Dave Butler Writes

Bookshelf: The Thousand Names

Posted on April 20, 2015 by David

I recently read Lytton Strachey’s catty and interesting Eminent Victorians. During the fourth of his vignettes in particular, the biography of Chinese Gordon ending in Gordon’s ill-starred standoff with Her Majesty’s government and eventual martyrdom at the hands of the Mahdi. And one thing I thought as I read it was this would make a great fantasy novel.

It turns out that Django Wexler has written that novel. The Thousand Names is a ‘flintlock’ or ‘black powder’ fantasy with all the feel of the early maneuvering in the Great Game. Captain Marcus d’Ivoire is stuck between destruction at the hand of the sorcerous desert rebels called the Redeemers and an overzealous new commanding officer at the head of an army of raw recruits. Winter Ihernglass would rather not have the rushed field promotion to sergeant, among other reasons because Winter is a woman in flight from a rough childhood and masquerading as a man. And Colonel Valhnich, outnumber six to one by the redemption, has an ace up his sleeve, if he can only get to it — magic.

I’m a sucker for flintlock fantasy myself (if you’re reading this and you’re an editor, I’ve got a great novel called Witchy Eye to pitch to you). Even if you’re not, The Thousand Names is a terrific read and a great launch to an exciting series.

Posted in Bookshelf | Tagged Django Wexler, Lytton Strachey, The Thousand Names | Leave a comment

Bookshelf: A Midsummer Night’s Steampunk

Posted on April 17, 2015 by David

I first met Oberon Malieux as a contestant in a Space Balrogs game called Steampunk Supervillain Smackdown. He was a dastardly rogue, played by Scott Tarbet in goggles, top hat, and kilt, whose plan as supervillain was to mechanically augment the bodies of the world’s wounded veterans and madmen, and unleash them as a conquering army. Dr. Malieux / Tarbet won the Smackdown, after a series of shocking maneuvers the secrecy of which I have sworn in a solemn vow.

It turns out Scott is an author. And it turns out further that in the Smackdown he was cunningly playing the part of his villain in the novel A Misummer Night’s Steampunk, where Malieux appears as the mad scientist of steam-powered prosthetics in the secret pay of the kaiser, and also locked into a duel with his mad scientist of optical technology wife, Lakshmi.

Steampunk hi-jinks in classic style ensue, with the delightful twist that Tarbet’s story draws liberally and openly from the plot and characters of the Shakespeare play referenced in its title (which makes the inevitable denunciation of Shakespeare by one of the characters as “sentimental drivel” very droll). We are also given a strong dose of actual historical characters in improbable but convincing steampunk incarnations, tongue-in-cheek representations of Victorian style and manners, and a very amusing view of to what uses steam-powered prosthetics would likely be put; one of the characters is half-human, and half sewing machine, for instance.

A Midsummer Night’s Steampunk reminds me most of all of Lavie Tidhar’s Bookman trilogy, with its frenetic action, wit, and co-opting of the Bard. Recommended for fans of steampunk and Shakespeare alike!

Posted in Bookshelf | Tagged A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Midsummer Night's Steampunk, Bookman, Lavie Tidhar, Scott E. Tarbet, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

Bookshelf: A Short Stay in Hell

Posted on April 15, 2015 by David

I love Steve Peck for many reasons, one of which is his utter refusal to be pigeonholed. I have read and enjoyed The Scholar of Moab, which is Utah’s answer to Titus Groan, the fragmented saga of an idiotic would-be savant, siamese triplets, aliens, and the ghosts of Gadianton Robbers. I have thrilled to The Rifts of Rime, his joyous celebration of poetic warrior squirrels, and an entirely different kind of thing from Scholar.

A Short Stay in Hell is yet a third thing entirely. The premise is that Zoroastranism is true, and non-Zoroastrians (and perhaps sinful Zoroastrians, though we see none of these) must experience a little hellish therapy before they can move on to better things. Our protagonist is sentenced to pass time in a library, looking for the book that contains the story of his life.

