A couple of bits of news...

A couple of press releases came through that I thought you might find interesting. Check em' out,

TOR UK DRM-FREE EBOOKS NOW AVAILABLE FROM TORBOOKS.CO.UK
 

From today (Graeme Note: I actually got the email yesterday but the 'Mockingbird' review took pride of place...), Tor UK, Pan Macmillan ’s science fiction and fantasy imprint, has made its ebooks DRM-free and available to purchase from Torbooks.co.uk and Panmacmillan.com, as well as through other retailers. In a move announced earlier this year, Tor UK has joined sister company Tor Books in New York in removing Digital Rights Management from all its titles so that once you purchase a Tor book, you can download it as many times as you like, on as many ereaders as you like.

“We believe that making our Tor ebooks DRM-free is the best for our readers, allowing you to use legitimately-purchased ebooks in perfectly legal ways, like moving your library from one ereader to another,” says Jeremy Trevathan, Publisher at Pan Macmillan . “We understand that DRM can make your ebooks less easy to read. It also makes building and maintaining your digital library more complicated. For these reasons, we are committed to remaining DRM-free.”

 

The news that Tor UK ebooks are now DRM-free has been met by readers, authors, bloggers and journalists with lots of enthusiasm and support:

 

China Miéville called the decision ‘a game changer’

 

‘The decision by Tor Books to ditch digital rights management signals the beginning of the end of the ebook format wars’ Cory Doctorow writing in the Guardian

 

‘DRM hasn't stopped my books from being out there on the dark side of the internet. Meanwhile, the people who do spend money to support me and my writing have been penalised for playing by the rules. The books of mine they have bought have been chained to a single e-reader, which means if that e-reader becomes obsolete or the retailer goes under (or otherwise arbitrarily changes their user agreement), my readers risk losing the works of mine they've bought. I don't like that. So the idea that my readers will 'buy once, keep anywhere,' makes me happy’ John Scalzi

As someone who is only just starting to get into e-books this is great news for me and might (just might) persuade me to invest in a reader that's bigger than my phone, we'll see.

Scott K Andrews signing 'School's Out Forever' at Forbidden Planet

SCOTT K ANDREWS will be signing SCHOOL’S OUT FOREVER (ABADDON) at The Forbidden Planet Megastore on Friday 7th September from 6:00 to 7:00pm. “After the world died we all sort of drifted back to school. After all, where else was there for us to go?” 

Lee Keegan’s fifteen. If most of the population of the world hadn’t just died choking on their own blood, he might be worrying about acne, body odour and girls. As it is, he and the young Matron of his boarding school, Jane Crowther, have to try and protect their charges from cannibalistic gangs, religious fanatics, a bullying prefect experimenting with crucifixion and even the surviving might of the US Army.

Welcome to St. Mark’s School for Boys and Girls...

A signing that's on a Friday (Thursdays really don't work for me anymore)? I reckon you might just see me there. I did have issues with the books (review, review and review) but I can't deny that they were all a lot of fun. You could do a lot worse than pick them up :o) 

'Mockingbird' - Chuck Wendig (Angry Robot)

If you’ve been around these parts for a while then you’ll know that I have a problem with about ninety percent of Urban Fantasy that’s on the shelves at the moment. This is probably why I don’t read ninety of percent of Urban Fantasy that’s on the shelves at the moment… :o) That other ten percent though… There’s some amazing stuff hidden on those shelves if you have the time to go and look for it. Chuck Wendig has already written one of those books and another one is set to be released very soon (late August or early September depending which side of the Atlantic you’re on).

I’ve been a fan of Wendigs work since the brutal ‘Double Dead’ came my way and ‘Blackbirds’ took things to another level entirely. You can read my review Here or run your eyes over a couple of choice paragraphs just below,

‘I’m hard pressed to remember any other book that I’ve read where death haunts the pages in the way it does here. Death is quite literally everywhere; whether it’s in the bleak landscape Miriam walks through, the hearts (and ultimate fates) of the people she meets and Miriam herself. ‘Blackbirds’ is a short read, clocking in at two hundred and eighty seven pages, but it’s a book where the subject matter makes the book feel that little bit heavier in your hands.’

‘The guy has only written two books and already I can’t get enough. If you’re after some urban fantasy that is by no means typical then ‘Blackbirds’ is probably already on your wish list. For everyone else, give it a go anyway and have your mind blown. Wendig takes you on a journey, down the forgotten highways of America, that you won’t soon forget.’

You can imagine my reaction when ‘Mockingbird’ turned up at the door… :o)

I read a few pages and then I couldn’t stop reading until there were no pages left to read. Chuck Wendig has only gone and done it again with a book that, for my money, eclipses its predecessor.

Blurb copied and pasted once again as it’s ‘nap time’ and I need to shave seconds, off writing this, wherever I can!

Miriam is trying. Really, she is.

But this whole "settling down thing" that Louis has going for her just isn't working out. She lives on Long Beach Island all year around. Her home is a run-down double-wide trailer. She works at a grocery store as a check-out girl. And her relationship with Louis--who's on the road half the time in his truck--is subject to the piss and vinegar Miriam brings to everything she does.

It just isn't going well. Still, she's keeping her psychic ability--to see when and how someone is going to die just by touching them--in check. But even that feels wrong somehow. Like she's keeping a tornado stoppered up in a tiny bottle.
Then one day she touches a woman, in a supermarket, and finds that the lady has exactly three minutes to live. That’s when it all starts to fall apart again.
If you haven’t already read ‘Blackbirds’ then you really need to give a go before moving onto ‘Mockingbird’. Not only is it a great story in its own right but there’s a lot of back-story that you will want to get caught up on first. Miriam is just one of those characters that you will find yourself wanting to know everything about. A dark and sometimes nasty character but nonetheless compelling for that. A character who really wants to do the right thing but whose innate viciousness (lashing out against a world that has treated her very badly) will lead her down dark paths. That’s what Wendig brings to the table here and, once again, the results make for stunning reading.

What I would say though is that Wendig isn’t really doing anything that he didn’t do in ‘Blackbirds’. Same character, same relationships, same themes. Once again, we’re headed deep into ‘If it ain’t broke, why fix it?’ territory… It made for a difficult review to write, what with me not wanting to repeat myself (just click on that link if you haven’t already)…
I’m in two minds here to be honest. ‘Mockingbird’ does repeat itself but gets over that for reasons that I’ll go into in a bit. It’s something that you should be aware of though. Having said that, the signs are that the final volume, ‘The Cormorant’, should take things in a whole new direction entirely so I’m cool with things headed along the same path as before (at least for the moment).

What really saved it for me though, and edged ‘Mockingbird’ past ‘Blackbirds’ in terms of quality, is just how deep Wendig is prepared to go in order to give his readers a story that they will not be able to stop reading, I certainly couldn’t.

If you thought ‘Blackbirds’ was a dark read then I’m giving you advance warning to adjust your expectations accordingly, ‘Mockingbird’ is a whole lot darker. Wendig takes us further into Miriam’s head, showing us just what she is capable of when the chips are down (or when she’s feeling suitably bloody-minded). Miriam isn’t just acting like this for the hell of it either; the mystery that she faces is brimming over with the kind of deaths that even someone like Miriam has never seen. It’s a mystery that Miriam has to solve, especially when it becomes clear that doing so will help her discover her own place in this strange world. I liked that last bit in particular, Wendig’s worldbuilding is so subtle that you won’t even realise its happening but it is and fleshes things out in a most intriguing manner.

