‘Victory of Eagles’ – Naomi Novik (Del Rey)

Ever since I picked up a copy of ‘His Majesty’s Dragon’ (pretty much on a whim, the best way to pick up books sometimes) I’ve been a big fan of Naomi Novik’s ‘Temeraire’ series and get all excited whenever it starts to get close to a new book being published.
However, upon finishing ‘Empire of Ivory’ I was a little concerned that there was the danger of things getting a little stale. I felt the storyline was becoming formulaic and, as such, you could tell what was going to happen next. The cliff-hanger (at the end of ‘Empire of Ivory’) was enough, however, to persuade me to keep on with the tale and I have to say that I’m glad that I did. It’s not without it’s faults but, for me, ‘Victory of Eagles’ was a real departure from what I had come to expect from this series and I’m eagerly awaiting whatever comes next…

At the end of ‘Empire of Ivory’, Captain William Laurence was jailed for treason and Temeraire sent into captivity in the breeding grounds of Wales. However, Napoleon’s long planned invasion of England finally takes place and fate conspires to set the two friends on their way towards a reunion and a chance to take the fight back to the French. Napoleon’s tactics mean that the British army (and the Dragon Corps) must adopt an entirely new approach to warfare if they are to keep the Royal Family out of French clutches and regain control of England…

‘Victory of Eagles’ is a tale of occupation and guerrilla warfare which means that Novik is unable to pursue the usual course of taking Temeraire and Laurence to a ‘country of the day’ and have them introduced to a new breed of dragon. What the reader gets instead is quite a dark tale where desperate times call for desperate measures and everyone has to question their conscience and honour. As such; ‘Victory of Eagles’ becomes a character study of various people (mostly Laurence and Temeraire) through their reactions and deeds which throws up some interesting points… Temeraire uses the outbreak of war to advance his own plans for the equal recognition of dragons in English society. He has some success but his naivety becomes apparent in the cost that Laurence has to bear. This makes for some really touching scenes where Temeraire realises that he has hurt Laurence but doesn’t know how he did it or what he can do to make things right again.
Laurence, on the other hand, must make decisions knowing that he is already damned as a traitor but still wants to do his duty for his country. The book really hammers home the fact that Laurence is vilified by everyone and it is a credit to Novik how she uses this to make Laurence and Temeraire’s friendship stronger than ever.
The supporting cast get their fair share of page time as well with my favourites being Laurence’s former second in command Granby and his dragon Iskierka.
Iskierka really got on my nerves with her constant disregard for orders but this did make for some entertaining passages…

‘Victory of Eagles’ isn’t just about its characters though. There are plenty of exciting plot elements that will keep fans (like me!) entertained ranging from pitched aerial combat to daring covert rescue missions. The climatic battle is worth the admission price as far as I’m concerned with the Chinese dragon Lien showing another use for the awesome power of the Celestial dragon…

That’s not to say everything is all rosy in the garden though. It’s not really spoiling anything to say that Laurence and Temeraire are reunited so I’ll have a bit of a moan about how this happens. In a nutshell I thought this happened far too early on in the book when there was plenty of scope for this to be stretched to incorporate situations that would ramp up the tension and make for an even more exciting read. Instead it felt like everyone knew a reunion was going to happen so it was dealt with as quickly as possible.
I’m not going to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn’t read it but the nature of it has me a little concerned that things are about to go back to the regular formula… I hope not and, to be fair, there’s every chance that this won’t be the case. We’ll have to wait and see…

‘Victory of Eagles’ should be a welcome arrival for fans of the series, it certainly was for me. I’m now settling down to wait for Book Six…

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

Click Here for my review of 'Empire of Ivory'.

‘FutureWorld’ – Professor Mark L. Brake & Reverend Neil Hook (Boxtree)

These days most (if not all) of my reading is purely for entertainment and escapism. There’s still a lot to be learned from such books but I’ll quite happily admit to steering well clear of anything that’s more factual and likely to make me ‘learn’ something, nothing wrong with these books but that’s just not what I’m about at the moment.
I felt a little strange then to see a copy of ‘FutureWorld’ come through the door, a book that sets out to tell its reader how much of Science Fiction is now ‘Science Fact’ (as well as all the little sci-fi snippets that will become possible in the near future). Dammit; I want my sci-fi reading to help me escape from the real world, not tie me into it even more!
Having read it though my mind has been changed to an extent. Although I feel like the book has crept into my head and killed tiny parts of my imagination it does make for a fascinating and entertaining read…

‘FutureWorld’ is divided up into four themes (space, time, machine and monster) which examine various sci-fi staples and tell the reader how close these are to becoming reality, if they haven’t already. Do you want to know when you will be able to buy a real functioning light-saber? It’s not going to happen anytime soon I’m afraid. How about an instantaneous translator? There’s one in development but it doesn’t look anything like C3-P0… ‘FutureWorld’ is crammed full of things like this and I found it fun to get into because of the way that everything was tied back to things like ‘Star Wars’, ‘Doctor Who’ etc as well as the light-hearted manner in which the authors speak about their subject. For example the entry for ‘The End of the World’ ends with the sentence “Still, if we do mess up this planet we can always travel into space, find another one and start again.’ Any reference book where the entry for ‘entropy’ ends with the phrase ‘Happy Days…’ isn’t taking it’s presentation too seriously and, as a result, becomes just that little bit more accessible to the casual reader.

