A Saturday Cover Art Post... ‘The Runestaff’ (Michael Moorcock)

I got a little ahead of myself and reviewed ‘The Runestaff’ via an old UK edition that I picked up second hand. I couldn’t help it, I was enjoying the series way too much to have to wait at all! However, Vance Kovacs’ amazing cover art is always worth a look so ‘The Runestaff’ gets itself featured again. Check it out,

It feels a little more ‘posed’ than the others, and not quite as natural, but it’s still looking good as far as I’m concerned. My bookshelves are a little crowded at the moment (so I tend to pick up collected or omnibus editions where I can) but for those of you with a little more space, these new Tor editions of ‘The History of the Runestaff’ series are going to look good on anyone’s shelves! What do you reckon?

‘Echo City’ – Tim Lebbon (Spectra)

Tim Lebbon is one of those authors where you don’t realise that you’ve read as much of their works as you have. Odd really as he’s very good at what he does. I didn’t think I’d read much of Lebbon’s work but a quick look back through the blog proved me wrong. Here’s a guy simply brimming over with short stories and novels; I don’t want to go ‘link crazy’ but would point out ‘Fallen’ and ‘Hellboy: The Fire Wolves’ as great places to jump on board if you haven’t already.
When I realised that not only had I read more of Lebbon than I thought, but I’d really enjoyed it at the same time, my anticipation was raised all the more for his novel ‘Echo City’. The short story ‘The Deification of Dal Bamore’ had me wanting to read ‘Echo City’ anyway so I was really looking forward to cracking my copy open when it came through the post. Life always seems to conspire against my reading the books that I really want to but I got there in the end. ‘Echo City’ is as gorgeous a read as you’d expect but, at the same time, it felt as if there was something missing...

Echo City is perhaps the only bastion of humanity in existence; it’s surrounded by a vast and poisonous desert so there’s no way for its citizens to be able to tell one way or the other. A brutal theocracy holds sway over the city but the impossible arrival of a man from the desert could well blow everything wide open. It’s up to a small group of revolutionaries to protect this man against those who would protect the status quo but no-one has taken into account that he may well have plans of his own.
If this wasn’t bad enough, something is stirring in the caverns below Echo City. It is vast and it is angry. When two such threats collide, will there be anything left standing by the end...?

‘Echo City’ is a gloriously atmospheric piece that pulls you right into the various Cantons and leaves you on the wall of the city, staring out across the desert and wondering what lies beyond the horizon. It was this attention to detail that had me hooked pretty much right from the start when the first, tragic, journey is made across the desert. All kinds of questions are raised in those first few pages and the atmosphere that Lebbon creates makes it all to easy to stick around and wait for the answers to present themselves. It’s not just the upper parts of the city either that are worth visiting; the caverns underneath Echo City are full of fascinating hints of thousands of years of history that you can literally feel hanging in the air. I am a big fan of cityscapes and Echo City can sit quite proudly amongst my other favourites. It’s a place where you feel that people actually live and you can’t give much more praise than that to a city that lives only on a written page.

It’s a real shame then that the story itself rattles around in such a grand setting...

Don’t get me wrong though, the plot is a good one. Like I said, there are mysteries to be solved and they are presented in such a way that you want to stick around and see how it all plays out. How could someone survive in the desert? Just what is climbing out the catacombs beneath the city? That last question in particular is posed in just the right way to encourage interest with information being doled out in drops here and there as the book moves forward.
There isn’t an awful lot of action to be found in ‘Echo City’ but when it does kick off it’s explosive, brutal and brief. Lebbon doesn’t draw things out any longer than they need to be, emphasising the violence in terms of how quickly a person can go from being alive to being just another corpse in the gutters of Echo City. Everything fits together perfectly by the end of the book showing Lebbon as someone who really pays attention to where his plot is going.

Where the problem lies, I think, is in the fact that the city and surrounding deserts are so vast that the story is never going to be able to spread out enough to fill in all the gaps. We have a very distinct group of people on a very specific mission. This mission doesn’t really branch out at all (in fact, all of the main players find themselves feeding back in to the main plot; no matter how reluctantly) so what we have as a result is a very self-contained plot perched nervously in the midst of a setting that is far more expansive. The balance just doesn’t feel right; you need something far more epic and wide ranging to sit in such a landscape. To be fair, Lebbon goes some way towards correcting this in the climatic scenes. These scenes are appropriately powerful but I couldn’t help feeling that approach would have better employed over the whole of the novel instead of just at the end...

I also found myself wondering whether the sheer weight of history behind the plot helped contribute to a general sense of flatness right at the end. After all, if you build something up to have the weight of millennia behind it then you’ve got to be able to sign off in style, you just have to! The imbalance, that I mentioned earlier, means that you can’t quite escape from a sense of anti-climax as far as this goes. Everything comes together nicely but the setting is just too big for the ending to resonate as it should.

I’d like to see more tales from ‘Echo City’, the setting is intriguing and I’d love to see the background history fleshed out more to perhaps provide that ‘epic’ wide ranging feel that this book is missing. An engrossing story that doesn’t quite gel with a far wider ranging setting.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

‘Predator: South China Sea’ – Jeff Vandermeer (Dark Horse Books)

I wouldn’t say that I’ve read a great deal of Jeff Vandermeer’s work (and some of what I have read I need to go back and re-read; it’s been a while...) but the impression I’ve been left with is that this is a guy who likes to follow his own path and tell stories of what he finds on that journey. No tapping into what’s popular here, Vandermeer stands out by seeming to deliberately go against the flow.
That made it all the more surprising then when I found out that he had written a ‘Predator’ tie-in novel a couple of years ago (yep, it can sometimes take me far too long to catch up on things). I was of course immediately curious to find out what Vandermeer made of the leap from the gloriously weird settings of ‘Finch’ and ‘City of Saints and Madmen’ to a setting that’s undeniably more commercial and mainstream. As things turned out, it was a leap made with some aplomb but also with the help of an anchor placed firmly in the weird stuff...

