The 'In a bit of a rush' Competition Winner's Post!

It's going to be a horribly busy one today so apologies for the really quick post. Things will return to normal starting from tomorrow!

Hope you all had a good weekend, I finally managed to finish 'City of Ruin' (it's only been sat on the pile since last June...) so you'll get to see my review over the next couple of days. There were a couple of things that niggled at me which I can't quite put my finger on but, on the whole, it was an excellent read.

That's not what you're here for though is it? You want to know who won the copies of Alex Bledsoe's 'Dark Jenny' from last weeks competition don't you? You do? Here they are...

Jackie Werner, Philadelphia, US

John Quiring, Alabama, US

Well done guys! Your books are on their way and should hopefully be with you soon.

I've got to run but there's plenty of goodness coming up this week as I work my way through that pile of books I took pictures of (amongst others) and post my first author interview in what seems like absolutely ages. Stick around :o)

Giveaway! 'Moon over Soho' (Ben Aaronovitch)

It's not often that I get all excited about an Urban Fantasy series (they all seem to blerge into one big mass of angst and werewolf sex after a while...) but Ben Aaronovitch's 'Midnight Riot'/'Rivers of London' had me really looking forward to the sequel 'Moon over Soho' (check out the blurb Here). I've got my copy and plan to have a review up this coming week, how do you fancy winning one of three copies of 'Moon over Soho' courtesy of Del Rey? You should probably note that the competition is only open to people in the US though...

If you're still with me then here's what you need to do. Just 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. That's all you have to do! :o) I'll look after everything else...

I'll let this one run until the 13th of March and will aim to announce the winners as soon as possible afterwards.

Good Luck!

Giveaway! 'The Crippled God' (Steven Erikson)

Despite all my best intentions, my Malazan reading has hit a solid brick wall on page 155 of 'Dust of Dreams' but then you all knew that already didn't you? I really want to finish the series though so won't stop trying to break through that wall... :o)

In the meantime, how do you fancy reading 'The Crippled God' long before I do? You're probably doing that already but, if you're not, how do you fancy reading 'The Crippled God' long before I do... for free? It's competition time once again and, thanks to the people at Transworld, I have one copy of 'The Crippled God' to give away to a reader of the blog. I should mention though that this particular competition is only open to people living in the UK...

If you're still reading then you know what to do next. Simply drop me an email (address in the top right hand corner of the screen) telling me who you are and what your postal address is; your subject header will be 'The Crippled God'. That's all you need to do, I'll do all the rest :o)

I'll let this one run until the 13th of March and will aim to announce the winner as soon as possible afterwards.

Good Luck!

‘Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom’ – Mike Mignola (Dark Horse Books)

After a slightly dodgy start my ‘Hellboy’ reading is up and running at a fair old pace; fast enough in fact that you’ll probably be seeing my review for volume five early next week. Hellboy’s world has so far been shown to be a very dark one where the efforts of a few enlightened individuals are all that stand between humanity’s continued peaceful existence and its use as a plaything by dark gods and their servants. It’s also a world though where a demonic envoy, summoned before its time, can find acceptance and peace to the extent that it wants to protect the fragile peace that the world enjoys. Mignola has found that dividing line and straddles it superbly, making the series one that I will return to as well as looking out for new entries.


Now I haven’t read a lot of comics but my impression of comics in general has always been that each individual issue forms part of an ongoing series (generalising I know but, like I said, I haven’t really read a lot of comics until the last couple of years). It was a little bit odd then to see a volume of Hellboy ‘one shots’ and ‘two parters’ followed by another volume with exactly the same format and approach. I mean, we’re talking about one of the most iconic (if not the most iconic) characters to come out of Dark Horse and it turns out that a large part of his success is based upon very short stories that appeared in collections (‘Dark Horse Presents’ etc). That has to say plenty about both the concept and execution of this character and if you take a look at volume four you’ll see that all the positive stuff being said is more than well founded.

‘The Right Hand of Doom’ is divided into three sections with the accompanying short stories all detailing events over the course of Hellboy’s life to date. Not every story hit the mark with me but there was more than enough here to keep me happy and reading. Mignola’s art continues to work wonders on the page and I’m firmly of the opinion that he can’t put a foot wrong as far as the artwork goes. Can you tell I’m a fully fledged fan? Well I am but I’m still looking for a little more from certain of the stories...

In one sense, I can’t really blame these stories as such because I’m only partway through the series and don’t know how these tales pan out in future volumes. Will there be closure or will things be deliberately left open ended? That’s still for me to find out.

Despite that though, the first time reader is going to encounter stories that are either open ended or feel like they are open ended. I can make allowances for this but was still left thinking, ‘is that it?’ I’m specifically thinking of ‘The Nature of the Beast’ and ‘King Vold’ in this instant and I could probably add ‘Goodbye Mr Tod’ to this very short list. ‘The Nature of the Beast’ hints at a wider story to follow but you don’t really get an idea of why this wider tale should be so important and you can’t help but wonder what the big deal is. The other two tales do work effectively at showing us how things can ‘just happen’ in Hellboy’s world but, almost paradoxically, feel like they could really benefit from a bit of ‘fleshing out. Maybe it’s just me but while I like an element of mystery in supernatural affairs I also like to feel like there’s something plausible underpinning them. The story ‘Heads’ sidestepped this issue with the brief nod to a Japanese folktale before it really got going; there was at least a hint to why things were happening here and I enjoyed the story all the more for it. And it had flying heads too, you can’t knock that even if you wanted to :o)

The rest of the book more than made up for what is admittedly a very minor failing in three of its stories. ‘Pancakes’ was a great way to open the volume with a tongue in cheek look at just why Hellboy is the demon he is today. It kind of reminded me of myself as a boy, only without the dirty great horns...

I also enjoyed ‘The Varcolac’, a story that takes you deep into what turns out not to be the main story after all; I loved the change in pace near the end that (all of a sudden) lets you know where you should be and is perhaps the only example I’ve coming across where being jarred out of the narrative flow is actually a good thing.

‘The Right Hand of Doom’ is a tricky one to stay with as it’s basically recounting a story that we’re already well familiar with. Stick with it though as you get to learn a lot more about Hellboy, what he was made for and why he doesn’t want any of it. I just loved the use of black and white background contrasting with his red skin right at the very end.

‘Box Full of Evil’ proves to be the real meat of the book and is well worthy of having the volume named after it. A haunted house, devil worshippers and an opportunistic demon looking to take advantage, this tale has it all and it’s as cool as ever to see Hellboy take it in his stride and just keep doing what he does best.

