Good News For High Rollers

For authors and their promotion teams who wish to make a big splash with contests, sweepstakes and other promotions, there is good news. 

Instead of having to ask contest winners for a W-9, (which is an official form on which a recipient provides their name, address and social security number), and send them a year-end 1099-MISC if they won a prize worth $600, the threshold for that nuisance is now $2,000.

That level of prize-giving might be excessive. It is still unlawful to require the purchase of one's book as a condition of entry for a chance at winning anything, whether it is cash, experiences, merchandise or a gift basket.

For more about advertising law, and the proper reporting to the IRS of prizes in excess go $1,999-00 see the Venable blog written by Melissa Landau Steinman, Christopher N. Moran, and Eden Caliendo.

https://www.allaboutadvertisinglaw.com/2026/01/new-prize-tax-rules-raise-the-1099-threshold-for-sweepstakes-and-contests.html#page=1

Even so, authors who run giveaways are still required to keep accurate records of what prizes were given to whom, even when the prizes are too small to have to be reported.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Songs of Love and Death Anthology Edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Songs of Love and Death Anthology

Edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

by Karen S. Wiesner 

  Beware spoilers! 

Songs of Love and Death, published in 2010, is another cross-genre anthology George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois edited and assembled together. As before, this collection with 17 short stories features authors with big names who are award-winning and undeniably gifted. While most of the stories were standalones, some were tied to larger literary worlds. I will comment that a good number of these same authors have appeared in other Martin/Dozois anthologies. I seem to recall that when I included my friends in my collaborative works, I got no end of flak for my nepotism. Apparently, it depends on how popular those doing the "hiring" are--enough, and they get pass for exhibiting favoritism. I actually don't mind too much; just commenting. In any case, the overall gist of this one is star-crossed love, whether in the realm of fantasy, history, the supernatural, or the wider galaxy. 

Similar to other Martin/Dozois anthologies, each installment was preceded by a short author biography and a bare bones introductory blurb to the story, which I found very unsatisfying. Below you'll find the installments I'm covering in this review listed in the order they appear in the original publication in one volume.                                                                   

1)              "Love Hurts" by Jim Butcher (the first story to appear in the collection): Part of The Dresden Files series with the gritty wizard PI Harry Dresden, in this tale, the author spared little or no backward glances or explanations for all that came before--maybe a blessing or a curse. I've never read anything in the series (and possibly by this author? I can't quite remember). This story has the detective and other associates investigating a trio of disturbing love crimes. The mundane chore of following the clues and trail were more than adequately covered, especially in the beginning, but in the process storytelling became seriously boring. The out-of-nowhere, twist end just barely saved it. There were moments of fun and funny, but I wasn't really pulled into the much wider body of works by either the main character or the supernatural world it's set in. I would think the point of contributing a series story to an anthology would be to get readers intrigued about that series as a whole. I don't think this did that. But if I was already a fan of the series, I'm sure I would have enjoyed this one immensely, as I would have recognized the characters and situations and so the experience would have been richer.

 

2)              "Blue Boots" by Robin Hobb (the seventh story featured in the collection): Actually, the whole reason I purchased this anthology was because I wanted to read this last story from The Realm of the Elderlings series that I hadn't yet. "Blue Boots" is a short tale connected to the series but stands on its own. Here, 17-year-old Timbal has recently lost her father to bandits who killed him and robbed everything they owned. All she has left of him are her memories and the pair of blue boots he gave her. She goes to work as a kitchen girl at a lesser keep in Buck Duchy, Timberrock Keep. Here, she falls in love in love at first sight with Azen, a minstrel who begins to sing songs of her blue boots and, in short order, woos, seduces, and, abruptly he seemingly abandons her.

This is one of these stories that I liked despite all reason. Timbal is young and stupid. Even when she's told by other maids the way of minstrels (love 'em and leave 'em) along with specifics like the fact that Azen grew up with Lady Lucent, was most certainly her lover, and may be trying to make her pregnant since the Lord of the keep is incapable of impregnating his wife, Timbal gives not a single thought to the consequences of going along with anything Azen suggests. Suddenly, she's alone, ridiculed for her foolishness by the servants around her, and she realizes what could happen to her if she ends up pregnant, forsaken, and scorned. She loses the will to live after hearing the gossip that Lady Lucent has gone off with Azen.

Over and over, it's said in the story that Timbal was 17--and that was the reason and justification for all that befalls her. But there's no way for her to claim ignorance or the recklessness of youth to excuse her behavior. How many stories and songs tell of such things, how often does anyone have to be told the ramifications of what will no doubt happen as a result of falling for someone above her station? Much like Jane Eyre (one of my all-time favorite stories), imprudence isn't ultimately rewarded with harsh reality in "Blue Boots". I cared about Timbal despite her hopeless, romantic folly, and I didn't want to see her come to a bad end. The conclusion of this story was unforgivably rushed, almost as if it didn't matter, though of course it was the whole point of even writing/reading the story! Outside of that, I enjoyed it, though a part of me does wish the author had found a less conventional resolution to this all-too-familiar, vaguely ho-hum tale.

 

3)              "Kaskia" by Peter S. Beagle (the fifteenth included in the collection): In this story of a kind of cosmic, literally-across-space-and-time dating service, a friend of Martin's brings him together with a being of unfathomable origin through a computer program when he provides a laptop just for him. Martin is in a loveless marriage, and Kaskia seems like everything he's ever wanted in a mate. While I wouldn't go so far as to say that I liked or even enjoyed this oddball tale, it did keep me interested all the way through the few pages, more to find out what could possibly happen with these "star-crossed lovers". The answer is a little disturbing--sort of like finding out that the person you've been chatting with online is a little kid. Um, eww that this was included in an anthology with supposed love stories.

