City of Ruins

Back in 2009 we read Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s DIVING INTO THE WRECK. With its incredible accessibility to all sorts of readers and its awesome idea of wreck diving in space, it instantly became one of our favorites that year. We waited patiently for the sequel, and it finally came out.

CITY OF RUINS follows up a bit after DIVING. Boss is back, and this time she’s made a company that investigates the stealth tech discovered in the first novel. On a hunch she heads to city of Vaycehn to investigate the possibility of stealth tech on the planet. With her are a slew of historians, archeologists and the other six people who can safely navigate the stealth fields. The people in the city are suspicious, and the city itself falls victim to a weird phenomenon called "death holes" that swallow whole sections of Vaycehn. It's partly the mystery behind this city that makes the book so enthralling.

We were worried. It’s a kind of paranoia we have. We tend to assume that the second book in a series—especially when following such a pleasantly surprising one like DIVING—will fail to live up to the quality of the first. It's a legitimate fear. CITY OF RUINS takes place nearly entirely on a planet. Our initial thoughts were, “Well crap. The whole reason we liked the first one was because of the deep-space wreck diving.” What would happen when Rusch took that away?

We were absorbed into the story within a few pages, and then when the major “twist” type moment happened about 1/3 through the book, we were absolutely sold. Not only was this as good as the first novel, it was better in every way. We mean it. Every. Single. Way.

The writing is better. The pacing is fluid and effortless. You may recall from our review of DIVING INTO THE WRECK that Rusch’s first novel in this series felt more like a couple novellas stuck together rather than a true novel. CITY OF RUINS has none of those problems that slightly knocked the first novel. What’s more is just how easily Rusch recaptured our imagination. How? With her main character, Boss. She is a fantastic example of a strong female protagonist that has baggage and flaws. Boss’ obsession with finding more stealth tech (including the reason behind her obsession) not only gives the character depth, but the universe as well.

One of the real awesome parts of this novel is just how much is really brewing beneath the surface. Without giving anything away, this is the novel that really makes you ask the question, “What is really going on here?”

CITY OF RUINS is a perfect evolution of this series. Everything you think you know about this universe is stood on its head and spun a different way. Even the slow bits of the novel were extremely interesting. What more can a guy ask for? Remember, we don’t particularly care for Science Fiction. But this series? We’ll gobble up every story in this universe that we can. Twice.

It can get a little difficult to convey just how thrilled we are with this book. You should read this book. You should read both the novels in this series. You should pre-order the third novel, BONEYARDS, coming out next January. You should probably also buy copies for all your friends and family. You know, just to be safe.

Recommended Age: 15 and up
Language: Some. Not too much at all really.
Violence: Nothing major.
Sex: Nope.

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Posted in Books We Love , Kristine Kathryn Rusch , science fiction

Interview with Kristine Kathryn Rusch

First off, Kris, we want to thank you for taking the time to chat with us a bit. As per tradition here at Elitist Book Reviews, we want to give you a chance to brag a bit. Tell us (and our readers, of course) what makes you an awesome author. Don’t hold back, modesty isn’t allowed.

Wow. This isn’t in my nature. Tried answering this question twice and found that my Midwestern upbringing and my natural reticence make it impossible to do. So gee, I guess, um…all I can say is read my stuff and find out.

Why don’t you give our readers a bit of your writing history.

I started writing really young (my first story finished at age 7). When I was 12, my brother gave me a subscription to Writer’s Digest, and that set me on the road to professional writing. I started writing nonfiction professionally at 16 when I did the high school column for the local paper (and got paid for it!), and sold my first small press short story at 22. Sold my first professional short story at 25 and my first novel, The White Mists of Power, at 29. I haven’t looked back since.

How about we chat a bit about your novel, DIVING INTO THE WRECK. Frankly, we loved it, and we don’t like very much SF. Where did the ideas for this novel come from, and how did you manage to make them so distinct?

I love old-time sf—the rockets and rayguns stuff that the print version of sf hasn’t seen for years. Adventure fiction for lack of a better term. I read an article about diving old ships in the ocean, and realized that some day someone would dive old spaceships (I hope!), and that got me the first section. That—and stories my husband Dean Wesley Smith has told about diving for bodies with search-and-rescue in Idaho. (He’s done almost everything, that man.) Then I saw an article about cremated ashes left in the basement of the Oregon Mental Hospital (the same one Ken Kesey wrote about in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). The ashes had no names, only numbers, and the key was lost. The paper was calling it a room of lost names. I got lost souls from that, dunno how, and that became the novella, “The Room of Lost Souls.” Halfway through writing it, I realized that this was part of the same story as “Diving.” And then I had to finish it all. There’s more, you know. Just sold Asimov’s another novella in Boss’s world. And in 2009, published another in Asimov’s called “The Spires of Denon,” which is set in the Diving world, but doesn’t involve Boss.

