Lincoln Crisler

You can order issue nine of Shroud Magazine now. And you should, because my interview with Jeff Strand is in it. FTW!

Shroud welcomes the Summer with startling stories from the Brothers’ May, Lon Prater, Robert Canipe, Marie Brennan, Alethea Contis, Debbie Kuhn, Ty Schwamberger and many more! Brian Keene and Scott Christian Carr share their latest columns, I.E. Lester investigates the zombie phenomenon, Mark McLaughlin interviews a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD icon, Derek Fox discusses the Art of Fear, an interview with Jeff Strand, and cover art and interview from Tom Brown. So much more!

The easiest definition I can think of for steampunk (or at least the wittiest) is “the science fiction George Washington would have read as a boy, had there been such a thing.” If we follow the science fiction analogy down the road a bit, I think we can safely say that Cherie Priest is well on her way to becoming the Gene Roddenberry of steampunk.

Clementine is the second book set in her Clockwork Century alternate universe. The first, Boneshaker, set the stage in the late 1800s, with an independent Texas and a ongoing Civil War that’s lasted for over two decades. Belle Boyd is a former Confederate spy, cast aside by her Rebel handlers when she became too (in)famous to go undercover. Desperate for employment, she is hired by the Pinkerton Detective Agency out of Chicago to ensure that a former Confederate airship delivers its vital cargo to Louisville, Kentucky, without any interference by the pirates chasing it down. Those pirates are under the leadership of Croggon Hainey, former slave, and the ship he’s chasing is his. When pirate and spy meet, they discover there’s more going on than either of them knew, and when they decide to solve their problems together, they’re easily greater than either of them separately.

Hainey and Belle are both excellent characters that grow visibly closer during the course of the book, starting as enemies and quickly learning to respect each other; I daresay the two would make quite the couple, though I kind of like how Priest stayed away from the sort of tomfoolery many authors (including myself!) would have been tempted to include. Lamar and Simeon, Hainey’s crew, round out the cast of main charactes, and play an excellent foil to the captain’s burgeoning admiration for Belle.

While set in the Clockwork Century that’s grown on fans of Priest since Boneshaker’s release last year, Clementine is also a great introduction to her steampunk universe for those who haven’t read the first book. It’s not a sequel, by any means. While Clementine does reference events from Boneshaker, Priest couches those nods in such a manner so as to raise curiosity, not confusion, among the uninitiated. One can easily pluck Clementine from a bookstore shelf, enjoy it thoroughly and then move on to Boneshaker. Those who have read Boneshaker will find that Clementine only dulls the appetite slightly; the story is perfectly suited for its 200 pages, but it’s hard not to want more of Priest’s steampunk. Luckily, more is on the way; Dreadnought, the second TOR novel set in the Clockwork Century, is due in September.

…from a couple of my Seven Deadly Pens colleagues!  I’ve read and blurbed two of these and have the third on my review pile, and I’d be happy to spread the word about these books even if the authors weren’t pals.

Kevin Wallis’ debut collection of short stories, BENEATH THE SURFACE OF THINGS, is being released September 1. You can read more about the book at the publisher’s website, but my two cents goes a little like this:

“Wallis’ storytelling is versatile and heartfelt.  Beneath the Surface of Things is a poignant approach to terrors both supernatural and standard.”

– Lincoln Crisler, author of Magick & Misery

So, last week we had the whole Leisurefail with the ebooks and the POD trade paperbacks, and the mass-market books going the way of the dodo. Now, there’s talk about them firing most of the editorial staff, including Don D’Auria, who’s headed the horror department for quite some time.

Now, I’m not going to try and pretend that I’ve got an inside look at what’s going on in the midlist arena, or that I’d even recognize Don D’Auria if he walked up and punched me in the sack, but any bozo who can read a comments thread can see that many of the authors are concerned: that they might not get checks, that books might be tied up with legal bullshit, and that copies of existing books might not ship.

My first and last word about the whole thing from that perspective is that someone needs to die in a fire for screwing around with these authors’ livelihoods. That’s about all I’m qualified to say on the matter; I’ve written two collections of short stories for the small press and work on other projects as time permits. I’m not a pro yet and I’m not privy to all the things they are.

What I will say, though, is that all of this is kinda exciting. Nature abhors a vacuum, and someone else is going to fill the gap. Hopefully, someone who isn’t going to douche things up. All of the great authors I’ve discovered through the Leisure line are going to find new homes, because the cream rises to the top. And me? I’m going to have a potentially new and unexplored arena in which to make my first professional novel sale, once I get off my ass and finish writing the bloody thing. As a reader, I’m a little sad, but as a writer… let’s call it equal parts apprehension and squee.

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The Passage is the third novel from award-winning mainstream author Justin Cronin, and the first in a projected trilogy set against the backdrop of America, post vampire-apocalypse.

The first twenty percent or so of the book covers the basics: a little girl abandoned at a convent, a Federal agent with a heart of gold, a gathering of twelve death-row-inmates-turned-guinea-pigs and the aftermath of a jungle expedition that raises more questions than are answered. This section, basically a prologue on steroids, culminates in the escape of an even dozen lethal criminals, all of whom have been deliberately infected with the Beta Test version of an engineered virus that could hold the key to eternal life, from the secret Colorado facility in which they are being held.

Then the blood-drinking starts and the virus spreads.

The second part, comprising the remainder of the novel, is a mind-jarring jump nearly a hundred years into the future. There are still humans, walled up inside a colony (in California, which seceded from the Union following the escape of the Virals), descended from children evacuated by the Army during the death throes of the nation. There’s a bare-bones Constitution, a small Parliament-style government, and an existence eked from the scavenged remains of civilization.

When a strange young girl saves Peter Jaxon’s life during a mission outside the colony, life inside the walls is disrupted, one of the original Virals incites several of the colonists to murder, and a small group risks everything to explore the origin of a radio signal from Colorado.

Colorado, where everything started.

While the first segment of the book initially seems like it could be pared down, possibly even stripped from the novel and used as bonus material on the publisher’s website, by the end of the book what originally seemed like extra padding is absolutely essential to the story.

Cronin stays away from any mention of the `V’ word (and truly, these aren’t traditional lords of the night), though his Virals do drink blood and are long-lived and nigh-impervious to damage. The Passage reads much like Stephen King when he’s being both expansive and good; the allure of the story isn’t the Virals at all, but the interaction between Cronin’s well-fleshed characters and their richly described world.

Even for those sick to death of vampires, The Passage will prove to be an addicting, and rewarding pleasure, and worth every bit of the hype it’s received to date.

Visit http://enterthepassage.com/. Buy it today.

Originally featured on Shroud Magazine’s book review blog.