Tag Archives: The Incrementalists

[REVIEW] The Incrementalists – Steven Brust & Skyler White

Steven Brust & Skyler White
The Incrementalists
Macmillan Tor (US: 24th September 2013)
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As a left-brainer, my thoughts often stop me from fully enjoying stories. I don’t need every little thing explained in extensive detail, but something more than vagueness. For a novel filled with symbols and analogies, my experience was less than optimal.

Logic-fail kept me from falling under The Incrementalists‘s spell. When even immortality sounds more believable than the concept herein, it’s a sign the world-building is somewhat flawed. An incrementalist’s memories can be implanted into someone else via A BURNING SPIKE TO THE FOREHEAD. Only because there’s no mention of seared flesh or brain damage, the burning memory-spike may be symbolic/analogous and therefore not real. And that kind of stuff really gets my goat.

The whole novel takes place over a week, so there’s insta-love. That could be explained due to meddlework, but the two parties seem relatively cool with the fact they were basically pimped, minds meddled with so they’d fall in love with one another. That’s hella creepy, and yet our characters seem nonplussed. Huh.

And for a secret society dedicated to making the world a better place, a little bit at a time, they do no such thing in the main storyline – they just focus on themselves. Sure, they may have done some bettering in the past (though the references to real life events really irk me – YOU BROKE THE FOURTH WALL, BOOK!), but apparently nothing in connection to the major plot.

P.S. Early on a character checks their Google Reader, and I immediately thought, “Ha! You just dated yourself, book!” Then I realised the email above the reference is dated…2011. Yep, listing the year in the emails dates the book even more than Google Reader. We really only need to see the messages, and the to/from section. Dates are irrelevant. (Unless there’s a particular reason the novel’s set in 2011, other than that’s when the authors wrote it. If there is a story-based reason, I missed it.)

7 New Covers (Brust & White, Cantor, Fitzpatrick, Frost, Grant, Hopkins, Reilly)

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Now Available for US Pre-Order

Laura Bickle: THE OUTSIDE (paperback): 9th September 2014: Buy (US)
Steven Brust & Skyler White: THE INCREMENTALISTS (paperback): 26th August 2014: Buy (US)
Amy Rose Capetta: UNMADE (Kindle Edition): 13th January 2015: Buy (US)
Carolyn Crane: OFF THE EDGE: Buy (US)
Alaya Dawn Johnson: THE SUMMER PRINCE (paperback): 29th July 2014: Buy (US)
Darynda Jones: SEVENTH GRAVE AND NO BODY: 21st October 2014: Buy (US)
J. Kenner: TAME ME (paperback): 11th March 2014: Buy (US)
Kristen Lippert-Martin: TABULA RASA: 23rd September 2014: Buy (US)
Mindy McGinnis: IN A HANDFUL OF DUST: 23rd September 2014: Buy (US)
Susan Beth Pfeffer: THE SHADE OF THE MOON (paperback): 16th September 2014: Buy (US)
Maggie Stiefvater: THE DREAM THIEVES (paperback): 29th July 2014: Buy (US)

24th September 2013 Releases

Happy Release Day to:

S. A. Bodeen
The Fallout (The Compound, Book 2)
Macmillan Feiwel & Friends (US: 24th September 2013)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

Eli and his family lived in an underground shelter they called the Compound for six years. They thought they were the only survivors of a nuclear attack, but when Eli learned that it was all a twisted experiment orchestrated by his tech-visionary father, he broke the family out. His father died trying to keep them imprisoned. Now, the family must readjust to life in the real world. Their ordeal has made them so famous, they must stay in hiding – everyone from fatalists preparing for doomsday to the tabloid media wants a piece of them. Even worse, their father’s former adviser continues to control the company Eli and his twin brother are the heirs of. As Eli tries to determine who the family can trust, he learns the nightmare of the Compound – and his father’s experiment – might not be over.

Steven Brust & Skyler White
The Incrementalists
Macmillan Tor (US: 24th September 2013)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

The Incrementalists – a secret society of two hundred people with an unbroken lineage reaching back forty thousand years. They cheat death, share lives and memories, and communicate with one another across nations, races, and time. They have an epic history, an almost magical memory, and a very modest mission: to make the world better, just a little bit at a time. Their ongoing argument about how to do this is older than most of their individual memories. Phil, whose personality has stayed stable through more incarnations than anyone else’s, has loved Celeste – and argued with her – for most of the last four hundred years. But now Celeste, recently dead, embittered, and very unstable, has changed the rules – not incrementally, and not for the better. Now the heart of the group must gather in Las Vegas to save the Incrementalists, and maybe the world.

