'Sleepless' - Charlie Huston (Orion Books)

As a rule I don’t have too many problems getting to sleep, staying asleep is the problem... If the slightest ray of light comes through the window then that’s it, I’m awake and there’s no way I’m getting back to sleep! Every so often though, I’ll lay in bed for hours and sleeping just will not happen. There’s something nice about laying there, listening to the birds quieten down for the night and then (hours later) hearing them start to wake up again. What’s not so nice though is having to get through the following day on no sleep at all...
Now take that scenario and stretch it out for days on end, even months. No sleep at all and a gradual descent into madness and death as the pressure on your brain grows. If that’s something that your imagination isn’t comfortable with then you don’t have to imagine it at all. Charlie Huston has done all the hard work there and all you have to do is step on board for the journey. It’s not a pleasant ride but it’s one that’s well worth taking...

A plague of sleeplessness means a fatal dose of insomnia for the city of Los Angeles and cops like Parker Haas are left to pick up the pieces in a city that is gradually coming apart at the seams. In the midst of riots, suicide bombings and the surreal behaviour of the sleepless Parker Haas’ strict moral code makes him the ideal cop to crack the black market for ‘Dreamer’, the only drug that can give the sleepless any kind of relief (although it’s not a cure). Parker’s family situation lends him added impetus to do the right thing, his wife has the disease and it’s possible that his newborn daughter has it as well...
Parker Haas is in way over his head though and he doesn’t realise it. This case is about to lead him into contact with a hired killer whose work is defined by aesthetic perfection as well big businesses who have their own reasons for the situation being managed as it is. Will Parker come out of this alive? More importantly, will his daughter...?

Charlie Huston is a brutal writer in many ways; some of these add a lot of positive things to an excellent book but others only serve to detract from it...

If you’re reading a book by Charlie Huston then you know that you’re not going to be spared a single one of the traumatic punches that inevitably come flying your way. Huston knows that his leading characters have hit rock bottom and he adjusts the style and flow of his narrative to match. If Parker Haas is going through some rough times then Huston will be letting you know exactly what that means in no uncertain terms. What’s the point otherwise? The upshot is that the reader is given the clearest of pictures in terms of what it means to live in a city that is teetering on the precipice of self destruction. Every page is an exercise in either the madness of sleep deprivation or the constant daily struggle of wondering just when it’s all going to happen to you next. The reader gets both sides of this all encapsulated in the relationship between Parker and his wife; a relationship that’s painful in it’s honesty but compelling through the way that Huston gets right into his character’s heads and lays their souls bare on the page.
Other characters deal with the situation in different ways, most notably by retreating into the virtual world of online games, and it all adds up to a picture of survival that’s as diverse as only humans could make it. Huston’s honesty really has you wondering if this is the way that it would all go if the world suddenly stopped sleeping...

If this wasn’t enough for you, Charlie Huston writes a damn good story to sit against the apocalyptic backdrop. The original mystery to be solved is worth the price of entry on it’s own along with the importance of the sub-plot of Parker and his wife (something where I absolutely had to see how it ended) but then you realise that it’s all about something else entirely...
It’s at this point that all bets are off and anything can happen. And it does. Huston turns things upside down and although you may not agree with what certain characters are doing you cannot deny that everything is done with the best possible intentions. When the world is ending, all you can do is try and save something for those that are left over. Huston doesn’t leave a stone unturned either, everything fits together by the end of the story (even those bits that you thought would never fit in anywhere...)
I was in two minds about the effectiveness of revealing the source of the outbreak of sleeplessness at the end of the book. While the origin of the disease comes out from far enough left field to be a real surprise, it was far enough out there to lack a connection with the disease that would have provided a real impact. Maybe some things are better left unsaid...

‘Sleepless’ is a brutal novel but one that can suffer from this brutality. Huston doesn’t pander to his reader; he’s here to tell a story the way it is and if you don’t like it then you’re more than welcome to put the book down and go read something else. The combination of perspectives in ‘Sleepless’ (two of which are the same person) make this a book that is hard to get into until you find it’s rhythm. Huston doesn’t signpost these changes (that’s not what he’s about) and leaves you to get to grips with it as best you can. I’m not ashamed to admit that I floundered a bit until I worked out how things stood. Huston is also not afraid to jump backwards and forwards in time and this made for some difficult reading at the climax of the novel, at least as far as I was concerned. I had to go back and re-read those passages a few times to be sure that I’d got it...
In short, ‘Sleepless’ is an uncompromising novel that asks its readers to do all the running. If you’re after an easy ‘comfort read’ then this book probably isn’t for you!

