'Red Country' - Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz)

When I went to the Fantasy Faction Blackwells event, back in August, Joe Abercrombie was understandably surprised that I still hadn't read 'The Heroes'. I was quite surprised myself; in fact the only person who wasn't surprised was my daughter and her habit of taking books off me while I'm trying to read them...
This was going to be a 'Heroes' review then but Abercrombie had to spoil things by having another book published in the meantime ;o) A book that somehow came on holiday with me rather than its predecessor. A book that hinted at the return of a favourite character of mine...

That review of 'The Heroes' is going to have to wait a little while longer then but hopefully not too much longer. 'Red Country' is another excellent read that has got me eager to go back and finally fill in that last gap. I'm guessing that everyone who is going to read 'Red Country' will have done so by now. If you haven't though... I'll do my best to avoid spoilers but you have been warned.

Shy South thought that she had left her bloody past far behind her but her burnt out homestead and missing siblings suggest otherwise. It's time to hit the trail again, this time to get her family back. Her only companion on the trail is her cowardly Uncle Lamb, a man running from a bloody past of his own. In the Red Country though, everyones past will catch up with them sooner or later...

Reading 'Red Country' made me realise that it has been far too long since I read anything by Joe Abercrombie and I won't leave it that long again. I've got another couple of books that I want to read first but 'The Heroes' is now officially very much back on the 'To Read' pile because of the fun that I had reading 'Red Country'. It's not a perfect read (not like 'Best Served Cold' was) but it's so close that I feel a little guilty for mentioning the little niggly bits. More on those in a paragraphs time...

Before we kick things off, I ought to say that I'm not a big watcher/reader of Westerns these days. I've reviewed a couple of 'genre westerns' here and I've had to sit through repeated viewings of 'Calamity Jane' (long story), that's about as far as it goes. If you're after a more qualified opinion on whether Abercrombie hits that 'Western target', I'd be clicking Here. As far as I'm concerned... If Westerns are about wide open spaces, wagons, bar room brawls, the natives getting a raw deal and a quest for redemption then Abercrombie hits the nail right on the head. My little trip to the Far Country left me with a dry mouth, from all that trail dust, and a grudging respect for a cast of utter bastards who nevertheless stand firm against an inhospitable country that wants settlers to just turn round and go back where they came from. Abercrombie paints the Far Country in broad strokes, creating an epic backdrop for our cast to toil against. ‘Red Country’ is a book that demands a backdrop like this but I personally found it a little too big. It felt to me like that backdrop actually overshadowed the story when the plot really needed to take centre stage and get moving. I'm talking about those long, just a little too drawn out, wagon journeys that I just wanted to end so the story could continue. I think Abercrombie might have done his job a little too well here...

It's a good job then that the plot more than makes up for this.

Upon a first glance, you might think that 'Red Country' is a little too simplistic, it certainly looks like it. Shy's family is kidnapped so Shy goes to get them back (with her uncle in tow), that pretty much sums it up. There’s a lot more to it than that though and it’s to Abercrombie’s credit that it all ties back into the story. No filler here, at least no filler apart from those slightly ponderous wagon journeys that I mentioned just now.

Abercrombie basically pulls it off by populating ‘Red Country’ with some thoroughly reprehensible people who actually want to do the right thing (even if they don’t realise it at the time) as well as at least one man who wants to be good but will realise what a bastard he still is. You know whom I’m talking about here… I personally liked the way that Abercrombie never actually calls this character by his old name. You know who he is (the fight with Glama gives it away) but there’s a little mystery there that I like.
With a cast like this, ‘Red Country’ becomes a novel crammed full of individual journeys that you can’t help but want to follow (especially when hints are dropped about where the series might go in future). There are children to find and a wagon full of gold that could end up anywhere, that was enough to keep me occupied in itself as Abercrombie fills his plot full of little twists and turns. These personal journeys really open up the characters and Abercrombie is brutally honest about what you will find inside. What makes for gripping reading here is that Abercrombie leaves everything wide open. A bastard can be a bastard and somehow find redemption at the end of the book… or bleed out on the floor of a frontier brothel. It could go either way and I found that I had to keep reading to see which way the dice fell.

When you factor in Abercrombie’s ability to write engaging dialogue alongside brutal scenes of combat, ‘Red Country’ swiftly becomes a book that you can’t put down until you absolutely have to. The backdrop may weigh a little too heavily on the plot but that plot makes for a thoroughly satisfying read. Now I need to start on ‘The Heroes’ again.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

From My Bookshelf… ‘Stardust’ (Neil Gaiman)

This isn’t a review, at all, by the way; more a case of me gushing about a book that I love :o)

It was Christmas 1999 when I picked up my copy of ‘Stardust’ and it was quite by accident. I’d somehow found myself with two copies of ‘The Unseen University Challenge’ (Christmases eh…?) and just enough time to nip into town and swap one of them for something else. The only reason I picked up ‘Stardust’ (well, apart from the blurb of course) was that it cost exactly the same as ‘The Unseen University Challenge’. A straight swap then with no need to go digging into my pockets for change that I knew wasn’t there anyway.
How could such a random choice of book become one so close to my heart? As I’ve read more by Gaiman, over the years, the only answer I can come up with is that it’s because he wrote it. There are loads of great writers out there but only one Neil Gaiman.

Life moves at a leisurely pace in the tiny town of Wall - named after the imposing stone barrier which separates the town from a grassy meadow. Here, young Tristran Thorn has lost his heart to the beautiful Victoria Forester and for the coveted prize of her hand, Tristran vows to retrieve a fallen star and deliver it to his beloved. It is an oath that sends him over the ancient wall and into a world that is dangerous and strange beyond imagining...

‘Stardust’ is one of those books that I plan to write about but end up just gazing at the monitor trying to get my head round it instead. I caught myself doing that just now so really need to keep plugging away at this post or I will stop again.
The bottom line for me is that everything about ‘Stardust’ is just beautiful; the idyllic setting (on both sides of the Wall), the language, everything. The story is simple enough to get you hooked and with enough twists and turns to keep you reading (just as you start to think this is all a little too simple… it isn’t at all) It’s done so well that I could read this book over and over again (and do) and still be just as engrossed as I was that first time almost thirteen years ago.

I think what I love most is the way that Gaiman tells a fairy tale that is traditional and very modern all at the same time; just by using the odd word here and there. Like this for example,

‘Or almost gone. There was a dim glow pulsing from the middle of the hazel thicket, as if a tiny cloud of stars were glimmering there.
And there was a voice, a high clear, female voice, which said , ‘Ow’ and then, very quietly, it said, ‘Fuck,’ and then it said ‘Ow’, once more’

It’s a lovely little touch that lets the reader know that the story is well aware of where the reader is (it doesn’t all have to be the other way round).

So, ‘Stardust’. A book that led me on to read a whole load more Neil Gaiman (which indirectly led me back to Michael Moorcock) as well as a book that became a very watchable film. I’ve got a lot to be grateful for as far as ‘Stardust’ is concerned. If you haven’t read it already then you really need to do something about that.