Wendig plumbs real depths of bleakness and horror to bring us the world that Miriam must negotiate. It’s a world that we all know is there and one we are secretly glad that we can put down when the book is done; no-one would want to live with what Miriam has to. The way Wendig presents it though makes for nothing short of compelling reading, a book that eclipses ‘Blackbirds’ in its determination to head to new depths for the sake of a good story. Wendig knows that his readers deserve nothing less.

If you’re waiting for ‘Mockingbird’ then take it from me, you’re in for a bit of treat. If you’re not waiting for ‘Mockingbird’, well… you should be.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

Cover Art! 'The Black Mausoleum' (Stephen Deas)

For a whole number of reasons, that were nothing to do with the books themselves, I never got into Stephen Deas' 'A Memory of Flames' books but the blurb for 'The Black Mausoleum' makes it look like a very good place to jump on board. Not only that but the cover art quite literally grabbed me by the eyeballs and demanded that I read a bit more. Check it out and you'll see why,

The resolution isn't brilliant, sorry about that, but I think you can see where I'm coming from here :o) It's not clear who came up with the cover art, not from the book anyway, but it's clear that they are the person to go to if you're after a dragon drawn in all its 'I'm going to eat you puny man-thing' glory. Great stuff.

Here's the blurb for those who are interested. Beware spoilers if you haven't read the first three books either...

Two years have passed since the events of the Order of the Scales. Across the realms, dragons are still hatching. Hatching, and hatching free.

Skorl is an Ember, a soldier trained from birth to fight dragons. He is a living weapon, one-shot only, saturated with enough dragon-poison to bring down a monster all on his own. Misanthrope, violent and a drunk, to fulfil his purpose and slay a dragon, means to be eaten. Now Skorl has a choice: he can hang for his crimes, or he can go with the last of the Adamantine Men, fighting against an enemy he was born to face. Rat is an Outsider. He's on the run and he's stumbled onto something that's going to make him rich beyond all his dreams. It's just a shame that the end of the world has started without him. Kataros is an alchemist, one of the order responsible for keeping the dragons in check. One of the order that has just failed, and disastrously so. 

Two men, one woman. One chance to save the world from a storm of dragons ...

'The Black Mausoleum' is on the 'I'll definitely read this one' pile but, unfortunately, so are around a hundred other books. I'll get to it at some point :o)

‘Blood and Feathers’ – Lou Morgan (Solaris)

Now here’s a book that got a lot of people excited when Solaris announced that it was on its way, me included if I’m being honest. Well, I did get excited but then I stopped to think for a bit and all of a sudden I wasn’t really that excited anymore.
I mean… angels? Everyone knows that angels in Urban Fantasy are just the latest attempt to come up with a different species that does exactly the same thing as vampires and werewolves (and even zombies) have been doing ever since Kelley Armstrong and Laurell K. Hamilton started their series. Did you notice the subtle appearance of ‘Angelic Urban Fantasy’ around about the time that the ‘Twilight’ books were in full swing? I did and it didn’t leave me hoping for much here.

The book still piqued my interest though and it was a Solaris book after all. If I can rely on Solaris for one thing it’s that their Urban Fantasy doesn’t follow the usual lines so I had to give it a shot. I’m really glad that I did. It only took a few pages for ‘Blood and Feathers’ to dispel my fears and it just got better the further along it went. If you’re feeling a little jaded with Urban Fantasy then I highly recommend you pick up ‘Blood and Feathers’ for a read. I think it will be just the tonic that you need.

Blurb copied and pasted, from elsewhere, today. I’ve got about an hour and a half to post this before Hope wakes up from her nap… :o)

Alice isn't having the best of days: she got rained on, missed her bus, was late for work. When two angels arrive, claiming her life so far is a lie, it turns epic, grand-scale worse. The war between the angels and the Fallen is escalating; an age-old balance is tipping, and innocent civilians are getting caught in the cross-fire. the angels must act to restore the balance - or risk the Fallen taking control. Forever. Hunted by the Fallen and guided by Mallory - a disgraced angel with a drinking problem - alice will learn the truth about her own history... and why the angels want to send her to hell. What do the Fallen want from her? How does Mallory know so much about her past? What is it the angels are hiding and can she trust either side? Caught between the power plays of the angels and Lucifer himself, it isn't just hell's demons that Alice will have to defeat...

A book that opens with a giant mouth in someone’s front garden and a man being killed by his own house. If that doesn’t get you interested then I genuinely don’t know what else to say. This is what you can expect from ‘Blood and Feathers’, a dark and compelling read that promises great things for future books. I actually wish it was August 2013 already so I could be reading the next instalment ‘Rebellion’. You’ll feel the same as well once you’ve finished reading.

I’ve just mentioned the impressive hook that Morgan uses to get you reading more and more. Not only is there a mystery to be solved here there are several other, smaller, mysteries tied up in it, all waiting to be solved. In that respect everything is paced almost perfectly; just as you think you’re getting the whole picture you find more pieces of the puzzle that need to be fitted together. The onslaught of angel names made it a little difficult for me to follow at times but it’s worth sticking with for the moment at the end when Morgan hits you with the answers and at least one surprise that I never saw coming.

I wasn’t sure though that Alice was the best person to be taking us through the plot though, at least to start off with. Our heroine knows so little about her origins that her awe, at this new world, can sometimes get in the way. We’re dealing with how she feels about it all, not what is actually happening. The plot isn’t stifled so much as slightly obscured by this but this does change as soon as Alice starts to accept her situation. This is when Morgan starts to throw some really nasty stuff at Alice (a trip into Hell is only the half of it) and she grows a lot in a short space of time. I’ve got a feeling this will continue in ‘Rebellion’, I really hope so.

The war between Heaven and Hell is a ruthless affair and this is made very clear in the frontline soldiers that Morgan sets against one another. There’s no time for romance with civilians here; the angels in particular are so far above humanity that the concept would be alien to them even if they weren’t fighting all the time (something that really makes them stand out on the page). And what a fight… We’re looking at a cold war here that occasionally bursts into life with a vicious heat. No punches are pulled (and I’m thinking of the final chapters here) and there is also a lot of politicking going on in the background. The battle lines may look clear but the cold-bloodedness of the angels leaves you in no doubt that we are the last thing on their minds. There are hidden agendas at play here that I can’t wait to see come to fruition.

So, a debut novel that suffers from a character that is perhaps a little too ‘new’ to be a truly effective narrative voice. When you balance that against the rest of the book though… You can’t really complain too much. ‘Blood and Feathers’ is an awesome read that will have you eagerly awaiting the sequel, just like me.

Nine out of Ten

Which cover would you go for? 'The Dirty Streets of Heaven' (Tad Williams)

I'm a big fan of Tad Williams (still need to read the last two 'Shadowmarch' books but I'm pretty sure it's impossible for him to write a bad book) so I chased down an advance copy of 'The Dirty Streets of Heaven', to the very ends of the earth, just to be sure that I got a copy. Well, I chased it all the way to DAW, in the US, but you know what I mean... :o)
And after all that chasing, a copy of the UK edition arrived in the post this morning. Should have saved myself the bother, and just waited really, shouldn't I? In my defence I was expecting to see 'Dirty Streets' released by Orbit, for some reason, and they'd been awfully quite about it (which they would be, given that it's Hodder who are publishing it over here...)

I'm only going to read one of the two editions (might read one and keep the other) so I thought it would be a good time to run another one of those posts where I show you the US and UK covers and you tell me which one you like the best. That way, both editions get a shot at appearing here (I'm nice like that).

Have some blurb first,

Bobby Dollar is an angel—a real one. He knows a lot about sin, and not just in his professional capacity as an advocate for souls caught between Heaven and Hell. Bobby’s wrestling with a few deadly sins of his own—pride, anger, even lust.

But his problems aren’t all his fault. Bobby can’t entirely trust his heavenly superiors, and he’s not too sure about any of his fellow earthbound angels either, especially the new kid that Heaven has dropped into their midst, a trainee angel who asks too many questions. And he sure as hell doesn’t trust the achingly gorgeous Countess of Cold Hands, a mysterious she-demon who seems to be the only one willing to tell him the truth.

When the souls of the recently departed start disappearing, catching both Heaven and Hell by surprise, things get bad very quickly for Bobby D. End-of-the-world bad. Beast of Revelations bad. Caught between the angry forces of Hell, the dangerous strategies of his own side, and a monstrous undead avenger that wants to rip his head off and suck out his soul, Bobby’s going to need all the friends he can get—in Heaven, on Earth, or anywhere else he can find them.

And here are those covers...

The US Edition

 The UK Edition

The more I do these posts the more I come to realise that the whole 'UK cover art is better than the US covers' is more than a bit of a myth. I mean, look at those two covers. What I like about the US cover is that it's a hell of a lot more honest than the UK cover. 'Dirty Streets' is a story about an angel and the US cover isn't afraid to tell us that. The UK cover though... Clearly designed for the guy on the tube who doesn't want to admit to other commuters that he's reading a fantasy book. It's a cover that emphasizes the detective element of the book over the fantasy stuff and that's fair enough, whatever sells the book I guess. I prefer the up front nature of the US cover though, it has to be said.

That's me and my opinion, what do you think? What cover do you prefer and would you be caught reading the US edition on a packed commuter train? I would :o)

Comments in the usual place please!

P.S. The two editions will be released within about a fortnight of each other in the first two weeks of September. That's close enough for me to start reading my copy now so look out for a review in the next couple of weeks.

A Competition Winner! (Early Evening Edition)

Because it's been a bit of a busy one today... Trying to gently pry Hope loose from the playground equipment (she didn't want to go home...), a spot of house tidying, a visit from my folks (and watching the subsequent Grandparent/Grand Daughter love in...) and then a whole load of job hunting. Yep out of work again and looking for something to pay the bills (although something that I enjoy would be good as well, I know there are jobs like that out there).

A day like today doesn't leave me a lot of time to post but I'm going for it! :o)

Thanks to everyone who entered last weeks competition to win copies of 'Midnight Riot', 'Moon over Soho' and 'Whispers Underground'. One lucky person has some great reading ahead of them and that lucky person was...

April Vrugtman, Florida, USA

Well done April :o) Your books should be on their way to you right now.

A short (but hopefully sweet) one today then. The plan though is to make up for that, over the next few days, with reviews of Chuck Wendig's 'Mockingbird' and Lou Morgan's 'Blood and Feathers' amongst other things; there will more likely than not be a comic book review (either 'The Guv'nor' or 'Morning Glories Vol 3') and some Doctor Who as well. Sounds good to me.

See you tomorrow :o)

Adventures in Second Hand Bookshops (An Occasional Series)…

I always count it a day well spent if I come across a second hand bookshop and get a chance to have a browse on the shelves. If I don’t get that chance then I’ll make a mental note of where I saw the shop and I will remember it the next time I’m anywhere nearby.
I love second hand bookshops (and market stalls) you see, possibly because they are where I found a lot of my holiday reading as a kid. They are the only places where I don’t mind a slightly damp smell in the air, blending with that lovely smell of old books that have taken a break from being owned for a while; just waiting for someone to pick them up and take them home. What I really love though is the fact that I will always find a book that I never knew I was after until I see it there on the shelf.

Friday saw me in ‘The Bookshop on the Heath’, a shop that I kept meaning to go into (I’ve been before and it’s great) but always seemed to be closed whenever I passed. The website will show you that there might not be an awful lot of interest here for someone who likes their speculative fiction. There are only a couple of shelves of sci-fi and we’re talking first edition stuff, quite expensive. Give it a chance though, there’s all sorts of stuff here if you keep looking. The ‘P.G. Wodehouse Shelf’ (if not first edition then very close to it) is like a ready made Christmas List for Sue so I’ll definitely be back to investigate further.

The best bit for me though (and you too if you’re in the area) are the bookshelves just outside the store; the following sentence will tell you why. ‘£1.80 each or three for £5’. It doesn’t get a lot better than that does it? The amount of sci-fi/fantasy outside can vary; on Friday it was just half a bookshelf (I’ve seen two bookshelves jammed full of the stuff previously and that’s quite a lot) but there was still a lot of books to pore over. I didn’t do too badly either, coming home with the following…

Because I should have collected this series when it was all new and easy to get hold of. I’ve got a second chance and I’m not making the same mistake again.

This is ‘Black Library’ fiction before there even was such a thing (published by Games Workshop back in the late eighties/early nineties) and I’m interested to see whether there is any kind of continuity to be seen here. I know a lot of the really old 40K stuff fell foul of canon that was established a lot later on…
I’m also a sucker for Ian Miller’s cover art (having grown up with his ‘Winter of the World’ covers) so I was always going to pick this up.

I’m thinking of making this a semi-regular feature (as I do find myself in a lot of second hand bookshops…) so feel free to leave any recommendations of your own in the comments section below, they might feature in a much larger post here in the future… :o)

Giveaway! 'Blood and Feathers' (Lou Morgan)

In something of a first for this blog, just recently anyway, I've actually finished a book (lucky for me that I already had a few waiting to be reviewed). Go me!
Lou Morgan's debut 'Blood and Feathers' had a few choppy moments but shook them off really easily and ended up being a really absorbing read, I loved it. You'll see my review early next week but in the meantime, how do you fancy winning yourself a copy? Have some cover art and blurb to help make your mind up...

Alice isn't having the best of days: she got rained on, missed her bus, was late for work. When two angels arrive, claiming her life so far is a lie, it turns epic, grand-scale worse. The war between the angels and the Fallen is escalating; an age-old balance is tipping, and innocent civilians are getting caught in the cross-fire. the angels must act to restore the balance - or risk the Fallen taking control. Forever. Hunted by the Fallen and guided by Mallory - a disgraced angel with a drinking problem - alice will learn the truth about her own history... and why the angels want to send her to hell. What do the Fallen want from her? How does Mallory know so much about her past? What is it the angels are hiding and can she trust either side? Caught between the power plays of the angels and Lucifer himself, it isn't just hell's demons that Alice will have to defeat...

Thanks to Solaris, I have two copies of 'Blood and Feathers' to give away here. I should point out right now though that this competition is only open to people living in the UK. 


If you're still reading then you know what to do next. Drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your postal address is. The subject header needs to be 'Blood and Angels'. I'll do everything else ;o)

I'll let this one run until the 12th of August and will aim to announce the winners as soon as possible afterwards.

Good Luck!

‘Dawn of the Dead’ – George Romero & Susanna Sparrow (Sphere)

When I’m working (not at the moment), lunchtimes will invariably see me finding my way to a bookshop where I’ll spend a quiet hour having a browse. I can’t help myself; if there’s a bookshop within fifteen minutes walk then I’ll find it, if there isn’t then I’ll just hop on a tube and find another one. If that doesn’t work then I’ll sit at my desk and pore over Amazon. That’s just the way I am, I love bookshops :o)

Browsing doesn’t normally throw up many surprises I have to say. I read a lot of blogs so know what’s out there (or will be out there) but every so often a book will catch me out. A book like the novelisation of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ for instance. I saw this one in Foyles, on the South Bank, a few weeks ago and found myself thinking, ‘really…?’ It’s an old book, first published in 1979, that has clearly been re-released to take advantage of the love for all things zombie that’s going on right now. If any title deserves that kind of love it’s ‘Dawn of the Dead’, a title that any zombie fan will think of straight away when the conversation arises. But that’s the thing though, it’s the film that springs to mind. Is there any room for a book there? Is there any need for a book there? Or is this re-release there just to cash in?
Those were the thoughts going through my head when I saw the book on the shelf. The foremost thought though was… you guessed it. ‘Wow! Another zombie book and it’s a book of one of my favourite zombie films, I’ve got to read it.’

It’s fair to say that I had mixed thoughts about this book then but there was never any doubt that I’d read it. Having read ‘Dawn of the Dead’ I still have mixed thoughts about it. I might just stick with the film to be honest…

The world is being overrun by zombies and no-one has any idea how to stop them; human nature leads to the collapse of civilisation and the zombies are there to eat whatever is left… Four survivors escape the chaos of Philadelphia and take to the air, eventually finding shelter in a deserted shopping mall. The world outside is a dangerous place though and soon these survivors find that they cannot leave. The mall is a prison and in more ways than one. The outside world hasn’t forgotten the mall though, the undead claw at the doors and other, human, eyes are watching greedily…

Yesterday I spoke about how the ‘Batman’ novelisation was a tough nut to crack as I hadn’t seen the film and couldn’t make the comparison (between the two) that the review needed. No such problems here! It’s been a while since I last watched ‘Dawn of the Dead’ but I’ve seen it enough times to know what I’m talking about. The ‘Dawn of the Dead’ novelisation is fairly faithful to the film (although what was the need to include a cute puppy while all the other animals were left in the pet store…?) but I’m not sure that’s such a good thing…

You see… The thing about the film is once the zombie stuff, at the beginning, is out of the way, not a lot actually happens until the climactic end scenes. Our ‘heroes’ just sit there, that’s the whole point of the film. You get to see them slowly buckle under the pressures of what looked like shelter but has turned out to be a trap. This works on the screen but I’m not so sure that it works on the page. Sparrow makes an attempt to freshen things up by giving the cast a little bit of background that you wouldn’t see in the film. This makes for an interesting slant but wasn’t quite enough to keep me going through the long passages of inactivity. Not a lot happens and that does make the book drag.

Having said all that, you could make an argument that this approach is the whole point of the message behind the book. The survivors are in a prison of their own making, powerless to do anything but ‘shop’ while the world crumbles outside. I would totally agree with this but the fact remains that it works a whole lot better on the screen than it does here. There’s more to look at on the screen but words in a book need to do a lot more, than they do here, to hold interest.

That’s not to say that ‘Dawn of the Dead’ doesn’t do a lot of good stuff though, it does. When it really matters, Sparrow takes Romero’s vision of the zombie apocalypse and really runs with it when it matters the most. The nervous energy running through the TV station (and the clash between logic and human response), the clearing out of the tenement block and those moments at the end where everything comes crashing down. Those moments, as well, where the survivors are trying to make their way through a landscape where zombies really could be anywhere. Sparrow really hits the target here, capturing the bleak spirit of the film and even managing to inject a little of her own voice into the proceedings. I wouldn’t minded have seeing more of the redneck zombie hunters but you can’t have it all when you’re trying to squeeze a film into a limited number of pages.

I still have mixed feelings about ‘Dawn of the Dead’ in this format. It’s a perfectly capable zombie novel (in its own right) that does a good job of giving us another viewpoint on the film. On the other hand, should someone really be able to sleep through the zombie apocalypse (even walls aren't enough to keep the undead out sometimes...)? Our heroes did and there were times when I felt like putting the book down and having a little snooze myself.

Eight out of Ten

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ – Novelisation by Greg Cox (Titan Books)

Before I sat down to write this post, I found myself wondering when I last made it to the cinema. Thank goodness for the blog is all I have to say :o) I had it in mind that the last film I saw was ‘Revenge of the Sith’ but it was actually ‘Iron Man’… way back in 2008. Three years since I’ve been to the pictures? It doesn’t feel right but that’s what the blog is telling me… Babysitting issues make it even more difficult to go these days (although Hope really behaved herself at the Olympics, maybe she’s ready for a film) and that’s why I love movie novelisations. A ‘book of the film’ is never going to beat the film itself but I’ll always take it over not getting any story at all. There’s also something to be said about not having to queue up to read a book (once you’ve bought it) and reading it in your own house without an annoying couple eating loudly and spoiling all the good bits… ;o)

So it was then that I was really pleased to get my hands on a copy of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’. The way things are these days I’m looking at watching this on DVD, in a couple of years time, so was glad to get a chance to read the story in the meantime.
It goes without saying that I’ll be doing my utmost to avoid all spoilers but if you haven’t seen the film yet (I thought it was just me…) then you might want to play it safe and stop reading here. Or not, totally up to you…

It’s been eight years since the Batman was last seen in Gotham City, not that his presence has really been needed with crime in the city at an all time low. That’s all about to change though with the arrival of Bane, a criminal genius on a mission to bring chaos to Gotham City… and more.
Will Batman be tempted out of retirement and, even if he is, will he be able to stop Bane from destroying an entire city…?

Having not seen the film, this review was actually very hard to write. I’d normally judge a book on its own merits but a film novelisation? I think in a situation like this you really need to have seen the film as well; just to be able to tell whether the book has done its job or not. I guess a book can do more than one job though… If this books job was to make me want to go and see the film then it certainly did that.

I started reading ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ a couple of nights ago and finished it the very next morning. Like I said, I can’t compare it to the film but it’s clear that Cox has done very well to inject his work with the raw power and energy of a big screen movie. You have to keep turning the pages; Bane is larger than life and capable of surprising you every time with what he does (I’m thinking of the football stadium…) and how he is constantly one step ahead of everyone. His initial fight with Batman makes for some powerful reading.

The plot itself veers between being absorbing and, erm… not. I enjoyed some of the twists (one of which I should have seen coming but totally didn’t) and I liked the way that Cox takes time to give us a little more insight into each character. Little things like that make this book more than just a ‘book of the film’.

Having said that though… You know how you can really enjoy a film but only bits of it stay in your mind? This novelisation suffers from the same kind of problem. While I enjoyed the main sequences (and the way that it all fits together) I couldn’t really tell you, a few days on, what happened in the lead up to these. If you can’t remember what happens then you have to ask whether those passages were strictly necessary… Is the book possibly aping the film a little too well here…? If it is then it’s not a good thing for a tale told in this format. A movie can afford to lose a little focus while it’s throwing image after image at the viewer; a book needs to be tighter than that to keep the readers attention.