For those who have the money to play with, a remote jungle island in the South China Sea offers the perfect place to let off a little steam with the best in big game hunting. If there’s an animal that you ever fancied hunting, the odds are that it’s here and ready to be shot at. Now something else has arrived on the island and the hunters are about to find that the game has suddenly become a lot more deadly...
The deadliest hunter in the galaxy is on the island and on safari. In its sights is a collection of gangsters, pirates, secret agents... and a burnt out rock star. Can they put aside their own double dealing schemes to deal with a greater threat? Will the Predator only serve to advance these schemes? It’s all going down on the island and not everyone will make it out alive; not everyone will even want to...

Yet again, Jeff Vandermeer has written a novel that I couldn’t put down until I’d finished; reading his stuff is always a pleasure. This time round though it’s for entirely different reasons than normal. Vandermeer set out to write a sci-fi thriller and succeeded on all counts.

You could say though that Vandermeer was already onto a winner, before he even started, considering the material he had to work with. The ‘Predator’ franchise is successfully based on a very simple concept and it’s a concept that (on initial inspection) Vandermeer aligns very closely with what he has happening in ‘South China Sea’. It’s a tried and tested formula and one that Vandermeer doesn’t stray far from. There’s a Predator on the hunt for prey and he’s doing it in the jungle, that’s the bottom line. If you’re looking for something a little fresher in terms of plot then this may put you off initially but stick with it. The ingredients might all be the same as usual but it’s what Vandermeer does with them that eventually raises ‘South China Sea’ from being standard ‘run of the mill’ fare and turns it into something special.

First and foremost, Vandermeer works very well with what he has been given (namely, the aforementioned hunt and jungle setting). You might well see what’s coming but that’s ok, you’re meant to. Our characters don’t share that same privilege though and this is where Vandermeer injects a sense of tension that grows on the reader as the tale progresses. You can literally feel the tension growing in these people as they make their way through a relatively unfamiliar landscape whilst being stalked by an alien foe. Once you tap into that sense of tension, you have to see it through to the conclusion and this forces the plot forward at just the right pace.
It’s also worth noting that Vandermeer doesn’t just limit this tension to the human characters. The Predator is very much portrayed as being on an alien world and subject to the kind of surprises that such a newcomer would experience. Just when you think the Predator is about to walk off with it all... well, that would be telling (and some surprises shouldn’t be spoiled). It goes without saying that the resulting pyrotechnics, in various confrontations are worth sticking around for.

All of these moments are cleverly bundled up into a multi faceted and tightly controlled plot where everyone’s motivations are suspect and some only come to fruition right at the very end. There is always something going on and the human intriguing contrasts very nicely with the more straight forward ‘violence in motion’ of the Predator. This is a story that gives its readers plenty to look at as well as plenty to think about, all in equal measure.

Where ‘South China Sea’ also stands out from the pack is in the way that Vandermeer expands upon the mythos of the Predator species and, as a result, gives his readers something that’s a little broader in scope than you would expect. On the basis of the films, you might be forgiven for thinking that most Predator activity is confined to Earth. Vandermeer pulls back the curtain on a whole galaxy that is nothing more than a hunting ground for this species. I found myself rooting for the humans even more because of this. When such an activity is shown to be commonplace you can’t help but support the little guy, in the thick of it through no fault of his own.

Vandermeer really lets loose with his imagination in these scenes, none more so when one of the human party undergoes an enforced transformation themselves. While it’s beautifully written, and makes for one particularly superb fight scene, I couldn’t help but wonder whether this was one moment where Vandermeer lost that tight hold he had on the plot. While there were connections to the plot, this sub-plot felt more like an exercise in whimsy and perhaps a means for Vandermeer to reconnect with the weirdness that he enjoys delving into. As a result, we’re left with a tight plot that could perhaps be tightened more.

Despite these small failings though, you can’t really complain when the sum of ‘South China Sea’s’ parts is a such a thoroughly entertaining read. You may think you’ve seen all this before but you haven’t seen it in the hands of Jeff Vandermeer.

Nine and a Quarter out of Ten

‘Star Wars: Red Harvest’ – Joe Schreiber (Del Rey)

We all love Star Wars don’t we? I do. Whether it’s on the television, on Christmas afternoon, or a rainy day read the franchise is ‘comfort media’ at its warmest and most enveloping. The bottom line is that you know just what you are getting whenever you pick up a book or watch a film; a tale of good versus evil with familiar characters and some monstrous threat that either needs to be blown up with star fighters or taken apart by Luke Skywalker as he narrowly escapes falling to the Dark Side of the Force, again.
One big problem with the franchise though is that the level of ‘comfort’ is fast growing repetitive at the expense of any urgency in the plot. Certain characters have to be included and you just know that they’re not going to die. What, another galaxy threatening super-weapon? No worries, it’ll be dead and gone in the penultimate chapter...

It was a very good thing then that Joe Schreiber came along last year and gave us his tale of ‘zombies on a Star Destroyer’ with ‘Deathtroopers’. Here was a book that carried flaws, that you would expect to find in a Star Wars novel, but was still a fresh and engaging take on a long established setting. I was definitely keen to see more from Schreiber to see if he would deliver another slice of Star Wars horror. The good news is that he has, it’s zombies again but the major problem I had with ‘Deathtroopers’ isn’t here this time round and the book is all the better for it...

You would have thought that life in a Sith Academy would be dangerous enough but things have just got a lot more dangerous for the students on the planet Odacer-Faustin. The resident dark lord of the Sith has barricaded himself away and isn’t taking questions about just why violence is increasing while students are disappearing. Answers are only forthcoming when a bounty hunter arrives bearing a rare prize and a Jedi hostage; all hell is about to break lose. Those missing students were dead but they aren’t any longer. What they are is very hungry and they’ve got the force skills to catch all that they can eat. Our Jedi hostage must escape what is fast becoming a planet of the undead...

