Omnivoracious

Kirsten Imani Kasai on Her New Novel "Tattoo"

Kirsten Imani Kasai’s new novel, Tattoo, was just one of the many, many advance reader copies sent to me by various publishers, and so it went on the huge pile of incoming books in the living room library. But when I did my periodic browse of forthcoming novels, I was flipping through Tattoo when I discovered that unlike many of its companions... I could not put it down. The author’s voice was so utterly compelling and the style was stunningly unique: bold yet lush, muscular yet intricate and detailed, unafraid to change register and effect as necessary. When you discover that kind of writer, which happens only once every couple of years (if you’re lucky), you’re willing to follow them anywhere.

Where, exactly, will Tattoo, the sequel Kasai’s prior novel Ice Song, take you? To “an environmentally fragile world where human and animal genes combine, the rarest mutation of all--the Trader--can instantly switch genders. One such Trader--female Sorykah--is battling her male alter, Soryk, for dominance and the right to live a full life. Sorykah has rescued her infant twins from mad Matuk the Collector. Her children are safe. Her journey, she believes, is over, but Matuk’s death has unleashed darker, more evil forces. Those forces--led by the Collector’s son--cast nets that stretch from the glittering capital of Neubonne to the murky depths below the frozen Sigue, where the ink of octameroons is harvested to make addictive, aphrodisiac tattoos. Bitter enemies trapped within a single skin, Sorykah and Soryk are soon drawn into a sinister web of death and deceit.”

Tattoo might have come into the house with an unassuming title and a standard unassuming advance reading copy cover, but it’s entirely a mimic in that regard: this is unique stuff, and powerful in all senses of the word. You can also buy an enhanced e-book of Tattoo that contains four bonus short stories related to the series. Recently, I checked in with Kasai via email to ask her about her writing and the new novel.

Amazon.com: Can you tell Amazon readers where you are while answering these questions?

Last Chance to Send Us Your Questions for George R. R. Martin!

George R. R. Martin will be stopping by our offices later this week, and this is your chance to ask him your burning questions about A Song of Ice and Fire! Send your questions to omnivoracious@amazon.com with the subject line “George R. R. Martin.” We’ll ask him as many of your questions as we can, and we’ll post our interview with him on Omnivoracious.

2011 Bulwer-Lytton Winners Announced

Readers, prepare to cringe: the winners of the 2011 Bulwer-Lytton contest, which challenges entrants to compose bad opening sentences to imaginary novels, have been announced. You might not know the book Paul Clifford, but you definitely know its immortal first line--"It was a dark and stormy night." And now, the grand prize winner, and the shortest winner in the contest's 29-year history, is:

"Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories."

Besides the overall winners, there are genre-specific categories. Here's the best worst crime opener:

"Wearily approaching the murder scene of Jeannie and Quentin Rose and needing to determine if this was the handiwork of the Scented Strangler--who had a twisted affinity for spraying his victims with his signature raspberry cologne--or that of a copycat, burnt-out insomniac detective Sonny Kirkland was sure of one thing: he’d have to stop and smell the Roses."

The sci-fi winner:

"Morgan ‘Bamboo’ Barnes, Star Pilot of the Galaxia (flagship of the Solar Brigade), accepted an hors d’oeuvre from the triangular-shaped platter offered to him from the Princess Qwillia—lavender-skinned she was and busty, with two of her four eyes what Barnes called ‘bedroom eyes’—and marveled at how on her planet, Chlamydia-5, these snacks were called ‘Hi-Dee-Hoes’ but on Earth they were simply called Ritz Crackers with Velveeta."

And a dizzying array of terrible--dare we say, unbearable--puns:

"Detective Kodiak plucked a single hair from the bearskin rug and at once understood the grisly nature of the crime: it had been a ferocious act, a real honey, the sort of thing that could polarize a community, so he padded quietly out the back to avoid a cub reporter waiting in the den."

See all the winners at the Bulwer-Lytton website.

Jacqueline Carey on "Naamah's Blessing" and What Comes Next

For fans of bestselling author Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series, the recent publication of Naamah’s Blessing, the third book in the current Naamah trilogy, must be a bittersweet experience. Despite many answers for both readers and for the main character, Moirin, but also an ending to the latest saga. The series is set on Carey’s re-imagined Earth, where angels and humans have intermingled, among many other interesting concepts. It’s a potent mix of alt-history, fantasy, romance, and adventure. Omni caught up with Carey to talk about the series…

Amazon.com: Can you describe where you are while answering these questions?

