REVIEW: Empire State

I can't explain why I was so excited about EMPIRE STATE. Perhaps it's because I write superhero fiction and was elated to see someone else writing it. Perhaps it's because of the gorgeous cover.

I don't know.

I pre-ordered the book for my Kindle and waited eagerly until it was auto delivered on December 27th. It didn't take me long to finish it.

EMPIRE STATE is the debut novel from Adam Christopher published by Angry Robot Books. Adam was kind enough to submit to one of my "Take Five" interviews, which you will find at the end of this review.

First of all, I expected superheroes from EMPIRE STATE. And while the book includes superheroes, they're not the primary focus. The novel is a "mash-up" of various genres. Yet, at its heart, it's a noir/murder mystery with a lot of pulpy sci-fi thrown in for good effect.

EMPIRE STATE tells the story of detective Rad Bradley, your typical hard-drinking, trenchcoat-wearing private eye. When a mysterious woman comes to Rad's office and pleads with him to take on a missing persons case, Rad accepts. What follows is a trippy journey involving parallel worlds, superheroes, cults, robots, Prohibition-era New York, an undefinable "Enemy," and a doomsday plot.

Rad, you see, lives in the Empire State, a dark, atmospheric take on New York City. No one leaves the Empire State. Ever. It's always wartime, the city's always foggy and dark, and nothing seems to add up. Of course, Rad doesn't realize this until he begins investigating the case. He encounters his own doppleganger, travels to the "real" New York, and discovers the truth about the Empire State: it exists, but it shouldn't.

Turns out Rad is an echo of someone else...just like the Empire State is an echo of the "real" New York. Now, someone wants to destroy the bridge linking the two realities, an act that could destroy the Empire State, New York, and the world. Rad resolves to stop it, although it becomes abundantly clear that he can't trust anyone (not even himself!).

The tension builds throughout the book as the scope of the mystery becomes clearer. Rad encounters robots, great airships called ironclads, a strange cult leader, and two rocket-powered superheroes.

And, just when you think you and Rad have it all figured out, it turns out you don't.

Because nothing is ever as it seems in the Empire State.

The book shoots high and hits most of its targets. It's by no means perfect, but I don't think I've ever encountered a perfect novel. I found it fun, engaging, and nostalgic. I think it will appeal to fans of pulpy detective stories, science fiction lovers, and open-minded mystery lovers.

LOVED
-Superheroes. With rocket boots.
-Thugs. With gas masks.
-atmospheric take on NYC via Empire State is terrific; both worlds are tied together but remain distinct
-good building of mystery and satisfying reveal
-a few nice little "nods" here and there to other works via locations and characters' names
-really liked the character of the Captain
-no one in the book is particularly trustworthy; readers should be prepared for a bounty of twists and double crosses
-fun, genre-bending, page-turning read

DIDN'T LOVE
-the main "villain" seems to, in some ways, come out of left field
-some readers will be left scratching their heads at the origins of the Fissure and some of the inconsistencies between characters and their parallel universe alter egos
-things get a little convoluted toward the end
-be prepared for much "sniggering" -- although the word is not used excessively, I encountered it enough times that it stuck in my mind

THE VERDICT

EMPIRE STATE reaches the rarefied air of Field of Dreams on the Ray Liotta Quality Meter (a brief explanation of the Ray Liotta Quality Meter).

QUESTION: It's hard to pin down a genre for EMPIRE STATE because there are a lot of different elements woven throughout the book. Where would you place it?

ADAM CHRISTOPHER: I think it's a science fiction noir, but it has elements of steampunk and fantasy too. But the central concept is science fiction - it might be wooly, fantastical, unscientific science fiction, but that still counts!

QUESTION: I'm fascinated by parallel universes, and I don't think I'm giving much away by saying you juggle two distinct "worlds" in this book. What attracts you to parallel realities?

ADAM CHRISTOPHER: Parallel universes are a fascination for me too - I love the idea that there are other realities with an infinite number of possibilities. Every day we make decisions and have thoughts that take us down one path - but what of the alternatives? I my love for alternate realities actually came from Doctor Who, originally. I was introduced to this series when I was 7 and New Zealand television was starting a big repeat run, starting with the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee. In one of his stories, Inferno, he travels sideways in time to an alternate version of Britain, where the Nazis won the Second World War and all his friends from UNIT are fascists.

Parallel universes are certainly a recurring theme in my work! Places that are the same, but not - here, but not here. I love that kind of concept!