If ‘Deathtroopers’ was a haunted house in space, ‘Red Harvest’ is very much the Star Wars equivalent of a holiday camp full of teenagers being sliced and diced in a variety of ways. It’s great. With Joe Schreiber at the wheel, I can’t see ‘Star Wars Horror’ getting tired any time soon and this is a setting that can very much benefit from a healthy dose of the living dead.

My main issue with ‘Deathtroopers’ was the inclusion of a couple of very well known characters. It’s always great to see them but once they appeared you just knew they were going to make it and you could hear the sound of the tension slowly deflating as a result. Schreiber neatly sidesteps this issue by having the action take place thousands of years before the events of ‘Deathtrooper’ (which happened just before ‘A New Hope’). In this respect ‘Red Harvest’ is very much a prequel to ‘Deathtroopers’ although I’m still hoping for another book telling us what went down on the Star Destroyer before the prison barge found it. Here’s hoping...

 While it’s still a little too obvious that one character will survive, Schreiber declares open season on the rest. Anyone can get that one way ticket and Schreiber is more than happy to dole out ‘death by zombie’ in liberal measures. There are no one dimensional characters either; Schreiber takes the approach of giving everyone a little depth and you find yourself getting to know characters more and more as the book progresses. This, of course, is all part of the plan. Just when you think a character is so well drawn that they’ll be allowed to escape... they’re dead. Given the duplicitous nature of the Sith students, death can come from any direction and this uncertainty really racks up the tension in the best possible way.

Not only is Schreiber good at creating and maintaining this tension but when things kick off Schreiber makes sure that it all goes off in style. Whether it’s the attack in the canteen, the scenes in the library or the moments in the Tauntan stables (can’t say too much without spoiling things but it’s a nice little homage all on its own) Schreiber has a firm and assured hand on the energy and rhythm that’s all too evident in these passages. Things not only flow smoothly but they also flow very quickly and hold your attention for all the right reasons. The ending is signposted a little too clearly for my liking (that final surprise isn’t that surprising...) but the rest of it works well with everything coming together and providing fresh impetus for the plot to push forward.

There’s not too much to say about the zombies themselves that I haven’t already said in my review of ‘Deathtroopers’; they’re not the zombies that you would expect to see normally but as far as the Star Wars universe goes they fit in rather nicely. When you can cut up a regular zombie with a lightsaber, the only way you can even up the odds is give that zombie a lightsaber and the ability to use it. It works and it feels just like Star Wars at the same time. Can’t complain about that!

‘Red Harvest’ is a definite step up from ‘Deathtroopers’ although some of the same problems are still apparent to a certain extent. It’s entertaining enough though that you won’t care about that, I didn’t. I wouldn’t want to see zombies in all Star Wars books but I wish that all Star Wars could be written like this... Look out for 'Red Harvest' at the end of the month.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

‘Judge Dredd vs Aliens: Incubus’ – John Wagner, Andy Diggle & Henry Flint (Rebellion)

So I was all geared up to get all nostalgic until I found out that this story was serialised only seven years ago... Feels like a lot longer to be honest, although that could just be me feeling old today. Can you get nostalgic for things that only happened seven years ago? I don’t know.
2000AD have got good form in terms of pitting Judge Dredd up against some of the most iconic characters in comic books and film. In his career, pounding the mean streets of Mega City One, Dredd has faced off against the likes of Batman (plus associated villains) and the Predator to name but two. It was the Batman storyline that introduced me to this habit Dredd has of transcending publishers and I enjoyed it immensely. You might even see it featured here one day...
Right now though, it’s the turn of perhaps my favourite ‘Face Off’ to be featured here. According to the blurb on the back of the book... ‘In Mega City One, everyone can hear you scream!’

A shoot out, in heavy Mega City traffic, is an everyday occurrence; so are the Judges assigned to restore order at the scene. An alien life form bursting from a perp’s chest though? That’s definitely a new one... The Aliens have found a new home in Mega City One and Judges Dredd, Giant and Sanchez have to track this infestation to its source before the city itself is swarmed.
They may already be too late though as the Aliens in the warehouse and the hospital are only the merest indication of what is ready to erupt from below the Hall of Justice. Someone has a very specific plan for these Aliens and that makes them more dangerous than ever...

Before I get onto the story itself, it’s worth pointing out the great artwork on display in this collection. Carlos Ezquerra is pretty much where it’s at as far as Judge Dredd artwork is concerned with a distinctive style that just is Judge Dredd. It’s actually Henry Flint in charge of artwork duties here but I actually had to go back and check that it wasn’t Ezquerra holding the pencils, Flint is that good.
You could argue that Flint might be trying to copy Ezquerra’s work, and it is very similar here, but I for one don’t buy it. It feels like all Flint had to do here was take a small step and he would be aping Ezquerra’s work. There’s a sense of that step deliberately not being taken here and the end result is very much Flint’s work. You get a real feel for Mega City One and you also find yourself feeling the same way about the Aliens as you did in the films (although maybe not ‘Alien Resurrection’, that film was bad...) Flint has clearly got just what it takes to depict an alien attack and all its gory consequences...

The story itself is perhaps a little simplistic and linear, in plot structure, but you can’t really blame it. Not only are the Aliens the most simplistic of creatures (kill, breed and repeat...) but the Judges also have a very simplistic approach to law enforcement – solve the crime, administer justice and repeat. You can’t do an awful lot with factions like this, and the story can feel a little flat as a result, but what you can do is spice things up around the edges. This is the approach taken by Wagner and Diggle, an approach that really pays dividends.

The labyrinthine Mega City One is the ideal scene for a plot of ‘Hunt the Alien’ and the writers make full use of this. Whether it’s the confines of a hospital, the city at large or the tunnels underneath; Wagner and Diggle really bring a sense of claustrophobia to the fore that all good ‘Alien’ films have (especially the scenes with the Verminators in the hospital). When the teeth and claws come out, Wagner and Diggle have that covered as well with scenes that pit Dredd up against the ultimate killing machine. Suspend your disbelief a little and go with the flow, the action scenes are well worth it. That goes double for the scenes when the Aliens finally break into the Grand Hall of Justice; everything kicks up a gear in a fitting tribute to the film ‘Aliens’. I had trouble keeping up with the panels, everything was moving along so fast! The ending is never in doubt but, this time round, it’s all about the journey rather than its conclusion.

‘Incubus’ is never going to stretch its readers but there’s never any doubt that it will make up for this in terms of sheer entertainment. It’s one hell of a ride and perfect for fans of the ‘Alien’ franchise.

Nine out of Ten

News from Solaris...

It's press release time! :o)

Solaris commission new horror novel from Christopher Fowler

Solaris is delighted to announce the acquisition of a new horror novel, Hell Train, by Christopher Fowler, best-selling author of the Bryant & May mystery novels. Fowler says: “This is an unashamed pedal-to-the-metal supernatural thriller that goes back to my roots, and a multi-layered fun ride to the dark side. I'm thrilled to be working with the hottest new publishing house for genre fiction in the UK.”

Jonathan Oliver, editor-in-chief of Solaris, has commented: “I’ve been a fan of Christopher Fowler for a long time and have always loved his horror stories. So it’s very exciting to be working with him on this rip-roaring supernatural yarn. Christopher brings us something of the British horror film industry at its height, while also stamping his own mark on this thrilling tale.”

Four passengers meet on a train journey through Eastern Europe during the First World War, and face a mystery that must be solved if they are to survive. As the ‘Arkangel’ races through the war-torn countryside, they must find out:

What is in the casket that everyone is so afraid of?
What is the tragic secret of the veiled Red Countess who travels with them?
Why is their fellow passenger the army brigadier so feared by his own men?
And what exactly is the devilish secret of the Arkangel itself?

Bizarre creatures, satanic rites, terrified passengers and the romance of travelling by train, all in a classically styled horror novel.

Hell Train will be published in January 2012 in both the UK and the US. (I can't find the cover art to post but it looks gorgeous on the press release, trust me...)

The Sentinel Mage - New fantasy series from Solaris - Out January 2011

The start of the gripping new Cursed Kingdoms trilogy!In a distant corner of the Seven Kingdoms, an ancient curse festers and grows, consuming everything in its path. Only one man can break it: Harkeld of Osgaard, a prince with mage’s blood in his veins. But Prince Harkeld has a bounty on his head - and assassins at his heels.

Innis is a gifted shapeshifter. Now she must do the forbidden: become a man. She must stand at Prince Harkeld’s side as his armsman, protecting and deceiving him. But the deserts of Masse are more dangerous than the assassins hunting the prince. The curse has woken deadly creatures, and the magic Prince Harkeld loathes may be the only thing standing between him and death.

The first book in a thrilling new heroic fantasy trilogy, Emily Gee’s The Sentinel Mage combines high action and an exciting new take on magic with challenging themes of identity and social taboo, as a strong cast of engaging characters races against time to save a world threatened with a horrific curse.

I'll be picking both of these up I think. I enjoyed Fowler's short story 'Down' (in the 'End of the Line' anthology) and seeing as I've never read anything by Emily Gee I may as well start somewhere :o)

The 'Thank Goodness The Snow Has Gone!' Competition Winner's Post!

I am so fickle :o) When I'm the only one without snow, I want it just because I hate being left out. However, once the snow turns up I can't wait for it to go again! It looks really nice when I'm sat on the train but being out in it is another matter, especially when you're on your way to work and not off to the nearest big hill with your sledge... Hopefully, that's that until winter really kicks in next year!

And now, on with the winners for last week's 'Towers of Midnight' competition... Thanks to everyone who entered but with only two books to give away, and far more than two people entering, the numbers were never really going to match up! If you didn't win this time round, better luck next time...
The lucky winners were,

Alicia Rusyn, Cumbria, UK
Sandra Hallett, Exeter, UK

Well done folks, your books are on their way... :o)

Giveaway! ‘Stonewielder’ (Ian Cameron Esslemont)

I am so behind with my ‘Malazan’ reading at the moment, three books and a novella if anyone’s counting... Oh well, Christmas is just round the corner so hopefully the holiday will help me redress the balance! In the meantime, just because I’m behind with my ‘Malazan’ reading doesn’t mean that you have to be as well. Thanks to Transworld Books, I have three copies of Ian Cameron Esslemont’s ‘Stonewielder’ to give away on the blog (only to people from the UK and Europe though, sorry about that everyone else...) Here’s the blurb...

Greymane believed he’d outrun his past. With his school for swordsmanship in Falar, he was looking forward to a quiet life, although his colleague Kyle wasn’t as enamoured with life outside the mercenary company, the Crimson Guard. However, it seems it is not so easy for an ex-Fist of the Malazan Empire to disappear, especially one under sentence of death from that same Empire.

For there is a new Emperor on the throne of Malaz, and he is dwelling on the ignominy that is the Empire’s failed invasion of the Korel subcontinent. In the vaults beneath Unta, the Imperial capital, lie the answers to that disaster. And out of this buried history surfaces the name Stonewielder.
In Korel, Lord Protector Hiam, commander of the Stormguard, faces the potential annihilation of all that he holds dear. With few remaining men and a crumbling stone wall that has seen better days, he confronts an ancient enemy: the sea-borne Stormriders have returned. 

Religious war also threatens these lands. The cult of the Blessed Lady, which had stood firm against the Riders for millennia, now seeks to eradicate its rivals. And as chaos looms, a local magistrate investigating a series of murders suddenly finds himself at the heart of a far more ancient and terrifying crime – one that has tainted an entire land....

If you’re interested then you know what to do next... Simply drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your postal address is. The subject header will be ‘Stonewielder’.

I’ll be leaving this one open until the 12^th of December and will aim to announce the winners as soon as possible afterwards.

Good Luck!

Giveaway! ‘Echo City’ (Tim Lebbon)

Look out for a review sometime next week. What I will say now though is that it is a gorgeous read. If you’re a fan of Tim Lebbon then you’ve already picked this up I’m sure. If you’re looking for a place to get started on Lebbon’s work then you can do a lot worse than start here. How would you like to win a copy...?