Despite a couple of niggles,‘The Right Hand of Doom’ firmly kept my ‘Hellboy’ reading firmly on an upward trajectory and I’m looking forward to devoting a chunk of my weekend to carrying this on. If you haven’t picked up ‘Hellboy’ already then take a not so subtle hint from me and get started.

Nine and a Quarter out of Ten

Publication Date for 'A Dance With Dragons'

I've totally stolen this from the Mad Hatter's website so am linking back to the original post so that my blatant theft doesn't look so bad :o) Here's the same news all over again at GRRM's own website.

The book still isn't actually done but when you've got the publisher willing to set a date for publication then that's got to make a whole lot of people feel a lot better about the whole thing, doesn't it? July 12th... I don't know about you but I'm tempted to take the day as annual leave, lock everyone out of the house and settle down for a good old read :o) The only question is whether I have time for a re-read of the series before then...

Cover Art and Blurb - 'The Desert of Souls' (Howard Andrew Jones)

Because just looking at the cover art reminds me of all those old 'Sinbad' films that I used to watch on a Sunday afternoon when I was a child. Check it out,

Isn't that gorgeous? Makes me want to go and watch 'Thief of Baghdad' all over again. What? It's a great film... Check out the blurb (for 'The Desert of Souls', not 'Thief of Baghdad'...)

In 9th century Baghdad, a stranger pleads with the vizier to safeguard the bejewelled tablet he carries, but he is murdered before he can explain. Charged with solving the puzzle, the scholar Dabir soon realizes that the tablet may unlock secrets hidden within the lost city of Ubar, the Atlantis of the sands. When the tablet is stolen from his care, Dabir and Captain Asim are sent after it, and into a life and death chase through the ancient Middle East. Stopping the thieves - a cunning Greek spy and a fire wizard of the Magi - requires a desperate journey into the desert, but first Dabir and Asim must find the lost ruins of Ubar and contend with a mythic, sorcerous being that has traded wisdom for the souls of men since the dawn of time.

 I'm in and I'll be moving this into the 'to read' pile just as soon as other books are read first (probably 'City of Ruin' the way things are going). It's also got me looking for my old copy of Tad Williams and Nina Kiriki Hoffman's 'Child of an Ancient City' so you can probably expect a review of that fairly soon as well... What do you think of the cover in the meantime?

‘Loss of Separation’ – Conrad Williams (Solaris)

It feels like it was only the other day when I told you all that I would pretty much stop whatever I was doing to pick up a new book from Conrad Williams; hang on, it was only the other day... What I said still stands though. If you’re after a slice of horror that will leave you deeply unsettled (and more likely than not casting suspicious looks at strangers...) then you could do a whole lot worse than pick up one of Conrad Williams’ books. If you’re after recommendations then allow me to point you in the direction of ‘One’ and ‘Decay Inevitable’...

Williams is very good at what he does but the books of his that I have read are by no means the finished article and this, of course, means that no matter how eagerly I’m anticipating the read I can’t help but wonder where things are going to slip up (slightly or otherwise). These were the feelings that faced me along with my copy of ‘Loss of Separation’ and I pretty much had my suspicions confirmed by the time I’d finished reading. You know what though? Yet again, I couldn’t stop reading and (yet again) I’m recommending a Conrad Williams book to you all.

When pilot Paul Roan’s Boeing 777 is involved in a near miss, his nerves are shot and he decides to quit his job and open a Bed & Breakfast on the Suffolk coast with his girlfriend Tamara. The past refuses to leave him that easily though with recurring nightmares of two planes locked in a deathly embrace. Fate has another twist in store when a near fatal hit and run leaves Paul in a coma for six months. When he awakens, Paul finds that Tamara has gone and he must adjust to life in a village where the residents believe he has cheated death unfairly and treat him as a sin eater, bringing him things to burn on the beach. He has friends that look after him but there is also someone else in the village with a connection to Paul that he has still to learn about; someone who is killing children...

What is at first a passing interest in the history of the village gradually becomes so much more as Paul and his friend Amy dig deeper into the past and, by the time Paul finds the answers to one mystery, he realises there may be more to Tamara’s disappearance than he first thought...

‘Loss of Separation’ is one of those nasty little reads that stops to run its talons up and down your spine before digging them in deep and not letting you go. It’s a book that unsettles you while you’re reading it and sticks around in your head long after you’ve put it down. The best horror fiction always asks the question whether elements of the supernatural or humanity itself has the greatest capacity to inflict horror and that’s exactly what’s on show here. I’m pretty sure that ‘Loss of Separation’ is to blame for some very weird dreams of mine over the last couple of nights...

It’s a real shame then that the character of Paul Roan (you know, the guy that the whole plot is meant to hang off) is so difficult to get on with. At least, he was as far as I was concerned. The things he did and the way he behaved just didn’t sit right with me and the almost glacial pace he had to live at slowed things to a crawl. Okay, you can’t blame Paul for that (the guy had just woken up from a coma and could barely move) but it was still irritating to read, especially when he is all of a sudden well enough to do things that the plot needs doing so it can move forwards. I also found myself wondering about the pivotal intuitive leap that Paul makes. There’s not a lot to go on but he manages to make that connection anyway. Intuition or a helping hand from Williams? I’m not sure...

Having said all that though, there are points to recommend Roan as a character worth spending time with. His dogged obsession, in getting to the bottom of a couple of mysteries, pushes the plot forward and his terrifying nightmares spice things up nicely, lending a nice contrast to the dull terror of the waking hours.

Having issues with the main character is a pretty big obstacle to overcome but my experience was that if you keep at it then your persistence will be rewarded. ‘Loss of Separation’ takes a couple of seemingly impenetrable mysteries, buries them on a particularly grim stretch of Suffolk coastline and leaves them to ferment into something compelling. If you’re anything like me then you will find yourself having to keep reading to get to the bottom of things. You won’t see the ending coming either; I didn’t and it really threw me, especially the climactic scenes where it feels like everything hangs on a man who can barely hold himself together physically.

At the risk of generalisation, the Suffolk coastline is pretty grim (at least, the bits of it that I saw growing up in Suffolk were... I like Felixstowe though) and Williams totally captures this feeling of a depressing area where time doesn’t quite flow in the same way that it does in the rest of the country. You wouldn’t want to live in this village but it makes for an ideal setting for what plays out; a well constructed plot where everything fits together very neatly but with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing in the meantime. It’s not just the landscape either, Williams fills his book full of people who, for one reason or another, find themselves on the darker fringes of society and have no option but to stay there. You may find yourself feeling a little sorry for them but what they are capable of doing will leave you feeling very glad that you don’t know them in real life...

‘Loss of Separation’ is a book where its main character is the only thing holding it back from excellence. On the other hand though, it is also a book that finds it very easy to lend a real sense of stomach churning terror to the words ‘cable cutter’... You might not have the same issues with Paul Roan that I did so definitely pick this one up if you like your horror fiction to grow on you slowly but inevitably.

Nine out of Ten

‘Aliens: Criminal Enterprise’ – S.D. Perry (Dark Horse Books)

Who thinks that they should have stopped making ‘Alien’ films after the second one? I’m not sure what I think here. On the one hand I could live quite happily in a world without ‘Alien Resurrection’ but I really enjoyed ‘Alien 3’ and would miss it if it wasn’t around. Yes, you heard me; I am possibly the only person I know of who enjoyed ‘Alien 3’ (I loved the chase bit seen from the alien’s perspective).


It can be cool to ponder these things (especially on a Monday afternoon when the brain hasn’t quite woken up from the weekend) but it’s all academic really isn’t it? Whether you think ‘Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem’ is a good film or not (haven’t seen it myself) the ‘Alien’ franchise is here to stay and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s a big old franchise by all accounts and has inevitably attracted tie-in fiction of which I’ve read a fair few comics and graphic novels back in the day. I’ve never read any of the novels though and my encounter with Jeff Vandermeer’s ‘Predator’ novel, late last year, prompted me to give the ‘Alien’ equivalent a go.

First up was S.D. Perry’s ‘Criminal Enterprise’ and while you can’t judge a whole line of books based on one effort I’m left hoping that the rest of the books I’ve got lined up show a marked improvement.

The planet Fantasia is home to a large chunk of the galaxy’s drugs, all cooked up and transported from a network of underground tunnels and caves. The planet is also home to a swarm of lethal aliens, transported there as a means of guarding drug shipments from rival competitors and corporate ‘resolution’ teams. Thomas Chase never wanted to be on Fantasia at all but a mistake made by his brother Pete has landed him a short term piloting job to pay off debts outstanding.

However, there are two other parties who very much want to be on Fantasia and when Chase’s craft lands it kicks off a series of events that can’t be stopped. When humans fight amongst themselves there’s only going to be one winner at the end of it all...

‘Criminal Enterprise’ is only two hundred and twenty two pages long, just the right length for a ‘commuter read’ and looking very much like an intense slice of alien action. Well, that’s what I thought when I picked it up... The truth of the matter couldn’t have been more different.

‘Criminal Enterprise’ reads like a mish mash of ideas thrown together with a sprinkling of aliens to tie the novel into the wider franchise. There doesn’t seem to be any attention paid to the fact that the book is only a couple of hundred pages long and rambling passages seem to focus on character biographies rather than moving the story forward in any meaningful way. These characters are then killed off so quickly that I was left wondering why so much space was given to their development in such a short book. If they’re ‘Alien fodder’ then treat them as such and use the spare pages for something else instead (like tying the plot together effectively instead of having a series of random events collide).

The brothers Thomas and Pete read like one character has been cut into two halves, one positive and one negative. It’s as clear cut as that and, unfortunately, as one dimensional as that also. There wasn’t a lot about these two characters that made me want to keep reading; they’re interesting if you approach it in terms of a fractured personality trying to achieve oneness but I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the aim of the book...

There are lots of suggestions of aliens being around (banging on the spaceship and so on) but when the aliens do make their appearance you’d better not blink or you will miss it. I know these critters can move fast but you would expect them to be around for a little longer than this! To be fair though, the scenes where the aliens have to be fed is worth sticking around for even though there aren’t any real surprises in its execution.

So why did I keep reading then? Sheer bloody-mindedness is the main reason as I’m resolved to finish more books this year even if I don’t get on with them. I guess I was looking for some of the magic that made ‘Aliens’ such a favourite film of mine but, this time round, there was no sign of this at all. I’ve got a couple more ‘Aliens’ books to try and I will pick them up but I can’t ever see myself going back to this one for a re-read. Very disappointing...

Four and a Half out of Ten

Cover Art Monday! (Or, 'Jetski-ing Dwarf thinks about getting a little frisky...)

Dwarves, is there anything that they can't do? They mine gold, silver, and precious stones; they're pretty handy in a fight and (if the cover of 'The Trials of Trass Kathra' is anything to go by) they can jetski as well! Check it out,

As you can see, our dwarf is obviously a natural on a jetski; so comfortable in fact that he's leaving all the driving to the lady in front. Is it me or is our dwarf not quite sure where to put that hand...?

Blurb? Oh yes, there's a blurb...

“CHILD OF TRASS KATHRA. WELCOME HOME.” One year after Kali Hooper defeated the Pale Lord, Bastian Redigor lives on in the body of Jakub Freel. The mysterious entity known as the Hel’ss, meanwhile, moves closer to Twilight, welcomed as a herald of their Ascension by the spellbound Final Faith. Only Kali and her friends know the deadly reality of what the Hel’ss will bring but they have been declared outlaws, hunted by the Order of the Swords of Dawn and the sinister spheres, the Eyes of The Lord. So begins Kali’s penultimate adventure, a quest far beyond the Stormwall to the mythical Trass Kathra, the Island of the Lost. Here she will suffer the Trials of Four to discover the true nature of Twilight’s gods and her own shocking origin in the chaotic depths of the Thunderflux. Kali Hooper is dead, and this is the beginning of the end ...

I'd have probably picked this one up anyway but now I really want to see a jetski-ing dwarf... :o)

Giveaway! 'Dark Jenny' (Alex Bledsoe)

Is this one of my most anticipated releases of 2011? I do believe it is. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy reading ‘The Sword Edged Blonde’ and ‘Burn Me Deadly’ but they also got me to give Glen Cook’s ‘Garrett P.I’ books another go and I’m enjoying them as well. I’m looking forward to cracking open my copy of ‘Dark Jenny’ over the next couple of days and, all being well, you might even see my review this week.

Check out the blurb,

Murder, betrayal, and magic--just another day on the job for Eddie LaCrosse.

Freelance sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse is in the wrong place at the wrong time while conducting an undercover investigation on the island kingdom of Grand Bruan. When a poisoned apple kills a member of the queen's personal guard, Eddie becomes the prime suspect in the murder. He must do some fast talking to keep his head attached to his shoulders. While trying to clear his name and find the real killer, Eddie becomes embroiled in a nasty political scandal. Someone is trying to ruin Queen Jennifer and doesn't care who is killed along the way.