QUESTION: Superheroes, it seems, LOVE New York (or some version of it). What made it the perfect setting for the novel?

ADAM CHRISTOPHER: There were a couple of reasons - I wanted to write a period detective piece and include Prohibition, so I knew it needed to be set in a big, familiar American city. New York in the 1930s was also the birthplace of modern superhero comics, so the two ideas came together and New York it was!

Plus New York is so familiar and iconic, and I love the state's nickname - the Empire State. It seems so grand and mysterious... and it makes a great name for a novel!

QUESTION: Detective Rad Bradley is the heart of the book. How did he develop throughout your writing process?

ADAM CHRISTOPHER: I was lucky with Rad - he appeared, pretty much fully formed, before I even started thinking about the book. The name came from a mistyped Amazon search - I was looking for Ray Bradbury, but as soon as I saw the typo I had this image of a tough private detective, maybe an ex-boxer who's a little older and out of shape. But someone tough, hardboiled, loyal, who would fight for what he thinks is right.

He was a lot of fun to write! I must say I feel sorry for him a little - the things he has to go through! His world is turned upside down and inside out in the course of the book!

QUESTION: What are some of the books/movies that influenced the feel of EMPIRE STATE?

ADAM CHRISTOPHER: I'm a big comics fan and obviously Empire State owes a lot to that - particularly the work of Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, two fantastic writers who have worked in both superhero and crime genres (incidentally, the two genres I think work best in comics). There's a lot of classic detective fiction in there too - the likes of Raymond Chandler, etc. In fact, I see Empire State as sort of "Raymond Chandler meets The Rocketeer in Gotham City," which is a little long for an elevator pitch, but seems to sum it up quite well!

BONUS QUESTION: What's your next project? What are you working on at the moment?

ADAM CHRISTOPHER: My second novel, Seven Wonders - a big, spandex-clad superhero epic, is out in September 2012. Other than that, I have a number of other projects on the go, so we'll have to see - more information when I have it!

EMPIRE STATE is available at most major retailers and e-tailers, including Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. You can also get it through the publisher, Angry Robot

Follow Adam on Twitter @ghostfinder

You can read Adam's musings on his blog HERE

I bought and read the Kindle version for this review and conducted the interview through email. Special thanks to Adam Christopher for his time!

Coming Soon to the Blog

I finished Empire State from Angry Robot Books last week and have written my review. I'm waiting to hear back from author Adam Christopher, who was kind enough to grant me an interview. When he gets back to me, I'll post my review for Empire State and talk superheroes, noir, and more with Mr. Christopher.

Anatomy of a Small Press Book Deal

I've signed a contract with Candlemark & Gleam for my book I, Crimsonstreak. This is a small press, a relatively new one, but they've already released some tremendous books (check out Erekos and Broken). When I say tremendous, I mean tremendous, and Publishers Weekly agrees.

The purpose of this post is to illustrate how this book deal happened, how fate intervened at just the right moment, and how a rookie writer with a few short stories under his belt hit the right note with an up-and-coming publisher.

This novel is actually my second attempt at writing a book. My first, a lovely project called Seven, began in 2005. I finished it in a flurry over several days while trying to make the deadline for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. That was in 2007, the inaugural year for the contest.

That book had no shot. Seriously. It still exists--I've done some revisions--but Seven is in serious need of polish. Actually, probably a complete rewrite is in order. I'll get to that...someday.

Part I: The Birth of I, Crimsonstreak

I, Crimsonstreak started simply with the title Hero. It was my attempt to write a superhero book. The original file is still hanging around on my hard drive and clocks in at a meaty 55,000 words. I started it in October 2007, shortly after submissions opened for the Amazon contest.

The first draft came fairly quickly. The book uses a first-person narrative and the voice embodies my own with a heckuva lot more snark. Because the character, initially, mirrored me in many ways, the writing flowed very easily for that first draft. They were comfortable shoes, to say the least.

In 2008, the book's title became I, Crimsonstreak. I experimented with making my own cover (all attempts were poor efforts) and then had an idea to add "meta-fiction" to the book. These were newspaper articles, character profiles, journal entries, and other fictionalized writings meant to give the world a more "lived in" feel. More revisions followed and I decided it was time to query.

I began that long and frustrating process in 2009, when I didn't know anything about publishing (as opposed to today, when I kind of think I know something about publishing).

