Hola compadres!

Another Sunday, another stash, another installment with some fabulous news to share!

Book Blog Covention

A couple of Sundays ago we reported that the first ever con for book bloggers, The Book Blogger Convention, will happen in New York on the 28th of May one day after the Book Expo America (May 25-27) and that Thea was going to attend both whilst Ana was going to stay home dying of envy.

Well folks, some things have changed and we have some further news to report! First of all, the BBC has affiliated with BEA and if you register for the former you are automatically registered to the latter. How great is that?

Second, there are going to be several interesting panels during the con like Professionalism/Ethics, Marketing, Author/Blogger Relationships, Building Community, Writing/Building Content, and Thea has been invited to be a panelist for the Marketing segment!

Finally, because she must be there to see this in person, Ana decided to throw caution to the wind and will be joining the hordes attenting both events! This will be grand, the second time ever the Smugglers get to meet in person. Needless to say, we are Super Excited.

So come on, join us! Registration for the con is still open and available for a discounted rate of $90 (until February 14). This includes your pass to BEA, so it’s quite a deal!

In Other News:

Locus Magazine in its February 2010 issue, published The 2009 Recommended Reading List with inputs from many professionals of Fantasy and Scifi genres. Amongst the listed, some of our own favorites such as the ubiquitous Ark by Stephen Baxter (which seems to be making most ‘top of’ lists); Drood by Dan Simmons, Liar by Justine Larbalestier and Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. And of course, many, many others that we really want to read (what else is new?).

On that same vein (hee),The 2009 Stoker Awards Preliminary Ballot has been released. The Stoker Awards are held each year by the Horror Writers Association in celebration of the best of the genre has to offer. And we are stocked to see Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth and Kaaron Warren’s Slights making the list! The Forest of Hands and Teeth and Slights were two of Thea’s Top 10 reads from 2009. You can read her review for The Forest of Hands and Teeth HERE, and the review for Slights HERE. Also, you can check out our interview with Carrie Ryan, her Smugglivus Guest Post, as well as Kaaron Warren’s guest post about her favorite horror reads of 2009. Congratulations, Carrie and Kaaron!

As you might be aware, the last season of Lost premiered last week with an episode that was mind-blowing and which already sent us into full Theorising Mode. We probably exchanged a hundred emails after we watched the episode discussing the implications of everything that happened to the future of the show. If you are rolling your eyes right now, well, it seems you are not alone. We were shocked, we say SHOCKED, to find out last week, that we, as Lost fans, are officially considered….annoying, Oh, the HORROR, by the non-fans of the show. This, according to this video from The Onion. (Seriously now, THIS VIDEO IS AWESOME. We lurves it. Thanks to Willaful for the heads up).

Current Giveaways:

Don’t forget that our Soul Screamers giveaway is still going! You have until February 15th to enter for a chance to win either both and (first winner) or (two additional winners). You can enter it here.

This Week on The Book Smugglers

We kick start the week with a Lisa McMann special. Thea reviews Fade and Gone books 2 and 3 in the Wake Trilogy and we will have a massive giveaway to celebrate the release of Gone.

On Tuesday, it’s another very special day here at the Book Smugglers. Thea reviews A Dark Matter by Peter Straub, one of the masters of Horror and one of her favourite authors since she was a child. And we are supremely proud to announce that her review will be followed by an interview with the author!

On Wednesday, Ana reviews A Tale of Two Demon Slayers by Angie Fox, third in her Demon Slayer UF series.

Thursday sees Ana reviewing Lex Trent Versus The Gods the first YA offering by writer Alex Bell. The review will be followed by an interview with the author.

Finally on Friday, Thea reviews the Fantasy novel Except the Queen by Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder.

And that’s it from us today.

Enjoy your Sunday!

~ Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers

“On The Smugglers’ Radar” is a new feature for books that have caught our eye: books we heard of via other bloggers, directly from publishers, and/or from our regular incursions into the Amazon jungle. This is how the Smugglers’ Radar was born, and because there are far too many books that we want than we can possibly buy or review (what else is new?) we thought we could make it into a weekly feature – so YOU can tell us which books you have on your radar as well!

On Thea’s Radar:

*rubs hands together* I cannot freaking wait for this upcoming anthology, that includes the likes of Diana Peterfreund, and is edited by the formidable duo of Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier. Can we say, AWESOME?

Edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier, this teen anthology asks the question: which is better and badder, the zombie or the unicorn?

Saw this cover over at Aidan’s blog, A Dribble of Ink, and am intrigued. I have The Adamantine Palace on my TBR (and will be reviewing it in the next two weeks), so I’m excited to see more form Stephen Deas!

When Berren makes the mistake of stealing a purse from a thief-taker, it should have condemned him to a short and brutal life in the slave-mines. So when the thief-taker offers to train him as an apprentice instead, he can’t believe his luck. The thief-taker has secrets of his own, though, and Berren is soon sucked into a faraway war, filled with mercenary soldiers, necromancers who brew potions that can change your destiny, and a psychotic girl-princess with a penchant for cutting pieces out of her lovers’ souls.

It’s no secret that I am an unabashed Rachel Caine fangirl – her Weather Warden series is amongst my top 3 favorite currently running UF series’ PERIOD. New cover art is out, and I. Am. Stoked.