 

4)              "Man in the Mirror" by Yasmine Galenorn (the sixteenth entry): Laurel has the horrifying misfortune of having been almost murdered on her wedding night by her husband Jason (think Prince Humperdinck planning his intended Buttercup's murder for their wedding night, only not so funny). Jason plans his revenge from beyond the grave by using his cousin Galen. Galen is a ghost trapped in a world where he can see the living and, once a year on Halloween, can exchange places permanently with someone if he's able to pull that person inside the mirror so he can take their place outside. Galen has been listening to the evil mutterings of his cousin about Lauren, only he finds he's been led to believe things that aren't true about her. This very short tale held me bewitched as the mildly terrifying ghost is forced to make a pivotal choice. The twist ending was a pleasant surprise.

 

5)              "A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows" by Diana Gabaldon (the seventeenth in the collection): There's another story associated with this one written by the author called An Echo in the Bone for those who follow Gabaldon's work, and both of these are associated with her très populaire Outlander series. In this anthology entry, a very memorable pilot is determined to return home to his beloved wife and child whatever it costs to do so. I found the storytelling here off-beat and compelling, and what came about was anything but predictable. Those are the best parts, but, in all honesty, I probably would have struggled to finish this story if it was any longer. 

For those of you following my anthology reviews, if I'd edited and assembled this collection, I probably would have started with the Hobb story and ended with Galenorn (those were the two strongest, IMHO), then placed the Gabaldon in the middle as the ninth story, the Dresdon at five and the Beagle at thirteen with the rest of the stories around them. 

Songs of Love and Death inadvertently highlighted why I became disillusioned with the romance genre as a whole several years ago. More often than not, my idea of a good romantic story tends not to match what others enjoy. Too many of these stories were just disturbed. Others didn't have the space to expand the way they needed to in order to warrant feelings between the characters that, as a result, came off as superficial. Still others just didn't resonate with me the way I would have liked--probably no fault of the authors, as all the stories were certainly well-written. Maybe if I'd read them at another time, I would have had a different reaction. I guess I should have realized what I might be getting myself into in Martin's "Stories from the Spinner Rack" essay (from another of his collections with Dozois) in which he said he'd tried to read romances and never got into them. Yeah, that explains a lot here. 

Those who are fans of unconventional, even twisted tales of romance will probably enjoy this anthology much more than I did. That said, at least one or two of the inclusions should satisfy most readers. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series. Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Bizarre Biology -- Bone-Eating Worms

In the category of creatures that would be hard to believe if invented in fiction as aliens, meet Osedax, commonly known as bone-eating worms:

Osedax

They're marine animals, a variety of tube worms, that live on the bones of decaying corpses such as those of whales.

They don't have a mouth, a digestive system, or an anus. Instead, they absorb nourishment more like plants than animals, through the magic of symbiosis. Adult females are sessile (fixed in place). They "settle on a bone, then secrete an acid through specialized root tissues to dissolve the bone's external layers in order to access the lipids within." Their symbiotic bacteria, which aid in processing nutrients for their Osedax host, live inside the worm's "vascularized root system which penetrates bone."

Even weirder is their extreme sexual dimorphism. Anglerfish, whose males atrophy into tiny lumps permanently attached to their female partners, seem ordinary by comparison. A female Osedax hosts 50 to 100 microscopic males (producing sperm while never developing past the larval stage) that live inside the tube surrounding her body. Therefore, when females spawn, the eggs emerge already fertilized.

Water-dwelling animals with roots? If we encountered something like Osedax on an extraterrestrial planet, we might have trouble recognizing it as an animal rather than a plant. Moreover, we'd probably assume it's a female reproducing by parthenogenisis until we had a chance to examine it closely and discover the microscopic males. What if similar tube worms on an alien world had evolved intelligence? Their biology and behavior would be so different from ours that communication with them would be very difficult -- rather like talking with trees on Earth, except that at least we share the same environment with our tree neighbors.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

April Fools

Happy Easter. 

Unfortunately, April Fools posts seem to be all over my usual sources, so I don't dare report on anything alien-, writing, or copyright-related for fear of being a greater fool.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Half-Life Empire Series by Shami Stovall by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review:

The Half-Life Empire Series by Shami Stovall

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

A week ago, I reviewed the first series I'd experienced written by Shami Stovall, Astra Academy. Within that review, I talked about how each book in the series was rollicking fun, especially the audiobook versions, which had me coming back for more. With constant tension, well-drawn characters and interesting settings, I enjoyed Astra Academy Series, despite being unable to escape that everything was taking place within a world created by someone else. The author inserted her characters, settings, and plots into it, then spun all her series installments out from there. I wondered if what she'd done with that series could be considered fan fiction--creative writing that allowed fans to explore their favorite universes and characters in new ways, often expanding on scenarios not covered in the original material." With The Half-Life Empire series, I faced the exact same situation. After I finished the Astra Academy Series, the only other book by this author on my two library apps was the first in another series. 

To further prove my point in my previous review of Stovall's series, The Half-Life Empire series also seems to be boldly similar to the well-loved world of the Fallout videogame franchise. As I was listening to the first audiobook, I was constantly thinking, "Dodge City? Or do you mean Diamond City?" "Bishop--sexy, fun version of Boone or MacReady?" "Alien invasion in a post-apocalyptic world--what? But, yup, those go right back to the very first Fallout game, and most that came after it." There are simply too many parallels to ignore. I was being hit over the head with the similarities at every turn. Truth told, I'm not a huge fan of the Fallout videogame franchise myself--it's my husband's favorite. I've tried playing them all a time or two and can't really get into any of them. Since we play our games side-by-side, though, I'm well-versed in all things Fallout. But, as with Astra, even though on principle, it bothers me when writers use other authors' worlds for their own work, that didn't stop me from enjoying The Half-Life Empire series even more than Astra Academy. 