‘The Slithering Shadow’ – Robert E. Howard

So, after having a little moan (yesterday) about how the makers of ‘Conan’ stayed well away from Howard’s original tales, I thought it would be only fair to follow that up with a little look at one of those very tales. You know, in the whole spirit of ‘You see? I was right!’ or ‘Actually, they had a point…’
I’ve already covered a few ‘Conan’ tales here and there, on the blog, so this time round I took the step of, well… opening up one of my collections and pretty much picking a random tale that I’d never read before. The lucky tale turned out to be ‘The Slithering Shadow’, a pulp tale of a seemingly deserted city and the nameless horror that lurks in its depths.

Before I talk about whether ‘The Slithering Shadow’ could be filmed; a few words about the story itself… I really enjoyed the read but it did remind me why I always cherry pick a story at a time here rather than going through the whole collection (I’ve only ever done that once, never again…)
While there is a lot to be said for ‘The Slithering Shadow’, it does run very much along the same lines as a lot of the other ‘Conan’ stories that I’ve read (which isn’t all of them to be fair). Conan and a female companion (usually a different one to the previous story) battle hordes of faceless soldiery and at least one evil monster in a foreboding setting. Conan wins through, although sometimes at great cost, and continues his journey to the next big fight. In the case of ‘The Slithering Shadow’, the formula proves to be a winning one (albeit the same one). The setting is intriguing enough to make you want to step inside the gates of Xuthal and see what waits. Conan facing off against the Xuthal guards makes for some tense reading while the creature Thog may not have a great name but does bring a real sense of cosmic terror to the climax of the plot. There is without a doubt plenty to enjoy here; I’m glad that I picked it up even if it wasn’t necessarily offering anything new. I wonder if Moorcock's 'Dreaming City' of Imrryr was inspired by Xuthal, there's enough there to suggest a link of some sort.

The real question though is whether this short story is ‘filmworthy’ or not. ‘The Slithering Shadow’ is only thirty five pages long so probably wouldn’t make for an entire film (although if they ever did a ‘Conan’ TV show…) but I reckon there is plenty enough here to make for a twenty minute, or even half hour, sequence in a film. Great setting, loads of action and a ‘toad creature from hell’; definitely worthy of a moment in film and I’m still left a little perplexed why moments like this didn’t make the cut. Is there a ‘rights’ issue or something going on? I don’t know…

‘Conan the Barbarian’ (2011)

Every so often, a brief window of opportunity comes along where it’s not just kids DVDs being played on the TV and I get a chance to watch something that doesn’t involve Winnie the Pooh or Pingu. Ok, Pingu is quite cool (in very small doses) but even so…
One of those windows arose, a couple of days ago, so I took the opportunity to finally give last year’s ‘Conan the Barbarian’ a go. Now here’s a film that I haven’t heard a single good word about. The fact that it was for sale on the discount shelf, at Tescos, speaks volumes considering the film is only just over a year old. I went for it though. I mean, how wrong could I go with a film that only cost four pounds and features one of my favourite fantasy characters pretty much doing what he does best?

The answer is, well… I don’t know really. On the one hand, I watched ‘Conan’ and thought, ‘well, that was pretty much what I expected.’ On the other hand though, I watched ‘Conan’ and wanted to give it a good slap before sending it home to think about what it had done. Quite a confusing film then.

I think the biggest issue for me was the film makers decision to ignore all the previous ‘Conan’ continuity (Robert E. Howard’s works, ‘Savage Sword of Conan’, you name it…) and basically rehash the 1982, Arnold Schwarzenegger, ‘Conan’ film. There are a lot of excellent tales there that are waiting to be told on the big screen; why the big deal about a film that is essentially one that we have already seen before? It was a little disappointing, to say the least, to realise that I could have stuck with the original and not been any worse off. Making a couple of references to what Conan did, in Howard’s tales, didn’t come off as paying homage so much as it did remind me what this film could have incorporated. This was quite galling and I couldn’t help but wonder why Howard’s tales weren’t utilised more, is it a ‘rights thing’?

To add insult to injury, a lot of the dialogue is mumbled so you don’t really know what’s being said, only that such dialogue ends with Conan doing something violent to someone or bedding Tamara. There are some well-choreographed fight scenes that are fun to watch and really, that is what Conan is all about so I couldn’t complain too much about the film. It would have been nice though to hear what people were saying while this was happening… And what was with the whole ‘Conan must fight the ‘end of level boss’ before he can face Khalar Zym’? That really made things feel contrived when there was actually quite a smooth and straightforward path for the plot to follow.

But it was fun to watch though that’s the confusing thing. The filmmakers stayed true to Howard’s vision in that they kept things fairly simple and concentrated on Conan fighting stuff, both other men and some giant thing with tentacles. It was fun to watch and the backdrop to it all looked pretty spectacular albeit not really Conan’s world at all. You can’t just say, “here’s Cimmeria and here’s the coast of Zingara, definitely Hyboria then”, not when other parts of the continent seem to be called other things entirely. I wasn’t too keen on that either, if it’s going to be Conan’s world then make it Conan’s world.
Talking of Conan though, I thought Jason Momoa pretty much nailed it with the whole ‘brooding, violent and ready with a quip’ approach. I liked that :o)

‘Conan the Barbarian’ was a fun way to spend an evening then but anything more than that? Nope, not really. It looks like my wait for a decent ‘Conan’ film will take a bit longer…

‘The Hobbit’ (Illustrated Edition) – J.R.R. Tolkien, Illustrated by David Wenzel & Adapted by Charles Dixon (Ballantine Books)

We all know the story of ‘The Hobbit’ so I’m not going to take up your time with some pointless blurb ;o) If you don’t know the story then there’s a film, looming on the horizon, that will take care of that for you (or you could just read the book…) and that means publishers are scrambling to find anything related that has been previously published and can be wheeled out again. Books like this illustrated edition for example (a book where the cover looks like it has been reworked to look more like the forthcoming film).

This illustrated edition was previously published by Eclipse Books and Del Rey, in the US, while Harper have published it in the UK. This book does come with six new pages of artwork though (don’t ask me which pages they are, I never read the original…) so could be worth your time if you’re looking for a new copy.

As an adaptation, this book works very well for the most part. The main elements of the plot are all covered and, in a move that I particularly appreciated, the poetry is kept to a bare minimum. I used to love reading it when I was a lot younger but, these days, I find that it gets in the way of the actual story so it was a bit of a treat not to have to deal with it. It’s also interesting to be reminded of some of the smaller details in ‘The Hobbit’ and wonder if they will make it onto the big screen. Dixon is very faithful to these details and I was left wondering if the film will show us the mountain giants (throwing rocks) like the book does.

I couldn’t help but wonder though if Dixon was perhaps a little too faithful to the detail. A lot of the panels are crammed full of descriptive passages that the illustrations convey perfectly well by themselves. This leads onto the feeling that the text and illustrations are both fighting to make themselves heard (or seen) instead of working together and getting on with it. You could say that this leads to a more engrossing work where you have to take the time to really uncover the detail. I however felt that this end result was more counterproductive despite there being an awful lot here to get your teeth into.

The illustrations are gorgeous by the way. David Wenzel really captures the look and feel of Middle Earth on paper; it’s not the film that we’re all used to but no less absorbing for all that. I’ll be keeping my copy and can see myself flicking through the pages, every now and then, and just getting lost in how lovely it all looks.