Jacqueline Carey: I’m holed up in my lair, a.k.a. my home office. The walls are a poisonous apple-green, a hue suggested by my colorist and agreed to by me for reasons I no longer recall. My desk faces a window that’s obscured by an immense Entish pine tree which may well tear apart the entire house one day. Large bookshelves flank the walls, containing hundreds of research books, various editions of my own work and a handful of treasured childhood tomes, as well as an array of tchochkes and keepsakes including a replica of a Minoan libation vessel, a Yoruba woodcarving, a Xena: Warrior Princess action figure, a Fortune Beckoning Cat, and the bust of a Gorgon sporting a jaunty top hat that says “Happy New Year.”

Amazon.com: The Naamah series takes place centuries after the other two trilogies set in this milieu. What were the main challenges in re-imagining the same world at a vastly different moment in time? And why did you decide to make this leap?

Comics on Summer Vacation

In 24 hours, I will be deep in mosquitos and brush. Yes, this is how I spend my summer vacations: in Northern Ontario, secluded in a cabin in the woods with friends, family, Labatt Blue, and the fickle weather. My bags may not yet be packed, but I’ve been saving several comics collections and graphic novels for months in preparation for my trip. I have comics for sunny days on the dock, rainy days by the fireplace, quiet nights while the loons call to one another, and mornings full of blueberry pancakes and records. I always pack too many books and leave a few in the cabin to rediscover next year.

Up first is The Incal: Classic Collection by Alexandro Jodorowsky and Moebius (Humanoids). A friend recently clued me in to cult film director Jodorowsky’s second life as a comics writer. I started with The Metabarons and moved to The Technopriests, but both series spin out of  The Incal, which has been in and out of print for decades. UK publisher Humanoids recently released this edition, and I quickly secured a copy--but chances are this print run will not last long. Jodorowsky’s sci-fi world contains bizarre, perverse, and challenging concepts at the turn of every page, and legendary illustrator Moebius is the perfect complement to bring them all to life.

The Greatest Generation: two books I can't stop thinking about

Earlier this month, I did a radio interview to talk about good books to read over the July 4th weekend. Even though the summer is traditionally a big beach reading time, I let my patriotism get the best of me and picked a handful of history books to talk about. Two of the books I recommended were Unbroken and Lost in Shangri-La, both harrowing, real-life adventure/survival stories about World War II American GIs. You might call them the greatest of the Greatest Generation.

Both books are as riveting as stories get, and the fact that these are true stories only adds to the intensity of the reading experience. I’m not giving anything away when I tell you that after Louis Zamporini, the protagonist of Unbroken, crashes into the sea with the rest of his B-24 bomber crew he climbs into a raft and nearly starves to death, dies of thirst, bakes in the hot sun, drowns, barely escapes being eaten by numerous sharks, is shot at by Japanese planes, and survives a typhoon—all before being picked up and sent to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. Which is when things get really bad.

Laura Hillenbrand, the author of Unbroken, estimates that Zamporini survived longer at sea than anyone before or after. And yet there’s a spirit that he maintains throughout the book that’s absolutely infectious. He truly seems to be from a different time, a more optimistic and positive time. And the same goes for the survivors of Lost in Shangri-La, who never quite reach the level of danger that Zamporini faced, but nonetheless keep their heads up through great tragedy, pain, and peril (one of the survivors loses her good friend in the initial plane crash, and another loses his twin brother).

I’ve been thinking about both these books a lot since I read them. Both came out some time ago and are still listed among the top-selling books on Amazon, so I’m clearly not the only one who’s thinking about them. When I think about how these men and women dealt with the adversity of another time, I can’t help but consider how I deal with trouble in my own life. And I’m especially appreciative that such talented authors are dedicating themselves to telling the stories of what is essentially a dwindling resource: the generation that fought in WWII. Every day more than 700 World War II veterans pass away, and with them go their stories. I feel very lucky to have had these two.

YA Wednesday: A "Paranormalcy" Playlist

In preparation for the publication of Supernaturally, follow-up to Paranormalcy, Kiersten White created this Amazon exclusive playlist that captures the personalities of book's characters, Evie, Reth, Vivian, and Lend. Settle back, have a listen, and check out White's notes about each track.