Having said all that though, if you’re ready to do some running then ‘Sleepless’ is a book full of rewards for those who ready to go looking for them. Not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination but one that I very much enjoyed.

Nine and a Quarter out of Ten

What I’ve been reading…

Things have been mad over the last few days (what with one thing and another) and reading time has been limited to spare moments here and there. My time has also been very limited in terms of what I’ve been able to do as far as reviews go. Things will hopefully return to normal very soon with the kind of reviews that I normally post but, in the meantime, here’s a quick snapshot of what I’ve been reading over the last week…



‘The Dragon Factory’ (St. Martin’s Press) – Jonathan Maberry

‘Patient Zero’ was a great read and I was hoping for similar things here. I got everything I was after and a little more. The clock is ticking and if the Nazis don’t get Joe Ledger and his team it will be a ruthless pair of geneticists intent on selling mythical beasts to the highest bidder. Either way, the world will be ending in a week’s time…

‘The Dragon Factory’ is a fast and furious read that delights in sending its readers down blind alleys when they least expect it. Having said that, the fact that you can see the ending coming from a mile away makes things a little too obvious to be a really gripping read. The bottom line is though, Maberry is onto a winning formula and I’ll be around to see how his next book pans out. 9/10



‘White Wolf’ (Corgi) – David Gemmell

David Gemmell’s work is becoming a bit of a comfort read for those times when I’ve got loads on and don’t want to have to think too much about what I’m reading. ‘White Wolf’ certainly delivers here with all the usual lessons on heroism that you would expect from any work of Gemmel’s, especially as Druss features quite strongly. What saves this work from veering into too familiar territory is the character of Skilgannon the Damned, a beautifully drawn character who adds a nice shade of grey to the ‘black and white’ view that Druss has of the world. If this first chapter is anything to go by then I’ll be picking up 'The Swords of Night and Day' sooner rather than later. 8/10



‘Iron Man: Virus’ (Del Rey) – Alex Irvine

I enjoyed the last Iron Man book that Del Rey published so thought I’d be onto a winner here. How wrong was I…? Whereas the last book was a decent mixture of espionage and action, ‘Virus’ was all about the slow build up of evil machinations to a grand finale. The only problem was that things took far too long to build up and this meant that there was no time for the conclusion to be as hard hitting as it wanted to be. I also wasn’t so keen on the patent details that began every other chapter; I didn’t get the point of it and felt that it disrupted the natural flow of the story. Not what I needed. I’d probably pick another ‘Iron Man’ novel up but not by this author… 5/10

Mini Reviews?

Earlier this year I found myself in the enviable position of having a little stockpile of books that I could review while I was reading the thicker stuff. Me being me though, I ended up reading a whole load of other stuff and leaving the stockpile to gather dust in the corner... The way it stands now, you’re not going to get full on reviews of these books as I’d have to read them all over again and I don’t have the time. What you will get though are the impressions that have stayed with me since I read them. The people at ‘Fantasy Book Critic’ have already coined the ‘capsule review’ phrase so I can’t really use that which is a shame as it’s a great phrase. Call this post what you want really but here’s what I thought of the following books...



‘Necrophenia’ – Robert Rankin (Gollancz)
This one took a while to get going but once it did Mr Rankin was on top form. I got the impression that the story suffered slightly this time round by his tendency to go off on an epic tangent whenever it suited him... ‘Necrophenia’ is brimming over with irreverent humour though and it’s chock full of zombies as well so I was happy.



‘Quarantined’ – Joe McKinney (Lachesis Publishing)
I loved ‘Dead City’ so jumped at the chance to read ‘Quarantined’, things weren’t as good this time round. For me, McKInney’s strengths lie in his ability to portray the meltdown of a city the way he did in ‘Dead City’. This wasn’t the approach he took in ‘Quarantined’ though (with San Antonio being locked down after an attack of bird flu) and his tale of a city going through the aftermath of a crisis lacked the punch of his former work. It was a case of comparing ‘something waiting to happen’ with ‘things that are happening in your face right now’... The ‘murder mystery’ element of the plot was fun to follow though.