Like I said though, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is an entertaining read as well as one that has me wanting to see the movie on the big screen (we’ll see if that happens). Sometimes, you can’t really ask for a lot more than that. I wish it could have been a little more but I’ll happily settle for what I got.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

This book looks like it could be interesting...

Do you remember my having a tiny rant, way back in January last year, about the Suvudu Writing Contest? I wouldn't blame you if you didn't, it really wasn't much of a rant by internet standards, I'm still more hacked off about not being able to find a decent Pretzel over here *pauses for a wistful moment to remember that Pretzel I had in New York*...

Where was I? Oh yes, I'd forgotten all about the contest until an Advance Copy of 'Bad Glass' arrived in the post a few days ago. Even then, it was only when I read the blurb (last night) that the whole thing clicked for me. Check it out,

 

One of the most hauntingly original dark fantasy debuts in years—perfect for fans of Lost and Mark Danielewski’s cult classic, House of Leaves.

Something has happened in Spokane. The military has evacuated the city and locked it down. Even so, disturbing rumors and images seep out, finding their way onto the Internet, spreading curiosity, skepticism, and panic. For what they show is—or should be—impossible: strange creatures that cannot exist, sudden disappearances that violate the laws of physics, human bodies fused with inanimate objects, trapped yet still half alive. . . .

Dean Walker, an aspiring photographer, sneaks into the quarantined city in search of fame. What he finds will change him in unimaginable ways. Hooking up with a group of outcasts led by a beautiful young woman named Taylor, Dean embarks on a journey into the heart of a mystery whose philosophical implications are as terrifying as its physical manifestations. Even as he falls in love with Taylor—a woman as damaged and seductive as the city itself—his already tenuous hold on reality starts to come loose. Or perhaps it is Spokane’s grip on the world that is coming undone.

Now, caught up in a web of interlacing secrets and betrayals, Dean, Taylor, and their friends must make their way through this ever-shifting maze of a city, a city that is actively hunting them down, herding them toward a shocking destiny.

I've never read 'House of Leaves' although my little brother swears by it. Or at it, I'm never too sure... I've never seen 'Lost' either but there's something about the premise here that really intrigues to me. There also seems to be loads of these 'Cut the Agent out of the loop and send us your manuscripts' competition and I find myself really keen, all of a sudden, to see what the results are like. 'Bad Glass' is as good a place as any to start :o)

'Bad Glass' has a tentative release date of late September, and it's August now, so... I reckon I'll be into this one as soon as I've finished 'Blood and Feathers' (which is getting better with each page, in a good way). Has anyone else read 'Bad Glass' yet?

'Road Rage' - Various (IDW)

I was in Forbidden Planet for something else entirely, the other day (and I got it as well), but was still taken in by the comic 'grab bag' shelves. You know the ones I mean, you buy a bag of comics for a pound and take your chances on what is inside; there'll be at least one decent comic even if the other four are questionable.
In a completely unforeseen turn of events, all four comics were from the same mini-series and they were all great (give or take a little bit of greatness…)

We've all suffered from a bit of road rage haven't we? Even when you’re just the passenger it’s almost impossible not to hurl a few choice expletives in the direction of some idiot driver. Especially at the roundabout by Lewisham Station but that’s another story…

The most iconic road rage story has to be ‘Duel’ with its tale of a travelling salesman being menaced by an unseen lorry driver for reasons that he still doesn’t understand by the end. I saw the film years ago and still have my old VHS copy (possibly the only reason why I still have a video player in the house). It’s awesome viewing every time I see it.
I hadn’t been able to find a short story collection with ‘Duel’ in it (to be fair I probably wasn’t looking that hard) so was doubly pleased to open the bag and find it reproduced in comic book format.

It’s a lovely read (if you can call a horror story that but you know what I mean…) although I do have my reservations. These are mostly round the art; Rafa Garres does a good job of capturing the mood but sometimes the art felt a little rushed to me and I found myself looking for detail that wasn’t there. It looks great on the surface but certain panels don’t stand up to a closer inspection, really annoying when you find yourself drawn in and looking for that detail.

The story itself though, that’s the depth of a tyre tread away from being superb. There’s only so much you can fit into a comic book and I’d say that Ryall does a good job of sticking to the main points in his adapation. It’s not Ryall’s fault at all that my favourite bit (where the truck goes to trash the telephone box with our hero inside it) got cut from the proceedings. I’d been looking forward to it as well…
It’s a gripping adaptation though, no doubt about it. Matheson’s sparse prose could almost be made for this format. Every word counts and I couldn’t stop reading, even though I knew how it would end.

Joe and Stephen King teamed up for the novella ‘Throttle’ which has found itself reproduced here. I’m assuming it has anyway, not sure where else it appears but that’s the impression I got reading the comic. ‘Throttle’ actually kicks this mini-series off but I deliberately read it out of order, I just had to read ‘Duel’ first :o)

I was in two minds about the story to be honest. As a homage it’s a little too obvious for me, especially with the truck. I mean, I get it but it was just a little too full on for me. Where ‘Throttle’ redeemed itself though was in the back story, you get to find out a little more about the lorry drivers motives here and it could have gone either way in terms of the result. Being part of a series and doing that is a risky manoeuvre if you’re sharing space with ‘Duel’.It works though, it really does, especially how it all ties in at the end. I also liked the father/son dynamic that’s going on throughout the story; it added a human element that opened things up in a way that ‘Duel’ perhaps couldn’t.
The artwork is glorious here, a real mix of cool bikers and what happens to them when they meet the road unexpectedly. Kudos to Nelson Daniel for artwork that just glowed on the page…

So… One amazing story that was slightly let down by its art and gorgeous artwork that overshadowed a ‘slightly off’ tale. The overall result balances itself out with a compelling read. If ‘Road Rage’ comes out in trade do yourself a big favour and grab it. I’m so glad that I happened to pick this one up.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

Stephen Baxter signing at Forbidden Planet (London)

From the press release...

STEPHEN BAXTER signing DOCTOR WHO: THE WHEEL OF ICE at the Forbidden Planet London Megastore on Sunday 19th August from 1 – 2pm.

The Wheel. A ring of ice and steel turning around a moon of Saturn, and home to a mining colony supplying a resource-hungry Earth. It's a bad place to grow up. The colony has been plagued by problems. Maybe it's just gremlins, just bad luck. But the equipment failures and thefts of resources have been increasing, and there have been stories among the children of mysterious creatures glimpsed aboard the Wheel.
Many of the younger workers refuse to go down the warren-like mines anymore. And then sixteen-year-old Phee Laws, surfing Saturn's rings, saves an enigmatic blue box from destruction. Aboard the Wheel, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find a critical situation - and they are suspected by some as the source of the sabotage. They soon find themselves caught in a mystery that goes right back to the creation of the solar system. A mystery that could kill them all.

Stephen Baxter is a prolific and well-known SF writer, having won major awards in the UK, US, Germany, and Japan. He has degrees from Cambridge and Southampton and lives in Northumberland with his wife.

I'm half and half over this one. On the one hand... Doctor Who! I can't get enough of the stuff, although watching 'Destiny of the Daleks' three times yesterday, Hope has developed a liking for Daleks, was maybe a little too much even for me...
On the other hand though, Stephen Baxter is all about 'hard sci-fi' (at least as far as I'm aware) and all that stuff goes right over my head. I'm not sure I'm up for a 'hard sci-fi' Doctor Who story. I'll get back to you on that one but maybe I'll see you on the 19th?