The library (borrowing a conceit from Jorge Luis Borges) contains all possible books 410 pages long, with 40 lines of 80 characters on each page, using the standard characters that can be produced with an American keyboard. The result is a library that is not actually infinite, but may be practically so: as Peck calculates in the Appendix, is 7.16 to the power of 1,297,369 light years wide and deep. In this vast library, food is provided and anyone who dies promptly revives.

Given that set-up, A Short Stay in Hell engages its clever protagonist in seeking his life story, battling tedium, exploring, dodging brutal messianic cults, fighting despair, falling in love, and just plain falling. Thematically, we are drawn to consider the sheer scope of the possible universe and the desirability of eternity.

This is theological-ethical-humanistic fiction at its what-if best, Flatland if written by a skeptical John Donne. Totally worth your time.

Posted in Bookshelf | Tagged A Short Stay in Hell, John Donne, Steven L. Peck, The Rifts of Rime, The Scholar of Moab, Titus Groan, Zoroastrianism | Leave a comment

Professionalism

Posted on April 13, 2015 by David

I was asked on Facebook a few weeks ago whether I’d learned anything in my time as a corporate lawyer that I found applicable / useful to my career as an author. The answer is, absolutely yes.

With that as preface, here’s what it means to me to be a professional writer:

You meet your commitments. If you discover you can’t make a deadline, you promptly notify the people who are expecting to receive your work.
You get the job done. See above, but also, your output is work, and you have the ability and the will to sit down and do it. If you-as-author are waiting for inspiration to strike, you are a dilettante.
You are flexible. You are a skilled creator, able to create as requested. You are a pony with more than one trick, you have more stories to tell than one. You can write in many formats, and can learn few formats when you need to.
You communicate clearly. You are clear about deadlines and deliveries.
You come prepared. And when you are ambushed with a meeting you were not expecting, your skills are strong enough and you are full of enough substance that the other meeting participants think you must have prepared, even though you didn’t.
You know your market. You understand the genres in which you write, and your audiences. You know what they’re expecting, and how much you can twist their expectations to surprise them without losing their interest.
You hone your craft. You read for entertainment, and you read to improve.You can market. You know what your brand is. You know how to position your writing.
You can sell. You can tell people what any story is about in a way that leaves them wanting to read it to know more. You may be an introvert (you are probably an introvert), and you don’t let that stop you. You can collapse in your hotel room later; when you’re standing at the table, you can grin and pitch.
You look the part. Partly this is brand, in that you cultivate a consistent look; but also, you cultivate a look that says take me seriously and read the stuff I write. You look like someone who’s worth the investment of $20 or $20,000.

Posted in How to Write | Tagged Authors, Law, Lawyers, Professionalism, Writing | Leave a comment

Bookshelf: Echoes of a Shattered Age

Posted on April 10, 2015 by David

What if the best Saturday morning cartoons of the ‘80s had starred Toshiro Mifune? What if the enemies in The Seven Samurai had been demons summoned from the deepest, foulest pits of hell — and one of the Samurai was played by Bob Marley? What if in a future, post-technological earth, humankind’s last line of defense against an otherworldly invasion was the cast of a kung fu film?Echoes of a Shattered Age is the first novel in a series by R.J. Terrell about a brother-sister team (she’s a ninja, he’s a samurai) and a duo of foster brother martial artists (one Jamaican, one Filipino), all of whom hunt demons. Our protagonists find themselves aligned when a species of demons called Quentranzi is summoned and threaten the world. High octane adventure ensues.

Terrell cuts right to the heart of his story, which is fantastic action scenes. His wisecracking, swaggering, jostling characters add the right dash of levity, and Terrell’s themes of the peacefulness and beauty of a post-technological earth add a gentle, Tolkienesque layer of organic spirituality that is deeply satisfying.

For fans of action fantasy and kung fu movies — scratch both itches at once!

