‘Blue World’ – Robert R. McCammon (Grafton Books)

I first came across Robert McCammon’s work at college when a friend of mine lent me a copy of ‘They Thirst’, a chilling tale of a Los Angeles over-run by vampires and the best vampire book that I’ve come across. It took me years to find my own copy but in the meantime I worked my way through ‘Baal’ (intense but unsatisfying), ‘The Nightboat’ (Nazi zombies from beneath the sea!) and ‘Swansong’ (ok… but it felt like I was reading ‘The Stand’ all over again). A bit of a mixed bag then but when I found this collection of short horror stories, while on holiday, I couldn’t resist picking it up.
I’m glad I did, it’s another mixed bag but ‘Blue World’ sure-fire evidence of an author with the ability to write some seriously scary stuff! Come with me and I’ll show you what I mean…

‘Yellowjacket Summer’

I’m a complete wuss when it comes to bees and wasps so a tale about a boy with the power to talk to Yellowjackets (hornets?) was a dead cert to really freak me out. And it did with a slow build up, of things not seeming quite right, to an explosive finale in a swarm of Yellowjackets…
After reading about a boy being swarmed by Yellowjackets in a public toilet, it was un-nerving (to say the least) when a hornet came and hovered right over the cubicle I was in the next day… True story.

‘Makeup’

A small time criminal steals the make up case of a forties horror actor and gets a lot more than he bargained for…
This one was a real stop start affair that only had me reading to find out what mysterious power the make up box would confer next. Spooky ending though.

‘Doom City’

McCammon’s back on form again with a post apocalyptic tale with a twist in the tale that really shook me when I first read it (to be honest, it still shakes me up!) What makes this one even more un-nerving was the fact that I still can’t work out who was dreaming and who was going through it all…

‘Nightcrawlers’

A late night diner becomes a battleground as a Vietnam Vet’s nightmares come back to haunt him in the worst way…
This is another slow starter that never really got out of first gear although the shootout made for some tense moments. What was scarier was the man from the Government Agency who cam round asking questions afterwards…

‘Pin’

What I think McCammon does best is his portrayals of insanity and he really went for it in this short story of a man who’s gone over the edge and just needs to do one thing, with a pin, before he can go to the next stage. This one made me wince, especially right at the end when the pin…

‘Yellachile’s Cage’

A story of a prisoner and a canary. That’s all I can tell you as this one totally failed to engage me and I barely even started it… I think part of the problem lies in that a lot of the 'full on' tales of terror are followed by stories that seem more sedate. A definite problem with the pacing as far as I was concerned.

‘I Scream Man’

Another post-apocalyptic tale and a really touching affair of a game of scrabble that is not what it seems… It’s another examination of insanity and the chilling moments come in periods of lucidity when you start to get an idea of what’s really going on… One of my favourites in the collection.

‘He’ll come knocking at Your Door’

This is another favourite where a man discovers the true cost of living in the perfect neighbourhood, payment is made on Halloween Night…
I try not to swear on this blog but I’m sorely tempted right now by just how intense this story is, both when Dan finds out what’s going on and right at the very end when things get so bizarre that it’s truly terrifying…

‘Chico’

McCammon threw me a curveball here with this tale of a disabled child abused by his ‘stepfather’. Chico gets the second from last laugh, I had the last laugh when I realised exactly what was going on…


‘Night Calls the Green Falcon’

This is another one that I didn’t finish. What I found was that when McCammon was on form I enjoyed it so much that I didn’t want to waste time on anything that seemed second rate… I will go back and read this at some point.

‘The Red House’

This one was so slow that I just went straight to the end to see what happened, it didn’t inspire me to go back to the beginning and start again (although the hints at a young man's journey into adulthood seemed interesting)... Will I give this one another go? 'I don't know' is the answer right now.

‘Something Passed By’

I liked this one, a tale of daily life in the strangeness of the ‘End Times’. Seeing people treat drinking gasoline as normal (amongst other things) felt like watching an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’. Everything is normal but at the same time it most definitely isn’t. The hope of redemption at the end balances out the bleakness in the rest of the tale.


‘Blue World’

It’s the story that the collection takes it’s name from and would you believe I didn’t have the slightest interest in reading it? After being deliciously chilled by supernatural stuff I realised that I wasn’t all that bothered by a priest’s dalliance with a cocaine snorting porn star, even if she was being stalked by a psycho cowboy. I may go back and give it another go sometime in the future.

As you can see then, I found McCammon’s short stories to be just as much of a mixed bag as the novels (of his) that I’ve read. However, when he gets in the groove McCammon is very good indeed and that’s what elevates this collection into a book that any horror fan should try if they haven’t already. I think you’ll like it.

Eight out of Ten

What makes a review a review?

I've mentioned this already but Aidan wasn't a fan of Paul Kearney's 'The Ten Thousand', he wasn't a fan to the extent that he put the book down halfway through the story and told us why over Here. Nothing I haven't pointed you at already but stick around for a little longer...

Standing out amongst the resulting comments is a comment from none other than Paul Kearney (the author himself!) who said...

If you don’t read a book to the end, you aren’t in a position to review it. Period.

Talk about going for the jugular! To be fair though, Paul did clarify what he meant in the ensuing discussion over Here. Paul's comment got me thinking about what I'm doing here on my own blog. I'm not a literary critic and the closest I ever got to being one was writing English essays at college eleven years ago (which makes me feel really old...) My approach has been to give my opinion on what I read and then make damn sure I back it up with either something from the text or an argument that I've come up with.

The thing is though, if a book's not working for me then I've got no problems about putting it down and then posting my reasons why. Is this a review though or is Paul right?

