historical figures, and a fictional narrative meant to represent the deeper significance and the inner meaning and impact of the past that is controlled, in Tolstoy’s view, by the collective will of ordinary individuals.

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Mystery Fiction: The Eternal Characters

by thomas_b on February 18, 2012

The Burning Soul

The Burning Soul

During a recent book tour to promote his 10th Charlie Parker novel, The Burning Soul, Irish author John Connolly mentioned a recurring theme in his conversations with readers that was starting to disturb him.

“More and more readers will come up to me and say, ‘You’re not going to kill Charlie Parker, are you? Oh, I hope you don’t kill Charlie Parker.’ They don’t care if I die,” he said. “But I’d better not kill Charlie Parker!”

Reader loyalty to characters is a staple of genre fiction. In 1893, angry fans protested at the offices of The Strand magazine after it published “The Final Problem,” in which Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes. Fans publicly mourned Holmes, set up a memorial at the site of his supposed death, and ultimately persuaded Doyle to bring Holmes back 10 years later in “The Adventure of the Empty House.”

118 years after his original death — and 81 years after the death of his creator — Sherlock Holmes continues to be one of crime fiction’s most enduring characters, making yet another appearance in this autumn’s The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz, the first non-canonical Sherlock Holmes novel to be authorized by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate.

While Holmes is probably the best-known, he is far from the only fictional character to survive his creator’s death. In fact, an increasing number of mystery series are continuing under new authors.

Robert B. Parker's Killing the Blues

Robert B. Parker's Killing the Blues

The most recent of these are Robert B. Parker‘s Spenser and Jesse Stone, whose series are being continued by Ace Atkins and Michael Brandman, respectively. Michael Brandman’s first Jesse Stone novel, Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues, was published in September 2011; Ace Atkins’s first Spenser novel, whose title has not yet been announced, will hit stores in Spring 2012. Parker’s widow, Joan, and his longtime agent, Helen Grann, both endorsed the series’ continuation when the deals were announced earlier this year. Joan Parker noted that Michael Brandman, having written several screenplays for the Jesse Stone character, knew “Jesse perhaps better than anyone other than Bob.” She said that Ace Atkins, author of nine crime novels set in the 1950s as well as in the present day, “possesses an extraordinary understanding and reverence for the characters Bob created.”

Do these posthumous revivals work? In strictly economic terms, they do. In fact, they work so well that a landmark U.S. District Court ruling, Estate of Virginia C. Andrews v. United States of America (1994), established that a bestselling author’s name is a valuable commercial asset, to be administered and taxed as any other part of the author’s estate. (V.C. Andrews, who published only six novels during her lifetime, has had what may be the most successful posthumous career in literary history, with 64 novels and counting published since her death in 1986.)

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How Do You Define “Science Fiction” and “Fantasy”?

by BNA_Editor on February 11, 2012

How do you define sci-fi and fantasy?

How do you define sci-fi and fantasy?

The term “science fiction” has never been precisely defined and in fact there have been many spirited arguments among fans about where the boundaries should be set or whether or not some specific book should be included. There were and still are disagreements about whether the term should be viewed only as a genre label or whether it is more generally applicable as a descriptive term. “Speculative fiction” and other alternatives have been suggested although “sci-fi” is generally considered derogatory or related to movies rather than written works. Because science fiction has long been considered an inferior form of writing that never escaped its pulp origins, mainstream authors who wrote speculative fiction such as George Orwell and Aldous Huxley – and more recently Margaret Atwood and Doris Lessing - often tried to distance themselves in order to establish that they were “serious” writers. There are recent indications that the negative connotations of genre fiction may be dissipating at last, as writers like David Anthony Durham and Lev Grossman have illustrated by embracing the fantasy label, but the old prejudices are not likely to die out quickly.

Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings

Even though fantasy has been around much longer than science fiction, it was generally considered a subset of science fiction prior to the paperback release of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, at least by publishers, and the two are still routinely shelved together in most bookstores. Horror existed in a kind of limbo, sometimes packaged as science fiction, sometimes as mysteries or thrillers, and in fact it is arguable that horror is more about tone than content. Genre readers are, however, generally able to distinguish among the three though they may argue about individual titles.

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Sherlock Holmes: The Immortal Detective

by thomas_b on February 4, 2012

Master criminal Professor Moriarty (Timothy Crow, right) attacks detective Sherlock Holmes (Christian Kohn, left) with a cane at Reichenbach Falls in the 2007 Cleveland Play House's "Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure."

Master criminal Professor Moriarty (Timothy Crow, right) attacks detective Sherlock Holmes (Christian Kohn, left) with a cane at Reichenbach Falls in the 2007 Cleveland Play House's "Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure."

In 1893, the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes made what his creator, Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle, was determined would be his final appearance. Holmes confronted his archnemesis, Professor Moriarty, in a battle to the death that sent both characters over Reichenbach Falls. “The Adventure of the Final Problem” was meant to be exactly what the title said, so that Doyle could spend his time on his historical novels, which he considered more important.