"Missing" by Flyleaf
I imagine this song playing for Evie when she’s feeling most down, worrying that whatever is missing inside of her will never be fixed.

"Oh, It Is Love" by Hellogoodbye
This sweet, happy love song has always been Evie and Lend’s song for me. When it comes to relationships, they both have this type of hopeful innocence.

"All I Wanted" by Paramore
Another song for Evie when she is feeling like everything is lost.

"Misguided Ghosts" by Paramore
A song about trying to find a place in a world you don’t feel like you’re really living in.

"Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri
I’ve heard from many people (and agree) that this is a great song for Evie and Reth’s past.

"The Drumming Song" by Florence + the Machine
The intensity and focused passion of this song makes me think of my darling Jack, along with the references to heaven and hell, a favorite theme of his.

The Hunger Games Movie Poster Revealed

Check out the hot (literally!) movie poster for The Hunger Games, which will be in theaters on March 23, 2012. With a remarkable cast confirmed and promotions starting now, we’re excited for footage and other movie stills to hopefully be released in the coming months. Mostly, though, we’re excited for the movie. (Um, Lenny Kravitz as Cinna? Perfection.)

What are you most excited for?

Graphic Novel Friday: Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force

It’s been a long time since I revisited X-Force, the prototypical 1990s extreme alternative to the classic X-Men book (I own at least three copies of issue #1--still in the polybags, where they will eventually appreciate enough to earn back their cover price, I hope). With artwork by Rob Liefeld, the book became an instant hit, and has since gone through several team and creative line-up changes over the years. Recently, it was announced that writer Rick Remender would helm a new iteration--called Uncanny X-Force--and I admit that fandom quickly took over and overshadowed any dated baggage the book may have held. 

Remender’s creator-owned Sci-Fi comic, Fear Agent (see also our Omni spotlight on the series), is a must-read and I knew he’d bring his unique voice and eye to an otherwise rote concept. This new X-Force is still on the extreme side--their mission is to handle the jobs that are too dirty for the X-Men, and they do their world-saving in secret, of course, because X-Men team leader Cyclops would not approve of their wetwork policy. The team is comprised of Angel, who can now shuffle between his feathery-winged persona and his ghoulish, knives-for-wings Archangel alter-ego, Psylocke, who, despite having one of the most convoluted back-stories in comics (she is a purple-haired British ninja) is generally the least interesting character on any roster, Deadpool (a mercenary with multiple personalities), the Grant Morrison-created Fantomex, who sports a faux French accent and a nervous system that lives outside his body, and Wolverine.

Despite all of the opportunities for the new X-Force comic to be a moody, broody, bloody mess, it ends up being one of the funniest and smartest superhero books on the shelves. The first volume, The Apocalypse Solution, sees the team investigating rumors of a reincarnated Apocalypse, the unfortunately-faced, perennial X-Men villain who apparently died some time ago but is now back in the spirit of a small boy. Remender clearly has the most fun whenever Fantomex is on the page (when asked why the loner accepted the invitation to join, Fantomex states, “The money. Naturally.”), and his team-up with Wolverine is classic buddy-cop comics, ending with a piggyback into battle.

Editor Ellen Datlow on Two New Summer Anthologies: "Naked City" and "Supernatural Noir"

Over the years editor Ellen Datlow has won dozens of awards for her horror and fantasy anthologies. Now she’s back with two new anthologies, Naked City: Tales of Urban Fantasy and Supernatural Noir, which consists of, um, supernatural noir stories. The two anthologies, published within a month of each other, share five writers in common: Elizabeth Bear, Richard Bowes, Jeffrey Ford, Caitlin R. Kiernan, and Lucius Shepard. I thought it would be interesting to talk to Datlow about the similarities and differences between “supernatural noir” and “urban fantasy,” given the way in which some of these terms have shifted in meaning over the years…

Amazon.com: What's the difference between urban fantasy and supernatural noir? Are there any overlaps?

Ellen Datlow: I perceive urban fantasy as generally lighter in tone than supernatural noir. Although some of the stories in Naked City are quite dark, they don't contain the crucial elements of betrayal by an intimate that denotes much of noir fiction. However, an overlap does occur in that many stories in both subgenres crucially take place in cities.

Amazon.com: Can you differentiate the challenges of working on these two anthologies?