Did you know Dan Simmons has a new novel coming out this year? Hmm? I am a sucker for anything this man writes. He, like Neil Gaiman, is a Writing God in my mind. I cannot wait for Black Hills.

When Paha Sapa, a young Sioux warrior, “counts coup” on General George Armstrong Custer as Custer lies dying on the battlefield at the Little Bighorn, the legendary general’s ghost enters him – and his voice will speak to him for the rest of his event-filled life.

Seamlessly weaving together the stories of Paha Sapa, Custer, and the American West, Dan Simmons depicts a tumultuous time in the history of both Native and white Americans. Haunted by Custer’s ghost, and also by his ability to see into the memories and futures of legendary men like Sioux war-chief Crazy Horse, Paha Sapa’s long life is driven by a dramatic vision he experienced as a boy in his people’s sacred Black Hills. In August of 1936, a dynamite worker on the massive Mount Rushmore project, Paha Sapa plans to silence his ghost forever and reclaim his people’s legacy-on the very day FDR comes to Mount Rushmore to dedicate the Jefferson face.

Also, as the release date draws ever closer, I am really getting excited for the next installment in Claudia Gray’s Evermore books. And I really like this cover for Hourglass.

Bianca will risk everything to be with Lucas.

After escaping from Evernight Academy, the vampire boarding school where they met, Bianca and Lucas take refuge with Black Cross, a fanatical group of vampire hunters. Bianca must hide her supernatural heritage or risk certain death at their hands. But when Black Cross captures her friend—the vampire Balthazar—hiding is no longer an option.

Soon, Bianca and Lucas are on the run again, pursued not only by Black Cross, but by the powerful leaders of Evernight. Yet no matter how far they travel, Bianca can’t escape her destiny.

Bianca has always believed their love could survive anything . . . but can it survive what’s to come?

I just recently saw the formidable Danielle of Opinionated, Me? review this older YA book, and immediately thought: MUST HAVE.

Since the war and the bombs, Hatfork, Wyoming, is a broken-down, mutant-ridden town. Young Chaos lives in the projection booth of the abandoned multiplex, trying to blot out his present unable to remember his past. Then the local tyrant, Kellogg, reveals to him to over a can of dog food that the bombs never fell. The truth is a little more complicated. With a fur-covered girl and an automobile, Chaos sets out on journey, following the empty highway to the edge of the American nightmare, ins search of a missing identity and a stolen love. The truth he finds,is indeed a little more complicated. or a lot . . .

And finally, saw this over at Angie’s blog, Angieville. Now, I am a huge fan of Moira J. Moore’s Hero books. I *love* Taro and Lee. But seriously, these covers blow chunks. Instead, compare the lovely art from Chris McGrath and imagine if THIS was the art for Ms. Moore’s wonderful books.

On Ana’s Radar:

I am currently madly, unhealthly in love with Angry Robot’s entire catalogue. They have what appears to be, some crazy shiz coming out. Evidence #1:

On the streets of Indianapolis, the ancient Arthurian cycle is replaying in the lives of rival street gangs. Told through the eyes of King, as he gathers like-minded friends and warriors around him to venture into the fastness of Dred, the notorious crime lord, this is a stunning mix of myth and harsh reality. A truly remarkable novel.

Evidence #2:

There is a box. Inside that box is a door. And beyond that door is a whole world.

In some rooms, forests grow. In others, animals and objects come to life. Elsewhere, secrets and treasures wait for the brave and foolhardy.

And at the very top of the house, a prisoner sits behind a locked door waiting for a key to turn. The day that happens, the world will end…

and I know that this is way more like Thea’s cup of tea, but I liking the sound it so..evidence # 3:

Botanica is an island, but almost all of the island is taken up by the Tree.

Little knowing how they came to be here, small communities live around the coast line. The Tree provides them shelter, kindling, medicine – and a place of legends, for there are ghosts within the trees who snatch children and the dying.

Lillah has come of age and is now ready to leave her community and walk the tree for five years, learning all Botanica has to teach her. Before setting off, Lillah is asked by the dying mother of a young boy to take him with her. In a country where a plague killed half the population, Morace will otherwise be killed in case he has the same disease. But can Lillah keep the boy’s secret, or will she have to resort to breaking the oldest taboo on Botanica?

I mean, don’t these sound fa-bu-lous?

Earlier this week, Thea sent me the link to this YA book. I have never read any of Carrie Vaughn’s books, but her new series may be a good place to start:

On one side of the border lies the modern world: the internet, homecoming dances, cell phones. On the other side dwell the ancient monsters who spark humanity’s deepest fears: dragons.

Seventeen-year-old Kay Wyatt knows she’s breaking the law by rock climbing near the border, but she’d rather have an adventure than follow the rules. When the dragon Artegal unexpectedly saves her life, a secret friendship grows between them—even though the fragile truce that has maintained peace between their two species is unraveling around them. As tensions mount and battles begin, Kay and Artegal are caught in the middle. Can their friendship change the course of a war?

In her young adult debut, New York Times bestselling author Carrie Vaughn presents a modern tale of myths and machines and an alliance that crosses a seemingly unbridgeable divide.

