Alex White (5) (1981–)

I loved this book and this series. Its so fun, but it also packs in the gut punches. The special combination of musicians and mechs strikes a chord in my heart (pun intended). Also, and this is important: THERE ARE SPACE CRABS. I'm not sure there's much more to add past that, but I'll try. The characters, who are maybe not the best equipped to fight the evil AI, find out about a secret weapon that may just save them all, but they have to survive working with their new alien allies first. And show more of course Infinite Eye can anticipate all of their actions, and how do you fight against something that is so much more intelligent and deadly than you are? Overall, I loved this series, and while it's definitely more on the pop-fiction side of things, they are that perfect combination of influences that really speaks to me so I am definitely onboard for book 3 and maybe I'll check out more of Alex White's other works too. show less

I stumbled across this novel by happy accident. It was a joy to listen to. Alex has created a rich world with relatable characters and a deep back story that serves to flavor, rather than overwhelm his tale: secret organization recruits callow youth to save world. Along the way he encounters: souls trapped in immortal automatons; fractured alchemy; shape-shifters; unkillable assassins; genetic ancestor possession; mechanical magic run amok and hyper-intelligent, pan-dimensional, show more brain-sucking arachnids. It’s a fast-paced, rollicking ride; so grab your gat & fedora, hop on the sideboards and let’s go! I highly recommend that you reserve the time to give this a listen. You won’t be sorry that you did.
Standard caveats apply
I really enjoyed this one, it appealed to the pulp nerd in me. I searched Podiobooks looking for Steampunk books and up this popped. There is a debate akin to a holy war going on over what does and does not constitute Steampunk that I’m not going to get into right now. Suffice it to say that The Gearheart does have airships and appears to take place in a world on technological par with our late 1920s to early 1930s. It’s a world where magic is hidden, alchemy is suspect and a group with one incredibly cool name (Seekers of the Arcane Unknown) hoards secret knowledge and practices the forbidden arts. It would appear to be closer to Dieselpunk than Steampunk, with a hefty dose of magic thrown in for good measure. Normally, I don’t care to have my genres all that mixed, but Alex has made it work very well. So, call it whatever makes you the most comfortable, you’re almost guaranteed to enjoy it.
We open in a gritty, noir atmosphere. There's a warehouse heist replete with wise guys, Tommy guns and soul swords, topped by a biplane’s strafing run and a Bruckheimer explosion. Then, the action starts. It’s an ensemble cast of distinct characters that almost fits the classic quest model. We have the naïve youth, the experienced mentor, the love interest, the lovable rogue, the plain spoken fixer and the impenetrable warrior, among others. They retrieve the magical whatnot from the warehouse and set off on the heroic quest.
Here’s where Alex goes sideways. It’s not the classic quest model after all. The Seeker organization isn’t what it seems. Corruption has crept in and governments are plotting to diminish the Order. Villains flourish, heroes die (including one shocker I won’t spoil here) and our besieged group reluctantly finds itself in a race to literally save the world.
Each of the 37 episodes is set up like an old movie serial reel: a brief synopsis then straight into action for about 20 minutes, followed by a short close and some of the funniest faux commercials I’ve ever heard. Each episode ends in an evil cliffhanger (including the last one). I was fortunate enough to download all the episodes at once from Podiobooks and so was spared the agony of waiting a week between each of them. The episodes clock in about 20 to 25 minutes in length apiece; perfect for my day job commutes. The exceptions to this rule are the final three; episodes 35 and 36 are double length and 37 is triple length.
Alex is a jack-of-all-trades, writing both story and soundtrack and performing the male voices and soundtrack (with the occasional guest artist). His wife Renee handles the female characters. Both actors have more than sufficient range to provide separate and distinct characterizations for the cast, although one character’s accent required a couple of episodes to settle into a regional one I could recognize.
The pacing and delivery are transparent, so much so that I found myself resenting the end title when the music began playing under. That’s a thumbs up to the quality of the writing as well. Though, there were a couple of places where I was taken aback. One instance is the description of the shapeshifter’s teeth. They were described as ebon and sharp, invincible with the ability to puncture and rend everything. The teeth were glassy … Glassy? Hmmmm. Not a show stopper, just not the choice I would have made. These instances were few and far between. I mention it because the overall quality was such that it made these instances stand out.
Technically, there were some episodes where the end title music tended to overwhelm the dialogue. Your mileage on this may vary, however. I was listening to the podcasts on a single ear Bluetooth headset. Better headsets may very well diminish or remove this issue.
The story line started out with a bang and keeps up a fast pace through the first 18 or so episodes. Then the pacing slows. In comparison to the first half of the podcasts, it almost wanes. However, that doesn’t last long, the action picks right back up and the series finishes with a bang, a zinger and an unexpected twist.
I downloaded The Gearheart from Podiobooks. The complete novel is available there, at The Gearheart site and from iTunes. The Gearheart site is very well done, easy to navigate and well organized. Alex has quite a fan base and has completed a prequel story, set in the same universe.
The Gearheart has an open ending. Given the amount of craft I’ve seen invested in this, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a sequel. I know I’d like to see one. show less

Sometimes you have to start a review with: in all fairness.