It’s not just the subject matter that’s interesting but also the little asides that show the work that has gone into the book as well as showing the reader that science-fiction, as a genre, has been around for a lot longer than we think.
For example, ‘FutureWorld’ tells us that it was H.G. Wells that first came up with the concept of the Atomic Bomb in his novel ‘The World Set Free’ (although different entries in ‘FutureWorld’ give different publication dates for this work). If you didn’t know it already (some of which I didn’t) it’s also interesting to see that Mary Shelley was writing science-fiction in the nineteenth century and that legend speaks of the first ‘laser weapon’ being used by Archimedes to attack a Roman fleet invading Syracuse…

As I’ve said, I felt that a little bit of the magic has gone out of my sci-fi reading now I’ve had it reinforced that a lot of the concepts are now becoming reality. Despite this, ‘FutureWorld’ is one of those books where you can have great fun flicking to random pages and finding out just how far the human race has come in terms of things like time travel, optical camouflage and space tourism…

Nine out of Ten

The 'I met Steven Erikson today' link-up spectacular!

The title gives it all away doesn't it (there will be a photo once I can get it off my phone)? Ever since I first read 'Gardens of the Moon', I've always wanted to meet Steven Erikson and ask him loads of questions about his books. Well, I got to meet him today (and got several of my books signed)but the cool demeanour I was aiming for was mysteriously replaced by my 'slack-jawed fanboy' face, oh dear... He's a really nice guy though and has promised me that Iskaral Pust will be meeting Kruppe at some point during 'Toll the Hounds', a meeting that I've been looking forward to for a long time! If you're a fan of the Malazan books, and living in the UK then you really need to find the time to get to one of these signings!

Because of this I've been grinning like an idiot all day and haven't got anything sensible to say. Isn't it a good job then that there are loads of other bloggers whose blogs are brimming with cool content? Let's have a look...

James got to Meet Steven Erikson as well and is a lot more coherent about it than I... He got to go to a Question and Answer session as well as a signing. James also mentions a new Networking Site especially for fantasy fans. I'm a member, you should sign up too!

Tia has encountered two Difficult Reads. Have you read them? If you have then let Tia know how you got on with them...

If you're a fan of sci-fi or fantasy then Robert's Spotlight for books out this month is a resource you need to be checking out. He also reviews Empire in Balck and Gold...

Larry has a pretty cool post on Textual Misreadings and has reminded me that I really need to get round to finishing Ellen Datlow's latest anthology.

Adam has a review of Toll the Hounds that is worth a look.

I've never really got into R.A Salvatore's books but Dark Wolf has reminded me that the covers do look pretty Cool.

Jay's blog has Moved and so has Laurence's. I need to remember to change my blogroll...

Last but not least, Blindman reviews Galileo's Children over on Realms of Speculative Fiction.

What am I doing while all this great content is going on? I've got loads of cool books on the go and some DVDs to catch up on :o)
Have a great weekend!

‘Blood Ties’ – Pamela Freeman (Orbit Books)

When I went out for lunch with the publicity lady from Orbit, a few months ago, ‘Blood Ties’ came up as one of the books that Orbit were most excited about and really wanted to push. A few reviews have already gone up around and about the place so I figured that I’d hold off for a bit (or until I needed another fairly slim read for the daily commute, whichever came first…)
My inability to get comfy and read ‘Toll the Hounds’ on a packed train bought ‘Blood Ties’ up to the top of the ‘to be read’ pile and I polished it off over the last couple of days. Well, I wouldn’t say ‘polished it off’ actually…

‘Blood Ties’ is the opening book in a trilogy that’s set in the Eleven Domains, areas of land that were invaded and resettled over a thousand years ago. The original inhabitants now wander the land as Travellers and are not welcome anywhere at all. The Warlords govern the Domains but these men are about to find that not everything lies under their control. In a land teeming with ghosts and fae creatures it is three humans who will come to challenge the status quo. Bramble is a village girl who the blurb describes as being ‘forced to flee her home for a crime she did not commit’ (she looked pretty guilty from what I read!). Ash is a safe-guarder with a special talent and a manipulative employer who will not let him go. Saker is an enchanter with a grudge who will do anything to see the land returned to his people…

For the most part, ‘Blood Ties’ is one of those smooth effortless reads where you suddenly find that you’ve read fifty pages without realising. There’s some beautifully described landscape that I could almost see and the story flows well alongside it, everything progressing naturally. Having said that though, when you look at what’s going on (and what it could end up meaning) there doesn’t seem to be any real sense of urgency about the characters or even the story itself. Seeing as ‘Blood Ties’ is the first book in a trilogy I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt for now…

As the first book, ‘Blood Ties’ does a lot of ‘scene setting’ which translated into a whole load of long journeys on horseback. Richly described journeys that serve no other purpose than world-building are quite high up on the list of things that I hate in fantasy books… If this wasn’t bad enough, one of the main characters ends up staying in a village for a couple of years (even though she’s on the run) and goes through some kind of time dilation sequence all of which seems to be purely so that she can arrive at her destination at the same time as two others… I have to say that I found this to be more than a little contrived…

