‘The Dragon’s Path’ – Daniel Abraham (Orbit)

Everyone wants to write a book but there’s only so much room on the bookshelves to sell them all. Book stores want make money by selling books to as wide an audience as possible and publishers react accordingly by pushing the writers who they think will do the best job of making money for all concerned. It’s a sad fact then that certain writers fall under the radar because of this, their work may well be brilliant but it’s not what publishers and booksellers think the buying public is after. I give you ‘Exhibit A’ in this sorry scenario... say hello to one Daniel Abraham.

Abraham’s ‘Long Price’ quartet is considered to be top notch original fantasy by those people who have read it. For the record, I’ve only read the first two books but if they’re anything to go by then I’ll quite happily agree with the people saying all the good stuff. However, this oriental influenced fantasy didn’t fare so well (sales wise) in the US which led to the publishers not bothering to release the final instalment in mass market paperback. Sometimes, no matter how nice your face looks it just doesn’t fit...
Abraham doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to be put off by something like this though and has come back with another fantasy based effort, this time set in more familiar quasi-medieval surroundings. Orbit have already shown their support for the series by acquiring two more books, to follow on from the three that they’ve already bought, and rightly so. ‘The Dragon’s Path’ is a gorgeous read that lays its cards on the table right away and promises a lot more goodness to come in the future.

‘Summer is the season of war in the Free Cities...’

The politics of Kings impact on the lives of all and it is the job of everyone else to make out the best they can in the meantime. Marcus is getting out of the city of Vanai before the armies of Antea arrive to lay siege; guarding the last caravan out of the city seems as good a way to escape as any... or is it? Cithrin Bel Sarcour has been charged by the Medean Bank, as its ward, to oversee the removal of it’s Vanaian treasury (before the city claims it) and she is trying very heard to keep it all a secret... in the last caravan out of the city.
On the other side of the coin, young noble Geder Palliako marches to war for the first time although he would rather pursue matters of philosophy than swordplay. His role as the regimental scapegoat will change in the fires of battle (as Antean nobility manoeuvre for influence over their King) but his discoveries on a remote mountain range will bring change of a kind that the world itself may not be ready to face...

I’ll happily admit that when I first heard mention of ‘The Dragon’s Path’ I was wondered if this was a tactical move on Abraham’s part to get back in the game by writing something that would appeal to a wider audience than the people who read the ‘Long Price’ books. Maybe this was the case (and who could blame Abraham for doing that?) but Abraham has stuck to his guns and given us a book that may tick all the boxes for a regular fantasy novel but also is just as thoughtful and character driven as anything he has written before. The result is striking to say the least.

A big deal is made these days about ‘gritty’ fantasy novels where the author takes great delight in killing characters when you least expect it and showing the ‘evil villain’ to be a generally nice guy after all. That’s all well and good but I find that I can tell which way a character will fall as they’re pushed so far in one direction that you’re almost waiting for them to spring back and go the other way (GRRM, I’m looking at you right now). This is not the case with ‘The Dragon’s Path’, not at all. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where all the characters are painted in such a perfect shade of grey that you cannot tell what they’ll do until it is done. The reasoning behind their actions also throws everything on its head at moments cleverly chosen by Abraham to keep the ball rolling. The end result is compulsive reading, pure and simple. You’ve got a story where the character least likely to make a game changing decision does so at the worst possible time. You’ve also got a story where you find yourself genuinely sympathising with characters opposing the main players; people genuinely believe that they are doing the right thing here. Abraham’s characters are so well drawn that I literally had to keep reading to find out how they develop further (and they all do). There’s also a nice blend of character driven moments and moments where action takes over and things get a lot more visual; a move that makes the plot flow very smoothly.

‘The Dragon’s Path’ is left open ended in such a way that you find yourself drawn in just to see where the plot takes you. The book itself is very much an ‘opening instalment’, with things being set up for the future, but events are self contained enough that you don’t feel you’re left hanging for all the wrong reasons. I was left more than satisfied with what the book gave me in terms of plot and I’m looking forward to seeing more of the same (plot and characterisation working together so well) in the future.

I wasn’t so sure though about the focus on the role that economics plays in such a scenario. It’s certainly an interesting theme to pursue and perhaps one that doesn’t get the attention that it deserves in other novels. What I didn’t feel though was a solid connection to the rest of the plot and that was a shame seeing as everything else is so tightly bound together. Having said that though, fair play to Abraham for presenting it all in such a way that it kept my interest throughout the book (economics and I don’t mix as a rule...)

The world in which the drama plays out is left vague in some areas, gaps that will presumably be filled in as the series itself develops further. What we’re given in the meantime though is more than enough to be getting on with as Abraham gives us the kind of detail that fans of the ‘Long Price’ series will have already enjoyed. Enough work has gone into the background scenery that you will feel like you are walking through mean streets, corridors of power and lonely mountain passes...

A minor issue arising from the exploration of economics prevents ‘The Dragon’s Path’ from being the excellent novel that it initially promised to be. There’s no doubt though that we’ve got something special here that any fan of well thought out fantasy should be following as a matter of course. Recommended reading here.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

‘Doctor Who: Hunter’s Moon’ – Paul Finch (BBC Books)

There’s going to be a little bit of ‘Doctor Who emphasis’ on the blog, over the next couple of days, as I’m once again being bitten by my refusal to cough up for a TV licence. Yep, the new series of ‘Doctor Who’ kicked off a couple of weeks ago and I’ve already missed one of the episodes... Oh well, I’m sure I’ll pick up the box set at some point in the future, I’ll be following these guys for their thoughts on the series and if you’re a fan then I reckon you could do a lot worse than follow them too.

In the meantime, thank goodness then for the veritable horde of books that prop up the franchise and provide something to be going on with for the likes of people like me who don’t get to watch the TV show straight away. As I’ve said before, the ‘Doctor Who’ books got me into the genre way back when and they’re still a lot of fun to read today.A new ‘Doctor Who’ book then is a bit of a treat and almost a guilty pleasure when set against some of the weightier books that I’ve got on the go at the moment. ‘Hunter’s Moon’ was a lightweight read but still very enjoyable...

Leisure Platform 9 offers all manner of games to its visitors but when a vicious gangster is dealing the cards... sometimes it’s better to sit the game out. Rory doesn’t heed this advice and before he knows it he’s entered into an entirely new game where he must run if he is to stand any chance of surviving the armed hunters chasing him.
The Doctor and Amy must infiltrate the contest if they are to stand any chance at all of rescuing Rory but soon find that they have problems of their own. How long can the Doctor maintain his pretence of being a vicious mercenary? And can Amy reach the Tardis without being captured all over again? A lot is riding on the outcome...

