Welcome back to Roll Perception Plus Awareness, a column about roleplaying games and their place in a genre reader’s and writer’s world. This time, I am not going to tackle a game, but rather a legend in the roleplaying genre who recently passed away: M.A.R. Barker.

M.A.R Barker — whose full name was Mohammed Al Rahman Barker — died last week at the age of 83. He was a professor of languages and culture at the University of Minnesota in the Department of South Asian Studies until the early 90′s, when budget cuts did away with the small department. The reason why I bring him to your attention today, though, is not because of his academic interests but rather his gaming interests and magnum opus:Tekumel.

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SYNOPSIS: In the Cerani Empire, a royal assassin, an imprisoned prince and his future bride stand athwart a plot that threatens the Empire’s throne and beyond.

MY RATING:

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Vivid non-standard fantasy setting; well drawn characters; beautiful language.
CONS: Plotting in the denouement feels a bit abrupt; worldbuilding is somewhat slight; occasional unclear, esoteric scenes.
VERDICT: An ambitious, sophisticated and thoughtful debut novel that belies its cover.

Sometimes you can be fooled by a book’s cover.

Take a look at the cover of the debut novel from Mazarkis Williams, The Emperor’s Knife. To first impressions, knowing nothing about the book, with that cover and that title one might be led to think this is a Middle-eastern version of the Jon Sprunk’s Shadow series, or perhaps a riff on Peter V. Brett or Brent Weeks. An assassin goes carving a bloody path through the desert sands, right? Riding in blood to Samarkand?

Don’t be fooled. The author has a completely different agenda.

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Mars! From Percival Lowell to the forthcoming John Carter movie (check out our John Carter Primer!), Mars has been a locus of interest — if not outright fascination — in the general public and especially within the science fiction and fantasy community. So, we asked this week’s panelists…

Here’s what they said…

The appeal of Mars is that it’s real. We can see it in the night sky, and we know it’s the next planet out. And now we know a great deal more about it than that. Its surface looks like parts of Earth, and has huge features, much bigger than equivalent features on Earth (volcanoes, canyons). It’s possible it still harbors bacterial life underground. It’s also possible we could visit it, and set up stations to inhabit and study it.

So: it’s real but empty, beautiful and remote, but within our reach, just barely. It’s this combination of qualities that gives it its appeal. We want to fill that emptiness with stories.

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SYNOPSIS: Having put Josey on the throne of Nimea, Caim heads north to unlock the secrets of his heritage. In the meantime, Josey learns that uneasy lies the crown of a newly crowned Empress.

MY RATING:

MY REVIEW
PROS: Excellent development of the main character, his abilities, and the world.
CONS: Josey’s thread is not quite as strong as Caim’s.
VERDICT: Sprunk satisfyingly expands the vision and scope of his protagonist and his world.

In Shadow’s Son, author Jon Sprunk introduced us to Caim: assassin, death dealer, a killer with strange and growing abilities even he doesn’t fully understand — to say nothing of the connection to his friend Kit, ghost, fae or something else that only he can see. Shadow’s Son takes this sword and sorcery protagonist and throws him into a plot and scheme that he manages to turn around, and place his friend (and love interest) Josey, on a too-long vacant throne of a decaying Empire. Oh, and give more-than-hints to him that he is far more than he himself knows.
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SYNOPSIS: In an ice free arctic fifty years hence sculpted by climate change and Man, a UN pilot/monitor gets wrapped up in a plot that only enlarges the deeper she falls into it.

MY RATING:

MY REVIEW
PROS: Imaginative speculation and world building; action/adventure plot that expands as it develops; good characterization.
CONS: Beats of the plotting in the final fifth of the novel feel a bit off.
VERDICT: Buckell sails into near future Earth science fiction with gusto.

Science Fiction as a genre has a problem. A genre that has speculated about the future used to have it easy: speculate on high ages of technology just around the corner; exploration of space and beyond; life beyond a sudden nuclear apocalypse that wipes the slate clean. All bold, solid, clear and plenty of room for science fiction of the first order.
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We missed including Bradley Beaulieu’s response in yesterday’s mind meld…so today we’re passing along his response to this question:

Here’s what he said…
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[Do you have an idea for a future Mind Meld? Let us know!]

Every reader holds out for a hero, but be it movies or novels, its the antagonists, the villains, that often bring the heat, spice and power to a piece of work and make it sing.

So we asked this week’s panelists…

Here’s what they said…

.I’ve always had a great admiration for the Lady, from Glen Cook’s Black Company series, with an honorable mention for all of the Ten Who Were Taken that serve her. She’s ruthless but multifaceted, a romantic and tragic figure as well as a provisioner of all the dark arts and fell deeds a reader could desire. As for the Ten, they’re just so fun and iconic, sort of more extroverted Nazgul.

