Jennifer Estep: Spider’s Bite
978-1439147979 – Mass Market Paperback – Pocket Books – $7.99
Jennifer Estep has written three books before this one, in an edgy paranormal romance series she called Bigtime. Spider’s Bite kicks off a new series, this one she calls urban fantasy, and I think the description is apt. It’s gritty, violent, tough, but full of love and a kind of self-defined punk-inspired love that has a depth and strength that is really admirable.
I know the book business likes to categorize books, sometimes quite narrowly, and there are good reasons for that. So this book falls into a category that Publishers Weekly calls “urban fantasy.” While I am not quite sure I know what that means, this novel is certainly a full on fantasy novel set in a city, so I guess that label fits in a literal way. But all labels and categories aside, author Estep has fashioned a terrific set of characters, in particular our hero, Gin. The first line of the book makes clear what we readers are getting into: “My name is Gin, and I kill people.” And she does, she is an assassin after all.
I was very impressed with Estep’s writing and she has fashioned a terrific story line. Some of the characters run to type, but they fit the story so well, we don’t mind. The author has set her imagination loose on the southeastern city in which the story takes place, maybe in our future, or maybe in an alternate universe, it’s wild and never dull. I’m looking forward to reading the sequels too.
Jennifer and I had a fun interview talking about this book, how she started as a writer and where her ideas come from. She’s a dedicated reader turned writer, and her love for books, ideas and writing shines through her work and her words.
See an excerpt from the book at chptr1.com. Visit Jennifer’s well put together site to learn more about her and her books.
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David Morrell – The Shimmer
978-1593155377 – Hardcover
Vanguard Press $25.95
David Morrell is one of the better action thriller novelists writing today. Not only does he write well, but his novels always have terrific characters, explore complex emotional relationships, and are driven by great story telling. When I picked up The Shimmer, I already had a number of other books on my plate and no real intention of reading it right away. But after the first few pages I could not put it down. This wonderful novel combines elements of the thriller novel with science fiction and fantasy, historical fiction, modern psychological horror stories. My interview with the interesting and voluble David Morrell gives readers a chance to get to know quite a bit about this novel, his 28th, and much more about his background as a writer, a teacher and storyteller. The Shimmer takes place in a town in Texas modeled closely on the real-life town of Marfa and includes a great deal of real history woven into a gripping modern tale. This book is a great example of Morrell’s work, and this interview was a lot of fun for me to do. — David Wilk
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P.W. Catanese – Happenstance Found (The Books of Umber Series)
June 23, 2009 by David
Filed under Children's Authors, Fiction
978-1416975199 – Hardcover
Aladdin (Simon & Schuster) $16.99
P.W. Catanese is the author of a number of books for children and young adults who lives in Connecticut. In this podcast, Writerscast host David Wilk interviews Catanese, who talks in detail about his life as a writer, his earlier series of fairy tale retellings for younger readers, and his latest novel, the excellent Happenstance Found, which is the first in a new series he has created called The Books of Umber. The novel opens with Happenstance, a strange boy of undetermined age, waking up in a cave with no memories of who he is or anything about the fantastic world in which he lives. He soon encounters Lord Umber, an adventurer who seems familiar with our world as well as his own, and his two companions — a brute cursed to be forever truthful and a one-handed artist and archer… As the group attempts to learn about his origins, they’re forced to confront a supernatural assassin and secrets from Umber’s own mysterious past. The world Catanese creates in this novel is highly compelling; his new series should appeal both to adults who love a good fantasy and to the younger readers to whom it is aimed.
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