Review of Dead Reign by T. A. Pratt

I realize this 2008 offering from T. A. Pratt is only the third in a longer series, but it's my first introduction to his master sorceress, Marla Mason.

It would have been nice to get to know Marla a little better before the action of this story begins. Instead, after Death kicks her out of Felport, the city she runs, she hardly plays a role in the story until about 80% of the way in.

While her supporters, led by mysterious entity Rondeau,
fight a rear-guard resistance, we are left to wonder what her next
play will be, if any. Finally, she decides to invade Hell to kick some
butt. She just happens to know a seer who can get her in. It all
sounds a little too easy.

Luckily, I always enjoy it when there's a feckless sidekick, and Dead Reign introduces Pelham, gifted to Marla as a "valet," much against her desires. Pelham is rather naive and wishy-washy (picture Jarvis in "Agent Carter,") but a welcome addition anyway, especially when we see Marla rescue him after he's been eaten by a dragon/witch.

Marla's sortie into Hell can't help but be a real thrill ride. You see, hell is an individual thing. In this case, it embodies all of Marla's worst fears and contains her worst, albeit dead, enemies. Pratt throws an incredible panoply of nightmarish monsters and creatures at Marla and Pelham. But the one monster she never would expect is Death himself--or, rather, the
old Death, who refuses to step down. He makes Marla an offer she can't refuse, and we await the verdict: Who will reign in Hell?

As you might guess, Marla lives to fight another day in the sequel, "Spell Games." Dead Reign's available on Amazon.

Notes from the Editor: "Only Disconnect"

Third Flatiron's summer edition calls upon Presentism as a theme: the pitfalls of distraction, overstimulation, and other attention thieves—too much to do, too little time. We asked: Are we becoming ADD? What are the advantages of being "in the present," or even bored?

      We open with Evan Henry's near-future detective thriller set in Shanghai, "Seventh Sense," a world where there are "too many people" and the State tightly monitors everyone. What would you do to have just three minutes to yourself?
      Arrest and interrogation with undisclosed charges is a common science fiction nightmare, but Steve Coate adds a new twist in his dark tale, "Jacked." ("But officer, I wasn't even there, I tell you.")
      We're so connected to our identity as human beings, it's interesting to contemplate what would happen if we had to take an alien perspective into account, as in Jonathan Shipley's "Aqua Equal," a fun tale about the first Earth student to attend college with our alien overlords. Evelyn Deshane takes us to the "Carnival of Colours," where aliens judge you by the color of your name.
      We're featuring a lot of game-related excitement in this issue. Stephanie Flood's adventure, "A House of Mirrors," and Jason Lairamore's "She Dies," show us that it's not always "just a game," but that's the fun of it, right?
      Though it saves us the trouble of dating, online romance can be risky, and it's even more so if the intelligent AI running the network doesn't like mushy stuff, as in E. E. King's "Just Visulate."
      We can't resist a bit of the steampunk, of course. In Matt Weinburg's "The Eyes in the Water," a young blogger gains a wide audience as he tracks the mystery of his deceased uncle's intelligent creation.
      Connect with the Earth rather than Bluetooth? Maybe going back to Nature is the solution to today's over-booked world. When a couple goes camping together in Adria Laycraft's "Killing the Green Man," we learn that's not always the case.
      It's just a gut feeling, but we think Robert Lowell Russell is onto something when he says "Super Bugs" are about to give us a nudge.
      Other humorous offerings for this round include Elliotte Rusty Harold's "Email Recovered from Genetech Debris, Lieutenant Jeffrey Abramowitz Investigating" and Wendy Nikel's "Life After Download." Whew, take a breath. And then call your mother.
      Finally, we close with Paul Barclay's luminous "Into the Light," where we learn that even though you can't hug a hologram, even a character who's not very likable or connected with people can still have the best of intentions that turn out to benefit humanity.
      "Only Disconnect" proudly showcases an international group of new and established speculative fiction authors, who help us decide whether it's time to disconnect—or instead to connect even further.
      It's available on Amazon and Smashwords.
     

     

Review of "The Three-Body Problem" by Cixin Liu

I'm not sure whether this science fiction novel is the first Chinese work to be nominated for a Nebula, but it has caused a well-deserved worldwide sensation.

Cixin Liu is the most famous SF author in China, but had been little known until American author Ken Liu translated his work into English. At last month's Conference on World Affairs, eminent author David Brin recommended it highly, so I decided to give it a read.

The Three-Body Problem is a rarity in science fiction that will appeal to readers across many genres. Nestled within its thrilling plot are complex characters, an intriguing game, along with a healthy dose of cosmology. We see that understanding the fundamental nature of the universe is key to advancing humanity's progress.

The story opens during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Radioscientist Wenjie Ye's father, a famous physicist, and her Red Guard sister are both killed, and she is sent to a remote site to work on a farm. Nearby, a secret radiotelescope installation beams messages into space, the Chinese equivalent of the SETI project. The gentle Ye manages to get a job at the telescope and one night receives a communication.