If you’ll allow historical fiction as a cousin to fantasy, I’d also vote for Livia, from Robert Graves’ I, Claudius. Subtle, pitiless, and patient, the deadliest woman (hell, the deadliest person) in a deadly milieu.

Last but not least I’d bring up O’Brien, from George Orwell’s 1984, the chillingly contented ordinary man who patiently explains to Winston what it’s all about… that all the chanting and ideology is a fog, that the politics of Oceania are meaningless, the nature of its wars completely unimportant. The whole point of the crushing pyramid of human misery is to keep a tiny elite with their boots on the throats of the rest of humanity, forever and ever, amen. To conceive that sort of thing, to accept it, to rise and sleep as a happy part of such a brutal mechanism… now that’s villainy.

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SYNOPSIS: Everett Singh hops alternate worlds in an effort to rescue his imprisoned father and stay one step ahead of those who want the invaluable prize his father has given him.

MY RATING:

MY REVIEW
PROS: Strong beats of plotting; appealing Heinleinian protagonist; wide variety of interesting characters; plenty of stuff for non-YA readers to enjoy.
CONS: Perhaps too tight a focus; world doesn’t feel like it extends far beyond protagonists.
VERDICT: Ian McDonald seamlessly switches gears to a rollicking YA adventure.

Ian McDonald is a name that many science fiction readers have heard of. Although he’s been writing for much longer than that, over the last decade, he has been building a resume of impressive novels and stories, most recently in his Hugo award-nominated The Dervish House. I personally loved his River of Gods. His work is a strong component of why I think we are in a Golden Rainbow Age of Science Fiction and Fantasy these past few years.
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SYNOPSIS: A touching picture book about a young boy with big dreams.

MY RATING:

MY REVIEW
PROS: Beautiful imagery; a moving story.
CONS: The strong language is the only barrier that may keep this from being read to children.
VERDICT: Another unusual effort from a most unusual author.

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SYNOPSIS: A Ghul hunter too old for this —- teams up with a Dervish and a holy tribeswoman to tackle a threat that looms over the city he loves.

MY RATING:

MY REVIEW
PROS: Unusual, non-standard multidimensional characters that grow and change; a great sense of place and environment; the city as a character all of its own.
CONS: The ending is somewhat rushed; worldbuilding is a bit thin.
VERDICT: An early landmark work not only of the author, but of a new and underused stratum of fantasy.

The greatest city in the world is a tangled hive of people in the Crescent Kingdoms. A million people living cheek by jowl, living under an autocratic Khalif. Flashing swords, a rebel charismatic thief brewing revolution. And darker things brewing too, unknown to nearly all. A fantasy city inspired not by medieval London, Cologne or Paris, but by the height of the Arab renaissance of Baghdad and Cairo.

Dhamasawaat awaits. And if you mess with it, you mess with the Doctor. Doctor Adoulla.

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We have a late lost entry from a previous Mind Meld, Which Fantasy Maps Are Your Favorites?…and we here at SF Signal couldn’t resist sharing it with you!

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We have a late entry in a previous Mind Meld, What Was Your Introduction to Fantasy and Science Fiction?…and we here at SF Signal couldn’t resist sharing it with you!

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[Do you have an idea for a future Mind Meld? Let us know!]

A lot of recent science fiction appears to take place on Earth, and only a minority of space-based science fiction taking place outside the solar system. Novels and stories involving travel to the stars and interstellar travel seems to be out-of-date or out-of-fashion, and even Hard SF treatments of interstellar travel seem as realistic as Star Wars.

We asked this week’s panelists:

Here’s what they said…

I think that like everything else, fads in science fiction run in cycles, and lately there’s been a big ol’ dystopian wave going on. But it’s not as if deep space science fiction, or SF featuring far-flung space civilizations isn’t still being written. Charlie Stross, Iain Banks, Dan Simmons, Greg Bear, Chris Moriarty, C.J. Cherryh–heck, I’ve written a couple of books dealing with far-flung space travel myself.

If you were to nudge the focus of the question over to whether near-future and near-earth SF has been getting more *awards* attention lately, I think you’d be more accurate.

But there are fads in criticism the same as everything else.

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SYNOPSIS: A young scion of the tyrannical ruling family of a solar system discovers his secret origin in the enslaved race oppressed by his adoptive people, and takes action to aid their plight.

MY RATING:

MY REVIEW
PROS: Engaging protagonist; strong moral foundation; appealing and entertaining writing; strong themes.
CONS: Irksomely inconsistent worldbuilding; too much “Carrying the idiot ball” by some characters.
VERDICT: A debut novel whose promise and ability to entertain rises above its flaws.

