Disclaimer

Megan Lindholm (Wizard of the Pigeons) writes tightly constructed SF and fantasy with a distinctly contemporary feel. Robin Hobb (Assassin's Quest) writes sprawling, multi-volume fantasies set in imaginary realms. These two writers, apparently so different, are, of course, the same person, each reflecting an aspect of a single multifaceted imagination.

Inheritance gathers the best of Hobb and Lindholm's shorter fiction into one irreplaceable volume containing ten stories and novellas (seven by Lindholm, three by Hobb), together with a revealing introduction and extensive, highly readable story notes. The Lindholm section leads off with the Hugo and Nebula-nominated novella 'A Touch of Lavender,' a powerful account of love, music, poverty, and addiction set against an extended encounter between human and alien societies. Other memorable entries include 'Cut,' a reflection on the complex consequences of freedom, and the newly published 'Drum Machine,' an equally absorbing meditation on the chaotic nature of the creative impulse. Two of Robin Hobb's contributions revisit the world of her popular Live Traders series. 'Homecoming' enlarges the earlier history of those novels through the journal entries of Lady Carillion Carrock, while 'The Inheritance' concerns a disenfranchised young woman who comes to understand the true nature of her grandmother's legacy. And in 'Cat's Meat,' a long and wonderful story written expressly for this collection, an embattled single mother reclaims her life with the help of a gifted—and utterly ruthless—cat.

New York Times bestseller Robin Hobb is one of the most popular writers in fantasy today, having sold more than one million copies of her work in paperback. She’s perhaps best known for her epic fantasy Farseer series, including Assassins Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassins Quest, as well as the two fantasy series related to it, the Liveship Traders series, consisting of Ship of Magic, The Mad Ship, and Ship of Destiny, and the Tawny Man series, made up of Fool’s Errand, Golden Fool, and Fool’s Fate. Recently, she’s started a new fantasy series, the Soldier Son series, composed of Shaman’s Crossing, Forest Mage, and her most recently published novel, Renegade’s Magic. Her early novels, published under the name Megan Lindholm, include the fantasy novels Wizard of the Pigeons, Harpy’s Flight, The Windsingers, The Limbreth Gate, Luck of the Wheels, The Reindeer People, Wolf’s Brother, and Cloven Hooves, the science fiction novel Alien Earth, and, with Steven Brust, the collaborative novel The Gypsy. 

Here she takes us to the edge of human endurance and considerably beyond, for a harrowing study of the ultimate meaning of loyalty, when everything else has been lost.

New York Times (Assassin’s Apprentice, Royal Assassin,Assassin’s Quest),(Ship of Magic, Mad Ship,Ship of Destiny)(Fool’s Errand, Golden Fool,Fool’s Fate).(Shaman’s Crossing, Forest Mage, Renegade’s Magic).Wizard of the Pigeons, Harpy’s Flight, The Windsingers, The Limbreth Gate, The Luck of the Wheels, The Reindeer People, Wolf’s Brother,Cloven Hooves;Alien Earth,The Gypsy.Dragon Keeper Dragon Haven.

Tagsüber verkauft Harper Cole von seiner abgelegenen Farm aus Waren via Internet. Nachts hingegen arbeitet er als System-Operator für den exklusiven E.R.O.S.-Online-Dienst, zu dessen Kunden sowohl Hollywood-Stars als auch New Yorker Intellektuelle zählen. Unter der Zusicherung absoluter Anonymität plaudern diese Online-Benutzer im Internet ihre geheimen Wünsche und Obsessionen aus. Als plötzlich sechs weibliche E.R.O.S.-Kunden jeden Kontakt abbrechen, ahnt Cole, daß irgend etwas nicht in Ordnung sein kann. Und als die sechs Frauen schließlich ermordet aufgefunden werden, steht Cole plötzlich ganz oben auf der Liste der Hauptverdächtigen ...<

24 Stunden - so lange dauern in der Regel die perfekt geplanten Entführungen eines Kidnapper-Trios. Die schockierten Eltern zahlen das geforderte Lösegeld, und die geraubten Kinder gelangen wohlbehalten nach Hause. Doch im Fall der kleinen Abby Jennings verläuft nichts nach Plan: Denn das entführte Mädchen benötigt dringend ein lebensnotwendiges Medikament, und ihre Eltern gehören nicht zu der Sorte von Menschen, die sich widerstandslos geschlagen geben. Die Jagd nach den Kidnappern wird zu einem Kampf auf Leben und Tod ...<