First, some summary of the three installments, which are all (unoriginally) named "The Half-Life Empire" with book numbers: 

Book 1 was published in 2023. Set within a post-alien-invasion America, Kita is a hacker who wants to escape Ex Cathedra and make it to an underground greenhouse capable of sheltering a quarter of a million people. To that end, she steals a fission battery from the "judges" (power-armored, super soldiers--yup, Fallout had those, too) that will be required if she's going to get the oasis up and running. In the process, she meets Dallas, who's trying to save his young daughter. When it comes down to a choice between his daughter getting away with Kita and him staying behind to ensure their escape, he does it. Suddenly, Kita, who limps from a previous injury, is on her own with a mute child. While on the run, they meet up with Bishop, a junk hunter, who nicknames the girl Crouton. There are many dangerous factions between Kita and her destination, and who can she trust? In the process of finding out, Kita discovers the truth about her grandfather and the aliens. She's also growing fiercely protective of Crouton (so like the little sister she lost) and helplessly falling in love with a man who's goal in life initially seems to be making sure he survives long enough to add his kills to his body tattoo tally. Oh, and, if she doesn't find a way to stop it, the end of the world is…again…nigh. 

Book 2 (published in 2024) continues with Kita and her motley crew, having narrowly avoided the decimation of Earth, working to ensure her grandfather's mission in bringing peace between Earth survivors and the aliens isn't forever lost. 

Book 3 (also published in 2024) finds Kita and those who have become family to her building a new world that includes peace with the aliens. Naturally, there are many factions who oppose such an ideal, making the culmination of this dream a very unlikely prospect. 

All the characters in this series are wonderfully fleshed out with valid and heart-rending internal and external conflicts and root-worthy goals and motivations. The audiobooks featured Diana Richardson's multifaceted vocals. She did a fantastic job of making the books come to life in a way that was addictive--I could hardly wait to listen to the books each day. I couldn't get enough of Half-Life, especially the romance between Kita and Bishop. Crouton was irresistible as well. I absolutely had to find out how all this would end. 

While I can't escape the parallels to other authors' works when reading anything by Stovall, and I'm sure if I read any of her other, numerous series, I might find even more similarities, I've devoured at least two of her series on audiobooks. Grumbling and misgivings--and maybe some private flogging aside--I'm having too good of a time hearing these stories spin out. If you like Fallout, there's no way you won't be crazy about Half-Life. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Robotic Household Servants

The Jetsons' robot maid, Rosie, may become reality. As an SF fan, I say it's about time -- Heinlein's THE DOOR INTO SUMMER predicted this development to occur in 1970. The Figure AI company claims its humanoid robot, Figure 03, will "become the first robot suitable for carrying out domestic chores in the home, as well as all kinds of manual labor":

The Robot in Your Kitchen

The company aspires to the long-elusive achievement of "building a humanoid robot that can navigate the unpredictabilities of the world with the same fluidity as a person." The demo shows a Figure 03 folding laundry, a more complex procedure than it sounds like. The robots have the potential to learn a wide variety of domestic chores, and, according to their creator, are making rapid progress. They're trained by watching videos of people doing the tasks over and over. The automatons have mastered "object permanence," remembering the location of a hidden object. They'll allegedly be able to follow voice commands. The company is programming them with a proprietary version of safety limitations analogous to Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.

The robots in the photos accompanying the article do look humanoid -- two arms, two legs, one head -- but not in the least cute or friendly. Why do they need to be shaped exactly like human beings anyway, though? Instead of only two jointed arms, wouldn't they perform more efficiently with multiple, flexible, tentacle-like appendages? Should they have more than two legs for greater stability? How about eyes encircling the head to give 360-degree vision instead of only two eyes on the front?

In short, do they have to look like Rosie? I'm reminded of a poem by Suzette Haden Elgin about personal care robots for the elderly to which their owners got so attached they refused replacements when the machines became obsolete or unrepairable. Therefore, the next model of robotic companion "looked exactly like a broom." Regardless of how the devices look though, people do tend to anthropomorphize any gadget that seems to have independent volition, including Alexa "personal assistants" and even Roombas. The 2025 issue of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION includes a story about futuristic Alexa-like programs so advanced they possess consciousness -- and, like many fictional artificial-intelligence entities, come to resent being treated as slaves.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Rote, Actually?

Is Artificial Intelligence a misnomer? Is it actually rote learning on a monumental scale? If it is the product of rote, is it creative?

How would you feel if your favorite author, or favorite musician was a mix-and-match machine, rather like a GovX.com "Exquisite Corpse" advertisement (where you see a head of perhaps a nurse, the torso of a firefighter, and the legs of a Navy seal) ?

If you, as a consumer, do not care, what about if you were a competing creator? Or a collector? AI is obviously efficient and fast-to-market, and costs nothing. A print of a masterwork might be similar, but an original has immense value, and a print does not, unless it is a signed, numbered print from a limited series.

I'm thinking of the Pierce Brosnan "Thomas Crown Affair" (which I think is really good, and it has a happier ending --implied-- than does the Steve McQueen "Thomas Crown Affair), and also I'm thinking of "Notting Hill". The former has forgeries and an original, the latter has a --probably legal-- print and the original.

Would museums and art galleries become redundant if everyone could have a reproduction of the world's greatest masterpieces in their home for no cost? Are those places "a good thing"? I think they are. I think that the experience of going to a magnificent building, and admiring something in company with other appreciators of Art... is a good thing for society and for individual sanity and humanity.

While I don't "get" Picasso or Jackson Pollock, I respect that others see great value in their works. I should be sorry if anyone could get a printer attached to AI and verbally request "a Picasso" or "a Jackson Pollock". If that flies, any reader could speak into a printer and ask for "a J. K. Rowling" or "a Shakespeare" or "a Maya Angelou".

For that matter, I don't particularly appreciate my husband's obsession with stripe-art, but because he is/was a famous designer, his private works might be worth something, so I should declare my conflict of interest.

Eric Blair, who wrote as George Orwell, brought fascinating life experience to his writing. He fought in a foreign war as a volunteer (Homage to Catalonia), he served as a colonial law enforcement officer in Burma (Shooting The Elephant), he experienced homelessness (The Road to Wigan Pier) and (Down and Out In London And Paris). How does AI substitute itself for the authenticity of lived experience?