It was really the characters that saved this book for me. Freeman spends a lot of time introducing us to them and letting us have a little look in their heads. Having got to know them this well I found myself really engaging with who they were and the struggles they were facing. Even the guy who looks like he’s being set up as the ‘evil villain’ has a side that will make you understand where he’s coming from at the very least.
What I really enjoyed is the way that Freeman takes time out to examine the consequences of various actions on lesser characters that may only appear for a sentence, or two, in the preceding chapter. This approach gives a sense of things being fleshed out as well as throwing up a few surprises to spice things up a bit…

‘Blood Ties’ is a beguiling read where some of the imagery on offer can suck you in before you realise the shortcomings. It has a real easygoing style that reminds me a little bit of David Eddings’ work. I’ll leave you to decide whether that’s a good or bad thing; I’m wavering between the two…
Not great but the jury will remain out until the second book comes along.

Six and Three Quarters out of Ten

‘Slaine: Timekiller’ – Pat Mills (Rebellion)

Comic books, graphic novels, whatever you want to call them I think they’re just great! For me, a good graphic novel is the very best kind of cross between books and film. You get to have a good read and see what’s going on at the same time ;o) I had a great time with the first Slaine collection for just this very reason and was looking forward to getting into the next instalment. Things didn’t quite work out the way they were meant to though…

Unlike the ‘Rogue Trooper’ collection, I looked at last week, there’s a definite story-arc going on with Slaine who is continuing his journey home (with his untrustworthy dwarf Ukko) to rejoin his clan and take the fight to the Drunes who threaten his people. Slaine indulges in a spot of dragon rustling, to speed up his journey, and adds the trainee priest Nest to his party but there are people with greater needs than his tribe and Slaine is about to take a trip through time and space to do his bit towards saving creation itself…

If you’ve read the ‘Warriors Dawn’ collection then there’s more of the same for you to enjoy in ‘Timekiller’. Slaine is as brash and obnoxious as ever and will not duck out of a fight. Expect loads of derring-do (Conan style) from a larger than life character! So far so good, until things start to get all metaphysical… I’m cool with the time-travelling aspect of the tale as it basically involved Slaine doing all the stuff that I like to see him doing (cutting people’s heads off and warping out!) but it was things got ‘extra-dimensional’ that I started to switch off a bit. All the talk of ‘Macrobes’, ‘Microbes’ and ‘dimensional balance’ drew my attention away from what the story was all about (for me) and left me wondering just what was going on. The introduction of Atlanteans was cool but I wasn’t convinced by Slaine being able to just pick up a ‘leyser gun’ and use it after several stories set in a world where sci-fi technology just doesn’t exist. Apparently he’d been trained in secret by the warriors of his clan. Oh, that’s alright then… (For goodness sake)
It ends on a pretty good cliff-hanger though so I will definitely be picking up the next book!

Artwork is a pretty subjective thing and it may be that you like the art in ‘Timekiller’ for the same reasons that I didn’t get on with it. I had real trouble switching from Bellardini’s evocative artwork to that of David Pugh’s more functional (for me) stuff that told the story well enough but didn’t make me feel anything for it…

‘Timekiller’ is a real mix of good and bad but I found that Slaine’s character was just about enough to carry things through and make me want to pick up the third book in the collected series. Its early days for me and Slaine so let’s see where things go from here…

Seven out of Ten

‘The Tower of Fear’ – Glen Cook (Tor)

It took me a long time to build up/finish off my ‘Black Company’ collection (only to find that Gollancz will be releasing omnibus editions in the UK…) and a consequence of this is that if I ever see one of Glen Cook’s books on the shelf I will more likely than not pick it up. After all, if I don’t buy it now then I might never see it again… ;o)
This scattergun approach has had mixed results for me; ‘The Tyranny of the Night’ was a dry old read with some flashes of goodness while ‘Whispering Nickel Idols’ didn’t do anything for me at all. The jury is still out on the first ‘Dread Empire’ collection but that’s only because I haven’t read it yet (d’oh!)
I saw a copy of ‘The Tower of Fear’ in Sheffield, last weekend, and I’d paid for the book and was halfway down the street before I knew what I was doing! Luckily for me it’s a great read, definitely on a par with some of the better ‘Black Company’ books…

The city of Qushmarrah once shivered in terror under the despotic rule of the evil wizard Nakar, now it grumbles uneasily under the rule of its Herodian conquerors. Various factions connive to seize power for themselves while one man harbours suspicions about the identity of the traitor who opened the gates to the enemy. This uneasy balance is about to be thrown into disarray by a plan to resurrect Qushmarrah’s former ruler and put him back on the throne….

Steven Erikson has cited the ‘Black Company’ series as a part of the inspiration behind his own work, ‘The Tower of Fear’ looks like it may also deserve some credit with it’s depiction of a middle-eastern style city under occupation by the enemy (Seven Cities anyone?) The tension is almost palpable as the general populace, the occupiers and their mercenary contingent all seek to get along in the same city. Cook takes a slightly refreshing approach, however, in that said relationships are not as clear cut as they seem. Certain members of the general public actually have a better standard of living under their new masters and don’t want a return to the ‘good old days’; the Herodian overlords find it easier to make accommodations with the insurgents than deal with their own while the mercenaries are not just in it for the money…

It’s clear that Cook has given a lot of thought to what life in an occupied city actually entails and it’s this kind of thought that adds to a plot that twists and turns, throwing up more than the occasional surprise. Alliances can change at the drop of a hat and something vital can become meaningless a page later… This can make for a confusing read at times, especially at the climax when everything comes to fruition. The ending is really clever but a re-read is definitely required to figure how it came about!