Check out the blurb first,

Surrounded by a vast, poisonous desert, Echo City is built upon the graveyard of its own past. Most inhabitants believe that their city and its subterranean Echoes are the whole of the world, but there are a few dissenters. Peer Nadawa is a political exile, forced to live with criminals in a ruinous slum. Gorham, once her lover, leads a ragtag band of rebels against the ruling theocracy. Nophel, a servant of that theocracy, dreams of revenge from his perch atop the city’s tallest spire. And beneath the city, a woman called Nadielle conducts macabre experiments in genetic manipulation using a science indistinguishable from sorcery. They believe there is something more beyond the endless desert . . . but what?

It is only when a stranger arrives from out of the wastes that things begin to change. Frail and amnesiac, he holds the key to a new beginning for Echo City—or perhaps to its end, for he is not the only new arrival. From the depths beneath Echo City, something ancient and deadly is rising. Now Peer, Gorham, Nophel, and Nadielle must test the limits of love and loyalty, courage and compassion, as they struggle to save a city collapsing under the weight of its own history.

Sounds good doesn’t it? Thanks to the nice people at Spectra, I have three copies of ‘Echo City’ to give away on the blog (but only to people in the US though). Entering is as simple as ever, simply drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your postal address is. The subject header needs to be ‘Echo City’. I’ll do everything else.

I’ll be leaving this one open until the 12^th of December and will aim to announce the winners as soon as possible afterwards.

Good Luck!

‘Ghost Dance’ – Rebecca Levene (Abaddon Books)

Sometimes, things just click. I’ve read some of Rebecca Levene’s work, through Abaddon, and while it was entertaining enough to make me want to go back for more there was still something about it that just didn’t work for me. Issues with plot and structure to one side, there was something else indefinable that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Then I read ‘Cold Warriors’ and it all made sense.
‘Cold Warriors’ showed me that Levene needs to be let loose on her own if we’re going to see her best work. No riffing off other people’s settings, let her run with her own idea and see where it ends; if ‘Cold Warriors’ is anything to go by you’re guaranteed a lot of fun over the course of the read. It’s taken me a little while to finally get round to the sequel but the anticipation never lessened. Levene’s ‘Cold Warriors’ was a book that hinted at a lot of potential for a sequel and for the series as a whole. Having read ‘Ghost Dance’ I’d say that the potential is still there but it hasn’t been realised, yet.

Following the events of ‘Cold Warriors’, Morgan is now with the Hermetic Division full time and struggling to come to terms with his unique status as a man with no soul. His next mission could change all of that though... A top expert on the Elizabethan alchemist John Dee has been killed by a Mossad agent with superhuman powers. Morgan must not only find out why but also seek to advance the interests of the Hermetic Division as the case unfolds.
And what a case this is. There’s an American medium employed by the CIA to investigate a cult where the members can possess animals. There’s also a very dangerous young man who is seeking to escape judgment for his crimes by uncovering the secrets of immortality. Morgan is about to get involved with both of these people in a case that’s only a small part of a much larger war between Heaven and Hell...

Rebecca Leven set up something pretty cool in ‘Cold Warriors’; a world where the war between Heaven and Hell translates almost perfectly into an urban fantasy setting full of spies of intrigue. ‘Ghost Dance’ takes this setting and proceeds to do, well... exactly the same thing as ‘Cold Warriors’. There is no doubt that this is a good thing but taking exactly the same approach again means that, in this instant, we get all the same problems that I felt held back ‘Cold Warriors’. Like I said, the potential is still there, we’re just going to have to wait for the next book to see how it pans out from there...

I don’t mind doing that though if ‘Ghost Dance’ is anything to go by; Levene has once again crafted a tale that messes with your expectations in such a way that you see everything fitting together perfectly, at the end, and wonder how you missed the convergence. It’s very cleverly done and the only loose ends left are the ones that will lead into the next book. However, these particular loose ends did contribute to another ending that felt more than a little flat... You can’t blame it really as the climactic events were always going to knock the stuffing out of whatever came next but I did find myself thinking, ‘oh, was that it...?’ It will be interesting to see if this weakness is still apparent when the books are read in the context of a larger series.

While the ending is a little lack lustre, the build up is anything but as Leven gives the plot a healthy dose of intrigue and action resulting in a tale that keeps you asking questions and then answering them in a hail of bullets or magic. As with ‘Cold Warriors’, the plot can sometimes slow down just when it needs to really step up a gear and really kick on. This time round the obstacle is Alex (our medium) and her journeys into the spirit world. I wasn’t sure if the plot slowing down in these moments was a deliberate thing or not. You could argue that it was; after all, Alex’s steps into the spirit world are very tentative (as someone fairly new to her abilities) and this was always going to slow things down from a breakneck pace to something a little more sedate. I also found myself wondering if these more descriptive passages slowed things down with their flowery language... Whether it’s one thing or the other (and I find myself thinking that it’s a little bit of both) the bottom line is that things do slow down and I found it to be to the detriment of the plot itself...

It is worth making your way through these bits though as Levene shows once again that she can write a mean climactic scene with not only a keen sense of the dramatic but also in such a way that all the main plot points are tied up nicely. Both Morgan and Alex’s characters are well developed (it’s clear that they both have motivations stretching beyond the confines of the book) and the ending offers us a chance to see them both expand further. Morgan’s character in particular is sympathetic enough that I want to be around and see where Levene’s story takes him next. It’s also worth your sticking around for the main villain of the piece. I can’t say too much without giving stuff away but, again, I found it really clever how our villain ties up several parts of the plot.

‘Ghost Dance’ exhibits the same potential as ‘Cold Warriors’ but doesn’t move beyond the flaws of its predecessor to become the story that it wants to be. It’s early days though and it’s not as if we don’t have a thoroughly entertaining story to be going on with here. You can count on my being around for the next chapter and I’m hoping that things really kick on when that instalment arrives.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

What came home with me from the comic book store...

A bit of a quick one today as life seems to be eating into my ability to either read books or get them reviewed right now. I can’t wait for the baby to get all her own teeth... Oh well, thank goodness for comics is what I say!

‘The Walking Dead’ #79 (Kirkman & Adlard, Image Comics)

I don’t normally pick up the comics but after that final page of Volume 13 I couldn’t resist seeing what happens next. Now I’m going to have to decide whether to be patient, and wait for Volume 14, or pick up the next few issues... The ‘No Way Out’ storyline is just about to kick off and #79 is setting things up nicely for the big spectacle. It’s interesting to see various couples getting together in the face of what we all know is coming and you’re left wondering who is going to make it through to the end. If the prison storyline is anything to go by then I think we can expect a few shocks over the next couple of issues... There’s another big cliff hanger, right at the end, which has whetted my appetite for more but I did come away with the impression that Adlard was either rushed for time with the art or he was just going through the motions here. Now I have to decide whether to pick up the next issue... 9/10

 

‘Conan the Cimmerian’ #25 (Truman & Giorello, Dark Horse)

Various reasons have conspired to keep me away from ‘Conan the Cimmerian’ over the last few months; I finally get round to picking it up only to find that I’m holding the final issue... Dammit! Apparently there will be more ‘Conan’ to come from Truman and Giorello in the future; it’s a shame to see ‘Conan the Cimmerian’ come to an end but this tale of Conan’s coming to lead the Red Brotherhood is a fine way to end things in style. Truman’s storytelling is as neat and concise as ever but #25 is all about Giorello’s art as far as I’m concerned. Whether it’s Conan’s fight with the great Ape or the Red Brotherhood falling foul of the menace in the temple, Giorello’s art lends a power and vibrancy that I’m sure Howard himself would have been proud of. From what I’ve managed to read, this run of ‘Conan’ is worth picking up in trade paperback and I think that’s just what I’m going to have to do.  9.5/10

Exclusive Excerpt from 'The Lost Gate' on Tor.com

I'm not a huge fan of Orson Scott Card but you might be and you're probably looking forward to getting hold of a copy of 'The Lost Gate' when it is published. While you're waiting (it's not out until January 4th), you might want to have a little click here (registration is free) and get reading the excerpt(s) on Tor.com. Apparently, there's a whole load more content to come between now and when the book comes out. Like I said, worth a look if you're a fan :o) Here's the blurb,

Danny North knew from early childhood that his family was different, and that he was different from them.  While his cousins were learning how to create the things that commoners called fairies, ghosts, golems, trolls, werewolves, and other such miracles that were the heritage of the North family, Danny worried that he would never show a talent, never form an outself.

He grew up in the rambling old house, filled with dozens of cousins, and aunts and uncles, all ruled by his father.  Their home was isolated in the mountains of western Virginia, far from town, far from schools, far from other people.

There are many secrets in the House, and many rules that Danny must follow.   There is a secret library  with only a few dozen books, and none of them in English — but Danny and his cousins are expected to become fluent in the language of the books.  While Danny’s cousins are free to create magic whenever they like, they must never do it where outsiders might see.

Unfortunately, there are some secrets kept from Danny  as well.  And that will lead to disaster for the North family.

I might give it a try, don't know...

Tor announces acquisitions of two new novels by #1 New York Times bestselling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson

I'd heard about the first book but not the second. From the press release,

Tor Books is proud to announce the acquisition of two new novels by acclaimed fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, whose recent book Towers of Midnight, Book Thirteen in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time®, recently debuted at #1 on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and ABA National Indiebound bestseller lists.  Sanderson is also the author of New York Times bestselling novels The Way of Kings, The Gathering Storm, The Mistborn Trilogy, Warbreaker, Elantris, and the middle grade “Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians” series.  He is currently working on A Memory of Light, the 14^th and final volume in The Wheel of Time, and planning a sequel to The Way of Kings.

Sanderson’s first new project will be an original, standalone short novel set in the universe of his Mistborn trilogy (Mistborn, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages).  Sanderson previously announced plans for a sequel trilogy set in the far future of that world, and the new novel, entitled Mistborn: The Alloy of Law, is set during a frontier era where “allomancy” meets gunplay.  The Alloy of Law will be published in late 2011.

Sanderson’s second project, titled The Rithmatist, was first drafted in 2007 and perfected this year.  Set in an alternate-history America where magic users (called “Rithmatists”) battle wild chalk creatures, The Rithmatist introduces Joel, a student at the Rithmatist academy with great interest in but no ability to use the magic.  But when students start vanishing, it’s up to him to expose the sinister figure behind the disappearances.  The Rithmatist will be published in 2012 after the publication of A Memory of Light.

This year and next will also see major publications  in the Wheel of Time franchise, including the graphic novel adaptations of New Spring (January 2011) and The Eye of the World: Volume 1 (September 2011) before the landmark publication of A Memory of Light, the final volume in the series.  The third annual JordanCon will take place April 15–17 2011 in Atlanta, GA.  Pre-registration is currently ongoing at www.ageoflegends.net.

For more information visit www.brandonsanderson.com. 

There can be no doubt by now that Brandon Sanderson is a writing machine, how does he find the time...? For all of his books though, there's still something there that doesn't quite click with me. I'm not sure what it is though, maybe it'll change when I finally pick up 'Way of Kings'...

December Book Porn!

Well... I bought all this stuff last night so it should be 'November Book Porn' really but it's December 1st and I'm posting about it right now so, um... so there! :o)
You may have noticed the little advert in the corner, you may not. It's there though and one thing that I promised myself was that at least some of the revenue would go back into books that I would like to feature on the blog (note: this may have just been an excuse to go book shopping, I don't know...) Check out what came home with me last night...

I really enjoyed reading this way back in the day and it's more than worth picking up in trade paperback now. Expect a review to be up fairly soon.