Like I said, I’m in but how about you? How do you fancy winning one of two advance copies of ‘Dark Jenny’? Thanks to Tor I have two copies to give away on the blog but only to readers from the US. Sorry about that everyone else...

If you want in then you need to 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 email subject header will be ‘Dark Jenny’. I’ll do everything else.

I’ll leave this one open until the 6th of March and will aim to announce winners as soon as possible after that date.

Good Luck!

What I'm going to be reading...

If you’re in London over the next couple of months and you see a guy reading one of the following books on the train then it’s probably me. Tap me on the shoulder and say hello! :o) I totally reserve the right to change the list without any notice whatsoever (like say, for example, if a copy of ‘The Wise Man’s Fear’ was to turn up on the doorstep) but this is pretty much what it’ll look like…

The Graphic Novels.

 Enough said really... I whip through these fairly quickly so don’t be too surprised to see me talking about these in the next couple of weeks.

Books by authors whom I’ve never read before.

Obviously there are loads of authors that I’ve never read before but these are the two that stood out for me when I was looking through the pile. I never got into Gail Z. Martin’s first series so it’ll be good to start this one at the beginning.

Books I’ve been looking forward to reading.

I will stop whatever I’m reading for Conrad Williams and the same goes for Alex Bledsoe, both are very good at what they do. I guess that means that you’ll see reviews for these sooner rather than later as well.
‘Arrowland’ isn’t an eagerly anticipated read in that same way but I have enjoyed the ‘Afterblight Chronicles’ and am looking forward to seeing how things tie together in this novel.

Big Thick Books.

I’ve only read a little of ‘The Unremembered’ so far and am enjoying it so far, I'll let you know how it goes.
‘City of Ruin’ is one of those books that I really wanted to read last year until life got in the way. I’m hoping for better luck this time round.

Books built for commuting.

After having really enjoyed ‘Rivers of London’, ‘Moon Over Soho’ somehow found itself at the top of the pile. Funny how these things work…
I’ve been letting my Glen Cook reading slack off a bit so ‘Bitter Gold Hearts’ will be read soon (I’ve got loads of his books to read…) and Black Library books always make good commuter reading so ‘God King’ will be read at some point.

The ‘I’ve been going on about it for long enough’ Books…

It’s the return of an old favourite to the ‘will be read soon’ list. All I can say is… all the cool kids have been talking about ‘The Crippled God’ and I want in! I just need to read ‘Dust of Dreams’ first. This might be more of a holiday read than a commuter read but we’ll see how it goes.
I’ve been flicking through the ‘Conan’ book (warming up for the big read) and I like what I see so far; could be another holiday read though…

So that’s me and what I hope to be reading over the next few weeks. Like I said though, you can expect the odd change here and there as a book cover catches my eye and I think ‘ooh, pretty…’

Anything on the list that catches your eye? And what are you reading/planning to read right now? Tell me dammit! ;o)

‘Iorich’ – Steven Brust (Tor)

Way back in August 2008 (seems like such a long time ago now...) I picked up a copy of Steven Brust’s ‘Jhegaala’ on the basis that I’d heard a lot of good things about Brust’s work and it was way past time that I gave him a go. ‘Jhegaala’ had been sent to me as an unsolicited review copy and I figured it was as good a place to start as any but I was taking a bit of a risk starting my ‘Vlad Taltos’ reading here as ‘Jhegaala’ was the actually the eleventh book in a series where I hadn’t read the previous ten. I got lucky that time round as ‘Jhegaala’ was self contained enough for it not to matter too much if you hadn’t read the other books. Seriously, check out my review here.

Having enjoyed ‘Jhegaala’ as much as I did, when I saw that ‘Iorich’ had been released I knew that I had to read it. No hanging around waiting for a random copy to drop through the door though; this time I actually asked the publisher for a copy as I was so eager to get reading. ‘Iorich’ is the twelfth volume in a series where I haven’t read the first ten but I figured that wouldn’t be too much of an issue. After all, ‘Jhegaala’ stood up very well on its own so I was sure that ‘Iorich’ would be a similar kind of deal. I can be so naive sometimes...
Onetime crime boss and assassin Vlad Taltos has a price on his head from organized crime syndicate House Jhereg; they want him dead and, as such, it would make pretty good sense for Vlad to stay well away from Dragaera City where the House bases its operations. So what is Vlad doing strolling the streets of Dragaera looking like he doesn’t have a care in the world?

Only disturbing news could bring Vlad home and it doesn’t get a lot more disturbing than finding out that an old friend is facing the death penalty on the charge of practicing elder sorcery. Not only disturbing but also intriguing, everyone knew that Aliera practiced elder sorcery so what is the big deal now? Why aren’t Aliera’s friends coming to defend her and why won’t she defend herself? All of these questions are just the kind of questions that will get a man like Vlad to stroll into the jaws of danger looking like he knows exactly what he’s on about. Even if he doesn’t have the slightest clue what’s really going on...

So there I was thinking that I could pick up the twelfth book in a series having only read the previous book and none of the others... What was I thinking? Well, I thought that ‘Iorich’ would be much the same as ‘Jhegaala’ in terms of the story standing well on its own but it’s very much the other way round. The bottom line is that ‘Iorich’ draws extensively on relationships and past history that has built up over a number of books. If you’re not grounded in the setting that you’ll be floundering in no short order and that’s what happened to me with characters popping up whom I’d never met before and references made to events that I’d never heard of, let alone seen. Now, I’m going to blame book twelve in an ongoing series for not being all that accessible to the first time or casual reader because that would be pretty daft really. It’s worth highlighting though for those of you wondering if this is a good place to jump on board for the adventures of Vlad Taltos. It isn’t. ‘Jhegaala’ works but you would be better off going right back to the beginning and starting off with ‘Jhereg’.

