‘Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 19’ (Rebellion)

I’ve been waiting something like eighteen years for this book to be published. Kind of puts the whole ‘Dance with Dragons’ thing into perspective doesn’t it…? ;o)
It was way (way) back in 1993 that I followed the ‘Inferno’ story line (and the ‘Titan Prison Break’ plot that ran just prior to it, anyone know where that’s collected?) in a series of lunchtime reads, at the local newsagent, when I was at sixth form. I know… It’s not good but comics came a poor last behind running a car, buying books and those really nice fruity sweets that I can’t remember the name of. A holiday meant that I missed an episode and once the story was up… that was it. I kept an eye out for the trade but there wasn’t one and so the wait began. Until now, a chance trip to Forbidden Planet set me straight and I managed to get hold of a review copy. It was like I’d never been away but a few years between reading and re-reading showed up some flaws as well.

What I loved about ‘Inferno’ back then, and now having read it again, is how it really ups the ante on previous story lines and sets the Judges of Megacity One against their renegade counterparts. Judge Dredd can deal with zombies and aliens but how is he going to cope with psychotic Judges running wild with all the training that has made him so feared? If that wasn’t bad enough, Dredd and his team have two weeks to solve this pressing problem before an alien virus literally strips the meat from their bones. The stakes are high and the only thing that might work in Dredd’s favour is the madness of Grice, the renegade Judge behind the invasion…
For me, this inevitable conclusion kind of took the edge off things and this was a real shame as ‘Inferno’ is one hell of a story, full of real power and energy. You know that 2000AD has a real story on it’s hands when Carlos Ezquerra does the artwork and it really shows here with some really striking scenes of violence and destruction. Grant Morrison sets things up for an intriguing tale, with possible ramifications that could echo a long time into the future, but (in a way) it feels like he wrote himself into a corner and had to rely on something utterly implausible to get himself out of a spot. That’s ok though as Grice was mad and would do something like that. I don’t know… There is still a lot to recommend ‘Inferno’ but I think that these days I’m about a little more than just the (admittedly gorgeous) artwork…

Onto the rest of the book…

What I love about these collected editions is that you get a whole load of little stories surrounding the ‘main event’. Volume 19 is no different in that respect and while things were a little hit and miss for me I managed to lose a couple of hours trawling through the adventures of Mega City One’s finest. Stories like Ennis’ ‘Enter Jonni Kiss’ are there purely to set things up for a tale that you won’t see until Volume 20 or 21 and feel a little disjointed as a result (some lovely artwork from Greg Staples though, really atmospheric). Not the best choice to open the collection with then but Ennis promptly makes up for it by giving us ‘The Judge who lives Downstairs’, a tale that manages to be comedic, slightly tragic and more than a little bit forbidding all at the same time. Ennis shows that this wasn’t a one off by rounding off the opening chapters of Volume 19 with ‘The Chieftain’ where he shows that he is more than capable of blending trademark violence with some of the more surreal aspects of Megacity life.

While I had a lot of fun reading Volume 19, I think the big issue that I had with the book, as a whole, is that a number of the stories don’t actually have titles to go with them. This makes it kind of difficult to write a review when you’re stuck with saying things like ‘I really liked the story of the psychotic amputee looking for a new arm, don’t ask me who wrote it though…’ It was a great story actually, as was the brief epilogue to the ‘Mechanismo’ storyline (although I couldn’t tell you who wrote/drew that either) ;o)
I guess this won’t be such a big deal to long term fans that know these tales inside out and are just looking to replace worn out original comics. If you’re someone like me though, who wants to know what they’re reading, it’s a different deal altogether. Just enjoy the ride I guess, there is a lot to enjoy despite a few false starts here and there (I’m looking at you, story about the ‘Branch Moronians’ that doesn’t have a title either, same deal with the ‘Madonna’ story). There’s just enough weirdness and action to ensure that I’ll be back around about the time Volume 20 turns up on the shelf.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

Cover Art! 'Stormdancer' (Jay Kristoff)

Work is giving me a good kicking at the moment (still prefer it to not being in work though), and I spent a large part of yesterday evening trying to get the little one off to sleep, so todays review becomes tomorrows interview instead. Again, I know... On the plus side, everything is getting backed up so much that there's a time coming when there will be nothing but wall to wall reviews for a whole month at least (maybe). Thanks for bearing with me ;o)

In the meantime... I can't believe that's it been over a year since I wrote this post about Jay Kristoff's 'Stormdancer' being acquired by MacMillan (Tor UK over here, Thomas Dunne over there) and how I wasn't that sure about it. Turns out that sixteen months is more than long enough for me to look past the unfortunate 'Eragon' comparison and focus on the cool stuff instead (like chainsaw katanas, I'll have some of that thanks!) Subject to my being able to get hold of a copy I'll be reading 'Stormdancer' and aiming for something a little faster than my normal tardy reviews... The book itself isn't due for release until around September (although ARCs are starting to find their way to people now I think) which gives me a little time :o)

Until then, have a little blurb and tell me if you'd go for the UK or US cover. This time round I honestly can't chose between the two. Blurb first,

A DYING LAND 
The Shima Imperium is verging on the brink of environmental collapse; decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshippers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, land choked with toxic pollution, wildlife ravaged by mass extinctions.

AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST
The hunters of the imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger – a legendary beast, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows thunder tigers have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death.

A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL
Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a hidden gift that would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shōgun’s hunt, she finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in Shima’s last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled thunder tiger for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is he’d rather see her dead than help her.
But together, the pair will form an indomitable friendship, and rise to challenge the might of an empire.

And now, have some cover art...

 The US Cover.

The UK Cover.

I still can't call it between the two, which would you go for?

So I was thinking...

Because I was trying to blank out the sound of Hope screaming at the dentist, the other day, and my mind went down some strange paths...

Rhiannon Frater, Madeleine Roux, Amanda Hocking and Michael J. Sullivan; what do these three ladies and one chap have in common? All four of them originally self-published their work in one form or another (Kindle, serialising it on a web site, setting up their own publishing company and so on) and did so well off the back of it that a big publisher came round and offered them a contract. Not for something new though (although I think Amanda Hocking is writing new stuff for St. Martins), I'm talking about stuff that was already available to the book reading public in the first place. And that's what I don't get.

