Trace

Trace
by Sam Starbuck

Colin Byrne is a pickpocket, an artist, and an occasional consultant for the police. He’s also an ex-felon, an initiate into the feral, unspoken magic that only prisoners know: how to vanish, how to tell fortunes, how to steal souls. Now the man who put him in prison wants him to return to Railburg State Correctional Facility to help investigate a case.

Some things at Railburg haven’t changed. His protégé Noel is still the best ink artist in the prison, and their mentor Gutierrez still talks to God. The gangs are still the ones with all the power. But some things are different: there’s a young Blood named Laney who sees demons, and an inmate Colin helped to imprison is poisoning Railburg’s food. With mysterious forces aiming to incite a prison riot and the Aryan Brotherhood constantly harassing Laney, Colin has bigger problems than the one he went to Railburg to solve…

Oh, Sam Starbuck. My man-crush for your writing is truly pathetic. As soon as Sam announced that Trace was officially published, I grabbed that sucker and started reading.

Of course, it’s taken me ages to write this review because I seem to be incapable of gathering coherent thoughts about books in a timely manner. Trust me, I tore through this thing the day I downloaded it. I love Sam’s books.

I have a particular weakness for magical elements in real world type settings, which I feel like I’ve been mentioning a lot lately, and Trace is a world that I’ve never seen before. It isn’t based in the sort of fantasy setting that I’m used to. It’s not faeries and wizards and all that jazz. The magic in this story is gritty and fascinatingly modern. It’s prison magic and city street magic and unexplained phenomenon established in post-industrial mythos. The majority of this book takes place within a prison, but the world of the novel feels much more expansive. It’s one that I would be interested in exploring more, especially in the city where the mojo is less expected and more strange to the characters. I don’t expect anyone to actually write any more in that universe, but I would definitely be on board if they did.

Of course, the characters in this book are spectacular. Sam has a very particular way of writing characters in such a way that they feel like the best things about real people. Not actual real people, because I don’t think real people end up being this interesting when you look this closely into events in their lives, but the kind of fictional reality that you feel in a Neil Gaiman or John Green novel -- the idealized personhood. Colin and Joseph are great leads and the mojo crew in Railberg are the kind of fantastic supporting leads that you want to learn more about.

And because these are such fantastic characters in a world of magical realism, I found myself unable to predict the outcome of the story. That is a huge pull for me because I do tend to gravitate to long series of books and, in series like that, patterns of storytelling become fairly predictable. I’m always excited to get pulled into a story that I absolutely cannot predict.

If you are a fan of stories with magical elements in real world-like settings, I’d definitely suggest looking this one up. .PDF copies of Sam’s books are free to download and read, but if you do read this and enjoy it, I would urge you to buy either the epub copy or the physical copy. All the information you need can be found at Extribulum.

Charitable Getting

Charitable Getting
by Sam Starbuck

Charity in the twenty-first century is a game. The players are artists, salesmen, and idealists, all working together to get something for nothing. The goal is to raise the money; the trick is to keep it coming.

At the center of the game stands Bo Sparks, charismatic CEO of SparkVISION Consulting, which runs campaigns and offers support for the charities under its care. Surrounded by the wealthy and the desperate, Sparks just wants to do a little good in the world.

Journalist Tanya Montray has a different goal. She’s certain that SparkVISION employs Non Prophet, a popular and controversial blogger. She’s determined to uncover him, but if he’s an employee of SparkVISION there could be trouble ahead.

And then there’s Trent Byron, head of the oldest charity in Chicago, who has some issues with the way Bo Sparks does business and isn’t afraid to play hardball.

Sex scandals, embezzlement, gossip, clandestine love affairs, and one misplaced cake: it’s all in a day’s work for SparkVISION.

I feel like I don’t need to say any more that that. What more could you ask for in a book?

I couldn’t put this one down either. After finishing Nameless, I was ridiculously excited to pick this one up. It’s the one that folks at Sam Starbuck’s blog reference often because of Sam’s actual life as a receptionist in Chicago and the oddities he encounters in his day to day life.

This book was even better than I expected it to be. I’m not sure whether that was because I could see Sam’s blogged life weaved into this story or what, but like Nameless, I was just absolutely drawn into the world he shows us. I couldn’t put this down.

Definite recommendation from me on this one. Pick this one up.

Digital Copy
Physical Copy


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Nameless

Nameless
by Sam Starbuck

Christopher, the only bookseller in the small farm town of Low Ferry, lives an uneventful life -- until one day he encounters a shy newcomer named Lucas, and accidentally sells him the wrong book. What follows is a journey for both men, in vastly different ways, set against the strange, ritualistic, magic backdrop of a midwestern winter. A tale about the masks people wear and a meditation on the power of magic, Nameless revels in the simple pleasure of storytelling.

It seems ridiculous that I waited until now to pick this up. I mean, I’ve been obsessively reading and rereading Sam’s fanfiction for a few years now. Why didn’t I buy this immediately?

I have no idea. But I can tell you this- I remembered last weekend that Sam allows for free digital downloads of his books and that the .pdfs can be read on my Kindle, so I downloaded Nameless.

I could not put it down. In fact, I set aside the last book in The Lost Years of Merlin – the book I reread a whole series for – to finish Nameless. As I finished reading the last sentence, I was getting up to buy physical copies of both this book and Charitable Getting. My order was in before my Kindle even switched itself off.

I don’t know why I went into this with the unreasonable expectation that I wouldn’t enjoy Sam’s original fiction as much as his fanfiction. It was irrational and nonsense and I’m ashamed of that tiny bit of my brain that had reservations about picking this up. And I’m so glad that little part of my brain was wrong.

Nameless is an amazing book. It builds the world in Low Ferry so subtly that by the time you realize that it’s drawing you in, it’s too late. You’re already trapped and so invested in what’s happening that you resent every moment you have to spend away from the story. It becomes a compulsion follow the tale to its end.

It’s been a very long time since I last felt so compelled by a book. I’m in awe at Sam’s talent.

So, yes, I definitely recommend this book. Vehemently. If you’re even the slightest unsure, click the link below for the .pdf version of it, but I urge you to buy the physical copy to support Sam. This will be a book to hold on to and reread repeatedly and Sam deserves whatever profit these book sales can give him.


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