Posted in Bookshelf | Tagged Demons, High Fantasy, Kung Fu, Ninja, R.J. Terrell, Samurai, Saturday Morning Cartoons, Toshiro Mifune, Wordfire Press | 1 Comment

For Dan Wells

Posted on April 7, 2015 by David

…and other readers of historical fiction, a list of some of my favorites, in alphabetical order. Where I recommend the first book (marked with an asterisk), you should understand that I’m recommending the series.

(Dan may have read some of these himself, but I know he has not read them all.)

Luther Blissett, Q. A spy novel set in the Thirty Years War and the Reformation.

Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe’s Tiger* and The Last Kingdom*. Redcoats and saxons, respectively.

Dorothy Dunnett, The Game of Kings* and Niccolo Rising*. Intrigue, trade, politics, and adventure, in the sixteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose. If Sherlock Holmes was a medieval monk, confronting a series of murders modeled on the seven trumpets of the Apocalypse.

C.S. Forester, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower*. Napoleonic naval adventure whose protagonist was purportedly the model for James T. Kirk.

Patrick O’Brian, Master and Commander*. Seriously, Dan, I’m astonished you haven’t read these books. They’re the other side of the Jane Austin stories — the adventures of naval officers and spies in foreign lands — with Austinian wit and humanity.

Mary Renault, The King Must Die. Theseus.

Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver*. In the opening sequence, a messenger comes to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to bring back to Europe the one man who can resolve the bitter fight between Newton and Leibniz over who invented calculus. Then it gets even more awesome.

Posted in Bookshelf | Tagged Bernard Cornwell, C.S. Forester, Dan Wells, Dorothy Dunnett, Luther Blissett, Mary Renault, Neal Stephenson, Patrick O'Brian, Umberto Eco | Leave a comment

Bookshelf: Beasts of Tabat

Posted on April 5, 2015 by David

Cat Rambo’s Tabat is a fantasy steampunk city riven with tensions. In the annual hieratic gladiatorial contests, Winter has had a long winning streak, and the city’s folk are tired of short springs. The Duke’s ancestor promised a democracy after three hundred years of ducal rule, but with the three hundredth year drawing to a close, few believe that the current duke will honor that vow. And the Beasts, the magical creatures whose slave labor and bodies provide the raw stuff on which the city is built and by which it is powered, shudder with barely-suppressed revolt.

Into this explosive mix come two star-crossed characters. Teo is a Shifter, whose people are all shapechangers disguising themselves as humans to avoid attracting official attention. Teo himself has never been able to change, possible because of his shadow twin, his sister who died at birth, and his people promise him as an acolyte to Tabat’s Moon Temples. Unable to abide even the thought of life as a priest, Teo runs away.

Bella Kanto, hero of a thousand penny-wides, is the victorious gladiator whose constant triumphs keep winter ascendant in Tabat. She is also a voracious bisexual with a history of callously dropping lovers once she tires of them. Now Bella finds herself increasingly pulled towards the looming beast revolt, and caring for the refugee Teo. Perhaps most disturbingly of all, she also seems to be falling in love.

I love Beasts of Tabat. You will, too.

Posted in Bookshelf, Steampunk | Tagged Beasts of Tabat, Cat Rambo, Steampunk, Wordfire Press | Leave a comment

Seattle, Here I Come!

Posted on March 25, 2015 by David

I’ll be at Emerald City Comicon this weekend, with the Wordfire Press team. Look for me on a panel about Steampunk on Saturday, and all three days at the Wordfire both in the dealer room.

Posted in Conventions | Tagged Emerald City Comicon, Steampunk, Wordfire Press | Leave a comment

Why Should You Read Crecheling?

Posted on March 24, 2015 by David

Because Elon Musk and Steven Wozniak BOTH think it’s our future.

Posted in Bookshelf | Tagged Artificial Intelligence, Crecheling, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak | Leave a comment

The First Requisite

Posted on March 23, 2015 by David

“[I]gnorance is the first requisite of the historian — ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art.”

— Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians