Happy Release Day to Defector by Susanne Winnacker!

DEFECTOR is the sequel to IMPOSTOR (our League review here), so slight spoilers for book one ahead. Ready? Okay!

As you no doubt recall from IMPOSTOR, Tessa is a Variant who lives and works with a special unit of the FBI known as the FEA (Forces with Extraordinary Abilities). Her power is shape-shifting, and like Mystique of the X-Men, Tessa can take on any identity. In IMPOSTOR, she impersonated a murder victim for a special mission. In DEFECTOR, she goes on her second mission, impersonating a senator who is being targeted by Abel's Army, a radical group of Variants.

The mission goes anything but smoothly and Tessa ends up discovering several shocking truths about herself and about her boyfriend Alec. This truths are such game-changers that Tessa goes on the road with Devon (brother of the dead girl she played in book one) on a rogue fact-finding mission. But with both Abel's Army and the FEA after her, Tessa has to be smarter and more resourceful than ever before.

A Personal Journey

In book one, Tessa struggled to define her place within FEA, but her character arc in book two is about self-discovery, coming to terms with her origins, and learning to make decisions for herself. It's a fascinating character study that explores how our alliances shape us, but how we ultimately control our own destiny.

Major Reveals

Who can you trust when everyone lies to you? Tessa's eyes are opened via several huge plot twists that put everything she thought she knew into question. Tessa's willingness to give up everything to find out the truth drives the action and sets up some stellar confrontation scenes (I especially loved the underground bar).

Read Now!

Fortunately, you don't have to wait to defect with Tessa. DEFECTOR is available now at all major retailers.

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
Book Depository

An Interview with WINGS Author Elizabeth Richards

Today it is my very great pleasure to post an interview with our very own Elizabeth Richards as the third book in the Black City trilogy is released: Wings! The first book, Black City, made my heart beat along with Ash's, and I can't wait to grab my copy of Wings. You can find out more about Elizabeth from her Facebook and Twitter (and here!) and more about her book on GoodReads.

We can read all about your life from your bio in the jacket flap of your book. So, what's a completely random fact about you that most people don't know?

I have a heart-shaped birth mark on my left foot! It’s the only way my parents could tell me and my twin-sister apart when we were newborns.

What's the most surprising thing you've learned since becoming a writer?

That you spend very little of your working day actually writing! I was stunned when I first entered the business and realized that the majority of my time would be taken up with marketing and publicity, especially in my debut year. I’ve managed to find a better balance now, and put writing ahead of everything else, even though it’s SO tempting to constantly pop onto Twitter…

Challenge time! Can you describe your book series in just one sentence?

Dystopian ‘Romeo and Juliet’ with vampires, explosions and kissing!

It's the inevitable question: what inspired the Black City books?

A number of things inspired the series. Initially it was Ash—his character came to me fully-formed one evening, when I was watching a movie, and I became enthralled by the idea of this drug-dealing, supernatural boy who gets a heartbeat when he meets his true love. It was also around the time of the 20^th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down, and so that was on the news a lot, and I kept wondering what it would be like to live in a city divided by a wall, and how terrible it would be if you were stuck on the wrong side of the wall, away from your family…especially if the side you were on happened to be filled with people that wanted to kill you. So that became the inspiration for the Boundary Wall. And the setting of Black City is inspired by Victorian London, with the ash-choked skies and gothic architecture.  

One of the things I loved about your first book, Black City, is that while it’s a fictional world, there seems to be some influence from our own history—especially themes of prejudice that reminded me of World War II and the Holocaust, as well as apartheid and civil rights movements. Can you tell us more about how you brought the real past into your fictional world, and why you explored those themes?

During the initial planning stages of Black City, I wondered what the world would be like if supernatural creatures actually lived among us. How would the humans react? Would they embrace the Darklings or be frightened of our differences? Unfortunately I didn’t have to look far back in our history to get a sense of how things could be. It didn’t seem far-fetched that the Darklings would be herded into ghettos and denied their civil rights, nor did it feel unbelievable that the Sentry government would commit genocide or kill anyone who fraternized with a Darkling, in order to create their perfect vision of ‘One Faith, One Race, One Nation under His Mighty’. And so that formed the basis of the series.

An image that will stay with me forever is when Ash’s heart starts to beat after he meets Natalie. The books are obviously so much more than a love story, but the love story part of the novels just sings. Could you discuss this part of the story more? How did you develop their love?

