Rescued By Nerds

Ian Banks Transition opens with our narrator informing us he’s not exactly reliable. It makes sense as the book features an organization where characters leap from one body to another across the multiverse. The Concern may or may not be an organization that influences a multitude of worlds for good or for ill. We never find out but I think that’s kind of the point.

Lead character, Temudjin Oh, a self described multiversal ninja, begins to question his leaders orders as he flits back and forth. Sometimes he’s merely pushing someone out of the way. Other times he’s getting bloody. He’s pulled in opposite directions from Madam D’Orlotan and former teacher Mrs. Mulverhill as a prize piece of the puzzle.

Banks is hit or miss for me and this one is a hit out of the park. It’s about politics, torture, body jumping assassins and how much interfering is ok to move a world in a particular direction. I don’t think it;s for everyone though if you like challenging books, both in content and in execution this may be for you.

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Jeff Somers, author of the Avery Cates series for Orbit stops by for a fun chat about his latest novel, world building and life at Orbit.

RBN: Bring readers up to speed on whats happened to Avery leading up to the opening of The Eternal Prison…

JS : We left Avery being arrested in the burned out shell of Pickering’s after he survived The Digital Plague. The Plague was actually a swarm of nano-sized robots that devoured and then animated the population, created under duress by one of Cates’ previous cohorts, Ty Kieth, and orchestrated by Kev Gatz, who was left for dead in The Electric Church. TEP picks up about five minutes later, so he’s still burned-out, suicidal, and depressed.

In those five minutes, however, Avery sang a haunting ballad about life being hard for honest assassins. It’s too bad you won’t hear it. It was very moving.

RBN: The first two books are pretty dark. I found Eternal Prison to really hit the noir vibe. It’s bleak man. Did you expect that going in?

JS: Yes – it’s going to keep getting dark, too. I see this whole universe as one in decline, and the stories reflect that. Avery’s got just a bit too much goodness in him, and so he suffers as everything collapses around him.

I believe that civilization is fragile, and we’re always walking a tightrope over a chasm of chaos. The System that Cates lives in is splitting at the seams and in rapid decline—it was actually more or less stable in the first book, so if you thought book one was grim, well, things are just getting worse. And they’ll continue to get worse as the books advance, trust me.

RBN: Did someone named Avery ever do something wrong to you cause you sure beat the shit out of your lead…

JS: No, but Avery’s a bad man, really. It feels right to mash him up a little. That’s honestly the reason he gets such a beating—he deserves it, man.

Although that would be cool, if someone named Avery had done me dirt and my revenge was to create an avatar of him on the page and beat that avatar mercilessly. I’ll have to keep that in mind going forward.

RBN: Early on I started to get a feeling that I knew where the story was going and then you completely pulled the rug out of me. Have you been waiting three books to deliver the twist that comes about midway thru Eternal Prison?

JS : No; I don’t ‘plot’ very much. I start off with a rough idea of where the story is going and what characters it will involve, then I put a bag over my head, bind my wrists in duct tape, force myself to drink an entire bottle of Peach Schnapps, and wake up months later, surprised and dehydrated. I’m usually just about as dumbfounded at the direction of the plot as anyone else. The particular twist in TEP was there when I first started thinking about that book, but I wasn’t thinking about it while writing the first two.

RBN: You introduce several interesting new characters, particularly Michaleen Garda. What can you tell us about him?

JS : I’ll keep it brief, as Michaleen will continue to factor into the stories: He’s already at the prison when Avery arrives, and takes Cates under his wing, so to speak. Cates quickly realizes the old man has an agenda, but Cates doesn’t realize the extent of that agenda—or of Michaleen’s reach—until some more story-time goes by.

I like Michaleen. He’s a cheerful psychopath, and if I have to have a psychopath in the room, I prefer them to be cheerful. He’s also a deep ocean of secrets, which is made very clear by the last line of the book.

RBN : You also really get out into this devastated world. I thought the descriptions of Venice were great. How do you “design” these versions of Avery’s world?

JS: Thanks! You start with the world as it is today, then add decades/centuries of neglect, violence, and climate change. I try to stay within reasonable boundaries—I don’t like it when SF/F stories set in the future go for huge obvious changes. There’s always the temptation to go wild, but Cates’ universe is pretty clearly connected to our own present—it can’t be that far in the future, right? It’s a world where technology advanced but the infrastructure of the world wasn’t upgraded in step, and was damaged along the way in various conflagrations and then never repaired.

My settings are sometimes influenced by where I’ve been; if I know a little something about a location it will usually end up as a setting because I can get into the small details. Sometimes it’s more surprising to the reader if the setting is more or less the same as it is today—we’re all expecting the dystopian version, so if things are familiar and functional it’s surprising and fresh. Sometimes, though, you want to remind everyone that things are in decline, so having Venice be flooded because somewhere in the last few decades or centuries people stopped trying to hold back the sea works.