Cook is renowned for his ‘grey, more than slightly immoral’ take on fantasy and this is more of the same; don’t read it if you like your stories to be a little more defined in terms of who’s ‘good’ and ‘bad’. A great example of this is the character of Azel who’s ‘looking out for number one’ approach has led him into alliances with all the main players in Qushmarrah. Here is a man who is so entangled in the game that he will find himself to be one of his opponents! Azel will do anything to get through the day in one piece but Cook also manages to display a more sympathetic side, to the character, in that he will take care of his friends and gets nostalgic for what could have been.

I’ve already mentioned that ‘The Tower of Fear’ can be heavy going and this isn’t helped by the dry tone that Cook employs throughout the book. It comes across as very non-compromising and almost like any reader who doesn’t like it knows what they can do! I’m cool with it but you might not be, especially if you haven’t read any of his other books. I’m also not a big fan of made up fantasy names where a whole bunch of consonants and vowels have been thrown together with little regard for the outcome. For someone who came up with city names like ‘Beryl’ and ‘Charm’ in previous works, I was left wishing that Cook could have done the same in this case…

Despite this, I found ‘The Tower of Fear’ to be a great read that any fan of Glen Cook would do well to purchase if they can find a copy. It also really complemented my current reading of Erikson’s ‘Toll the Hound’ and has whetted my appetite to finally get round to reading the first ‘Dread Empire’ collection…

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

Free Reading! 'Implied Spaces' excerpt and 'The Green Leopard Plague'

Nightshade Books have just published Walter Jon Williams' 'Implied Spaces'; a sci-fi novel of... well, here's the blurb! :o)

Aristide, a semi-retired computer scientist turned swordsman, is a scholar of the implied spaces, seeking meaning amid the accidents of architecture in a universe where reality itself has been sculpted and designed by superhuman machine intelligence. While exploring the pre-technological world Midgarth, one of four dozen pocket universes created within a series of vast, orbital matrioshka computer arrays, Aristide uncovers a fiendish plot threatening to set off a nightmare scenario, perhaps even bringing about the ultimate Existential Crisis: the end of civilization itself.

Traveling the pocket universes with his wormhole-edged sword Tecmessa in hand and talking cat Bitsy, avatar of the planet-sized computer Endora, at his side, Aristide must find a way to save the multiverse from subversion, sabotage, and certain destruction.

Looks pretty cool doesn't it? To celebrate the release, not only have Nightshade Books put an excerpt on their site but they have also made the Nebula Award winning novella 'The Green Leopard Plague' available in its entirety. Both of these texts can be found on the Nightshade Books
Downloads page. If all of this isn't enough for you then check out the the Interview with Walter as well.

Enjoy!

Giveaway! 'The Briar King' (Greg Keyes)

This month sees the UK release of Greg Keyes' 'The Born Queen', the concluding installment of his 'Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone' series. I'll be honest and say that 'The Born Queen' wasn't everything that I thought it could have been but the series, as a whole, is right up there in my list of 'Cool Fantasy Series that I think everyone should try out'.

Have you read these books? If you have then move along, there's nothing for you to see here... ;o) Right, who's left? Hopefully all the people who haven't read this series and want to give it a go. You're all here? Good, keep reading...

In the same kind of way as my recent 'Malazan Taster' competition I'm giving you the chance to win a copy of the UK mass market edition of 'The Briar King' and see if you think this series is for you, I think it will be :o) There's three copies for three lucky winners (courtesy of Tor UK)...
Fancy your chances? Entering is as simple as ever, just drop me a line at the normal email address (it's in the top right hand corner of the blog) and tell me that you want in (remember to include your mailing address so I can get your book to you as soon as possible). This competition is for people who haven't read the series and want to give it a go, if you've already read 'The Briar King' then there had better be a very good reason if I find your email in the in-box! ;o)
Who can enter? Anyone can enter, it doesn't matter where you live!
I'm going to let this one run until next Tuesday night (8th July) and announce the winners on the following Wednesday...

Good Luck!

Author Interview! Jaine Fenn

Having read and reviewed Jaine Fenn's debut sci-fi novel, 'Principles of Angels, I thought it would be really cool to put some questions to Jaine and see what her answers were. Jaine very kindly agreed to answer my questions and these were her answers...

Hi Jaine, thanks for agreeing to take part in this interview!

Your debut novel, ‘Principles of Angels’, is now on the bookshelves. Have you found yourself going into bookshops and rearranging the shelves so that your book is the first thing that shoppers see?
I’ve actually only got into two bookshops since the book came out, and one of those I was doing a signing in. But yes, I suspect I might not be able to resist in future.

For those people who haven’t seen a copy yet, can you sum up ‘Principles of Angels’ in ten words or less?
Revelation, redemption and flying assassins in a floating City.