I’m a sucker for ‘love-at-first-sight’, however I didn’t want their romance to be a stereotypical ‘insta-love’ story. In the world of Black City, when a Darkling meets their Blood Mate, their heart activates and this is what happens when Ash first meets Natalie. However, all is not what it seems, when they learn [SPOILER] that Natalie has a stolen heart and Ash’s Blood Mate is actually another girl [SPOILER OVER]. For me, that was a much more interesting story to tell, because love isn’t easy—it’s hard fought for and, more to the point, it’s a choice. They choose to stay together because they want to, not because they have to, due to some mystical connection. And even when the fates keep trying to pull them apart, even when things get tough, they find each other. That, for me, is true love and why so many of my readers connect with their romance.  

Let’s talk Purian Rose. How did you develop such a villain? In Wings, you talk more about his past—did you always know that past, or was it something you developed as you started the third book?

I knew some of his past—at least, the two big things—but I’m not one to obsessively plot things out before I start writing (shhh, don’t tell my editor!); I like to be surprised because if I’m surprised then I hope the reader will be too. I actually found myself caring for him quite deeply, which I wasn’t expecting.   

If your reader could only take away one emotion, theme, or idea from the last book of the trilogy, Wings, what would you want it to be?

Forgiveness. That’s the key message in the book. “It’s easy to hate; the true tests of our hearts is to forgive.”

Don't forget to enter our giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Five Very Compelling Reasons You Want WINGS in Your Life

I am the luckiest girl in the world, because I got a chance to devour Elizabeth Richards' latest Black City book before it came out, and let me tell you, the devouring was good.  After I'd sated my vampire-dystopia lust, I came up with a few reasons why you need to read Wings.

1. Ash

Yes, yes, other characters are all fine and good, but the dark-haired smoldering vampire is the one I desperately wanted to see make it to the end.  No spoilers here, but I will tell you that the smoldering level was far above adequate and that there were some very swoony moments between him and Natalie.

Here comes the smolder

2. The United Sentry States

The world of the Black City books is a world devastated by war, populated by humans, vampires, lupines and bastets, and divided into a handful of giant states.  Wings shows us even more of this vividly reimagined America, from copper and verdigris Gallium to glittering golden Centrum.

3. Explosions

Explosions!  Fire!  Mayhem!  Richards pulls no punches in the final installment and no character (or city) gets off easy.  Wings is at its heart an action story, a revolution story, and it never stops to catch its breath.

BOOM

4. Plot Twists

Apropos to the above reason--Wings is a twisty ride, packed full of shocking reveals, new information and terrible betrayals.  Every time I thought I had something or someone figured out, they would turn around and completely surprise me.  I loved every second of it.

5. Tragic Backstory

Wings ties two stories together--the story of Ash and Natalie in the present day and the story of a boy named Edmund thirty years ago, a boy whose life is impossibly tragic and heart-wrenching.  His story changed how I saw the entire trilogy and every character in it.  Mind. Blown.

WHAT EVEN JUST HAPPENED I CAN'T EVEN

WINGS.  You'll be making this face by the end:

Wings will be out Thursday, June 12th! 

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

IndieBound

Book Depository

And don't forget to enter a giveaway for the ENTIRE BLACK CITY SERIES!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Best Things in Death

The Best Things in Death

Fabulous title, right? Sadly I didn’t come up with it. Fellow Leaguer Lenore Appelhans did! It’s the title of Lenore’s eNovella releasing today!

Here’s the cover:

Here's what Lenore has to say about her eNovella:

The Best Things in Death is a collection of short stories conceived as a companion to the Memory Chronicles novels.  I wanted to share four new memories. Two are from the perspectives of characters you met in The Memory of After and two come from the points-of-view of characters you’ll meet in Chasing Before.

As Lenore mentioned above, "Best Things in Death" shares four new memories with the reader. If you've read "The Memory of After" (and if you haven't, you really should!), you'll remember that the inhabitants of Level 2, among them the main character Felicia, have the opportunity to relive their as well as other people's memories. In the eNovella we get to read new memories from Neil and Julian, whom we both know from "The Memory of After". It was so much fun to read Julian's memory and learn more about him. He's been a bit of a mystery to me in the first book, so it was great to get to know him a bit better.

But my absolute favorite of the four memories is Brady's. We haven't met Brady and Libby yet, but we will in "Chasing Before". Brady's memory had the potential to be weighed down by sadness (if you read the eNovella, you'll know why) but Lenore manages to turn it into something hopeful and cute. Bonus points for diversity, because #weneeddiversebooks! 

Libby's memory made my heart stop. I can't wait to meet her and Brady in "Chasing Before". Now I'm even more excited about finally reading the sequel to "The Memory of After".

The eNovella is a wonderful way to dive back into the world of Level 2 and prepare for "The Memory of After".

Tiffany Trent on Steampunk: A Cabinet of Curiosities

Today we welcome YA steampunk author Tiffany Trent. Her current steampunk novels include The Unnaturalist and The Tinker King.

Steampunk: A Cabinet of Curiosities

The funny thing about all of this is that I never really knew I was writing steampunk. I never realized there was a genre that included my obsession with corsets (though I never wear them) and clockwork (though I don’t own any), airships (never been in one) and octopi (been closer to one than I’ve cared to). (Not to mention my love of museums and fascination with naturalists and collectors of natural objects!) I never knew there was a genre that allowed for a past that never was and a future that still might be.

Steampunk is all these things and more—a true cabinet of curiosities. When forced to define it, aficionados often stumble, because really, it’s almost a felt thing, an experience rather than just a category of literature that has risen to prominence in the last few years. Some people accuse those interested in steampunk of glorifying the past, and while maybe some of that is true, most steampunk is an alternate past that recasts traditional roles and norms. (I will include a list of forward-thinking steampunk at the end, in case you want to look for these novels).

For this and many other reasons, steampunk seems inherently controversial. Other times, people point at it as being just plain silly—the result of when Goths discover the color brown, as Cherie Priest once jokingly said. But I submit that the reason it has become an obsession for many people is that we long for an era when things made sense, when it was easier to both live in the confines of a rigid society where the rules were known but also not to be pigeon-holed in your identity by all the things you unwisely posted on Facebook when you were too young to know better. It was also a time when you could be more than one thing—a poet and an inventor and a theosophist all at once.

Of course, we can never forget the role class played in much of Victorian society and that life was very grim for many people—this is the era of Dickens and the workhouses and imperialism and the industrial revolution and cholera. But I think steampunk gives us the chance to re-envision and/or explore these things, to hear the voices of other cultures and customs that have previously been silenced. To me, that is where the –punk of steampunk comes in. We are taking something old and looking at it through a new (and often rebellious) lens.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—what I love most about steampunk is its DIY spirit. It isn’t satisfied with the status quo. Steampunks are famous for modding cars, computers, phones, even apartments in New York to suit their eccentric lifestyles. And it also recognizes that, for all its mad careening down the tracks of progress, the pace of life can also be slowed down significantly to include time for tea and study and appreciation of the finer things in life.

When I wrote what would become THE UNNATURALISTS, I thought I was writing a fun adventure tale, filled with all the bits of history, the birth of Western science, and Chinese lore that I loved. Turns out that little cabinet of curiosities is exactly what steampunk is, and though I am perhaps the most shy and retiring of those on the current steampunk stage, I’m glad I got the chance to be part of it.

The New York Public Library has a fabulous Introduction to Steampunk page, but
here are a few novels, both adult and YA, that you might enjoy:

• The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series (including Phoenix Rising,  The Janus Affair, and Dawn’s Early Light, as well as several anthologies) by Phillippa Ballentine and Tee Morris
• The Clockwork Century series (including Boneshaker, Dreadnought, The Inexplicables, and Ganymede, among others) by Cherie Priest
• The Iron Codex series by Caitlin Kittredge (including The Iron Thorn, The Nightmare Garden, and The Mirrored Shard)

Tiffany Trent is the author of the Hallowmere series as well as The Unnaturalists and The Tinker King. You can find her online at her website.

Alexandra Duncan: More Than Escape

Today we welcome debut YA SF author Alexa Duncan. Her book, Salvage, just came out--check it out! 

MORE THAN ESCAPE

Every so often, I run into the idea that the science fiction’s most basic function is to help us escape the real world. After all, what could be more unrealistic than spaceships, aliens, and super-advanced artificial intelligence? And what’s the point of writing something unrealistic if it isn’t to give us a break from reality?

