Book review: Voids

In the near future, overpopulation is dealt with by a special force of individuals known as Sterilization Agents. Each one is tasked with tracking down deadbeat fathers and ensuring (legally) that these men no longer procreate by zapping them in the groin with a special gun that effectively neuters them.  Danny Seraphine is one such agent who finds particular satisfaction in his job, perhaps due to the fact that his own father left his family when Seraphine was only 9 years old.

Aside from his job, Seraphine leads a somewhat normal life, though not without complications.  Seraphine and his wife, Emily, are having pregnancy issues.  After their first child, Marnie, was stillborn, Seraphine isn't sure if he wants another, despite Emily's eagerness. Also, Seraphine's little brother, Zack, is in prison, known as The Farm, and Seraphine has yet to visit. And then there's the little matter of the ethereal transparent shapes Seraphine keeps seeing wherever he goes, the mysterious, titular voids.

Add to the above mix an introduction to a future society and its various technologies and you've got a recipe for an enjoyable read. Voids, from Omnium Gatherum is also a quick read, and not just because it's a novella. Written by Tim Jeffreys and Martin Greaves, the prose sings as it leaps from the page, urging the reader on to the next. And by the time the reader reaches the end, all of the plot threads have been neatly resolved.  I highly recommend Voids to anyone who reads science fiction or to anyone with any kind of experience (be it firsthand or otherwise) with deadbeat dads.

Fiction Friday: Three Days to Dead

Urban fantasy normally isn't my thing, but Kelly Meding's premise in Three Days to Dead - a woman who's devoted her adult life to protecting the city in which she lives from the beasties that  lurk in its shadows, awakes in a morgue in a body not her own, to learn that aside from her missing memories, she has three days before the body she inhabits dies and thus, three days to unravel the mystery of what put her in the morgue in the first place - intrigued me enough to pick it up and give it a read.

And boy was I glad I did! The plot moves along at a quick clip as Evangeline Stone searches for answers throughout Dreg City, encountering fantastical creatures that include goblins, vampires, gargoyles, gremlins, faeries and perhaps my favorite modern incarnation of a bridge troll.  She turns up more answers than she was initially seeking, which naturally moves the plot forward to its satisfying conclusion.  And there's just the right amount of romance and humor thrown into the mix as well.  One of the things that initially turned me off the genre, was the urban fantasy I had read appeared to be thinly veiled romance.  Not so, here.  There's not one forced scene in the book, and the chemistry between the characters seems genuine.



Three Days to Dead will appeal not just to readers of urban fantasy, but folks who enjoy adventure, romance and fantasy of any type.

Fiction Friday: The Company

K.J. Parker writes fantasy without the dwarves, elves, dragons and other fantastical creatures that normally populate such novels.  And she does it with style and panache.  Parker's prose is a true pleasure to read.  It's flows and shines like a stream glinting in the sunlight of an August afternoon in the Deep South.  Readers of fantasy are no doubt experienced at reading about great battles and of opposing soldiers in shiny armor wielding blunt and sharp weapons of war.  In The Company Parker explores what happens after the wars are over and there's no more fighting to be done.  She also demonstrates rather well that while you can take the soldier out of the war, taking the war out of the soldier is an entirely other thing.


After the aforementioned wars, Gen. Teuche Kunessin returns to his home village where he rounds up his military buddies, holding them to a promise made during the war to set up their own colony apart from the government, wars and the rest of society.  Kunessin has acquired an island as part of the spoils of war and he intends to set himself, his friends and their wives upon it to do just that.

Naturally, things aren't quite so easy as that.  Once the group manages to reach the island, all sorts of complications ensue resulting from the day to day labor involved in establishing a colony, character traits and nature.

If you haven't read any of Parker's other fiction, then The Company (Orbit Books, 2009)is a great place to start.  And if you have, then you should definitely add this novel to your bookcase if it isn't already there.