At first Ye simply seems naive, wanting to be the first to communicate with an extraterrestrial civilization, but her motives are revealed to be increasingly dark. She hides the communication and replies to the message, commiting murder to keep her secret. She has lost faith in humanity and wants human civilization to end. We sympathize with her family tragedies, but we can't understand her total disaffection. After the Cultural Revolution winds down, a billionaire environmentalist joins her cause, and in the guise of an addictive game called Three Body, humans are recruited to understand an alien culture and help it survive.

Meanwhile, we see events unfold on the alien planet, Trisolaris, which is subject to the ravages of triple suns that unpredictably burn and freeze it. Trisolarans are desperate to reach earth, and they find a way to buy time until they can conquer it.

The devastating conclusion will stay with you a long time--and renew your appreciation for the preciousness of life--not just human--on our blessed blue planet.

"Writing the Novel" Panel at CWA 2015

Amidst blooming crabapple and cherry trees, throngs turned out this week for the 67th Conference on World Affairs at CU-Boulder. Only a controversy about whether this beloved institution will continue to be free and open to the community put a damper on the activities.

It's a particular joy to see eminent panelists from all over talk about issues, life, and whatever inspires them, sharing viewpoints and insights that take us out of our quotidian thought processes. I listened to a panel called "Writing the Novel," attended by four novelists, each of whom had practical advice as well as general observations about the novel writing process.

These panelists agreed that attending workshops to learn the craft can be beneficial, but all emphasized that it's necessary to actually complete the long work, not just dream about it.

G. Willow Wilson, a young Muslim woman who writes graphic novels and created the female Muslim superhero "Ms. Marvel," outlined a number of steps, including how to find an agent, recommending "Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents." The guide is updated frequently. By approaching agents who represented books similar to hers, she was able to connect with her agent of 10 years. Another valuable piece of advice is that the book should grab the reader's attention--from the very first sentence. It's unlikely readers will give the book 100 pages to see if it gets good.

Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Campbell award-winning science fiction writer David Brin ("Earth," "Startide Rising," and other "Uplift" novels) felt the most important help a writer can get is criticism. He even went so far as to say that if an early reader said they loved his book, he'd remove them from the reviewer list in the future. He feels criticism was the key factor in making a writer improve.

Teen writer Anna Caltabiano has completed two Young Adult novels, the first when she was only 14 years old! This articulate, passionate youngster showed she understands what it takes to be a
writer, saying she enjoys putting two characters together in an empty room and seeing what develops. She often has an ending in mind, and writes outlines for the next several chapters, but doesn't necessarily plot out every detail in advance.

One of the most inspiring of the panelists was Leonard Pitts, Jr. Though he's a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, he recounted how he tried for decades to get a novel published, and hadn't succeeded
until 2009. His persistence finally paid off, though, and now he has four best-selling novels under his belt. He asked how many in the audience were "aspiring writers." He then said, "Ha, that's a trick
question! Aspiring to write isn't enough, you have to need to write."

As an aspiring novelist (seriously, I have at least written my first one), I hope to apply some of these hints toute suite.

Editor's Thoughts: "The Time It Happened"

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Sometimes themes just have a way of imposing certain genres on an anthology. Third Flatiron's previous anthology skewed heavily toward fantasy and epic themes. In contrast, this edition, which calls upon the theme, "The Time It Happened," is almost entirely hard science fiction. We asked for tales that evoke an event that everyone remembers, or certainly would remember if it were to actually happen.

In sifting submissions we were pleased to receive a number of time-tinkering** stories, including a return of favorite character Dr. Leon Prinz in Martin Clark's intriguing alternate history recounting of the Apollo 11 mission in "False Footfall."

As every writer knows, it's well nigh impossible to get a tin foil hat story published, but you'll be glad to know we're publishing not one, but two! Ellen Denton's "Stilled Life" nicely complements Clark's offering. Did you know that William Safire once wrote a speech for President Nixon in case the astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin got marooned on the moon? The excellent cover by Keely Rew shows an angry Neil Armstrong about to school the clueless Nixon.

Humans may have some exciting future events to look forward to as they reach for the stars, as in Richard Mark Ankers' "Armada of Snow," Evan Henry's "With Gilded Wings," and Jason Lairamore's "Kin Carriers."

We couldn't leave out Sputnik, of course. Thomas Canfield spins an engaging tale about who really won the space race in "Puppy Love."

There's a healthy helping of sobering "what-if" scenarios, including "Net War I" by Elliotte Rusty Harold, "Going Viral" by Dan Koboldt, and "Good to the Last Drop" by Wendy Nikel.

With the passage of time come memories, which can be either heartbreaking, as in Atar Hadari's "Lincoln's Watch," or heartening, as in Larry C. Kay's "What Was Lost."

Anchoring the collection is "A Rock in the Air," an affecting tale about a man who is thrown forward in time by the explosion in Hiroshima and his ultimate decision to return home to be with his people.