I used to feel that way about science fiction and media in general. I grew up in an unhappy home, and I much preferred fantasizing about wielding a lightsaber and fighting for the Rebel Alliance to what was going on in my own life. I read and watched movies to get out, to give myself a safe place, to keep myself going through the motions until I could get out for real. But once I left for college and started living on my own, I began to discover that there were good things about the real world. I didn’t want out of it anymore, or at least not all the time; I wanted to understand it.

In the same way that some science fiction gave me a much-needed escape, other science fiction helped me see the world in a new way. Ursula LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness gave me a better understanding of the nuances of sexual orientation than I ever could have hoped to have growing up in the conservative, rural South. Battlestar Galactica highlighted the fear, paranoia, and prejudice in the air during the War on Terror. I had been too young to really grasp the horrors of South Africa’s Apartheid when it was in effect, but District 9 helped me understand. Movies like Moon, Sunshine, and Children of Men challenged me to think about universal ideas like identity and sacrifice, and books like Nnedi Okorafor’s The Shadow Speaker gave me confidence and inspiration to write my own stories with diversity in mind.

There is nothing wrong with escape. Sometimes it’s exactly what we need. But thinking that’s all science fiction is or can be sells the genre short. At its best, science fiction has the power to show us our own world in an entirely new way and cause us to reexamine old ideas. It has the flexibility to be all of the things any other genre can be – pure escapism, social commentary, satire, a love story, a profound examination of the human condition. Don’t try to put science fiction in a box. It’s too big for that, and so is the human capacity for reflection and wonder.

You can find Alexandra Duncan online at her website. Her debut, Salvage, had League Member Beth Revis raving: "Alexandra Duncan's debut illustrates a richly detailed world that vividly shows a possible future of Earth where society has both regressed and progressed, where the struggles of humanity have become more dire, but where love still remains. Everything--from the world to the characters--felt viscerally real."

Blade Runner vs. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

My new work is heavily influenced by Philip K. Dick, a true pioneer in science fiction and a brilliant author. Even if you don't know him, you do: he's the genius behind Minority Report, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, and so, so many more. I swear, whenever Hollywood gets bored, it turns to Philip K. Dick's oeuvre.

Perhaps the best known work based on PKD's stories is the SF classic Blade Runner.

Harrison Ford stars in this classic film of androids and the blade runners--bounty hunters--who chase down and kill the ones who've gone rogue. With amazing graphics and an eerily gripping storyline, this movie changed the way many people thought of the future. 

This is not a pretty world. This is a broken world, with violence and deceit. By the end of the novel, Deckard is questioning what makes someone human or not, questioning his own humanity, and questioning whether or not what he's dedicated his life is worth the price he's paying. Without giving too much away, if I had to distill the message of Blade Runner into a few words, I'd say that the movie is ultimately questioning whether or not something manmade (androids) can develop their own form of humanity. 

Seeing Blade Runner with a critical eye made me really think about what the movie was saying and what it meant. It was a little shocking for me to see the dirtiness of this world--many science fiction stories show at least a little glitter to the future (see: Star Trek and Star Wars, the two classic SFs on film. Sure, bad things happen--but there isn't the depravity that you see in Blade Runner).

And then I read the novel Blade Runner was based on: Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

I was, to say the least, surprised. There were differences straight off the bat. Deckard is still a bounty hunter, but he's doing it in part to support his wife--a character not present in the movie. And the world is even more decrepit and empty, scarred and hollow--but the book explains why the world has descended into this state. 

The main elements are still there: Deckard is chasing rogue androids that are so human-like that they can blend into society. And a lot of the same questions about humanity are there, too. 

But...there is something else in the novel. The novel emphasizes that the one solid thing that separates humans from androids is empathy. There's a hint of that in the movie, but in the novel it's remarkably present: the key to humanity, the novel argues, is empathy. 

This is a fascinating angle, and one that adds a totally new perspective to the tale. And it's a perspective that's needed. While the movie seems to question whether or not manmade objects can develop humanity, the novel questions where humans find their own humanity after they've lost it. Androids cannot feel empathy--it is the one rule that separates them from humans, and I don't really think PKD cares that much in this novel to explore whether or not an android can evolve. 

Instead, we see what Deckard empathizes with. As he ignores his wife more and more, as he discards religion and society, and as he falls more and more into the world of the androids, what he empathizes with--and why--changes. 

Because it's not enough, is it? It's not enough to just have empathy. Who we empathize with defines us as a person...as a human. 

In the end, it's not really a question of whether or not androids dream of electric sheep. It's about whether or not we do.