‘Hunter’s Moon’ is a nice slice of fun that hearkens back to the ‘Doctor Who’ of times past where episodes always ended in a cliff hanger and suffused the story in tension. It felt like anything could happen and that’s what kept you tuning back in week after week. That is ‘Hunter’s Moon’ in a nutshell with ‘alien danger’ and ‘Timelord ingenuity’ bouncing off each other and sending the plot bounding forwards into new territory. If that wasn’t enough you also get the excitement of the ‘chase scenes’ where Rory and the other fugitives must battle against hostile predators before they can even think of evading their captors... There is plenty happening and it all counts towards making the plot work. What I would say though is that you never get that feeling that the Doctor is in any real danger and that robs the piece of the tension that it really needs to fly. You could argue that the Doctor is never really in any danger, whatever he does, and this kind of approach is really the whole point. I’d kind of nod and agree with you but only a little bit. This approach works for a fifty minute TV episode but a book needs things to be a little more uncertain to really grease the wheels and make things spin. You can’t complain at the overall effect here though. I couldn’t stop reading and, at the end of the day, that’s what counts.

Older sci-fi readers, like me, will recognise the Leisure Platform 9 setting from any number of other ‘sci-fi noir’ efforts and you’ll probably also recognise the gangsters as well. There’s nothing original here but Finch does well to flesh out the setting with the appropriate hint of menace. You may have seen it all but Leisure Platform 9 takes on a life all of its own and that’s all you can ask of it really.

With a ‘tie-in’ series like this, it’s interesting to see how different authors will respond to the task of portraying the Doctor and his travelling companions; the TV show sets the precedent but you can’t help but wonder whether the writer will take any liberties with the character. Paul Finch decides to play it safe and show the characters as they are on TV. What is interesting though are the hints of conflict in the Doctor (on his responsibilities as a time traveller) and the work that goes into building up other supporting characters who take centre stage. Finch may have his hands tied with his depiction of the Doctor but he proves that he is more than capable of giving his readers characters that you want to find out more about.

What I wasn’t so sure about though was Finch’s decision to pay a little too much attention to what certain female characters were wearing. He lingers over the cat suit that Amy Pond is forced into and then tells his readers a little too much about a husband/wife relationship when one of the fugitives sees his wife in a rubber anti-toxin suit. I know that this is a theme being explored on the TV show and it works in that format as it’s dealt with relatively quickly and gives you something to think about as the show moves on. Here though… It all feels a little bit forced and tacked on, it certainly doesn’t do anything for the plot. I guess what works in TV doesn’t necessarily work on the page.

Despite this (and a couple of other small issues), ‘Hunter’s Moon’ remains an entertaining read that’s as good a way as any to spend a couple of hours. It may not entirely succeed at doing it’s job but what it does do is done well enough to keep you reading.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

You wait ages to cast a vote and then...

You find that you can't. It was my own fault though...

I noticed, over at 'The Wertzone', that voting on the shortlist for the David Gemmell awards is now open so figured I'd head on over and cast a vote or two. I'm not a huge fan of the way that the Gemmell Awards are set up (a post for another time, probably) but that's not the fault of the writers on the shortlist is it? I thought I'd show them some support and get voting; at least that was the plan until I came across the Legend Award for Best Novel. The nominees are...

The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett

War of the Dwarves by Markus Heitz
Towers of Midnight by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan
The Alchemist in the Shadows by Pierre Pevel
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

I found that I couldn't cast a vote here, purely because I haven't read any of the books on the shortlist. Apparently last year was worse for reading than I thought what with everything going on... I have to say though that none of these books stood out for me as 'must read' when I looked at them last year. No vote casting there then, have you guys voted on this list?

I had better luck with The Morningstar Award for Best Debut with the nominees being...

Spellwright by Blake Charlton
The Warrior Priest by Darius Hinks
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov
Tymon's Flight by Mary Victoria

I'd actually managed to read four of the five books listed here (sorry 'Tymon's Flight', reading the blurb on Amazon doesn't really count...) so felt a little easier about casting my vote here. Darius Hinks' 'The Warrior Priest' (read my review Here) is a shoe in for the award, in my opinion, if the Black Library can mobilise their fan base on the same scale as they did last time. More than that though, it's also a book that comes the closest to echoing what Gemmell himself was all about in his own work. You've probably already guessed where my vote went here.

The Ravenheart Award for Best Cover Art was also an easy one to vote on, mainly because it's all about looking at cover art and choosing the one that does it for you. The nominees are,

The Ragged Man

Power and Majesty
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
Shadow King
Tymon's Flight

I still need to read 'The Ragged Man' (and should really read 'The Grave Thief' before that...) but we're only talking cover art here and Todd Lockwood's artwork will always win in a 'cover art battle'; that's where my vote went.

You can vote on these categories until the end of May with the results due a couple of weeks after that. Will you be voting?

‘The Flash: Rogue War’ – Johns, Porter, Livesay (DC Comics)

Ever since my wife started taking Hope to the library, on a regular basis, I’ve started coming home and finding more comic books waiting on the table for me. I certainly can’t complain about this, thanks Sue! :o)
For someone who still doesn’t really know where to start with all the comic books available out there (although I do have a better idea of what I’m after these days...) a lot of the trouble is removed by your wife going out and picking stuff for you. Having said that though, the chances of picking up a duff read shoot up dramatically if you follow this method and that’s what happened here... ‘Rogue War’ looks like the business when you look at the cover. When I got into it though it was very much a case of ‘what the...’

It’s ‘Rogue War’ on the streets of Keystone City with a macabre theft causing a division amongst the ranks of a group of super villains (the aforementioned ‘Rogues’) which threatens to spill onto the streets and cause total chaos. Only the Flash stands any chance of stopping them and he has to get to the bottom of what’s going on before he can take sides, if there’s a side to be taken.
Things are about to get a whole lot worse though with another super villain making a play for power and the arrival of a former friend of the Flash with dark plans of his own. Then the arrival of a man long dead changes everything...

I guess it was the last sentence there that had me doubting this book; why can’t comic book characters (and I’m thinking superheroes here) just stay dead? Why can’t writers channel the creative energy they put into bringing a character back into pushing things forward and giving us new characters that we can get to know? I can appreciate certain heroes are brand names in their own right but superheroes have returned from the dead far too many times now for it to be original and the whole device just seems well... stale.