What made you decide to write science fiction?
Lack of boundaries. So many worlds to explore, so many possibilities…

Are there any writers (sci-fi or otherwise) that have inspired you in your work?
Off the top of my head and in no particular order: Ian (M) Banks (both his SF and non-SF), William Gibson, Geoff Ryman, H P Lovecraft, Mary Gentle and Raymond Chandler.

When you were writing ‘Principles of Angels’ was it the setting or the characters that came to you first?
Setting, just. It was more the set-up, which brought the characters with it.

You put your main characters through a lot, which one was the most fun to write?
Taro. He really shouldn’t be allowed out by himself.

‘Principles of Angels’ features assassins called ‘Angels’ and a mysterious alien race called the ‘Sidhe’. Is there an element of fantasy hidden in your work or are you all about the sci-fi?
Oh dear, you’ve sussed me! Actually I love the tropes of SF – interstellar civilisation, weird tech, alien perspectives – but unlike a lot of SF writers I prefer stories driven by characters rather than by ideas. So definitely ‘soft’ SF. A lot of my more sexy technology conforms to Clarke’s Third law (i.e. it’s all but indistinguishable from magic)

Will the Sidhe be a recurring feature in future books or is there a larger universe to explore first?
There’s a whole lot more to find out about the Sidhe. And a whole lot more universe to explore too.

You mention in your blog that you have been dubbed one of the ‘Three Princesses of Fantasy’ (even though you write sci-fi!) Who are the other two Princesses and why should we be reading their books too?
They are fellow Gollancz debut authors Alex Bell and Suzanne Mcleod. Alex’s contemporary supernatural mystery ‘The Ninth Circle’ is a very atmospheric book which pulls the reader in from page one and has some plot twists that made me smile (in a wicked way); Suzanne’s first book, ‘The Sweet Scent of Blood’ is out in September, though I’m hoping to get an advance copy as it sounds intriguing; she has Sidhe too, but hers are rather different, and occur in a contemporary fantasy setting.

You also mention in your blog that your next book, ‘Consorts of Heaven’, is in the process of being submitted to the publisher. Can you tell us anything about what will be happening in this book? You’re allowed more than ten words to do it in this time!
‘Consorts of Heaven’ is not technically a sequel to ‘Principles of Angels’, as it starts several months before the action in ‘Principles’ and it’s set on a different world, one which is far lower tech and more like a fantasy setting. However, though it is not immediately obvious, the two stories are intimately linked, and the (surviving!) characters from the two books are now on a collision course.

Having now got one book under your belt was ‘Consorts of Heaven’ easier or more difficult to write?
In some ways a little easier, as I learnt a lot about the craft of writing working on ‘Principles’. But ‘Consorts’ was harder work, as I only had a year, and towards the end it rather took over, at the expense of everything not required for actual survival.

Finally, you’re an established short story writer but ‘Principles of Angels’ is your debut novel. Do you have any advice for any ‘would be’ writers who are looking for the break that you got?
Polite persistence. It’s very easy to get disheartened by those form rejections, but all we can do is try our best. And remember to write, first and foremost, for yourself, because whilst you may be your own harshest critic at times, you should also be your target audience.

Thanks for your time Jaine, I really appreciate it.


Photo courtesy of James Cooke.
Read my review of 'Principles of Angels' Here.
For more information on Jaine Fenn and her work, click Here for her website.

Graeme goes to the Comic Shop, Part One...

Ok... it turns out I didn't post that much after all, sorry! I've just been away for another great weekend with my mates from the SFX Forum where we got drunk, had lightsaber fights in the street and invaded comic shops across Sheffield. Check out what I came back with...



I've heard a lot about this, on various forums, (and really enjoyed 'Inside Straight') so when I saw it on the shelves I thought I'd give it a go. Daniel Abraham's writing/story is as good as what he did for 'Inside Straight' but the artwork didn't do much for me, didn't stand out as any different from any Marvel or DC comic... Having said that, there's just enough to 'The Hard Call' for me to give it one more issue and see if gets better...



I just had to come home with a zombie comic! ;o) There's three stories inside and my two favourites were the 'one shots' that had a definite ending (typical...) and 'People Person' won out as my favourite overall. 'The War at Home' looks like it has potential to be a good tale though and I'm loving the front cover! :o)



'The Goon' is another series that I've heard good things about so I thought I'd give it a shot, this issue ended up being my favourite of the ones that I bought and I'm probably going to end up investing in at least one of the trade paperbacks. Great artwork and a story that's both sweet and a little scary. Oh yes, and it made me laugh out loud too. Great stuff...

While I've been working my way through these I'm also making some headway into Steven Erikson's 'Toll the Hounds'. The best way to put it, so far, is that reading this book is like wading through treacle - 'sweet but really heavy going...' More on this when I finally get it done! I also managed to find a copy of 'The Tower of Fear' by Glen Cook and I should have a review up sometime this week.
Hope you all had a great weekend and that work isn't too horrible to you tomorrow! _

'Keepers' - Gary Braunbeck

I was after something short and sweet to read before I went off for the weekend, Gary Braunbeck's 'Keepers' was short and, for a piece of horror fiction, surprisingly sweet as well...