‘Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ & ‘Restaurant at the End of the Universe’ – Douglas Adams (Pan MacMillan)
You know how it is, you meet a friend that you haven’t seen in years only to find that you have nothing in common and getting back in touch was a mistake. That was me and these two books. I hadn’t read either of these books in a long time (years) and despite them still being as well written as I remember, they just weren’t funny anymore. Had I read them too often as a kid and killed the jokes? Maybe, maybe not. I wasn’t laughing though and haven’t bothered to pick up the others.



‘Broken Arrow’ – Paul Kane (Abaddon Books)
I love reading Abaddon’s ‘Afterblight Chronicles’ and ‘Broken Arrow’ was no exception. It’s lightweight but fun and a very accessible retelling of the ‘Robin Hood’ story. Maybe not the best book in the ‘Chronicles’ but still worth a read if you’re a fan.



‘Winter Duty’ – E.E. Knight (Roc)
If there was ever a reason for not starting a series at the eighth book then this book is it. I thought I’d give it a go and see what happened. What I got was a confusing mish mash of names and references to past events that I had no idea about. If that wasn’t bad enough, the tone was so dry as to leave me dehydrated and the constant recounting of troop deployments did nothing for me at all. Not a great reading experience...

‘Fragment’ – Warren Fahy (Harper)

My name is Graeme and I love dinosaurs. Ever since an abortive trip to the Natural History Museum in London as a child (I was very sick all over one of the exhibits) and all the way through to the third Jurassic Park movie, via ‘1,000,000 Years BC’, I can’t get enough of them. With this in mind, if I see a book with the tagline ‘A Jurassic Park for the Lost generation’ then I’m sure to pick it up for a read, even if I’ve never seen a single episode of ‘Lost’ (I haven’t, I am ashamed...)
Maybe next time I won’t act so impulsively...

When the cast and crew of reality show ‘Sea Life’ make a diversion to unexplored Henders Island it’s simply to investigate a distress beacon that has gone off. No-one ever suspected that eleven people would die in the first few minutes of landing on the island... Henders Island has developed its own ferocious eco-system over millennia of isolation and is teeming with wildlife that can kill faster than you can blink. The US president has a tough decision to make over the future of an eco-system that could wipe out all life on the planet if it was ever allowed to escape from Henders Island. Just when the outcome is clear a discovery is made that changes everything...

I loved the concept that underpins ‘Fragment’ and what this is able to bring to the story as a whole. An island that you can’t get off because the wildlife is just so nasty, animals and plants that can kill in the blink of an eye. Throw a bunch of totally unprepared people into the mix and you’ve got a plot that shoots along at the speed of a Henders Rat and drags you along with it in a flurry of talons and blood.

Well, this is what would happen if elements of the book didn’t conspire to make the pace sporadic and clogged up with the unnecessary...

A gripping prologue is spoilt by opening chapters where all the leading characters are introduced in a lot more depth than perhaps was needed. Forget the story itself; we get to find out the life history of all the main players before anything else... While it’s always good for characters to have some background I was already impatient to get to the point of the book and these opening scenes really dragged for me. Perhaps these introductions could have been spread out over the book; this would have allowed things to really get moving.
A similar situation arises in Geoffrey Binswanger’s lectures that introduce his character into the proceedings. Perhaps these are really interesting to those of a more scientific nature but I couldn’t really work out what they had to do with the plot itself. As far as I was concerned, they were just another obstacle that I had to get past before I could get to the main event. What I was left with was more of the book that dragged.

When I finally got to the main piece things did start to pick up with our heroes trying to escape from monstrous flora and fauna in a series of adrenalin fuelled spectacles. That’s how it started off anyway. Partway through I realised that not only was Fahy keeping his main characters safe (to drive the story forwards) but a particularly vile character was slowly being signposted more and more as the person who die a horrible death right at the end. Once I saw this I was able to work out who was going to live and die and that was the point where any semblance of tension was lost for me. This approach works on the big screen, where everything is thrown in your face and you have to stay with it, but in a book (where you have time to think about things) it doesn’t do so well...

I wasn’t too keen on the twist in the tale either. I don’t want to give too much away (in case you decide to give this book a go) but crucial decisions made really didn’t make sense based on all the events that led up to them. Again, this would have worked much better on the big screen...