And finally, this one, by my new author crush, John Green. Apparently there is no blurb and all we know is: it’s out in April and it is about two guys named…Will Grayson.

What about you? Any books on your radar?

For the past few months, we have been including an “On our Radar” section in our weekly stash for books that have caught our eye; books we heard of via other bloggers, directly from publishers, and/or from our regular incursions into the Amazon jungle. This is how the Smugglers’ Radar was born, and because there are far too many books that we want than we can possibly buy or review (what else is new?) we thought we could make it into a weekly feature on its own – this way YOU can tell us which books you have on your radar as well!

On Ana’s Radar:

I have seen this around this week and I am SO excited about this book like you wouldn’t know! I love the cover and I love the blurb: it sounds cool in a totally silly way. Yay! (out May 2010)

Sixteen-year-old Damien Locke has a plan: major in messing with people at the local supervillain university and become a professional evil genius, just like his supervillain mom. But when he discovers the shameful secret she’s been hiding all these years, that the one night stand that spawned him was actually with a superhero, everything gets messed up. His father’s too moral for his own good, so when he finds out Damien exists, he actually wants him to come live with him and his goody-goody superhero family. Damien gets shipped off to stay with them in their suburban hellhole, and he only has six weeks to prove he’s not a hero in any way, or else he’s stuck living with them for the rest of his life, or until he turns eighteen, whichever comes first.

To get out of this mess, Damien has to survive his dad’s “flying lessons” that involve throwing him off the tallest building in the city—despite his nearly debilitating fear of heights—thwart the eccentric teen scientist who insists she’s his sidekick, and keep his supervillain girlfriend from finding out the truth. But when Damien uncovers a dastardly plot to turn all the superheroes into mindless zombie slaves, a plan hatched by his own mom, he discovers he cares about his new family more than he thought. Now he has to choose: go back to his life of villainy and let his family become zombies, or stand up to his mom and become a real hero.

I recently read Liar by Justine Larbalestier and was so in love with it, I went back to check her other books and foundt this one:

Welcome to New Avalon, where everyone has a personal fairy. Though invisible to the naked eye, a personal fairy, like a specialized good luck charm, is vital to success. And in the case of the students at New Avalon Sports High, it might just determine whether you make the team, pass a class, or find that perfect outfit. But for 14-year-old Charlie, having a Parking Fairy is worse than having nothing at all – especially when the school bully carts her around like his own personal parking pass. Enter: The Plan. At first, teaming up with arch-enemy Fiorenza (who has an All-The-Boys-Like-You Fairy) seems like a great idea. But when Charlie unexpectedly gets her heart’s desire, it isn’t at all what she thought it would be like, and she’ll have resort to extraordinary measures to ditch her fairy. The question is: will Charlie herself survive the fairy ditching experiment? From the author of the acclaimed Magic or Madness trilogy, this is a delightful story of fairies, friendships, and figuring out how to make your own magic.

Yeah, I bought it!

Similarly, after reading the AWESOME Going too Far by Jennifer Echols, I had to go and buy her new book, a romantic YA comedy:

Hayden and Nick used to be a hot item, but their brief affair ended with a highly publicized break-up. Now the two are “just friends,” excluding the occasional flirtation.
When Hayden wins the girls’ division of a local snowboarding competition, Nick is unimpressed, claiming that Hayden wouldn’t have a chance against a guy. Hayden calls Nick’s bluff and challenges him to a head-to-head boarding contest. Their mutual friends quickly take sides, the girls on Hayden’s and the boys on Nick’s, making for an all-out battle of the sexes. This friendly competition is bound to get heated–and if they’re not careful, they might end up igniting some old flames.

Eloisa James, writer of the most fabulous Historical Romance series (The Desperate Duchesses one) next book will be a take on the Cinderella story. Entitled A Kiss At Midnight, the story is “a skewed, funny version of Cinderella with a sulky prince and a snappy Cinderella named Kate”. Here is a a tidbit about the nasty evil stepmother:

“Talking to her stepmother, to Kate’s mind, was like peeing into a pitch-black outhouse. You had no idea what would come back up, but you knew you wouldn’t like it.”

I can’t wait!

On Thea’s Radar:

I just found out from Kristen of Fantasy Cafe that a reprint of an old favorite, Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons is being reprinted next month! With Lord Voldemort on the cover! (Ok, not really the last part, but it looks like the Dark Lord):

THE PAST… Caught behind the lines of Hitler’s Final Solution, Saul Laski is one of the multitudes destined to die in the notorious Chelmno extermination camp. Until he rises to meet his fate and finds himself face to face with an evil far older, and far greater, than the Nazi’s themselves…

THE PRESENT… Compelled by the encounter to survive at all costs, so begins a journey that for Saul has spanned decades and crossed continents, plunging into the darkest corners of 20th century history to reveal a secret society of beings who throughout the ages have hidden in our midst and may often exist behind the world’s most horrible and violent events. Killing from a distance, and by darkly manipulative proxy, they are people with the psychic ability to ‘use’ humans: read their minds, subjugatethem to their wills, experience through their senses, feed off their emotions, force them to acts of unspeakable violence. Each year, three of them, Melanie, Willi and Nina, meet to discuss their ongoing campaign of induced bloodshed and slaughter. But this reunion, something will go terribly wrong. Saul’s quest is about to reach its elusive object, drawing hunter and hunted alike into a struggle that will plumb the darkest depths of mankind’s attraction to violence, and determine the future of the world itself…

And the new cover of Stephen King’s upcoming novel, Under the Dome has FINALLY been released! WOOHOO!