Davi has had a good life. Son of the Princess Miri? Check. Heir to Xalivar, the leader of the Borali Alliance? Check. An excellent student and pilot, with lifelong friends? Check, check and check. Who could want for more? But when circumstances assign him to a post on the conquered planet of Vertullis, and he discovers his secret origins among the enslaved Vertullians, Davi’s role as heir to Xalivar is going to give way to a new role and a new goal to free the slaves: The Worker Prince.
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[Do you have an idea for a future Mind Meld? Let us know!]

Where and how people (fans, reviewers and authors alike) were first introduced to genre often gives insight into how they think and write about genre. With that in mind, we asked this week’s panelists…

Here’s what they said…

My dad introduced me to genre. He’d been what I guess you’d call a fan since the 1920s. The specific incident I recall was when he took me to the White Plains (New York) Public Library, back when I was in first or second grade, and we checked out Have Space Suit Will Travel and Sea Siege.

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SYNOPSIS: Arabian days and Arabian nights in 8th Century Baghdad, as the duo of a guard captain and scholar, servants of the Caliph of Baghdad, struggle against dark doings and darker magic.

MY RATING:

MY REVIEW
PROS: Great dynamic between the two main characters; strong evocation of time, place, style and mood.
CONS: A somewhat muddled ending; some problems with plotting with respect to the female lead.
VERDICT: Page-turning Sword & Sorcery adventure in the 8th Century Middle East.

Imagine 8th Century Baghdad. Feel the winds blowing into the market, the souk. Storytellers plying their wares. Merchants selling fruits from near and far. Desert stars at night twinkling above. Sword, sorcery action and adventure not only around every corner, but beyond, to the south, where the two rivers meet the Persian Gulf, and beyond, to the desert where a lost city waits buried.

Welcome to The Desert of Souls…

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[Do you have an idea for a future Mind Meld? Let us know!]

It’s the beginning of 2012, a time for new beginnings, new vistas, and new resolutions to make the next year a good one.  Resolutions can come in many forms.

So I asked this week’s panelists:

Here is what they said:

‘My genre resolutions are the same as every year – read more, write more.

Oh, and spend less time on the internet.

Having a bit of trouble sticking to that last one…’
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BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A woman fleeing an unhappy marriage gets caught up in the machinations of djombi (spirits) and winds up with a trouble bringing gift.

MY RATING:

MY REVIEW
PROS: Rich, lyrical and beautiful language that is at turns funny, and touching.
CONS:The non-traditional nature of the narrative and story requires some mental adjustment to get used to. A few elements of the story are underdeveloped.
VERDICT: An intriguing and enchanting dip into fairy tale and myth that is new and fresh to most readers.

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BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The story of Moon continues as the Raksura Indigo Cloud Court tries to settle in a new home, and deal with the problems resulting from that.

MY RATING:

MY REVIEW:
PROS: More rich worldbuilding of the “Three Worlds”. A successful transition to a new style of plot from the first novel.
CONS:  A few characters seem underdeveloped and even forgotten about. At least one late book subplot feels off.
VERDICT” Another excellent and wonderful view into the universe of the Three Worlds and its fascinating inhabitants.

The Serpent Sea is the sequel to The Cloud Roads (My SF Signal review here.) and continues the story of Moon. The first book, The Cloud Roads, was a story of discovery and a “fish out of water”as Moon, unaware of who and what he is, is first driven out of his home, and then brought to his own kind, the Raksura of Indigo Cloud. There, dealing with Court politics and life he is completely unprepared for, the threat of the Fell, ancient enemies to the Raksura, spur the development of not only the plot, but Moon as well.

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[Do you have an idea for a future Mind Meld? Please let us know!]

As this year draws to a close, a new year in genre beckons! We asked this week’s panelists :

Here’s what they said…

2012 is the year of the speculative movie, apparently. I saw the trailer for John Carter of Mars tonight, and…wow. I really hope this isn’t an indicator for what we’re going to be seeing. That being said, I’m a sucker for the pretty action/comic-based movies, and there’s a slew of those coming up: The Avengers, Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, Batman 3, Dark Tower, Hellboy 3.

(How seriously can you take my taste in movies? My guilty pleasures are Ice Age 4…The Expendables 2. Yeah, seriously. I’m shameless.)

For books: Saladin Ahmed’s Throne of the Crescent Moon is something to look forward to, and John Fultz adds to the Sword and Sorcery list with The Seven Princes. A few others I’ve got on my wish list are The Drowning Girl by Caitlyn Kiernan; The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin and The Blinding Light by Brent Weeks.

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