“The crowds will not take this lightheartedly,” Doyle’s mother warned, and they did not. More than 20,000 readers cancelled their subscriptions to The Strand magazine, where “The Final Problem” had appeared. Doyle could not have anticipated the sorrow and anger of his public, who had little interest in his historical novels (now largely forgotten).

Doyle thought his readers would eventually forget about his fictional detective. They did not. Eight years later, his creator brought Holmes back in the 1901 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, which seemed to be set before the encounter at Reichenbach Falls. The Strand’s circulation surged by 30,000 readers, but they wanted more. In 1903, Doyle — now Sir Arthur — published “The Adventure of the Empty House,” in which Sherlock Holmes miraculously reappeared, with an explanation of how he had staged his own death. “I realized more clearly than I had ever done the loss which the community had sustained by the death of Sherlock Holmes,” says the story’s narrator, Dr. John H. Watson, and the statement might well be Doyle’s own.

Proof that Sherlock will never die? (Sherlock and Holmes from the new 2010 BBC series.)

Proof that Sherlock will never die? (Sherlock and Holmes from the new 2010 BBC series.)

Holmes has been with us ever since, despite his theoretical retirement in the 1917 story “His Last Bow.” Literally thousands of websites are dedicated to the study and discussion of Sherlock Holmes; the best for those new to Holmes are probably Sherlockian.net, Sherlock-Holmes.org (an international site), and 221BakerStreet.org.

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Yea for Neighs: Horse Books for Children and Young Adults

by thomas_b on January 17, 2012

At one time, horse stories were a staple in literature for young people. Such stories often highlighted the best and worse in humankind (Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty); the bond between humans and their animals (Walter Farley’s The Black Stallion); and class differences in the microcosm of the horsy set (Enid Bagnold’s National Velvet). Over time, such stories faded, but a new crop of outstanding ones, sired by these classics, has created a literary equine renaissance. Listed below are several contemporary horse stories for the picture book set, beginning and middle grade readers, and young adults.

What's Coming for Christmas?

What's Coming for Christmas?

What’s Coming for Christmas? (by Kate Banks and illustrated by Georg Hallenseben) brings very young children the glorious birth of a foal on Christmas Eve into the wonder of the holiday season. Members of a farm family, and the animals outside, know, “Something is coming.” They build the suspense for young listeners, and though the family gets ready for Christmas, that morning is reserved for the joy of birth rather than commercial presents.

In the tradition of equine biographies, such as Marguerite Henry’s Man ‘O War (but for much younger readers), Meghan McCarthy introduces the picture book crowd to Seabiscuit, the Wonder Horse. Set in the midst of the Great Depression, this against-all-odds story tells of Seabiscuit, who “loved to eat and sleep but hated to run.” A detailed author’s note expands on the real life personalities who brought Seabiscuit to national attention. With much more consideration for setting, the culture of racing, and individuals, Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand gives young adults their own peek into “the Biscuit,” telling in great detail about the stubby little bay that doesn’t look like a racehorse, but whose owner, trainer, and jockey all come together to produce a champion.

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Terry Pratchett: The Soul of Wit

by BNA_Editor on January 7, 2012

For many readers, it’s hard to think of British fantasy literature without the name “Terry Pratchett” immediately coming to mind. Even if you’re not a fan of Pratchett or his ever-expansive Discworld universe, you can’t deny the man’s popularity. Before Harry Potter emerged, forever changing J.K. Rowling’s life and bank draft, Pratchett was a publishing phenomenon in the U.K., responsible for 6.5% of all book sales in England during the 1990s alone. There’s even the famous quote that alleges “no British railway train is allowed to depart unless at least one passenger is reading a Pratchett novel.”

terryfixed

Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature

Strangely, despite his popular charm, for a long period, it was next to impossible to find many critical studies of Pratchett’s canon that actually took the author seriously. Aside from the excellent and undersung Terry Pratchett: Guilty of Literature by Old Earth Books, there has been surprisingly little published critical commentary on his works. However, in recent years, Pratchett has finally begun to be recognized for his literary accomplishments, a fact made all the more bittersweet by the author’s recent diagnosis with early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. (Click here to read the text of his speech to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust Conference in 2008.) Such honors have included the 2001 Carnegie Medal, various Locus Awards for Best Young Adult Books, and, most recently, a knighthood for “services to literature” in the 2009 UK New Year Honours list, among many others.

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Upcoming Library Awards from the American Library Association

by thomas_b on January 3, 2012

YALSA's Morris Award Seal

YALSA's Morris Award Seal

By Pam Spencer Holley – In December of each year, the Young Adult Library Services Association , a division of the American Library Association, announces the five finalists in both the William C. Morris and Excellence in Nonfiction Awards. At the Midwinter meeting of ALA, the winners of these two awards, along with other youth media awards, will be announced on Monday, January 23rd. Titles of all winners can be found at www.ala.org/yma

The William C. Morris Award honors a debut book published by a first-time author who is writing for young adults, ages 12 to 18.