There's a Beatles song, "Now and Then"... but two surviving members of the group were able to manipulate existing recordings to complete a work that was never completed by their band and arguably by one of their most creative members.

That is a very different kettle of fish (apologies for the figure of speech), to the case of the North Carolina musician who recently pleaded guilty to AI-assisted music-streaming fraud. What the accused allegedly did was to use fake songs, and also to create fake fans of those fake songs in order to upgrade his fake listings and thereby deprive legitimate musicians of their rankings, ratings, and percentages of revenue.

The song-streaming services that are alleged to have unwittingly (that is the thing with automated services... no one is to blame on their side) enabled his fraud are Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music... and more.

This North Carolina "musician" claimed (presumably under oath) that he could get more than 660,000 plays per day, worth perhaps $1,000,000 a year in royalties,

As EFF writes:

"This is part of a growing problem regarding artificial intelligence-created music. The Rolling Stone report explained that this harms flesh-and-blood artists because streaming services pay them from a shared pool based on total plays. This means Smith’s fake songs “stole millions in royalties that should have been paid to musicians, songwriters, and other rights holders whose songs were legitimately streamed.”

Some experts estimate that as much as 10 percent of all streams could be fake, which costs the industry billions of dollars per year. "

So, if you want to listen to Bob Seger, or Eric Clapton, or Dire Straits, or David Bowie, or the Highwaymen, do you want to listen to them, or to something rote, actually?

All the best,

Rowena Cherry. Space Snark

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Astra Academy Series by Shami Stovall by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review:

Astra Academy Series by Shami Stovall

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

I picked up a trade paperback copy of Shami Stovall's first Astra Academy Series, Academy Arcanist, from a used bookstore. Even from just the back cover blurb, I had a pretty good idea that it was going to be a Harry Potter series knockoff. The premise of Astra Academy is a school full of arcanists (witches and wizards) who have to bond with a mystical creature, called an eldrin, in order to really tap into their magical potential. (Gee, can you say Patronus anyone?) 

The main character is Gray Lexly. Gray has a hugely muscular twin brother named Sorin who loves to make up his own poetry extemporaneously. Sorin is also a wizard in the making. Later, Sorin gets a witch girlfriend named Hermione. Okay, her name is actually Nini--but Victor Krum calls Hermione "Hermy-own" in the HP series and that kind of sounds like minny, ninny. All the Eldrin creatures are different with various types and degrees of power. All this is exciting, only Voldemort wants to break free and take over the world. Wait, I mean, Death Lord Deimos wants to break free from the abyssal hells--where the dead live. For some reason, only first-year student Harry…um, I mean, only Gray and his small band of misfit friends can defeat this evil.

This is actually just the start of all the endless connections I made with the HP series while I was reading Astra Academy. The sheer number of parallels became so overwhelming, I sometimes felt hit over the head with them. Just when it seemed like the series might set itself apart from its predecessor, the reader is held down and kicked with "Do-you-see-the-similarities-now?" driving-force boots. 

Does this make the series any less compelling? I'm not a hundred percent sure how to answer that, but I'll try to make some sense of this conundrum in the latter part of this review. I will say for sure that if I hadn't found Books 2-4 in audiobook format on my library app, I wouldn't have continued the series beyond Book 1 (as I didn't want to pay to read this particular series--the vow I started last year was to only put out cash for books I've actually read and loved instead of buying anything that vaguely sounds like something I'd like). The audiobooks were lively and fun and kept me coming back for more. They were all immediately available to me for checkout on Hoopla (none of them were available on my Libby library app in audio- or ebook format). When I went searching for Book 5, I found out it wasn't coming out until a later time (luckily, the library app did get a copy of the audiobook when it became available). That forced a lag between Books 1-4 and the final in the series. Fortunately, I remembered everything necessary without having to go backward, as it was only a few months I had to wait. Oh, how I dislike starting a series when all the books in it aren't out yet. Add insult to injury because libraries tend to be hit-and-miss in regards to making sure all series books are available. Again, I got lucky and they did get this one (though I'm still waiting for a final in another of Stovall's other series, which I'll review next week).I was really glad to get closure with this series. 

Additionally, while I was undertaking more research on this series, I found out that Astra Academy is also just one of a subseries with other connected series. Per my usual modus operandi, I'd jumped into this "umbrella" series (which doesn't have an overall name that I'm aware of) in the wrong place, as this was not the first series in technical reading order. At least, I don't think it is. Ugh! Here's what I dug up: 

  Frith Chronicles Books (with 8 novels and a collection of shorts) features a gravedigger who becomes an arcanist with a knightmare--a Eldrin made of shadow and terror--the very same mystical creature that becomes Sorin's Eldrin in Astra Academy. These books were published between 2019-2023. 

  The Kirin Arcanist Books were novels written with Ryan Tang. So there's a tournament that arcanists from around the world can participate in with the prize being that the one who gets the crown also gets turned into a powerful god-like arcanist. Pretty cool, right? These books were published between 2023-2025. 

The suggested reading order of these connected series is very unclear, so I'm going to guess, based on the publication dates, that Frith comes first, followed by Astra Academy, and finally Kirin Arcanist. As to what the chronological order should be, the author should have put more specific information about all this on her website, but there's nothing there (all the series are all plunked on the pages in willy-nilly fashion--don't expect any help sorting this mess out there). I did find more in-depth information about the author's many series on Fandom Wiki (in the search bar here, put "Shami Stovall" to see a listing). If someone spent hours upon hours or was already a widely entrenched fan of this author, I'm sure they'd find whatever they were looking for here. But my point is that brand new fans are left in the dark, dense woods about where to jump into all this. I didn't really want to go deep diving for it, so I'm sorry to say that, if you're new to Shami Stovall's series, you'll have to lump it and blind-plunge in just as I did. 

