One for 2012? 'The Return Man' (V.M. Zito)

You all know the drill by now :o) My doormat is starting to see books land on it that won't be on the shelves until as late as March next year. I'm having enough trouble getting this year's books read so I won't be reviewing next year's books just yet. What I am doing though is giving you folks a little heads up on what you can expect to see putting in an appearance next year. Take 'The Return Man' (due to be published in March 2012) for instance...

The outbreak tore the USA in two. The east remains a safe haven. The west has become a ravaged wilderness. They call it the Evacuated States.


It is here that Henry Marco makes his living. Hired by grieving relatives, he tracks down the dead to deliver peace.

Now Homeland Security wants Marco, for a mission unlike any other. He must return to California, where the apocalypse began. Where a secret is hidden. And where his own tragic past waits to punish him again.

But in the wastelands of America, you never know who - or what - is watching you . . .

I've got mixed feelings about this one I have to say... 'The Return Man' is all about zombies and that's great as far as I'm concerned, if there are zombies in a book then it's at least 50% guaranteed that I'll enjoy it. Having said that though, that second sentence in the blurb makes the book sound a little too much like Jonathan Maberry's 'Rust and Ruin' for comfort (I haven't actually read the book yet but have read the Maberry short story where it came from). I'll be reading 'The Return Man' but I'm hoping for a little more than what it's promsing here... How about you? Can you see yourself picking this one up?

‘Kultus’ – Richard Ford (Solaris)

What with one thing and another, it’s been a crazy week that has left me with urge to start drinking strong coffee (possibly some Lucozade as well) and never stop. A week where all the things that needed urgent attention were rapidly obscured behind an ever thickening cloud of ‘brain fog’  that has done its level best to stop me functioning. (What? ‘Brain Fog’ is a real term...) And would you believe that, at the time of writing, it’s still only Thursday? I’ve still got another day to get through before weekend kicks in? A weekend, might I add, that’s also full of things that I need to get done...

As far as my reading goes then, it was obvious then that I needed something to clear the fog and give me enough of a boost to get over that last hurdle before the weekend. Obvious to everyone apart from me that is... The only reason I picked up ‘Kultus’ was because of the rather eye-catching cover. Have another look at it, have you ever seen a book cover better designed to ensure that you pick the book up to check out the blurb? Nope, me neither.
I’m a sucker for good cover art and that’s what got me reading ‘Kultus’. What I wasn’t expecting though was a shot of steampunk powered adrenalin that had me quite literally buzzing for more.

Thaddeus Blaklok is not a person you want to be on the wrong side of, not ever. Not only is he a mercenary and demonist but he’s more than a bit of a bastard in general, someone who will make sure you stay down when you’re on the floor... and then give you an extra kicking just because he felt like it.
Blaklok‘s the ideal man then for a mission where he will be working for the very denizens of Hell itself. The Key of Lunos is far more than just a very well guarded museum curio; it can open gates that should never be opened and there are people in the city of Manufactory who want to open those very gates. Blaklok has no idea who he’s working for but the job seems simple enough; get the Key of Lunos and make sure that no-one else gets their hands on it. How hard a job can it be? Very hard when you’re just one man against a city teeming with gangsters, mercenaries, brutal law enforcers and heel spawned monsters. Luckily for Blaklok, there’s far more to him than a vicious right hook...

‘Kultus’ is by no means a perfect read and I’ll go into more later on. ‘Kultus’ is very good at what it does though which is the literary equivalent of throwing a bucket of ice cold water into the reader’s face and leaving them gasping. I was certainly left gasping more than once; I couldn’t help but wince a few times as well. Ford is quite happy to have his ‘hero’ Blaklok pull no punches whatsoever and the results are appropriately bloody. Blaklok wades through a sea of blood and broken bones and absolutely nothing is going to stop him from getting to what he wants, even if he doesn’t fully understand why the Key is so important. Ford keeps things ticking over nicely by making everyone that Blaklok goes up against at least twice his size and keen to dish out a pounding. The result of each confrontation is always slightly in doubt (especially the explosive finale, I really couldn’t put the book down at this point) and its Blaklok’s sheer bloody-mindedness that keeps things moving, you can’t help but want to hang around and see if there is something that can finally put him down. There were also enough hints at Blaklok’s dark past to make me want to find out more about him, I’m hoping for at least one book that features him.

The plot itself is a manic head rush of  heists and standoffs; no-one seems to be capable of holding on to the Key of Lunos for more than half a chapter and sometimes you feel like the plot is almost trying to keep up with its own headlong pace as the Key falls into yet another set of hands. Everyone is out to get the upper hand on everyone else and there is a real atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust coursing through the novel. What I found here though was that while I didn’t know which character would suddenly betray the others, I did know that it would happen and that lent a repetitive feel to the pace of the plot. I knew there was going to be another big ‘switch around’, I was expecting it in fact, and the plot lost its ability to surprise as a result.

What I also found was that more attention was paid to the plot than its surroundings. This is fair enough; plot should take precedence but not entirely at the cost of scene setting. I knew that the city of Manufactory was heavily polluted and... that was about it (apart from the gorgeously realised ‘Repository of Unnatural History’). It’s not that Ford doesn’t let you know where his characters are, I just didn’t really get a feel for what that meant. I’ve said this before about other books; if there’s no scene setting then, in some respects, a book is only doing half of its job.

There’s no denying that Ford really delivers on that half though. ‘Kultus’ is a rip-roaring, bone crunching beast of a book that drops you right in the middle of the action and leaves you ducking to avoid flying fists and Hellfire (seriously, watch out for the Hellfire...) I couldn’t help but feel though that it could have been a whole lot more though if a little attention had been paid to the setting. I’ll definitely be back for any sequels though, I’ll let you know how things pan out...