‘Fragment’ is a great concept that is smothered underneath unnecessary padding and diverted by decisions that are clearly nothing more than ‘crowd pleasers’. I would go and see it at the cinema though...

Five out of Ten

‘Chaos’ – Escober (Underland Press)

Underland Press hasn’t been around all that long but it has already developed a reputation, for me, as a publisher that I can rely on to give me something a little different when I get stuck in one of my infrequent ‘everything I’m reading all feels the same’ ruts. As much as I’ve enjoyed my recent reads, and I have enjoyed them, have a scroll down and see for yourselves, I’ve been feeling the need to break out and read something completely different. An email about the ‘Agent of Chaos’ competition reminded me that Escober’s ‘Chaos’ had been sat in the pile for far too long and that it was about time I gave it a go. I did just that; ‘Chaos’ didn’t quite work for me but (on the other hand) it was a book that I couldn’t put down until I’d finished it...

A tour of duty in Bosnia has left Alex Fisher with mental scars that have left his life in pieces; the only thing left for him to do is to go travelling and try to exorcise the demons in his head.
A chance encounter with a mysterious woman, in Mexico, turns out to be just what Fisher needed. What he doesn’t need though is a brutal beating (at the hands of the Mexican police) the following day. And then things get even stranger...
Fisher must sort through a flood of suppressed memories if he is to maintain his grip on reality enough to be able to come through a nest of schemes and betrayals in one piece...

Without giving too much away, I loved the concept that underpinned everything ‘Chaos’ did. It’s a story of one of those million to one chance occurrences actually taking place and what happens as a result. It’s far out enough to make for a plot that had me interested (even more so when I realised what was actually going on) and plausible enough that I didn’t have any trouble accepting that this could happen in real life. I’m no big expert on Chaos Theory but it strikes me that this kind of one in a million occurrence is just what they’re talking about. Also, like that butterfly flapping its wings, the smallest thing that Fisher does can have far reaching consequences...

Where it fell down for me though was the number of hoops that various characters had to jump through in order for Fisher to arrive at a certain location so that he could fulfil a certain role. I sometimes find that the more intricate a scheme is the more contrived it feels on the page and this was the case with ‘Chaos’. With hindsight, it felt like certain events were included to move Fisher along rather than add anything to the plot itself...

What this approach does do however is to give proceedings a real sense of uncertainty. Whether you think that the plot is needlessly convoluted or not, the bottom line is that anything can happen and this makes turning each page a bit of a treat. If you add the fact that Fisher has no idea what’s going on, even when he thinks that he does, then reading ‘Chaos’ becomes even more fun (especially when the stakes become clear). Alliances can change literally from one page to the next and it’s this constant fluctuation (chaos!) that keeps things fresh and interesting.

Fisher’s character proved really difficult for me to get my head round. While his circumstances led to me to feel a degree of sympathy for him, there is also a lot that he has brought on himself. Here is a loving family man with a dark side that has been thrust on him but was also there to begin with. He achieves some form of redemption but only through the fact that he has given himself nowhere else to turn to. Is that redemption? I’m still thinking about that one...

I found that while ‘Chaos’ did have it’s problems it was still a book that really made me think about what I was reading as well as being a thriller that did everything it set out to. I wouldn’t mind reading more of Escober’s work on the strength of the fun I had with this one.

Eight out of Ten

‘Keeper of Light and Dust’ – Natasha Mostert (Dutton/Transworld)

When it comes to picking the next book to read there are any number of factors that can help me make my mind up. A lot of the time it’s a case of switching between genres, an overdose of fantasy can lead to my trying out some sci-fi or horror. I also try and give publishers fair representation on the blog and this also leads to certain reading choices being made. Sometimes I just think “the hell with it” and pick up the first book I see! When I saw that ‘Keeper of Light and Dust’ was set in South London I just knew I’d be giving it a go as that’s where I’ve been living for the last few years (and very nice it is too). I was sent the American edition and the resulting edits meant that it didn’t feel very ‘South London’ at all; it was still a good read though...

