Jason...

And Luscious Lucius. :D

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Description: Since her mother’s death, fifteen-year-old Jem has kept a secret. When her eyes meet someone else’s, a number pops into her head – the date on which they will die. Knowing that nothing lasts forever, Jem avoids relationships, but when she meets a boy called Spider, and [...]]]>

Numbers by Rachel Ward

Buy It Now: on Amazon.com

Description: Since her mother’s death, fifteen-year-old Jem has kept a secret. When her eyes meet someone else’s, a number pops into her head – the date on which they will die. Knowing that nothing lasts forever, Jem avoids relationships, but when she meets a boy called Spider, and they plan a day out together, her life takes a new twist and turn. Waiting for the London Eye, she sees everyone in the queue has the same number – something terrible is going to happen. (from the author’s website)

This review is based on a free review copy received from the publisher.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

I know I tend to quibble over genre classifications, but I can’t help it. As cluttered as I am, I do like to neatly categorize things. I tell myself it’s OCD, heh. My nonfiction bookcase is divided up by subject, and that drives my mother crazy. Of course, she likes to organize her books by size, which makes my eyelid twitch so…

Numbers is one of those books that’s difficult to classify. I’ve seen it advertised as science fiction, but it’s definitely not that. Amazon has it listed as “Spine-Chilling Horror,” which made me laugh. That’s a genre? Awesome! The book follows Jem, the protagonist, who for as long as she can remember has seen numbers when she looks at people. Those numbers just happen to be the date that person will die, and unfortunately for Jem, she realized this after her mother’s death of an overdose. After being shunted around the foster care system in London, Jem has become a withdrawn, troubled teenager who refuses to make friends. Why bother, she thinks, when they’re just going to die on her anyway?

But she finds herself drawn to Spider, one of her classmates, and Jem begins to think of him as a friend despite knowing that his numbers show that he only has a few weeks to live. When the two witness a terrorist attack on the London Eye–after Jem realizes that everyone in line has that day’s date as their numbers, she and Spider run for it, stealing cars and walking across the countryside to try to escape from the bleakness of their lives in London. Unfortunately, the police are looking for them as witnesses to the bombing, and since they’re both troubled kids, they know the system isn’t going to be kind to them.

This is one of those books that I feel strange saying I enjoyed. It’s a bleak book with very little hope to it, and that’s one of its strongest points. The majority of YA/teen books I’ve read end with at least a glimmer of hope, even if they’re incredibly depressing. It feels like publishing companies need to impart some sort of “keep your chin up” message to their young readers, as if every piece of literature written for anyone under the age of 21 should be used as a tool for teaching. While I think that readers of all ages can and often should learn something from what they read, I am completely against the idea that books for children and teenagers should be didactic. I think fiction should be entertaining, and if the reader learns something, more power to them.

Numbers is not a book about learning to navigate the foster care system and becoming a well-adjusted adult as a result of what you’ve learned. It’s about a girl who is very, very messed up, and understandably so. She found her mother dead of an overdose at a young age, and has been basically neglected by the system ever since. On top of that, she knows when every single person she meets is going to die. That would screw up even the most well-adjusted individual. Jem actually irritated me at points, particularly when she and Spider are having to walk cross-country. She spends a lot of that time complaining and whining, and while it was annoying, it also fit her perfectly. She’s a teenager who has never been out of London before. While she’s not accustomed to an easy life, she’s certainly not used to having to slog through mud and go hungry. Her actions and reactions make perfect sense, even as she starts to mature and realize exactly what is going on around her.

Ward’s characters are by far the strongest aspect of this novel. Even the supporting characters, like Jem’s foster mother and Spider’s grandmother, while not entirely fleshed out, still made me feel like they had personalities that Jem only sees peripherally. Spider, too, is nicely fleshed out even from Jem’s point of view. You get a sense of his way of thinking, his problems with the world, with being viewed with suspicion because he’s a black teenage boy in predominantly-white Britain.

This brings me back to the bleakness of Numbers. It is highly effective because it isn’t the kind of book that will wrap everything up neatly, after school special style. If it had ended with sunshine and daisies and everything’s a-ok, I would have felt cheated. This isn’t a story that needs a happy ending, and it’s definitely better served by not having one at all.

However, this isn’t to say that the novel doesn’t have problems. While the characterization and tone are great, the plot and pacing are uneven. The story moves along at a good clip for the first part, but when Jem and Spider go on the run, it starts to get bogged down, and by the time they’re caught, I found myself wishing that something big would happen, just to break up the monotony. The ending itself, while satisfying in that it fit the tone of the rest of the novel, did seem a bit contrived, as if it relied a bit too much on a “make the reader gasp” ploy.

The biggest flaw, for me, was that Ward just didn’t do enough with the numbers. She makes references to psychic powers–Spider’s grandmother can see auras–but by the end of the book, the numbers went nowhere. I see a lot of people referring to this book as science fiction or paranormal, and I just can’t agree with those labels. Jem’s ability to see the death numbers could have been an amazing twist to the story; why can she see the numbers, for example? What’s the spur behind these psychic powers? Unfortunately, this is never addressed, and I felt like the numbers just trailed off into nothingness.

