So about a month ago, when I was looking for something to read that didn’t concern itself with hordes of zombies and or the living dead in the big box book retailer I happened to glance over at the Sci-Fi section and see this wonderfully packaged series of books by author Jeff Somers, they had a smart design and yeah as shallow as it sounds, I look for that sort of thing when I purchase a book. Because you can at times- judge a book by its cover. Presentation is over half the product, and yeah, OK, I have been burned before by the way something has so handily caught my eye on the shelf.

Seeing that it was put out by Orbit books, who also put out Feed by Mira Grant, one of my 2010 top picks for Zombie reading, I was intrigued enough to purchase The Electric Church.

CRYSTAL RAIN is the debut novel by author Tobias S. Buckell about John deBrun, a fisherman who had lost his memories, who becomes embroiled in a conflict to save Nanaganda against the bloodthirsty Azteca.

I have to admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked this up, because the title and the cover art totally threw me. Billed as science fiction, I was surprised to see a swashbuckling guy with a hook holding a gun on an airship. Then I started reading CRYSTAL RAIN, and I was immediately hooked. In my mind, CRYSTAL RAIN accomplishes what I like the most about the science fiction genre. CRYSTAL RAIN explores the consequences of advancements in technology on both the environment and the culture, but it does it in a way that’s integrated with the story, the world and the characters.