Sorry Paul but I don't agree with you on this one...

For me, a review is about what I've read and it doesn't matter whether this is the whole book or not. Obviously I wouldn't be able to review the whole book if I hadn't read it, where's the point in that? What I'm perfectly qualified to do though, as a reader, is comment on and review what I've read. It doesn't matter if I didn't get past the first page, it doesn't even matter if the first paragraph didn't work for me and I threw the book in the bin (maybe that's pushing it a bit too far!) For me, a review is all about the experiences that the reviewer had with a book and what this says about them just as much as what it says about the book. How did they react to the book and why? Did they react at all? I've certainly read more than a few books that just left me feeling cold...
Again, experience is perfectly valid no matter how much of the book the reviewer made it through.
I'd certainly much rather read about why Aidan put 'The Ten Thousand' down halfway through rather than see him slog through a book just for the sake of finishing it (especially when he'd already made up his mind).

The bottom line is that I think you don't have to finish a book in order to be able to write a review, so long as you only comment on what you've actually read. I could be completely wrong though and that's where you and the comments section get together and throw all sorts of stuff at me! I can take it :o)

'Kushiel's Scion' - The Winners!

Thanks to everyone that entered this competition, there were only three books up for grabs though which means there can only be three winners. The lucky people are...

Will Masters, Hertford, UK
Elizabeth de Jaeger, Beckenham, UK
Zoe Hodgins, Dublin

Well done guys, your books are on their way :o)
Better luck next time everyone else ;o)

‘The Jade Man’s Eyes’ – Michael Moorcock (Unicorn Fantasy)

When I first went to high school my English teacher was more than happy to let me read anything off the library shelves, I think she was just pleased to come across a student in her class who wanted to read! Needless to say I went straight for the sci-fi/fantasy shelves and it was there that I first came across the works of Michael Moorcock. The satire of Oswald Bastable’s adventures went straight over my head (give me a break, I was twelve!) but I found the tales of Corum and Elric much more to my liking. Especially Elric…
Here was a warrior-sorcerer who was evil yet fought against the forces of evils, tied down by a fate that he brought upon himself but couldn’t escape from. You think you’ve got problems? Have you ever destroyed your home city and inadvertently killed the woman you love? Elric has done all this and much more…

When I was on holiday, last week, I came across this novella in a second hand bookshop. It appears in a slightly different form, as a part of ‘The Sailor on the Seas of Fate’ (which I have), but I’m a sucker for books that have a ‘collectable aura about them’ and so this one came home with me! :o)

Elric’s wanderings bring him to the city of Chalal and a meeting with Duke Avan, an adventurer who requires Elric’s help in searching out the lost city of R’lin K’ren A’a (the ancient city of Elric’s ancestors, don’t even think of asking me to try and pronounce it!). Elric has his own reasons for agreeing to help but fate has its own reasons for bringing Elric to this forgotten island…

‘The Jade Man’s Eyes’ is only seventy four pages long and I managed to finish it on the train to work. As such, I thought this was going to be a fairly short review of a series of sword and sorcery encounters. A fun read but how much can you fit into seventy four pages? I was wrong.
What you get is seventy four pages worth of testament to Moorcock’s skill at placing layers of meaning one on top of the other. There is much more to ‘The Jade Man’s Eyes’ than is at first apparent…

The plot itself is a fairly standard ‘quest’ tale where trials and horrors must be overcome in order to gain great treasure. It’s relatively fast paced and action packed but I’ve seen it all before and so have you. One thing that bugs me in particular is the way that Elric seems to be able to call upon Gods, at the drop of a hat, to save him from impossible odds. This is a man who seems to have favours owed to him by every deity in the multi-verse. It would be nice, every now and then to Elric solve a problem using his own ingenuity rather than getting the Gods to bail him out…
Don’t go too disheartened, about the negative points, though. Moorcock manages to turn ‘The Jade Man’s Eyes’ into something quite special.

First up is the character of Elric himself, maybe not the original anti-hero but an iconic figure nonetheless. His sense of ennui means that a new dimension is added to the tale; this isn’t just a quest for treasure, it’s also Elric’s quest to find meaning to his existence and also find a strange kind of solace in danger. Does he succeed in this quest? It’s a ‘half and half’ thing where the danger is all too apparent but any answers that Elric finds will inevitably throw up more questions. This raised the question, for me, of how a reader is meant to feel about an unrepentedly evil character that keeps being thwarted in his attempts to do the right thing and cannot escape his destiny. I’ll get back to you on that one as I’m still trying to work it out myself.

The other thing that sets ‘The Jade Man’s Eyes’ apart, from more typical ‘swords and sorcery’ fare, is that the choices Elric makes in this novella have the largest of impacts on all of his stories to follow. And we all know how that turns out in the end, don’t we?
Bearing this in mind, it becomes interesting to try and figure out just how much choice Elric had in the decisions that he made. If he was fated to do this can he really be said to be fighting to maintain the balance between Law and Chaos? I mean, the Balance is obviously maintained but it was at the expense of the Balance that was already in place. Now I’m getting confused…

‘The Jade Man’s Eyes’ is not easy to pick up in this format but, like I said, you will find it as a part of ‘The Sailor on the Seas of Fate’. Wherever you find it, this novella is well worth a read. A light bite that is ultimately very filling.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

Writing a Movie or Game Adaptation, a question I had...

Reading 'The Clone Wars' and 'The Force Unleashed' got me thinking about what it must be like, as a writer, to write an adaptation where someone else has already determined how the story will end. Is it just a paying gig or is it still possible to utilise those creative urges that made you want to write in the first place?
I figured the best people to ask were those whose books I had just read, Karen Traviss is a really busy lady right now (overseas signing tour) but I caught Sean Williams at just the right time and here's what he had to say...

'As a writer, how does it feel writing an adaptation, for a computer game, where everything plot related has already been determined by someone else? Is it possible to still get your creative kicks fleshing out someone else's vision?'

The short answer is: yes, absolutely. But there are qualifications. The Force Unleashed was my 25th novel and my fourth for Star Wars. I worked just as hard on it is as I would any of my originals, and enjoyed it just as much. A book like this might be based on someone else's vision, but it's my vision too, or needs to be in order for me to give it my all. If our visions hadn't matched, then it would be a disaster both for the original creator and me as a writer. This was a good fit, and that's one reason I accepted the offer, with relish. I only ever write books I feel passionate about, in genres or worlds I have a deep engagement with. Star Wars is one of those worlds. It may belong to someone else, but I love playing with it when I can.

I had other reasons for wanting to write The Force Unleashed. Before last year, I'd never written a novelisation of any kind of pre-existing story, but that wasn't for lack of wanting to. I grew up on books by the legendary Alan Dean Foster plus a ton of Doctor Who novels, so in a very real sense this kind of book was what got me into reading SF in the first place. I didn't take on TFU for the money (in fact, I delayed a much higher-paying novel in order to squeeze it in). I took it on because the story looked wonderful, and I knew I could add something to it, and because it would enable me to realise that long-held dream of translating something visual and kinetic onto the printed page.

Another factor I found interesting, specific to The Force Unleashed, is that it's based on a computer game. Not only does this allow for alternate endings, but each player can take a unique path through each level. There are certain milestones that have to be passed, of course, but there's a lot of room for individual creativity. That's how I approached this book: the story I produced would be the canonical one, but it was one of many *potential* versions of the story arising naturally out of the game. There was room for variation, in other words, and in those flexible spaces, in the cracks between the existing lines, was where I found the spark that engaged me as an artist.

Shows how much I know about computer games, the multiple ending thing never even occurred to me... (whoops!) Thanks go to Sean for his thoughts on this. If you want to find out more about Sean Williams, and his work, there is now a link in the 'Author/Agent Websites and Blogs' section (to the right).

‘The Force Unleashed’ – Sean Williams (Del Rey)

I have no patience at all when it comes to playing computer games. I’ll start playing ‘Grand Theft Auto’ with aspirations of becoming the crime boss of Liberty City but within ten minutes you can guarantee that I’ll be seeing how many pedestrians I can run over before the police start chasing me all over town. A novelisation of a computer game is a completely different deal though. Especially if it’s a novelisation of a Star Wars computer game…

I couldn’t tell you whether ‘The Force Unleashed’ game is available yet or what consoles it’s available for. What I can do though is tell you what the book is all about.
The Clone Wars are long gone and the Jedi all but extinct. Darth Vader has been tasked by the Emperor to root out and destroy the remaining Jedi but what the Emperor doesn’t know is that Vader has trained an apprentice of his own both for this task and for nefarious purposes of his own…
The Apprentice, we don’t find out his name until much later, must travel through a troubled galaxy killing on the command of his master. Although he is confident in his mastery of the Dark Side of the Force; the apprentice is going to find that the galaxy is still capable of throwing surprises at him, especially surprises that hint at his own hidden origins…

I wonder what I’d be writing now if I hadn’t known, prior to reading the book, that ‘The Force Unleashed’ was based on a computer game? It’s a redundant point now but the fact is that this knowledge led me into the book with a certain mindset and I was able to spot parallels between the book and the game straight away. The first few chapters in particular read like a computer game; make your way through to the end of the level/chapter, defeat the ‘end of level boss’ (renegade Jedi Masters) and then go onto the next stage. It was fun while I was reading it, as with ‘The Clone Wars’ ‘The Force Unleashed’ has everything that a Star Wars fan would expect out of a Star Wars book. It just felt a little contrived to start off with, like the hero had to get through to the next levels otherwise the reader would never get to see what the game was like (as well as it being a much shorter book with a radically different ending!) However, I guess if you’re going to base a book on a computer game then you need to be able to show the reader the game in it’s entirety. I think this is one area where gamers are going to get a lot more out of the book than I did.

Reading ‘The Force Unleashed’ also made me realise how much goes into a fight scene (for example) on the screen. When a scene like this is broken down and described on the page there’s much more going on than you would think, this is certainly true in ‘The Force Unleashed’ where fights etc are described in great detail. A little bit too much detail for me I’m afraid. One thing I’ve found out about myself is that a minute’s worth of lightsaber fight goes down a lot smoother for me when it’s on the screen as oppose to on the page. I found myself skimming pages on occasion when things felt like they were being dragged out a little too far…

That’s not to say that I found ‘The Force Unleashed’ to be a bad read though, far from it! I’ve already mentioned that the book has everything that a Star Wars fan is looking for and, funnily enough, I’m a Star Wars fan! :o)
Swashbuckling lightsaber fights, space battles and weird aliens are all yours for the taking and they all blend together in a tale that is generally fast paced and full of intrigue and double crosses… The finale is suitably explosive and the book, as a whole, thing seems to fit fairly well into the overall Star Wars continuity.
Sean’s masterstroke (at least as far as I was concerned after reading ‘The Clone Wars’…) is to concentrate on telling the tale through characters that you won’t meet anywhere else in the Star Wars universe. Maybe the constraints of writing about a video game left him with no choice. I don’t care because what I got were characters that I knew nothing about, certainly not whether continuity would be placing them in future episodes that I had already come across. This meant that cliff-hangers were suddenly cliff-hangers once again and the Star Wars universe felt a little fresher as I was discovering something new after what seemed like far too long.