Bei dem Besuch eines Kunstmuseums stellt Jordan verwirrt fest, dass die anderen Besucher sie anstarren. Nur wenige Augenblicke später betritt sie einen Ausstellungsraum mit einer bizarren Sammlung von Gemälden, die in der Kunstwelt für Furore gesorgt haben. Die Bilderserie heißt "Die schlafenden Frauen", und zeigt verschiedene, angeblich schlafende, Frauen nackt. Der Schlag trifft Jordan, als sie auf einem der Bilder sich selbst erkennt. Doch Jordan ahnt, dass nicht sie es ist, die dort abgebildet wurde, sondern ihre Zwillingsschwester, die vor einem Jahr spurlos verschwand. Ist das ein Hinweis? Und schläft die Frau auf dem Bild tatsächlich? Es gibt erschreckende Gerüchte ...<

Der Geologe John Waters führt ein glückliches Leben mit Frau und Kind in Natchez, Mississippi. Das war nicht immer so, denn Jahre zuvor drohte ihn die obsessive Liebesbeziehung zu einer anderen Frau zu vernichten. Doch die Frau verschwand und fand einen schrecklichen Tod in New Orleans. Nun, zehn Jahre später, macht John die Bekanntschaft der attraktiven Immobilienmaklerin Eve Sumner, einer Frau, die offenbar jedes Detail aus seiner bewegten Vergangenheit zu kennen scheint. Als auch Eve ums Leben kommt, wird der Geologe in einen Strudel aus Hass und Gewalt verwickelt, der ihn an den Rand des Wahnsinns bringt.<

North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin’s Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Dong-hyuk did.

In , acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin’s life unlocks the secrets of the world’s most repressive totalitarian state. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence-he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his own family. Through Harden’s harrowing narrative of Shin’s life and remarkable escape, he offers an unequaled inside account of one of the world’s darkest nations and a riveting tale of endurance, courage, and survival.

To appreciate DEATH IN OSLO as an English-language reader, one must note that the book was first published (in Norwegian) in 2006, being written and set in the spring of 2005. Only now (December 2009) is it available in an English-language version. In those times, 9/11 was a much closer, and more raw, memory than it is now, and DEATH IN OSLO takes place in the context of international and personal relations that have not settled down to a new norm after that dreadful atrocity.

Helen Bentley has recently been elected as the first woman president of the United States, beating George W. Bush. Preoccupied with internal stability, Bentley has not made any state visits abroad since her inauguration until the opening of this novel. She’s decided to visit Norway, the safest country in the world from the point of view of its dearth of terrorist attacks and its internal stability. Mysteriously, Bentley travels very light, refusing to let her husband and teenage daughter accompany her, and allowing only the minimum in terms of her own security. Abruptly, she vanishes from her hotel room on the first night of her visit, during the preparations for Norway’s national midsummer day holiday celebrations.

The rest of the book deals with the aftermath of this shocking event. The author is mainly interested in looking at the United States in relation to the rest of the world, in particular the country’s response to the 9/11 atrocities in terms of its sudden legislation to remove many civil liberties as the authorities seek to track and monitor any possible attack from within. After Helen Bentley disappears, the Norwegian police and security services begin an immediate and exhaustive investigation, soon discovering witnesses who saw the president travelling in a car (oddly, in a very wide-ranging trip around the country) and pulling the perpetrators in for questioning. Although progress in this sense is very fast, these leads go nowhere and the authorities are left in total ignorance of the president’s whereabouts, as well as how and why she was kidnapped.

At the same time, the Americans themselves are piling into Norway, quickly brushing aside offers to share the investigation and setting up their own system from their embassy. Warren Scifford, who we know from previous novels by reputation as a senior “spook” of some kind in the USA, is called in as he’s become the president’s special adviser and is also her friend – one of the small circle who helped her to get elected. As soon as he arrives, Warren asks for Johanne Vik, his ex-student, to be his liaison between the US and Norwegian investigations. Not only does Johanne refuse this request because of their past history, but when Warren instead asks Adam Stubo, Johanne’s husband and a senior policeman, to take the role (no doubt hoping Adam will discuss the case with Johanne and pass on her insights), Johanne tells Adam she and their baby daughter will leave him if he accepts. Adam has no choice but to accept his boss's instruction to accompany Warren. As soon as he does, Johanne takes her baby and goes to the only person she knows will take her in and not ask questions. Her decision brings her right into the centre of events in the most incredible (unlikely) sense, and her skill as a profiler becomes crucial in the hunt for the missing woman.