Before we get started, I've got no access to book sales figures and the self-published sales figures I'll be mentioning are ones that I half remember hearing a long time ago, probably while I was doing something else. Reading, most likely :o) I think what I'm saying should stand though, bear with me...

I guess what I don't get is how publishers think they can turn a profit on a series of books that were already successful when they were self-published. Amanda Hocking has, by all accounts, sold millions of books on Kindle and this includes her 'Trylle Trilogy' which has been snapped up by Tor in the UK. Erm... Isn't that rather like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted? That’s X number of people who already have the 'Trylle' books on Kindle and presumably won't be bothering with a physical copy (I guess, I don't know).

Frater and Roux built up a large online following with zombie tales published on their websites (Frater went on to self-publish her books further before being published by Tor in the US). I guess this makes a little more sense (publishing wise) if the original stories were then taken down but there must be more than a few people who read the books online and decided that was enough for them (maybe they even printed off their own copies to keep and read). That's got to put a dent in future sales doesn't it?

And Michael J. Sullivan, here's a man who sold something like 60,000 copies of his 'Riyria Revelations' books before Orbit stopped by to lend a hand. So, that's 60,000 copies that Orbit won't be selling then.

You're probably thinking 'What the hell is Graeme on about? The publishers know what they're doing and those new copies in the shops will find their way to people who hadn't come across the books online. Graeme obviously hasn't had his morning coffee yet.'

Well, I haven't had my coffee yet. Can you tell? :o) I'm also sure that the publishers know what they're on about (it's their job), it just doesn't quite add up for me.

I'm wondering if our lovely community of fantasy, sci-fi and horror loving geeks is so large that bunging extra hard copies of books on the shelves is going to make a huge difference. I mean, we're all online already aren't we? If I'm actually in a bookshop it's because I've heard something a book online. That's where we find out about what books we'll be picking up next. That's where we download the free excerpts and then go on forums to rave about this cool lady writing about zombies on her website, or that guy who is publishing 'sword and sorcery' books that we should all be supporting. Hasn't everyone who is going to read these books already read them?

If this is the case, those physical copies (published by the big hitters) are on the shelves to draw in random shoppers who are there to buy something although they're not sure what it is they're after. Which has got to be a bit of a gamble for the publisher doesn't it? Especially if the established fanbase already owns the books and are raving about them online...

Like I said, I've got no idea about how many of these books have actually been sold, by the big publishers, I'm hoping at least one of them will chip in here and set me straight :o) It just doesn't feel right, not if you're looking to turn a profit. Can you turn a further profit on something that has already turned a profit? I don't know...
So, I've got some questions for you guys.

Regular readers - If you already read the books above, in their self-published form, did you go out and buy another copy when they were re-published? I'd be interested to know.

Publishers - Don't you wish you'd taken a chance on these books before they were incredibly succesful self-published phenomena?

If I've missed something really obvious, go easy on me? Like I said, I haven't had that coffee yet ;o)

Cover Art! 'Breakfast in the Ruins' (Michael Moorcock)

Bit of a 'fill in post' today as I'm off into town to see if I can see the Queen (you know, Jubilee and all that). Things will be back to normal tomorrow. In the meantime, here's some cover art from a book that I picked up on the Charing Cross Road the week before last (there's some great second hand book shops to be found there). I'll buy pretty much anything with Moorcock's name on it (except possibly 'The Golden Barge'...) so I didn't take much persuading to hand some cash over. I haven't really read much outside the 'Eternal Champion' books though, has anyone here read 'Breakfast in the Ruins'? If you have, what did you think? And as far as the cover goes... The ruins are there but our hero doesn't look like he's having much of a breakfast...

The 'Children's Play Areas are like the nether regions of Hell...' Competition Winner's Post!

I'm not talking about regular playgrounds either, I'm talking about those massive buildings that look innocent enough from the outside but are festooned with tunnels, ball pools, rope bridges and slides on the inside. I've just spent an afternoon chasing my own small child through all of this (trying to get her to share with the other kids) whilst dodging small screaming demons from the Pit children who were hellbent on causing their own special brand of mayhem... I got out pretty much intact although I may have left a couple of vertebrae behind (it was a small price to pay).

I'm having a beer, I'm having a bath and then I'm going to bed. Before that though, here are the people who won last week's 'Amped' competition. Nice work there you winners, better luck next time everyone else... ;o)

Angela Winesburg, Maryland, US
Irene Menge, New Jersey, US
Harry Blanchard, (also from) New Jersey, US

Your books will be with you soon! My well deserved beer will be with me a lot sooner...
See you all tomorrow :o)

A 'Belated Book Haul' Post

This last week has seen a whole load of 'Sorry we couldn't deliver, come and get your books' slips notes come through the door and it was only yesterday that I managed to get to the post office to collect them all. After some impromptu 'separating the wheat from the chaff' (the lady at my local Cancer Research shop was very pleased) I came home with what looks like some very promising reading for the next few weeks/months. No promises about when I'll get round to it all (because we all know what happens to promises around here...) but they will all be read at some point. Here's some pictures plus comments, in a 'kind of tribute' to Niall's BoSS posts (I miss those...)

 

Because I loved the hell out of 'Leviathan Wakes', it totally rocked :o)  I'm not so hot at working through the big books but this has suddenly become a priority read now it's on the shelf. Review to come... probably after my contract ends (which isn't that long).

I've read the first two books and am interested to see how at least one loose end is tied off here (and if my death predictions come true...). Review to come sooner rather than later I think.

I am way behind with my 'Shadowmarch' reading but I'd still read anything that Tad publishes and this looks like a nice short one to get back into the swing of things with. The book isn't out until September, in the US, so look for a review here around about the end of August I think.

I don't read enough YA stuff so where better to start than with a publisher where I know that the editor lives and breathes YA... :o)  'The Assassin's Curse' was a very good read (review to come in the next few days) so I'm hoping for good things here as well.

I still need to read the second half of 'This Crooked Way' and then I'll be straight into 'The Wolf Age'. I've got a little more incentive to get cracking  this time as the last book on the list is...

Enough said :o)

That's my little haul then (I'm missing a couple out as it's taken me all day to get round to this post as it is! OK, Mira Grant's 'Blackout' is another that will feature here soonish. Zombies, me, you know how it is) :o) How about you then? Anything interesting come your way that you'd like to share here...?