And that was before I’d even opened the book.

To be fair though, things did look promising to begin with pages devoted to fleshing out certain characters amongst the Rogues, a move that couldn’t help but leave you sympathetic to these people once you had the full picture. I’m thinking ‘Heat Wave’ and ‘Mirror Master’ here, the approach taken had me looking out for these two guys over the rest of the story and things were all the better for it.

I also liked the idea of a division between the older and younger members of a team of super villains. There’s an intriguing mystery to be solved and no shortage of ‘full on super villain combat’ when things come to a head. You’ll get a lot more out of it if you’ve read previous issues of ‘The Flash’ but things here were clear enough to work for me. I wasn’t sure about some of the artwork from Porter and Livesay though, both in the fight sequences and across the book as a whole. A job is done but characters tend to look awkward and posed rather than displaying a sense of fluidity and movement that would make their respective powers look even cooler. Oh well...

I wasn’t doing too badly following things but it all got really confusing when ‘Zoom’ turned up and took the Flash on some madcap ride into the past/future/I’m really not too sure for reasons that weren’t made particularly clear. Again, you’ll get a lot more out of this book if you’ve read previous issues but neither the artwork nor the writing made things clear for me and it was all a rush of colour that didn’t make a lot of sense. It’s a nice ride but I wouldn’t mind knowing why I was making the trip...

And then it all gets solved by the return of... you’ve probably already guessed if you’re a fan. I don’t know the back story (which would probably make all the difference) but things just felt rushed and, again, strangely pointless; rather like this sequence was shoehorned in to make sure that things ended well.

‘Rogue War’ is very much a tale of two halves and newcomers to ‘The Flash’ might be best advised to stop reading after the first half. The second half might improve on a second reading but just felt like a confusing mess to this reader...

Six out of Ten

The 'Back to Grim Reality...' Competition Winner's Post (now with added arthritis!)

After a glorious couple of weeks of Bank Holidays and short working weeks, the fun is over and it's back to work again (one more short week but it doesn't feel the same somehow). Hello work... Can't say I've missed you much but lets just pretend to get along for the time being shall we? It's not just work either, arthritis has decided to pay an unwelcome visit and set up residence in my knee... It's good times here right now :o(


In an attempt to try and balance things out a little here I'm going to force feed the blog a little good cheer this morning and announce the winners of the 'Robopocalypse' competition that I ran last weekend. Of course, that's only going to cheer the winners up but it's the best I've got right now!
Here goes...

Carol E. Reiley, Baltimore

Eric Guizzo, New York

Joe Markim, Connecticut

Jennie Lopez, Oregon

Jorge Lacera, Massachusetts

Kim Papke, Texas

Justin Landon, Washington DC

David Fike, Kansas

Trey Lindsay, New York

Emily Goldman, Maryland

Well done guys, your books should be on their way shortly, better luck next time everyone else...

Right, back to it. See you all tomorrow!

The 'Lazy Update Post'...

I'll be honest, I've got nothing for you today and all I'll say is this, who would have thought that a birthday party for a one year old could be so tiring...

By way of apology (and to keep things ticking over until tomorrow when things should hopefully get back to normal) here's a quick look at some of the books that I've got on the go right now. I'm in one of those moods where I can't settle on one book right now so there are a few...

'Embedded' - Dan Abnett

I'm just under a hundred pages in and 'Embedded' has all the makings of another fine novel by Abnett but I can't help but want it to hurry up and get started...


'Among Thieves' - Doug Hulick

Like the 'Garret P.I.' books would be if Garrett was one nasty bastard of a thief. Gorgeous stuff that deserves all the nice things that people are saying about it (a hundred and fifty pages into this one)


'The White Luck Warrior' - R. Scott Bakker

I've only just started on this one and it's great to be back. People say that Abraham is underrated but I'd say this is a title more deserved by Bakker (unfortunately for him...)


'The Conan Chronicles Vol.1' - Robert E. Howard

Howard may be a master storyteller but I haven't made it past the bit at his essay about the fall of Atlantis/rise of the other civilizations etc. It is dry, very dry...

I've actually managed to finish some other books and you'll hear about those later this week.One of them is 'The Dragon's Path' and yeah, Daniel Abraham is underrated (Bakker more so though!) if his latest book is anything to go by. I love it.

Enough about me though. What are you reading? And do you have any sure-fire methods for getting over first birthday parties...?

One Year Old Today!

Not the blog...

For all that I love reading books, and talking about them here, there are a couple of things in my life that make books look like, well… just a bunch of words on some paper. One of the real loves in my life is celebrating her first birthday today (she was born at twenty to four in the morning). This time last year Hope looked like this,



Now she looks like this (celebrating the Royal Wedding on Friday)



Happy Birthday Hope Aleta, this last year has been the best ever and it’s all down to you. You are funny and clever and have the loveliest smile I’ve ever seen. I’d really appreciate it though if you’d stop taking my books off the shelves and throwing them everywhere, please? ;o)

Giveaway! 'Shadow Prowler' & 'Shadow Chaser' (Alexey Pehov)

To mark the release of Alexey Pehov's 'Shadow Chaser' I've got a nice little giveaway for those of you who haven't picked up his work yet...

Thanks to the people at Tor, I've got a copy of 'Shadow Prowler' and a copy of 'Shadow Chaser' to give away (as a pack) to one lucky reader. US readers only for this giveaway though I'm afraid (and I am trying to sort a couple of things out for readers in the UK etc, we'll see how it goes...)

What do you have to do to enter? Same thing you always do :o) 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. I'll do everything else.

I'll let this one run until the 8th of May and will aim to announce the winners as soon as possible afterwards.

Good Luck!

Cover Art – ‘The Immorality Engine’ (George Mann)

I wasn’t too keen on George Mann’s ‘The Affinity Bridge’ (which is stopping me from delving into ‘The Osiris Ritual’) but here’s some really tasty cover art that might well get me back into things. Check out the cover for ‘The Immorality Engine’....

Shamelessly stolen from the good folks at Fantasy Book Critic. A tip of the cap to you good sirs!

So... A clockwork horse carrying a machine gun toting dude in a bowler hat, words fail me at describing just how cool that is (other than, 'I love steam punk'). What do you think? And have you read ‘The Osiris Ritual’? What did you think of it...?

Check out the blurb (for ‘The Immorality Engine’, not ‘The Osiris Ritual’...)