Adaptations are always a little difficult to sum up but ‘The Hobbit’ (Illustrated Edition) does the job that it has set out to do. Perhaps it’s a little too faithful to the original text, a move that doesn’t quite suit this format, but it’s a lovely book to read and I can see it whetting appetites for the film when it arrives.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

‘A Guile of Dragons’ – James Enge (Pyr)

Have you ever come across a book where you know it’s your thing, it’s almost like it has been written just for you, but you can’t get into it. It’s the most infuriating thing when that happens to you and it happens to me all the time with James Enge’s ‘Morlock’ books.
Here’s a series that should be right up my street; an interesting anti-hero making his way across a world that is crying out to be explored by the likes of me. What I found though… Well, you already know what I thought of ‘Blood of Ambrose’ (review Here if you haven’t already read it) and I only got halfway through ‘This Crooked Way’ before putting down, for a quick break, and never finding my way back to it. I haven’t opened ‘The Wolf Age’ at all.

It’s a world that keeps calling to me though so when I heard of ‘A Guile of Dragons’ I knew I’d have to take a look. ‘A Guile of Dragons’ particularly appealed to me with its promise of taking things right back to the start of Morlock’s life and giving us hints at how he ended up the way he did. Maybe it was the sense of jumping on halfway through a story that threw me so badly…

‘A Guile of Dragons’ ended up being a holiday read, last week, and it wasn’t a bad one either. I didn’t find the book to be as good as it wanted to be but there was still plenty to enjoy and I might even be persuaded to give ‘This Crooked Way’ and ‘The Wolf Age’ a go after all.

The dragons have returned from out of the North and and their Longest War, with the dwarves, is set to begin all over again. If that wasn’t bad enough, they are backed by a long dead king and the masked goes of Fate and Chaos.
The dwarves are cut off from any aid and are slowly being whittled away as prisoners are taken and the defenders corrupted by dragonspells. The weight of guarding the North hold, and ultimately the lands of the south, rests on the crooked shoulders of a traitors son…
Even at a relatively young age, Morlock Ambrosius has had a tough life but he has always tried to do the right thing by his homeland and adopted people. What he is about to find out though will force him to make some tough decisions. Regin and Fafnir were brothers and the Longest War can never be over…

As I’ve already mentioned, ‘A Guile of Dragons’ takes things right back to the very beginning of Morlock’s life (a little bit before that even) and delivers on its promise to fill in those blank spaces. Only up to a point however. The book itself is only the opening chapter in a mini-series (a trilogy?), ‘A Tournament of Shadows’ so don’t expect too many answers. In fact, if you go into this expecting a few more questions to be raised then you won’t be disappointed. I wanted to find out a lot more about Merlin and Nimue Viviana and what led them to treat Morlock the way they do in ‘This Crooked Way’. No such luck, I think I’ll be waiting for at least two more books before those answers become clear.
Realistic expectations are the order of the day here then. ‘A Guile of Dragons’ isn’t going to give you all the answers so don’t expect it to. What it will give you though is a story that you can’t help but want to read; even though, at times, it will seem exactly the opposite.

I found ‘A Guile of Dragons’ to be a little more balanced than ‘Blood of Ambrose’ in terms of world building and plot versus character development. A lot happens here and you come away this time with more of a feel for where it’s all taking place. I liked that, this approach certainly made the book feel a little more fleshed out than its predecessor did. And as far as Morlock taking on dragons goes, wow! Enge doesn’t hold back on the pyrotechnics and the thrill of chases through mountain passes and forests. Morlock even kills a dragon and it’s interesting to see how Enge uses this to show how legends can spring from a complete misunderstanding. This certainly casts future events in a whole new light. His confrontation with the dead king of Cor also makes for some gripping reading.

What I found frustrating though was how things seemed to get bogged down by a main character whose pysche is so damaged (and moulded by his time with the taciturn dwarves) that he is incapable of relating to others. There is only so many times that you can be shown this before you find yourself thinking that you know all there is to know, at the moment, and you just want the story to get going. It doesn’t though because the story is all about Morlock, the plot gets trapped by a character who you can’t really get a feel for as he is so protective of his inner self. You could say that Enge wrote the character a little too well here… And given how easily Morlock resolves his feelings, literally in one paragraph at the end of the book, I did feel a little cheated by what I had to go through to get there.
Couple this with the dwarves tentatively getting to know Earno (a Guardian of the South lands) and there were large chunks of the book where I was just waiting for something to happen. It really felt like things were crawling along during these moments.

A tough one to call then. ‘A Guile of Dragons’ has certainly got me interested in the next instalment but, yet again, I’ll be approaching it with some caution and hopes that the story will be allowed to come out from under the shadow of Morlock himself.

Eight out of Ten

‘The Emperor’s Soul’ – Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Press)

If Brandon Sanderson’s output is anything to go by can you imagine what it must be like inside his head? There must be hundreds of ideas bouncing around inside that head of his, all pretending to be waiting patiently to be let out. I don’t know how he does it without having at least one migraine a day…

A couple of novella shaped ideas have recently broken out and have begun making the rounds. If you’re interested in something a little more ‘modern day’ then you might want to take a look at ‘Legion’ but I’m more about fantasy myself so will be having a little look at ‘The Emperor’s Soul’, due for release in November of this year.
There is a lot of Brandon Sanderson’s work that I haven’t read yet but what I have read offers intriguing worlds with even more intriguing magic systems (a different one every time, seriously, how does he manage it?) I don’t have a lot of time to read ‘fat fantasy’ these days but a slim work? I can manage that.

‘The Emperor’s Soul’ isn’t without its issues but it’s still a book that kept me hooked for a large chunk of yesterday evening and reminded me, once again, that I really need to sit down with one of Sanderson’s larger book and a hot cup of coffee…

When Shai is caught replacing the Moon Scepter with her nearly flawless forgery, she knows that she will be executed but what waits for her outside the prison door could well be worse. It might offer a chance at escape but it could well promise a lonely death in her cell…
The Emperor escaped assassination but at great cost; his soul has left his body and Shai must forge him a new one before rival factions tear the Empire apart. Soul forgery is considered an abomination though and Shai finds herself trapped in a cell that’s sealed by her own blood and guarded by a man who will see her dead the first chance he gets. Outside her door, rival politicians attempt to use her for their own gain while her closest ally struggles to comprehend what she is truly capable of.
Shai must escape but the task at hand could well prove to be the most important moment of her life if she gets it right. How often do you get the chance to shape an entire Empire…?

‘The Emperor’s Soul’ is a very simple tale on the surface, possibly because it’s only a hundred and sixty seven pages long. That kind of length doesn’t give you a lot of room to really go into depth, or does it? I’ll leave that for you to decide but I for one think there’s a lot more to ‘The Emperor’s Soul’ than it at first lets on. It’s a book that seems to wrap itself up a bit too quickly and easily but it’s also a book that will have you thinking about some of its less obvious messages. There’s plenty there to chew on if you want.

Like I said just now, a very simple tale on the surface. Shai has a big task in front of her with all sorts riding on the outcome, not least her own life whether she succeeds or fails. The stakes are high then and, trapped in a room, Shai has little choice but to get on with it. The outcome is pretty much what you would expect, some exciting sequences at the end adding a few frills to a predictable conclusion that we all saw coming. We all know the old adage ‘write what you know’ (although Sanderson takes issue with that in the postscript) but I wouldn’t mind seeing Sanderson take a chance and try writing something really dark where it doesn’t all work out neatly at the end. It is all tidily done though with enough tension to drive the plot forwards at a nice rate.