Now that we've established…not much of anything useful with what proceeded, let's have some summary of the five Astra Academy books: 

Academy Arcanist, Book 1 (published in 2022), opens with Gray plagued by terrible nightmares where he's visited by monsters in a dreamscape and they can actually injure him. He wakes up with real wounds. His parents think he fell out of bed, but his twin Sorin believes him and tries to help him. He's eventually saved from death within the nightmare by Professor Helmith, who tells him she's a powerful arcanist and she invites him to attend Astra Academy. Gray becomes a mimic arcanist, his Eldrin Twain (whose permanent form is an adorable kitty cat) can take the form and power of any other mystical creature nearby). Once Gray and Sorin are established in the school, the plot heads down the road so Professor Helmith is in trouble because a traitorous professor (no, not Quirrell) is in league with an evil Death Lord that wants to escape the abyssal hells, opens a portal, and Gray, who's a brand-new arcanist and green as algae, somehow is the only person who can save the day. Well, temporarily anyway. 

Mimic Arcanist, Book 2 (2023) has Gray, Sorin, and their fellow student "company" hoping to focus on studying and honing their new magics at the academy. But Gray finds a horcrux…I mean, a fragment of the portal he'd closed in Book 1 that allows abyssal hell's monsters into the world of the living. Now Gray's group and the academy need to find all those rogue fragments. But, before they can, Chief Death Eater Vold…{cough} Death Lord Deimos arrives in the mortal world, and Gray once more has to save everybody. 

Abyssal Arcanist, Book 3 (2023) revolves around treasonous arcanists within the academy plotting to destroy the school. Deimos has been trapped in an itty bitty baby's body and has to be fed by bottle and carried around everywhere… No, that's not right. He was actually he was trapped in a dreamscape by Professor Helmith. But Voldemort and Harry are connected by the horcruxes, and Ron, and Hermoine are standing right there beside their friend-- That is to say, Gray and Deimos are connected by soul fragments, and, instead of the teachers at the academy doing the heavy lifting, it's up to wet-behind-the-ears Gray, Sorin, Nini and their other unpopular friends to clean up this mess. 

In Death Lord Arcanist, Book 4 (2024), Harry is trapped in a hedge maze that teleports him to a graveyard where Voldemort and his Death Eaters are waiting… Nope, got bludgeoned again, but I'm all right. It's Gray that's trapped in the abyssal hells and Death Lord Deimos--who is now not a friend but also not an enemy--is injured. Another Death Lord (Naiad) wants to destroy all other Death Lords who are trying to open abyssal portals into the world of the living. Gray shortsightedly teams up with Deimos to fix it and, well, that can't lead to anything good, can it? 

The latest installment in this subseries, Labyrinth Arcanist, Book 5 (2025), details the final confrontation between the juvenile arcanist superheroes (and some of their occasionally half-witted teachers) and Death Lord arcanists from the abyssal hells. Right from the start, I was pretty sure who would win (against all odds). I will note that I don't believe this is the final offering in the series. It ended on a cliffhanger, with Gray pointing out that they still had to defeat the remaining Death Lords. So I expect there will be more to follow.

While I wouldn't say I was a huge fan of Gray Lexly in these books--he's a pompous character who unfortunately almost always gets exactly what he wants, which sets a bad precedent. (I did love Harry Potter and all his friends. Just saying.) Gray seems to think everyone around him is stupid, though occasionally he has good thoughts for the weak, pitiful mortals he looks down upon and graces with his sympathy. Sorin was a more interesting character, and Twain was cutely fun. I also really liked that the villain of this series, Deimos, wasn't straight-up evil. While the reader was aware he was always acting in his own best interests, he, like Voldemort, was a complicated character with a backstory, internal and external conflicts, and motivations that made him intriguing. 

Each book in the series was rollicking good fun, especially read by Michael Langan in the audiobook versions, which had me coming back nearly every day for more. There was always something happening, providing pretty much constant tension. The characters were basically well-drawn while the settings were interesting. In a general way, I'd say I actually liked this series. My big problem was that I couldn't escape the feeling that this was all taking place within a world created by someone else. The author inserted her characters, settings, and plots into it, then spun all her "like series" out from there. In many ways, I would call what she's done here "fan fiction". I looked up the definition of this word. AI gave me the gist of it as: "Fanfic…is creative writing that allows fans to explore their favorite universes and characters in new ways, often expanding on scenarios not covered in the original material." So, yeah, seems like maybe could be fanfic??? 

Polite people might also say artists use "tropes", which offer something so conventional in the plot or theme, etc., that it becomes recognizable almost in a single glance or within a few sentences. But at what point does it become something, well, nefarious? Is it weird for me to be bothered by this? I would absolutely hate it if someone took my characters or worlds and wrote something of their own based on them--especially if it's intended to mock my work. Even if it's actually supposed to be a compliment they liked your work so much that they're emulating it, this seems to be skirting a wider issue that's become so commonplace these days, no one seems bothered by it anymore. No one, that is, except me and a few other curmudgeonly ancients. 

Bottom line, Stovall is a good writer and certainly a prolific one. I also can't be too hard on 1) any writer who's obsessed with playing videogames (as I am), 2) whose favorite videogame is Mass Effect (as is mine)--and Stovall's The Star Marque Trilogy book covers could definitely be both male and female Shepherd, straight from the character creation menu in the videogame--and, as if those weren't enough, 3) someone whose favorite book as a child was The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (mine as well). I'm giving this author a pass because the fact of the matter is that I just plain enjoy her work too much to avoid it, despite my possibly outdated principles. 

Neither of my library apps have any more of Stovall's work available for me to check out other than the first audiobook in another of her "fanfic" series, which, I don't deny, had me hooked. As I said, you'll see the review of it on the Alien Romances Blog next Friday. 

In conclusion, if you want something familiar and adventurous to pass the time, these audiobooks should give you hours of enjoyment…and, you know, also make you want to dust off some true "oldies but goodies" by revisiting Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, and Hermoine just for old times' sake. 

