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*
Tag: teaser tuesday
Teaser Tuesday 1/8/2013: “A Hymn Before Battle”
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.
Teaser Tuesday 12/11/2012: “Tears in Rain”
This month my free book from Amazon is Tears in Rain by Rosa Montero. The astute reader may recognize “tears in rain” as part of Rutger Hauer’s epic Famous Last Words in the film “Blade Runner”, appearing here as listed on Wikipedia:
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. [laughs] Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like [coughs] tears in rain. Time to die.”
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Teaser Tuesday 12/4/2012: The Apocalypse Troll
So at the moment I’m reading a book by David Weber with the somewhat unfortunate title The Apocalypse Troll, which always makes me snicker a little, perhaps because of Dennis the Vizsla’s run-in with Obvious Troll a few years ago. (However, the Troll in this book is not obvious. At least, not once it stops firing nukes at the U.S. Navy.)
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Teaser Tuesday 11/20/2012: “The Half-Made World”
Well I finally paid for another book, The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman. Why, you ask? Two reasons:
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Teaser Tuesday 11/6/2012: “Apocalypse Z”.
So I’ve been a bit remiss the last couple of weeks with Teaser Tuesday posts. Busy busy busy, you know, plus the stuff I’ve been reading has been mostly freebie Halloween short stories that I downloaded toward the end of October, and not really conducive to teaserification. But this month I have another real, live book, Apocalpyse Z. Hmm, what could a book with a title like that be about?
In some refugee camps in neighboring republics, they’re reporting new cases of what they insist is an especially virulent strain of the West Nile virus. But media sources are calling it Ebola.
Hmm. West Nile, Ebola; potato, rotten tomato that oozes nasty red juice all over everything. But hey, whatever gets you the most clicks, media sources! Interestingly, this book is translated from the Spanish and takes place in Spain, making it the first foreign zombie novel I’ve read. (Although I’ve seen one or two Italian zombie movies, and sort of wish I hadn’t.)
And, of course, here’s today’s teaser from The War of the Ravels. I’m rewriting this part of it pretty much completely, so it’s been rather slow going, but things are shaping up!
She soon realized she was wandering through unfamiliar territory, and moved closer to the buildings on the left—which, she thought, was the direction in which the harbor gate would be found—hoping to spot a building she recognized, or maybe find a sign or a person to tell her which way to go. Not that she had much hope of either; no one was out on this sinister night, and as far as she could tell, Abacar did not believe in “You Are Here” kiosks.
Just imagine how much easier going the mines of Moria would have been with “You Are Here” kiosks scattered around! Or, even better, “You Are Here And The Balrog Is There” …
Teaser Tuesday 10/23/2012: “Bad Juju and Other Tales of Madness and Mayhem”
So my quest to save money continues this week with Bad Juju and Other Tales of Madness and Mayhem, a collection of short stories by Jonathan Woods. It’s sort of like what you might get if Joe R. Lansdale, Elmore Leonard, and Carl Hiaasen spent the night together drinking and trying to top each other with crazy stories about life in an unnamed Caribbean republic. For some reason, the setting keeps making me think of a much, much seedier version of Catalina Island, probably because that’s the only island I visit on any sort of regular basis.
As Ariel’s hands grabbed my throat, I kneed him in the jewels as hard as I could. The next instant he was writhing on the floor like a dying insect.
Oh, ouch. I’ve got nothing to add to that one!
And, of course, here is this week’s excerpt from The War of the Ravels, my current work in progress:
The sun lay very near the horizon now, thick and red, coloring the sky with swirls of angry color. The bottom of the chasm became obscured by a thick layer of luminous fog that oozed up from the sea, as if someone had dumped a massive quantity of dry ice into the water and then lit it from below with flood lamps.
Hmm, that can’t be good …
Teaser Tuesday (Or Wednesday Or Whatever If I Screw The Date Up Again): “Pines”
This week I’m reading Pines, by Blake Crouch. This is another Prime freebie for the Kindle, thus continuing my effort to avoid spending money on books for a while — an effort which has probably just been extended by another few months due to my iPod’s unfortunate high-speed encounter with a tile floor. Deceleration trauma is rough on small spinning drives! Anyway, “Pines” is about a Secret Service agents who awakens in a small Idaho town following a car crash, and has a rather rough time leaving. I’m almost finished with it and, while I figured out the Big Twist well before the Big Reveal, the rules say no spoilers, so I had to choose my two sentences carefully. Here goes!
“It’s done,” Pilcher said, “and you’re my new sheriff. Welcome aboard.”
Believe me, this falls into the category of “An Offer You Can’t Refuse”.
And now, of course, here is this week’s teaser from The War of the Ravels:
The innkeeper tugged his blade free again, and accidentally dropped it this time. It failed to penetrate the ground, ending up lying on its side like some sort of unintentional metaphor.
Teaser Tuesday 10/10/2012: “Feed”
So right now I’m reading Feed, a — wait for it! — not-quite-post-apocalyptic zombie book set in a future America in which people never leave the safety of their homes, preferring to communicate and interact via the Internet, where one is less likely to get attacked by the undead. (Getting attacked by trolls is, of course, still a risk.) The main characters are a trio of bloggers who follow a presidential candidate on the campaign trail, reporting on the stops and events and trying not to get eaten.
My father has always had just one piece of advice about zombies and ammunition, one he’s drilled into my head enough times that it’s managed to stick: When you have one bullet left and there’s no visible way out of the shit you’re standing in, save it for yourself.
Dads are always ready with the good advice! (A certain character from “Deep Rising” may wish he had learned this particular lesson.) Let’s not forget a couple of other important ones, like “Cardio” and “Double-Tap”.
And of course, here’s a little teaser from the upcoming conclusion of Shards:
One did not leave the husks of swatted flies lying about one’s kitchen, especially when expecting visitors. Untelleh would come to the castle once she had been restored from her exile, and it would hardly do to receive her atop a pile of slaughtered Rittandics, like some sort of barbarian despot.
Teaser Tuesday 9/25/2012: “Ghosts of a Tired Universe”
So now I’m reading a book called Ghosts of a Tired Universe, which is not to be confused with “Ghosts: The Complete Series”. For one thing, so far, this book doesn’t have any actual ghosts in it. This one is under the impression that it has something profound to say about Physics and Art (which, in the context of the book, would definitely be capitalized). I haven’t quite decided what I think of it yet, but I’m still reading, so it’s one up on the dreadful Seed from a few weeks back.
Dormius didn’t know at the time that the addiction to brightness had begun to seep into him as well. He too would one day have to rise from that subterranean playground and grow into the being he was meant to become.
Hey, Dormius, be careful with that. Sometimes, growing into the being you were meant to become gets you stabbed by The Slayer and sent to a hell dimension.
And of course, here’s a little teaser from the current section of The War of the Ravels that I’m working on:
“I delivered clothes to them as well, though whether that—” Here he wrinkled his nose a little. “—woman chooses to wear them rather than go around the common room in her shift remains unknown.”
Readers of Shards may be able to guess whose line that is; and the woman in question isn’t Mercy, of course. After all, Mercy is not, at the moment, a woman — she’s an elf. Semantics!
Viscosity 