What to Read after The Handmaid’s Tale: Brave New Girl by Rachel Vincent

What to Read after The Handmaid’s Tale: Brave New Girl by Rachel Vincent

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Brave New Girl CoverWhat should you read after Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale? Rachel Vincent’s Brave New Girl.

First-person narration in the present tense plunges readers into the surreal world of Dahlia 16. Raised in a training facility with 4,999 identical sisters, Dahlia doesn’t realize she’s a clone. All she knows is that she should be like her identicals, happily and unquestioningly serving her home city without distinction.

At least, that’s what she’s supposed to do. Dahlia figures she must be defective since she takes pride in being at the top of her class, and arrogance isn’t permissible in a laborer. Worse, she’s started breaking the rules. Stuck in a broken elevator with Trigger 17, a handsome teenage soldier, she actually talks to him. And now she can’t stop thinking about him…

Clearly there’s something wrong with her. If the authorities discover her secret, they’ll liquidate the genome, slaying the entire cohort of 5,000 girls. Meanwhile, Trigger 17 makes himself even more difficult to forget by leaving her forbidden gifts. He must be flawed, himself, to behave so recklessly.

If you’re hearing echoes of Aldous Huxley in Vincent’s title, it’s for good reason. Brave New Girl is a high-concept YA dystopia. Although it features clones with bar codes tattooed on their wrists and renegade geneticists, file it under speculative rather than science fiction. (On GoodReads, the author herself describes the genre as “sci-fi lite.”) Most of the reading pleasure comes from figuring out how this world works right along with the protagonist, whose learning curve drives the story. A paragon of “show, don’t tell,” the narrative is filtered through Dahlia’s perspective. This generates moments of cognitive dissonance when the reader understands what’s going on better than Dahlia herself and vice versa. If you’re a hard-core sci fi reader who prefers fictional worlds to make sense right from the beginning, then this novel will likely frustrate you. Even after the volume has finished, many explanatory details remain missing, held in reserve for future books.

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Good Old-fashioned Military Science Fiction: The Icarus Corps by Zachary Brown

Good Old-fashioned Military Science Fiction: The Icarus Corps by Zachary Brown

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The Icarus Corps-back-small The Icarus Corps-small

I love omnibus editions. It’s not just their convenience, the joy of having an entire trilogy packed into one hefty volume. I think it’s just as much the celebratory aspect. It’s like, Holy crap, we made it. The series is finished. Forget we charged you for the first two; look, here’s the whole damn thing in one volume. You’re welcome.

In the case of The Icarus Corps, the trade paperback containing a complete military science fiction trilogy by Zachary Brown, that’s actually more or less accurate, as the third book, Jupiter Rising, was never even published in paperback. If you enjoyed the first two, and don’t have an e-reader, this is your only option.

Still, it ain’t a bad option, all things considered. I bought the first book, The Darkside War, and I was still delighted to stumble on the omnibus edition of all three novels at Barnes & Noble last week, and I snapped it up immediately.

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Early Peek at 2000AD Prog #2050: A Jumping-On Issue

Early Peek at 2000AD Prog #2050: A Jumping-On Issue

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2000AD is a weekly anthology book, typically with 4 stories running at a time, with some at the middle while others are ending, which makes it hard to find a meaty run to review. Several times a year, 2000AD publishes issues (pronounced progs if you’re speaking with a British accent) for new people to jump on — where every story is beginning.

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Prog #2050 is such an issue and will be hitting newsstand (and the internet as a digital issue) on September 25th, so I thought I’d get into it. This was a large-sized issue (48 pages) and contained 7 new stories that you don’t have to know much at all about the world of 2000AD to start reading.

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The Complete Carpenter: Christine (1983)

The Complete Carpenter: Christine (1983)

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Christine-original-posterIt’s a Stephen King September, thanks to the monstrous success last week of It: highest grossing September opening ever, highest grossing horror movie opening ever, and only a Deadpool away from highest grossing R-rated opening ever. (Our own Sue Granquist’s take.) A perfect time to fast-track the next movie in my John Carpenter career retrospective, also a Stephen King adaptation.