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

ICFA Report

On Sunday I returned from the annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando. The theme was Metacognition, "thinking about thinking." For the first couple of days, the weather was cooler than usual in March, but still an improvement over Maryland. It warmed up later, with plenty of sunshine all week. Two glitches with the hotel on Wednesday: They didn't have a room available when I arrived; I had to wait until they got it ready -- some other people did, too -- which has never happened before. A fire evacuation interrupted the 4:30 paper session; luckily, it was a false alarm.

Fears of airport delays proved unfounded. Boarding in Baltimore went as quickly as ever, and two nice staff people intervened to help me with two different procedures. It sometimes pays to look old and confused! The return experience in Orlando was almost anticlimactic, in a good way. Security processing took no longer than normal, so I ended up spending several hours sitting around the airport -- much better than being rushed and late.

The Friday night meeting of the Lord Ruthven Assembly, our vampire and Gothic studies organization, couldn't transact any business such as voting for officers because we didn't have a quorum. Nevertheless, we shared some productive discussion about future activities. Then on to the real fun, watching a clip from the early German vampire movie VAMPYR, with an introduction by our film expert, followed by a viewing of the romantic Dracula comedy LOVE AT FIRST BITE.

Thought-provoking talks at the Thursday and Friday luncheons, with buffets upholding the typical high standards of this hotel (well, aside from the distressing lack of chocolate desserts on Thursday). As usual, at each meal we all received free books. Ted Chiang, one of the author guests of honor, spoke in his talk "On Being a Cyborg" about the relationship between technology and cognition, proposing that this connection began with the invention of writing. He mentioned the astonishing fact that preliterate societies don't have a word for "word." For the concept of words as isolated units to develop, we had to see them as such in a text. We're all cyborgs because the alphabet is a technology connected to our brains. He speculated on whether, just as writing emerged as a successor to oral speech, an analogous successor to writing will appear in the future.

The other author guest of honor, Ann Leckie, is the writer of a science-fiction series beginning with ANCILLARY JUSTICE (which I bought a copy of), among other works. The scholar guest, Sheryl Vint, gave a talk about how dependence on AI affects our brains, titled, "Cognition -- Augmentation -- Offloading -- Atrophy." She pointed out that data and knowledge aren't the same, and an overload of data can actually hinder cognition. Does ChatGPT have true cognitive ability? When asked, the program itself paradoxically declares it has no sense of self.

Our Lord Ruthven Assembly panel, "Thinking About Undeath," focusing on vampires, ghosts, and zombies with glances at liches, animated skeletons, and uploading minds into computers (would that be immortality or simply another form of life-in-death?), had good attendance and lively discussion.

Topics of some other sessions I enjoyed included comics, the Mars novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, vampires in film and TV, fairy-tale logic, Disney theme parks as an attempt to create "hyper-reality," and a provocative discussion on how or whether Neil Gaiman's personal offenses should affect our reading of his work.

In future years, it's been decided that the conference will continue to meet in Orlando, which has many advantages thanks to the organization's long association with that locale, for two years straight. Then, before returning to Orlando, it will rotate for one year each to other cities for the sake of people unwilling or unable to come to Florida. I was thrilled to learn that next year, still in Orlando, Ursula Vernon (aka T. Kingfisher) will be the guest of honor. The conference in 2028, the first "off" year, will occur in Warsaw. So I'll miss that one. Simply too hard for me. Sigh.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review Subseries 5: Fitz and the Fool Trilogy (The Realm of the Elderlings) by Robin Hobb by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review

Subseries 5: Fitz and the Fool Trilogy (The Realm of the Elderlings)

by Robin Hobb

by Karen S. Wiesner

   

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. Also, reading my previous appraisals of subseries in the umbrella series The Realm of the Elderlings will foster understanding about certain facts that are required to make full sense of things included in this particular review. 

Robin Hobb is the author of The Realm of the Elderlings. Within this aegis, she's written five "miniseries" and numerous short stories. In previous Alien Romances Blog reviews, I covered The Inheritance & Other Stories, which contains a couple Realm of the Elderlings offerings. I also reviewed the first three trilogies within this series, The Farseer, The LiveShip Traders, and The Tawny Man trilogies; Rain Wilds Chronicles; along with two miscellaneous novellas in the series, "The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince" and "Words Like Coins". All of these The Realm of the Elderlings installments have been published over a span of twenty-two years. 

The Farseer Trilogy was focused on Fitz, the illegitimate son of Prince Chivalry of the royal line presiding over the Six Duchies. In that first subset, we learned something of the Elderlings (including dragons) and their ancient cities and settlements, now in ruins, around the world, especially in the Rain Wilds. In the second subseries, The LiveShip Traders Trilogy, we moved away from the royal Farseer lineage and problems within the nobility to focus on the Rain Wilds where "liveships" are crafted. These liveships are the outer cocoons of sea serpents that were in the process of transforming into a dragon. The logs were buried in the destroyed city of the Elderlings in the Rain Wilds and found by traders who excavated the ruins for valuable, magical artifacts. The Tawny Man Trilogy returned to Fitz and the Fool. In Rain Wilds Chronicles, Hobb fleshes out the re-emergence of dragons and Elderlings in the Rain Wilds. 

As soon as I finished reading the fourth installment of Rain Wilds Chronicles, I was thrust into Fitz and the Fool Trilogy. For the first time ever, the ebook of Book 1 was immediately available on my library app (getting what you want to check out on library apps can be difficult as so often you're forced to wait in a very, very long line for sometimes a single copy of the book), as was Book 2. I'd found a hardcover of Book 3 at a used bookstore so that was already waiting on my to-be-read shelf. Rather than waiting months to recover from reading four enormous tomes back-to-back, I jumped right into this one, not wanting to lose access to them since library app lines can take too long to move. I do admit, I feared the worst in reading the next series so fast after I'd finished the previous. I was very worried I'd be too burnt out to enjoy this concluding (unless Hobb writes more in the series at a later date) trilogy in the series. 