One thing that I wasn’t too sure about was just how easy it was made for Shai to complete her task of soul-forgery. A big deal is made of how little time Shai has to get the job done and then, very conveniently, a diary is given to her detailing the Emperor’s innermost thoughts. The tension about Shai’s predicament remains but the tension over the creation of a new soul suddenly drops off sharply…

On the face of it then, the plot is simple and easy to follow. What I got more out of though was Sanderson’s exploration of the themes of control and the magic system of soul stamping. Again, soul stamping looks very simple on the surface but Sanderson uses it as a way of exploring not only the Emperor and Shai’s characters but also to ask questions about how ethical the practice actually is. It’s made very clear what the outcome will be if Shai doesn’t create a convincing Emperor but we are still asked to question whether any one person should be placed in the position where they have complete control over a person like that. What Shai does with that responsibility left me wondering whether she was an inherently good person or if she just couldn’t resist a final flourish in her greatest moment. I reckon the truth lies somewhere in between the two.

The notion of control, in the novella, is also an interesting one with differing levels of control tying everyone together. In such a complex set of relationships (very well drawn considering how short the book is) it takes real subtlety to achieve your own aims without alerting anyone else. Shai has to win through but all credit to Sanderson for making her do it in such a way that you don’t notice her methods even while he shows you. That added a neat twist to the end.

‘The Emperor’s Soul’ should keep fans ticking over nicely and is a good ‘stepping on’ point for people like me who have yet to read the bulk of Sanderson’s work. It’s wrapped up just a little too neatly but there’s plenty more to chew on if you want…

Eight and a Half out of Ten

'Grendel' - John Gardner (Gollancz)

'The Dirty Streets of Heaven' to one side, the books I've been reading have been getting shorter and shorter in length. This is down to it feeling like there isn't enough time in the day to read books and review them as well, part of the reason why I'm taking that break I was talking about yesterday.

John Gardner's 'Grendel' seemed like a real boon then in that respect, weighing in at only a hundred and twenty three pages long (about the same length as one of the old 'Doctor Who' books). I'd been meaning to start on the pile of unread 'Fantasy Masterworks' books, sat on the shelf, and 'Grendel' looked like the ideal place to kick things off. A nice quick read to get me going. Well, that's what I thought...
What I didn't realise, at the time, is that Gardner has a way with words that means 'Grendel' is packed with the kind of ideas and emotion that you would expect to find in a book five times the length. What I thought would be an afternoon's read then was more like two or three days worth. I didn't care though, it ended up being the best two or three days reading that I've had in a long time.

The original story of 'Beowulf' is one that everyone knows, even if (like me) they have never read it. It is a story whose influence you will find in any number of fantasy books; you know, the whole ‘hero saves a helpless village from the monster that preys on it’ kind of thing. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a story that attempts to retell the ‘Beowulf’ tale from Grendels perspective though. This is possibly because Gardner has already done it so well but also because it would be too easy to lend an air of sympathy to Grendel that ultimately wouldn’t quite gel with the savagery that he is capable of.

Gardner seems to opt for a different path entirely, eliciting a feeling of sympathy for Grendel in the reader even though the beast initially seems to do very little (if anything at all) to deserve it. Well, that seems to be the case at first but, as the book goes on you can’t help but wonder if that’s really true.

Grendel’s initial overtures to Hrothgar’s people are rejected, quite violently, and that on it’s own would be enough for the reader to understand why Grendel reacts in the way that he does. You might even feel a little bit sorry for him at the same time. Gardner takes things a little deeper than that though and I for one really felt for Grendel, especially as I knew how his story would end.

Man’s attempts to assert order, on his surroundings, seem to inspire real rage in Grendel as this is something he has never been able to do (his mother cannot help him and everything else either fears him or is too stupid). The only other creature that Grendel has a conversation with (the Dragon) has its own issues with communication and the resulting frustration means that Grendel is lucky to escape alive. Grendel cannot find meaning then and don’t we all feel a little bit like that sometimes? When nothing makes sense you can’t help but feel jealous of those who have made sense of their lives. I feel like that sometimes and I’ll bet that you do too. While I can’t condone what Grendel does I can’t help but sympathize with his predicament; we might not lash out like he does (I hope not anyway!) but we’ve all felt like that. Gardner conducts a searing character study that comes with a poignant note, as we all know what Grendel’s railing against humanity will ultimately lead to. He also gives us a reason for Grendel’s violent reaction to the music from the mead hall; one that resonates a lot more powerfully than a mere ‘it was too noisy’ (something I’d always thought was the case).

Having never read ‘Beowulf’ (well, I did read the film tie-in years ago but I really should read the original one day) I was surprised at how easy ‘Grendel’ was to get into. Gardner caters for the first time reader by taking the focus off the established story and putting it entirely onto Grendel. At the same time, I got the feeling he was also catering for people who have read the original. His further delving into characters such as Unferth and Hrothulf offers an alternative spin on the original text as well as providing all readers with a fully fleshed out tale that everyone can get behind. The only bit where that didn’t quite work for me was the conversation between Hrothulf and his advisor, if I’d read the original I reckon I would have got more out of it.

‘Grendel’ is a masterful read, on more than one level, and is fully deserving of its ‘Masterwork’ status. You’ll be hard pressed to find a copy (outside second hand bookshops) though so if you do, pick it up straight away. You won’t regret it.

Ten out of Ten

'Elric: The Balance Lost Volume 2' - Roberson, Biagini (Boom! Studios)

The Eternal Champion is cursed to forever wander the moonbeam roads of the multiverse (in many incarnations), fighting for both Law and Chaos but always bound to serve the needs of the Cosmic Balance. He will never know a moments peace and will die when an unfeeling multiverse no longer has any use for him. I, on the other hand, get to read all these stories and have a fine time doing so (not having to worry about my own cosmic allegiances and whether I will perish at the hands of my own traitorous sword...) I definitely get the better end of the deal here :o)


The standard of the tales is consistently good, to the extent that I'm now happy to venture outside Moorcock's original books and check out works in the same setting by different authors. Enter one Chris Roberson, an author whose work I have never been able to get into (let alone finish) until he started work on the 'Balance Lost' series. I would have picked these books up anyway, no matter who the writer was, but I thought that Roberson did a very good job with the first volume. Check out my review HERE and you'll see what I mean.

When I saw Volume 2 on the shelves then... Well, I didn't need much of an excuse to pick it up ('Bad day in the office blahblahblah... Oh look, comic book!') and take it to the counter straight away, fighting not to open it and start reading before I'd paid. Volume 2 is a lot of fun again and it looks like some of the issues I had with the previous book aren't issues anymore.

Eric Beck was a computer game designer plagued by dreams that have turned out to be so much more... Beck's dreams are in fact the reality of the multiverse and his many guises as the Eternal Champion. Now Eric Beck faces a fight that he is unprepared for but must succeed in; nothing less than the fate of the multiverse itself is at stake as the Cosmic Balance has been lost leaving Law and Chaos free to drag whole worlds into oblivion. Beck, Elric, Corum and Hawkmoon must travel into realms hitherto unknown, if they are to put things right, and they are up against enemies (of both Law and Chaos) who will take some beating.