Mia Lockhart is the latest in a long line of ‘Keepers’, a secret clan of women have healed and protected warriors throughout the ages. She practices her craft amongst the boxers and martial artists of South London with no worries other than how her wards will do in the ring. Until now that is... Fighters in peak condition are dying (their hearts coming to a stop days after a big fight) and Mia is about to meet the man behind their deaths, the mysterious ‘Dragonfly, a man who has perfected the art of draining people of their chi so he can stay young forever.
When Dragonfly targets the man Mia loves, she must take the fight to him in both the spiritual and physical realms if her love is to survive...

I’ve never quite been able to get my head around talk of ‘chi’, and all the related spiritual stuff, which proved awkward when reading ‘Keeper’ as that is what the whole book is based upon. ‘Keeper’ switches between assuming the reader already has some background knowledge (of both the spiritual and physical aspects of the martial arts scene) and then giving them info-dumps of things they should know. I know nothing about martial arts and the info-dumps had the unfortunate affect of jarring the flow of the plot. In this sense ‘The Keeper of Light and Dust’ (‘The Keeper’ if you’re a UK reader) proved to be an infuriating read as things either went straight over my head or got thrown at me in such detail that I ended up skim reading... If this is the kind of the stuff that you’re into then you’ll get a lot more out of it than I did.

This was a real shame as the plot itself is one that’s easy to get into and not so easy to untangle yourself from. ‘Keeper of Light and Dust’ is one part mystery/ thriller and one part kick ass martial arts fights and there is plenty to get your teeth into. Mostert’s plot is crisp (apart from the info-dumps I’ve already mentioned) and flows along at a good pace. Any questions raised are done at reasonable intervals and this was what kept me going. The blurb gave a little too much away, before I’d started reading, but there was still plenty there to keep me going in the meantime.
The fight scenes are superbly choreographed and you can just tell that Mostert is writing these from experience. Some of these scenes were breathtaking and I could feel some of the punches! I also liked the sense of camaraderie that was prevalent in the dojos and gyms. There’s a real ‘warrior’s code’ thing going on here that wouldn’t look out of place in a David Gemmell novel...

The only other thing that really bugged me was a moment that came across as more than a little contrived so that Mia could find out more about the mysterious ‘Dragonfly’. While I can see Mia having her bag locked in the ladies changing room, I found it a little harder to believe that there was a way to the ladies changing room via the gents... And a certain someone happened to be in the shower at the same time... It just felt a little forced to me...

Despite this though. ‘Keeper of Light and Dust’ was fun to read and I’d be interested to see what other people think of both this and her other work. It’s definitely one for fans of martial arts...

Seven and Three Quarters out of Ten

As mentioned (albeit briefly) in the review; if you're in the UK, and looking for a copy of this book, then you need to be looking for 'The Keeper' (not 'Keeper of Light and Dust') as that's what it's called over here.

‘The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death’ – Charlie Huston (Ballantine Books)

When I first moved to London I took on a temp job updating, and closing down, files of people that had died in a particular London Borough and the local council were winding up their affairs. At least that’s what I thought at the time... It turned out that not only would I be looking at files but I would also be going into the houses of the (very) recently deceased to look for details of next of kin etc. One very hot July day, I was called upon to go into the house of a man who had been dead for about three weeks before anyone noticed the strange smell coming from his house, without a doubt the worst day of my working life... Reading ‘The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death’ gave me a real sense of déjà vu...

Charlie Huston has become one of a select group of authors where I will put down whatever I am currently reading to check out his latest book. This is primarily because of his excellent ‘Joe Pitt’ series but ‘The Shotgun Rule’ is also more than worth your time if you like crime fiction with a more than liberal dose of attitude. ‘Mystic Arts’ isn’t without its problems but its well worth a look...

A particularly traumatic event leads Webster Goodhue to quit his job as a teacher and swear never to ride the bus again. However, there’s only so much time anyone can reasonably get away with living rent free with your best friend and doing your level best to drive away all your other friends, it’s time Webster found himself a job. As luck would have it an opening suddenly appear with Clean Team, the people the police call if a stray dog has been hit by a train or a suicide ends up not being a clean cut as the victim intended. Soon enough, Webster finds himself knee deep in the excesses of humanity’s lowest moment but things are about to get worse still. Trauma cleaning is a booming industry and rival companies are not above a little sabotage in order to steal the trade. And then there’s the midnight call Webster gets from a client who has some ‘extra cleaning work’, in a motel, which she needs him to do for her. Where there’s a midnight rendezvous in a blood splattered motel room, gun toting cowboys will surely follow. What has Webster got himself into? And will he ever get himself out...?