‘The Force Unleashed’ is very obviously a computer game novelisation, perhaps a little too obviously for someone like me. Give it a chance though and it’s as fun a read as any of the other Star Wars books you’ll come across. Not a brilliant read, but fun…

Seven and a Quarter out of Ten

'Acacia' to get the movie treatment! (And how is the sequel going?)

It looks like Aidan has beaten me to it but David Anthony Durham is a really nice guy, and I got a lot out of 'Acacia' when I read it last year, so I reckon it's worth mentioning again :o)

If you're a fan of 'Acacia: The War with the Mein' then you'll be pleased to know that it's been optioned by Relativity Media who have hired a screenwriter to work on the screenplay.
I know next to nothing about the movie business but am sure that there's plenty more steps to go, in the process, before we can see 'Acacia' on the big screen. Still good to hear though, I'll be keeping an eye out for more about this one.

Edited to add: I've been emailing David and asked him how things were going with the sequel to 'Acacia'. Here's his reply...

The Other Lands (working title) is coming along. I've had a tough writing year in that I've been doing so damn many other things - lots of teaching related stuff, family things, and cons (which have been great fun, really). Anyway, though...

I'm pleased to say that I did reach a milestone of sorts a few days a go - the point at which I realize that I know everything that needs to happen before I can call the book done. There are plenty of details to be made up, but there aren't really any missing pieces anymore. I'm writing for the end, and I can see the highway (or the highways considering the multiple story lines) ahead of me.

Doubleday has me penciled in for a Fall 2009 publication (maybe even late summer). I'm gunning to deliver the manuscript in time to make that happen. Hopefully you won't have forgotten all about me by then!

I'll be penciling that in my diary too!

‘The Clone Wars’ – Karen Traviss (Del Rey)

I’m really bad about keeping up to date with at least 99% percent of new films coming out so didn’t even realise there was a new Star Wars film on the horizon until I saw the trailer in the cinema (we were watching ‘Kung Fu Panda’, go and see it!). It looks quite impressive and I didn’t even have to bribe my wife with popcorn before she’d agree to go with me! :o)
It was pretty cool then to get home yesterday and find Karen Traviss’ novelisation of the film waiting for me on the doorstep, not only do I get to see the film but I also get to find out what happens in advance! And therein lies the problem with this book, it’s fun to read but it turns out that I already knew what was going to happen (even if I didn’t realise it at first)…

The plot is simple (I’m guessing so that more room could be made for all the space battles and fights between clones and droids). Jabba the Hutt’s son has been kidnapped and whichever faction can get him back safely will be rewarded with access to Hutt controlled hyperspace lanes, a handy thing to have in time of war. Ben Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are assigned to get the child back but this is easier said than done when they are up against the labyrinthine schemes of Count Dooku and his master assassin Asajj Ventress. There’s a lot more at stake than the two Jedi realise…

‘The Clone Wars’ is a fairly short book (two hundred and fifty six pages) and I finished it over the course of a day. There was plenty going on, more than enough to keep me occupied and reading. The book has all the spectacle that the Star Wars franchise is famous for; brimming with pyrotechnics, swashbuckling lightsaber fights and deep space combat. Karen Traviss also carries on looking at the clones and how they function in Republic society. It’s not as in-depth as her ‘Republic Commando’ series, mainly because the clone troopers are too busy fighting against overwhelming odds to get all introspective about their lot, but she still manages to convey that sense of feeling lost and out of place in the universe. All the clones have is each other and Traviss also does a great job of portraying that camaraderie. ‘The Clone Wars’ is military sci-fi in all but name (‘Star Wars’ sometimes feels, to me, like a genre all of it’s own even though it’s sci-fi) with little flashes of humour that foreshadow events to come, i.e. Anakin reassuring R2-D2 about Jawas, and it’s a perfectly serviceable book in this regard.

The thing is though, despite all of this Star Wars goodness before me I felt a little bit flat about the whole thing. Like… what was the point? I thought about this a bit more and realised that, through no fault of her own, Traviss was writing a story where the fate of principal characters had been determined and played out a long time ago. Is Anakin going to make it through to the end of the book? What about Ben Kenobi and Count Dooku? I’m not going to tell you because you already know the answer (hint, look at the credits for all the films). If you know what the eventual outcome has to be then is there really any point in carrying on with the book? There are still bits and pieces that maintain a level of interest (the kidnap plot for example) but like I said, there’s no real urgency or sense of anticpation. I guess this is a pitfall of filling in the gaps between various films and books in the franchise, maybe they should look at films etc with none of the main characters at all?

I also got the impression that Traviss’ writing was hindered by having to work to the plot, already written for the film, instead of take her own directions. I’ve only read ‘True Colours’ but in that book it felt like she had more scope to do her own thing, unlike ‘The Clone Wars’ where she was just fleshing out what will be happening on the film…

I’ll still be going to watch ‘The Clone Wars’ on the big screen but it just felt like things didn’t quite work in the book. I guess, in this instant, that bright lights on the big screen can cover up a lot more than words in a book…


Six and a Half out of Ten

'Empire in Black and Gold' - The Winners!

Thanks to everyone who entered, 'Empire in Black and Gold' has been getting a lot of good press lately and it seems that loads of people took note and entered this competition!
I'm afraid there could only be three winners though and those lucky people are...

Jenna Vance, USA
Jon Johannesen, Faroe Islands
Jim Rion, Yamaguchi, Japan

Well done guys! Your books are on their way...

Everyone else - Better luck next time, there's always a next time ;o)

‘I, Zombie’ – Al Ewing (Abaddon Books)

The nature of my job is such that I can afford to spend a large part of the day pondering, well… all sorts of stuff really. For example, is Superman left or right handed? Think about it… (And saying that he is ambidextrous is just a cop out!) The other thing I’ve been thinking about recently is just how leeway a zombie should have in terms of what it can do. I’m not too happy with them being able to run but when I watch the 2004 remake of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ I can let that one go. One thing I’m not having any of though is zombies being able to scamper across ceilings, what the hell is all that about? (I’m looking at you ‘Day of the Dead’ remake…)
However, having just finished reading ‘I, Zombie’ I may have to rethink all of this. You see, our ‘hero’ is a zombie who can do a lot of this as well as so much more…

John Doe looks just like you and me but that’s where the similarity ends. The thing is that John has been dead for the last ten years but still manages to perform his duties as a private detective, assassin and burglar. John can slow down his perception of time (just like in ‘The Matrix’) and has a detachable hand that performs independently of the rest of his body, useful skills to have when you’re facing down large looking men with guns!
John is pretty special but has no idea of just how special he actually is. He’s about to find out though in a series of events that will see him usher in the end of the world and then have to save it…

I stayed up until two in the morning reading ‘I, Zombie’. I didn’t have any choice in the matter as I had to finish it before I went to bed, I couldn’t wait until the morning to find out what happened. Right from the bullet soaked opening, up until the downbeat ending, Ewing keeps things moving so fast that I literally couldn’t stop and get off, there was no time. ‘I, Zombie’ is only two hundred and eighty nine pages long but every one of those pages has something going on. You want to read about a zombie’s quest for humanity? Keep reading, it’s all in there and is strangely touching. You want a top secret military organisation where packs of werewolves are controlled by a mutant from the Victorian age? There’s plenty of that as well. You want to see London taken apart by an invasion of insects from another dimension…?
Everything ties together very neatly with flashes of humour both in the situations and the writing itself. I laughed out loud when I realised that the Earth had been invaded purely on the basis of the wrong brain being eaten!
Some of John’s asides are good for a chuckle as well…

Here’s a lesson for you – it’s okay to commit a massive act of cannibalism if you’re saving the world. That said, that wasn’t really cannibalism and I did actually end the world first, but try not to point that out. Let me feel good about myself for a minute or two, hey?

As is the case with all Abaddon books (the ‘Tomes of the Dead’ series in particular), Ewing goes straight for the jugular in portraying just exactly what it means to see your home city torn down, around you, by flesh eating insects. There are no punches pulled and Ewing makes it all the more tragic and hard hitting by introducing characters in great detail and then pulling the rug right out from underneath them. If you’re a fan of the series then you’ll know what to expect but if you’re squeamish at all then you may want to think twice before picking this one up. Some of what happens is pretty near the knuckle and does tread a fine line between adding to the atmosphere of the book and simply being there for shock value.

I’m not too bothered about swearing in books, no matter how much there is. So long as there’s a point to it being there then that’s fine by me. It’s worth pointing out though that ‘I, Zombie’ has a particularly high ‘swear word’ count including some particularly nasty words that make reading the book out loud, in public, an awkward task. If that’s not your thing then you may want to give ‘I, Zombie’ a miss!

If I were you though I wouldn’t let these two points put you off as ‘I, Zombie’ is a very entertaining read that tears along at a fair old rate, all in the best traditions of Abaddon Books. It’s not one to discuss at your book club but it’s definitely one for a quick train ride to work and would definitely go well with a couple of beers while you’re in the garden…

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

Return of the Mystery Book Giveaway - The Winners...

The time has come where I announce the (possibly) lucky winners of my latest Mystery Book Giveaway and, without further ado, they are...

Alessandra Peron, Italy
Rob Weber (Valashain on FantasyBookSpot), Netherlands

Well done guys, expect a mystery book package very soon...

Everyone else - thanks for entering, there will be more mystery book giveaways (when you least expect them...) so keep your eyes open!
Oh yes, you've still got time to enter the 'Empire in Black and Gold' competition (open to one and all) and the 'Kushiel's Scion' competition (UK only) if you haven't already...

‘Empire in Black and Gold’ – Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK)

One of the great things about going on holiday is being able to take along a book, which you really want to get into, safe in the knowledge that you won’t have to put it down to do boring stuff like work etc. I spent a large part of last week either getting chewed up by mosquitoes or finding out (the hard way) about some particularly boggy land on Dartmoor but I also spent a lot of time reading Adrian Tchaikovsky’s debut fantasy ‘Empire in Black and Gold’. It’s pretty damn good as far as I’m concerned…

The city states of the Lowlands have their occasional differences but, on the whole, generally get on together through a system of trade and various treaties. Sounds like a regular ‘off the shelf’ fantasy world? Maybe… but the thing that makes this particular world stand out from the rest is the fact that the human inhabitants are split into various races that each take their general demeanour (and a special power, the ‘Art’) from a ‘totem insect’. Beetles are an industrious people while Spiders spin complicated webs of politics and intrigue. It’s the Wasps that everyone needs to be watching out for however, a warlike people with a killing ‘Art’ and dreams of empire that are close to being recognised…
It seems that the only person who is aware of what is going on is one Stenwold Maker (a Beetle artificer) who fights to make the Lowlands aware of the Wasp threat whilst running a spy-ring that seeks to slow the Wasp advance. But while the Lowlands seem oblivious to what is happening, agents of the Wasp Empire are only too aware of Stenwold and have their own plans for him…

If I’d been reading ‘Empire in Black and Gold’ at work then I would have been deliberately missing trains and reading behind my monitor while the boss wasn’t looking, I thought it was that good. The first few pages show you just exactly what the Wasp Empire is capable of and although the action slows down from there the pace doesn’t let up for the rest of the book (well, almost the rest of the book… more on that in a bit). Tchaikovsky handles both the fights and the intrigue in the same manner, full of tension and surprises that kept me reading to find out what happened next. Tchaikovsky obviously has an interest in sword-fighting which lends particular scenes plausibility and emphasises just how awesome the fighting skills of Tisamon (the Mantis Kinden) actually are. He doesn’t overload us with that knowledge though which keeps the story fresh and moving along nicely.