Gil Stewart is an ordinary man until one day his normal life is shattered after witnessing a bizarre death on the highway. All of a sudden animals are behaving weirdly around him and strange bowler hatted men keep appearing when he least expects it. If all this wasn't weird enough, his Downs-Syndrome nephew goes missing with a comic book that can tell the future...
All this is connected to an event in Gil's past that he has fought desperately to forget but now he must remember if he is to stand any chance of getting through the night with his sanity intact. The Keepers are coming...

This is going to be a fairly quick one, need to leave the house in half an hour, but I could sit here all day and go on about how much I enjoyed this book. We're back in Cedar Hill, the home of strange goings on that mask concepts that I don't normally come across in horror fiction. Without spoiling it for those who haven't read the book, Braunbeck comes up with a really original theme this time round that got me more interested the more I was told.

There's a real 'Twlight Zone' feel about 'Keepers' with everyday objects taking on sinister meanings and becoming even more horrifying when placed against things that are ordinary as ever. There's a hint of poignancy to the proceedings as well and this somehow makes the story even more horrifying; not just in terms of what is going on but also in terms of childhood past, the pain of a first love and the pain of people and animals who are mistreated and forgotten.

It's not all good though; throughout the story Gil fights to keep his memories for surfacing until the very end where he figures out what is going on. It felt to me that, while we got his life story, we didn't get the revelation (only that he knew what he had to do next) and this made for a confusing final few pages. The ending made up for though (and got me a little teary eyed).

It's not perfect by any means but 'Keepers' is a fine example of Gary Braunbeck doing what he does best. If you're a horror fan then I highly recommend you start reading his stuff.

Eight out of Ten

‘Books of the South’ – The Winner!

Thanks to everyone who took part in this competition. However, I’m afraid there can be only one winner and that winner was…

Steven Tornow, Ohio, USA

Nice one Steven! Your book will be on it’s way very soon…
Better luck next time everyone else! (There’s always a next time…)

I'm off to Sheffield, for the weekend, so posting may be a little thin on the ground for the next couple of days. Stick around though, whatever makes it through will still be good... ;o)
Have a great weekend!

‘Rogue Trooper: The Future of War’ – Gerry Finley-Day (Rebellion Books)

Yesterday I was reading an interview that Aidan ('A Dribble of Ink') had conducted with Brian Ruckley. One of the things that Brian mentioned was that he would like see more coverage of graphic novels in SF blogs and, funnily enough, I was just finishing up on reading this collection of the first ‘Rogue Trooper’ stories so I could post something today…
Brian – I’m not sure if this was what you were after but this one’s for you anyway!

I never read a lot of 2000AD when I was a kid but such was the influence of the comic that I was still able to tell you who all the characters were that had ongoing stories. I’ve already mentioned Judge Dredd, Judge Anderson and Slaine the Beserker, Nemesis the Warlock (a personal favourite) is one for another time. This post is all about the Rogue Trooper…

In the distant future war rages between the Nort and Souther factions and one of the most heavily contested planets is Nu-Earth, a world so damaged and broken that you need a mask just to be able to breathe. That’s where the Genetic Infantrymen come in, Souther troops bio-engineered to be able to survive in these harsh conditions. Such training doesn’t come cheap so if any of them are killed in action their personalities can be stored on a bio-chip until such time as a new body can be cloned. The ‘G.I’s’ were meant to provide the decisive push in the war, until they were betrayed in the Quartz Zone massacre. Only one G.I survived along with three bio-chipped souls hitching rides on his gun, backpack and Helmet. None of them are going back to the war until they’ve found out who betrayed them and tracked them down…

Even though it’s set in the future, the ‘Rogue Trooper’ stories don’t pull any punches in depicting the horrors of war in a way that we can identify with right now. You get to see just what it means to be living in a warzone and what it does to both soldiers and civilians (although I did find myself wondering why the civilian population hung around if the war was that bad, especially in an age of space travel…) It was also cool to see what the writer came up with in order to spice up what is a war of attrition. Decapitator drones and projecting propaganda onto gas clouds are just some of the more outlandish weapons on display! The overdone ‘war is a bad thing’ messages, at the end of each episode, did get on my nerves though. If we’ve already been shown that war is bad then surely we don’t need to be told as well?
The ‘Future of War’ collection marks the beginning of the story arc where the Rogue Trooper sets out to track down the man who betrayed his comrades. This probably came across better in comic form but I still liked the way that the overall plot was gradually introduced with little snippets of information and flashbacks to the Quartz Zone massacre.

It’s not all good though. Despite the number of great ideas on show, this collection does come across as very formulaic with Rogue facing down ‘the threat of the week’ and winning through each time. The story itself is now over twenty five years old and some of the concepts involved are starting to show their age. What was cutting edge back in the day is now far too familiar to get a real buzz out of. Having said all of that though, ‘Rogue Trooper’ makes for an entertaining read and I’ll certainly be back to read the rest and see where the tale takes me.