The author didn't cut any corners with this series set. Each book was absolutely massive! Of the ebook versions, the first book had 1,444 pages; the second 1,658 pages; and the third 2,092 pages! Unbelievably, from the very first words, I was mesmerized and yanked full body back into Fitz's world. My earlier fatigue was gone without a trace. Suffocating weight of volume aside, I had trouble putting this trilogy down from start to finish. 

Let's get to summarizing and reviewing these installments: 

Fool's Assassin, Book 1, was published on August 12, 2014. Here, FitzChivalry Farseer is in his fifties. With the death of Burrich, Fitz's original mentor, and Molly's husband, Fitz and Molly are finally free to wed and share their lives. Fitz (living under his Tom Badgerlock identity) and Molly are landholders of Withywoods, which had been his father and step-mother Patience's country estate. Despite her age, Molly becomes pregnant and her pregnancy lasts years. Fitz and Molly's older children are forced to conclude their mother has become addled, so desperately wanting another child with her first love Fitz that she's imagining the symptoms. However, after two years, a very small daughter is born and it's immediately clear that she's different. Molly holds her child closely, knowing others would have drowned this weak, sickly babe at birth instead of nursing her to health. Fitz isn't sure what to feel, nor Nettle, he and Molly's adult daughter, who lives at court as a part of a Skill (see previous reviews for a full understanding of Skill {similar to magic} and Wit abilities in this series) coterie, but he feels very protective of his new daughter. Molly names her little, late-life gift Bee. This wondrous child thrives under her mother's diligent care. Though Bee is tiny and her growth is so slow (one year is as two for her--just as when she was developing in her mother's womb), everyone assumes she's a dumb mute. Bee is anything but that. 

Fitz tries to forge a relationship with this young bantam, but Bee won't allow anyone to get close to her--not her father or her sister…at least she won't until Molly dies. Suddenly Fitz and Bee are thrust together, reluctant survivors, inconsolable mourners, almost unable to cope and get out of bed each day. The two are wary of each other at first but begin to find their way until Nettle arrives and insists she's taking her baby sister back to Buckkeep with her. Nettle assumes Bee is mentally disabled because she's refused to speak and become close to anyone other than her mother up to this point. She hasn't revealed she can, in fact, talk and, much more than that, she's highly intelligent and capable, able to read, write, and draw with great skill. With the threat of being separated, Fitz and Bee fight to stay together at Withywoods. Nettle will only concede to allow this on certain conditions, and these ultimately place a huge burden on everyone who lives on the estate. But all are determined to make it work. Initially, Bee wants this because her mother was here and their lives were entwined in this very place, but Fitz and Bee's bond becomes fierce as they finally come to know and love each other. 

Another subplot is that Fitz has spent these years haunted by the disappearance of the Fool (which took place in The Tawny Man Trilogy). Is he dead? If not, where is he? In the course of events, it's learned that the Fool has a son. As I said in The Tawny Man Trilogy review, the Fool has remade himself in many ways, shapes and forms in his appearances in the series. He worked as an actual "fool" at court in Buckkeep for the king in the first subseries. In the second, he was a she, the carver Amber in Bingtown. In later subseries, we learn that the Fool is a being called a White Prophet whose purpose is to set the world on a better path. As such, this creature invents and reinvents itself in order to serve its impetus. The Catalyst is the one who makes the changes, and the Fool believed that one was Fitz. In The Tawny Man Trilogy, the Fool reveals that he doesn't believe he's fulfilled his destiny correctly. Does this have something to do with the Fool's own child being the actual Catalyst, which means Fitz wasn't the Catalyst this whole time? Fitz and the Fool Trilogy is all set to answer that question. 

I fell in love with Bee from the moment of her mention. Her birth and the years she spent growing up under her mother's loving care and then Fitz's fumbling, penitent but protective adoration only sealed my need to see her triumph over all. She had to overcome some very definite handicaps, in part because she was so small and underestimated. That only made her more courageous and amazing to me. Tom's efforts to help her and keep her safe also endeared me to both of them. When the Fool was found at the end of Book 1, I had trouble sleeping. I was around 50 pages to the finish line, so to speak, and I knew that Fitz was going to have to make a fateful choice--the Fool or Bee? Catastrophic events rounded out the book, causing a shocking twist I didn't see coming at all. 

I borrowed the ebook of Book 2 days before I finished Book 1 because I didn't want any chance I wouldn't be able to start reading it as soon as I finished the first. That's how eager I was to continue. 

Fool's Quest, Book 2, was published almost exactly a year after the first, on August 11, 2015. Before I summarize the plot, I have to reiterate my frequent lament. This book is so long, reading it as an ebook caused no end of problems. The library app I used set the page count as 1,658! I live in a small town and have the worst internet imaginable, so I'd sit down to read and wait five or more minutes, just trying to get the book to load on my iPad. By the time I'd given up, sometimes it'd come up (too late), or worst case, refused to load at all. Ah, the joys of technology. Good thing I had a hardcover of the third book, so I at least didn't have to face the trial it would have been to try reading that 2,092 page ebook, considering my unreliable WiFi issues. 

A good third into this second story, we finally got back to Bee, whose part of the tale ended on a cliffhanger in the first book. Readers start this one with Fitz not even aware what's going on with his daughter for most of the story and, several times, giving her up for dead or getting distracted from her plight by other events. That slowed things down considerably. Added to that, the author spent a shocking amount of time summarizing past events in earlier subseries (or things that took place off-stage in those) in dialogue conveyed in long stories from one character to another. Let me tell you, these were no small speeches. They were frequently 20 pages long, setting down all the crucial elements needed to begin advancing the immediate story beyond those points. It felt a bit heavy-handed and tedious when I was so eager to return to the action in this particular book. As aware as I was that knowing all this was necessary, Hobb has proven to be such a skilled writer, I couldn't help noticing that this was the first time I've seen her resort to awkward frontloading techniques to impart necessary backstory. 

Beyond that, however, Book 2's main goal was to reunite Bee and Fitz (and to get the Fool healed enough that he could again participate in the story events), making everything to get to that point so tense, I just couldn't put it down.