In all fairness you can actually compare airport novels to literary works. Here's why. I have a friend who is a very good and well established poet. She will frequently say: the reason I can't write fiction is because I don't have that knack to make the magic trick work, the one where from the first sentence you transport someone into a different world and won't let them go until it's all said and done.

Sure, you probably won't learn show more anything about the depths of the human soul. But do we really need to? We already have millions and millions of books trying to do just that. In fact, at least with a novel like this you won't have a life lesson forced down your throat (pun sort of intended).

You may think that I'm trying to defend this novel in some way by disparaging works of heavy literature. I'm not, I'm trying to make the point that those writers who create spinoff-novels, off-shoots and novelizations might actually know very well what they are doing. Maybe even more so than someone writing an article for let's say Antioch or Granta. Why? Because pieces published in literary journals don't have to have that magic trick, it's ok if people who read the pieces know it's a literary piece. In fact it helps.

Over the hundreds of books I've read and thousands of short stories submitted to the literary journal I was an editor of, I've come to greatly appreciate the authors like Tim Waggoner or Tim Lebbon or Alex White. They have mastered their craft and they are making a contribution to entertainment. They are keeping our minds occupied and entertained and that's quite a compliment. show less

I should have known from the title… and its sequels’ titles (currently A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy and The Worst of All Possible Worlds). This is the Becky Chambers school of titling books, and I’m not a fan of Becky Chambers’s novels. Although to be fair, I was unimpressed with A Big Ship at the End of the Universe for a number of reasons, of which its terrible title was probably the least objectionable. The bad news starts pretty much on the first page. This is a far-future show more space opera universe… and it has magic. There’s no sense to it, clearly it was added because the author thought it was a cool idea. Half the stuff magic does in the book is also done by technology. Why would they do that, build a technological solution to a problem already solved by magic? It’s like that throughout the story. But, you know, some people like tech and magic; the fact it makes no sense, that it destroys any rigour the universe might claim to possess, is not a deal-breaker for them. It’s certainly a hurdle more easily scaled by some readers than others. Had that been my only issue with A Big Ship at the End of the Universe, then I’d have simply written it off as “not for me”. But… The novel opens with car race on a space station and it’s clear this is a sport all worlds enjoy and follow, and there’s a lot of money and prestige invested in it, much like Formula 1 in the real world. During the race, one of the drivers, the favourite to win the championship, witnesses the murder of her rival by a strange masked magical figure who seems to have EVEN MOAR magical powers than is known to be possible. The driver is charged with the murder, fears for her life, and does a runner (despite belonging to one of the richest families in the galaxy). Meanwhile, a woman who makes a living selling fake treasure maps to gullible treasure hunters finds herself being hunted by unknown assailants. And she is one of those rare people who have no magical ability whatsoever. Both end up being kidnapped by, and then dragooned into, the crew of the Capricious, an ex-warship from the losing side of an earlier war. The map-seller was once a member of the crew but walked away when the war ended. Bad feelings remain. The plot is all about a super-warship that disappeared during the war, and somehow the super-magic assassin is associated with it. After some internal tensions, the crew of the Capricious track down the ship with authorially imposed ease, but then find themselves the targets of a group of super-powerful magicians, including the aforementioned assassin, who seem to have no trouble razing rich and powerful galactic institutions to the ground. And that is this novel’s biggest problem. The villains are super-powerful, and their strategy of slash and burn is at complete odds with the conspiracy’s previous actions, and it all seems EVEN MOAR implausible than having random magic powers in a technological space opera universe. And if that weren’t enough, the hardy band of adventures otherwise known as the crew of the Capricious still manage to win the day. They are massively outgunned, hugely outgunned… But they win. A battle, not the war – as indicated by the presence of sequels. I mean, there’s suspension of disbelief and there’s suspension of disbelief. The presence of magic is stretching it, but I’m willing to go with it. The rest? No! Dial it back, FFS. It’s nonsense. Super-villains taken down by hardy adventurers with no special powers? There’s no rigour here, no attempt at it. It’s like the author just threw “cool” ideas at the page with no regard for what fitted. It’s not like the plot is super original, because it’s not, in fact it’s a pretty standard one for RPGs (and “ordinary” player-characters overcoming super-powered NPCs is also pretty common in RPGs). Anyway, A Big Ship at the End of the Universe is not a good book. I will not be continuing with the series. show less