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when — or if — it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens — town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing — even murder — to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.

And, check out the awesome wraparound art for the book:

Keeping in the sort of horror/Halloween theme, this looks deliciously good too:

Kara’s afraid to go to sleep—until the nightmares come when she’s awake . . . .

Sixteen-year-old Kara Foster is an outsider in Japan, but is doing her best to fit at the private school where her father is teaching English for the year. Fortunately she’s befriended by Sakura, a fellow outsider struggling to make sense of her sister’s unsolved murder some months ago. No one seems to care about the beautiful girl who was so brutally murdered, and the other students go on as if nothing has happened. Unfortunately, the calm doesn’t last for long. Kara begins to have nightmares, and soon other students in the school turn up dead, viciously attacked by someone . . . or something. Is Sakura getting back at those she thinks are responsible for her sister’s death? Or has her dead sister come back to take revenge for herself?

Aaaaaand a new cover!

Woohoo!

Recent & Upcoming Books:

In the Blood by Adrian Phoenix
Release Date: August 25, 2009

DANTE LIVES.

Vampire. Rock star. Begotten son of the fallen angel Lucien. Dante Baptiste still struggles with nightmares and seizures, searching for the truth about his past. It is a quest as seductive as his kiss, as uncontrollable as his thirst, and as unforgiving as his determination to protect one mortal woman at any cost.

KNOWLEDGE KILLS.

FBI Special Agent Heather Wallace now knows the extent of the Bureau corruption that surrounds her, but worries she is losing the battle. And when Dante and his band Inferno come to Seattle on tour, Heather can’t help but be drawn back to the beautiful, dangerous nightkind. But what Heather and Dante don’t know is that new enemies lurk in the shadows, closer than they think…and even deadlier than they fear.

DESTINY UNFOLDS.

Shadowy government forces have pledged to eliminate all loose ends from Project Bad Seed — and Heather and Dante are at the top of the list. Elsewhere, the Fallen gather in Gehenna, intent on finding their long-awaited savior, the True Blood nightkind whom Lucien DeNoir would die to protect. And a damaged and desperate adversary, with powers as strange and perilous as Dante’s own, plots to use Dante as a pawn in a violent scheme for revenge. But only one of these lethal forces holds the key to Dante’s past — a key that could finally unlock the secret of his birth and the truth of his existence…or destroy him completely.

Unclean Spirits (Book 1 of the Black Sun’s Daughter) by M.L.N. Hanover
Release Date: July 28, 2009

In a world where magic walks and demons ride, you can’t always play by the rules.

Jayné Heller thinks of herself as a realist, until she discovers reality isn’t quite what she thought it was. When her uncle Eric is murdered, Jayné travels to Denver to settle his estate, only to learn that it’s all hers — and vaster than she ever imagined. And along with properties across the world and an inexhaustible fortune, Eric left her a legacy of a different kind: his unfinished business with a cabal of wizards known as the Invisible College.

Led by the ruthless Randolph Coin, the Invisible College harnesses demon spirits for their own ends of power and domination. Jayné finds it difficult to believe magic and demons can even exist, let alone be responsible for the death of her uncle. But Coin sees Eric’s heir as a threat to be eliminated by any means — magical or mundane — so Jayné had better start believing in something to save her own life.

Aided in her mission by a group of unlikely companions — Aubrey, Eric’s devastatingly attractive assistant; Ex, a former Jesuit with a lethal agenda; Midian, a two-hundred-year-old man who claims to be under a curse from Randolph Coin himself; and Chogyi Jake, a self-styled Buddhist with mystical abilities — Jayné finds that her new reality is not only unexpected, but often unexplainable. And if she hopes to survive, she’ll have to learn the new rules fast — or break them completely….

Darker Angels (Book 2 of the Black Sun’s Daughter) by M.L.N. Hanover
Release Date: September 29, 2009

In the battle between good and evil, there’s no such thing as a fair fight.

When Jayné Heller’s uncle Eric died, she inherited a fortune beyond all her expectations — and a dangerous mission in a world she never knew existed. Reining in demons and supernatural foes is a formidable task, but thankfully Jayné has vast resources and loyal allies to rely on. She’ll need both to tackle a bodyswitching serial killer who’s taken up residence in New Orleans, a city rich in voodoo lore and dark magic.

Working alongside Karen Black, a highly confident and enigmatic ex-FBI agent, Jayné races to track down the demon’s next intended host. But the closer she gets, the more convinced she becomes that nothing in this beautiful, wounded city is exactly as it seems. When shocking secrets come to light, and jealousy and betrayal turn trusted friends into adversaries, Jayné will soon come face-to-face with an enemy that knows her all too well, and won’t rest until it has destroyed everything she loves most….

Click here to read an Excerpt

Seduce Me In Shadow (The Doomsday Bretheren Book 2) by Shayla Black
Release Date: September 29, 2009

When a villainous wizard escapes from exile, the devastatingly sexy Doomsday Brethren must defend all magickind in the spellbinding second book in bestselling author Shayla Black’s seductive new paranormal series.