‘The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death’ is one of those books that grabs you right from the first page and keeps a hold long after you’ve finished, that’s certainly what happened for me. The novel is brimming with a nervous energy that keeps the plot flowing and perfectly complements a cast of characters that are either on the wrong side of tracks or are teetering on the edge (numerous fire bombings, beatings and death by telephone should help you work out who’s who!) The story is told entirely from Webster’s perspective and Huston deftly treads a fine line between eliciting the reader’s sympathy, for a genuinely tortured soul, and making us wish that Webster would just shut the hell up and stop hurting the people who are trying to help him. As a result, Webster comes across as a well rounded character whose wisecracks very much maintain the reader’s interest over the course of the book.

‘The Mystic Arts’ sees Huston continue to write in that sparse (yet very intense) style where every word looks to have been carefully chosen for its place on the page. Not a word is wasted in a book that weighs in at a relatively slender three hundred and nineteen pages. However, as much as I enjoyed the book, I was left wishing that Huston had given himself a little more room to breathe and explore some of the supporting characters, showing us what makes them tick. We do get to find out more about Soledad, Webster’s midnight assignation, but only because the plot demands that everything be tied up satisfactorily (which it is, no doubt about that). The laconic Gabe is another character who is almost begging to have his story told. Sometimes it’s nice to find out more about certain characters (even if you don’t really need to) but, to be fair, Huston appears to be holding to the fact that you don’t always get the whole picture in real life...

‘Real life’ is certainly a term that can be applied to the events of ‘The Mystic Arts’. Shit happens and it often happens in a completely random way that no-one could have possibly foreseen. It’s like a comedy of errors but with the comedy taken out and replaced with the aforementioned fire bombings, beatings and death by telephone. I have to say though that I wasn’t too sure about what lay at the heart of the ‘Soledad plot’, people can place importance on the most unlikely things in real life but I was left wondering if perhaps Huston could have picked something better to smuggle than... I’ll leave you to find that out.

Despite this, ‘The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death’ is Huston staying firmly on top of his game. I reckon fans will love it and if you’re not a fan then this may be the book that converts you.

Nine out of Ten

‘Patient Zero’ – Jonathan Maberry (Gollancz)

For the last three years I’ve entered SFX magazine’s ‘Pulp Idol’ short story competition and, for the last three years, each of my stories has failed to get any mention at all. Oh well, there’s always next year...
This year’s ‘stroke of genius’ was a tale of terrorists seeking to cause mayhem by becoming zombies during the London rush hour. Not only did it fail to get anywhere but it turns out that Jonathan Maberry has only gone and beaten me to the punch with a full length novel of zombie terrorism that will be published by Gollancz in April next year. I’d be as sick as a dog about this if it wasn’t for the fact that ‘Patient Zero’ is a bloody good read...

What’s the one thing that’s worse than having to kill a man? Having to kill the same man all over again before he can tear your throat out with his teeth... This is the situation that Baltimore detective Joe Ledger has just had to face and he’s about to find that things can get even worse than that... The Department of Military Sciences are desperately trying to counter a terrorist plot to flood America with reanimated corpses that are ravenous for human flesh and Joe finds himself on the team. There’s a terrorist cell to destroy, ‘zombie science’ to decipher and a race to find out who’s ultimately responsible before all hell breaks loose. However, plans within plans and a ‘mole’ within the Department mean that this is a race that will go right down to the wire...

As a rule, I cannot stand ‘thrillers’ involving evil terrorists being stamped on by ‘Black Ops’ teams. The blurb always sounds cool but the books themselves always end up reading like the author has a list of impressive sounding vehicles and weaponry and wants to show off a bit. ‘Wow, Agent X is really hardcore; he must be because he’s packing a machine gun with a lot of letters (and a big number) to its name. And it’s got laser sighting as well? Brilliant!’ Give me a break, it may be necessary but I’d rather just read the story if it’s all the same to you...
Add zombies to the mix though (and keep them at the forefront of the plot where they need to be) and all of a sudden things are different. Things are so different, in fact, that all of a sudden I’m faced with a book that I just absolutely had to finish. I had no choice in the matter.

I’ll be honest right now and say that anything involving zombies will always get my full and undivided attention even if it’s rubbish (yes, I sat all the way through ‘Hard Rock Zombies on DVD...). ‘Patient Zero’ is no ‘Hard Rock Zombies’ and had me gripped right from the awesome opening lines,

‘When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week, then there’s either something wrong with your skills or something wrong with your world.
And there’s nothing wrong with my skills.’

Right from the start, Maberry doesn’t give you time to even take a breath. You’re taken off on a ‘faster than a speeding bullet’ plot that pits a fledgling US Intelligence Department against an enemy that can raise the dead and is one step away from becoming immortal themselves. Zombies may be linear in their thinking (walk, eat humans, repeat) but that is not a criticism that can be levelled at the plot. In the world of espionage and terrorism everyone has a hidden agenda and no-one can be trusted. Add an almost paralysing sense of urgency to affairs (constant reminders of the time along with short snappy chapters filled with prose that’s full of hooks) and you have a story that has still got me going over it even now. ‘Patient Zero’ is certainly a book that will stand a re-read or two. (Especially the bits where Ledger has to infiltrate enemy installations literally crawling with zombies, I had to keep remembering to take a breath!)

Maberry places great emphasis on the plot but doesn’t sacrifice characterisation for it. While you may have seen the character types before (tough cop, mysterious boss, hard as nails SAS lady with a soft centre) Maberry makes them people in their own right and also people that you really feel like you want to get to know over the course of the book.
There’s a fine balancing act involved here as treachery plays a part on both sides, and you don’t find out what’s been going on right until the very end, but Maberry plays it right by not going for cartoonish ‘James Bond villainy’. Following the course of evil can really be for reasons as mundane as money and no-one’s character suffers as a result.

Is this a perfect read? Not quite. ‘Tech-speak’ still managed to slither past the bone crushing zombie action and get in the way of my reading experience, it’s just not for me but don’t let that put you off though. It’s not just the tech-speak either, a lecture on the root causes of the zombie virus is designed to mostly go over Ledger’s head but ended up bypassing mine as well... I guess that’s another fine line to walk (in terms of showing the reader how a character can be confused without confusing the reader as well)) and this time Maberry stumbled off it a little... When faced with a read that entertains as much as it chills, I was more than happy to let these small niggles go.

‘Patient Zero’ is definitely a zombie story for the twenty first century, it has big ideas and it’s right there in your face (trying to bite it off). If you like zombie fiction then I reckon you’ll enjoy this. Look out for ‘Patient Zero’ in April next year.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

‘Neuropath’ – Scott Bakker (Penguin)

Most days I’m one of those people who don’t hang around getting to work. After all, the earlier I get in then the earlier I can leave :o) Not today though… Today I will be staying on a little later because I just had to finish the last one hundred (and a bit) pages of Scott Bakker’s ‘Neuropath’ before I went into the office. It’s possibly the creepiest book I think I’ll read this year (maybe the creepiest book I will ever read)…

Thomas Bible’s life is on a downhill slope. His marriage is over and he hardly gets to see his children anymore, all he has left is a stalled writing career and job teaching bored grad students. Tom’s life is about to change though with the arrival of his old friend Neil Cassidy and his revelation that his university job was a cover for NSA work into cracking open the minds of suspected terrorists. Not only has Neil has gone AWOL from the agency but the FBI approach Tom with evidence that Neil has been using his skills on innocent civilians. Neil is obsessed with the fact that he can control the human brain and will strike at those closest to Tom in an attempt to prove a decades old argument…

This is probably the hardest review I’ve ever had to write, purely because ‘Neuropath’ operates at a number of levels and is one of those books that you could end up talking about far into the night.
At its most basic level ‘Neuropath’ is a storming thriller that rips along at a hell of a pace to an adrenaline fuelled conclusion (and some interesting speculations on the shape our world might take in the very near future). You have to hold on tight otherwise the twists in the plot will throw you right out of the book and leave you gasping for breath. Likewise with the frequent moments of creeping dread (especially the prologue). Everything happens for a reason, although you may not realise it at the time, and it all dovetails together to form a cohesive and action packed tale with an apocalyptic ending. Neil Cassidy is a truly monstrous character and some of what he does is shocking to say the least (you queasy folks had better watch out!).

Or is it?