We mentioned in our review of DIVING that we were impressed with how accessible the novel was. Was this a goal of yours when you began writing this novel? If so, why was it important for you?

I want people to read science fiction. I’m a former science fiction editor and I can’t read half the novels published out there. That’s just wrong. SF was one of my biggest escapes as a kid. I still love the TV shows (Stargate: Universe, anyone?) and the movies, but the many of the sf print people put that down as “unoriginal” or “has been done before.” (Just this month got a professional reviewer comment on one of my short stories that it was a great story, but not worth calling a good sf story because it didn’t do anything new.)

Here’s the crazy thing: if you made that the criteria for any other genre, the genre wouldn’t exist. Murder? It’s been done before. Romance? You had that in your last book. As my college creative writing professor said on day one of class: There are seven plots. Shakespeare did them better than anyone. If that scares you, leave now.

Any plans for future stories set in the DIVING universe with Boss as a PoV?

Oh, yes.

What do you consider the best book you’ve written so far?

The one I just mailed off. It’s always that way. And it’ll always be a different book that no one has seen—except Dean, who is my first reader.

You’ve been writing SF for quite a while now. What are some of the recent trends that you like and dislike about SF?

I love the kick-butt heroines that are taking over the field. Just love .’em. And I’m happy that so many editors, especially in books, are going back to the adventure side of the field, no longer caring about that “this has to be new” thing. I love the way that YA has taken over sf. You want good sf? Go to the YA section of the bookstore. As for the stuff I don’t like, see my other answer, above.

We are going to put you on the spot a little here, so don’t kill us. A few years ago at WorldCon in Los Angeles, you mentioned something on panel that stuck with us. When discussing the blending of genres, you mentioned that you felt Mystery was a style, not a genre. Do you still feel this is true? Why is mystery such a large part of the novels you write?

I did? Jeez I sound so smart on panels, and I’m really just spitballing. I may have meant that noir is a style—Chandler is all about voice, for example. In fact, a lot of mystery is all about voice because—you know—murder and crime has been done before.

I think mystery is my most natural genre. I see the dark side of everything—criminals lurking in every corner. Plus I naturally think about how to break the rules. So I write stories where criminals (usually) get their comeuppance, but the fun for me is figuring out how they would break the rules—and how someone would stop them.

If you could recommend good, accessible SF to hesitant readers, what novels would you recommend, and why?

I used to say read the best of the year volumes, but there are too many and one has become dang near unreadable lately. I will say pick up Asimov’s. Right now, Sheila Williams is publishing some of the best sf in the field. And read more than one issue. She publishes everything from the hard-to-understand slipstream stuff for the old timers, to action/adventure for folks like me. And then there’s Connie Willis: To Say Nothing of the Dog, for example, for good time travel. Scott Westerfeld The Uglies (This is YA). Jack McDevitt’s novels. Mostly, though, I’d suggest picking up an SF book, and reading the opening two or three pages. If you get lost, put it down. That author’s not for you. (My rule is that if they have more than 3 made-up unrecognizable words in the first 3 pages, then I won’t read the rest of the book. It starts hard and gets harder.) If they hook you, buy it. And step outside the genre section. YA and romance have some good sf (check out Linnea Sinclair in romance). You just have to find it.

As busy as you are, do you get a chance to read much? What authors get you excited?

I read every day. And authors new to me get me really excited. So do good books. Every month I do a recommended reading list on my blog. I make a point of citing all the stuff I think is good there. http://kriswrites.com/category/reading/

How do you go about the writing process, and for you, what is the most enjoyable aspect of it all?

I love to write new stuff. I hate writing the end. I used to skip right over that part. (I’m better now). My stories often arrive out of order, and that can be irritating, but fun as well. I never know what’ll happen next—not even in my own brain.

What’s next for Kristine Kathyrn Rusch, or your other pseudonyms for that matter?

A short story collection will come out in the spring called Recovering Apollo 8 and Other Stories. I have a lot of short fiction appearing this year. Then early next year, Kristine Grayson—my goofy funny romance pen name (once heralded as the Queen of Paranormal Romance)—will make a return appearance with a novel called The Charming Way. And there’s more in negotiation and under discussion. I just can’t confirm any of it yet.

Ready for a tough question, Kris? Who do we have to bribe…err, talk with to get cameos in your next novel? We make really good cookies.

Cookies—months of cookies—would do it.

Kris, it’s been a pleasure talking with you. We’ll have you on our Hugo ballots. Any last words for the readers?

Thank you for the request (and the Hugo rec!) For the readers, lemme say this: I can’t do it without you. You’re the best. Thanks for buying and enjoying my work.

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Posted in Interviews , Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Diving into the Wreck

Every now-and-then a novel surprises us. For whatever reason, we have preconceptions about a novel before reading; it could be we've read the author's previous novels, it could be the cover-art, or really anything else for that matter. What we love is when a novel shatters all of our unfounded notions, and completely sucks us into the story (if this were a vampire novel, we would insert a mandatory pun here, but alas...).