R.A. Salvatore on Tour

If you're a fan of R.A. Salvatore, and can get to one of the places below, then this post is especially for you. In August (and a tiny bit of September), Salvatore can be found in bookshops and cons across a whole bunch of cities signing copies of his latest book 'Charon's Claw'. I haven't got much of a blurb for you but here it is anyway...

The third book in the Neverwinter Saga, Charon's Claw follows Drizzt Do'Urden as he draws his swords once more to aid his friends. In this final book in the saga, Drizzt assists the beautiful elf Dahlia as she enacts revenge and helps an old foe break the bonds that have held him hostage for more than a hundred years.

Yeah, short and sweet :o) Here's the tour dates...

August 6 -  Redondo Beach, CA - Mysterious Galaxy Books (7:30pm - 9:30pm)

August 7 -  Los Angeles, CA - Barnes & Noble - The Grove (7:00pm - 9:00pm)

August 8 -  Menlo Park, CA - Kepler's Books (7:00pm - 9:00pm)

August 9 -   Tacoma, WA - Joint Base Lewis-McChord
                     McChord Main Store (1:00pm - 3:00pm)
                     Lewis Main Store (4:00pm - 6:00pm)

August 10 - Austin, TX - BookPeople (7:00pm - 8:30pm)

August 11 - Houston, TX - Space City Con

August 13 - Cincinnati, OH - Joseph Beth (7:30pm - 9:00pm)
  
August 14 - Columbus, OH - The Book Loft (7:00pm - 9:00pm)

August 15 - Carmel, IN - Barnes & Noble (7:00pm - 9:00pm)

August 16 - 19 - Indianapolis, IN - Gen Con 2012

September 1 - Atlanta, GA - Dragon Con 2012

 I still need to read my copy of 'Neverwinter' (not the best place to start reading about Drizzt but that's the way it goes sometimes). Is it any good?

'Dark Crusade' - Karl Edward Wagner

I used to love mooching around Norwich market as a kid; partly because a lot of it is covered (which makes you feel as if you're walking through lots of tunnels) but mostly because of the second hand bookstalls which would suddenly spring at you as you walked round a corner. Predatory bookstalls, now there's an image...
Those were the days for me, days when you could pick up three or even four books for less than a pound. Not like it is today when you'd be very lucky to pick up a third of a book for that price (what is the world coming to etc, I feel old...) Those were also the days for me in that those bookstalls formed a large chunk of my 'fantasy education'with cheap books waiting to be read by a boy who just couldn't get enough sword and sorcery or epic quests.

I came across Alan Dean Foster's 'Shadowkeep' on those trips to Norwich market, compulsive reading for the fourteen or fifteen year old me and the only book of his that I've read all the way through without getting horribly bored. John Jakes' 'Brak the Barbarian' series were another find in those teetering piles of books, hopelessly derivative but with a vein of horror running through the books that makes them stand out from the rest of the pack. I really need to find my copies and give them another read through...
On one visit I had something like 10p left to spend and came across a book called 'Dark Crusade', a book where the cover showed a guy stood at the top of a pile of corpses gazing into the infinite under a cold black sun. I was sold pretty much straight away :o)

Before we get into the review itself it's worth pointing out that Karl Edward Wagner's 'Kane' books are long out of print and can be quite costly to get your hands on. Even the Nightshade collection, published in 2002, is going for silly prices on Amazon. The lesson here? If you see them in your local secondhand book store (where they should be much cheaper than online) then pick them up before someone else does!
'Dark Crusade' is actually the fourth book in the series, I think, but the first one that I picked up, all those years ago, (and the only one I've read so far) so it features first here. I actually lost my original copy, years ago now, but came across another copy recently and consider myself very lucky to have done so. 'Dark Crusade' is as dark a read now as it was all the way back then...

The cult of Sataki has risen again with Orted Ak-Ceddi at its head, a former outlaw who has been touched by the power of a dark god and wants to usher in the final age of mankind. No-one can stand before Orted's cultists and the jungles of Shapeli soon fall under the hand of Sataki. The southern kingdoms prove too much for Orted's horde though and he knows that a more disciplined approach is needed for the ultimate victory of his god. Enter Kane, near immortal and the only man who can command the calvary Orted needs. Orted has seriously underestimated Kane though who has his own designs for the cities that fall to his armies. Has Kane underestimated Orted though? He has and the final battle will leave no room for a victor...

I've read a lot of dark and gritty fantasy in my time and I've still to come across anything that approaches just how nasty and unsettling 'Dark Crusade' can be. If you think you're pushing boundaries with tales of royal incest or books where even the good guys can die then you have a way to go yet. Wagner's world is a bleak and pitiless place where everyone is the worst kind of bastard and totally out for themselves. There is no such thing as redemption here, just initially well meaning actions that hide a dark desire for bloody revenge. Wagner's characters are inherently selfish and out to advance themselves over the corpses of others (and will make no bones about it). Some books are books where you're happy to visit the setting but secretly glad you don't have to live there. 'Dark Crusade' is a book where the squeamish will wonder what they are doing even visiting. It's a book though where searing honesty offers you an insight not only into the characters but the mind of the author himself. A book where children ape the actions of their elders to lethal affect and adults will act on base desires in an instant.

Chief among these characters is Kane himself, a man who has lived far too long and who will manipulate affairs of state as much to stave off the boredom of centuries as to gain power for himself. Kane is all about gathering power to himself though and we are left in no doubt as to why he allies himself with Orted and what this will ultimately mean. Kane despises traitors but will happily betray whoever is in his way...
When you have lived for centuries, all that is left is to through yourself into the midst of battle and try to feel something again. Wagner shows us this to great affect with what feels like constant instances of combat tempered with what Kane is thinking as it all happens around him. It's an intriguing mixture of brutal force and dark introspection that makes for a compelling character all too easy to follow, no matter how dark the path is (and it gets very dark, especially at the end).

The world this is all set against isn't as detailed, as the characters living in it, but there are lots of hints of ancient civilisations that lend a real sense of age to the background. Wagner's use of the word 'supercontinent' (albeit sparingly) also hints at just how large Kane's world is and lends yet another layer of futility to the machinations of the people scurrying about on its surface.

'Dark Crusade' is like a shot of espresso then. It doesn't look like much (very slim book) and tastes very bitter initially. That taste is a distinctive one though and you can't help but want to have another taste and another taste after that. Can you tell that I like drinking espressos? ;o)You can expect to see more Kane stories reviewed here in the near future.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

'Girl Genius Volume One: Agatha Awakens' - Phil & Kaja Foglio (Tor)

If you were around a couple of days ago you'll remember that 'The Battle of Blood and Ink' didn't exactly set the world on fire for me. Quite the opposite in fact. If you haven't read the review yet, scroll down a couple of posts and you'll see what I mean.

I love reading comic books & graphic novels and it takes an awful lot to sour the experience for me. The experience was well and truly soured here though and I'll admit to not being too keen on getting back in the saddle straight away.

The 'Girl Genius' book did look intriguing though as did the comment next to my cover art post that the webcomic had won so many Hugos that it had been voluntarily withdrawn to give others a chance. That is really sweet of the authors isn't it? That's also a lot of hype for someone who hasn't read the books to deal with. Is any book so good that it has to be voluntarily withdrawn from the Hugos so the rest of the competition stands a chance...?

You're getting cut and pasted blurb again today as I'm writing this along with a lot of other stuff I need to be doing at the same time (that means the possibility of spoilers, you've been warned)...

The Industrial Revolution has become all-out war! Mad Scientists, gifted with the Spark of genius, unleash insane inventions on an unprepared Europe. For centuries, the Heterodyne family of inventors kept the peace, but the last Heterodyne disappeared twenty years ago, leaving their ally Baron Klaus Wulfenbach to maintain order with his fleet of airships and army of unstoppable, if not very bright, Jaeger Monsters.


At Transylvania Polygnostic University, Agatha Clay dreams of being a scientist herself, but her trouble concentrating dooms her to be a lowly minion at best. When her locket, a family heirloom, is stolen, Agatha shows signs of having the Spark in a spectacular, destructive fashion and captures the attention of the Baron—and the Baron’s handsome young son, Gilgamesh.

I had a whale of a time reading 'Agatha Awakens', that's the bottom line here. I wasn't too sure what to expect here but once I got going I couldn't stop reading (quite literally, this is a book that is all too easy to devour in a single sitting). To be honest, I don't pay a lot of attention at all to the Hugos but it's pretty clear why 'Girl Genius' has scooped a handful of these awards. It's an engaging read that is humorous and full of action in all the right places.

In the aforementioned cover art post, I did have a couple of reservations about a cover that looked as if it wasn't sure whether it wanted to be Manga or not. I didn't like the air of uncertainty that came over as a result and thought it could have benefitted by being one thing or the other. This theme remains the same going into the book but it somehow felt easier to deal with as the plot moved on. Most of this was down to the 'Manga Effect' only really applying to the characters and as I got to know them more it really didn't matter how they were drawn at all. Agatha, Gilgamesh and the rest are all characters that are full of life and people that you really want to get to know more about. More on that in a bit.
What really balanced things out though was the sheer amount of detail and colour on display. The world that Agatha has to find her way in is beautifully drawn with no expense spared in terms of detail. Now this is what I'm after in terms of a Steampunk tale, something fully immersive for all the right reasons.

The story itself starts out along familiar lines, and ends on a familiar note as well, but it's all the bits in between that make the difference with enough surprises and little twists to make you feel like you're reading something a little different even if you're not. The humour on display is infectious, to say the least, and I couldn't help but chuckle pretty much the whole way through. It's the cast, and the way that you get a real insight into their personal journeys, who made this for me though. Agatha, in particular, comes across as someone that you really want to get to know more about with her determination not to let the world get the better of her (even though the odds are stacked against her every day).

Phil and Kaja Foglio have come up with something very special here and I'll certainly be in line for Volume Two if I don't jump headfirst into the webcomic beforehand. It felt like I was the only person who hadn't read 'Girl Genius' before now but if you haven't read it yet then I recommend you set that straight right away.

Nine out of Ten

A Slightly Bemused Book Haul Post...

Because sometimes something happens and the schedule has to take a back seat for a day.

I never comment on big internet hoo-hahs, as I'm always really late to them, but I have been following the misadventures of the self published small press guy who has 92K Twitter followers and outsells big name authors on a regular basis, or something like that. I won't say too much there other than if you listen really carefully to the gales of laughter, still floating around the internet, you'll hear my chuckles there too :o)

There's been a lot of interesting discussion arising out of all this, namely what self-pubbers can do to get their books reviewed by the likes of us (not something that I do as it happens, read my Review Policy). The comment that really struck a chord with me was from a blogger (sorry, I've forgotten your name...) who gets review requests from self-pubbers who clearly haven't bothered to check what this guy actually reviews. I get those emails too and they get deleted without a reply.
It's not just the self-pubbers though, look what was waiting for me when I got home last night (sent by a publisher who shall remain nameless but who has dealt with me in the past and really ought to know better...)

...

I love Paris (and the 'Hidden Gardens' book will come with me next time I visit) but I've got no idea why I was sent these books for the blog. The big clue about what I cover here is in the title (with some sci-fi and horror too)... ;o)



'The Battle of Blood and Ink' - Jared Axelrod & Steve Walker (Tor)

These days I normally have quite the low tolerance threshold for books that really aren't working for me. Fifty to a hundred pages in and if it's not working out then down the book goes. Every now and then though a book pops up that I end up finishing despite myself. 'The Battle of Blood and Ink' is only a hundred and thirty five pages long and I kept thinking to myself, 'it's not that much further to go, stick with it for a few more pages and then have some chocolate as a reward...' I also kept thinking, 'it's steampunk so something cool is bound to happen in a couple of pages.' It turns out that I was wrong.

In a slightly different approach to the normal reviews here you're getting a 'copied and pasted' blurb here (the reasons for which will become apparent later on...)

If you're visiting the flying city of Amperstam without the latest printing of The Lurker's Guide, you might as well be lost. This one-sheet is written, edited, and printed by Ashe, a girl raised on the streets of the flying city, and is dedicated to revealing its hidden treasures and deepest secrets-including many that the overcontrolling government doesn't want anyone to know. The stakes are raised when Ashe accidentally uncovers the horror of exactly how Amperstam travels among the skies and garners the attention of those who would rather that secret be kept in the hands of the city's powerful leaders.

Soon Ashe is on the run from thugs and assassins, faced with the choice of imperiling her life just to keep publishing, or giving in to the suggestion of a rich patron that she trade in her voice and identity for a quiet, comfortable life. It's a war of confusion for Ashe, but one thing is very clear: just because you live in a flying city, you can't always keep your head in the clouds.