The Argument, that Bakker hangs his plot over, is that everything humanity does is governed purely by stimulus and resulting neural impulses. We have no choice in our actions and this sheds a whole light on the events of ‘Neuropath’. If we have no free will then is there such a thing as crime? Is Neil a monster or is he the most honest character in the book (accepting himself for what he is without trying to disguise it)? Are his ‘messages’ the sign of a sociopath or merely the result of a course of action governed by a mechanical reaction to outside stimulus? Are all the characters just automatons and, once you ask that question, does that apply to us as well?
I don’t know, I don’t think so but that’s a whole different discussion that should take a place on a completely different blog! All I can say is that, as a reader, I was constantly putting the book down and looking at passers by in a whole new light. Did they actually choose to be doing what they were doing or, like Neil, were they just biological mechanisms governed by reaction? Was my continuing to read, instead of going to work, anything to do with freedom of choice? Any book that gets inside my head like that (and makes me view the world in a different light) is pretty damn special as far as I’m concerned!

That’s not to say it’s perfect though. Bakker makes the philosophical/neuro-scientific elements very accessible to a reader (like me!) who may have never dealt with these concepts before but, on occasion, things got a little heavy going for me. Two professors (Tom and Neil) on top of their game are not going to dumb down a conversation that they’re having but it might have helped me understand more if they had. To be fair though it has to be a fine line between getting your point across and doing it in a plausible manner, I’ll be re-reading this (sometime in the future) and I’m sure I’ll pick up more second time round, it feels like one of those books that will shed a few more secrets every time you back to it.

‘Neuropath’ isn’t an easy read but is rewarding whatever level you decide to read it on. If the Argument holds true then you’ll either read it or not, you won’t have any choice in the matter.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

‘The Shotgun Rule’ – Charlie Huston (Ballantine Books)

I love reading fantasy and (sometimes) sci-fi so that is what this blog is all about, every so often though I break out of the old routine and go for something completely different. Having got a lot out of Charlie Huston’s ‘Joe Pitt’ novels (some of my favourite reads from last year) I was eager to see what his ‘crime fiction’ was like. My wish came true when a copy of ‘The Shotgun Rule’ came through the door on Friday night and I settled down to have a read…
‘The Shotgun Rule’ weighs in at a mere two hundred and forty eight pages but it wasn’t for this reason that I finished it off so quickly. You see, Huston doesn’t just write punchy ‘vampire gangster noir’ that takes no prisoners he also does the same thing for this ‘small town rites of passage’ novel. Paul, George, Hector and Andy are four teenagers spending their summer getting high and getting into trouble. Things kick off in a spectacular way when, trying to get Andy’s bike back, they break into the local hood’s house and find a lab set up to produce crystal meth. It’s the easiest thing in the world to steal a bag of meth but not so easy to deal with the consequences. One impulsive moment is going to set the underworld on fire and draw attention to secrets much closer to home…
‘The Shotgun Rule’ blew me away (no pun intended) in both it’s execution and content. The flashback/flash forward scenes were a little confusing to start off with but it all makes sense halfway through when the two strands seamlessly fit together. Apparently this has been optioned for a film and the technical devices involved in the structure of the novel make me wonder if this was on Huston’s mind when he wrote the book. The prose is stripped down, and sparse in tone, but this just makes every single word more effective in its job. Nothing is wasted and everything is there for a reason. I rattled my way through this book not even noticing what page I was on, the story is fast paced and gripping and I was left eager to turn the next page and see what happened. The ending came right out of left field and really surprised me with its abrupt violence. Looking back things seem a little more obvious but I guarantee they won’t if you’re reading this for the first time. I wouldn’t speculate on Huston’s childhood but all I’ll say is that he gets the four main characters (teenage hoodlums) spot on with what they say and do. What’s also interesting is the study of the capacity for innate violence in different people and how they come across as a result. It is a cliché but in this case the quiet ones are always the worst… The only thing that I felt could have been done better was the portrayal of Paul’s father. Allegations are hinted at but never really confirmed (a couple of sentences right at the very end don’t really work for me, it felt more like gossip rather than anything else). The uncertainty is good but I felt that Huston needed to come off the fence and just say it one way or the other.
Apart from this small point, ‘The Shotgun Rule’ is a great read and one that I would certainly recommend to any fan of Huston’s who has only read the ‘Joe Pitt’ books. I’m looking forward to reading more by Charlie Huston, whatever genre it’s in.

Nine out of Ten