Once I managed to get my head round all this new stuff (no mean feat) I was able to concentrate on the story itself and it’s certainly an interesting premise with a mystery to be solved and questions raised over why no-one is actually attempting to solve it. Everything is dealt with very methodically and Brust throws up enough curve balls to keep things fresh and moving forwards at a decent pace. If you can get your head around the minutiae of Dragaeran legal practices (again, no mean feat, there was so much this that it made my head hurt...) you’ll see that everything fits together very neatly at the end and what looked like a simple case at the beginning was actually hiding something far larger and with serious ramifications for the Empire.
Like I said though, there is a lot of legal stuff to wade through on the way. If Brust was trying to say something about the convoluted process behind the wheels of justice then he certainly succeeded but it’s almost a case of him having succeeded all too well. The legal process is so detailed that you will sometimes have difficulty working out where the story is in amongst it all and that’s not a good thing. There’s also an infuriating sense that not a lot is actually happening (other than a couple of bursts of action at the beginning and end of the book). Vlad goes to see his legal advisor, Vlad then goes off to find stuff out and reports back to his legal advisor who then asks more questions and the process begins all over again. Things seem like they’re about to happen and then proceed not to and by the time things really did happen I’d almost stopped caring...

It was fun though to spend time with Vlad Taltos as his slightly acerbic, world weary character is more than good for a few chuckles along the way. If he can’t be sarcastic about something then Vlad won’t say anything at all and this sarcasm never got old for me. Same deal with Loiosh, Vlad’s tame Jhereg.

As was the case with ‘Jhegaala’ though, the reader will find themselves at the mercy of Vlad’s first person account and his annoying tendency to decide that the reader doesn’t actually need to know particular bits of the story as they’re not important. Maybe I don’t need to know and maybe I do; what I’m not keen on though is having that decision made for me in such an open manner. That probably says a lot more about me than it does the book but there you go...
I’m not going to give ‘Iorich’ a score this time round as the main issue that I had with the book was not it’s fault at all. Suffice it to say that ‘Iorich’ is not a book to be tackled unless you’ve read the others first. The story itself keeps you reading but could have done with being allowed to not only surface for air, from time to time, but also with being allowed to run around and do its own thing for a bit.

Having said that though, both ‘Jhegaala’ and ‘Iorich’ have left me sorely tempted to search out ‘Jhereg’ and see how it all began...

‘Primeval: Extinction Event’ – Dan Abnett (Titan Books)

I watched the first few episodes of ‘Primeval’, when it first aired on TV a few years ago, but ended up losing the ongoing ‘battle of the remote control’ that frequently played out in the years before Hope arrived; she just prefers to grab it first and then try to eat it... I never really got back into ‘Primeval’ after that, ‘Doctor Who’ was on the other side, but I always had a soft spot for the concept behind it all. Who wouldn’t? We’re talking about a show where dinosaurs appear in present day Earth via wormholes in time, how cool is that? Very cool from what I can remember with dinosaurs causing havoc and a team of scientists trying to keep a lid on it all.

I actually thought the series had been cancelled but it turns out that it was entirely the opposite case with the show not only being in its fourth season but a whole load of books out there adding to the whole experience. One of these was ‘Extinction Event’ and I wanted to read it, for much the same reasons that I wanted to read James Swallow’s ‘Deus Ex’. I’m a big fan of Dan Abnett’s Black Library output and have read enough of his stuff outside that setting to know that the quality in his writing survives the transition. As a result, I’ll pretty much pick up anything with Abnett’s name on it and was interested to see how his writing fared in the ‘Primeval’ setting. ‘Extinction Event’ is a good example of Dan Abnett doing what he does best but I wasn’t entirely convinced this time round...

Most dinosaur incursions are easily dealt with and covered up by the team working at the Anomaly Research Centre (ARC) but a pair of Entelodons rampaging down Oxford Street presents a challenge that the team may not be up to. This isn’t the biggest challenge headed their way though. Their Russian counterparts in Siberia are experiencing similar difficulties and have no qualms about kidnapping three of the ARC team to help them. What Nick Cutter discovers in Siberia though runs far deeper and far more dangerous than a mere infestation of dinosaurs. The anomalies themselves are changing and the ramifications of this could ultimately have grave consequences for the planet...

‘Extinction Event’ is another book that I picked and devoured almost in one sitting; sometimes life gets in the way and demands that you do other stuff instead. It wasn’t a particularly satisfying read though. If it hadn’t been for the way in which it all kicked off then I’m not sure that I would have continued reading. Maybe fans of the series itself would get more out of this book?

You can imagine Dan Abnett sitting down in front of the TV with a couple of ‘Primeval’ DVD box sets (research of course) before getting stuck into writing the actual book. Nice work if you can get it! Whatever form the research took the end result is pretty special as the book kicks off in spectacular style with giant dinosaur pigs causing mayhem on the streets of London. Talk about the best way to get your readers hooked right from the start! Abnett draws the tension out superbly with the team following a trail of destruction and not seeing their quarry until it’s almost too late. A long drawn out dose of tension swiftly followed by a manic rush of ‘dinosaur pig violence’ was more than enough to get my attention.

Abnett swiftly follows this with a kidnapping and the gradual revealing of a far greater menace than mere dinosaurs. That’s not to say that the dinosaur sightings dry up though; Abnett takes a whole load of dinosaurs from a specific period (not saying which one as that could well be a spoiler...) and then hides them throughout the trackless wastes of Siberia, springing them all on the reader whenever it’s least expected. This works really well in terms of showing just how widespread the dinosaur problem is in Siberia and also emphasises the deadliness of a ‘super predator’ that is able to pick off various Russian soldiers at will. There are some moments here, in particular, that made me jump. You will not believe how quietly this dinosaur can move... until it’s right behind you.

I’m not really sure what to say about the characters themselves at this point as my only real exposure to them was in a couple of episodes of ‘Primeval’ that I watched several years ago. I’ve got no basis for comparison here so if you want to know if the characters here match what’s on the screen then I’m not the person to ask. I guess what I can say though is that Abnett works hard to make his characters distinctive with their own motives for surviving through what is unfolding. You get to know them as people in their own right and there’s enough character in each of them to make following their progress rewarding.

Unfortunately though, it’s more or less at the moment when the ‘big threat’ is revealed that things began to get sticky for me. This imminent threat is accompanied by a raft of technical stuff; either people trying to do something technical or people holding forth with lots of technical jargon. This stuff tends to fly way over my head anyway and the resulting feeling of having missed something here interrupted things when I could have been really into the plot instead. You can’t really blame the book for a problem that I have with books in general (not just this one) but another unfortunate effect of this approach was that an otherwise smooth flowing plot was interrupted and never really picked up that smooth pace afterwards. Abnett attempts to set things right with a monster show down right at the end but, while it’s definitely fun to read, it felt like too little too late. It may not seem like a big thing written down here but it really made a difference to how I read the book...

