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Weekly Book Buzz: New Fantasy from L. E. Modesitt

We Review Rango the Art and Making of the Film

By Tim Janson March 13, 2011

Lady Protector by L.E. Modesitt
© Tor Books

New In Fantasy

The Black Chalice (Malory's Knights of Albion) Steven Savile [Abaddon]

Aspirant to the Round Table, Sir Alymere, fails on the Grail quest but in so doing, learns of the Devil's Own Cup, "the Black Chalice" and of the Devil's Bible the foul book that will lead him to it. On his quest he will face many obstacles and cunning enemies, but the ultimate threat is to his very soul.

Conan Volume 1: The Frost Giant's Daughter And Other Stories (Conan (Graphic Novels)) Kurt Busiek [Dark Horse Graphic Novel]

When the internationally famous barbarian hero returned to comics, with an all-new fresh start by award-winning writer Kurt Busiek (JLA/Avengers, Astro City) and dynamic artists Cary Nord, Thomas Yeates, and Dave Stewart, the result was instant sell-outs and multiple printings to keep up with the demand. Now Conan's earliest adventures are collected in a handsome 192-page collection. Catch all the action and savagery as he wars with the murderous Vanir, meets the Frost Giant's Daughter, and is taken as a slave by the ancient sorcerers of Hyperborea! This top-selling new series faithfully expands on original author Robert E. Howard's literary creation.

Lady-Protector: The Eighth Book of the Corean Chronicles L. E. Modesitt [Tor Hardcover]

A new novel of Mykella, the young woman introduced in The Lord-Protector’s Daughter. Though a bloody coup has made Mykella ruler of her land, it has left her and her two sisters bereft of family and uncertain of their friends. Worse, an examination of the nation’s accounts reveals that their country is almost destitute. Plus, there are rumblings of war along the borders. With no money and few allies, Mykella is faced with the difficult prospect of rebuilding her nation while trying to hold off a potentially devastating invasion.

Fortunately for Mykella, an old magic has awakened in her; a power that gives her the ability to read the emotions of others and to spy on the movements of her enemies. But the resurgence of this power might herald the return of an ancient enemy, one that Mykella isn’t sure how to face.

Pathfinder Tales: Plague of Shadows Howard Andrew Jones [Paizo]

A fantastic new adventure of swords and sorcery, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game! The race is on to free Lord Stelan from the grip of a wasting curse, and only his old, half-elf mercenary companion Elyana has the wisdom - and swordcraft - to solve the mystery of his tormentor and free her old friend before three days have passed and the illness takes its course. When the villain turns out to be another of their former companions, the half-elf sets out with a team of adventurers across the Revolution-wracked nation of Galt and the treacherous Five Kings Mountains to discover the key to Stelan's salvation in a lost valley warped by weird magical energies and inhabited by terrible nightmare beasts.

The Winds of Khalakovo Bradley P. Beaulieu [Night Shade]

Debut novelist Beaulieu paints a detailed and realistic portrayal of individual fates bound up in social responsibilities as well-grounded cultures clash. Prince Nikandr Khalakovo, facing an arranged marriage, also suffers from a wasting disease plaguing the Anuskaya islands. When the rebellious Maharraht loose a fire elemental and kill the visiting Grand Duke Stasa Bolgravya, civil war erupts, and all factions seek to capture a mysterious autistic boy who straddles both the spirit and the material worlds.

New In Sci-Fi

The Gravity Pilot M.M. Buckner [Tor Hardcover]

It is the polluted and gritty future, saved, sort of, by technofixes. Young skydiver Orr Sitka wants no more from life in future Alaska than he already has: a woman he loves and the chance to dive. When he makes a reckless, record-breaking jump that catapults him into celebrity, he’s courted by corporations that want to exploit his talent to make him a sports media star.

The dangerous jump that wins Orr infamy turns out to be a breaking point for his loving girlfriend, Dyce, who is wooed away by a promising job in the thriving underground city of Seattle, a world media center in a crumbling civilization. Separately, Orr and Dyce are sucked into nightmare lives that take a terrible toll on each of them. When Orr learns that Dyce has become addicted to virtual reality, controlled by an eccentric media billionaire and his decadent daughter, he does everything in his power to rescue her. But is Orr strong enough to get through to Dyce and break them both out of hell?