So, there's a Sword and Sorcery Genre Spotlight going on...

Not here, although I am reading a lot more of the stuff, over Here :o) It's all geared around Open Road Media re-releasing the 'Brak the Barbarian' stories as ebooks (which I will probably pick up) so you've got things like a mini-documentary about John Jakes and a chance to read his story 'The Girl in the Gem' for free (I never turn down some free reading, you shouldn't either).

There are a lot of other little bits though that make for interesting reading if you're new to the genre or coming back to it. The only thing I'd query is their use of the phrase 'muscular heroes' in the definition... after mentioning heroes such as Elric and the Gray Mouser (neither of whom are particularly muscular, quite the opposite in Elric's case).

That's a minor quibble though, there's a lot of good stuff here if it's raining outside and you're stuck at your desk during lunchtime. Thank me later :o)

The ‘Didn’t get back until midnight…’ Competition Winner’s Post!

Over eighty thousand people went to the Olympic football games last night and after the final whistle, at half nine, they all tried to get into one tube station to catch a train home. It took me an hour and a quarter to get from my seat, in the stadium, to a seat on the train. Some great football and a bacon roll (a really nice one as well) made up for it but, an hour and a quarter… That is why this post hasn’t appeared until the tail end of the day. That and a daughter who just wanted to watch Peppa Pig (although she did say “I want to see the Daleks…”)

Enough of that though. I really need to get on and announce some competition winners before the end of the day :o) Thanks to everyone who entered by the way, even the person who thought that using my email address as a subject header would make her entry stand out. It did but only because I didn’t know what competition she was entering…
Anyway, winners…

‘The Passage’

Joseph A. Gervasi, Philadelphia, USA
Donna Simmonds, Missouri, USA
Charles Fraker, Virginia, USA

‘Kop Killer’

Scott Robinson, Australia
Jannick Verleysen, Belgium
Tvrtko Ivanisevic, Zagreb, Croatia

Nice work there guys :o) Your books will be on their way to you very soon. Better luck next time everyone else. There is another competition on the go right now, scroll down a little and see if it takes your fancy.

So, what else can you expect to see from me this week? Not a clue is the honest answer. A lot of my time will be taken up with job hunting and playing with Hope which doesn’t leave a lot of time for reading. Me being me though, it’s a pretty safe bet that there will be at least one zombie book reviewed this week and I’ve got some comics that I want to talk about as well. It’s all a little bit vague right now but it’s still going to be great. See you tomorrow :o)

Back Tomorrow...

As I'll be spending most of today going back and forth, across London, watching some Olympic events. Well, weightlifting and football but if yesterday's tennis was anything to go by (awesome) it should be a lot of fun.
I still don't think the Olympics should have come to London but even I have to admit that it's a lot of fun now it's here :o)

I'll see you tomorrow when things should hopefully be back to normal here...

Giveaway! 'Midnight Riot', 'Moon over Soho' & 'Whispers Underground' (Ben Aaronovitch)

I know I said there was going to be a review yesterday, sorry about that... My job ended yesterday and things were a bit crazy. Things will probably be bit crazy for a few more days actually, please bear with me :o)

In the meantime, how about a quick competition to keep things ticking over? Yes? Go on then... :o)

Thanks to the good folks at Del Rey, I have one set of Ben Aaronovitch's 'Midnight Riot', 'Moon over Soho' and 'Whispers Underground' to give to one lucky reader (a very good series from what I've read so far). One lucky US or Canadian winner that is; residents of these countries are the only people who can enter I'm afraid.

What do you need to do to enter? Just drop me an email (address at the top right hand of the screen) telling me who you are and what your postal address is. The subject header needs to be 'Midnight Soho Whispers' (see what I did there...?)

This competition will run until the 5th of August and I'll aim to announce the winner as soon as possible after that.

Good luck!

Subliminal Cover Art...? 'The Butcher of Anderson Station' (James S.A. Corey)

I was browsing one of my favourite blogs when I came across this cover art...

 

Has it been just a bit too long since I quit smoking (eight years since my last cigarette, three since my last cigar...) or is 'The Butcher of Anderson Station' a tale of tobacco companies rampaging through space in cigarette shaped spacecraft...? Did I miss the press release about the Orbit/Marlboro merger...? ;o)

On a slightly more serious note, I'll be downloading this the first chance I get. I thoroughly enjoyed 'Leviathan Wakes' and 'The Butcher of Anderson Station' should keep me ticking along just nicely until the next book.

In case you were wondering, reviews have been thin on the ground recently as my current contract ends today and things have been mad. There will be something up later though... :o)

Cover Art! 'Exile' (Rowena Cory Daniells)

Because Clint Langley came up with the art here and I've been a fan of his work since before I even realised that it was his :o)

Lovely cover art from Langley (again) but any hope it gives you of a cameo appearance from Elric is probably best ignored ;o) That's two books, in this series, that I have now so I really ought to give it a go. My job (a short term contract) ends tomorrow so maybe that will free up some time...

P.S. For those of you who remember the last Solaris cover art post, I just couldn't get into 'Hush' at all (possibly because I never read 'Greatshadow' first and I really should have done...) Oh well...

'Walking Dead' #100, Time for me to bail out...

Well... I say 'bail out' but I'll more than likely keep up with the storyline in one form or another (via the 'Walking Dead Wiki' I think). I just can't see myself making that mad dash for the latest trade collection like I have done in the past. It's a shame as I've been following the series for years now, ever since I moved to London, but everything comes to an end eventually (just a little bit sooner than it was meant to for me).


I'll do my utmost to avoid spoilers (as always) but read on with a little caution if you haven't picked up #100 just yet...

What always attracted me to this series was that it was a story first and foremost, a really in-depth and no holds barred look at how real people would deal with a zombie apocalypse. This approach has seen some really brutal moments but that's what this kind of situation is all about, people trying to survive no matter the cost.

Issue 100 though... That was all about a series milestone being reached. Fair enough but when you take that approach then you've got to do something noteworthy to mark it. [SPOILER ALERT!] This time round, a fairly major character is bludgeoned to death by a guy wielding a baseball bat covered in barbed wire. One of the most vicious and gut wrenching scenes I've seen in this series.[YOU CAN LOOK NOW]

It wasn't done for the story though, it was a moment that marked a hundred issues of an incredibly successful series of comic books and that was what killed it for me. Kirkman has always shown real respect for his cast, putting them through hell but a hell that meant something in terms of plot. That respect wasn't there this time round and a character's death lost significance because of that (they meant something but their death didn't, not to me)

We all know that I can't stay away from zombies, not for long, and I do want to know how it will all end. Like I said though, you won't see me running out for the trades anymore and that's a real shame.

'Fever Moon' - Karen Marie Moning, Al Rio, Cliff Richards (Del Rey)

I've been stuck with a really grim data input job for the last week and a bit; lots of box ticking and field filling on a computer screen... It pays the bills but I'd be lying if I said that I'd enjoyed it. In an attempt to break the monotony, of staring at the same words on a computer screen, I've been reading a few more comic books than I would do normally; lots of bright pictures to wake me up :o) They don't get a lot brighter than what you find within the pages of Karen Marie Moning's 'Fever Moon' (more on that in a bit), a book that I was always going to read, even though it's another Urban Fantasy.