It doesn’t always work though. The main issue I had with the book was that it felt like the resolution of two plot strands were slightly skewed in terms of how urgent they were. The prison break (just over halfway through) had plenty of build up to an explosive finale which I really enjoyed but was left wondering ‘what happens now?’ when that was done and there was still plenty of book to go. In contrast, the ‘main, Lowland threatening’ plot strand felt like it was wrapped up a little too quickly, Stenwold works out what the Wasps have planned and thwarts them (just like that). I’d have liked a little more build up here as this was the whole point of the book, can’t really complain too much though as ‘Empire’ redeems itself in many other ways.
Once you get past the potential obstacle of taking ‘Beetle’, ‘Wasp’, ‘Moth’ etc to mean insects, rather than ‘race names’, (I kept getting trapped by this) then ‘Empire in Black and Gold’ is a great example of the perfect marriage between intricate world building and engaging characters, neither takes precedence and what I was left with was a read where I got to learn about the world of the Lowlands through the journey that the characters made.
You get some history but not loads and it only really serves to flesh out the characters or certain situations, for example you don’t really find out much about the Moth Kinden until one of them becomes a part of the plot. I also liked the way that history is hinted at but not expanded upon which gives a greater sense of depth to the world. The Lowlands are in a transitory period between the age of magic and that of science and, given certain events in the book, it will be interesting to see if that transition keeps going in the same direction.

I’ve already said that the characters are all engaging although you may get the feeling that you’ve seen them before in other books. Having said that though, the underlying insect cultures do add freshness to the proceedings which I appreciated. They’ve all got plenty of baggage but also have endearing features that made me want to find out more about them and invest the time needed to see where their journey would end. None of them are in for an easy ride and I’m already impatient to see where events take them next.

Although by no means perfect, ‘Empire in Black and Gold’ has enough going for it to make it one of the most enjoyable books that I’ve read so far this year. I want more and there’s nothing I can do but sit it out and wait…

Nine and a Quarter out of Ten

Links, Links and more Links...

While I was sat in a tent, all of last week, bloggers around the world were valiantly posting some damn cool stuff. I've just been browsing a few blogs and this is what I think you should be looking at if you haven't already...

Gabe Chouinard... A name that inspires awe wherever two or more bloggers meet over a hot mug of... erm... blogjuice? Seriously, I've been reading Mysterious Outposts and I'm definitely a fan. Have a click Here and then have a click Here as well, I'll leave you to find the other links yourself ;o)

While I was reading 'Empire in Black and Gold' last week, and coming up with some questions for an interview, Pat got there first and interviewed Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Chris has reviewed Feast of Souls, one of those books I meant to get round to last year but never quite managed. He can't wait for the sequel...

Before I went on holiday I received an ARC of Kristin Cashore's 'Graceling'. Adam also received a copy and has posted his review over Here.

Fantasy Book Critic is firmly on my 'list of blogs to visit daily' and the good work continues with a Review of Mike Carey's 'Vicious Circle' that comes with a bonus Q & A session at the end...

I haven't really looked at Blood of the Muse until now but it's all good, you should take a look if you haven't already...

Tia has a Links post with some pretty cool stuff on it.

Neth didn't like Mirrored Heavens as much as I did although I can see where he's coming from...

Rob tells us what he thought of the new Batman Film. As is now traditional, I'll say that I'm going to watch it but will never quite get round to actually going...

Aidan gives us some news on the upcoming Sword of Truth TV show and shares his thoughts on why Paul Kearney's The Ten Thousand wasn't for him...

What am I up to? Well, the plan is to finish 'Toll the Hounds' this week as well as some other (much shorter) books. Oh yeah... and I'm back to work tomorrow... :o(

I'm Back!

And thanks to the power of 'post scheduling' it's like I've never been away... :o)
For what must be the first time (ever!) we actually managed to go on a camping trip where the tent didn't blow down and we didn't get washed out by torrential showers, how cool is that? Just lots and lots of sun, beautiful Dartmoor countryside and a swarm of midges that chewed the living daylights out of my arms and legs... (well, you can't have it all I guess...)

It wasn't just Dartmoor that we looked around, we also went around the North Devon coast which was really nice as well.
Chris - If you're reading this then then you need to go to Bude as there's a really cool second hand bookshop ('The Bookshop by the Sea' I think it's called) with loads of sci-fi and fantasy stuff including first edition Tolkien books.
Here's what I picked up...



'Blue World' scared the life out of me (more on that when I review it) and I've never read any Edgar Rice Burroughs so I'm looking forward to giving them a go very soon. The jewel in the collection though is the 1973 edition of Michael Moorcock's 'The Jade Man's Eyes' (written in green ink!) which will be taking pride of place on the bookshelf very soon...

Things are a bit mad right now, what with unpacking etc, but the blog will be back in full flow before you know it with reviews of Robert McCammon's 'Blue World' and Adrian Tchaikovsky's 'Empire in Black and Gold' (which is brilliant, you should check it out) in the next couple of days.

Have a great weekend!

Giveaway! 'Kushiel's Scion' (Jacqueline Carey)

To mark the UK release of 'Kushiel's Scion' I thought it would be a cool thing to run a competition to give away some copies :o)
Here's the synopsis from Amazon...