The real danger lies out of sight though. Who is pulling the strings that have finally enabled the gods to go to war...?

While Volume One was all about setting the scene (a little bit too much if you ask me...), Roberson lets the story have its head a little here and the result is a pulp caper in all the best traditions of Moorcock. The stakes are high (they can't get much higher in fact) and the action is furious as a result. It doesn't let up for one moment and I found it incredibly easy to keep turning the pages bceause of this. We're talking a lot of fun here, plain and simple.

With the scene having been set, Volume Two has a little more time to get into Eric Beck's head so we can see what he is all about. It's a little disappointing then that we don't get to see an awful lot. It's all about the plot here and that's fair enough up to a point, it would have been nice to get some more characterisation though. I think the assumption here is that readers will know about the Eternal Champion mythos already and probably know the three heroes from several of the books. All well and good if you do by what if you don't? I'd say that these comics aren't a bad place to jump on board but a little more background is always useful. And as far as Eric Beck goes, I wonder if perhaps a little too much time was spent showing us how he displays the traits of the Champion (and not enough time showing us what else there is to his character)...

It's the power of the story that got me through these rocky patches and has me eager to see how it all pans out in the next volume (roll on October!) Biagini's art contributes, in no small way, to the overall affect; you really get to see his imagination run wild in the scenes outside besieged Tanelorn. What I did notice though was that scenes of quick moving action inevitably resulted in artwork that felt more than a little rushed. This was probably the affect that was aimed for but a little bit more polish here would have made all the difference.

Minor quibbles though when you're faced with a comic book that is this much fun. I would have been around for Volume Three anyway but the cliffhanger ending sealed the deal...

Eight and a Half out of Ten

'Wake of the Bloody Angel' - Alex Bledsoe (Tor)

In fantasy worlds where the focus is usually on warfare, magic or intrigue it makes for refreshing reading to see a 'down on his luck' private eye touting for business and, more often than not, getting into more trouble than he can handle. I like fantasy fiction and I love reading a little Raymond Chandler, every now and then, so I love to see the two collide and what this throws up. This is the big reason why I love Alex Bledsoe's 'Eddie LaCrosse' books.

Glen Cook may well have got there first, with his 'Garrett P.I.' novels, but Bledsoe seems more willing to 'welcome his readers in' rather than adopt Cook's 'take it or leave it' approach. Bledsoe wants you to enjoy his tale so gives it that extra degree of accessibility, it works for me :o)

Without too much more beating around the bush, I've been sat on an advance copy of 'Wake of the Bloody Angel' (not literally, you know what I mean...) for a while now, having reviewed the ARC of 'Burn Me Deadly' far too early and wanting to balance things out a bit. I've been in need of a good read just recently (long story...) and so it felt like just the right time to pick up 'Wake of the Bloody Angel' and give it a read.

Blurb copied and pasted from elsewhere (every second saved and all that...)

Twenty years ago, a barmaid in a harbor town fell for a young sailor who turned pirate to make his fortune. But what truly became of Black Edward Tew remains a mystery—one that has just fallen into the lap of freelance sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse.


For years, Eddie has kept his office above Angelina’s tavern, so when Angelina herself asks him to find out what happened to the dashing pirate who stole her heart, he can hardly say no—even though the trail is two decades old. Some say Black Edward and his ship, The Bloody Angel, went to bottom of the sea, taking with it a king’s fortune in treasure. Others say he rules a wealthy, secret pirate kingdom. And a few believe he still sails under a ghostly flag with a crew of the damned.

To find the truth, and earn his twenty-five gold pieces a day, Eddie must take to sea in the company of a former pirate queen in search of the infamous Black Edward Tew…and his even more legendary treasure.

Summertime commuting in London is one of my least favourite things about living here. If you're wondering why; cram as many people as you can into a greenhouse and then stand in it while the sun is blazing down on your head. Don't step out for at least twenty minutes. That was my train outside London Bridge this morning. Roll on autumn!

'Wake of the Bloody Angel' came at just the right time for me then. It didn't make the commute go any faster but it made it a hell of a lot more bearable.

'Wake' doesn't really do anything new and I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not (at least not for the long term readers)... On the one hand, there's no hanging around waiting for things to develop. You know what you're getting with an 'Eddie LaCrosse' novel and Bledsoe serves it up to you straight away so you can get reading. Eddie gets working on a case, he finds clues that only make sense after he's made some wrong decisions, a couple of nasty surprises later and Eddie solves the case. That's the previous three books in a nutshell and 'Wake of the Bloody Angel' is no different.

Now that's cool if that's what you're after. It certainly worked for me but only up to a point though... I like a story where things just happen, without having to be laboriously set up first, and that's what you get here with 'Wake'. A lot of room is freed up for the good stuff, all the more exciting as we're talking about a plot set on the high seas here. There are sword fights all over the place, hidden islands, ghosts and sea monsters where you least expect them. Bledsoe strikes a fine balance between moments of all out action (a keen eye for spectacle is on display here) and the moments of inactivity that you can't escape from when you're on a boat in the middle of nowhere. This means that you may not get a fast paced tale but it all feels very smooth in the way that the plot moves forward. It's a lot of fun to read on that score.

There are some surprises throughout the book but these are all found on the way and are incidental to the case itself. No big deal here but it does highlight the fact that the case doesn't spring any big surprises, not the kind that Bledsoe was looking to spring anyway. The resolution here feels mechanical and a little too smooth; everything slots together far too easily, early on, and you can see what's coming...

No big deal though surely? Like I said, 'Wake of the Bloody Angel' is a lot of fun to read and took my mind off some lowpoints of the day. My mind keeps coming back to the whole thing about 'formula' though. I've already said that this isn't necessarily a bad thing here but the point is that when you're writing to a formula things get a bit... well, formulaic. I'm starting to get a feel for what is supposed to happen where with Eddie LaCrosse and it felt like just a little bit of the fun had gone. I was reading for the pulp swashbuckling heroics (loads of these) but I found I wasn't reading to be surprised anymore. And I want to be surprised... Maybe that's the price we pay for books that are more accessible.

While I had a lot of fun with 'Wake of the Bloody Angel' it felt like things were starting to get a little too familiar in lots of little ways. No big deal if you're after a fun read, maybe a bit more of a deal if you're with the series for the long term and want to see things develop. This isn't going to stop me being around for the next book, I just hope that Bledsoe has a few surprises for me...

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

'The Kingdoms of Dust' - Amanda Downum (Orbit)

It was way back in the murky depths of 2009 that I picked up 'The Drowning City' (based on a heady mixture of cool title, intriguing blurb and some glorious cover art). Unfortunately, what was inside the book (you know, all the stuff that really matters...) didn't match up to what was on the outside... You can read my full review Here or, if you really don't want to, have a couple of quotes here that sum things up,

'I had real trouble engaging with the characters in this book, possibly because any character development came across as pre-determined rather than as a result of reacting to the situations they were facing.'

'I don’t know about you but sometimes it feels like I could pull any book off my shelf and read about layers of intrigue and a mission that must be resolved. A book has to be pretty special to pull that trick off these days and ‘The Drowning City’ didn’t quite cut it.'