Hellhole (The Hell Hole Trilogy) Brian Herbert [Tor Hardcover]

Only the most desperate colonists dare to make a new home on Hellhole. Reeling from a recent asteroid impact, tortured with horrific storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and churning volcanic eruptions, the planet is a dumping ground for undesirables, misfits, and charlatans…but also a haven for dreamers and independent pioneers.

Against all odds, an exiled general named Adolphus has turned Hellhole into a place of real opportunity for the desperate colonists who call the planet their home. While the colonists are hard at work developing the planet, General Adolphus secretly builds alliances with the leaders of the other Deep Zone worlds, forming a clandestine coalition against the tyrannical, fossilized government responsible for their exile. What no one knows is this: the planet Hellhole, though damaged and volatile, hides an amazing secret. Deep beneath its surface lies the remnants of an obliterated alien civilization and the buried memories of its unrecorded past that, when unearthed, could tear the galaxy apart.

A Matter of Time Glen Cook [Night Shade]

May 1975. St. Louis. In a snow-swept street, a cop finds the body of a man who died fifty years ago. It's still warm. July 1866, Lidice, Bohemia: A teenage girl calmly watches her parents die as another being takes control of her body. August 2058, Prague: Three political rebels flee in to the past, taking with them a terrible secret. As past, present, and future collide, one man holds the key to the puzzle. And if he doesn't fit it together, the world he knows will fall to pieces. It's just A Matter of Time!

Up Against It M.J. Locke [Tor Hardcover]

Geoff and his friends live in Phocaea, a distant asteroid colony on the Solar System's frontier. They're your basic high-spirited young adults, enjoying such pastimes as hacking matter compilers to produce dancing skeletons that prance through the low-gee communal areas, using their rocket-bikes to salvage methane ice shrapnel that flies away when the colony brings in a big (and vital) rock of the stuff, and figuring out how to avoid the ubiquitous surveillance motes that are the million eyes of 'Stroiders, a reality-TV show whose Earthside producers have paid handsomely for the privilege of spying on every detail of the Phocaeans' lives.

Life isn’t as good as it seems, though. A mysterious act of sabotage kills Geoff's brother Carl and puts the entire colony at risk. And in short order, we discover that the whole thing may have been cooked up by the Martian mafia, as a means of executing a coup and turning Phocaea into a client-state. As if that wasn't bad enough, there's a rogue AI that was spawned during the industrial emergency and slipped through the distracted safeguards, and a giant x-factor in the form of the Viridians, a transhumanist cult that lives in Phocaea's bowels.

Reviews

The Ballad of Rango The Art & Making of an Outlaw Film David S. Cohen (Insight Editions)

The latest big screen animated film to hit theaters is Rango starring Johnny Depp. Accompanying the film is this beautifully illustrated hardcover book from Insight Editions, who always produces beautiful film-related books. Rango is Directed by Gore Verbinski who directed the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films and he enlisted George Lucas’ renowned Industrial Light and Magic studio to create their first animated feature film. As you’ll read, Verbinski began this project when he finished the last of the Pirates films and began assembling his team in 2007.

The book introduces many of the creators behind the film like Head of Story Jim Byrkit; Production Designer Crash McCreery; and Music Editor Ken Karman. In particular, the section on how Verbinski recruited ILM to do their first animated feature is fascinating. Other studios questioned why Verbinski would want to use ILM rather than an established animation studio. Even John Knoll, a Visual Effects Supervisor at ILM had reservations about doing the film until he heard Verbinski’s pitch and saw some of the production sketches.

The book takes you through the world of Rango. The various colorful characters, the character designs, the voice talents…as you’ll see in a treasure trove of pre-production sketches and paintings, Rango has one of the largest and most diverse cast of characters ever seen in an animated film. The design of the various landscapes is incredibly photo-realistic and yet still has that obvious animation slant to them.

A lot of books like this tend to be weighed down by a lot of rough thumbnail sketches and panel layouts but most of the art here is full color renderings. It’s a gorgeous book and a must have for fans of the film. Grade A.