Despite this, I did find this an enjoyable read. I finished it off over the course of a day, and it did keep me hanging on. I was up way too late trying to finish it because I didn’t want to have to wait until morning. It’s a solid debut for Rachel Ward, and I think her writing will only improve.

Three lucky winners will receive a hardback copy of Rachel Ward’s new book!

Ever since she was child, Jem has kept a secret: Whenever she meets someone new, no matter who, as soon as she looks into their eyes, a number pops into her head. That number is a date: the date they [...]]]>

Three lucky winners will receive a hardback copy of Rachel Ward’s new book!

Ever since she was child, Jem has kept a secret: Whenever she meets someone new, no matter who, as soon as she looks into their eyes, a number pops into her head. That number is a date: the date they will die. Burdened with such awful awareness, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. The two plan a trip to the city. But while waiting to ride the Eye ferris wheel, Jem is terrified to see that all the other tourists in line flash the same number. Today’s number. Today’s date. Terrorists are going to attack London. Jem’s world is about to explode! Visit the official Numbers website to read more.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post! You can earn extra entries by tweeting about this contest as well as linking to it on your blog. Just post links to your tweets or blog posts (or wherever you post about the contest) in the comments.

The giveaway will run from March 8 to March 22, so enter early and enter often!

And after you’ve entered, watch the book trailer!

Or click here to watch on YouTube

The Fine Print:
The Numbers book giveaway is open to participants with a United States mailing address only (international readers can enter if they have a friend in the States who can accept their prizes by mail.). Entrants under age 13 must have parent or guardian permission to enter. The Draw Star Wars: Clone Wars book promotion runs from March 8 to March 22, 2010. Winners will be announced on March 23, 2010.

Please note that if you have never commented on TDF before, your comments might take a little while to appear on the site. In order to keep the spammers from trying to sell us on enhancement products and online card games, initial comments are moderated. As soon as I’ve approved your comment, you’ll be able to comment without delay. Thanks!

The trailer looks pretty sweet. I’m kind of afraid that Favreau et al will try to do too much with the movie and it’ll be a mess, but at least the trailer looks awesome.

So, in response to today’s (heck, the past month’s) insanity, [...]]]>

Today’s been batshit crazy. There was a shooting at the Wal-Mart in my tiny little town, and even though I wasn’t there (I tried to go there about half an hour after it happened and found it blocked off), it’s left me feeling way unsettled.

So, in response to today’s (heck, the past month’s) insanity, here is Wolverine in a banana hammock, hitting on alien babes.

Nice speedos.

Please feel free to make me laugh with silly Wolverine pics in the comments.

Best. Valentine's Day. Present. Ever.

Yes, those are my ridiculously pale legs.

Buy It Now: on Amazon.com

Description: Collecting more than two dozen stories that *originally* appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction – the premiere speculative fiction magazine – this extraordinary anthology celebrates 60 years of top-notch genre fiction.

Peter S. Beagle Alfred Bester Terry Bisson Ray Bradbury Ted Chiang Philip K. [...]]]>

The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction, edited by Gordon Van Gelder

Buy It Now: on Amazon.com

Description: Collecting more than two dozen stories that *originally* appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction – the premiere speculative fiction magazine – this extraordinary anthology celebrates 60 years of top-notch genre fiction.

Peter S. Beagle
Alfred Bester
Terry Bisson
Ray Bradbury
Ted Chiang
Philip K. Dick
Harlan Ellison®
Jeffrey Ford
Karen Joy Fowler
Neil Gaiman
Shirley Jackson
John Kessel
Daniel Keyes
Stephen King
Damon Knight
Ursula K. Le Guin
M. Rickert
Theodore Sturgeon
Michael Swanwick
William Tenn
James Tiptree, Jr.
Kurt Vonnegut
Roger Zelazny

Featuring the classic tales:

“All Summer in a Day,” Ray Bradbury’s lasting tale of what happened on one special day
“Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, describing what happened to Charlie Gordon when he was made into a genius
“Harrison Bergeron,” Kurt Vonnegut’s absurdist cautionary tale of mandatory equality
“The Electric Ant” by Philip K. Dick, concerning what Garson Poole learned after the accident that hospitalized him.

This remarkable collection also features highly acclaimed, award-winning authors whose careers were jumpstarted by their appearances in F&SF.

This review is based on a free review copy received from the publisher.

TDF Pamela’s Review:

If you’re looking for a strong anthology of excellent science fiction and fantasy, you’ve found it. Editor Gordon Van Gelder has compiled a solid lineup of the best SF/F short stories from Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine’s long and illustrious history, and the anthology works both as an introduction to the wonderful world of speculative fiction as well as a nicely varied collection for the SF/F aficionado.

My personal favorites in the anthology are Peter S. Beagle’s “Two Hearts,” a story set in the world of his famous The Last Unicorn; Neil Gaiman’s “Other People,” a sparse and disturbing idea of what Hell is like; and “The Women Men Don’t See” by James Tiptree, Jr., a deeply intelligent, feminist story. It was difficult to narrow down the list of favorites, because everything in the anthology is excellently written and engrossing. The group of authors included make up sort of a Who’s Who of SF/F, and it’s hard to go wrong with that group.