Truth be told, I've pretty much given up on the larger part of Urban Fantasy as I've realised that I'm into Urban Fantasy that deals with setting rather than angst and slightly dodgy relationships. 'Fever Moon' looked very much like it would fall in the latter camp but... It had been a hard week and it's a graphic novel; it was a read that was always going to happen.
As it turned out, 'Fever Moon' wasn't a bad read at all. There were problems but most of these managed to avoid the 'Urban Fantasy Trap'...

Here's the blurb,

Dublin is a war zone. The walls between humans and Fae are down. A third of the world’s population is dead and chaos reigns. Imprisoned over half a million years ago, the Unseelie are free and each one Mac meets is worse than the last. Human weapons don’t stand a chance against them.


With a blood moon hanging low over the city, something dark and sinister begins to hunt the streets of Temple Bar, choosing its victims by targeting those closest to Mac. Armed only with the Spear of Destiny and Jericho Barrons, she must face her most terrifying enemy yet.

'Fever Moon' is a very good mix of compelling (albeit predictable) storyline married to artwork that does an amazing job of what Moning obviously wants it to convey. At least three quarters of my attention was drawn to Al Rio's art. There were elements of the plot that I wasn't too keen on ('Though Barrons brought me back... The cure was endless sex' Really? Not again...) I found myself wanting to stick around and see how Rio, and to a lesser extent Richards, brought it all to the page. The setting is beautifully drawn as are the characters acting within it.

The story itself offers an intriguing world with an intriguing mystery sitting within it. Who is the mysterious assailant stalking the wartorn streets of Dublin? Annoyingly, a lot of the answer to this question refers back to previous books within the larger series. I wouldn't normally make a big deal of this but it's done in such a way that it seriously interupts the flow of the tale if you don't know what you are looking for. A little bit of sepia toning isn't quite the signpost that it was intended to be. I found myself going over the same two pages over and over again before I figured out what was going on... Not helpful at all. 'Fever Moon' is definitely one for long term fans (who will recognise this scene for what it is) rather than the casual reader.

The way its handled is a bit of a shame really as the plot does have a lot going for it. There's a lot riding on Mac's actions and the tension builds up accordingly with some amazing set pieces interspersed throughout the book. Mac is an interesting character to get to know, in such a short space of time, and her attitude towards the job at hand carries the plot forward in just the right way.

Again though, it's a shame that this had to be cut with all the flirting that people feel is necessary in an Urban Fantasy tale. 'Fever Moon' was doing just fine all on it's own; it didn't need the relationship stuff to move things forward, if anything those themes held things back a little.

A good read then but it was a shame that 'Fever Moon' felt the need to travel down certain well worn paths that it really didn't need to. This is a setting that could be a whole lot more if it struck out on its own...

Eight out of Ten
 
P.S. It's been bugging me all day, I knew I'd come across this series before...

Write With Wild Abaddon!

From the press release...

For the past six years, Abaddon Books has been publishing genre-busting novels from break-out authors and in brand new formats. So to celebrate its birthday this summer, we are calling for open submissions for our new e-novella series. Starting later this year, Abaddon will publish a series of brand new e-novellas – and authors can either play in one of our ten shared worlds or create their own!

Whether you’ve an agent or are going solo, whether you’re an established writer or trying to get your first project, we’re interested. Our books are pacy and action-filled, but smart and sharp, with characters that pull you in and challenge you. And our stories are dark, whatever the genre.

Since 2006, we have published almost eighty original novels in ten shared-world series, and have given the world the talented and irascible Chuck Wendig his fiction debut, not to mention the wildly imaginative Al Ewing. It has uncovered Kitschie-nominee Scott K. Andrews, and gave the brilliant Gary McMahon, Pat Kelleher and Toby Venables their mainstream fiction debuts.

If you know Abaddon’s work, you’ll also know what we like. Choose a genre, make it fast, make it tense, make it dark. And make us care about your characters. Make it original! Make us want to come back and see what happens next.

Submissions will be open for the month of September 2012, from midnight BST on 31st August to midnight on 30th September.

For full details on the submissions process, go to www.abaddonbooks.com

I've had a quick look at the submissions guidelines and it doesn't look like they're limiting it to particular countries (which is a welcome change from other contests). I love what Abaddon does so am more than a little bit tempted here (especially if I'm off work which is looking likely), how about you?

'Jack's Magic Beans' - Brian Keene (Deadite Press)

If I'm being completely honest, the main reason I downloaded the Kindle App (to my phone) was that I was stupidly impressed at how easy downloading stuff is and couldn't stop myself. Since then though I've been discovering that there are a lot of benefits to having the app, one of which is being able to catch up with Brian Keene's back catalogue. I'm talking about all the little short stories and novellas that were snapped up and gone before I even realised that they were there to start off with... Thanks to Deadite Press that shouldn't be a problem for me any more, they're working hard to publish all the stuff where the rights have reverted to Keene, which can only be good news for a fan like me (especially when I can get it on my phone in under a minute...)

'Jack's Magic Beans' was the first one of Keene's books published by Deadite and one that I'd had my eye on for a long time (always eager to read new stuff by Brian Keene). It was a bit of a surprise then to see what felt like a whole new style employed in a collection of stories that were a lot shorter than any of his books that I'd read previously.

What you're looking at here are tales where time (and space) constraints mean that everything is stripped right back to the bare minimum so that as much energy, and gore, as possible can be fitted in to keep things moving along. Things move at a hellish pace because of this but I found myself missing the characterisation and scene setting that I always enjoy. That's not to say it isn't a fair trade off, these are different kinds of tales here that require a different approach to function effectively. Things just felt a little more shallow that in his longer books, this new side of Keene's work will take some getting used to...

I couldn't help but enjoy the book though with its combination of raw surging energy, over the top gore (which sometimes got in the way of the story but even so...) and clever little ideas that have it all making sense. 'Jack's Magic Beans' is the main event here and Keene operates very well within such tight parameters. It's a very 'in your face' piece, with graphic depictions of violence, but the questions Keene raises (at the same time) build up the tension very nicely. I particularly liked the way things are left very open ended at the finish. Anything could happen and Keene leaves you to draw your own conclusions.

'Without You' was paerhaps a little too short to really work for me; by the time you cotton on to what's going on the story has ended. A little change in focus could have worked wonders here (did we really need all that detail about the main character's life?) but the twist in the tale is worth the price of entry here. A pretty emphatic suicide rendered useless by four little words...

'I am an Exit' and 'This is not an Exit' are two tales, about a serial killer, that had me wanting to hear more about him (the afterword says there might be more as well). For my money these were the best two tales in the collection; really creepy with just enough given away to pique the interest of the reader. The violence and gore are also dialled right back and this makes the moments when something does happen all the more powerful.

Keene signs off with 'The King', In: Yellow', a tale of a play that will drive you insane if you ever see it. Keene really taps into the effect this play will have on you (you can feel the fear and Keene pulls the curtain right back on the insanity that follows) but there was nothing to the play itself that would suggest such a reaction. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not but it felt like the two elements of the plot just weren't gelling for me.

I had a lot of fun with this collection but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to someone reading Keene for the first time. There is a lot to recommend 'Jack's Magic Beans' but Keene does it all a lot better in his longer books. 'Dark Hollow', 'A Gathering of Crows' or 'Urban Gothic'; check them out first.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

A little weekend book haul...