Ex-marine Caden MacTavish has shunned his magical heritage all his life, but he will do anything to heal his desperately ill brother, a Doomsday Brethren warrior in mourning for his missing mate. Posing as a photographer, Caden must convince firecracker tabloid reporter Sydney Blair to reveal the source of her recent exposé on a supernatural power clash. Unfortunately, keeping his hands off the sizzling redhead proves as hard as getting them onto the potent and mystical Doomsday Diary he discovers at her bedside. A bloody rebellion led by an evil, power-hungry wizard is imminent. If Sydney divulges the book’s existence, she will jeopardize magickind’s most deeply guarded secrets and become the ruthless wizard’s number one target. Caden has never trusted magic’s cruel and dangerous powers, but he will protect Sydney with his life and magic — even if it means risking his heart.

Click here to read an Excerpt and know more about the Author!

Title: Drood

Author: Dan Simmons

Genre: Literature, Fiction, Mystery

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (Hachette Group)
Publication Date: February 2009
Hardcover: 784 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel, although draws from the works and lives of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.

Why did I read this book: Dan Simmons is an autobuy for me — I love everything the man writes, from horror to science fiction to historical fiction. When we were offered a review copy, I was ecstatic.

Summary: (from Amazon.com)
On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens–at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world–hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever.
Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying?
Just as he did in The Terror, Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens’s life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens’s friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), DROOD explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author’s last years and may provide the key to Dickens’s final, unfinished work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, DROOD is Dan Simmons at his powerful best.

Review:

On 9 June 1865, Charles Dickens, his mistress and her mother embark on a high speed train ride to London, only to be involved in a terrible wreck just outside of Staplehurst. As passengers in the first class car, Dickens and his lady companions luckily emerge from the wreckage unscathed, but the majority of the other passengers are not nearly so fortunate. Shaken but eager to help (as is his exuberant nature), Dickens rushes into the chaotic wreckage headlong, attempting to give aid to the many injured and dying. It is during this rush that the sinister Drood enters the tale, a gaunt, deathly apparition in a coat and top hat.

“I am Charles Dickens,” gasped my friend.

“Yesss,” said the pale face, the sibilants sliding out through the tiny teeth. “I know.”

This nonplussed Dickens all the more. “Your name, sir?” he asked as they slid down the embankment of loose stones together.

“Drood,” said the man. At least Dickens thought this is what the man said. The pale figure’s voice was slurred and tinged with what may have been a foreign accent. The word came out sounding more like “Dread.”

While Dickens rushes to help the many unfortunates at the scene, Drood moves as a deathly presence through the wreckage, and all those he has been ‘helping’ suddenly die. When Dickens finally reaches London, he is obsessed with the shadowy Drood and enlists his longtime friend — fellow author and narrator of this tale — Wilkie Collins to find this deathly figure, this master of mesmerism, this nefarious mastermind of crime. In the sweltering heat of a summer night, the effusive Dickens drags Wilkie into his quest for Drood, leading both writers into London’s ‘Great Oven’; the worst, most rancid slums of the city, teeming with raw sewage, cutthroats, and opium dens. Following leads from Old Sal and then King Lazaree, the ancient woman and chinaman running two such opium dens, the duo enter the mysterious Undertown to find a whole city of cannibal boys, hidden rivers and Egyptian gods in Drood’s domain.

From that night forward, a darkness hangs over the friendship between Dickens and Wilkie. Dickens becomes more withdrawn and refuses to speak about his strange allegiance to Drood, and Wilkie’s ever increasing use of laudanum (for treatment of his rheumatic gout) coupled with his feelings of inadequacy as a professional writer drives a wedge between the two friends. Over the next five years, Wilkie and Dickens’s relationship grows increasingly strained as Wilkie is blackmailed into discovering Dickens’s secret pact with Drood by a determined, retired Inspector. The web of lies and mistrust, fueled by professional jealousy and opium use, draws Wilkie deeper towards madness — and all the while Drood’s menacing, all-knowing presence hovers in the background.

At nearly 800 pages, Drood is a bonafide doorstopper of a book, dense and rife with psychological tension and drama. Narrated in the first person by Wilkie Collins, this is not so much a book about Wilkie and his life, but rather about how his life was shaped by the ineffable Charles Dickens. To be perfectly frank, while Dickens is the beloved son of England, an undeniable literary juggernaut, and one of the most renowned figures in modern literature, Wilkie Collins is no slouch either. His Woman In White, which I have just recently had the pleasure of reading, appeals to me far more than Dickens’s work ever has. Wilkie himself says it best in one passage:

To be honest with you, Dear Reader who lives and breathes in such a remote branch of my future that no hint of my candour could possibly get back to anyone who loved Charles Dickens, I am…was…almost certainly always shall be…ten times the architect of plot that Charles Dickens ever was. For Dickens, plot was something that might incidentally grow from his marionette-machinations of bizarre characters; should his weekly sales begin slipping in one of his innumerable serialised tales, he would just march in more silly characters and have them strut and perform for the gullible reader, as easily as he banished poor Martin Chuzzlewit to the United States to ump up his (Dickens’s) readership.