On the surface, life is going well for Victorian special agent Sir Maurice Newbury, who has brilliantly solved several nigh-impossible cases for Queen Victoria with his indomitable assistant, Miss Veronica Hobbes, by his side. But these facts haven’t stopped Newbury from succumbing increasingly frequently to his dire flirtation with the lure of opium. His addiction is fueled in part by his ill-gotten knowledge of Veronica’s secret relationship with the queen, which Newbury fears must be some kind of betrayal. Veronica, consumed by worry and care for her prophetic but physically fragile sister Amelia, has no idea that she is a catalyst for Newbury’s steadily worsening condition.

Veronica and Newbury’s dear friend Bainbridge, the Chief Investigator at Scotland Yard, tries to cover for him as much as possible, but when the body of a well known criminal turns up, Bainbridge and Veronica track Newbury down in an opium den and drag him out to help them with the case. The body is clearly, irrefutably, that of the man in question, but shortly after his body is brought to the morgue, a crime is discovered that bears all the dead man’s hallmarks. Bainbridge and Veronica fear someone is committing copycat crimes, but Newbury is not sure. Somehow, the details are too perfect for it to be the work of a copycat. But how can a dead man commit a crime?

‘Age of Darkness’ – Edited by Christian Dunn (Black Library)

I love reading genre fiction (you may not have realised this but it’s true...) and this means that every year is crammed full of little ‘genre highlights’ that I find myself looking forward to. There’s plenty of speculative fiction and some of this pokes its head above the rest and demands my attention straight away; chief amongst this select little band is the arrival of any new ‘Horus Heresy’ book from the Black Library.

There have been a few little blips along the way (I’m looking at you in particular ‘Descent of Angels’...) but on the whole, the ‘Horus Heresy’ series has consistently demonstrated why it’s the flagship series for the Black Library. They’re well written, engaging and enjoy the position of being able to open up previously unexplored background for established fans as well as being an ideal starting point for newcomers. Plenty there then for me to get excited about and I was very excited when my copy of ‘Age of Darkness’ arrived; of course it took me weeks to finally get round to opening it but that’s just the way things seem to go round here these days...

'Age of Darkness’ marks the point in the Imperium spanning civil war where the Warmaster Horus has achieved all his short term goals and is finally ready to begin his march on the Emperor’s palace on Terra. There are a lot of planetary systems to annex and conquer before then though and this is what underpins the short stories that make up this collection. It’s not all just about Horus though, loyalist Primarchs and their legions (and even groups of Marines who have decided not to side with Horus) must make their stand against the oncoming storm and try to salvage something from the wreckage in order to safeguard an uncertain future. ‘Age of Darkness’ highlights an area of the conflict that isn’t as overt as you would come to expect from this setting but is still just as deadly...

Could ‘Age of Darkness’ be the best Warhammer 40K anthology that I’ve read yet? It could well be... Some of the tales have their issues (more on that as we go) but on the whole this is a very solid collection that achieves its aims in some style. There is another war happening in plain sight, but hidden by more prominent conflicts, and it’s time that this particular fight got the attention it deserves. All the writers here combine well to show a warfare of diplomacy and intrigue that is still punctuated by the clatter of bolter at all the right times. They also foreshadow the ‘modern Imperium’ in a number of clever ways that I think fans will get a lot out of. I’m no big expert on the setting but I get the feeling that there will be more than one surprise here for fans who thought they knew the whole story behind the Horus Heresy. The stories themselves run as follows...

‘Rules of Engagement’ – Graham McNeill

Graham McNeill opens proceedings with a tale that leaves the reader (and the Primarch featured) in no doubt as to the perils that humanity faces as a result of the war. It’s very interesting then to see the steps taken by this Primarch, especially as we know how these steps will be seen in the fortieth millennium, an ultimately futile gesture but one that still has to be taken. The nature of the plot gives rise to repetition in its structure that makes for a stodgy read but ‘Rules of Engagement’ is still worth a look 8.5/10

‘Liar’s Due’ – James Swallow

The only story in the collection that doesn’t feature a single Space Marine and ‘Liar’s Due’ works all the better for it. ‘Liar’s Due’ looks at the air of paranoia that grips the galaxy (in the light of the Warmaster’s rebellion) and does an amazing job of showing how this feeling can be twisted to work for the enemy without a shot having to be fired. The sense of inevitability makes this read all the more compelling 10/10

‘Forgotten Sons’ – Nick Kyme

Nick Kyme tells an engaging tale here and provides insight into just how the seemingly invincible psyche of a Marine can be damaged irreparably. Everyone has their role but some of these roles are dumped on those who have no other use... What I thought was missing though was a sense of how ‘Forgotten Sons’ tied into the themes shared by the other stories here. It felt more than a little disjointed from the rest of the pack... 7.5/10

‘The Last Remembrancer’ – John French

John French is a name that I haven’t come across in the Black Library but if ‘The Last Remembrancer’ is anything to go by then I expect that to change very soon. Could one of Horus’ greatest masterstrokes come about far from the main battlefields? An unassuming man is deposited in Imperial space carrying a book that could rock the Imperium at its very foundations... ‘The Last Remembrancer’ is a fascinating study of one of the Heresy’s leading figures and shows roots that will come to fruition ten thousand years hence. It’s all very atmospheric but the ending is in no doubt and that does spoil things a little... 9.5/10

‘Rebirth’ – Chris Wraight

Imagine if you had unwittingly sat out one of the major events of the war and arrived at your home planet to find...? That is the premise of Chris Wraight’s tale but the real fun is to be found in seeing how Chaos is fracturing Horus’ forces even as it seeks to make use of them. An intriguing glimpse into the mindsets of traitor marines, who will soon become the bitterest of foes, and a tale that I can see myself reading again (even though that sense of inevitability works against the tale once you realise who the antagonist is...) 8.5/10

‘The Face of Treachery’ – Gav Thorpe

‘The Face of Treachery’ tells another side to the rescue of the Raven Guard Legion and worked best for me as a means of fleshing out the story told in ‘Raven’s Flight’. Not that it doesn’t work well in it’s own right (with plenty going on to hold the attention) but the reasons behind the involvement of the duplicitous Alpha Legion are left so vague that the story feels like it tails off without any clear ending and I guess I was after something a little more solid... 7.5/10

‘Little Horus’ – Dan Abnett

Little Horus was a character that I wanted to see a lot more of, in the opening stages of the series, and I finally got my chance here with this tale of Little Horus’ self doubt set against an ambush that’s potentially deadly in it’s simplicity. Abnett writes excellent military sci-fi and ‘Little Horus’ is no exception with a skilfully rendered account of military engagement. I wasn’t so sure about the character study though with certain conclusions dismissed too readily by Little Horus himself. It felt like a lot more could have been done with this character and an opportunity was lost... 8/10

‘The Iron Within’ – Rob Sanders

I’ve had issues with Rob Sanders’ work in the past and, to begin with, ‘The Iron Within’ shows those same problems with regimental detail getting in the way of the story itself. Sanders moves past this in some style though and gives us an insight into the psyche of the Iron Warriors in the best way possible, siege warfare. I also liked the links with McNeill’s opening story. Who was the narrator though? That’s going to bug me... 9/10

‘Savage Weapons’ – Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Who better to end the anthology with than a Black Library writer who doesn’t seem to be able to put a foot wrong? ‘Savage Weapons’ isn’t one of Bowden’s strongest works in my opinion as the opening passages don’t have that clear sense of direction I always find in his work. This is more than made up for though with a tense finale and a final sentence that either confirms the intent behind McNeill’s story or throws everything into doubt at just the right time. I loved it 9/10

‘Department 19’ – Will Hill (Razorbill)

The publication of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ always had me in mind of the fall of the Roman Empire in a way. Seriously, stick with me on this one... The Harry Potter books took over ‘Young Adult’ literature in a way that you don’t often see at all. Nothing could stand against these books and their influence could be seen in other books published at the same time. Everything comes to an end though and that was certainly the case here; Harry Potter did what he set out to do and there was nowhere else for the series to go after that. ‘Young Adult’ fiction suddenly had a great big hole in it, waiting for another series to assume pre-eminence and build a little empire of its own.

No writer appears to have stepped up to the plate (yet) and written a young adult series with the same universal appeal as ‘Harry Potter’; what we’re getting instead (at least as far as I can see and please correct me if I’m wrong here) are series targeted at a more specific audience. Will Hill’s debut ‘Department 19’ is one of these and I can see it doing very well in that regard. It’s a shame then that it didn’t quite work for me...

Jamie Carpenter always thought that his father died a traitor to his country; that’s certainly the stigma he has had to live with for much of his young life. The truth is far stranger though and it will take the kidnapping of Jamie’s mother for this truth to come to light.
When Jamie’s mother disappears he finds himself rescued from the clutches of a vampire and taken into the protection of Department 19, a top secret government agency that combats supernatural threats. The operatives of Department 19 are perfectly placed to keep Jamie safe and introduce him to a future that he never even knew existed. They might even be able to rescue his mother from her vampire kidnappers but that will prove a little trickier, especially when the true nature of the vampire threat begins to reveal itself...

‘Department 19’ is one hell of a read, no doubt about it; I tore through this one like you would not believe (up to and including using the baby as an excuse to stay up and do a little extra reading at the weekend). By the end though, that awesome rush was tempered by the fact that the whole thing felt a little hollow in maybe the worst possible way.

When ‘Department 19’ takes off it doesn’t just take off, you can tell that Will Hill is flying with his story and having a lot of fun along the way. ‘Department 19’ may well be another tale of secret government agencies fighting the supernatural etc (and there are plenty of those) but it is also an adrenaline fuelled romp full of stand up fights with vampires, double crosses and stuff blowing up. There are also more than a few chilling moments that you find yourself having to get through in order to find out what happens next. This all throws the pace into overdrive and the book moves too fast for you to even consider getting off. Just enjoy the ride while it lasts.
You could accuse Hill of just throwing everything at the page (to see what sticks) and you wouldn’t be far off the mark here. I got the feeling that Hill was operating on the principle that more spectacle must make for a better reading experience and, to be fair, there is a case to be made for that. It certainly made the pages fly by here.

Spectacle will only get you so far though and luckily Hill appears to have taken this on board, paying real attention to his plot and background. The plot is well thought out with enough twists and turns to maintain interest over a book that is five hundred and thirty seven pages long (in the ARC format). Just when you think you have a handle on things Hill makes a mockery of your assumptions by asking pertinent questions and sending the ball rolling in a totally different direction. The setting is gorgeously realised as well with Hill taking elements from classic horror novels (I’m not telling you which ones but I’m sure you can guess...) and wrapping them up with a well thought out government organisation. Certain chapters in the book detail the founding of Department 19 and how events from the past have influenced what is happening in the present. I liked the way that these chapters were staggered across the book and give the reader a handy dose of information at exactly the right time.
Vampires may be the enemy but that doesn’t mean that they are treated any differently in terms of how they come across on the page. Hill pays equal attention to setting the scene with these guys and the overall affect is a fully immersive background that provides the ideal stage for the plot to play out against.

It’s a real shame then that the character of Jamie himself proves to be such a poor choice to hang the whole thing off. Given his circumstances you can expect Jamie to be a little obsessive about what he’s after (rescuing his mother) and how he goes about getting that. What got me though was the fact that Jamie’s character shows very little sign of developing as the story progresses. Jamie reacts to things but there’s never any thought behind that reaction and there’s certainly no sign of his character altering in any way as a result of those reactions; it’s just on to the next reaction and it all felt a little one dimensional to me (especially when there were far more interesting characters in the background). I wonder how the story would have turned out if Jamie had remained the focus but the perspective had shifted onto someone else?
The bottom line for me was that the gorgeously rendered background and supporting cast didn’t gel with the rather stolid and one dimensional lead and that often made the read a chore when it really didn’t need to be.

There is a lot to recommend ‘Department 19’ and I can certainly see it appealing to readers who are after a ‘high stakes’ read that will engage you right away. Unfortunately for me, the lead character didn’t offer that same level of engagement and that’s where things fell down as far as I was concerned. I’m pretty sure I’ll be around for the sequel though so we’ll see if things pick up there.

Eight out of Ten

The 'Tiny Bit Late and Fuelled by Coffee' Competition Winner's Post!

Morning all :o)

Did you have a good Bank Holiday Weekend? Are you still on holiday? I'm not but there's only a few more days until the next long weekend so I can't really complain. I even managed to get a fair bit of reading done over the weekend (in between sun bathing and rescuing other sunbathers from being mauled by Hope); 'The Dragon's Path' proved to be the excellent read I was expecting and if the review doesn't go up this week it'll definitely be up next week instead.

I could ramble on like this (and considering I was up at five this morning it would be all too easy to ramble) but I'll draw a line under it here otherwise I'll never get round to announcing the competition winners from last week. Those lucky folks were...