DEATH IN OSLO is a book that I find hard to assess. On the one hand it is extremely good and had me reading keenly to the end. It is very strong on its analysis of the international political scene and of the motives and modus operandi of the perpetrators. I don’t usually like these “who kidnapped the president?” thrillers but this one is certainly superior, partly because of the author’s confidence in constructing the scenario in all its disparate scenes that slowly come together, and partly because of the attractive character of Helen Bentley and the flashbacks to her campaign and political manoeuvrings. In other ways, however, the plot is unbelievably weak. Without giving away spoilers, the whole book depends on two massive coincidences- where the president goes after her disappearance; and Adam’s closeness to the investigation. As well as this, too many puzzles that the author creates are simply left, not even unanswered, but just ignored. The character of Warren is an enigma – we know he has done something unspeakable to Johanne in the past, but not what. Now he is apparently a close friend of the president – is he in fact a double agent? Is he operating with or against the FBI? Why does he want to work with Adam and then ignore him, regularly disappearing? And, more generally, why is the apparently very persuasive briefing document about the most likely source of threats to the president ignored by the authorities, even though it is on file? And why is the person behind the killing, who obsessively plans for many years and has endless failsafes in place for various aspects of the plans, so casual about how the crucial final piece of information is to be disseminated? (Though this part of the plot does include a lovely character sketch of a widower and his daughters.) And why did the president travel with minimum security against advice?

These and many other issues are left hanging – in addition, the spectre of Wenke Benke (see THE FINAL MURDER) hovers over the novel – yet is not developed. The actions of the president are very hard (impossible, in my case) to comprehend, both before and after her disappearance – too much is simply left unexplained. And although we receive a throwaway piece of vital information about why Johanne hates Warren so much, most of the details are not shared with the readers.

In many respects, DEATH IN OSLO is an tight, convincing and readable thriller with good characterisations (particularly Adam and Johanne), yet in others, it seems incredibly careless – which is incomprehensible to me as I (not the most imaginative of people) can think of several ways in which some of the more implausible elements of the plot could have been made more authentic, and in particular, it isn’t hard to think of how the last part of the puzzle could be made more robust on the part of the bad guys given all their previous careful planning. All in all, I’m left confused as to why some parts of this well-translated book are so good, whereas others have a casually unfinished air to them, leaving the reader feeling a bit cheated, even though the read itself is so exciting.

Death in Oslo has just been reviewed by Karen Meek at Euro Crime.

Penn Cage ist Bürgermeister in Natchez, Mississippi. Um seiner Stadt zu Geld zu verhelfen, hat er auf das Glücksspiel gesetzt. Nun fahren prächtige Dampfschiffe auf dem Fluss, alle zu Kasinos umgebaut. Doch ein Schiff unterscheidet sich von den anderen: die Magnolia Queen, auf der die finanzstärksten Spieler ein- und ausgehen. Ein Freund von Penn Cage hat Beweise, dass an Bord massive Verbrechen verübt werden. Als er kurz darauf brutal ermordet wird, verbeißt Cage sich in den Fall. Bald steht fest: Die Gäste der Magnolia Queen kommen nicht nur wegen des Glücksspiels. Sie wollen Blut sehen - Menschenblut.<

Durante una visita oficial a Noruega, la presidenta de Estados Unidos es secuestrada. Warren Scifford, del FBI, requerirá la ayuda del superintendente de la Policía noruega, Yngvar Stubø, para rastrear cualquier vestigio y peinar centímetro a centímetro el país con el fin de dar con la mandataria. Dada la magnitud del caso, el secuestro despierta intranquilidad a nivel mundial y provoca un sinfín de especulaciones. ¿Podría estar el caso relacionado con los atentados del 11 de septiembre? ¿Existe algún secreto en la vida pasada de la presidenta que la haga vulnerable?

Inger Johanne Vik, quien fuera profiler del FBI, se ve involucrada en la investigación. La relación entre ella y Stubø no está en su mejor momento y la aparición de Scifford -con quien mantuvo una relación en el pasado- no hace sino agravar la situación.

Anne Holt aborda temas de actualidad internacional en una trama de ritmo vertiginoso en esta tercera entrega de la serie protagonizada por la pareja de investigadores Vik y Stubø.

En la ciudad de Oslo, una conocida presentadora de televisión aparece asesinada en su domicilio. El superintendente Yngvar Stubø y la que fuera profiler del FBI Inger Johanne Vik son requeridos para llevar a cabo la investigación. Pareja tanto en la vida real como en la profesional, Stubø y Vik se muestran reticentes a llevar el caso ya que acaban de ser padres; sin embargo, se ven forzados a aceptarlo dada la naturaleza del mismo.

Todo apunta a un asesino en serie de gusto perverso que se deleita escenificando sus crímenes. Mientras Stubø se vuelca en el análisis meticuloso de los detalles que rodean cada crimen, Vik ahonda en una teoría que coge fuerza a medida que traza el perfil del presunto asesino; la posible conexión entre los hechos presentes y su pasado como miembro del FBI.