C. Alex Smith's Blog

An Arctic Climate Fiction Boiling Over with Tension For decades the sea ate the land, causing the collapse of human society. In the absence of governance, humans turned to new mind-numbing drugs, human experimentation, and bloodshed.  Lots of bloodshed.  What survives from those days is a disease nicknamed “the breaks,” a universal hatred for the survivors of The Hive Project, and Qaanaaq–home to a melting pot of a million refugees. Qaanaaq is a new city built on oil rig scaffolding over the deep waters of the Arctic north of Iceland and east of Greenland. It sits over a geothermal vent which warms the city. Glaciers provide fresh water and human waste is cycled into methane that lights its lamps. Currently, it's struggling against an epidemic of the breaks, a disease that fills the victim’s heads with the memories of its previous casualties until the sick lose themselves in hallucinations and madness. A survivor of the Hive Project has just arrived in Qaanaaq. Unaware of th...

Canailles Commit a Wicked Caper Leigh Bardugo’s characters are as layered and complex as her worldbuilding. This set of books takes place in Ketterdam, a city of canals, immigrants, mob bosses, gambling, human trafficking, and thieves—the Las Vegas of the Grishaverse. Just like Las Vegas, it’s populated by characters with deep history (baggage). Kaz “Dirty Hands” Brekker has a reputation for getting the job done, no matter how illegal. He does this by scouting out the best talent in the city. Inej was chosen because she was raised in a Suli circus to be their knife throwing and acrobatic act. Now she works as Kaz’s body guard and spy. Jesper is a sharp-shooter with a gambling problem and a secret. Nina can crush a man’s heart by looking at him, but she can also heal and alter your appearance. Wylan has skill with explosives. And Matthais was a member of the drüskelle (or witch killers) until he fell in love with Nina. But is his love strong enough to make him betray his beloved nation ...