'The Last Four Things' (Paul Hoffman)

Amber Young, Idaho, US

'Embassytown' (China Mieville)

Alexander Brown, Arizona, US

Shaun Viechweg, Maryland, US

Christine Sporleder, Ilinois, US

Well done guys, your books will be on their way to you very soon. Better luck next time everyone else (I'm always working on featuring more competitions here...)

Right, time for another coffee I think. See you all tomorrow!

What Cover Would You Go For?

Welcome back to this semi-regular feature where two copies of the same book turn up on my doorstep and I ask readers which cover art you all prefer. Sounds simple doesn't it? Not this week...

Today I give you Robert Redick's 'The River of Shadows' and here's the blurb to start you off...

In the gripping sequel to Robert V. S. Redick’s acclaimed epic fantasy novels The Red Wolf Conspiracy and The Ruling Sea, the crew of the vast, ancient ship Chathrand have reached the shores of the legendary southern empire of Bali Adro. Many have died in the crossing, and the alliance of rebels, led by the tarboy Pazel Pathkendle and the warrior Thasha Isiq, has faced death, betrayal, and darkest magic. But nothing has prepared them for the radically altered face of humanity in the South.

They have little time to recover from the shock, however. For with landfall, the battle between the rebels and centuries-old sorcerer Arunis enters its final phase. At stake is control of the Nilstone, a cursed relic that promises unlimited power to whoever unlocks the secrets of its use—but death to those who fail. And no one is closer to mastering the Stone than Arunis.

Desperate to stop him, Pazel and Thasha must join forces with their enemies, including the depraved Captain Rose and the imperial assassin Sandor Ott. But when a suspicious young crewmember turns his attentions to Thasha, it is the young lovers themselves who are divided—most conveniently for Arunis. As the mage’s triumph draws near, the allies face a terrible choice: to break their oaths and run for safety, or to hunt the world’s most dangerous sorcerer through the strange and deadly dream kingdom known as the River of Shadows, and to face him a last time among the traps and horrors of his lair.

Now normally, either the US or UK cover art establishes itself as a clear winner over the other and I can pick a favourite right away. Not today though. Today we have...

The US Cover...

 Looks very nice and all but doesn't really tell you anything about the book itself (other than that there's a sword and shield in there somewhere...)
 

The UK Cover...

This cover tells us a little more about the story but, unfortunately, what it seems to be telling us is that a sea serpent has been disturbed in the shower (by a big ship) and hasn't had time to dry her hair...

Neither of these work for me but if you had to choose one for your bookshelf which one would it be? And has anyone here read the first two books? Here's another series that has passed me by and I'm wondering if it's worth a look...

Comic Book Cover Art!

It's Easter Sunday, no-one's really up to doing much today... lets take it easy and feast our eyes on a little cover art :o) What do you reckon?

I've been enjoying the 'Conan' comics for a little while now (finally reading the first Fantasy Masterworks collection as we speak) and artwork like this is a large part of the reason why; isn't it gorgeous? This is Conan as he should be and gives a lot more insight into the character than Schwarzenegger's dumb posturing ever did. I'm going to have to get my hands on this book, as much to stare at the cover as finish off the story itself...

I don't usually read PDFs but got an advance copy of 'Gladstones #1' in this format and will probably give it a go. Does anyone know of an e-reader that you can read comics on? (My 'gizmo knowledge' is appalling).

On a first glance though I'm not convinced by the cover art here. Villavert does a good job with dynamic poses and vibrant colour but the whole thing just seems a little too 'Cartoon Network' (or even Nickelodeon...) for me. Maybe that's the whole point of it, I'll have to check out 'Gladstones' and let you all know.

So, what do you reckon? Do either of these covers float your boat? And have you got any favourite comic book covers that you'd like to share with us? I don't think that you can post pictures in the comments section but feel free to leave links.

Have a great Sunday! I'm off to stop Hope from pinching the dog's breakfast, she will do it if I'm not careful...

Giveaway! 'Robopocalypse' (Daniel H. Wilson)

Daniel H. Wilson's 'Robopocalypse' is an amazing read (no doubt about it) and I recommend you pick it up and give it a go when it hits the shelves in June. Or... how would you like the chance to check it out much earlier...?

Thanks to DoubleDay Books, I have ten advance copies of 'Robopocalypse' to give away on the blog. Yes, that's right... Ten Copies. Just think, if only ten people drop me an email then they're guaranteed a copy of the book and, like I said, it's worth the read. I am afraid that only people living in the US can enter though, sorry about that...

For all the American people left reading this post, here's what you do...

To enter, just send me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your postal address is. Your subject header needs to read, 'Oh No! Robots!' That's all you need to do, I'll do the rest.

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

Good Luck!

‘Conan Volume 7: Cimmeria’ – Truman, Corben & Giorello (Dark Horse Books)

If you scroll down the page a bit you’ll see that this week has been a great week for reading (mine!) here on the blog. Being honest though, I’ve got to say that the cumulative affects of lack of sleep (over the last few days) meant that I found myself naturally gravitating towards the stuff that I knew I’d enjoy. That’s just the way it goes round here sometimes and I wouldn’t be too surprised if you saw more of the same in the future.
 Anyway... I was looking for something to read that would end the week on a high and ‘Cimmeria’ seemed like the best way forwards here. I’ve been enjoying Truman and Giorello’s run on ‘Conan’ for a while now and ‘Cimmeria’ was a great way to fill in some of the gaps that inevitably occurred while I was collecting the comics a year or two back.
Well the gaps can now well and truly be considered filled in as far as this storyline goes. The artwork is as lovely as ever (even more so at times) but the plot itself didn’t seem up to the same high standards this time round...