And sometimes, of course, things are ruined in certain ways because it serves the plot, or because you can think of really cool ways to use that setting under those conditions. As long as it makes sense within the universe, it’s fun to give in to that temptation sometimes—judiciously.

RBN : In Digital Plague you have zombies and in Eternal Prison you up the ante with cannibals. Do you like throwing in horror elements into a sci fi setting?

JS: I don’t necessarily think of them as separate things. While of course there are genres and their tropes/expectations, I think it’s all just part of the same toybox. When I was a kid my brother and I used to have these epic games involving plastic army men, Legos, A Godzilla figure, model planes, and anything else we had lying around—it didn’t matter, we were just using our imaginations. I think of writing that way—if you hit a point and think, “Hey, it’d be cool if some zombies showed up”, why not do it, and genre conventions be damned!

Of course, that’s within reason. If your story is set in a recognizably SF sort of world, where everything is at least theoretically based on scientific concepts, you can’t really introduce unicorns and magic spells unless you’re some sort of supergenius. Which I am not. So there are some limitations. But I think that if you can come up with a pseudo-sciency explanation for it, you can toss it in and have fun. And that’s the point: stuff like that is fun.

RBN: There’s a tease for your next book, The Terminal State, in the back of this book. Did you always plan on continuing beyond the initial trilogy? How many volumes are you expecting to write featuring Avery?

JS: When I wrote the first book, “The Electric Church”, I conceived of it as a standalone story, but always thought I could return to the character/universe. Right now we’re planning on 5 books total in this arc. When Book #5 comes out, it’ll tie off the story of Avery’s last few years which we’ve been exploring. There might another series of books starring Avery, but right now that remains to be seen and there are no plans beyond book #5.

What I’ve started having fun with, though, are short stories starring Avery. We released 2 free shorts to celebrate The Eternal Prison, both set between books 1 and 2. I think even if there are no more Avery novels, it will be a lot of fun to sometimes return to Avery at random moments in his career and give little glimpses.

RBN: One of the things I think I like best about Avery is that no matter what, he remains a bastard. He might periodically do the right thing but it’s never because he thinks it’s the right thing. How much fun is it to have a lead who is so completely amoral?

JS: Tons of fun. A character that’s black and white—all hero, or all villain—is boring. Having someone who’s not a nice person but with some niceness in there, somewhere; well, that’s interesting. Of course, I also think Avery’s having the niceness beaten out of him over time, so who knows where he’s going to end. It probably won’t be a good place.

What makes it fun is exploring how someone who is born a sane and rational person gets transformed into someone who can put a gun to another person’s head and pull the trigger, then sleep at night, then have nightmares about it but still get up the next morning and do it again.

RBN: How’s life at Orbit these days?

JS: I love Orbit, and they’re thriving. I love the energy they bring to every aspect of the business, and I love my editor despite the fact that she doesn’t seem at all impressed with my antics. I think my antics are hilarious and insightful. My editor thinks I should be writing more.

RBN: Do you have any plans to write non Avery books? Any other genres you are itching to try?

JS: I’ve written lots of non-Avery books, actually. I’ve written non-SF books, too. I’m open to just about anything—if inspiration strikes, I don’t worry overmuch about what genre it is. Of course, my stories all tend to turn dark and often twist into SF/F at some point, but it’s never the plan, because there never is a plan.

It’s not the writing of books that’s the problem—it’s convincing someone to buy those books!

RBN: What’s next for you Jeff?

JS: Well, I just turned in Cates #4, The Terminal State, which is due out next year. In the mean time, I took part in The Stephen King Desktop Calendar, which has authors contributing short essays on how King has influenced them, and my short story “Sift, Almost Invisible, Through” will appear in the Mystery Writer’s of America’s upcoming anthology (edited by Charlaine Harris) Blood Lust, due out in early 2010.

That, and some napping.

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Jeff Somers noir antihero Avery Cates returns in his darkest adventure yet. Eternal Prison picks up shortly after the conclusion of The Digital Plague. Avery finds himself tagged and bagged on a one way train to Chengara, a System prison where “persons of interest” are sent to disappear. Avery is beaten and battered, feeling all of the wear and tear. This is a different Avery. He’s darker and far more cynical than in his previous adventures. It’s fitting because the world Avery lives in is about as bleak as can be. Dick Marin’s System Pigs are at war with everyone else and whole cities have been bombed to dust.

