Theresa Derwin's terror-tree.co.uk

I bring you a message from genre publishers Dark Regions Press

Dear customers,
I wanted to tell you about our sale starting this Tuesday. It’s our first “Sale For Good” – every book sold is a book donated to a school, library or military base. We will be donating many of these books to libraries/schools/military bases in the Southern Oregon area, but will have a full list on the website with the initiation of the sale. Customers are invited to choose the destination of their donations.

Every in-stock item will be discounted up to 90% off retail price.

We’ll be offering the new DRP Book sets, including 10x deluxe hardcover sets, 20x trade paperbacks and even every single book we have in stock. These sets will be available when the sale begins on Tuesday. Take a look at our new book sets on the product page located here: http://www.darkregions.com/books/dark-regions-press-book-sets-save-up-to-5-350

We’re also going to be selling our laminated dust jackets that have some fantastic horror, fantasy and science fiction artwork for just $5 a dust jacket and will also be selling damaged books for the first time as well.

Our goal is to donate 1,000 books or more. This will also enable DRP to pursue some exciting new projects planned for later this year.

We hope you join us on Tuesday, March 26th for the Sale For Good. I’m excited to say we’re also going to be hosting a local event here in Ashland, Oregon on April 5th with the same concept (each book sold is a book donated). If you happen to live in Oregon or near the California border stop by and get a cookie, some coffee and a book or two.

DRP is open to requests for other forms of payment and shipping, so don’t feel constrained by what’s offered on the website if you would prefer to pay via check or money order, for example. Just contact us under the “Help” menu and let us know your request.

Of course, any help in promoting the sale, such as tweeting, Facebooking or blogging is greatly appreciated.

Thank you, and hope to see you at DarkRegions.com this Tuesday!

vN: The First Machine Dynasty
Author: Madeline Ashby
Publisher: Angry Robot
Page count/size: 332pp
Release Date: 29 July 2012
Reviewer: Steve Jones

vNs are humanoid robots created by a religious sect to be companions for the unfortunate humans left behind after The Rapture which never happened. When the cult collapses in a storm of abuse allegations the vNs are left to survive in a mostly uncaring world. vN is derived from von Neumann machine as they can reproduce by iteration, which leads to a generational divide as each iteration is supposedly better than its predecessor. A “failsafe” disables vNs if they are violent to humans or even see a human get hurt.

Amy is the sole iteration of Charlotte who lives with her human husband Jack. Amy is kept small by her parents restricting her diet so that she grows at the same rate as organic children. This leaves Amy permanently hungry so, when her grandmother Portia attacks the school she attends and kills a human child, Amy kills Portia by eating her alive. This rouses human suspicions that the failsafe has been disabled in her entire clade of vNs. She is taken away in a big white van (labelled “Isaac’s Electronics”!) and escapes with Javier, a serial iterator (he constantly creates and abandons immature vNs).

This book takes a different take on the development of robots from the usual “Destroy all humans” and “Become more human” cliches where the robots are just a reflection of our own fears and desires. Jack’s attempts to raise Amy as a human child turn out to be well-meaning but seriously misguided. The vNs need to find their own answers to getting along with humans and their own kind.

There are a few flaws. Amy’s escape from the scientists who try to dismantle her seems too easy, and does not lead to the total human paranoia about killer robots I would expect. The back of the book lists four titles which sound like a series of books but instead describe the four sections of this book, while not matching the fourteen chapter headings. Maybe this book was written as four novellas which were combined into a single book.

All in all, vN is a thrilling adventure story with a well-developed cast of both humans and vNs, which challenges the meaning of being a person without ever being preachy about it.

The Legend of False Dreaming by Toiya Kristen Finley

“Rue’s ride abandoned her under the awning of a closed bus station……….” So starts a clever little story set in the town of Bronson in the south of New York State.
It is 3am and not a good place to be.
There is a fog in the town, the fog affects people if it is breathed in. The people of the town don’t like outsiders, or ‘trudes, as they are known. Rue plans on leaving Bronson as soon as possible, the only problem?……………………………Nobody leaves Bronson……..ever!
This is an atmospheric tale with good characterisation and a grimy, fog-ridden town that fair comes to life from the page. If anything, the town feels very like the town of Silent Hill, the setting for several computer games. There is an explanation of how Bronson ended up the way it is and really, this could be many towns and cities throughout the country.
All in all, an enjoyable story, just over too quickly for me. 3/5

Crash Day by Jack Mangan

This story promised a lot – set in a future where cars (flying cars at that!) are controlled TrafficScape, a system to get all traffic from A-B with no snarl ups or accidents. Victor Moog is starting his first day in the job and within a week he has discovered plans to sabotage the system. Can Victor foil the plot, save the day and win the girl?
As I said, it promised a lot……………unfortunately, I was disappointed.
When the story starts and Victor meets his new co-workers at TrafficScape it feels very much like a generic episode of The IT Crowd. There is an attempt at humour by having a dog called Play Dead but even that falls flat.
The controlled traffic system is a good idea – there are millions of ‘Nodes’ and once you input your destination your vehicle is moved from node to node. All flows well as no two cars can occupy the same node at the same time. The idea is good but once you realise that moving from one node to another could mean your vehicle may drop from level 11 to level 3 then maybe up to level 7 it all gets a lot harder to believe in – for me the science only works if it is believable and this just doesn’t work for me.
The story itself is not terrible it just didn’t ‘do it’ for me 2.5/5