Our flash humor offerings, "Blargnorff Industries New Employee Handbook Human Edition" by Dana Schellings, "The Zzzombie Apocalypse" by Mark Hill, and "Xenofabulous" by Amanda C. Davis," show the importance of proper behavior and attire as well as a good work ethic.

"The Time It Happened" proudly showcases an international group of new and established speculative fiction authors, who help us recall events as they could only happen in the mind's eye.

It's available on Amazon and Smashwords.

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**If any of you cosmology buffs might be wondering if time is real or simply a construct of the human mind, we recommend a Guardian review of the Unger and Smolin book, "The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time," by Caspar Henderson.

Everybody Jump

Could you cause an earthquake if enough people jumped up and down at the same time? And if you could, would it save a lot of lives to
create earthquakes on demand?

Author Henry Lien explores that question in his excellent fantasy novelette, "The Great Leap of Shin," appearing in the January/February
2015 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. The powerful Eunuch Mu-Hai Chen is determined to create the Earthquake of Five Thousand Years by lining up 200 million men along a major fault line in his kingdom and synchronizing their jumps to set up a resonant frequency, prophylactically saving millions of lives, though at the expense of a percentage of the population.

But the young nobleman Tian-Tai is equally determined to halt the plan, which will destroy his island of Pearl and flood the Purple River. He brings a team of acrobatic dancers to the capital to assassinate Mu-Hai Chen under the guise of paying homage. He pleads to save Pearl, which has developed a self-healing new building material of spider silk made liquid.

Neither the eunuch nor the boy will back down, so the great leap occurs as scheduled. The kingdom of Shin lies in ruins, and older buildings of the city of Pearl are flattened. Then we learn how history treats each one for his sacrifice.

Lien's calculations of how the Great Leap would work are highly entertaining, though a peek at Hugo winner Randall Munroe's book, "what if?" shows us that it would be impossible to make the earth move even a little, even if everyone on earth jumped, even if they were in a concentrated area the size of Rhode Island, even if...

Great fun, nonetheless.

Editor's Note: Abbreviated Epics

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What is an epic? The dictionary defines it as a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation. Third Flatiron's tenth quarterly anthology, "Abbreviated Epics," is a double issue, encompassing 19 very short stories on epical themes, such as swashbuckles and sorcery, alternate history and steampunk, megalomania, Frankenstein-type tales, and creation myths. As you might guess, it is quite a fantasy-heavy collection.

In reading submissions we were intrigued to receive a number of tales drawing upon Japanese and Chinese mythology. Our lead story, "Blade Between Oni and Hare," by Siobhan Gallagher, brings a marvelous—and often strange to Western eyes— viewpoint to the idea of an epic struggle. Other notable tales with feminine heroines include "Rain over Lesser Boso" by Gustavo Bondoni, "The Perfection of the Steam-Powered Armour" by Adria Laycraft, and "Qinggong Ji" by Stephen D. Rogers. What could be more appropriate than a manga-style cover?

If Victorian and Napoleonic steampunk is more your cup of tea, you'll find some damn fine exemplars in "Beyond the Turning Orrery" by Deborah Walker and "Through an Ocular Darkly" by Martin Clark. Daniel Coble rounds out this group with a tale about a lost Himalayan expedition, "Assault on the Summit."

During my studies of medieval literature, I grew especially fond of the Norse sagas, both owing to their bloodthirsty, ambitious characters and strong moral content. We're happy to include Jordan Ashley Moore's "A Wolf Is Made," and Steve Coate's "Fortunate Son," passionate, and sometimes heartbreaking, stories inspired by the Viking civilization. And since epics by definition are poems, we've included a reprint of "Odin on the Tree" by poet/novelist Jo Walton.

Many writers are familiar with American mythologist Joseph Campbell's deconstruction of "The Hero's Journey," which outlines the basic pattern of an epic. We were tickled to see satirical pieces by Elliotte Rusty Harold and Jake Teeny, "Refusing the Call" and "Toward the Back." And Manuel Royal points out that sometimes the battle just goes "Heart-Shaped."

Our flash humor offerings, "The Committee," by Margarita Tenser, and "Damfino Plays for Table Stakes" by Ben Solomon, show us not to press our luck.

In "The Lost Children," Alison McBain provides a new take on the ancient Greek myth of the Minotaur, while Patricia S. Bowne invents a shiny new myth in "Great Light's Daughters." "The Blue Cup," by Marissa James, asks whether it is possible to recapture a long-ago, magical time.

While we don't have room for sweeping histories like "Dr. Zhivago," we call to your attention "On a Train with a Coyote Ghost" by Robin Wyatt Dunn and "HMS Invisible and the Halifax Slaver" by Iain Ishbel. These are affecting and luminous stories about the courage it takes to fight evil, fascism, and slavery.

 "Abbreviated Epics" proudly showcases an international group of new and established speculative fiction authors, who share with us just a smidgen of the heroic and grand.

It's available in all ebook formats from Amazon and Smashwords (and other popular distributors) and in paperback from CreateSpace. It's getting some good reviews already on Amazon and Albedo One.