My plots are subtle in ways that Charles Dickens could never fully perceive, much less manage in his own obvious (to any discerning reader) meandering machinations of haphazard plotting and self-indulgent asides.

Though smattering of jealousy and self-importance, I generally agree with Collins’s assessment of Dickens, which strangely endears this truly unreliable narrator to me as a reader. It’s ironic then, that Drood is far more Dickensian in style than a work of Wilkie Collins: there is an over-arching mystery with Drood in the background, but it is not so much a plot-driven mystery novel as it is an exhausting study of the two main characters and their relationship. In true Dickens style, Drood is perhaps a tad over-long and wraps up with a happy coincidence:

I simply could not stop laughing. This story, this plot, was so wonderfully baroque yet somehow so tidily logical. It was so, so…Dickensian.

My feelings exactly, dear Watson. While this ending might rub certain readers the wrong way as Drood is chock full of red herrings and needless twists, in this reader’s opinion it is the perfect conclusion to Mr. Simmons’s heartfelt homage to two very important writers. In this fictional recounting, written by Wilkie on his deathbed to a posthumous audience, Dickens is shown as the unstoppable force of nature the man was — his romantic ideals, his love of exercise and long walks, his passion for the stage, his natural superiority to his peers. And every step of the way Wilkie is there, despising the man as he tries to measure up to Dickens’s long shadow, but still drawn to his friend’s undeniable charisma and extraordinary talent. It is the narration of Wilkie Collins that makes this book, as once again Simmons blends painstaking research with thrilling, beautiful writing. Collins’s slow descent into horror is brilliant and terrifying — Wilkie goes from a few daily doses of laudnum to full blown opium and has hallucinations that devolve ultimately into paranoid delusions.

As a Simmons fan I loved reading the thrilling little bits of his past work in Drood, a montage of images: the actual mention of the ill-fated crew of The Terror; the images of sweltering, festering India from Song of Kali in London’s “Great Oven”; the understanding of literature from the Hyperion cantos. Drood is another beautiful addition to Simmons’s impressive arsenal of work, and a book I highly recommend to all lovers of literature.

Notable Quotes/Parts: One of the most insightful passages to Wilkie Collins’s feelings regarding Charles Dickens. Perfection.

Over Esther’s shoulder, Dickens allows us to catch a glimpse of the harbour. There are many boats there and more appear, as if by magic, as the fog begins to rise. Like Homer in the Iliad, Dickens briefly catalogues the ships becoming visible, including a great and noble Indiaman just back from India. And the author sees this — and makes us see this — just “when the sun shone through the clouds, making silvery pools in the dark sea.”

Silvery pools in the dark sea.

Pools in the sea.

…I have seen the sunlight on the sea thousands of times and have described it in my books and stories scores of times — perhaps hundreds of times. I have used words such as “azure” and “blue” and “sparkling” and “dancing” nd “grey” and “white-topped” and “ominous” and “threatening” and even “ultramarine.”

And I had seen the phenomenon of the sun “making silvery pools in the dark sea” scores or hundreds of times but had never thought to record it in my fiction, with or without that swift and certaina dn slightly blurred sound of the sibilants Dickens had chose for its description.

Then, without pausing even for a breath (and possibly not even to dip his pen), Dickens had gone on having the fog in the harbour lift over Esther’s shoulder by writing, “these ships brightened, and shadowed, and changed…,” and I knew in that instant, with my agitated, scarab-driven eyes merely passing over these few words in these short sentences, that I would never — not ever, should I live to be a hundred years of age and retain my faculties until the last moment fo that life and career — that I would never be able to think and write like that.

The book was the style and the style was the man. And the man was — had been –Charles Dickens.

I threw the expensive, personally inscribed, moroccan-leather-bound and gold-leaf-edged copy of Bleak House into the ticking and clicking and crackling and f—-ing fire.

Additional Thoughts: You like or are interested in Drood and want to know what else to read? Besides glomming Charles Dickens or Wilkie Collins’s backlist (beginning with The Mystery of Edwin Drood or The Woman in White respectively), you could also read more Dan Simmons. For the horror fans, start with Song of Kali, Summer of Night, or Carrion Comfort. Historical Fiction? Try The Terror. Or, of course, there is the Hugo Award winning Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion for the science fiction enthusiast.

And I could not help but think of the film Young Sherlock Holmes when reading this novel. You know, the film from 1985 with a reimagining of Holmes and Watson’s first meeting as young men in a preparatory school where they try to solve the mystery of deaths around campus. There’s an Egyptian curse (sort of), mesmerism, and some wonderful special effects. Yeah, it’s a bit silly (a bit “Kali maaaaa!”), but I loved this movie as a kid and highly recommend it too.

Verdict: Another winner from Simmons in my book. I highly recommend Drood, which is on my shortlist for one of the best books of 2009 already.

Rating: 8 Excellent

Reading Next: Into the Forest by Jean Hegland

A few weeks back, Ana and I decided to share our love for pushing the reading comfort zone, and we Dared the wonderful Kmont from Lurv à la Mode to guest review a book here!