Eternal Prison actually has two narratives, both featuring Avery. One follows Avery as he acclimates to Chengara and meets an intriguing cast of characters, including Michaleen Garda who is going to play a big party in Avery’s adventures going forward. The second narrative follows a post prison Avery who is working for Cal Rubio whacking Dick Marin’s people. Jeff wisely takes Avery all across the globe including a fantastic sequence in a nearly submerged Venice and a violent showdown in a cannibal infested Moscow.

Much like David Gunn’s third Death’s Head novel this one changes the game a bit and moves the characters and narrative in a different direction. It’s a dark path that should be really interesting to read. If you are a fan of Richard Morgan, David Williams or David Gunn then Jeff is right up your alley.

Look for an interview with Jeff early next week.

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Like many others I have been following along with James Cameron’s gleeful hype about his first film in more than a decade, Avatar. I’ve seen all the interviews where he calls it a game changer and says movie going will never be the same. Well having seen the Avatar Day presentation for myself, I think he’s right.

I spent a good chunk of my Monday afternoon trying to secure a ticket to get into the 8/21 screening and only managed it from a backdoor link someone posted on a forum. Then there was the agonizing wait for a confirmation email. That came about four hours later and then I figured I could just look forward to the screening.

Whoops…

I get another email from Fox telling me that there were screw ups and that I needed to reconfirm. I did that as fast as I could and luckily got another confirmation. So I get to the theater and of course my name isn’t on their list even though I had a print out of their confirmation. The Fox people said this was happening a lot and not to worry I was still ok for the screening.

This is a lot of drama for a fifteen minute preview!

I want to digress for a minute back to my childhood. My dad and I, while on a summer vacation at the Jersey shore were looking for something to do on a Saturday night. He saw an ad for Aliens playing on the Ocean City Boardwalk. We had dinner and took the ride out to see the movie. I was dazzled like never before. I loved everything about the movie. The story, the effects, the weapons, the humanity from a non human character and woman being the savior of the day while Michael Biehn sits the final showdowns out. It was my first real exposure to James Cameron and I was on the hook.

So move forward nearly two decades and I start seeing online ramblings of Cameron coming back. I read about Jim’s vision for stereoscopic cineam and photo real effects. Huge advances in motion capture and emotional performances from CG characters. I’m a huge fan of cinematic innovation but I thought a lot of it was hype.

I read the reports from San Diego and started to think that there maybe really is something to this. I see the trailer and while really, really cool, I think maybe it really is hype. I still expect to enjoy the movie but I dial down my excitement.

Then I am sitting in the AMC Empire 25 IMAX theater in Manhattan. As the lights go down and we see Jim in 3D thanking us for being there and telling us what we are going to see I start to get an inkling for what he’s doing. This is 1950’s 3D where things are popping out into your face. This is designed to make you fall into the frame like you are there.

The first scene features all live actors in a room. That’s it. It’s jaw dropping. You feel like you are sitting in the room with them. Everything right there in front of you. It’s astonishing to say the least. And then it really takes off. The CG for Jake’s Avatar is amazing. The facial expressions, the sheer emotion on his face at regaining the ability to walk. I’ve never seen anything like it. The rest of the preview went by way too fast. I think this is the next step in film making and I was thrilled to have been given a chance at an early look.

A special thank you to Cameron and Fox. I think this is a brilliant way to get people to evangelize this movie. They invited people in and gave them a taste of what is to come. I’ll do my part signing it’s praises.

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The Sunless Countries is Canadian writer Karl Schroeder’s fourth venture into the wild world of Virga. Virga exists in deep space as a self contained world that has no gravity. People live in steampunk cities where gravity is created by rocket engines pulling town wheels in different directions. Technology is limited. Man made fusion reactors serve as small suns. The first three Virga novels followed the adventures of Chaison and Venera Fanning who are nowhere to be found in the newest entry. Hayden Griffen, last seen in Sun of Suns makes his return.

The sunless countries exist deep inside Virga in an area called Abyss. The book largely follows historian Leal Maspeth as her home city is in the midst of a political change by a group called Eternists who think nothing exists outside of Virga. Leal meets and becomes involved in a way with Hayden Griffen as both race to figure out what is going on amidst attacks by what people are calling a monster.

Much like David Gunn’s Day of the Damned, Schroeder takes what you know about Virga and turns it on it’s head in the third act. This book clearly marks a change in direction for the series as we go far beyond the skin of Virga to see just what is hiding out there. Schroeder is a dazzling world builder and I cannot wait to see what he does with Virga next.

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Once in a while I stumble across a book that I’ve not heard a word about but something about it just stands out on the shelf. I was walking through the Sci/Fi section in Borders and I see Sandman Slim on their featured shelf and then I see the absolutely effusive praise from William Gibson and I’m very curious. The jacket description doesn’t give you much, if anything it makes this sound much closer to The Dresden Files when I would say it’s really like Joe Pitt’s little brother. Richard Kadrey writes a blisteringly cool dark fantasy urban noir that is maniacally bleak and ultra violent.