‘Extinction Event’ is a lot of fun but, for me, it was also a book that was a lot of fun but with an unfortunate hiccup just when things really needed to step up a gear. If you’re a fan then you’ll most likely forgive the book and carry on reading regardless, it wasn’t that simple for me though...

Eight out of Ten

‘Deus Ex: Icarus Effect’ – James Swallow (Del Rey)

When I saw this book hitting ‘Books I received’ posts around the blogosphere, I was immediately intrigued and after a copy for myself. I have never played the ‘Deus Ex’ computer game it’s based around, life stopped at the PS2 for me and the closest I get to gaming these days is playing the odd game on my phone when coming home from work. I’ll swear that my phone has better graphics and gameplay than my old PS1 but that’s another story...
No, the reason I had to find a copy of ‘Icarus Effect’ was simply because it was written by James Swallow who has turned out some quality reads for the Black Library without being one of their leading lights, at least as far as I can see. While luminaries such as Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill are turning out the big hitters, Swallow quietly gets on with turning out stuff that any self respecting Warhammer 40K fan knows to be worth picking up. Check out my review for ‘Nemesis’ as an example.

With all this in mind I figured it could be very interesting to see what I thought of Swallow’s work outside its ‘natural habitat’ (so to speak) and ‘Icarus Effect’ gave me the chance to do just that. Having read it though... Well, I would pick up more of his work in other settings but I wasn’t all that impressed this time round.

It’s the year 2027 and the world is swiftly dividing itself into two camps, those who make use of extensive physical augmentation and those who prefer to keep their bodies ‘pure’ and free of mechanics. Things go much deeper than that though with a shadowy cabal of ruthless individuals looking to block the flow of potentially limitless human evolution and make sure that humanity remains under its control...
Two people are about to fall under the gaze of this group and their lives will become even more dangerous, than they were already, as a result. Secret Service Agent Anna Kelso has been suspended for investigating the shooting that claimed her partner’s life. Can the group of hackers that she discovered protect her from the people wishing to make sure that what she has discovered remains a secret?
Mercenary Ben Saxon finds himself embroiled in the intrigues of a special ops teams claiming to be a force for good. The truth is far different though and Saxon is about to find himself on the run from a group of the deadliest killers in the world. When circumstances force Saxon and Kelso to team up, that’s when things get really nasty...

I really should have enjoyed this one a whole lot more than I did; I finished it so that’s saying something at least. ‘Icarus Effect’ has cyberpunk technology and attitude coming out of its ears with cybernetically enhanced assassins and edgy looking hackers running to keep up with a plot that flows like quicksilver. Swallow paints the background in appropriately dirty and gritty tones and the reader is left in no doubt about how dangerous this scenario is for all the characters concerned. When things kick off it’s all done in fine style with bullets flying and loads of cybernetic gizmos doing some pretty cool looking stuff. Just the kind of thing that I’m into. Right?

Well... yes but only up to a point. All of that was enough to keep me reading and I can’t deny that it was entertaining but there were elements that, in the end, had me reading just to say that I’d finished the book.

The main problem for me was that the whole book was signposted a little too clearly for someone like me who likes a little surprise in their reading every now and again. Without giving too much away, it didn’t take long before I could tell who the bad guys really were, who was going to turn traitor and how things had to end.
Now, I know that if you’re going for a book that’s full of cool technology, guns with impressive names and stuff blowing up then something else will have to give. More often than not it will be a few twists and turns in the plot but to get rid of all them is something else entirely. The ‘impossible choice’ that Saxon has to make, right at the end, lost all impact for me because it was all too clear what he would choose to do. When things get to that point then you can count yourself damn lucky that the plot flows as smoothly as it does because that’s the only thing keeping things going. I could see this approach working on the big screen as you’re caught up in all the visual stuff, there needs to be a little more to a book though and that wasn’t the case here... As this is a tie-in book, I wonder if Swallow was limited by word count or what established canon would let him write. I don’t know...

The characters of Ben Saxon and Anna Kelso didn’t do a lot for me either. I was expecting more from two characters meant to be carrying the whole story to be honest. While they’re both capable of fighting their way out of trouble that’s pretty much all they do. They both make personal journeys towards some kind of truth and redemption but the character traits that define them are so heavily emphasised that the journey loses all sense of importance. You know that Saxon’s sense of honour will lead him to certain decisions in the same way that Kelso’s sense of justice will do the same thing. When you know all this you end up feeling that you may as well skip the personal quest and go straight to the destination, you won’t be missing out on anything and that was the case here. I’m looking for a little more substance (perhaps a little humanity even?) from characters meant to be holding the whole thing together.

I think the fairest thing to say is that if you’re a fan of the computer game then you will probably enjoy the book with its references to ‘in game’ stuff (yep, I looked it up on Wikipedia). For me though, what was an entertaining read was also an infuriating read at the same time as the approach the book went for demanded sacrifices (in terms of plot and characterisation) that didn’t sit well with me. Would I read the next book? At the moment, I’m not sure...

Six and a Half out of Ten

‘Essential X-Men Volume 8’ – Various (Marvel Comics)

I used to love watching the old X-Men cartoon back in the mid nineties (Afternoon lectures or X-Men? No contest...) so when I finally made it into a comic shop it was fairly obvious I’d be picking up these titles to read through. I started off on ‘Uncanny X-Men’ and ‘X-Men’, two titles that seemed to compliment and feed into each other’s ongoing storylines. Then I found myself picking up ‘X-Factor’ and ‘X-Man’ to tie up loose ends. And then I found myself also picking up ‘Excalibur’ as a little offshoot on a side plot. And then I found myself picking up an issue of ‘Cable’ (to tie up something happening in ‘X-Man’) and thought to myself, ‘hang on a minute...’ It was at that point that I decided that Marvel had taken enough of my money with their scheme to tell one story over several comic titles that you had to buy. I wasn’t a great buyer of comics after that but I always made sure to avoid the ‘cross over’ when I was on the lookout for something to read.

The thing was though; I still loved the whole background to the X-Men and wanted more. I wasn’t prepared to hand over the cash though and so was reduced to living vicariously through Wikipedia character biographies; better than nothing but still not a patch on the real thing. Imagine how pleased I was to see all the old X-Men stuff being released in ‘Essential’ volumes... The cover suggested that you’d be getting the whole story and the price didn’t look too shabby either. I was in and decided to kick things off at... volume eight...

Conventional wisdom would suggest that volume one is, in fact, the best place to start and normally I would agree with you. A friend of mine at college had lent me the comics where the Brood face off against the X-Men and that story was in this volume; I had to have it, what else can I say?