'Dead City' is one of my favourite zombie tales and I've been looking forward to the sequels for a while now. Publication of 'Apocalypse of the Dead' totally went under the radar but when I saw the book, in the shop, it didn't stay on the shelf for long. To be read and reviewed pretty darn soon...
It was way back in September that I admitted to never having read anything by Fritz Leiber and I figured that the time had come to do something about that! Where better place to start than the first books of Lankhmar? I can see this one being a 'read over the Christmas holiday' affair so don't expect to see a review anytime soon. Maybe, I don't know...

'Gilded Latten Bones' persuaded me to give the 'Garret PI' books another shot so I went straight out and, with no regard to the order of the series, bought ones where the cover caught my eye. These will pop up here and there over the course of the month, possibly with other books by Glen Cook that I've been meaning to get round to reading...

So, what else will be happening this month? I'm into the final stages of Tim Lebbon's 'Echo City' and then it's onto Michael Moorcock's first set of 'Corum' tales. Rebecca Levene's 'Ghost Dance' and Jeff  Vandermeer's 'Predator: South China Sea' are waiting patiently to be reviewed. After that? It's wide open, I can see myself just going with the flow and picking up whatever catches my eye really :o) Stick around and see what happens next...

‘The Walking Dead Volume 13: Too Far Gone’ – Robert Kirkman/Charlie Adlard (Image Comics)

I knew it would happen, I’m slowly getting further and further behind in my attempts to watch the ‘Walking Dead’ TV show. I guess I’m just not built for TV watching these days what with everything else that’s going on; you can be sure that I’ll get there eventually though!
The important thing though is that I am now bang up to date with what’s been going on in the ‘Walking Dead’ collected volumes, all thirteen of them. You may be tired of me repeating myself but I’m not... ‘The Walking Dead’ is pretty much the best slice of zombie fiction out there right now, there’s nothing better. If you’re a zombie fan and you haven’t been reading this... well, you really need to start. Right now in fact!
Having said all that though, I found Volume 12 to be rather a flat affair that promised good things for the next volume but still left me feeling a little unsatisfied in the meantime. When things like this happen I always find myself wondering how the next volume is going to shape up. Turns out that I needn’t have worried...

Rick and his band of survivors have settled into community life but some things still don’t feel quite right, whether it’s the fear of going back outside the walls (there’s work to do out there) or the fact that certain residents either have dark secrets or are helping others to keep theirs.
Rick sees the community as perhaps the best chance anyone has to live a halfway normal life in this new world; the question is what he is prepared to do in order to maintain things... Rick used to keep the law as a police officer, now it looks like he might be taking it into his own hands, will anyone stand against him?

Yet again, Kirkman had me thinking in one direction only to turn things round and really hit me with stuff straight out of left field. Rick has been slowly going off the rails for a little while now (and who could blame him really?)  and I thought this was going to culminate in his becoming the one man who has caused him the most pain up to now. Who knows, this could still happen but not just yet. Kirkman’s ‘man on the edge’ is still clinging on despite a growing tendency to lose it in the most violent ways and it’s going to be very interesting to see if he still keeps trying to do the right thing as the series progresses further. It could still go either way but what we have in the meantime is a well fleshed out character whose decisions cannot help but reverberate in the community around him.

It’s not just Rick either, it’s very interesting to see how the others react to life in relative safety and Kirkman cleverly swaps things around so that there’s a fresh slant on people that you think you know well by now. You really get the impression that people had to dig deep and be people other than who they really were during their time in the wilderness and this becomes a fresh way of looking at established characters. People whom you thought would be cool with stepping outside those gates would suddenly much rather be safe behind closed doors...

If this wasn’t enough, we finally get to find out what’s been going on behind some of the closed doors in the community. The big confrontation was perhaps signposted a little too clearly, in Volume 12, to be a surprise but you can’t deny the power that goes with it. Kirkman does moments like these only too well and he’s on form again here with a couple of moments that made me gasp at what was happening. Special mention has to go to Charlie Adlard for showcasing the sheer intensity of physical confrontation with using any colour in the artwork at all. That lack of colour seems to push the aggression to the surface even more.
While Rick is finding his place in the community, events are happening outside that  will not only solidify his position but also hint at something huge happening in Volume 14. It’s going to be just like the prison all over again but this time with an entire city full of zombies...Kirkman knows when to leave people hanging and now I cannot wait to crack on with the story; this could be the moment when Rick falls one way or the other.

I deliberately haven’t said a lot about Charlie Adlard’s art because; well... what can I say that hasn’t been said already. Adlard has made art duties, for ‘The Walking Dead’, completely his own and you just can’t see that changing. That could be why some of the larger panels are missing a little detail, complacency or is that just common practice? I don’t know...

‘Too Far Gone’ bumps things back onto track nicely just when I was wondering what would come next and has whetted my appetite nicely for Volume 14. The long wait begins again but at least it begins on a better note than last time round...

Nine and a Quarter out of Ten

Leslie Neilsen - RIP

My favourite 'Naked Gun' moment :o)
 
No matter what kind of a day I'd just had, you always made me laugh out loud and put a smile on my face; rest in peace.

The 'Where's My Damn Snow?' Competition Winner's Post

Seriously, where is it? It's not as if it isn't cold enough and everywhere else seems to be all snowed upon; where's Londons snow? Just a little bit of the stuff would have given us all a good reason to stay at home and avoid the latest Tube strike (it's just like being back in the nineteen eighties at the moment, only with better haircuts...)

Hope you all had a good one this weekend! Despite the above 'mini-rant' I actually had a great weekend, possibly because I turned on all the radiators and didn't step out of the house once; the recipe for a perfect winter weekend :o)

What's that? Oh yes, competition winners. You want to know who won the 'Seed Seeker' and 'Virga' competitions? Here you go...

'Seed Seeker' (Pamela Sargent)

Penny Crampton, Virginia Beach, US
Randall Newnham, Oregon, US

'Virga: Cities of the Air' (Karl Schroeder)

Christina Oseland, Minnesota, US
Justin Lee, Brooklyn, US
Joan Bedinger, Georgia, US

Well done guys! Your books will be on the way very soon. Better luck next time everyone else...

A Cover Art Post: 'The Good, The Bad and the Unfortunate...'

