Tag: Excerpts

“The War of the Ravels” Then And Now: When Mercy Met Brennendah

~ James Viscosi ~ 1 Comment

I’m between books at the moment, having finished off Wool and not picked up a replacement yet, so rather than Teaser Tuesday, this week I offer another side-by-side comparison of a scene from The War of the Ravels. In this scene, Our Heroes meet a fellow named Brennendah, of the same species (“Rittandic”) as the villain of the piece, Kihantroh. As usual, the original, 20-year-old version of the scene is on the left, while the rewritten version is on the right.

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Teaser Tuesday 3/26/2013: “Wool”

~ James Viscosi ~ 3 Comments

This week I’m still working on Wool: Omnibus Edition by Hugh Howey, the dystopian SF novel from last week.  This is a big book and well worth the $3.99 Kindle price.  It still mostly takes place in that giant silo (“They mostly stay in the silo.  Mostly.”), and at this point my speculation last week that the title, which seemed to refer to the wool pads use to scrub sensors, might also refer to the old saw about “pulling the wool over one’s eyes” has been explicitly stated.  Five points for me!

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Teaser Tuesday 3/19/2013: “Wool”

~ James Viscosi ~ 1 Comment

So having run out of free books, I have shelled out the princely sum of $3.99 for Wool: Omnibus Edition by Hugh Howey, a dystopian SF novel that, so far, takes place entirely in a giant underground silo in which the remnants of humanity eke out an existence, while outside, the earth is a lifeless world beneath a toxic atmospheric stew.  At the moment the title appears to refer to the wool pads used by convicts (or the occasional volunteer) who goes out into the poisonous world to scrub the sensors and cameras that allow those within the silo to look out at the wasteland they have left behind, but I’m thinking it also refers to the wool being pulled over everyone’s eyes, perhaps by the silo’s IT Department.  We shall see!

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Teaser Tuesday 3/12/2013: “Bottled Abyss”

~ James Viscosi ~ 1 Comment

Another month, another free book from the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library!  This week it’s Bottled Abyss by Benjamin Kane Ethridge, in which a bottle containing the waters of the River Styx finds its way into mortal hands.  Needless to say, hilarity ensues.

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Teaser Tuesday 2/26/2013: “Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum”

~ James Viscosi ~ 1 Comment

This week’s freebie book is Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum, a novel that I would (so far) characterize as “Grave Encounters” meets The Little Stranger meets my own Night Watchman (though without the gore). Two teams of ghost hunters — one of which is led by a man who has his own ghost following him around — investigate a Chicago-area haunted asylum, site of numerous suspicious arson fires and wandering apparitions. What could possibly go wrong?

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Teaser Tuesday 2/12/2013: “The Last Ringbearer”

~ James Viscosi ~ 1 Comment

Having finally finished Gust Front and having proceeded to polish off Flowertown, I am now reading The Last Ringbearer, a book by Kirill Eskov (translated from the Russian) which postulates that the events of The Lord of the Rings are another example of history being written by the victors. In this telling, Sauron is just another king, Gandalf is a pompous ass who wants to destroy Mordor to stop its incipient industrial revolution, the elves are xenophobic and manipulative invaders from another dimension, Aragorn is a grubby usurper who murders Denethor (who was actually the king of Gondor rather than a mere steward) and keeps Faramir and Eowyn as hostages to ensure the cooperation of Rohan and Gondor … you get the idea. While not up to the level of other revisionist literature like Wicked, it’s interesting enough, and it’s freely available for download in various formats (to the displeasure of Tolkien’s publishers, apparently). More money to buy medication for Tucker!

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Teaser Tuesday 2/5/2013: “Gust Front”

~ James Viscosi ~ Leave a comment

Still reading Gust Front by John Ringo — this is one big book!  Since last week’s excerpt was all about running away, I thought it would be appropriate for this week’s excerpt to be about what happens when the invaders reach Washington, D.C., and begin trying to take the Mall and, specifically, the Washington Monument.  As a bonus, it’s from the point of view of the same person whose unit was fleeing through Arlington National Cemetery, too.

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Teaser Tuesday 1/29/2013: “Gust Front”

~ James Viscosi ~ 1 Comment

Well I’m now at 83% of the way through Gust Front by John Ringo.  The Posleen have arrived with an army of a few million heavily armed centaur-shaped aliens.  What do you do when you’re outnumbered a hundred to one by enemy berserkers?  You do this:

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Teaser Tuesday 1/22/2013: “Gust Front”

~ James Viscosi ~ 1 Comment

At the moment, I’m about 25% of the way through Gust Front by John Ringo, in which the alien Posleen are poised to invade the earth.  At least, that’s what they keep saying; there’s been no actual sign of the Posleen yet.  But I’m sure they will be arriving any time now!  *checks watch*

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Teaser Tuesday 1/8/2013: “A Hymn Before Battle”

~ James Viscosi ~ 2 Comments

So not long ago I started reading a book called Gust Front, which very excitingly starts in the middle of a galactic war between a group of aliens called the Posleen on one side and a Galactic Federation consisting of several other alien races plus the Terrans on the other. I eventually realized that the reason Gust Front starts that way is that it’s actually the second book of the Posleen War, the first being A Hymn Before Dying, which I switched over to and am now reading. No harm done, except that there’s at least one character in this book that I know survives into the next one. Spoilers!

In this scene from A Hymn Before Dying, a friendly alien called a Tchpth, which looks like a crab, is explaining to the President and his advisors why using nerve gases or other chemical weapons against the Posleen is doomed to failure.

“Your vicious and disgusting mustard gas would make me quite ill at lethal concentrations, but nerve gases would be completely ineffective. Despite my oft-noted resemblance to a cockroach or a crab you are much more closely related to your order crustacea or arthropoda than I.”

Oh, snap! Take that, you vicious, backward omnivores (another pet name the Tchpth have for humans)! With friends like these …

And of course, here’s this week’s excerpt from The War of the Ravels, in which Mercy is suffering from altitude sickness, and would like someone to bring her a cup of soup. And possibly a blankie.

A diagonal gust of wind knifed across the cliff face, reminding Mercy that her attic room and her bed and anyone who might bring her soup were all far, far away. There must be somewhere better than this she could be, though. She tried to get up, but her muscles wouldn’t cooperate, as if something were holding her to the ground; after a moment she realized it was Nebandalex, restraining her. “Do not try to get up again,” he said. “The last time, you collapsed and nearly started rolling down the mountain.”

Hmm, rolling down a mountain is bad, unless you’re a boulder. And even then it’s probably not that much fun for the boulder.