Seven out of Ten

‘The Broken World’ – Tim Etchells (William Heinemann)

This is a weird one to write about. A book with a great premise that is executed well, a book that I think deserves to do really well in fact but a book that I just couldn’t finish. I’ll try and explain…

‘The Broken World’ is the story of one man’s attempts to write a ‘walk through guide’ to a complex computer game. When I say ‘complex’ that’s exactly what I mean for this is a game that can take months to play and can be completed in any number of ways. Writing a ‘walk through’ would be hard enough on it’s own but our narrator is also having to cope with the demands of a full time job and a full time relationship (both of which are being neglected). Something’s got to give and our hero is going to have to ‘win’ in the game and the real world too…

I’m always after trying new stuff and ‘The Broken World’ looked like a good one. In a lot of ways it was. As a tale of obsession it was great and the journey away from reality (into ‘The Broken World’) went at just the right speed whilst being strangely poignant. I was really getting into the narrator’s character as well, a guy with a clear sense of self in that you can really tell where his priorities lay.

All sounds good so far, so where was the problem? I didn’t have a problem with the book but I did have a problem with what the book was about, i.e. a ‘free roaming’ computer game. I love playing video games but I always end up losing patience with the ones where you can pretty much do whatever you like. This stems from early experiences with PC flight simulators (where I kept crashing just to see what would happen) as well as the time when I found the cheat for infinite lives, on ‘The Phantom Menace’, and promptly went off and butchered the inhabitants of Mos Espa (just to see what would happen, I was called a murderer by Anakin Skywalker and this was the last thing he ever said to anyone…)

You can now see that I’m not very good with certain types of computer game and this made ‘The Broken Man’ really difficult for me to get into as far as the ‘game world’ parts went. Playing the game can be infuriating enough without having to read about how to complete it, especially when all you want to do is try out weird stuff… just to see what would happen.

As good as ‘The Broken World’ was looking to be, it turned out to be a read that I just couldn’t stick with. Game over for me and onto the next book…

'Victory of Eagles' Giveaway - The Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered this competition, unfortunately I only had one book to give away so there's only going to be one winner!
On this occasion the lucky winner is...

Monika Haidwagner, Grafendorf, Austria

Well done Monika! Your book will be on its way as soon as I can fight my way past the post office queue at lunchtime.
Better luck next time everyone else, there will be more competitions in the future so stay tuned... :o)

‘Principles of Angels’ – Jaine Fenn (Gollancz)

The other day someone mentioned to me that the blog was showing a bit of a bias towards fantasy (and some horror), where were the science fiction reviews? Looking back at the last time I read some science fiction, about a month ago, I had to admit that he was right (as much as it galled me) and I have been neglecting my reading in that area. The thing is that it’s not often that I seem to be able to find science fiction that doesn’t scare me off with overly technical talk of faster than light travel, la grange points etc. I much prefer my science fiction to be of the space opera variety with dark lords, galactic heroes and big laser guns!
I didn’t get any of this with Jaine Fenn’s debut novel but I didn’t mind too much as the story was great just the way it was…

Chesh City is a city of two halves; topside is the last word in extravagance and opulence but downside is dark, twisted and dangerous with not much at all between you and a lethal drop. It’s also a democracy of sorts where voting can result in a person’s assassination, these are carried out by the ‘Angels’ who answer only to the enigmatic Minister. Taro lived with his Angel aunt until the day she was murdered; now he’s on the downside streets looking for revenge but also just trying to stay alive. A timely intervention from the Minister gives Taro a sense of purpose and a job spying on the reclusive Angel Nual. However this job is about to lead Taro into a tricky spot where he will be caught between being marked for death and being the potential saviour of Chesh City…

‘Principles of Angels’ is a fast moving tale packed with incident and intrigue, I had to keep reading as not only did I want to know what was really going on (this seemed to change quite a lot!) but I also had to know how it all ended. This is the first in a series so as far as closure goes you do get some but a lot is left open for the next instalment.
Like I said, there is a lot going on in ‘Principles of Angels’ but it never feels like the book is getting overcrowded, everything happens for a very good reason that ties in with the plot. The emphasis isn’t so much on spectacle but more on the intensity of any given situation which means everything is very up close and in your face. As far as I was concerned this just made it easier for me to keep turning the pages!

‘Principles of Angels’ is a very character driven novel and I have to say that this made the book very hit and miss in places. The focus on characters really helped me get a feel for what was making people tick, the ‘up close’ approach also put me in a ringside seat for all the action that was taking place and this is the best place to sit as far as I’m concerned! However, for me this kind of approach can mean that if I’m not really that interested in a certain character then I find myself with large chunks of book that I’m not that bothered by. While the characters of Taro and Nual worked for me I found myself glossing over large chunks of the book that were about Elarn Reen, she may be a character that you want to know more about but she never really engaged me…
The other problem I had with the novel being character driven was that it seemed to come at the expense of me finding out more about the city of Chesh itself. I knew that ‘topside’ was lavish and ‘downside’ was slum ridden (it says so in the blurb) but there was nothing in the book itself that made me feel this stuff I’d been told. It almost felt like an amazing play was being acted out against a half finished set…

Despite these issues though, I found myself really enjoying this slice of ‘low-tech’ sci-fi and its hints of further developments in the future have got me looking forward to what Jaine Fenn comes up with next. Maybe I should be reading more sci-fi after all…

Seven and a Half out of Ten

‘The Twilight Herald’ – Tom Lloyd (Gollancz)

The ‘To Be Read’ pile is a wonderful thing to behold; stretching into the sky like, well… erm… a big pile of books that I haven’t read… It is a thing of beauty but also an edifice that strikes terror into the heart of the bold adventurer who must scale its heady peaks and bring back treasure for you lucky readers. One day I won’t come back, remember me?