You'll probably be shocked to know those queries weren't well-received. The pitches were bad (I looked up some old emails and cringed) because I spent five minutes writing them. I described the length in terms of Microsoft Word pages instead of actual word count (all together now: forehead slap!).

I moved on to another project. The sentiment in publishing is that if you can't sell your book, you write another and keep writing until you sell something. Some authors get frustrated, give up, and never reach this point. I was too young and idealistic to give up, so I churned out a couple other projects, while Crimsonstreak sat on the ol' hard drive, untouched, unloved, and full of untapped potential.

The market wasn't ready for a superhero book, I told myself. Unless you had a licensed Marvel/DC character, most superhero novels were doomed to fail. Even the licensed tie-in books, it seemed, weren't all that well received.

So what did I do?

I wrote another superhero book titled The Franchise, which I felt was my best effort. I polished and polished and polished that one before attending my very first writing conference, the Midwest Writers Workshop in summer 2010. I pitched my book to an agent, and even though he didn't represent the genre, he had a few kind things to say and suggested I keep plugging away. I ended up informally pitching that book to another agent, who requested the full manuscript. She eventually passed, but I was gaining confidence.

Part II: Let's Get Digital, Digital

Flash-forward to 2011.

Ebooks, once thought to be a fringe dalliance for readers daring enough to buy a Kindle, exploded. Like, Death Star-at-Yavin exploded. Self-publishing, it seemed, was the way to go.

Perhaps it is.

With stories of J.A. Konrath, Amanda Hocking, and John Locke dominating writing and publishing circles, I thought it was time to dive in. I bought a Kindle, learned about ebook formatting, Smashwords, and Amazon's Kindle platform.

My thought was to take I, Crimsonstreak, give it to my beta readers, design a cover (my attempts were much better as my photo-editing skills improved), and then self-pub it. Just to see the process, just to go through it. If I was going to be a writer, I needed to know where writing was going and it was obvious ebooks were driving sales. Jane Friedman, an advocate of digital publishing and frequent guest at the Midwest Writers Workshop, saw it coming, even though a lot of people were skeptical.

The book went through an intensive, two-month rewrite/revision. By the time I was finished, what was once a 55,000-word book now had 96,000 words. It felt better, more rounded, more professional. I became excited about the book again, but I knew it was going to be a tough sell for agents/editors.

I, a debut writer with a few obscure short stories to my name, wanted to pitch a superhero novel.

I had made the decision, with no resources, no connections, and no guidance, to self-publish.

This was going to happen.

Then, Twitter stepped in.

Part III: The Twitter Imperative

I was late to Twitter. If you're a writer, get on it. Now. Don't stop, don't think about it. Bookmark this post or open a new browser tab and register NOW.

I'm not going to guarantee that tweeting will get your book published, but that's how circumstances worked out for me. Some people are even luckier...like Adam Christopher, a UK writer "discovered" on Twitter. You should follow @ghostfinder because I think his debut novel Empire State by Angry Robot Books is gonna be HUGE. He writes superhero stories, too...and his success helped me realize that maybe my superhero novel could go somewhere. (DISCLAIMER: I do not know Adam Christopher personally, but I follow him and occasionally respond to his tweets)

In May, I started following David Rozansky, the editor of Flying Pen Press and a very engaging Twitter user with more than 6,000 followers. Within a week of following his tweets, I found out about #bookmarket, a weekly Twitter chat about books, publishing, writing, and marketing.

Sometimes reticent about engaging people I don't know, I dove in and asked a simple question during the chat on May 12: what genre does a superhero novel fall in?

The answers were all over the board. I didn't expect that, although I should have. Fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, war, crime fic, detective stories, noir...the "superhero" genre is multifaceted.

One tweet came from Candlemark & Gleam: "In the case of BROKEN, superhero fic overlaps sci-fi and dystopia. Hit with readers. Love it."

I'd never heard of Candlemark & Gleam. I'd never heard of Broken. C&G is a small publisher operating out of Vermont specializing in spec fic/sci-fi. The book Broken by Susan Jane Bigelow is a novel with superhero elements.

And then, this tweet:

Boom.

Just like that, I went from "I'll just self-publish this unpublishable book" to "let's give them a try."

There are authors who will say this was the wrong move; that I should self-publish. Maybe they're right.

But I'm just a guy with Twitter and a blog. I put some short stories up on the Kindle/Smashwords platform, and they didn't do particularly well (caveat: I didn't exactly promote them, either). I wasn't confident that putting Crimsonstreak in the market and trying to do it ALL by myself was the way to go. I wanted a partner; I wanted someone to help guide me through this process.