I think my biggest issue here was with the art, or lack of it. We're talking about a steampunk graphic novel here and if steampunk is about anything it's about the whole look of the thing isn't it? We're talking all the ornate glory of 'Victoriana' with added airships and deathrays. At least that's what I thought until I opened the book and got reading. Everything is in black and white for a start and normally that doesn't have to be a bad thing if the detail is there to back things up (I'm thinking 'The Walking Dead' here). With 'The Battle of Blood and Ink' though, all the black and white art does is to show up just how little detail there is. It all feels very transparent and I was left very aware that I was looking at a backdrop to the story rather than a background that added to the proceedings in any way.

Moving onto how the characters themselves are depicted... It seems to be the fashion these days to give the reader a few preliminary sketches, at the back of the book, to show you how the character came to be (and what they could have been). 'The Battle of Blood and Ink' is the only graphic novel I've ever seen where the cast of characters actually regress from their preliminary sketches. It should have been the other way round, it really should. If that wasn't bad enough, the characters all look really awkward during the course of the plot; everything looks staged rather than in motion...

Moving onto the plot and I think that the nicest thing you can say here is that it is ambitious, wanting to say an awful lot about a number of things. The only problem here that there's only a hundred and thirty five pages to fit all of this ambition into and it was never going to fit. What you get instead is a passing nod to a number of themes, none of which are truly expanded upon. I'd like to think that this is all about setting things up for the future but we are led to believe that a few of these sub-plots are actually rounded off and finished up with. If they are then it's not a particularly satisfactory conclusion, not when you don't get to actually see how things work out. I did like the one page issue of 'The Lurker's Guide' though, I wish we could have had a little more along those lines...

I think a hundred extra pages could have done 'The Battle of Blood and Ink' the world of good as we would have been able to get a better look at the city of Amperstam and its inhabitants. We would have actually seen character development and why things were happening instead of being forced to take the books word for it. As it is though, 'The Battle of Blood and Ink' comes across as poorly planned and poorly presented. Don't let me stop you giving it a go (one man's meat is another man's, erm... something else?) but I can't see myself picking up any more books in the series.

Five out of Ten

A Slightly Nostalgic Cover Art Post... 'Destiny Quest: The Legion of Shadow' (Michael J. Ward)

A first for the blog as I don't think I've ever covered game books here. First of all, check that cover out...

Loads going on, slightly cartoonish... It really takes me back to the days of Fighting Fantasy game books (when they first came out that is, you can still buy new editions today). Just one look at the cover has me thinking of books like 'Forest of Doom' and 'Deathtrap Dungeon' where I'd be totally engrossed by the background and cheating like mad on those dice rolls to make sure that I stayed in the story for as long as possible :o) Yep, I was one of those people who would (more often than not) use all my fingers as bookmarks and scout ahead in the book to see what the safe route was. Don't tell me you didn't do exactly the same thing... ;o)
I can't promise that I won't do all those things again with 'The Legion of Shadow' but I can promise that it will be my bank holiday reading next weekend. I'll let you know what I thought of it sometime next week.

What's going to be happening in the meantime? Well, there's a couple of books that I want to write about but, as fate would have it, two steampunk graphic novels arrived with me just recently. One is a lesson in how to write a thoroughly absorbing steampunk tale; the other is exactly the opposite... I'll be reviewing them both over the next few days so pop by and have a read.

See you tomorrow :o)

Ben Aaronovitch Signing and Reading

If you enjoyed Ben Aaronvitch's last two 'Peter Grant' books, and if you're in London on the 23rd June (no half measures here, that's both 'ifs' or not at all!), then this one could be for you. From the press release...

BEN AARONOVITCH will be signing the third novel in his superbly entertaining supernatural crime series WHISPERS UNDER GROUND at the Forbidden Planet London Megastore on Saturday 23rd June from 4 – 5pm. 

He will also be giving an exclusive short story preview! 

Peter Grant is learning magic fast. And its just as well - he's already had run ins with the deadly supernatural children of the Thames and a terrifying killer in Soho. Progression in the Police Force is less easy. Especially when you work in a department of two. A department that doesn't even officially exist. A department that if you did describe it to most people would get you laughed at. And then there's his love life. The last person he fell for ended up seriously dead. It wasn't his fault, but still.
Now something horrible is happening in the labyrinth of tunnels that make up the tube system that honeycombs the ancient foundations of London. And delays on the Northern line is the very least of it. Time to call in the Met's Economic and Specialist Crime Unit 9, aka 'The Folly'. Time to call in PC Peter Grant, Britain’s Last Wizard.

As much as I enjoyed the last two books (reviews Here and Here) the chances of me being in the centre of London, in the middle of summer, are always very small. I'm more of a 'weekday evening signing' person myself... Another lovely looking cover from Gollancz who are clearly going with the 'if it ain't broke...' approach. I'm really hoping for better things from the Del Rey cover art this time round...

Giveaway! 'Amped' (Daniel H. Wilson)

My 'to read right now' pile is looking quite fearsome right now (it's breeding smaller piles as I write this post...) but 'Robopocalypse' was a superb read so 'Amped' might find itself being read sooner rather than later. Check out the blurb...

In Amped, people are implanted with a device that makes them capable of superhuman feats. The powerful technology has profound consequences for society, and soon a set of laws is passed that restricts the abilities—and rights—of "amplified" humans. On the day that the Supreme Court passes the first of these laws, twenty-nine-year-old Owen Gray joins the ranks of a new persecuted underclass known as "amps." Owen is forced to go on the run, desperate to reach an outpost in Oklahoma where, it is rumored, a group of the most enhanced amps may be about to change the world—or destroy it. 

While I'm reading my copy of 'Amped' how do you fancy a shot at winning a copy for yourself? You do? Hang on a moment, this competition is only open to US entrants... Are you still in? Here's what you need to do.

Thanks to Doubleday, I have three copies of 'Amped' to give away here. If you fancy your chances, just 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 'Amped'.

I'll let this one run until the 3rd of June and will aim to announce the winners as soon as possible afterwards.

Good Luck!

'Mighty Samson: Judgment' - Shooter, Vaughn, Olliffe & Irwin (Dark Horse Books)

I love a good dose of 'post apocalypse', this probably won't come as any surprise to anyone who has read this blog for more than a week... ;o) I love watching something horrible happening to the Earth (safe in the knowledge that my sofa is comfy and all is well outside) and how a hardy bunch of survivors deal with it all as it happens. What I love even more though is visiting Earth long after the apocalypse took place and seeing how things have changed in the intervening centuries (surprisingly so given that I don't feature that kind of thing here very often if at all, too much other stuff to read)... I'm talking 'Planet of the Apes' or 'Logan's Run' here, future societies that have no real memory of their past.