‘The Drowning City’ ended up being a little disappointing but there was enough there to suggest that any further books could be worth a look. I’ll see how it goes...'

Well, the plan was to check out further books, it didn't quite work like that. 'The Bone Palace' looked like just my kind of thing but a whole load of things stopped me from picking it up (along with a whole load of other books, the last two years have been mad) and I lost track of the series altogther. Until 'The Kingdoms of Dust' appeared.

The one thing that really grabbed me about 'The Drowning City' was the world building. 'Alive and vibrant' were the words that I used in the original review and if I could rewrite it I'd add the word 'lush' to that description. I wanted more of that and I was also curious to see how Isyllt's story eventually played out. No choice then but to pick up 'The Kingdoms of Dust' and see what happened....

Another copied and pasted blurb for you,

With her master dead and her oaths foresworn, necromancer and spy Isyllt Iskaldur finds herself in exile. Hounded by assassins, she seeks asylum in Assar, the empire she so recently worked to undermine. There, warlords threaten the Empire's fragile peace, and the empress is beset by enemies within the court. Even worse, darkness stirs in the deep desert. Ancient spirits are waking that could destroy Assar faster than any army. Isyllt must travel into the heart of the desert to lay the darkness there to rest once more. But first she must stop an order of mages that will do anything to keep the Empire safe - even raze it to dust.

Have you ever read a series and wished that the last book in the series had actually been the first? Not literally, that would really confuse the plot, I guess I'm talking more in terms of energy, plot and characters. As far as that goes, I really wish that 'The Kingdoms of Dust' had been the book that kicked things off here.

That strong worldbuilding is on display again; this time taking in the desert cities of Assar (both well known and those that are secret). You can really feel the heat in the air, and the dust under your feet, in these places (I'd love to see some of the stuff that's only hinted at, like the home of the Djinn) and it's such an effective way of grounding the reader in the story that is to follow.

And what a story it is! Reading 'The Kingdoms of Dust' made me re-evaluate a lot of what I'd read in 'The Drowning City' as it becomes clear that Downum has been playing a long game here. A lot of stuff comes to light (or fruition) here where you see it and think, 'so that was what was going on in the first book...' Downum has basically written something pretty deep here that will surprise you with its complexity; those who have stuck with the series will be rewarded by the end (I should have stuck with the series). If you factor in all the magic, sword fights and so on you have a book that is immediately engaging when you pick it up. A quick word on the action... It's not understated but it's never overdone either; Downum gets the balance just right and the reader gets a smooth ride, through the plot, as a result.

It's a shame then that the characters don't quite match up to the promise of everything else. Don't get me wrong. 'The Kingdoms of Dust' makes big strides away from the issues that I had with 'The Drowning City'. Isyllt and the rest of the cast are very much shaping their own stories here instead of just being put in place and aimed at an ending. 'The Kingdoms of Dust' is very much ' tale of crossroads' for its characters; no-one has roots anymore and everyone has a decision to make about where their life goes next. This is a great approach in terms of shaping the story but I was left wondering if Downum shied away from a few tough decisions of her own when tying up loose ends...
Does a character deserve a happy ending if they've had a rough ride for several books? Or should their past not allow them that easy way out? That's a tough one to answer (I think you can only really answer that on a case by case basis...) but, without giving too much away, Downum's ending suggested that she had a little sympathy for some characters and wanted to give them a break. That's her choice but this approach didn't quite click for me.

Apart from that though, 'The Kingdoms of Dust' was a great read and a fine way to round off the trilogy. I have a feeling that we won't be seeing any more of Isyllt Iskaldur (although I'm happy to be proved wrong) but I hope that Amanda Downum sticks around in this world she has created and gives us more stories; I think there are some good ones waiting to be told. For now though, I'm off to see if I still have my old copy of 'The Bone Palace'...

Eight and a Half out of Ten

'Night Winds' - Karl Edward Wagner

In a world where Karl Edward Wagner's 'Kane' books are long out of print (and going for quite obscene prices on Amazon etc, seriously, check it out...) I've been lucky enough to build up my collection through the awesome powers of the internet. Having only read 'Dark Crusade' (reviewed at the very beginning of this month and still superb reading even after all these years) I'm pretty excited at seeing how the other books measure up so you can expect to see reviews here on a fairly regular basis :o)

I really should have looked up the running order of the series, before getting into it, but sometimes it's a lot more fun to read books at random and see how they fit together. So it was then that I made my next 'Kane' read 'Night Winds' and it proved to be a good choice, being a collection of short stories that feel like they can be read on their own if you don't have the other books to hand.

What the reader gets with 'Night Winds' is a series of episodes from Kane's life, beginning in his early days (although he has already been around for centuries at this point) and heading through to, well... I don't know. There is a real timeless air to these stories that defies any attempt to place them within the timeline of the larger series. The only clue that we are given lies within comments about just how long Kane has been walking the earth. What are fairly recent memories to Kane are literally myth and legend to the people that he meets; that's the only clue you need about his age as it becomes really clear that Kane is practically immortal.

Being relatively short stories (the 'Night Winds' collection is only a hundred and seventy five pages long in the edition I have) you don't really get the chance to explore Kane's character in the way that you did in 'Dark Crusade'. Each story has that same air of darkness surrounding it though. Kane lives in troubled times (mostly because of his own actions) where a strong sword arm, and no morals at all, is all that you need to take whatever you want and make it your own. It's interesting to see Kane fight against this attitude, even more so when the fight is done and you realise just why Kane set himself against the status quo. Kane can show some measure of humanity, surprising for someone who has lived long enough to have lost it all, that mostly serves to show him as an anti-hero but can also sometimes send a story spiralling off in a different direction entirely.

Not all the stories worked for me but one thing that all of them did do was to keep me reading; mostly to see what Kane would do (here's a clue, it's mostly bloody and he's the last one standing by the end) but also for that dark atmosphere. A world so cruel that it shouldn't exist but a world that endures anyway. I don't fancy your chances of finding a cheap copy of 'Night Winds' but certainly give the book a go if you do come across it. It's pulp fantasy with an edge that demands your attention.

The stories within 'Night Winds' are...

'Undertow'

'Undertow' proves to be an apt tale to kick off proceedings as it takes place in the city of Carlsultyal, a city out of the antiquity of Kane's world. It makes for interesting reading then, especially when we are given clues at how long Kane has already lived by this point. The story itself hints at how badly Kane is dealing with his immortality at this point, with tragic consequences (for one character) that we never see coming. Kane will do anything to make the long years worth living, regardless of what it means for anyone else.

'Two Suns Setting'

One of the more straightforward of the tales on offer with Kane raiding an underground tomb to aid his giant companion. What's interesting though is the campfire conversations where they discuss humanity's emerging place in the world, all at the expense of their giant forefathers. Is it right that humankind should claim dominance (just because they breed more rapidly) after giantkind has done all the hard work? Of course it isn't fair but that's just the way the world is, something Wagner shows us all too well.

'The Dark Muse'

Considering I'm not a big fan of poetry, at all, it was surprising then that 'The Dark Muse' ended up being my favourite tale in the collection. The actual poetry didn't do anything for me, it was the journey into the mind of a poet (determined to capture his dark vision at any cost) that proved to be compelling. Couple this with a tale of demons stalking the ruins of an ancient city (picking off Kane's men one by one, like a forerunner of 'Predator') and 'The Dark Muse' delivers on all fronts.