One of my more self explanatory posts... :o) A quick look at the reading pile threw up the following gems and a few... well, you tell me...

The Good...

'The Emperor's Finest' - Sandy Mitchell

This is just what you would expect recruiting posters in the Imperium to look like. In your face and absolutely glorious! I'm a big fan of Black Library cover art and you can see why here...

'The Bone Palace' - Amanda Downum

The cover art for Amanda Downum's 'The Drowning City' was enough to get me reading and the same applies here :o) However, I am hoping for a better read from 'The Bone Palace' than I got with 'The Drowning City'...

The Bad...

'The Human Blend' - Alan Dean Foster

A thriller about genetics or the sad tale of a horse with cataracts (there's something about the hair that lends a sense of the equine here...)? Looking at this cover, I'm not sure at all. Can anyone say one way or the other...?

'Trio of Sorcery' - Mercedes Lackey

Not so much bad as... lazy and bland. A blurred picture of a woman, wow... An artist somewhere is bathing in money and hoping that the requests for cover art are just as undemanding next time round. You just know I'll end up reading it though as I've never read anything by Mercedes Lackey... Would this be a good place to start?

The Unfortunate...

'House of the Star' - Caitlin Brennan

Not only is this an unfortunately posed picture (in its own right) but it also immediately brings the 'Yogi Bear' movie poster to mind...

See what I mean? I can't look at the above picture without sniggering like a schoolboy, I've got no hope with the cover art for 'The House of the Star'...

What do you think of these covers? All comments are welcome :o)

Giveaway! 'Towers of Midnight' (Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson)

I still need to read 'The Gathering Storm'...

Oh well, for those of you who are ahead of me (probably everyone) I've got a pretty cool giveaway. Thanks to Orbit Books, I have two copies of 'Towers of Midnight' to give away to two readers of the blog. Actually, what I should have said was 'two UK readers'... Yes, this competition is only open to people in the UK.

For those of you who are left, you know what to do! Simply drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your postal address is. The subject header needs to be 'Towers of Midnight'. I'll do everything else.

I'll let this one run until the 5th of December and will aim to announce the winners as soon as possible afterwards.

Good luck!

‘The Silent Land’ – Graham Joyce (Gollancz)

As much fun as high octane military sci-fi can be (and it is), you have to be careful not to overdose on the stuff. One book too many and you run the very dangerous risk of breaking out in state of the art body armour and wondering what the girl you left behind on Earth is up to... I recognise the symptoms only too well so knew when it was time to put the Black Library books down and go for something completely different instead.
And you can’t get a lot more different than Graham Joyce, fine purveyor of literature that sits in your head and messes with your brain for days after you’ve finished reading the book. That’s what happened with me when I read ‘The Tooth Fairy’ way back in 2008. Here’s a book that you can’t really say is ‘enjoyable’ as such but it’s certainly one that you can’t help but chew on and, in that sense, it is a more than satisfying read. After finishing ‘The Tooth Fairy’ I somehow never got round to reading any more of Joyce’s work and the arrival of ‘The Silent Land’ prompted me to rectify matters there! As with ‘The Tooth Fairy’, ‘The Silent Land’ isn’t an enjoyable read as such but it does give you plenty to chew on...

Zoe and Jake are on a romantic skiing break when they become caught right in the middle of an avalanche. They manage to escape relatively unhurt and return to their hotel only to find that the entire village is completely empty. Reasoning that the village has been evacuated, Zoe and Jake attempt to make their way down the mountain only to find that various routes all lead them right back to where they started. Ensuing hallucinations and weird occurrences lead them to believe that perhaps they never survived the avalanche but if this is the case, what happens next...?

‘The Silent Land’ is a very short tale (seriously, a ‘blink and you might just miss it’ two hundred and forty eight pages long) of true love that is put to its ultimate test. It had me gripped throughout and there may have even been a couple of moments where I had to pretend that there wasn’t a tear in my eye. What the book also was though was a book with an ending that I saw coming from a mile off, possibly far earlier than it should have been apparent.

Now, part of me wonders if the ending wasn’t so much the point as it was the interactions and changing relationship between Zoe and Jake as they make sense of their surroundings. The growing sense of inevitability, that the clearly signposted ending brings, does push Zoe and Jake’s relationship to it limits and in interesting new directions from time to time. By leaving the ending in no doubt, you can argue that Joyce leaves his readers free to concentrate on the really cool stuff instead. It might just be me though but what I found was that this foreshadowing really took the sting out of the tale for me; I’m one of those folks who doesn’t like to have the ‘big reveal’ sprung on them right until the end (or at the very least, just before) so to know what’s looming on the horizon did make me wonder why I was continuing to read at times...

That reason became very apparent early on though. Like I said, Joyce leaves his readers free to concentrate on the cool stuff and there is more than enough of this to keep a reader like me very happy indeed.

While Joyce may leave the ending in no doubt, all the clues that go towards that ending are immediately engaging and very mysterious, you’ll know how it all ends but what you’ll spend the time on is working out how all these clues fit together in the final puzzle. That what was happened with me as I spent time musing over things like how only Zoe could hear her mobile phone ringing... When the answers come, everything slides together perfectly and it all makes sense. Perhaps the delivery of that final revelation comes across as a little flat but, again, that’s almost beside the point. It’s all about Zoe and Jake and how they come to terms with their situation.

Zoe and Jake’s relationship is the focal point of the story and it is refreshing to see the direction that it travels in over the course of the book. Instead of moving their relationship from one point to another, Joyce reflects how relationships play out in real life by throwing Zoe and Jake’s relationship hither and yon whilst battering it with various revelations. The more things change the more they stay the same though and you are left in no doubt as to how these two people really feel about each other. This approach lends a real sense of loss to those final pages; a feeling that stayed with me for a long time afterwards.

‘The Silent Land’ is a novel that is perhaps signposted a little too clearly to be really effective but makes up for this in a number of smaller (but still important) ways. It’s certainly a novel that has left me eager not to miss out on any of Joyce’s work in the future.

Eight and a Half out of Ten