When I got the chance to read 'Mighty Samson' then, I pretty much jumped at the chance. We're looking at a future New York that is now N'Yark , five hundred years after the apocalypse, preyed upon by jungle monsters and ruthlessly subjugated by the Jerz tribe and their Queen Terra. N'Yark's only hope for survival is a man who was cast out of the settlement as a baby. A mutant with not only heightened senses but strength as well. Samson must come of age quickly in a world where strength alone will not be enough to protect him against the wiles of a dark queen...

'Mighty Samson' collects the four issues from the (fairly) recent Dark Horse re-imagining of the classic series and only weighs in at a painfully slender ninety two pages. I'm pretty sure that the 'Dark Horse Presents' books are a comparable size at about half the price... Comments about the price to one side though, it's clear that 'Mighty Samson' doesn't give itself a lot of room to tell a story so don't expect anything too deep and involved here. Character development is hinted at (and the attempts of Zarsk and Nartz to profit from everything make for an amusing sideshow) but when survival is a far more pressing concern the focus will inevitably fall on the action sequences instead. These are worth the price of entry although the artwork can feel a little rushed here at times, Shooter and Olliffe combining well to show us how far civilisation can fall into savagery (and be threatened by giant insects) in five hundred years.

A little light on plot then? I'd say yes but Shooter makes up for this not only in terms of sheer energy, driving things forwards, but with slightly comedic moments as well. If your lead character is pretty much invulnerable then a great way to keep the readers on board is to have a little bit of fun with that. The sequence where Samson has a conversation with his dead mother, casually batting monsters out of the way without even thinking of it, is played strictly for laughs and you can't help but laugh along with it. What is really interesting though are the moments where we get just a brief glimpse of Samson's character slowly beginning to develop. A man who has previously relied on his strength, and the natural order of this new society, must now question what is right and what his responsibilities really are. You don't really get much time to see what makes Samson start questioning himself but I was left with the impression that Samson's naivety could make for some interesting storylines in the future. I'll admit right now that I knew nothing about this title until I saw the book, have there been any more books since?

The ending sets things up, very nicely, for more to come in the future and if there is more to come I wouldn't mind seeing if some kind of story grows out of these pulp beginnings (nothing wrong with pulp but I wouldn't mind seeing a little more story...) 'Mighty Samson' is a lightweight read, in more ways than one, but an intriguing one at the same time...

Eight out of Ten

'The Emperor's Gift' - Aaron Dembski-Bowden (Black Library)

Ever since I reviewed 'Cadian Blood' (way back in July 2009, my how the time flies etc...) Aaron Dembski-Bowden has gone from being an author worth checking out to being an author where I will quite happily put down whatever I'm reading to read his latest book. He's that good (seriously) and, as such, is an author whom I will inevitably recommend to anyone who hasn't read a Black Library Warhammer 40K book.
'Cadian Blood' and 'Helsreach' to one side, Dembski-Bowden has pretty much made his name writing about the Space Marine Traitor Legions (the Night Lords in particular) who wage eternal war upon their Loyalist brothers and the Imperium of Mankind. It made for a little bit of a surprise then to see that Dembski-Bowden’s next book would not only be about a Loyalist Chapter but perhaps the most loyal and incorruptible Chapter of them all, the mysterious Grey Knights. That’s one hell of a leap then, from one end of the spectrum right to the other, and I was (of course) very interested to see what the end result would be. Dembski-Bowden is very good at putting a human face on the ‘trans-human’ and I wanted to see how it worked this time round. The outcome…? ‘The Emperor’s Gift’ stands up most of Dembski-Bowden’s work, in terms of quality, but didn’t quite do it for me his time round…

Of all the Space Marine Chapters, the Grey Knights are the Chapter at the very forefront of the fight against Chaos. Since their origin, in the depths of the Horus Heresy, these daemon hunters have taken the fight into the Warp itself to ensure that humanity stands strong in its darkest hour.
The Grey Knights are tasked with the missions that mere Space Marines cannot hope to achieve and their training reflects what they will be expected to deal with on the field of battle. Could any Grey Knight have guessed what would be waiting for them on the fields of Armageddon though? Brother Hyperion will not only face the toughest challenge of his career but will learn a harsh lesson in what it really means to keep the Imperium safe…

At the risk of becoming incredibly boring Aaron Dembski-Bowden has done it again. The man seems literally incapable of writing a book that doesn’t hook me right from the start and ‘The Emperor’s Gift’ is no exception. Like I said though, as good as it was ‘The Emperor’s Gift’ didn’t do it for me in the same way that previous books have…

Why was that? It’s really hard to pin down so bear with me if I end up waffling a bit…
The Grey Knights are held up as the purest of the pure, totally beyond all forms of temptation and corruption. It’s a bit of a shock then to find out they are just as liable, as the rest of us, to fall if they are not very careful. Hyperion is the typical lone wolf who has trouble fitting into a team, liable to strike out on his own (regardless of the rest of his squad) if he thinks he can get the job done). It’s a contrast that didn’t quite sit comfortably with me then. I completely get why Dembski-Bowden went down this path as you need a little humanity in your characters, it would all get horribly boring very quickly otherwise. I couldn’t help but wonder though if the balance went just a little too far the other way though. When it got to the point though where even the upper echelons, of the Grey Knight hierarchy, were jostling for power and indulging in a little politicking… That was the point where I was wondering if these guys had their minds on the job as much as we were meant to believe. Oh well…

That’s not to take anything away from Hyperion’s journey as a Grey Knight though. All the really interesting stuff is missed out (the training and so on) but what’s left over leaves you in no doubt what it means to be a Grey Knight when no-one will ever know the sacrifices you made. I’m talking about the battle for Armageddon in particular, long term fans will know just what I’m talking about but I don’t want to give anything away for those who haven’t read the book yet. Lets just say that Aaron ramps up the battle to a ferocious degree and, just when you think it can’t go any further, introduces a character who will throw all your expectations clean out of the water. When you see tough characters thrown aside like they weren’t even there, you’re left in no doubt that something huge is taking place. I liked the contrast here with what is going on for the ‘ordinary soldiers’ on the front line, war is hell for everyone but for some more literally than others.