The five finalists for this award are listed below:

The Girl of Fire and Thorns

The Girl of Fire and Thorns

The Girl of Fire and Thorns, written by Rae Carson and published by Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Elisa bears the Godstone indicating she’s a chosen one, but it’s unclear what she’s been chosen to do in a work that weaves together religion, politics and more in a fast-paced fantasy.

Paper Covers Rock, written by Jenny Hubbard and published by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books.

After a drowning at an exclusive boarding school, junior Alex journals the events that led to the death of his classmate in a story about a code of silence that compromises the code of honor.

Under the Mesquite, written by Guadalupe Garcia McCall and published by Lee and Low Books.

Following her mother’s cancer diagnosis, Lupita as oldest assumes more family responsibility yet never gives up her dream to attend college.

Between Shades of Gray

Between Shades of Gray

Between Shades of Gray, written by Ruta Sepetys and published by Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group USA.

In a little-known piece of history from World War II, 15-year-old Lithuanian Lina and her family are sent by Stalin to Siberia where it seems no one could possibly survive in the cold, bleak terrain.

Where Things Come Back, written by John Corey Whaley and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.

Although it would seem that nothing ever happens in Lily, Arkansas, Cullen’s seventeenth summer proves otherwise as disconnected events collide.

The Excellence in Nonfiction Award honors the best nonfiction book published for young adults during a November 1 through October 31 publishing year. The five finalists for this award are listed below:

Sugar Changed the World

Sugar Changed the World

Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom and Science, written by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos and published by Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Blending facts with personal narrative, this true tale of the sugar trail provides readers an intimate and troubling portrait of the white grains that sweeten everything from coffee to bubblegum.

Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition, written by Karen Blumenthal and published by Flash Point/Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.

The Temperance movement eventually led to the passage of the 18th Amendment, although no one ever thought it would result in gangsters, alcohol-related crimes, and bootlegging.

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2011: The Year of the Mouse in Children’s Literature

by thomas_b on December 20, 2011

The Tale of Despereaux

In the tradition of previous great mouse literary characters, like Kate DiCamillo's Despereaux, 2011 witnessed a wealth of amazing mice characters in kids' lit.

By Betty Carter – Every couple of years a strange phenomenon occurs within children’s publishing; a number of books will appear on the same subject without any identifiable trigger. This trend doesn’t include those near simultaneous publications one might expect: the full ballot of books about the presidency, voting, and famous presidents in 2008; the wide variety of books that examined Lincoln’s life for multiple age groups that marked his 200th birthday in 2009; and the flood of Titanic books that are beginning to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the disaster on April 15, 2012.

But in 2011, something different was appearing in the literary waters. This time it was middle grade books about mice. Now mice have a long literary heritage in novels for young people, beginning with Alice in Wonderland and including stalwart favorites such as Stuart Little; The Borrowers; Ben and Me; and a couple of Newbery Award Winners, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and The Tale of Despereaux. This year, through some strange coincidence, three former Newbery Award recipients, Cynthia Voight, Lois Lowry, and Richard Peck, recently published decidedly different books with mice as the main characters. They are, respectively, Young Fredle, Bless This Mouse, and Secrets at Sea. All great books and all worth an extra look, or looks as the case may be.

Besides their rodent protagonists, these books do have two similarities. All lend themselves to reading aloud and all contain references from the pop-culture that will appeal (without interfering with their respective stories) to adult readers.

Young Fredle

Young Fredle

Fredle is a house mouse and, like so many young readers, sometimes makes unwise choices and takes a few reckless risks. When he decides to nab a piece of candy, he’s spotted by the Missus and unceremoniously dumped outdoors, a fate he’s completely unprepared for but one that is much better than the alternative. Having never been outside, Fredle must adjust to all kinds of conditions and situations, all told believably from a mouse point of view. When he meets the field mice that surround his farm, Fredle learns a lesson straight out of George Orwell: All mice are equal but some more equal than others. The plot, of trying to find home, is familiar, but its execution gives the story a message all it’s own, and one that may resound strongly with readers seeking their own identities.

Lowry’s Bless This Mouse introduces readers to church mice, all living in Saint Bartholomew’s. Theirs is a gentle existence until Mouse Hildegarde realizes that it’s time for the Blessing of the Animals, an annual occurrence that brings – God forbid – cats into their sacred home. Good natured Father Murphy (who may remind older readers of Bing Crosby in Going My Way) is concerned when a nest of newborn mice seem to indicate an infestation, but Hildegarde handles the situation with a calm hand and a brave heart. This gentle story hits all the right notes without ever becoming over sentimentalized – a tribute to Lowry’s incredible strengths as a writer.

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