'I was afraid of the dark tide that stirred in me. I did not want any part of my mother's blood. And yet it called to me.' Imriel de la Courcel, third in line to the throne, was enslaved and tortured as a boy, leaving him scarred and wary of his future. Son of a traitor, Imriel fears the dangerous passions of his bloodline - and his potential for destruction. His beloved stepmother, exotic and lovely, has trained him in the arts of covertcy - espionage skills that will either serve his country well, or draw him into a web of corruption and treachery. Imriel will need all of these resources as he travels, incognito, to escape the demands of court and family ...What he discovers is not freedom, but a city at war, and a political game so deep that he may never escape its net.

Sounds good doesn't it? Do you fancy a copy? Here's the thing, due to copyright stuff this competition is open to UK residents only, sorry...
Still here? Still fancy a free book? Drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your mailing address is.
I'll let this one run until August 1st and announce the winners on the 2nd...

Good Luck!

Science Fiction and Fantasy that makes you laugh…

I used to be a big fan of Terry Pratchett when I was a teenager, not only was he writing fantasy (all he needed to be doing to become a favourite author of mine) but he was writing fantasy that made me laugh out loud because it was so funny. He was poking fun at the fantasy genre but in a way that made me think, “You know what? He’s right and it’s really funny at the same time.”
Christmas was the time of year when I would get the new Terry Pratchett ‘Discworld’ paperback and you wouldn’t see me (you’d hear me laughing though) until Christmas Dinner was on the table!

But then it all changed. While Terry was poking fun at fantasy tropes I was really enjoying the ride but when his eye started to focus on the real world the Discworld evolved to fit in with it. It was still a fantasy setting but there was enough of the real world there to take that sense of escapism, that I lived for, out and leave me with a book where (horror of horrors!) the jokes weren’t making me laugh any more…
I bowed out of the series (although you’ll still see me picking up ‘Guards! Guards!’ occasionally) but that was ok as I had just discovered Robert Rankin’s ‘Brentford Trilogy’…

Here’s a set of books (along with some of his others) where I think you need to have been born and bred in Britain to really get the humour. Having said that though, I think anyone will get a lot out of other books such as ‘Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse’. Matters of life and death begin and end in the pub and will often take second billing to compiling that winning ‘accumulator’ on the horses or trying to cheat Neville (the part time barman) out of a pint. John Omally and Jim Pooley don’t really want to save the world but when it’s a choice between that and looking for full time employment…

These days Rankin is my drug of choice when I’m after a read that will make me laugh. Christopher Moore is another good one; ‘The Stupidest Angel’ is a book that I think I’ll be reading every Christmas from now on! :o)
It’s also refreshing to see comedy moments popping up where you least expect it, Steven Erikson is a great example here with his epic fantasy series veering off into comedy every now and then with characters such as Kruppe and Iskaral Pust (not forgetting the mighty Bauchelain and Korbal Broach!)

I don’t read an awful lot of humorous genre stuff though and I’m after you to help me fill in the gaps. What am I missing out on? I don’t think I’ve ever seen any humorous sci-fi stuff, anyone care to enlighten me on what’s out there?
Comments in the usual place please! :o)

From my bookshelf… ‘Memory, Sorrow and Thorn’ (Tad Williams)

‘The Dragonbone Chair’
‘The Stone of Farewell’
‘To Green Angel Tower: Siege’
‘To Green Angel Tower: Storm’

I’ve gone on about this series so much, in other posts, that I think it now deserves a thread all to itself!

It was way back in 1989 that I found a copy of ‘The Dragonbone Chair’ while trying to find something decent to spend my book token on; I’d heard some good things about it so figured I’d give it a go… The first hundred pages, or so, were really hard going with detailed description about life in a castle and introductions to a plethora of characters, I stuck with it though and the payoff came much sooner than I had expected.
Betrayal! Strange creatures carrying out human sacrifices! More strange creatures swarming out of the ground to attack unsuspecting soldiers! Giants! A castle destroyed by magic! A dragon! This was more like it. I was totally gripped by the story that was playing out and, as I mentioned a few posts ago, ‘The Dragonbone Chair’ was the first fantasy book to show me that things don’t always go the way they’re expected to.
But then came the downer… Not only did I finish the book but I then found out that the sequel was still being written. For the first time ever I had to cope with the fact that I was into a series that was still ‘in progress’ and hadn’t been completed.

Two years later…

It’s Christmas Day and I’ve finally got my hands on ‘The Stone of Farewell’, as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t matter what’s on the television as I’m just glad to get back into the world of Osten Ard and find out what has been happening to Simon Snowlock and his friends. It’s just as good as the first time round but I’m finding that the more of the world I get to see the more questions there are that need answering. I’ve also got used to the fact that ‘The Stone of Farewell’ will end on another cliffhanger and I’ll have to wait another couple of years to see how it ends. I was right on both counts; a character comes back from the dead (that still gets me whenever I read it) and that’s how it ends. Time to settle down for another long wait. Having said that though, these days I’m able to wait twice as long (at least) for the latest from GRRM!

If waiting for ‘To Green Angel Tower’ wasn’t bad enough I then found that, due to the publishers ‘wanting to put a good product on the shelves’ (so, nothing to do with making more money then…), I was going to have to wait even longer for a book that was being published in two parts! Damn them…
I got there in the end though, a slightly off key ending (a series that questioned certain fantasy tropes fully adopted one of the biggest ones of all) but overall a great series that has certainly inspired George RR Martin in his own fantasy series.