Aaron more than makes up for the ‘Grey Knight niggle’ though with his exploration of the darker side of what must be done to maintain the Imperium in the face of constant threats from its foes. We’re not just talking about the constant warfare across thousands of planets. If there’s the risk of one Imperial citizen being corrupted by Chaos, what would you do? Kill that person? Destroy the space craft they’re travelling on? Sterilize the population of an entire planet? Desperate times call for desperate measures but can they truly be justified when there’s the risk of a further wedge being driven between Imperial factions that should be working together? Aaron answers these questions in such a way that actions are justified even if they are shown to be ultimately fruitless. The fight with the Space Wolves Chapter is awesome but is also a sobering reminder of the fate that may await the Imperium if it cannot settle differences within itself…

At the end of ‘The Emperor’s Gift’ the reader is left with a clear picture of just how beleaguered the Imperium is and the massive task that the Grey Knights face every day. I wasn’t a hundred percent convinced by how they were portrayed but I couldn’t help but feel a little respect for them afterwards (I had a lot more respect for the Space Wolves though, it has to be said).
The wait for Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s next book starts… now.

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

‘Silent Voices’ – Gary McMahon (Solaris)

One of the things that I love most about blogging here is discovering great new books that I wouldn’t have come across otherwise. These days I am veering towards the familiar (toddler in the house, the daily commute, you’ve heard all the excuses before…) but there’s still a lot to be said for taking a chance on an author you’ve never heard and seeing where the journey takes you. What favourite authors have you discovered more or less on a whim? I discovered Gary McMahon and I haven’t looked back since, preferring to look forwards instead and see what slice of nastiness he comes up with next.

Every since a copy of ‘Hungry Hearts’ (still an innovative slice of zombie fiction, check it out) fell into my hands, Gary McMahon has become one of my ‘go to authors’ in terms of horror fiction. If you’re a fan of the genre then I reckon you’ve already read at least one of his books. If not, I guess you know what you need to do.

‘The Concrete Grove’ is my favourite book of McMahon’s although ‘Hungry Hearts’ does run it a close second. You can read my review Here if you like. If not, have a couple of quotes from the review…

It goes without saying that if you are squeamish at all then this is probably a book that you should avoid. McMahon doesn’t include anything without a very good reason but when he does he doesn’t pull his punches at all and this shows us all to well that perhaps the true horror in this piece lies in just what us humans can be capable of if we want something enough. It’s not pretty.

It’s a vicious read with a delicate beauty about it; if you like your horror fiction then I don’t see any reason why you won’t get a lot out of this.
With quotes like that, you won’t be too surprised to hear that I was really looking forward to getting my hands on the sequel ‘Silent Voices’. I was hoping for more of the same at the very least, a little more if possible. Either would have been good but it wasn’t to be on that score. McMahon went for something different entirely and it worked… only up to a point though.

Twenty years ago, three boys went missing for a whole weekend. No-one knew what had happened, least of all the boys who could remember nothing but vague memories of a shadowy woodland grove.
Twenty years on and Simon has returned to the Concrete Grove to see his old friends and finally bury the memories that have plagued him all these years. Those memories won’t be buried though, not when the darkness that created them is calling out once more. The hummingbirds are flying again and dark shadows stalk a run down council estate once more. Will three men finally be able to escape the memories of their childhood and banish the evil at the centre of the Concrete Grove?

‘Silent Voices’ is a worthy sequel to ‘The Concrete Grove’, a book that expands on the secrets within the Needle and gives us a slightly longer look at something dark that is awake once more. At the same time though, ‘Silent Voices’ fell (just a little) short of what McMahon achieved in ‘The Concrete Grove’. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, more a case of the story going in a slightly different direction, to before, and perhaps losing a little impact because of it.

‘Silent Voices’ is a chilling tale of urban fantasy and horror. Not ‘that’ kind of urban fantasy; I’m talking about something that heads into ‘Mythago Wood’ territory if anything. Gary McMahon isn’t Robert Holdstock but the ‘Concrete Grove’ trilogy has definite echoes of that tale within it. At its heart though, ‘Silent Voices’ is a tale of three damaged men confronting what damaged them as children. It’s quite raw in places because of this and McMahon captures that pain just as his characters are feeling it. It’s intense stuff, make no mistake about it.

Where this theme can work against the book though is that it can make ‘Silent Voices’ a ‘slow burner’ for all the wrong reasons as well as the right ones. McMahon is very good at slowing things down and building up to some really nasty shocks; I’m talking about trips into the darkness that ends up with the line…

‘Fucking hell… then whose fucking hand am I holding?’

When you’re talking about three guys though, guys who have to come to terms with what they have become before they can even begin to talk about it to each other… This really slowed things down for me, I felt like I had to wait for Simon, Brendan and Marty to get their heads together before the story could move on. Looking back, I know that’s the point of the story but perhaps it was done a little too well? I was also left wondering if there was only so much mileage a writer can get out of a situation where at least one (maybe two) of the three main characters really didn’t want to talk about things at all…

It’s a tough plot to stick with then, in that respect, but McMahon seeds it with little moments of terror that scare the reader (when they least expect it) and heightens the anticipation for the final climactic events under the Needle. I loved the almost Celtic feel of the fantasy elements and how this added a little more strangeness and horror to the grim northern setting. McMahon has created something stunning not only in its simplicity but also in its capacity to shock and what this promises for the final instalment. ‘The Concrete Grove’ was perhaps a little more visceral but this only goes to show that McMahon is just as good at messing with your head as well as messing with your stomach. A child’s nursery rhyme here, a rustling in the corner over there… It all builds up into something you cannot take your eyes away from when the payoff hits you.