Kristine Kathryn Rusch has been writing SF for a while now (not to mention every other genre under various pen-names). You may have heard of her, and you may have even read her Retrieval Artist series. It is a decent series, and good for beginners in the SF genre, but nothing that made us squeal and say, "Wow!" That was our exposure to Rusch, and really the basis for our opinions of her writing. We figured that her new novel, DIVING INTO THE WRECK, would be more of the same.

Wow! (See what we did there?) We were seriously mistaken. Take a screen-shot of that last sentence, ladies and gentlemen, because it rarely happens.

DIVING INTO THE WRECK is essentially deep-sea wreck diving...in space. It's an interesting idea, but not completely original. However, as is becoming the case lately, it's all in the execution. Also, not only does Rusch throw in the wreck diving in space idea, but in addition she throws the ever-prevalent theme of stealth technology into the mix. We know what you are thinking. We thought it too. "Oh noes! More unoriginal stealth ideas!" Remember, it's all in the execution.

The story begins with the main PoV, Boss (a female), finding a wreck in the depths of space that is of old-earth design. The wreck shouldn't (as is fairly typical with these types of discoveries) be there--in fact it should be impossible for the ship to be in this section of space. What follows in the story is essentially the consequences Boss faces for finding and trying to explore this wreck. The setting and history of the galaxy is revealed piece by piece, and we really felt like it added to the mystery of the situations. Authors frequently play the "withholding information" game from the readers, and it can be absurdly annoying. Not so with Rusch's DIVING INTO THE WRECK.

The characters are quite good in this story. Each of them have their own pasts which lend well to the plot and to the conflict. The novel is actually fairly grim in places, which pleases us (big surprise right?). The dangers the characters face feel real, and the PoV, Boss, makes many observations about her profession that really emphasize how badly things can go (which they do, and often). While the entire story is told from Boss' PoV, we get some great moments of character development for the secondary characters that truly fleshes out the story.

We really want to tell you why the stealth technology in this story is great, but that would spoil a lot of the fun. Look, we know you trust us. The idea here isn't as cliched as you expect it to be. Go grab the book and see for yourself.

Now, no book is without problems. DIVING INTO THE WRECK does suffer a tad from feeling more like three connecting novellas. To be honest, it wasn't until the end of Part 2 that we realized there were connections between the sections. This could be a real turn-off to readers. Also, the very end feels convenient and coincidental. It solves the situation perfectly...but it is WAY too coincidental (you'll know it when you read it).

However we can forgive these faults due to the awesomeness of the book as a whole. The characters are great. The story takes ideas that are typical of the genre and makes them interesting and entertaining. The writing, in our opinions, was much better than her normal fare. The story is told from the 1st Person perspective, but it is entirely present tense--and it is refreshing.

Are you getting the common thread of this review? What you should have noticed by now is that Rusch takes tired or unoriginal concepts and somehow executes ALL of them in the best possible way (with the ending being the one small detractor--but hey, it probably won't bother most people). Like Patrick Rothfuss' NAME OF THE WIND, it is the WAY that the ideas are expressed that makes them so good. DIVING INTO THE WRECK might be the best use of the specific SF ideas it contains.

We are going to be completely candid here. You know what the Hugo Awards are, right? Well, DIVING INTO THE WRECK should be nominated for one. So often recently the SF novels nominated for Hugo awards are extremely inaccessible to the masses. It has become a contest of "who can be the most bizarre," or "who can pander to fans the most," or even "who can make you feel the dumbest while reading." Having read a lot of the recent Hugo nominated novels, it's our opinion that books that are actually GOOD are left off the list. DIVING INTO THE WRECK is a novel that is a fantastic read, and can be enjoyed by the mass SF enthusiasts and newbies alike. Call us crazy--actually, don't, because we aren't--but we think the novels that are nominated for the Hugo Award should get people INTO the SF&F genres, not drive readers away. Kristine Kathryn Rusch's DIVING INTO THE WRECK is exactly what the SF genre needs to get more readers...and to keep the readers the genre already has.

Buy and read this novel. It is easily worth its cover-price. It will surprise you with its depth, and its enjoyment factor. If it doesn't get nominated for the Hugo, we will be disappointed in WorldCon attendees everywhere.

Recommended Age: 15 and up.
Language: There isn't a lot, but where it does show up, it is almost always the F-word.
Violence: Not really. We know right? No violence and we were still crazy impressed? This should grab your attention and make you want to read it even more. It is the sense of danger and suspense that really impressed us.
Sex: Nope. No shock value stuff here. Just great story-telling.


List of relevant websites that you have come to expect:

Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Website -- http://kriswrites.com/
Pyr SF&F -- http://www.pyrsf.com/

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Posted in Books We Love , Kristine Kathryn Rusch , science fiction