The Red House by David J Thacker
Finally, we come to The Red House (and yes, I’m saving the best for last). This is the story of a summer, years ago, when John, the narrator of the story, was a young lad.
It was an idyllic summer, as they often seem to be when you are a child, and John spends his days in the woods around the town of Darton with his two friends Colin and Peter. The set up of this little group is as you would expect – the clever kid, the comedian and the sporty kid – and the banter and interplay between them is a joy.
One day, while they are lounging about in the sun they discover another young lad – Lawrence- a shy, scrawny, grubby child. When the three friends befriend the stranger things really get interesting. After getting Lawrence to trust them (with clothing and food) the four spend most of their days together just chatting and hanging around but little is known of Lawrence and where he comes from or why he looks filthy and covered in oil every time they meet.
The reveal, when it comes in the final pages is really well done. I read this book again within days of finishing it for the first time and will read it again in the future I am sure.
The story is reminiscent of Stephen King’s It in style.
I look forward to more from this author in the future – 5/5

PS PUBLISHING AT EASTERCON

They say: With our customary upbeat giddy one, the good news is we’re working on a totally far-out fivesome of science fictional gems which we’re aiming to launch at EasterCon on Friday 29 March. The titles are:

UNIVERSES by Stephen Baxter (£25 h/c; £60 sig and s/c)

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STARSHIP QUARTET by Eric Brown (£10 p/b)
(Please note that there will be a hardcover edition of STARSHIP QUARTET signed by the author and containing a specially commissioned Starship short story . . . which Eric is writing even as we speak—AREN’T YOU, ERIC?!)

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A VERY BRITISH HISTORY by Paul J. McAuley (£25 h/c; £60 sig and s/c and containing three additional stories in a second book housed in the s/c)

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MARTIAN SANDS by Lavie Tidhar (£20 h/c; £40 sig h/c)

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GROWING PAINS by Ian Whates (£20 h/c; £40 sig h/c)

The PS launch will be the very first Convention event after the opening address, and Nicky, Mike and I would very much like you to be there if you’re able.

The launch will kick off at 5 pm (as soon as the chairperson or whomever has stopped talking, in other words) and the format will follow the tried-and-tested Fantasy and HorrorCon approach of handing the punter a cloakroom ticket with each book purchased . . . each cloakroom ticket may then be exchanged for a glass of wine. We’ll also be offering a generous discount to anyone buying all five books—ie. £85 instead of £100 . . . plus, let us not forget, the best part of an entire bottle of wine (not a bad way to start a convention, I’ve always found).

We’d love to see you there. And you might also mention the event on your blogs and/or websites, not forgetting to twitter and tweet and even moan when an opportunity arises to do so.

Please note that we not be able to put aside convention-signed trade copies to be sold through the website although we will be offering the unsigned quintet at the same price (though without the five glasses of wine, of course!) and the deluxe fivesome at £180 (a saving of almost 20%). Postage will be charged as usual, of course for all purchases made through the website.

Nexus
Author: Ramez Naam
Publisher: Angry Robot
Page count/size: 464pp/B-format pb
Release Date: 3 January 2013
Reviewer: John Howard

Ramez Naam’s first novel tackles a well-used theme in science fiction: the possibility of humanity developing into a new and enhanced version of itself, and the conflicts involved. In the 1940s and 50s in particular the new humans were often mutants, mainly through atomic radiation. This would frequently give them superiority – for example enjoying telepathic powers – and so they would be feared and despised, hunted down and killed by ‘ordinary’ humans. More recently genetic manipulation has become another way for humans to be improved, often leading to a branching-out of the human race and its division into (original) humans and the enhanced, perhaps living in different parts of the solar system.

In Nexus the agent of change is a nanotech drug, the Nexus of the title. When swallowed it rewires the brain and effectively ‘upgrades’ the user. They can communicate telepathically with others who have taken Nexus; they are the first members of a new human race. This happens in the near future. By the time the novel opens in 2040 Nexus has been banned and agencies created to put a stop to further developments. But illicit research does take place and there are wary debates on the pros and cons of using Nexus and its consequences.

The young scientist Kaden Lane and his friends take the risk of experimenting with Nexus 5. Up against them is Samantha Cataranes, an agent from the ERD (the USA’s Emerging Risks Directorate). Caught, Lane agrees to help the ERD and go to Thailand to infiltrate the laboratory of the Chinese scientist Su-Yong Shu, who is suspected of working to overthrow the anti-Nexus protocols and so threaten ordinary humanity. Lane and Cataranes are catapulted into a fast-moving and violent series of chase and pursuit adventures against the backdrop of two groups of people or world-views: those who wish to use Nexus and improve it for the good of the human race, and those who want to eliminate the drug entirely, crushing those who use it or advocate doing so.

Nexus is a near-future thriller that tries to explore the tensions between the human and concepts of the posthuman or transhuman. The good that Nexus can bring through unfettered communication direct between minds is contrasted with the possibility of its ruthless manipulation by a potentially tyrannical elite. As the body count goes on rising Naam does give us plenty of ambiguity and shows that labels do not necessarily represent what they say they do. Grasping that is perhaps an essential task for the upgrading of humanity, but it won’t be a pleasant trip to the sunlit uplands of ‘Humanity 2.0’ Although Nexus sometimes begins to outstay its welcome, especially in the sentimentality department, it is a hard-hitting romp of a novel that fulfils expectations. A good debut.