His entry begins:Fall for me means genre reading. I'm never far from the genres, but between convention season and Halloween (a huge pivot on my personal psychic calendar), I end up reading more books about wizards, zombies, mafoisi, and starships than usual.About Two Serpents Rise, from the publisher:
The first book on my list is explicitly seasonal: Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October. Zelazny is, in my opinion, one of the greatest writers of the science fiction and fantasy genres, and A Night in the Lonesome October is an overlooked classic. Set in the late 19th century England of the Strand and so many pulp adventure novels, this book is narrated by Jack the Ripper's dog Snuff, and describes the complex game he and his master are playing against a number of creepy characters (including Count Dracula and Sherlock Holmes) to destroy, or possibly save, our universe from Creepy Crawly Horrors From Before the Dawn of Time. And yet it's...[read on]
In Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone, shadow demons plague the city reservoir, and Red King Consolidated has sent in Caleb Altemoc—casual gambler and professional risk manager—to cleanse the water for the sixteen million people of Dresediel Lex. At the sceneLearn more about the book and author at Max Gladstone's website and Twitter perch.of the crime, Caleb finds an alluring and clever cliff runner, Crazy Mal, who easily outpaces him.
But Caleb has more than the demon infestation, Mal, or job security to worry about when he discovers that his father—the last priest of the old gods and leader of the True Quechal terrorists—has broken into his home and is wanted in connection to the attacks on the water supply.
From the beginning, Caleb and Mal are bound by lust, Craft, and chance, as both play a dangerous game where gods and people are pawns. They sleep on water, they dance in fire...and all the while the Twin Serpents slumbering beneath the earth are stirring, and they are hungry.
The Page 69 Test: Two Serpents Rise.
My Book, The Movie: Two Serpents Rise.
Writers Read: Max Gladstone.
--Marshal Zeringue
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