Friday afternoon saw me on a fast train to Plymouth, Sunday afternoon saw me on a really hot and stuffy slow train back from Plymouth. You haven't seen hell until you've tried to keep a fractious toddler amused on a slow moving train where the air conditioning has broken...

The bit inbetween though? Saturday was lovely. Chinese food, book shopping and Hope showing me round the aquarium (we had to find Nemo...)I didn't have a lot of time for book shopping, someone really wanted to get to the aquarium, but I managed to get to a couple of favourite second hand book shops that I hadn't been to in a while. Here's what I managed to find for myself...

The beauty of going book shopping with a two year old is that you invariably find yourself in the kids section. I don't think she's ready for Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks just yet but I used to have these books (when I was a kid) and I thought it was about time I had them again :o) Out of all the books in the series, 'Deathtrap Dungeon' and 'Forest of Doom' were my favourites; I could spend hours reading through them on a Sunday afternoon... I fancied a bit of nostalgia reading but I also wanted to see how they measured up to the 'Destiny Quest' series that has just started running. You can expect to see a nostalgic fanboy post in the next few weeks... ;o)

Its been years since I read 'The Broken Sword' and, again, I thought it was about due a re-read. I've also found myself starting to scour second hand bookshops to build up my Fantasy Masterworks collection (missed out on the Fantasy Masterworks 'The King of Elfland's Daughter' and I don't want to do that again) so I couldn't pass up on the chance of a copy here. There'll definitely be a review but I'm not sure quite when...

That's me then, what book(s) did you buy over the weekend?

Giveaway! 'Kop Killer' (Warren Hammond)

I'm reading this at the moment and it's a lot better than that 'deliberately trying to be cool' spelling, in the title, would have you believe. Here's the blurb,

Juno Mozambe once had a life. That was when he was a dirty cop, married to a woman who suffered such profound abuse that she murdered her vile, drug kingpin father. Juno loved his wife and did his best to help her survive her guilt, her drug habit, and her desire to end her life on the dead-end planet of Lagarto. When she died, however, Juno's life went downhill. And then his first partner, the corrupt chief of the Koba Office of Police, was murdered. The man responsible, Emil Mota, is using the KOP for his personal gain. Juno has been lying low, but now he's ready to do whatever it takes to take down the bastard. Rather than working from inside the system, he's decided that the only way to take down the KOP is to create an independent base of power. So he gets involved with a team of dirty cops and starts working as a rent-a-thug for a whorehouse that needs protection. Juno's last partner knows that his risky plan has a purpose, but she's that rarest of creatures on the hothouse planet of Lagarto: an honest cop. She can't help him. When Juno discovers a series of profoundly twisted murders, he faces a bleak possibility: in his desperate quest for vengeance against the man who targeted him for death, Juno may have placed himself beyond any hope of redemption...

 Pure Pulp is the name of the game here I think :o) Anyway...

 I thought you guys might enjoy this one so I asked the very nice lady at Tor about running a competition for three copies. Not only did she say 'yes' but very kindly agreed to open this one up worldwide. Anyone can enter, it doesn't matter where you live!
 
All you need to do to enter is drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your postal address is. The subject header needs to be 'Kop Killer'. I'll do everything else.

I'll let this one run until the 29th of July and will aim to announce the winners as soon as possible afterwards.

Good Luck!

Giveaway! 'The Passage' (Justin Cronin)

To mark the US release of 'The Passage' in mass market paperback (and to mark the fact that I might finally be able to read this book now it's in a more practical format...) I have three copies to give away on the blog. Before you get too excited though, this competition is only open to residents of the US and Canada. Sorry about that everyone else (although Canadian readers might be happier at being included for a change...)

You want in...?

All you need to do to enter is drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your postal address is. The subject header needs to be 'The Passage'. I'll do everything else.

I'll let this one run until the 29th of July and will aim to announce the winners as soon as possible afterwards.

Good Luck!

Guest Review: 'Great North Road' (Peter F. Hamilton) reviewed by Steven Ellis

Steven Ellis is a regular blogger over at SFX, a good friend and the biggest fan of Peter F. Hamilton that I know. The ideal guy then (and I'm really glad he agreed) to do 'Great North Road' justice in review form. Read Steven's review and then go read all those blog he's posted :o)

I should start off by saying I’m a big fan of Peter F. Hamilton’s work; best to be honest up front and everything. I talked Graeme into letting me read the proof copy he was sent so I could read the book before its September release date. The price was this review. As I said; I’m a big Hamilton fan, I can remember picking up The Reality Dysfunction in W.H. Smith’s and being astounded at the giant brick of a book, to be honest I was always a little intimidated by the size. I finally took the plunge and ended up consuming the whole Night’s Dawn trilogy over the space of a month back in 1999 when I was stuck in a cast with a broken knee and nowhere to go. I’ve been a fan ever since. Hopefully this won’t colour my review.

Peter F. Hamilton’s latest novel, Great North Road, is a stand-alone story and is unconnected to any of his earlier books, so can be read in the confidence that you won’t need to be signing on to a multi-book epic and you don’t need to have read his earlier work to jump on. For people who haven’t dipped into the worlds of PFH it’s a great book to start with.

The book is set in 2143 and has two main threads; the first is pretty much a police procedural and concerns the hunt for a killer; high ranking member of the important North family is found murdered in Newcastle. The death links to another North murder committed years early, the jailed perpetrator of which has always professed her innocence and maintained that “Aliens did it.”

The second thread follows an expedition to a very strange, and little explored, colony world called St. Libra; the planet on which the original North murder was committed. The two plots are linked in various ways and by various characters which become more and more apparent as the story progresses and both the investigation and the expedition being to run into problems from within and without. The book also has flashbacks scattered throughout which reveal clues and character history that inform the current events as they unfold.

Hamilton is an old hat at complex world building and he’s on great form here. His depiction of the high tech future police procedures, the organisation and staging of the expedition and the various other aspects of the society he creates are brilliantly thought out. The nature and history of the North family is particularly interesting although I was reminded of Hamilton’s earlier Confederation universe at times. These interstellar societies all start to look the same after a while.

Character- wise the book has many interesting and engaging people; from weary Newcastle police officer Sid Hurst and his investigative team through to Angela Tramelo, who after her many years in prison is probably the most complex and layered of the protagonists in the book. The various members of the expedition and peripheral characters are all engaging and Hamilton manages to inject a decent amount of depth into even the smallest of background player. Hamilton has written more interesting characters in previous books but on the whole it’s a good ensemble cast who carry the story well.

As is pretty much guaranteed with Hamilton, the book is huge, clocking in at nearly 1100 pages. He always give good value for money in a book and if I had one issue to bring up about this and PFH’s writing in general it’s that he tells big engrossing and all encompassing tales but he’s often let down by his endings. Not that

Great North Road

has a bad ending; it’s just that the journey is so good and when it comes to an end it’s very difficult to do that journey justice. Great

North Road

has one of those 100 years later type epilogues and I found myself not wanting to see this but instead wanting to read and find out about the stories which may have occurred in those intervening years. I wanted the book to keep going. To keep telling me tales of these characters and worlds and that isn’t a bad thing, far form it, but alas, all good things must end. I wouldn’t however, not say no to a sequel to this book at some point.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, the book is a great read, full of interesting characters, great action wonderful tech and a very engaging central mystery and it rips along at a fair old pace. I heartily recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of space opera, future tech or anyone who just likes a damn good yarn.

Eight out of Ten