Weary of the duplicity of so called civilisation, Conan finds his feet taking back towards his dark and misty homeland of Cimmeri, where a foe would never dishonour himself by stabbing you in the back and life is so much straightfoward. After so long away, Conan wants the kind of honesty that only his homeland can offer. Cimmeria has it’s own internal bickering though and Conan must swiftly come to terms with this if he is to protect the woman that he first loved. A raiding party of Aesir hint at a truce in danger of being broken and Conan’s first love Caollan lies at the heart of it all…

‘Cimmeria’ is split into two tales, Conan’s return to his homeland and the journey that his Grandfather Connacht made when he left. The two plots dovetail well and not only is this a nice way of getting two stories for the price of one but Cimmeria as a country is shown to exert a very strong pull on it’s countrymen. You get a really clear picture of what it means to be Cimmerian. I’m no scholar of Robert E. Howard and couldn’t tell you how much of Connacht’s story is based on what Howard actually wrote (my suspicion is very little if any). It does however remain a very interesting story that suggests where Conan got his own wanderlust as well as showing us Conan’s world through a set of fresh eyes. You can’t argue with that and Connacht’s story was the highlight of the book for me, especially how it is rendered through Richard Corben’s striking artwork. There is no way that you will get the two tales mixed up here…

It’s a shame then that the same cannot be said for Conan’s own story (although Tomas Giorello comes up trumps again with his artwork and has pretty much supplied the definitive Conan as far as I’m concerned).
Conan’s tale is an expansion of the Robert E. Howard poem ‘Cimmeria’ and those initial lines (coupled with Giorello’s art) really take you into the setting itself. I’m finding out more and more about Howard at the moment and I can add ‘writes a mean poem’ to that list. The rest of the story doesn’t quite capture that same feel though; Truman’s writing here (good though it is, intrigue and blood drenched action in equal measure) fails to maintain this feeling and suffers for it. What you have is a story with atmosphere but not the atmosphere we were promised right at the start…

‘Cimmeria’ is visually stunning but very much a book of two slightly uneven halves that affect the flow of the story as a whole. This won’t stop me reading though, the ‘Conan’ books, from Dark Horse, are well worth your time.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

Orbit Announces International Publication of Digital Novella

From the press release...

SF and Fantasy imprint Orbit has announced that it will be publishing a new novella by New York Times bestselling author Brent Weeks simultaneously in the US and the UK , in both ebook and digital audio editions. Perfect Shadow, set in the world of his popular Night Angel Trilogy, will be released in June.

Orbit Publisher Tim Holman says: ‘The digital marketplace provides an irresistible opportunity to publish shorter works of fiction. With over a million copies sold worldwide since its launch in 2008, Brent Weeks ’ Night Angel Trilogy has become one of the fastest selling fantasy series of all time. Publishing a new novella set in the same world, and doing so simultaneously around the world in ebook and audio editions, has been a really exciting publishing challenge – and working with Brent and his agent, Don Maass, to make it happen has been terrific.’


Brent Weeks says: ‘When I wrote Perfect Shadow, I was afraid it was going to fall into a publishing no-man’s land: too short to be distributed as a novel, too long to be sold as a short story. Orbit’s digital publishing has given me a way to get this story out. More than that, it’s given me the artistic freedom to write a story exactly as long as it needs to be.’


The ebook edition of Perfect Shadow will be available from ebook stores worldwide from June 2011. It will be simultaneously released as an unabridged audiobook for digital download.

Good news there for fans of Brent Weeks but perhaps only good news for those fans with e-readers (although the downloadable audiobook should balance things out somewhat I suppose). I've got a lot of catching up to do with this author (having only read the first book); how excited are you by this news? Is Weeks an author worth totally throwing my reading order out for?

‘Robopocalypse’ – Daniel H. Wilson (DoubleDay)

Robots, we can’t live without them but we sure as hell can’t trust them to just simply get on with their programmed duties without getting ideas above their station and rising up to destroy their hapless creators. The general rule of thumb is that if you find a robot in a science fiction novel then it’ll more likely than not try and take over the world within a couple of chapters; that’s what robots do and they’re very good at it. That does lead to the question of why people in science fiction novels insist on continuing to build super intelligent artificial intelligences but I guess that’s a question for another time...

Robots’ rising up against their human masters is a tried and tested plot device (one word, ‘Terminator’...) and it’s hard to see anything new that can be brought to the table to freshen things up. At least, that’s what I thought before I read Daniel H. Wilson’s ‘Robopocalypse’. Here’s a book that’s generated a lot of pre-release buzz and I do mean a lot. A great deal of this buzz has come about through the fact that Steven Spielberg took up the option to direct ‘Robopocalypse’ (look out for it in 2013) before the book had even been sold to a publisher; now that has to say something about the quality of the book, right?
It does. ‘Robopocalypse’ isn’t a perfect book but comes so near that you may not notice the difference.

A robot cleaner enters a cafe and tries to kill the staff inside. An urban pacification unit in Afghanistan disarms an insurgent and then turns the gun on innocent civilians. A young girl has a very strange and unsettling conversation with her ‘smart doll’. What initially looks like a series of isolated events proves to be far more but no-one will make that connection until it’s far too late...
An extremely sophisticated artificial intelligence has decided that the only way it can peacefully exist is to remove humanity from its position as dominant life form on the planet. People that rely on robots in every aspect of their daily life will get a horrible shock when these previously docile machines suddenly rise up and declare war...
Humanity finds itself united in the face of this new threat but has this new found unity come too late?

If you’ve found out one thing about me, by reading this blog, then it will probably be that I love reading fantasy, sci-fi etc. I can’t get enough of the stuff and will get itchy if I don’t have a book immediately to hand when I finish whatever I’m reading. It’s a rare book though that will make me forego things like sleep (a precious commodity these days!) just so I can race through and see how it all ends. ‘Robopocalypse’ is one of those books and it was more than worth going without sleep to finish. Actually, I didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter; ‘Robopocalypse’ is nothing short of compelling.

Whereas most other ‘robot uprising’ tales jump in right at the deep end with full on war, ‘Roboapocalypse’ takes a slightly longer term view and is all the better for it. We get to see the conversation that kicked off the whole Robot War and a gradual build up of ‘precursor’ events that introduce characters who will carry the plot forward into the war itself (along the same lines as Max Brooks’ ‘World War Z’). This approach gives the plot a solid foundation that lends the book a real sense of plausibility. I’m not one for the science of the book (that kind of stuff inevitably flies right over the top of my head) but Wilson’s writing leaves you in no doubt how such an event could come to pass. It’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into the scenario and this shines through on the page. The war itself progresses along a clearly defined path and is an exercise in how self aware robots might adapt and evolve in order to protect themselves. It’s startling to see some of the results and Wilson writes a mean battle scene to accompany these moments!

What was slightly disappointing here though was that a book where everything seems so logical and clear cut relied on a speculative ‘jump’ in order to get humanity back in the game and competing on more equal terms. I can understand why robots might want to experiment on (and augment) humans but one experiment came across a little too obviously as a means of moving the plot to a particular conclusion rather than being an exploration of a theme. That jolted the flow of things somewhat.