We asked Kmont what genres she would normally never read, and from there gave her a selection of books in those genres. As it turns out, Kmont chose the Horror genre (*evil grin*), and we recommended…

Title: Summer of Night

Author: Dan Simmons

Genre: Horror

Summary: (from the publisher)
It’s the summer of 1960 and in the small town of Elm Haven, Illinois, five twelve-year-old boys are forging the powerful bonds that a lifetime of change will not break. But amid the sun-drenched cornfields and the sly flirtations of the local young girls, that loyalty will be pitilessly tested. From the silent depths of the Old Central School, a hulking fortress tinged with the mahogany scent of coffins, an invisible evil is emerging. And now Mike, Duane, Dale, Harlen, and Kevin must wage a fraternal war of blood — against an arcane abomination who stalks the hours after dark…

Why did we RECOMMEND this book: Dan Simmons is one heckuva writer–easily one of my favorites. No matter what genre he writes in, he does an impeccable job. I read Summer of Night a year or so back and loved it–and for someone starting out in the genre, it’s not so overwhelming (not to mention lengthy) as say, Stephen King’s It (although both books share the ‘young kids banding together to fight a greater evil’ element). Mr. Simmons’ characterizations and his careful, slow-simmering of plot and tension made this an ideal book to recommend!

And so, without further ado, we welcome you to The Book Smugglers’ first ever Guest Dare and turn the stage over to KMONT!!

Kmont’s Review:

Summer of Night
Dan Simmons

Reviewed by KMont, Lurv a la Mode

I hate horror, while also having a sick fascination with it. I recently had a close friend tell me I was a pansy for finding the trailer – yes, the trailer – for the upcoming M. Night Shyamalan flick, The Happening, quite frightening. But I couldn’t stop playing it over and over. And then there was my recent home screening of Will Smith’s I Am Legend (which Thea did a wonderful review of, from the book to the movie). It scared the supposed tough gal right out of me! And looking back, I can see how someone would laugh at me for it; it’s not horror in the sense of the more gory and gruesome kind…and then it hit me. It’s not the Freddy Kruger’s or Jason Voorhees characters that instill adrenaline fueled fear in my heart with their relentless pursuit of mayhem. It’s people like Shyamalan, with their dogged mind screws that really wrap me in emotional tethers. It’s the psychological aspects I get hooked up in. Too much gratuitous blood and gore, I’m rolling my eyes and searching for a romantic comedy. Summer of Night was my first official horror read though…and I was pleasantly surprised by its complexity and overall tone.

It’s the summer of 1960, the first freedom inspiring days of school’s out, the heat is on and childhood abounds. It’s the last day that good friends Dale and Lawrence Stewart, Mike O’Rourke, Duane McBride, Kevin Grumbacher and Jim Harlen will have to step foot in Old Central, the county’s educational pride and joy…and the boys’ virtual school prison with it’s yawning emptiness. Something’s in the air, and while the boys believe it’s the start to a long, hot summer filled with bike rides, free movie shows and lazy afternoon hang-out sessions, it’s actually something more sinister. No sooner are they officially released from school than Old Central releases a horrendous noise that echoes forth from its bowels. And therein lies the beginning to their nightmare. Soon, the boys each start to notice strange events and people about their small town of Elm Haven, Illinois. Each seems to cling to their innocence as best they can, as almost a shield against the strengthening evil, until it’s almost too late. They must learn to break past their fears and pull together if they have any chance of stopping the force staking its claim on them, the town and those last few innocent days of summer.

OK, so…wow. I was not expecting this book. When Thea and Ana approached me to do their first dare review, where I had to choose something outside my comfort zone, naturally horror came to mind. It is my nemesis, my one-time catalyst to an almost paralyzing fear of the dark. For more than five years, I bore the rather shameful adolescent fear of my closet (I heard that snickering). I never told anyone about it, but my mother knew. I hopped in her bed in the middle of the night too much for her not to know. I swore off this genre in any way, shape or form for the rest of my life. Till now. It sounds dramatic, but I still have flashbacks to this day, of that fear of the dark. And I think this is why I am now somewhat fascinated with the more psychological aspects of horror. Slowly, I’ve been allowing myself to open up to the genre again and danged if it’s not almost therapeutic.

So this book, this book I was not expecting. In many ways it’s wonderful. I have a fondness for books that take me right back to youth, to those days when a job and my own family had still never entered my mind. The main group of boys in it they all have this devil-may-care attitude of nothing can hurt them. They’ve survived another school year and they are invincible for it. Their level of intuition though, about the school, sets off the suspenseful tone and even though it took me till about ten chapters in to really get into the book, I really found myself enjoying it. I thought the pacing was slow, but in actuality, it was cleverly done. It lulled me into a safety net, and then when something spine tingling came along, I was rocked into breathless…well, horror. There are many, what I thought of at the time, side trips into the schools history, the boys’ back stories, and so on. There’s a crucial plot surround Mike’s grandmother that tied in so dang well. At first, I was impatient to get to the horror elements. I thought these side trips, while nicely implemented for character development, were simply an unnecessary distraction. But then those pockets of fear started popping up, then another round of character or plot development, and so on. It built and lulled, built and lulled till I realized this book had excellent pacing. It was clearly preparing for the big showdown. And I found myself really enjoying it all for what it was – masterfully drawn suspense.