‘Essential X-Men Volume 8’ collects ‘Uncanny X-Men’ #229-245, ‘Annual’ #12-13 & ‘X-Factor’ 36-39 and this takes us way back to the very late eighties. It wasn’t too long before I found that I still wasn’t getting the whole story though with loads of those little footnotes referring to events in other comics that weren’t featured here. Will I ever be free of the ‘Cross over Curse’? I have to say that I don’t see that ever happening but what I will say is that the stories in volume eight are as near as dammit self contained in any case so those tantalising glimpses of other comics may be irritating but they are not detrimental to what you are reading.

What are you reading? It’s a bit of a mix of everything really. There are some ‘one shot’ stories (I liked the Christmas one) and the ongoing tales all involve the X-Men operating out of their new base in the Australian Outback and trying to do some good in a world that thinks they are dead. There’s a fight with the Reavers in the Outback along with a fight for mutant rights on the island state of Genosha and the Brood attempting another infestation of Earth. The big one though is the ‘Inferno’ storyline where Manhattan suffers an extreme case of demonic possession which coincides with the appearance of one of the X-Men’s greatest enemies and a vicious betrayal by one of their own.

I got lost in this volume for hours, possibly even a couple of days. There is a hell of a lot going on here with a wealth of detail paid to each and every character and, as a result, it’s all too easy to get fully immersed in the scenario playing out. Would I buy more of these volumes? If the stories are anything to go by then I probably would.

I wasn’t too keen on the presentation though... The artwork is lovely (I’m looking at you in particular Marc Silvestri) but I felt like a lot of the impact was lost by it being in black and white instead of the original colour. Not that I’ve got anything against black and white art here (I’m looking at you in particular ‘Walking Dead’) but black and white art that’s just colour art with all the colour taken out...? There were moments in the ‘Inferno’ storyline where I actually had trouble making out what was going on in some of the big standoffs. The book itself was a nice price (a big part of the reason I ended up getting it) but I would still pay a few pounds more to have the whole lot in colour.

Storytelling duties are essentially shared between Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson and, to be honest, if it hadn’t been for the writing credits at the start of each issue I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference between the two. If I’d read more ‘X-Men’ comics then maybe differences would be a little more apparent but I’m counting this as a good thing (in the meantime) as it helped things to flow a lot more easily and there were no irritating ‘bumps’ where the baton was passed from one writer to the other.

I’d read the ‘Brood’ story years ago and it was great to go back and give it another try. The whole thing with the gigantic ‘space shark’ made a lot more sense this time round and there was also some interesting discussion over the fate of people infected with the Brood virus. These are innocent people who can’t be allowed to live for fear of the virus spreading...

The ‘Genosha’ storyline was perhaps a little too earnest to be truly engrossing with a clear line between good and evil that made closer examination almost pointless. There’s a lot to look at in the meantime though and, along with the ‘Brood’ plot, there are a lot of pointers to get the reader ready for the ‘Inferno’ storyline...

The ‘Inferno’ plot is what the whole book leads up to and, for the most part, it doesn’t let you down with both the X-Men and X-Factor teams set against each other while the true evil behind the scenes makes its move. Cue loads of full on combat between people who are meant to be friends and a massive revelation for the X-Men. It’s a confusing read though and I’m going to have to re-read it, just so I can get it clear in my head just exactly when a particular something actually happened. It’s not exactly a big chore but I wish things had been a little clearer.

The whole ‘black and white artwork’ thing really let things down for me but you can’t deny the power in the story. Claremont and Simonson paint a vivid picture of superheroes who are real people at the same time and this brings a whole load more issues to the table other than who has the coolest mutant power. It’s a soap opera for geeks but is that actually a bad thing? Not when the story is as well told as this.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

The 'Going back to the Source!' Competition Winner's Post!

Yes, all the votes are in and 'Conan' ran out as a pretty comfortable winner so that's what I'll be reading, starting from... erm... yesterday! Don't expect a quick turnaround here though as I want to take my time and enjoy this one; I'm aiming for a review in the next fortnight or so but we'll just see how we go. I've got the two 'Fantasy Masterworks' editions to get through and then it's onto Lankhmar after that. Poor Elric though, I guess he'll just have to wait his turn.

In the meantime though there are competition winners to be revealed and revealed they shall be! Last week's competition was for copies of Melissa Scott's 'Trouble and Her Friends', the winners were...

Angie Dubisher, Colorado, US
Jillian Potter, Wisconsin, US

Your books are on their way!

What can you expect to see from me this week? Well, a little bit of everything really and it's all in that weird 'somewhere between mass market paperback and trade paperback' size. What is with that? If you want to save money as a publisher then why publish stuff in all these shapes and sizes that looks to me if it's using more paper than necessary...? It makes me feel old (you crazy kids get off my lawn dammit!) but sometimes I long for the days when a book came in either hardback or massmarket paperback format...

Oh well, see you tomorrow!

‘DC Comics: The 75th Anniversary Poster Book’ – Robert Schnakenberg & Paul Levitz (Quirk Books)

Every so often a book crosses my path where I really have to think carefully about how I phrase my response to it. This could be for any number of reasons and one of these reasons is very much apparent in the DC Comics 75th Anniversary Poster Book. Here is a book where plot is non-existent; characters are mentioned only in passing (showing no development at all) while world building is a concept that has no place here. That’s all ok though as this book needs none of that at all; it’s a book full of posters from seventy five years of DC comics. Has it been that long? Apparently so...

So why do I need to think carefully about how I phrase my response to this book? Well, I concentrate on fiction here and (as far as I can recall) have never tackled a non-fiction work consisting primarily of pictures with some added commentary. There’s a first time for everything though so here goes...

‘The 75th Anniversary Poster Book’ is one of those books that will sit nicely on the coffee table, waiting patiently to be picked up and flicked through. What it isn’t is a book that you will tear through in one sitting; it’s far too big and unwieldy to be carried around and, if you’re anything like me, you’ll find the ‘picture, commentary, picture, commentary’ cycle verging on the monotonous and want to break it up with other reading.

If you take it in bite sized chunks though, the poster book is an informative read as well as offering the reader some lovely artwork to pore over at the same time. Schnakenberg knows his stuff and is able to give a detailed analysis on each piece and there the variety of comic titles and cover art on display surprised me. I didn’t realise that DC’s output, over 75 years, had been so extensive. I knew that there was a lot of Batman related stuff but comics like ‘Girls Romances’, ‘Weird Western Tales’ (Scalphunter arm wrestling with Abraham Lincoln!) and ‘The House of Mystery’ were all news to me. I certainly came away from this books knowing a lot more about DC Comics than when I first picked it up.