‘Memory, Sorrow and Thorn’ looks just a little bit dated when placed against some of the edgier works of today but is a series that will always have some charm as far as I’m concerned. It’s a series that will always occupy one of the more prominent spots on my bookshelves and gets a re-read at least every couple of years. If you’re a fan of epic/high fantasy, and you haven’t tried this series out, then you could do a lot worse than give it a go…

Giveaway! 'Empire in Black and Gold' (Signed!) - Adrian Tchaikovsky

While you're reading this post, I should be well into Adrian Tchaikovsky's debut 'Empire in Black and Gold' and hoping that it is as good as I've heard. It sounds just like my kind of thing so I've got a good feeling about this one...

Here's the synopsis from Amazon...

Seventeen years ago Stenwold witnessed the Wasp Empire storming the city of Myna in a brutal war of conquest. Since then he has preached vainly against this threat in his home city of Collegium, but now the Empire is on the march, with its spies and its armies everywhere, and the Lowlands lie directly in its path. All the while, Stenwold has been training youthful agents to fight the Wasp advance, and the latest recruits include his niece, Che, and his mysterious ward, Tynisa. When his home is violently attacked, he is forced to send them ahead of him and, hotly pursued, they fly by airship to Helleron, the first city in line for the latest Wasp invasion.Stenwold and Che are Beetle-kinden, one of many human races that take their powers and inspiration each from a totem insect, but he also has allies of many breeds: Mantis, Spider, Ant, with their own particular skills. Foremost is the deadly Mantis-kinden warrior, Tisamon, but other very unlikely allies also join the cause.
As things go from bad to worse amid escalating dangers, Stenwold learns that the Wasps intend to use the newly completed railroad between Helleron and Collegium to launch a lightning strike into the heart of the Lowlands. Then he gathers all of his agents to force a final showdown in the engine yard ...

Sounds good doesn't it, how do you fancy winning a copy? Even better than that, how do you fancy winning a signed copy? Thanks to Tor UK, I have three signed copies to give away to readers of the blog. Anyone can enter this one, it doesn't matter where you live!
If you fancy your chances then you need to send me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your mailing address is. There are other competitions taking place this week so you will need to be clear in your email as to which competition you are entering. I'll leave this one to run until the 29th of July and announce the winners on the 30th.

Good Luck!

Giveaway! 'Return of the Mystery Book Giveaway...'

I've got a whole load of books waiting to go the charity shop, some have been read and reviewed whilst others (for whatever reason) haven't. How would you like a couple? You would? Here's the thing, I'm not going to tell you what they are...

Yep, it's that time of year again where I run a competition for books where you're not going to know what you've won until they come through the door... Cool isn't it? :o)
This time round two lucky (or unlucky, depends whether you like what you get!) people will have mystery book packages turn up on their doorstep, would you like to be one of them?

If you fancy your chances, drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me your name and mailing address. You will need to make it clear in your subject header as to which competition you are entering. Anyone can enter, it doesn't matter where you're from!
I'll let this one run until the 28th of July and announce the winners on the 29th.

Good Luck...

‘The Walking Dead’ – Volumes Five and Six (Robert Kirkman)

After picking up the last three issues I knew that I needed to get back into this series and the best way to do this is by picking up the trade paperbacks. One trip to Forbidden Planet and I was ready to go!
It’s a little bit weird reading these books knowing what is going to happen to certain characters but it’s still been fun watching Rick and his band slowly start to turn the prison into a proper home. There are still some surprises in store though including a couple of scenes that made me wince more than just a little bit…



‘The Best Defense’ (Volume Five)

Things are looking good for the prison dwellers now that they’ve managed to clear out all the zombies but things are about to change in a way that will have massive repercussions for a long time to come…
A helicopter in the sky is the first sign of life seen in a long time but following it leads Rick, Glenn and Michonne into even worse danger. Zombies are bad enough but humans are still the most dangerous animal (with the greatest capacity for evil) on the planet... Or are they? Kirkman keeps hopping backward and forward between the dark side of human nature and people doing what they have to do in order to survive in this post apocalyptic landscape. Rick’s group seem to be in the ‘do what you have to do camp’ while the new community, in Woodbury, are full of the ‘darkness of human nature’ and this seems a little bit too polarised to be realistic. Having said that though, the ‘Governor’ of Woodbury does have some nasty tricks up his sleeve and these will make you wince at the very least. ‘The Best Defense’ is not a comic book for kids!
It’s a little bit too polarised in places, like I said, but ‘The Best Defense’ is a read that carries on the story in the best traditions of this series

Eight out of Ten.




‘This Sorrowful Life’ (Volume Six)

The ‘Woodbury Arc’ comes to an end in a swarm of zombies and a torture scene that left me gasping but unable to look the other way. Did the Governor deserve what he got? In light of his crimes he definitely had it coming to him but Michonne has already been shown to be a law unto herself in this new world which makes me wonder how much the guy really deserved to get. Michonne is so far off the scale that even she questions her own actions in a conversation between her two personalities; I want to find out what’s going on here and am looking forward to learning more in future issues.
Rick and his group return to the prison to find it in a somewhat worse state than when they left it, easily fixed though!
The rest of the book is spent on relationships being re-established and Rick having to accept a new role in the group because of his newly acquired disability. This doesn’t stop him from taking care of a situation where the location of the prison is in danger of being revealed. Once again, Rick has carte blanche to do whatever is needed while the other guy is just there to be stopped. To be fair though, Kirkman does acknowledge that there are two sides to the argument by allowing Martinez to put his case across (doesn’t really make much difference though…)
‘This Sorrowful Life’ is a book that sets up events that are only now coming to fruition and it’s cool to see Kirkman thinking of the ‘long game’ here. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on more of these books.

Eight out of Ten