Jim Stark is a magician. Not a card trick guy but someone who really can use magic. When the book opens Stark has just found his way back from Hell to LA on a collision course for revenge against former friends who not only sent him to Hell but also killed his beloved Alice. Stark has not come back empty handed though. He has a black knife made of some sort of bone that can cut through anything and a key from Lucifer himself that Stark has hidden in his heart. This key allows Stark to jump into a shadow and then out to any location he chooses. What Kadrey does so well is gives Stark some time and the reader as well to get accustomed to what is going on. There’s a post punk tiki bar, Homeland Security, a trader of supernatural artifacts, angels, anti angels, brothels that specialize in occult creatures and an anti hero who is supremely hard to kill.

Stark is Sandman Slim, the monster who kills monsters. He’s also the coolest character to come along in a long time. I understand this is the first in a series. I am along for the ride.

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After taking care of some extended work in California and some much needed vacation I’m back in stride. I will be posting more reviews and hopefully an interview or two soon.

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David Gunn is back with his third Death’s Head novel and it’s a good one. Lt. Sven Tveskoeg finds himself on some downtime after the conclusion of Maximum Offense resting at the home of Debro and Aptitude Wildside. Of course this being a Death’s Head novel the tranquility lasts about four pages. A message comes from Sven’s commander and he’s off with a new group of supporting characters through his home city Farlight as it is torn asunder. Political intrigue, the nature of what exactly Octo V is and the sheer brutality of war are all explored here. Sven is a great narrator, he doesn’t pretent to know more than he does and the layers are peeled back for the reader as they are for Sven.

Much of the dangling plots in the series are tied up. We get the first real glimpse into what exactly the Octavian Empire is and who is ruling it. We also get some tantalizing glimpses of what Sven himself might be. Gunn’s writing is crisp as ever and Sven’s voice is a fun one to spend time with. This time out Sven does get pushed to the limit. He’s without his combat arm and his AI guided SIg handgun for much of the book but it works. Gunn also introduces some freakish creatures called Furies which are as much machine as anything else that drink blood through their fingers. The scope of the game has expanded in each installment and in this one the full board gets largely exposed. Gunn leaves the series at a really interesting point where he can go off in an entirely new direction if he chooses. Rumor has it he is working on a fourth installment. We can only hope.

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Zacuto gun stock DSLR rig

In my day job I direct the work of a digital media unit for a relatively large non profit that spends a lot of time doing social justice work. With a small staff I always try to find equipment that will make us better, faster and more productive. In short I love the toys. My editor flipped me a DV magazine to look at and the above rig caught my eye.

Yes that’s a digital SLR camera set up like a Digital Cinema camera, or a news gathering rig. Zacuto, who make out of this world stabilizing support rigs, has tossed their hat into the ring for an emerging market that I had no idea even existed. As DSLR cameras get more powerful and can now shoot full resolution HD video, tv networks and news agencies have taken notice. No longer do you need to send a still photographer and a videographer. With the right camera and rig one person can get stills and also supporting video. Zacuto recognized this and know that these cameras need some support for them to truly be workable. And it looks like they’ve done it. CBS did a webisode series supporting “The Ghost Whisperer” with a high end Canon DSLR. I know AP and I believe Reuters has these rigs in the field right now.

At first I thought this was absolutely ridiculous. Then I watched the videos and saw how this actually works and now I want to test drive one. The more I watch clips on these amazing rigs the more I think this is actually the journalism and indie filmmaker next evolution.

Rock on Zacuto.

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I had seen The Strain in bookstores with no idea it was written in part by acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro. When I saw that I ran out to grab a copy and promptly devoured it. It’s smart, well written(with a co writer Chuck Hogan) and delivering fully on an idea Del Toro began in Blade 2. His vampires are predators pure and simple. Controlled in part by a demonic, ageless creature wearing the deformed body of a European noble named Josef Sardu.

What Del Toro and Hogan do really well is do their best to root their story in a sense of reality. Our hero, Dr. Eph Goodweather is a divorced father fighting for custody of his son, who happens to head the Canary Team for the CDC. A jumbo jet from Berlin is cleared to land at New York’s JFK and then the tower loses all contact. Eph is called in and in a masterful series of chapters we see the response to the dark airliner. It’s really pretty eerie. Eph and his partner board the plane and begin to make sense of it.

With the help of an aging vampire hunter, a pest control specialist and his partner and sometime love interest the team starts tracking down the threat. The book gets a bit repetitive towards the end where it’s one scene of vampire mayhem after another. But it’s a small portion of an otherwise very enjoyable book. Overall it’s a great first chapter in a planned trilogy. Here’s hoping part two and three are worth the wait.

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