And that’s really all there is to say about this book in a review that markedly shorter than normal. ‘The 75th Anniversary Poster Book’ does its job but maybe doesn’t do a lot more than that, it’s not a book that’ll stick around in your head for days after you’ve finished reading it. What more can it do though other than what it says on the cover? Maybe you need to be a fan of DC Comics to really get something special out of this book...

UK & US Cover Art for 'Moon over Soho' (Ben Aaronovitch)

I really enjoyed ‘Rivers of London’ (or ‘Midnight Riot’, whatever you want to call it) so when my copy of ‘Moon over Soho’ arrived the other day it went straight to the top of the reading pile and you can expect to see a review on the blog probably at the back end of next week.

My first glimpse of the cover (I’ve got the US edition which is due in March, the UK edition won’t be available until towards the end of April) had me thinking about all the chatter over the different titles for the first book and its accompanying artwork. The UK cover won out on both counts that time and I thought it could be cool to see what surprises ‘Moon over Soho’ will throw our way.

The big surprise (if you could call it that) is that both books have the same title this time round. It’s not really a surprise at all to see that both editions are sticking with the same art style that they did last time round.

Here’s the US cover,

And here’s the UK cover,

Del Rey are going for the ‘Peter Grant is going to **** you up, with magic!’ approach on their cover while Gollancz are looking to draw the reader’s attention to the fact that London itself is magical in its own right. It’s the UK cover for me again, what do you think?

Here’s the blurb for ‘Moon over Soho’, it might just be a little bit spoilery so be warned...

I was my dad's vinyl-wallah: I changed his records while he lounged around drinking tea, and that's how I know my Argo from my Tempo. And it's why, when Dr Walid called me to the morgue to listen to a corpse, I recognised the tune it was playing. Something violently supernatural had happened to the victim, strong enough to leave its imprint like a wax cylinder recording. Cyrus Wilkinson, part-time jazz saxophonist and full-time accountant, had apparently dropped dead of a heart attack just after finishing a gig in a Soho jazz club. He wasn't the first. No one was going to let me exhume corpses to see if they were playing my tune, so it was back to old-fashioned legwork, starting in Soho, the heart of the scene. I didn't trust the lovely Simone, Cyrus' ex-lover, professional jazz kitten and as inviting as a Rubens' portrait, but I needed her help: there were monsters stalking Soho, creatures feeding off that special gift that separates the great musician from someone who can raise a decent tune. What they take is beauty. What they leave behind is sickness, failure and broken lives. And as I hunted them, my investigation got tangled up in another story: a brilliant trumpet player, Richard 'Lord' Grant - my father - who managed to destroy his own career, twice. That's the thing about policing: most of the time you're doing it to maintain public order. Occasionally you're doing it for justice. And maybe once in a career, you're doing it for revenge.

Like I said, look out for a review next week sometime.

STORMDANCER, a debut novel by Jay Kristoff, acquired by Julie Crisp at Tor UK

From the press release...


Tor UK, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, has acquired World English rights for Stormdancer and two subsequent books in the series in association with Pete Wolverton at Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St Martins Press in the US , from agent Matt Bialer at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

Stormdancer is a dystopian fantasy set in steampunk feudal Japan and follows Yukiko and her warrior father who are sent on an impossible mission to capture a legendary Thunder Tiger – a griffin. But an accident means Yukiko finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in her country's last wilderness, with only a furious, broken-winged griffin for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, and even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is that he’d rather see her dead than help her.

Meanwhile, the country around them is on the brink of collapse. A toxic poppy-based fuel is slowly killing the land; the omnipotent, metal-clad Guild is publicly burning those that they deem Impure; and the Shogun cares about nothing but his own power.


In hopes of saving her country – and herself, Yukiko must earn the griffin’s trust to become a symbol to her people; a myth, a legend – a Stormdancer.


Julie Crisp, editorial director at Tor UK, said ‘This is an incredibly imaginative and well-executed fantasy. Think Across the Nightingale Floor and Eragon mixed with steampunk, strong original characters and fast-paced action. It’s a wonderful read that everyone in-house fell in love with. So we’re thrilled that Jay will be joining the Tor UK team’.

Tor UK will be looking to publish Stormdancer in 2012.

I want to be excited about‘Stormdancer’ but I’m in two minds right now…

On the one hand we’ve got a killer looking blurb here with loads of genre buzzwords all doing what they’re supposed to. Not only is there ‘steampunk’, and a ‘metal clad guild’ (fantasy guilds are cool, make no mistake there) but the land is dying as well. I blame that ‘toxic poppy based fuel’ myself…

After such a great buildup though everything is suddenly knocked sideways by the ‘Eragon’ comparison. I’m sure that Julie Crisp didn’t mean to say that ‘Stormdancer’ is a book where the ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Star Wars’ influences were all too visible but that was my impression of ‘Eragon’ so you can’t blame me for jumping to that conclusion. I can see myself giving this one a go anyway but maybe with some slight caution.

How about you though? Has the blurb got you all excited? Did you shy away from the ‘Eragon’ comparison? And has anyone here read ‘Across the Nightingale Floor’? I haven’t…

Fritz Leiber Centenary Tribute at Conceptual Fiction

I love the internet. Really, I do. The internet is a place where you can mention that you don't know a lot about Fritz Leiber and, a matter of hours later, be sent a link (not Wikipedia) to an article that tells you everything you need to know and then a bit more. If you're like me and confess to a lack of knowledge on one of the big names in fantasy fiction then click here and solve that problem straight away. Here's the first few lines to get you going...

A few weeks ago, the 100th anniversary of author Fritz Leiber's birth passed largely unnoticed.  The literary community offered up no tributes.  No celebrations or symposiums were held.  Perhaps that should come as little surprise.  None of Leiber's books are in stock at my local chain bookstores, and most of his writing is out of print.  Yet few authors of the 20th century anticipated the storytelling of the current day with more prescience than Leiber, who passed away in 1992 at age 81.

I’d have to actually read some of Leiber’s work before I could comment on Ted Gioia’s thoughts on how Leiber’s work has influenced so many others. The plan is to do that very soon although ‘Conan’ is currently winning the ‘What Sword & Sorcery’ to pick up first?’ vote… As a biographical piece though, you can’t go wrong with the level of detail here, check it out.