Characters in this book were increasingly interesting. Each boy gets his face time and loving attention to detail. By book’s end, we know who each of them is, what makes them tick and their personalities really shine through, although some more than others. Dale and Lawrence, the former being the older brother by a year. I loved their relationship, as it reminded me a lot of mine with my sister. Dale is so tough and he’s the protector. Lawrence comes into his own in the book, and I could see how, if he were real, he would develop into quite the young man. Duane quickly became my favorite of them all, with his quietly impressive smarts and almost older mind. It’s Duane that really begins to delve into the whys of the strange events suffusing Elm Haven. And he pays a heavy price for it. I genuinely teared up when the evil finds him. I hung in till the bitter end of one scene with him, not quite believing what I was reading and hoping it would all end up in a different way.

Mike was the other standout for me. Speaking of role of protector, his fierce guarding of his grandmother, whose own history shapes this book as well, brought forth a strong admiration in me. Memo, as he lovingly calls her, has a past with one of the evil characters. It’s that past that drives the Soldier, an unknown, seemingly young man that shows up one day, in his relentless pursuit of her. Memo is incapacitated by stroke and therefore bedridden. Her youth is long gone and she communicates through an eye blinking system the family has worked out with her. But the Soldier promised once, when he was human, that he would claim her no matter what. And his stop-at-nothing stalking of her is one of the pivotal points in which the boys begin to see the light, so-to-speak.

And that brings us to the eeevil aspects of Summer of Night. Yes, I was so scared at some points that I had to stop reading it before bed, and certainly not when it was me and my daughter alone in the house. I’ll say right up front that the buildup of the monsters orchestrating all the strange occurrences was more of a thrill for me than the climax at the end. Again, I think it’s all about the mind screw with me. When we actually get to “see” the monsters, the Soldier with his funnel shaped mouth, as it’s described, and the subsequent deluge of infectious brown waste and slugs…yes it was gross as all get out, but it didn’t really horrify me…it was simply icky. I was much more the knuckle biter waiting to see what would happen. Soon, I didn’t mind that roller coaster pace, because those suspenseful parts were what had me breathing hard at night soon after I’d turned off my light.

That being said, I was a bit disappointed that the reasoning behind the chief monster weren’t delved into more. It all pretty much starts with a bell, the Borgia bell that’s still hanging in the belfry of Old Central. Duane does some rather ingenious digging up of facts on it, what leads to that price he pays. I found the history behind this evil fascinating, but it kind of fizzles out as we reach the climax of the book at the end. I was still thinking it had to more than the simple seeds of world domination…or maybe it was just evil for evil’s sake. Maybe I was over thinking it and it wasn’t necessary to go beyond that. Maybe I missed something. There is one name mentioned, Osiris, and I got a thrill at seeing some Egyptian mythology added in.

Osiris is the Egyptian god of life, death and fertility and he had a huge cult/fan base at one time who were very interested in immortality. In Summer of Night, this supreme evil force has denizens and servants of the town, in addition to this mysterious soldier, that do its bidding. Towards the end of the book, what seems to thrill them to no end is that there is life beyond death, their reward for serving their master. I’m sure there’s much more that ties in than this, but honestly I would have to reread the book and do a bit more research to be remotely sure.

One last thing that had me raising my brow was these eleven, twelve and thirteen year old boys and their liberal use of Molotov cocktails and guns. Indeed, it certainly was a different time altogether. Talk about a meeting of two opposites, their innocence and subsequent manning up. But then, their innocence was stolen from them by this evil and while I was certainly glad to cheer them on when they dropped a bomb or two on the bad guys, I had to convince myself to let it go. Just let it go and enjoy the story. Let go the fact that not one adult saw what was happening as they raced the streets of Elm Haven with murderous rendering truck drivers about to run them over in plain public view. As a matter of fact, it was as if the adults in the town were under some kind of influence that dulled their senses; sight hearing, smell. All the things the boys sensed were absent for the parents and other citizens…unless they inadvertently helped the boys in the way of information surrounding these mysteries. Those adults became the focus of the evil too.

All in all, this was a mixed bag of impressions for me. I loved the atmosphere of the book, the tension that builds up and how buildings and locations like Old Central almost became living, breathing characters themselves. I loved the interactions and histories of each main character. The history surrounding the slowly evolving evil was fascinating, and worth further research on, possibly a rereading of the book. I would say I enjoyed it to a point, a very good point, but it didn’t blow me away. The monsters themselves were a bit disappointing, but then again, they seemed to be the obligatory gore and that sort of thing has never impressed me. Will I pick up another horror book in the near future? Probably not. The genre still has its place in my squick zone, but should an intriguing storyline like this one capture my eye again…well, anything’s possible I suppose.

Rating: Based on all that, and if we’re scoring according to the Book Smuggler standard, I give Summer of Night a score between 6 and 7. It gets a Lurv à la Mode score of three scoops. Both scores, I feel, reflect the “OK” feel I had by book’s end.

Thea, Ana – thanks so much for this fun opportunity!

Next up for the Guest Dare: Kate from What Kate’s Reading does The Sandman Volume 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman (Her first ever Graphic Novel read!)

And again, a big Smuggler THANK YOU to Kmont for her bravery and for the awesome review!!!