I gambled on Candlemark & Gleam in hopes they would gamble on my novel.

But I wasn't ready quite yet.

Part IV: Pounding it into Submission

All this was happening as I was trying to sharpen the book. With help from one of my beta readers, I was already elbow-deep in crafting a better I, Crimsonstreak. I killed off a character when we realized this was a fitting part of a character arc. I worked to tone the voice of the main character and bring consistency to some of his actions. I even added some of the extra content in the back of the book.

Before I submitted to Candlemark & Gleam, I wanted everything to be pitch-perfect.

I'm fortunate, you see, because C&G has an open submissions policy. I don't have an agent. It's not because I don't want one, I just don't have one. My attempts to find one didn't meet with success, so C&G's open submissions policy was a godsend. The pieces were falling in place:

1) Open submissions policy
2) Sci-fi/speculative fiction
3) Interest in superheroes
4) Previously published superhero book

C&G hit all the check boxes.

Publishing is a game of Battleship. You call out "F3" and hope for a hit. Most of the time, you're rewarded with a white peg. Even though the publisher fit my material perfectly, the chance of scoring a "hit" seemed very low. Still, I was hoping for a red peg.

A week after the Twitter chat, after looking up information about Candlemark & Gleam, I took the plunge. This all came after an intensive revision of the whole book and another round of re-polishing the first 50 pages.

On May 18, I unleashed I, Crimsonstreak on the publisher with a rather enthusiastic and (embarrassingly) long cover letter recounting our brief Twitter conversation and the required table of contents, synopsis, and 50-page sample.

A week later, on May 25, I received a request for the full manuscript.

Finished, right? End of story!

(laughs) No. Not at all.

Part V: Wait for it...Wait for it...

Email and Twitter move quickly.

People don't.

It's not a failing of human beings, but it is a reality. Editors are juggling several projects and several authors. They have other submissions to read and evaluate. Your submission is just another in their Infinite Pile of Novel Ideas.

It takes time to read a book. I'm a fast reader, but it still can take a while with a job, family commitments, writing time, blogging, etc. So I knew it'd be a little bit before the editor responded with a decision on my book.

I kept writing short stories, tweeting, and blogging, but my thoughts were focused on the excruciating wait. Do they like it? Do they hate it? Were the first 50 pages full of promise, only for the last 350 to be a letdown? Is the story told skillfully enough?

I have two email accounts; one for personal use and one for my authorial pursuits. These are, of course, connected to my smartphone, which beeps/vibrates every time I get a new message. Every Amazon.com offer, every email (be it from AMC Theatres, O'Charley's, Logan's Roadhouse, Facebook, Twitter, Barnes & Noble, my parents, or someone else) was an exercise in "is this THE email?"

Nearly two months passed before I had an answer.

On July 19, at 9:49 p.m., editor Kate Sullivan emailed her response.

Part VI: A (Conditional) Victory

I, Crimsonstreak, it turned out, was a "go."

Candlemark & Gleam wanted it, but the editor had a couple of changes she wanted me to make before issuing a contract.

The edits seemed reasonable enough and I had two options: do them "on spec" or with a conditional contract.

Since I was already terrified with the prospect of having a contract at all, I agreed to do the revisions on spec (this means there's no contract, just the understanding that if I made the edits and they met the publisher's approval, a contract would follow). These were in no way major changes. One of the requested changes involved the supplementary material, which my beta readers and I kind of "glossed over" during our extensive revisions of the main narrative. Another was a character who didn't quite "click" in its current form.

I told the editor my re-edits would be quick and painless...and I was telling the truth. I wasn't being asked to rewrite the whole novel or completely change the plot; I was being asked to tweak a character and the supplemental meta-fiction. The editor even offered a suggestion for the minor character in question. I could do this, competently, within a week or two.

On July 29, I sent my revisions.

Two days later, the editor responded that she was swamped and warned it could be a little while before she would be able to reread the manuscript (apparently, it was some crap about how they had "other authors" to work with /sarcasm).

Teeth-gnashing, excitement, and anticipation followed.

About a month later, on August 28, I had my final, final, final answer.

Candlemark & Gleam liked the edits and offered me a contract:

My book I, Crimsonstreak is due out May 2012 from Candlemark & Gleam! I can't tell you how excited I am!

You can bet I'll keep you updated on everything as the book takes shape.