And in some unfortunate tragic timing, Harry Dean Stanton died the day before I posted this. Stanton was one of the great character actors of the last sixty years, a continual presence in movies from the moment I first started watching them, and appeared memorably in two John Carpenter films, Escape from New York and today’s subject, Christine. Stanton lived a long, full life (he was 91) but will still be immensely missed. Few people could steal a scene like he could.

*Sniffle* Anyway, back to our regular program.

In the wake of the financial failure of The Thing, John Carpenter needed a studio project to keep busy, and took up producer Richard Kobritz’s offer to direct Christine, based on a Stephen King novel that was still in galleys. (The book was published in April and the movie premiered in December.) Carpenter originally intended to direct another King adaptation, Firestarter, which Universal offered to him. But after the box-office crash of The Thing, Universal cut the budget for Firestarter in half, and Carpenter opted out. When he ended up at Columbia with Christine, the screenwriter of the early drafts of Firestarter, Bill Phillips, went with him to handle the scripting chores.

The film was a mild success, grossing twice its $10 million budget. Like most of Carpenter’s movies from this period, Christine has maintained a steady profile ever since. Along with Carrie, The Shining, and The Dead Zone, it’s part of a group of early Stephen King movies from major directors.

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What do George Lucas, Michael Jackson, and Harry Houdini Have in Common? It Combines Reading and Obsession

What do George Lucas, Michael Jackson, and Harry Houdini Have in Common? It Combines Reading and Obsession

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KARL LAGERFELD books-small

I’ve recently discovered the website Literary Hub. Their recent articles include 7 Writers Who Were Also Editors, Fake News and the Rise of Fascism in the 20s, and their entirely cool Most Talked About Books feature (which this week includes John Le Carre and N.K. Jemison).

But my favorite article in their archives is Emily Temple’s piece on 10 Famous Book Hoarders, which includes photos of the libraries of George Lucas, Ernest Hemingway, William Randolph Hearst, Thomas Jefferson, and fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld (300,000 volumes!)

I’m a fairly compulsive book collector myself, though not on the scale of famous genre collectors like David Hartwell, Bob Weinberg, and Frank Robinson. My house doesn’t look anything like the pictures in Temple’s article (it looks more like this). Still, it’s good to see evidence of well adjusted individuals with the same peculiar obsession as myself. Check out the complete article here.

Zombies Need Brains Needs You

Zombies Need Brains Needs You

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ZNB RazorsThose who know me, or who have read some of my previous posts on the subject, know that I’m a big fan of anthologies, particularly those featuring original stories. For my general remarks on the subject, you can look here. I’ve mentioned that the anthology is a wonderful thing for readers, who can encounter authors new to them, sample the work of people they’re not familiar with, and, in the case of the themed anthology, explore an idea that interests them.

The original anthology can also be a god-send for writers – in part because it’s an easy way for new readers to learn about us, and find out whether they like our style. But it’s also the all-important entry-level step for a lot of new and previously unpublished authors, particularly when the anthology, like the ones Zombies Need Brains publish, is recognized as a qualifying market by SFWA.

But even established writers benefit from anthologies. You get to explore an area or a theme that interests you, but that you don’t have a novel-length idea for. You get to write a short adventure for established characters – again, something cool that just isn’t novel-length. You can re-visit complex imaginary worlds, and sometimes, you can give new characters or worlds a test run before you run the larger version.

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GenCon 2017 Pt. 4 – Catch Up Edition

GenCon 2017 Pt. 4 – Catch Up Edition

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Company of Iron_TOPI’ve covered a number of new games that I saw at Gen Con, including fantasy deck-building games, science fiction games, and youth games. Some games, though, are hard to classify under a large thematic umbrella, defying the tight boxes of genre. Here I’d like to touch on some of those games.