It’s a small niggle though as Wilson not only provides that well thought out scenario but also proves to be more than adept at writing scenes that engage with the reader and draw you in. Wilson proves that he can capture those moments when a robot does something entirely unexpected and forces a human witness to change their world view in a split second. You really get inside these people’s heads and can feel the fear that they experience when faced with an implacable robot that just will not stop. The moments that really stood out for me though weren’t those life and death struggles but the occasions where a delicious chill of fear was introduced into something that appeared totally commonplace only a second ago. The look on Lurker’s face when he realises what he is dealing with. Mathilda’s conversation with her doll. Those moments made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and they’ll be in my head for a long time to come.

‘Robopocalypse’ takes a tried and tested plot and reinvigorates it with gripping narrative, engaging characters and a veritable swarm of robots bent on humanity’s destruction. What’s not to like there?
I’m glad that I have the book to read again, 2013 feels like a long time to wait for the film...

Nine and a Half out of Ten

‘Bitter Gold Hearts’ – Glen Cook (Roc)

You heard it here first; I totally give up on the whole thing about making ‘reading resolutions’ for the year, it never ever works. If you were around at the beginning of the year then you would have heard me give it the whole ‘I’m going to be so great at reading these particular books in 2011’ spiel and obviously not take into account all the other shiny looking books on the pile. We’re well into April now and my unofficial resolution to read more books by Glen Cook hasn’t faltered as such, mainly because it hasn’t actually got off the ground! As a quick aside, how are your reading resolutions going this year?

Glen Cook is one of those authors where I think I’ve got them pegged as writing one particular series, only to find that they are far more prolific than I ever realised. Cook certainly qualifies here and a series of his that I haven’t really read much of are the ‘Garrett P.I.’ books; tales of a private eye trying to make a living in a city teeming with elves, trolls and wizards. ‘Bitter Gold Hearts’ (sequel to ‘Sweet Silver Blues’) was my latest trip to the city of Tunfaire and it was a trip well made.

The residents of ‘The Hill’ are the most powerful of Tunfaire’s residents and the Stormwarden Raver Styx is pre-eminent amongst these. The Stormwarden is away though, fighting on the front in the Cantard, so what better time for someone bearing a grudge to finally make their move against her. Raver Styx’ son has been kidnapped and Garrett is hired in a consulting capacity to make sure that everything possible is done to make sure that he is returned. The switch is made and the son is returned; something doesn’t quite add up though and Garrett is determined to get to the bottom of things (even though some trolls with pretty fists would rather that he didn’t). When a corpse turns up on the scene, it becomes really clear that something isn’t right and Garrett is even more determined to get some answers. Those answers are going to involve even more corpses though...

I think that the main reason I tend to shy away from Cook’s work is that while the plot is generally excellent Cook doesn’t mince his words and chooses to tell it how he sees it, plain and simple. You would think that this is a good thing (and it is) but it can also make the story a little difficult to get into as you don’t have much of a sense of what’s going on in the background. I need a little bit of both to get a good feel for the book as a whole and Cook’s novels can sometimes feel a little disjointed in this regard.

Well, ‘Bitter Gold Hearts’ bucks a trend in that Cook gives his reader a little more insight into the city of Tunfaire and it’s people. I think it’s a good approach to take as the first book has already given us a little idea of who Garrett is; now we get to find out a little more about him by seeing the city he has to operate in. It’s not handled perfectly as there were still occasions where I found myself wanting Cook to open up and really wax lyrical about his world. It made for a refreshing change though and the book felt like its separate elements were not only working together but actually wanted to work together. Taking this approach didn’t make concessions to the flow of the plot either with a brisk pace being maintained just as it was in the first book.

One of my complaints about ‘Sweet Silver Blues’ was that the intuitive leaps made by Garrett felt like they were a little ‘too intuitive’ and designed to move the plot forward rather than actually cast any light on the case itself. These ‘leaps’ were bolted on and interrupted the flow of the plot as a result. I’m pleased to say that this wasn’t an issue in ‘Bitter Gold Hearts’ although maybe I just had a better idea of what to expect this time round...

The mystery that Garrett has to solve is intriguing enough to initially pique your interest and the constant drip feeding of clues maintains that interest nicely. Not only does everything fit together very neatly at the end (with a surprise or two that added a little edge to the proceedings) but Garrett has to take his time solving this one and that adds a little more impact to the plot. You get an impression of how much this is costing Garrett, both physically and mentally, and this leaves you in no doubt as to how tough the case is to crack. It’s interesting to see though that Garrett never loses his cool, no matter how tough things get. Cook is very much playing the ‘stereo-typical hard boiled P.I.’ card here but you’re left with the feeling that this nonchalance is a part of who Garrett actually is and that’s another reason to keep reading.

Cook appears to have laid his cards out in the first book regarding who Garrett actually is and you don’t get to find out an awful lot more here. There are hints though that while Garrett has a noble streak in him he’s capable of putting that to one side if there’s something that he wants, a woman other than his girlfriend Tinnie Tate for instance. You may not agree with who he is but you can’t deny that these slightly darker sides to Garrett’s character make for interesting reading and hint at the intriguing possibility of plot developments to come.

Glen Cook doesn’t quite escape the issues that made ‘Sweet Silver Blues’ tough going at times and you’re left thinking that resolving these issues isn’t really something that he’s interested in. ‘Bitter Gold Hearts’ is very definitely a step in the right direction though; another engrossing read that has me wondering why I don’t just make the time to tear through these books all at once.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

'Embassytown' - Bits and Pieces from MacMillan

China Mieville’s ‘Embassytown’ is out next month in the UK (I think it’s being released in June over in the US, not 100% sure though...) and it would have been remiss of the Pan MacMillan publicity people if they hadn’t dished out a whole load of links to get us all excited and chomping at the bit for the book itself. Luckily for us, those publicity types are very much on the ball and have, well... dished out a whole load of links to get us all excited and chomping at the bit for the book itself.
Check this lot out...

You can read a chapter extract from ‘Embassytown’ and get a taste of what the book is all about. Click Here.

If you're into the whole cover art side of things (And why not? It's all part of the reading experience) then have a click Here and check out the artwork for 'Embassytown' and the rest of Mieville's back catalogue.

An 'A to Z' of China Mieville? Yep, they've got one those too :o) Click Here for a selection of words that I'm having trouble pronouncing right now. It's all interesting stuff though...

If you fancy watching the man himself on video then click right Here to see China talk about 'Embassytown'.
If you're in the UK then you might fancy popping along to see China talk about 'Embassytown' on one of the dates Here. I'll be at the Forbidden Planet event on the 3rd of May and will be hoping that they've done something about the air conditioning in the basement...

I'm looking to start 'Embassytown' this weekend and will hopefully be in a position to let you know how it turned out sometime next week...