Kat Falls
Inhuman
Scholastic (US: 24th September 2013)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

In the wake of a devastating biological disaster, the United States east of the Mississippi has been abandoned. Now called the Feral Zone, a reference to the virus that turned millions of people into bloodthirsty savages, the entire area is off-limits. The punishment for violating the border is death. Lane McEvoy can’t imagine why anyone would risk it. She’s grown up in the shadow of the great wall separating east from west, and she’s curious about what’s on the other side – but not that curious. Life in the west is safe and comfortable…just how she likes it. But Lane gets the shock of her life when she learns that someone close to her has crossed into the Feral Zone. And she has little choice but to follow. Lane travels east, completely unprepared for what she finds in the ruins of civilisation…and afraid to learn whether her humanity will prove her greatest strength or a fatal weakness.

Megan Hart
Stranger
Harlequin MIRA (US: 24th September 2013)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

I pay strangers to sleep with me. I have my reasons…but they’re not the ones you’d expect. For starters, I’m a funeral director taking over my dad’s business. Not exactly the kind of person you’d expect to fork over cash for the intimacy and urgency only skin-to-skin contact can create. Looking at me, you wouldn’t have a clue I carry this little secret so close it creases up like the folds of a fan. Tight. Personal. Ready to unravel in the heat of the moment. Unsurprisingly, my line of work brings me face-to-face with loss. So I decided long ago that paying for sex would be one of the best (and most arousing) ways to save me from the one thing that would eventually cut far too deep. But Sam was a mistake. Literally. I signed on to “pick up” a stranger at a bar, but took Sam home instead. And now that I’ve felt his heat, his sweat and everything else, can I really go back to impersonal? Let’s just hope he never finds out about my other life…

Mindy McGinnis
Not a Drop to Drink
HarperCollins Katherine Tegen (US & CA: 24th September 2013)
Review
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Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most important, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty or doesn’t leave at all. Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand. But wisps of smoke on the horizon mean one thing: strangers. The mysterious footprints by the pond, the night-time threats, and the gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won’t stop until they get it…

Michelle Rowen
Countdown
Harlequin Teen (US: 24th September 2013)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

Kira Jordan survived her family’s murder and months on plague-devastated city streets with hard-won savvy and low-level psi ability. She figures she can handle anything. Until she wakes up in a barren room, chained next to the notorious Rogan Ellis. Their every move is controlled and televised for a vicious exclusive audience. And as Kira’s psi skill unexpectedly grows and Rogan’s secrets prove ever more deadly, Kira’s only chance of survival is to risk trusting him as much as her instincts. Even if that means running head-on into the one trap she can’t escape.

Gena Showalter
Through the Zombie Glass (White Rabbit Chronicles, Book 2)
Harlequin Teen (US: 24th September 2013)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

Alice Bell has lost so much. Family. Friends. A home. She thought she had nothing else to give. She was wrong. After a new zombie attack, strange things begin to happen to her. Mirrors come to life, and the whispers of the dead assault her ears. But the worst? A terrible darkness blooms inside her, urging her to do very wicked things. She’s never needed her team of zombie slayers more, but ultra bad-boy Cole Holland, the leader and her boyfriend, suddenly withdraws from her…from everyone. Now, with her best friend Kat at her side, Ali must kill the zombies, uncover Cole’s secret and learn to fight the darkness. But the clock is ticking…and if she fails at a single task, they’re all doomed.

September 2013 Releases

Done with August 2013 Releases? Here are September 2013 Releases. For future releases, check Reading Wishlist.

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6 New Covers (Brust & White, Chan, Cremer, McGarry, Peterfreund, Stiefvater)

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Now Available for US Pre-Order

Steven Brust & Skyler White: The Incrementalists: 24th September 2013: Here
Lauren Dane & Megan Hart: There All Along: 3rd December 2013: Here
Megan Hart: Tear You Apart: 27th August 2013: Here
Karsten Knight: Embers & Echoes (paperback): 12th November 2013: Here
Karsten Knight: Afterglow: 12th November 2013: Here
Melissa Marr & Tim Pratt (eds.): Rags & Bones: 22nd October 2013: Here
Veronica Roth: untitled 3rd Divergent novel: 22nd October 2013: Here
Maggie Stiefvater: The Dream Thieves: 17th September 2013: Here