Privateer Press

One of my favorite miniature war games is Warmachine, created by Privateer Press. In fact, my first article with Black Gate was an essay on their Iron Kingdoms RPG line. At that time, the Iron Kingdoms RPG was built on the D20 system, and it’s now a standalone RPG line … but Privateer Press is really known for their miniature line.

In Warmachine, you create an army commanded by a unique warcaster, and comprised of their large, magical, steaming metal constructs called warjacks, supported by units of troops, solo soldiers, and officers. Their companion game, Hordes, is fully compatible, but the warlocks in Hordes use a slightly different magical mechanic to command their feral, rampaging warbeasts. You assemble an army by picking one of the available factions, and then buying, assembling, and (hopefully) painting your miniatures to represent your completed army. The folks over at Penny Arcade have recently begun broadcasting full games of Warmachine for your viewing pleasure, if you want to see what it’s all about. But Privateer Press has major expansions on the horizon for their game lines.

This summer, Privateer Press released Grymkin: The Wicked Harvest, a dark fey-themed faction for Hordes. These are some truly great miniatures, from the child warlock known just as The Child (complete with her companion and protector, Dolly) to the warlock The Dreamer (along with three solos representing fragments of her dream power) to the grotesque porcine Piggybacks and the darkly amusing Neigh Slayers. Words really can’t do these miniatures justice, so check them out on the website.

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Modular: The Traveller Central Supply Catalogue Page by Page: Survival Gear, Electronics and Computers…

Modular: The Traveller Central Supply Catalogue Page by Page: Survival Gear, Electronics and Computers…

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Traveller Central Supply Catalogue
(Click through to first article)
256 Traveller rescue ball
Rescue Ball

I’ve finally started making use of the Mongoose 2 Traveller Central Supply Catalogue. As predicted, it’s been handy to have two sets of armour listings, which is as far as I got last time with my page-by-page.

The players — all 13-14 year old boys — liked the catalogue just to look at. Rules aside, it added coolness to our Traveller sandbox game. One or two of the items proved invaluable, including the Diplomatic Vest, which the rogue character leapt on with unholy glee. (He should, however, have considered something more powerful than the flechette gun.)

So, now we’re onto Survival Gear, Electronics, and Computers, sections that continue the faux catalogue conceit.

2. Survival Gear

As with Armour, this section duplicates and expands on the equipment in the core rules. For example, it tells us more about “Artificial Gills” to make clear that these must be worn with a mask, and includes lots of new items.

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Mage: The Hero Denied #2

Mage: The Hero Denied #2

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Mage 2So, the basic setup for the new Mage series is shaping up to be similar to the previous two volumes. At least one big fight scene and LOTS of talking. Seriously, you sign up for Mage and you’re signing up for lots of dialogue. As far as the issue breakdown goes (LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD), it’s 7 pages of Kevin and Magda arguing, tucking their kids into bed, and going up to the attic; 4 pages of evil insurance adjusters literally swallowing nightmare fuel; 4 pages of Kevin and Magda talking about a magic crock pot while Hugo stares out a window; 3 pages of Kevin taking his son out for lunch; and 5 pages of Kevin fighting a pair of flaming goat-men. I’m enjoying the series so far, but fair warning, that’s the sort of issue breakdowns you’re going to get, so if you prefer more action and less chatter in your comics, then you’re probably better off passing on Mage.

Was the above paragraph filled with spoilers? Sort of, a little bit. But none of it really felt like plot development so much as plot outlining. Issue two is still very much in the “setting up the story” stage, but as with the previous issues, the magic of this series is in all of the little details. The Gracklethorns reveal that they’re even less human than they initially appear and we start getting names, as well as distinctions between the five of them. Kevin cooks dinner, implying that the domestic duties are more evenly split between Kevin and Magda than I’d thought at the end of issue one. Magda’s hesitation to leave their home is based more on not wanting to disturb some magic spells she’s brewing than on a desire for pure domesticity. And the house is a rental, meaning they don’t have as much money as they initially appeared to have. Still no clues about Kirby, Joe, or the Mage. Hugo is reading an Animorphs book, which firmly dates this story at least fifteen years in the past.

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