Assassin's Fate, Book 3, was released on May 9, 2017 (and what torture that must have been for readers who'd no doubt consumed the first two books, to wait so long for this conclusion to arrive!). The main thrust in this installment of the trilogy were the parallel lines of Fitz and Fool rushing to save their daughter (yeah, that's another major subplot in this trilogy) while scrappy little Bee was trying to survive with the help of her "Wolf Father" (Fitz's shadow wolf). Along the way, the author brilliantly intersected all The Realm of the Elderlings stories--both the Fitz and the Fool adventures with Rain Wilds' stories--so readers could see proper progress and tying up of all series threads. In other words, we got to revisit the LiveShip Paragon, Althea and Brashen, Amber (who is the Fool; here the White Prophet takes up that identity again), Wintrow, Malta and Reyn, the dragons, among others, as well as returning to the Elderling city Kelsingra. The fate of the dragons and the new Elderlings are brought to some state of resolution as well as all of the Fitz and the Fool chronicles, including a nod to the very first trilogy, Farseer. In Assassin's Fate, King-in-Waiting Verity's ultimate fate is now glimpsed. Additionally, we finally learn what happened to the first age of dragons and Elderlings. Previously, there was speculation on the devastation that might have taken place to end them, bury their cities and the source of their power so abruptly, without explanation. That all came to light in this trilogy, deeply and closely tying in with a secret society called the Servants, whose members dream of possible futures but use them to add to their own wealth and influence. The Servants are similar to White Prophets, like the Fool, but the Fool is concerned with helping humanity reach a better state of being instead of profiting from them. These Servants are the very ones who want to possess Bee. 

This concluding trilogy in The Realm of the Elderlings series was hands-down the best. The characters were so vividly drawn, and my heart was invested in each and everything that happened to them. I wanted Bee, Fitz, and the Fool to succeed, but, of course, in order to make good fiction, they were thwarted at every turn. The tension was to-the-quick nail-biting all through the trilogy, never letting up until the epic end. While everything I wanted to happen for Fitz, Bee, and the Fool didn't come to pass under a beautiful canopy of happily-ever-after stars, ultimately the trilogy and series conclusion ticked all the boxes for me. We were even given a bit of a whispered promise for more stories about Bee. This final book in such an awesome saga was fantastic beyond my imagining. I unfathomably read the staggering volume in just a few hours. The pages flew by chock-full of exquisite suspense as I raced to find out what would happen with all the intersecting lines.

As deeply satisfied as I was by the conclusion of this trilogy and the series as a whole, I was left wanting more--in the best possible way. Though I'd been exhausted while I read each previous subseries because they were all so enormous, I fell in love with the characters, the locations, the intricate plots. I want more of all this world. Few series are this gratifying, intricately woven, and utterly heart quenching as well as heart wrenching (happy and sad aspects of the lives touched on within are intermixed beautifully). 

In my previous review in The Realm of the Elderlings series (specifically, Rain Wilds Chronicles), I bemoaned that the author didn't separate Fitz and the Fool adventures from the Rain Wilds installments. If I'd read them as two separate, connected series, I think they would have been so amazing and much less exhausting. With this final Fitz and the Fool trilogy review, I'm going to reverse the order I initially suggested reading The Realm of the Elderlings series' stories. Now that I've read all of the crucial, currently available installments, I now advise this order to read them all in: 

Fitz and the Fool:

1.     The Farseer Trilogy

2.     The Tawny Man Trilogy

3.     Fitz and the Fool Trilogy 

Rain Wilds:

4.     "The Inheritance"

5.     The LiveShip Traders Trilogy

6.     Rain Wilds Chronicles 

Short stories (listed chronologically in the timeline):

7.     "The Homecoming"

8.     "The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince"

9.     "Cat's Meat"

10.  "Words Like Coins"

11.  "Her Father's Sword"

12.  "Blue Boots"

Worthy of note: The Realm of the Elderlings shorts can be read in any order, as well as stand on their own, but keep in mind that some take place before the very first series story, Assassin's Apprentice, while others are somewhere in the middle of the first subseries. If you're picky about reading according to timeline, you might want to inject the short stories between the novels. For more information about where exactly everything in this timeline fits together, visit  https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Realm+of+the+Elderlings where my "Series Review: The Realm of the Elderlings" contains all the details needed to guide you on this point.

        Be aware that the only story I haven't yet read (or reviewed) in The Realm of the Elderlings series (in fact, it's the only one I haven't read of Robin Hobb's, period) is a short story called "Blue Boots" that takes place "somewhere in the middle" of The Farseer Trilogy. This 30-page tale is set within the world of the umbrella series but I don't believe it's otherwise connected to the Fitz and the Fool stories or the Rain Wilds' ones. It's published in Songs of Love and Death Anthology as well as in Songs of Love Lost and Found ebook collection, neither of which I've been able to get hold of yet. It's on my list for the future, and I expect to review it at a later date on the Alien Romances Blog. 

Will there be more in The Realm of the Elderlings? It's unclear. There have been rumors that Hobb is working on a Bee FarSeer series (yay!), and I sincerely hope so. We'll see, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I've about aspirated doing that for Hobb's good friend George R.R. Martin, which was stupid on my part. I've resolved to be patient about these things. A hounded author retreats or, alternately, bites or craps on you--and some of Martin's fans deserve a double dose of those treatments, to be sure!

In conclusion, all of you entertainment producers out there, why aren't you making a television series or films out of The Realm of the Elderlings? You couldn't get something that's better set up, ready and waiting to be visualized in this media. (Apparently this series has been optioned many times before but nothing's come of it, though the author is open to the right company producing it.) Alas! On that uncertain note, I'm concluding this six-part review of Robin Hobb's magnificent The Realm of the Elderlings series. Whatever you do, don't miss it. 

One last note: Assassin's Fate is the 250th book I've reviewed on the Alien Romances blog! 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/