Or…

There are books on my shelf that, for one reason or another, I haven’t got round to reading since they were given to me. You know how it is, there’s always something that you want to read first and before you know it a year has gone by and your wife is asking you if you’re ever going to read all these books you haven’t got round to… One of these books is Tom Lloyd’s ‘The Twilight Herald’, the sequel to the really rather enjoyable ‘Stormcaller’. I finally got round to it a few days ago (better late than never?) and I have to say it was pretty good…

Following the events of ‘Stormcaller’, the ‘White Eye’ Isak is now Lord of the Farlan tribe and having to deal with all the problems that this brings. Within a few pages, Isak has had to deal with an assassination attempt along with hints of rebellion waiting at home. However, before he can deal with these issues Isak’s attention is drawn towards the city of Scree and a chance for him to take his revenge on one of the architects of Lord Bahl’s downfall. It’s not just the opportunity for revenge that awaits him though. Something rotten lies at the heart of Scree, poisoning the hearts of the people and tearing the city apart. In the midst of everything else that has bought him to the city Isak is about to learn that there is nothing that lies beyond the reach of a shadow…

‘The Twilight Herald’ is a deep and involved tale brimming with politics, alliances and double-crossings (with a large cast of characters). As such, I’d say that the best way to read it is either to have read the prior instalment fairly recently or to have a copy of ‘The Stormcaller’ close to hand, just so you know ‘who’s who’ and ‘what’s what’. I came to this completely cold and, for the first couple of hundred pages at least, felt like I’d been chucked in straight at the deep end! There is a lot to set in place and you will have to be patient if you want to get to the really good stuff. To be fair though, while ‘Stormcaller’ was all about introducing the character of Isak, ‘The Twilight Herald’ is all about setting everything up for the rest of the series (which explains why there is a lot of stuff left hanging right at the end). Bear this in mind and you won’t go too far wrong.

Once I was fully acquainted with everyone I needed to know (I like Vesna and Zhia Vukotic, Styrax is pretty cool as well) it was clear that Tom Lloyd was doing all the good stuff that he had done with ‘Stormcaller’, an exciting story coupled with good solid worldbuilding. ‘The Twilight Herald’ takes a leaf out of Steven Erikson’s book by going for the ‘big spectacle effect’ and staging battles that are epic in every sense of the word. Skirmishes are all well and good but a really good battle demands either hundreds of people on each side all going at it or two mightily powerful opponents squaring off. The final climactic battles in and around Scree, as well as Styrax’s revenge for his son, serve their purpose admirably well.
While there’s loads of stuff to get your head around; Lloyd takes control of the plot really well, dovetailing and tying off strands where necessary and throwing in a little surprise right at the end which paints the whole book in a different light.
When I reviewed ‘Stormcaller’ I said that I could almost close my eyes and see what was happening on the page. In ‘The Twilight Herald’ it’s more a case of closing my eyes and feeling the heat pour off the page! Yes, the city of Scree is a hotbed in more than one way and Lloyd leaves his reader in no doubt that the temperature is rising…

‘The Twilight Herald’ is a tough one to get into but, for me, it paid off with pretty much everything that I enjoy in epic fantasy. The next instalment, ‘The Grave Thief’, is an early 2009 release and I’ll definitely be getting hold of a copy.

Eight out of Ten

I've been tagged!

I don't usually do this kind of thing but got tagged by Neth Space and Fantasy Cafe and I thought it looked like fun...

Grab the nearest book and turn to page 123. Write down the fifth sentence, post it, and then tag 5 others to do this.

The closest book to hand was an advance copy of Peter Brett's 'The Painted Man', a book that Terry Brooks has had plenty of good things to say about. This should give you a fair idea of what kind of fantasy it is; at least that's what I thought until I turned to page 123, counted five sentences down and found...

Gared's hands roamed her body freely, and Leesha let him touch places that only a husband should.

Ok... There's not much more I can say to that...

I feel like I've turned up far too late to tag anyone who hasn't done this already so I'm turning it over to anyone who reads this post! You know what to do. Go to page 123, count five sentences and post the fifth sentence in the comments...

Weekend Winners and a Second Chance to win 'The Books of the South'...

Thanks to everyone who entered my competition, last weekend, but I only had two books to give away which means there could only be two winners.
They are...

'Black Ships' - Trine Paulsen, Frederiksberg, Denmark


'The Elves of Cintra' - Peta Banks, Norwich, UK

Well done! Your books will be on their way as soon as I can get to the post office on Monday morning, Happy Reading!



Were you one of the people who entered the competition I ran, a few weeks back, to win a copy of Glen Cook's 'The Books of the South' omnibus? Did you shed a little tiny tear when you didn't win? Well, I'm giving you another chance to put things right! I've had a review copy of 'The Books of the South' come through the door this morning, I already have all the Black Company books so I'm going to give this one away to whoever wants it :o) You do? Just drop me an email with your name and mailing address (email address at the top right hand corner)and we'll see what happens. Anyone can enter, it doesn't matter where you live!
I'll let this one run until next Thursday (26th June) and announce the winner on the following Friday.

Good Luck!

‘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