'Raven's Eyrie'

Here's another strong story in that Wagner places Kane pretty much at death's door and then has him fighting a tenacious bounty hunter whilst trying to save the daughter he never knew he had. What I loved about 'Raven's Eyrie' is that Wagner shows just how capable Kane is without recourse to magic. Everything that happens is down to either Kane's ingenuity or sheer blind luck and it adds an edge to the tale that the others don't have. Definitely worth re-reading.

'Lynortis Reprise'

I wasn't really sure what to think of this tale. I loved the twist at the end, another one that shows just how long Kane has been around, but the rest of the tale just felt like it was going by the numbers. Here's Kane, here's some people who want to kill him, lets have a big fight. 'Lynortis Reprise' felt like a bit of a let down after some very strong stories beforehand...

'Sing a last Song of Valdese'

The last story in the book hardly features Kane at all and this makes his eventual entrance, on the penultimate page, all the more powerful when it finally happens. The actual story is a little too predictable for my tastes though. There's a lovely 'Haunted Inn' atmosphere going on here but it means you can see what's coming a way off. Perhaps not the best tale to sign off the collection on then...

A mixed bag then but enough with atmosphere and character to balance things out overall. Worth a look if you happen to chance upon a copy...

Eight and a Half out of Ten

'The Assassin's Curse' - Cassandra Rose Clarke (Strange Chemistry)

Back in the day, when the blog was all new and fresh, I used to review a little YA here and there. As time went on though I found myself moving away from YA altogether and concentrating on regular genre stuff instead, just because there was so much of it that I wanted to read first. Nothing against the YA stuff you understand, well... maybe a little bit. I might have just been picking the wrong books up but it really wasn't grabbing me at all and sometimes life is just far too short for that kind of reading.
Fast forward a few years and YA has become more and more of a big deal across the boundless domains of the internet. You may love YA books, you may not be able to stand them but there's no doubt now there's a lot going on here that's worthy of discussion. I wanted some of that action and I was a little curious to see what I'd been missing out on in the meantime (if anything...)

Where better place to start then with one of Strange Chemistry's debut titles? No, I can't think of anywhere more suitable either. We're looking at a brand new publisher headed up by an editor (Amanda Rutter) who was a real champion for YA books back when she was blogging over at 'Floor To Ceiling Books'. I miss that blog by the way and not only because I could search my name and see lots of nice things said about me :o)
'Assassin's Curse' was the first book to head my way from Strange Chemistry then and while it wasn't a perfect read there was more than enough there to leave me looking forward to future instalments in this series (trilogy).

Blurb copied and pasted today as I'm kind of run off my feet with other things as well...

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan. But that only prompts the scorned clan to send an assassin after her. And when Ananna faces him down one night, armed with magic she doesn t really know how to use, she accidentally activates a curse binding them together. To break the curse, Ananna and the assassin must complete three impossible tasks all while grappling with evil wizards, floating islands, haughty manticores, runaway nobility, strange magic, and the growing romantic tension between them.

(Note: I think this is a blurb for the whole series. I can't remember seeing a single manticore, haughty or otherwise...)

‘Assassin’s Curse’ has an intriguing premise but it turned out to be one that failed to grip me in the way that I’d hoped for. Luckily for the book, and me, I found myself reading for other reasons entirely and I’m pretty much on board until the story reaches its end. I’m perhaps hoping for a little more from the next book but ‘Assassin’s Curse’ did the job that it set out to.

The reason I’m on board (no pun intended) is Ananna, a girl who was raised to be a pirate perhaps a little too well by her parents. Instead of behaving herself and settling into a political marriage Ananna basically decides to do what she was raised to do i.e. exactly what she wants. I loved Ananna’s forthright honesty about her situation and how this is all littered with swear words and ‘pirate talk’. Clarke may be telling the story but it’s all about Ananna and that’s the way it should be.

Or should it?

You see, it’s not just about Ananna; not really. There’s also a story going on here and a world that it’s set against. Clarke gives us a look into Ananna’s head that had me completely engaged and wanting to find out more. Books about romantic tension generally don’t do a thing for me but this time round I couldn’t help but feel for Ananna as her life becomes clearer yet more confused all at the same time. You can see the end, of the series, coming a mile off but I’m rooting for Ananna anyway, I reckon you just might as well.

The problem is that all of this comes at the expense of the world building and, to an extent, the plot itself. The reader can spend so long inside Ananna’s head that stuff happens almost without you realising it. I found myself having to go back and retrace my steps, just to get an idea of what was going on while Ananna was agonising over something. Great character then but not a story that flows well. This is a real shame as, like I said, the premise is a good one and Clarke also shows that she can really ramp up the action and suspense when she wants to (as well as develop Ananna and Naji’s relationship in a plausible manner). Hopefully the balance will sort itself out over the next few books.

I also found myself wanting to see Ananna’s world in more detail and being disappointed when I couldn’t. In a way this is a good thing but it was frustrating as well. We’re talking desert cities where assassins prowl the shadows (literally) and magic islands where anything could happen to you. This is a world brimming with possibility but a world that Ananna is too familiar with to let us really get to see. Again, I really hope that this resolves itself over the next few books.

Having said all that though, the measure of ‘The Assassin’s Curse’ lies in the fact that I’ll be back to see how it all pans out, make no mistake about it. The book feels unbalanced but all the ingredients are there for something really special to happen and I can’t see myself passing up on that.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

'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

‘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

'Amor Vincit Omnia' - K.J. Parker

Anyone who who has been following the blog, for a while, will know that I may well be the only person blogging who didn't get on with K.J. Parker's 'The Company'. You think I'm joking don't you (especially as you'd be hard pressed to find a bad word about Parker online)? Seriously, check out my review Here and you'll see what I mean about not getting on with 'The Company'.

I've only read one other story of Parker's since then, 'A Rich Full Week' - from the 'Swords and Dark Magic' anthology, (and I didn't get on brilliantly with that either) but I couldn't get away from the feeling that I might be missing out on something by staying away from the party. Have a look online and see if you can find a negative review of Parker's work... No, I couldn't either.

So it was then that when I came across a K.J. Parker conversation on Twitter, kicked off by the mighty brain behind 'Fantasy Faction', I knew that I had to get some recommendations and see if I was missing out on anything after all. Jared, of Pornokitsch fame, initially recommended 'The Folding Knife' but it was the promise of a free read that really piqued my interest. 'Amor Vincit Omnia' can be found, in its entirety, on the Subterranean Press website and made for a great little read before I went to bed. Then it made for a great little read on the way to work yesterday morning and the morning before that. I'd encourage you all to go and give it a read. I'm still not a hundred percent sure about K.J. Parker's work but I'm a lot more interested now than I've ever been. I'm going to have to find a copy of 'The Folding Knife' and check that out as well...

'Amor Vincit Omnia' is based in the same setting as 'A Rich Full Week' where magic has been defined as another branch of philosophy and science. I'll say right now that the definition is a lot more clear this time round as there is a lot of discussion around the variants of established 'science' being employed by a renegade who is displaying his powers in the worst possible way. It's the most innocuous of these though that is proving the most cause for alarm and a member of the scientific community, deemed promising yet expendable, is sent to take care of what could prove to be a very large problem indeed. Can the actions required to resolve this issue really be justified though?