I definitely recommend this anthology to anyone wanting to beef up their collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories, and it is a great introduction for the SF/F newbie.

Buy It Now: on Amazon.com

Description: Toby Daye — a half-human, half-fae changeling — has been an outsider from birth. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the fae world, retreating to a “normal” life. Unfortunately for her, the Faerie world had other ideas…

Now her liege, the Duke [...]]]>

Buy It Now: on Amazon.com

Description: Toby Daye — a half-human, half-fae changeling — has been an outsider from birth. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the fae world, retreating to a “normal” life. Unfortunately for her, the Faerie world had other ideas…

Now her liege, the Duke of the Shadowed Hills, has asked Toby to go to the Country of Tamed Lightening to make sure all is well with his niece, Countess January O’Leary. It seems like a simple enough assignment — until Toby discovers that someone has begun murdering people close to January, and that if the killer isn’t stopped, January may be the next victim.

This review is based on a free review copy received from the publisher/author.

The Bibliomaniac’s Review:

I consider myself fairly lucky recently, in that I’ve had a long run of good books—some relatively so, and some by any standards that anyone alive could set—to enjoy of late.  Being a pessimist (or realist, some might say) at heart, I keep waiting to get a truly awful book that’ll break that good run and make me hold my nose and make gagging noises and call up all my friends to make fun of it and write nasty comments on the author’s blog and finally recycle the pages to line my cats’ litter boxes with.

But it looks like I’m going to have to keep waiting, because I couldn’t find a thing about A Local Habitation to dislike or kvetch about.

I first met Toby Daye in the pages of Rosemary and Rue, the first book in the ongoing saga that bears the protagonist’s name.  My review of that book can be found here at The Discriminating Fangirl, a few entries back, for those who are so inclined.

A Local Habitation picks up six months after the end of Rosemary and Rue, with Toby actually getting to kick back and enjoy herself for a change.  The book opens with Toby escorting a couple of her friends to the train station.  This seemingly-simple task is complicated by the fact that Toby and her friends are all blind drunk after a night of club-hopping.  After she sees her friends off, Toby contemplates getting a cab to take her home and decides to walk, instead.  Not very far along the way there, she runs into Tybalt, the King of Cats and leader of the local Cait Sidhe.

I want to pause here for a moment and say: Yum.

(I admit it: I’m an unabashed Tybalt fan, and I’m not the only one.  I was very, very pleased to learn that there was more of him in this book to enjoy.)

Tybalt helps Toby to get home, a fact he’ll never let her live down (of course), and the next morning, Toby gets a visit from Sylvester Torquill, Duke of San Francisco and Toby’s liege lord, asking her to carry out a small service for him that leads into the main plot of the novel.

I’m not going to outline the novel here and give it all away.  What I will say is that there are very few novels I look forward to with as much glee as I do each new Toby Daye novel—no small feat, when the series is less than a year old and comprises just two books so far.  (I expect the same will become true of the Newsflesh trilogy—McGuire’s zombie apocalypse trilogy written under the pen name Mira Grant—when it hits the shelves.)  The only other authors whose new works I await with such expectation are Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, which puts McGuire—IMO—in damned fine company.

I could gush for several pages about McGuire’s writing skills—and did, in the Rosemary and Rue review—but today, I’ll content myself with a single observation that leaves me particularly gleeful.  McGuire has a deft hand at characterization, especially as regards differentiating dialogue between characters.  There’s many a writer whose heroine or hero speaks pretty much the same as their villain of the deepest dye, and there are fewer authorial flaws guaranteed to make me throw the book against the nearest wall in outrage.  That Toby speaks with a style different from Tybalt—and different from Duke Sylvester, or Quentin, her young associate, or April, the strangest druid this side of an oak forest—makes me want to send McGuire several boxes of Halloween-themed cupcakes via next-day FedEx in gratitude.

To be fair, I admit to being a sucker for all things Fae.  This doesn’t mean that any book set in Faerie or with Fae characters gets a free pass from me; on the contrary, it means I hold them to a much higher standard.  Not once does the writing here rely on stereotypes, clichés, or lazy plotting, putting her in the company of such writers as Melissa Marr, Holly Black, and yes, Neil Gaiman.  I predict that, before very much more time passes, McGuire will be known as well as any of them.

September—the month that An Artificial Night, the next book in the Toby Daye series, is released—looks like an awful long time away.

But it’ll be worth the wait.

The Bibliomaniac

Ye olde author (emphasis on the OLD) likes the weird and the strange, which explains most of her friends. Married, with two daughters, she has earned a B.A. in Literature and a B.S. in Criminal Justice. Her interests include reading and writing (of course!), gardening, poetry, comic books, herbalism, chocolate, tea, mythology and fairy tales, comparative theology and alternative religions, Celtic and darkwave music, role-playing games and LARPing, horror movies, hiking and camping, SF conventions, and the martial arts. She lives with her husband, her younger daughter, five cats, a dog, and a houseful of gargoyles somewhere east of Chicago. She can be contacted at BrigidsBlest @ yahoo.com.

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