‘Silent Voices’ sometimes felt like a bit of a tough nut to crack but I couldn’t put it down nonetheless. The ending was superb and bodes well for the final book in the trilogy, whether McMahon chooses to carry on in that direction or not…

Nine and a Quarter out of Ten

‘Dead Winter’ – C.L. Werner (Black Library)

I’m never a hundred percent sure what to think about C.L. Werner’s work overall. When he’s on top of his game Werner is a man on fire but for every one of these books there’s another book that makes me go ‘meh…’ I couldn’t get into the ‘Brunner’ books and it even got to the point where I didn’t pick up ‘The Red Duke’ for fear of being disappointed (which isn’t the best reason not to read a book but that’s the way it goes every now and then).
The thing is though… I love the ‘Time of Legends’ books though and am slowly working my way through the lot (very slowly it has to be said…) just to get a feel for the background of the Old World. With the publication of ‘Dead Winter’ then, it was inevitable that I was going to come face to face with Werner once more and this time I wouldn’t be backing away…

On the face of it, the blurb suggested that ‘Dead of Winter’ would have pretty much everything in it that I like about the Warhammer setting but would Werner be up to the task of bundling all that lot together into a good story? As it turned out, yes he was. I can’t wait for the next instalment and I might even have to go back and give ‘The Red Duke’ a go after all.

The Age of Sigmar (read the books, they’re very good as well) is long gone and the Empire he built has been brought to the edge of ruin by the avaricious rule of Boris Goldgather. This grasping Emperor fills his own coffers whilst setting his nobles against each other and bleeding the Empire dry. Civil War is brewing then but a far more insidious threat is looming.
Plague strikes the countryside, wiping out entire villages and setting families against one another, no-one is safe from its grasp. Even this deadly plague though is only a forerunner of an evil even more dangerous. A race long thought to be the stuff of nightmare is stirring in the sewers and caverns underneath the great cities of Man. The rat-like Skaven are finally ready to take to the surface and reclaim what is theirs…

The ‘Time of Legends’ books have long made for some welcome reading in my house with their epic tales of world defining moments in the Old World. They’ve proven to be a worthy retort to the myth of tie-in fiction (how it’s all a bit crap and so on) and now ‘Dead Winter’ joins their ranks in some style. I’ve enjoyed all the books I’ve read here but this is the only time I’ve been really excited about the prospect of a sequel. ‘Dead Winter’ is that good.

Any newcomer to the Old World will quickly realise that it’s all about the warfare; absolutely no-one gets on with each other and all arguments are ultimately resolved in a battle to the death. Werner makes this very clear with wave after wave of skirmishes and full on warfare that all either stir the blood or chill it (more on that in a bit). The beauty here though is that none of this is fighting just for the sake of it. Werner underpins these moments of combat with a story that justifies each and every swing of a sword. It all happens for a reason and that all lends more impact to those pitched battles.

There’s an Emperor who has to be stopped although I did question his motivations a little. Boris does push his moneymaking schemes a little too hard to be truly believable and verges on being a cartoonish pantomime villain as a result. The true villain of the piece, in my opinion, is Kreyssig; head of the secret police and a man whose sights are firmly fixed on gaining power. He’s a real nasty piece of work but also someone you can’t help but follow even if it is just to see if and when he gets his comeuppance.
These two characters together provide some real impetus for the plot and are full of evil machinations that send events down pathways that you should see coming but never do. I couldn’t help but root for the heroes but, not so secretly, I was also rooting for these guys just to see what they would come up with next.

If this tale of treachery and civil war wasn’t enough for you there is also the Skaven to contend with…

Imagine a ‘Watership Down’ where the rabbits want to wipe out the humans, using biological warfare, but are not averse to using those same methods on each other. A ‘Watership Down’ where even the most harmless rabbit is brimming over with paranoia and psychosis; always ready to get their betrayal in first. That is Werner’s Under Empire, a place where lethal betrayal is an everyday fact of life and where Werner’s ability to weave a tight plot, full of very nasty surprises, really comes to the fore. You know that there’s a back-stabbing just around every corner but there are a million and one ways to die, if you’re a Skaven, so Werner always has a surprise in store. Especially where the Plague Monks are concerned…

I wasn’t too sure about the fact that the Skaven are supposed to be such a big secret though, although it did make for a nice side plot about the one man who discovered their existence. I mean, don’t the Dwarves live underground as well? And aren’t the Dwarves at least on speaking terms with mankind? And didn’t the Dwarves sort out all the sewers for the big cities of humanity (like little bearded plumbers with big axes, the fantasy version of Super Mario…)? Amidst all of this they somehow forgot to mention their ‘rat-man neighbours’ who want to kill everything… I’m not buying it but I’m prepared to let it slide, this time, because the rest of the story worked so well for me.

‘Dead Winter’ looks very much like it could be the start of something a little bit special; a gripping read that promises good things for the future. Required reading for all Warhammer fans and well worth a look if you like fantasy in general.

Nine and a Quarter out of Ten

The 'I Really Need To Stop Buying Dr Who Figures...' Competition Winner's Post!

You know the figures I'm talking about? They're like Lego figures and they come in little 'lucky dip' bags where you can't see what you've got until you open it. I now have one Doctor and four Amy Ponds... Curse me and my foolish need to buy little toy figures in my lunch break! On the flip side though, I now find myself interested in seeing how many more Amy Pond figures I'll buy before ending up with something different (law of averages and all that). I'm not sure I dare go out this lunchtime...

Anyway... Thanks to everyone (and there were loads of you) who entered the 'Railsea' competition last week. There could only be three winners though (as much as I wanted everyone to win a copy of the book...) and they were,

Junior Cain, New York, USA

Jeanette Jackson, Ontario, Canada

Michael Blythe, Tennessee, USA

Nice work there folks! Your books should be on their way later today, Happy Reading!

That's pretty much that for today but there's loads more to come over the rest of the week. A little bit of everything actually; sci-fi, fantasy and horror... Stop by and have a look why don't you? :o)

See you tomorrow!

Cover Art (And A Question)! 'The Legend of Sigmar'

Check it out...

Glorious isn't it? Really captures the spirit of 'Empire', the book that went to win the David Gemmell 'Legend' Award back in 2010. I do wonder who buys these big Black Library omnibus editions though... The books have been out for a long time now ('Heldenhammer', 'Empire' and 'God King' all reviewed here last year) so who's been sat there thinking, 'I'll wait for the omnibus edition to come out and read that...'? Not the fans (I don't believe the inclusion of a new short story is going to change any minds...) and is a newcomer to these books really going to take a chance and spend fifteen pounds on a book they've never read before? Actually, they might... I'm prone to doing that every now and then.

Don't get me wrong, I do like the collected editions as some of them have really helped me get caught up on certain series (I'm looking at the 'Gaunt's Ghosts' books here). I'm just wondering who else actually buys them. Any comments are welcome, particularly from Black Library readers.

P.S. If you haven't already clicked on the review links... Yes, I would recommend reading these books. Totally :o)