I have to say that my initial reading of 'Amor Vincit Omnia' just threw all the same issues in my face that I'd had with 'The Company'. There is just no getting away from the fact that Parker can be an incredibly dry writer who loves to go on in a little too much length about the technical theory underpinning her stories, how things work and why they should work like that. This is even worse in a short story like 'Amor Vincit Omnia' where a lot of the explanation comes in the first few paragraphs, that's an awful lot to wade through before you can get to the story itself!

Having said that though, while it's clear to me now that while Parker enjoys going into the technical side of things there's also evidence of a sense of humour in 'Amor Vincit Omnia' that suggests a different kind of enjoyment entirely. I'm talking about lines like,

'There was a short, rather painful silence. Raw emotion, like raw chicken, upset elderly gentlemen of regular habits.'

Lines like that, and there are more, actually did a lot to dispel that air of dryness and kept me reading in the hope of finding more. I found myself chuckling at completely unexpected moments, the best kind of chuckling you can do.

'Amor Vincit Omnia' is a lot more than a humorous tale though (although I did enjoy some of the parallels drawn with Pratchett's Unseen University). It's a very clever tale that seizes on what look like throwaway sentences and shows them to be pivotal moments in the story. I'm talking about moments so tiny that you'll pass over them to get to what you think is the meaty stuff, only to find that you've bypassed something really tasty. Parker is clearly very adept at getting the reader to go where she wants them to and then changing the direction of the story entirely. I also found the implications of 'Lorica' to be real food for thought and something that gave the story real impetus in all the right places.

But 'Amor Vincit Omnia' is a lot more than this as well. It's very much a tale about the lengths people will go to in order to keep the balance of power just as it is and regardless of the cost. The reader can understand the reasoning behind this ('Lorica' is a very big deal) but once you see what Framea must do, and the results of this, then you can't help but wonder if the renegade should have just been allowed to walk away and live in relative ignorance of his abilities. There's a lot to think about here and that's one of the reasons I came back to this story more than once.

I don't think I'll ever be entirely comfortable with Parker's dry tone and the level of technical detail, in what I've read so far, will always have me stifling a yawn or two. 'Amor Vincit Omnia' goes beyond this though and the end result is nothing short of a gripping read. 'Amor Vincit Omnia' is the tale that got me back into reading K.J. Parker and I'm looking forward to hopefully reading more of the same.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

‘The Dragon in the Sword’ – Michael Moorcock (Grafton Books)

With older series it would sometimes take me years to finish them as I’d have to scour second hand bookshops for the next installment. It all adds to the fun of reading for me with a real sense of achievement the reward for a sustained period of rooting through murky bookshelves (under the watchful eye of a bookshop owner surprised to have a customer on the premises).
All that came to an end though when I was offered my new job, a couple of weeks ago now, and celebrated by going on Amazon and having a little bit of a spree in their ‘new and used’ section. There’s a lot to be said for rooting around in old bookshops (a trip somewhere doesn’t count as a trip until I’ve found the local second hand bookshop) but, in this day and age, there’s also a lot to be said for getting your hands on a book straight away. Why should I have to wait, dammit! ;o) You’re going to be seeing a few slightly older books here then over the next few weeks, it’s nice to look backwards sometimes as well as forwards.

‘The Dragon in the Sword’ is one of those books then. I’ve already read ‘The Eternal Champion’ and ‘Phoenix in Obsidian’ (links to my reviews on the blog) and was keen to see how it all finally played out. I’d actually read the trilogy a few years ago but this final instalment was the one that was the most hazy. ‘The Dragon in the Sword’ is an odd ending to the tale of one of the most interesting incarnations of the Eternal Champion; an odd ending but perhaps a fitting one.

John Daker is the Eternal Champion, tasked with upholding the Balance between Law and Chaos but far more interested in searching for his lost love Ermizhad and a chance at peace amidst the constant conflict. Daker might just have that chance at last with one final quest offering a temporary peace as its reward. A temporary peace is better than no peace at all I guess…
Anyway, if Daker is to have any chance at peace at all he must ready himself for a battle that will take in six interlinked worlds as well as our own. Daker must face cannibal ghost women, smoke snakes and a Duke of Chaos in his struggle but his most implacable foe might just prove to be himself…

In terms of reading, there is surely nothing more satisfying than finishing off a series of books (trilogy or otherwise). Everything is tied up and all your questions are answered, job done :o) That isn’t the case here though and that’s very much down to the subject matter that Moorcock is tackling. The whole point of the Eternal Champion theme is that the fight doesn’t stop for him, not ever. All Daker can hope for is a short break until he is called to arms once more. That’s all well and good, without giving too much away Moorcock does well to convey this point but it comes at the expense of the ending. It’s not an ending, how can it be? It makes more sense when placed against the wider context of the ‘Eternal Champion’ series as a whole (it might even be resolved in ‘The Quest for Tanelorn’ but I don’t even know anymore…) but things just feel unfinished here. It’s a shame but I don’t think there was any getting round this, not without dismantling an entire mythos…

That’s only the last chapter (and possibly a bit of the last one as well) though. The rest of ‘The Dragon in the Sword’ is Moorcock pretty much doing what he does best; giving the reader a thoroughly entertaining sword and sorcery tale taking in worlds strangely alien yet accessible all at the same time.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Moorcock does one hell of a lot in not an awful lot of pages. The page count is two hundred and eighty three pages this time round and, thinking about it, that’s actually a lot more book than I’m used to from Moorcock. Someone gave himself a little more room to write this time round… It’s still not a lot of pages, in general, though and Moorcock does very well to cram in as much as he does.

The worlds that Daker must travel through are lush, pulpy affairs that not only immediately catch your eye but make sure your eye stays caught. We’re talking about worlds where city ships make their ponderous way across dreary marshland, worlds where talking bears hold the secret to travelling into the heart of Chaos. We’re talking about the heart of Chaos itself, where Moorcock is constantly changing the background so that we’re never sure what might happen next. There is a lot of energy in these scenes, in particular, that makes the narrative literally fly along and I was well and truly caught up in it all.

It’s an energy that’s apparent over the whole book as Moorcock doesn’t let the pace meander at all. There is always something going on whether it’s some swashbuckling sword fighting (atop one of the Hulls), perilous quests or a brief detour into Nazi Germany where history is nudged down a familiar path thanks to the intervention of the Balance. I liked that bit, it was perhaps a little obvious but done with enough panache that it didn’t really matter. Moorcock’s ‘Eternal Champion’ books are all about spectacle and that’s very much the case here.

What is most interesting though is Moorcock’s continued treatment of the ‘Eternal Champion’ theme. Here, Daker’s strengths (as the Champion) are turned against him and his only hope of victory lies in rediscovering his humanity. It’s a move, for me, that fleshed out Daker’s character even more and made for some really touching (yet harrowing) scenes where he tries to remember details of his life in the face of losing his very soul.

A storming book then that loses some of its impact with an ‘ending’ that sort of tails off into nothing really... It’s a shame but I’m left wondering if ‘The Dragon in the Sword’ is more about the journey made than the final destination.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

Cover Art Courtesy of The Image Hive