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

‘The Alloy of Law’ – Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz)

The blog has been going for a little while now (four and a bit years and counting, go me!) and what I find myself doing more and more is to go back and look at earlier reviews I’ve posted, just to get caught up on the events of a series really, especially if it’s been a couple of years since I read the last book. Whilst reading ‘The Alloy of Law’, I dipped back into the blog to see what I’d thought of Sanderson’s earlier works... only to find that I’ve barely read any of them.

There are loads of posts going on about what Sanderson is up to (signings and so on) but only two posts about his books. These posts covered the first two Mistborn books and, as it happened, I couldn’t finish the third one and have never been able to get into his work since. Warbreaker? Never opened it. The last two ‘Wheel of Time’ books? I’m keep telling myself that I’m waiting for the series to end before I get stuck into these (the truth is more along the lines of ‘Crossroads of Twilight’ killed this series for me...) ‘The Way of Kings’? It started off promisingly but fell foul of the ongoing ‘no time to read big thick books’ issue and is currently nestled somewhere under my bed...
Clearly something had to be done, if only to figure out for myself just why it is that I can’t get into Sanderson’s work. ‘The Alloy of Law’ came along at just the right time then as it’s relative brevity (only three hundred and twenty five pages long) ensured that I’d have time to give it a read and finally clear things up once and for all. Imagine then, how surprised I was to find that I really enjoyed ‘The Alloy of Law’ and that I might have been wrong the whole time. Now I find myself in the position of having to dig under the bed for that copy of ‘The Way of Kings’ but if it’s anything like ‘The Alloy of Law’ it’ll be worth it...

Three hundred years have passed since the events of the ‘Mistborn’ trilogy shaped the world of Scadrial. The main players have disappeared into history (or even religion) but the world continues to evolve and change in their absence. While Scadrial is still a world of magic, steam and electricity power day to day living and ever growing towers and railway lines stand as monuments to this. Outside the cities though, Allomancy and Feruchemy still play an important role in the enforcing of frontier justice in the ‘Roughs’; land where life is unfortunately still very cheap.
Waxillium Ladrian was one such law keeper until a family tragedy forced him to return to the city of Elendel and take up the duties of Lordship over one of the noble houses. Wax is determined to restore his house to its former glory but his past life won’t let him go that easily, especially when a wave of crime overtakes the city. Wax has twenty years of law keeping experience to draw upon but the mean streets of Elendel can be even more dangerous than the wide open plains of the Roughs...

‘The Alloy of Law’ is a book that is incredibly easy to get into and more than a little difficult to put down as a result. The following phrase is probably bandied about a little too much these days (and I’m as guilty as anyone else) but ‘The Alloy of Law’ is genuinely one of those books where the pages somehow turn themselves while you sit there comfortably and enjoy the ride.

Having never finished the third ‘Mistborn’ book (I can’t even remember what it’s called, damnit) I did wonder how easy it was going to be to get into ‘Alloy’ without that prior knowledge. The answer was ‘incredibly easy’ as it happened. Sanderson gives us enough time between ‘Mistborn’ and ‘Alloy’ for the plot and setting to stand very nicely on its own. ‘Alloy’ is a book that can be read by newcomers and there were enough links to the first trilogy to satisfy long time readers and fans. It’s inevitable though (just because of where the book sits in the overall timeline) that will be some spoilers for those who haven’t read the ‘Mistborn’ books. You can’t get away from that, just the fact that this book exists as it does hints at the ending of the original trilogy. I was fine with that and you might be as well; if you haven’t read the ‘Mistborn’ books though then you might want to bear this in mind.

The story itself presents the reader with an apparently unsolveable mystery and then prompts us to sit back and watch whilst Wax solves that mystery within a very short space of time. Does Sanderson make it too easy for Wax to get to the bottom of things (given how quickly the mystery is solved)? I did wonder at first but then put this down to Sanderson having to write a much tighter plot than normal and not having as much space as a result. Clues are discovered quickly and answers arrived at in a manner that is a little too good to be true; Sanderson balances this out though by showing us exactly how Wax (and his companion Wayne) come to these conclusions. There are no intuitive leaps here, just two guys who have done detective work for a long time and are very good at what they do.

All the while that the mystery is being solved, Sanderson is spicing things up with the kind of action that you can only get in the world of the Mistborn. We’re talking ‘Matrix’ style action again with all sorts of acrobatics being performed as a result of burning metals in your body (I still can’t quite get my head around the intricacies of this but I’m getting there). This time round though, there’s a ‘Western theme’ being played out and it’s all credit to Sanderson that he fits his magic system into this newer setting so well; it feels so natural and like it should be there. These confrontations are spectacular and the ‘Wild West’ spin made for a refreshing change to me.

Waxillium is set up to be a sympathetic character right from the beginning (even I felt for him after that initial shootout) but the ease with which he fell back into his old life made that initial bout of sympathy feel a little bit contrived when I looked back at it. After that, Wax became a character that I followed more because of his tenacity than any sympathy that I had for him (which was none really). He’s a guy that will take one hell of a kicking and still keep trying to do the right thing; you’ve got to admire a man like that.
The character I was more interested in was Wayne; a man also trying to do the right thing but still bound, by his own internal logic, to break the law in any number of minor ways. I also couldn’t place his accent (the only cockney on Scadrial?) which may have been the point...

The setting was as well drawn as I remember it being in the ‘Mistborn’ books and Sanderson does a fine job of keeping to the roots of the first trilogy whilst also showing how the world has moved on. I couldn’t help but think though that the setting grew less detailed the further the characters moved into the depths of the city...

This niggle (as well as the others) was a minor one though. ‘The Alloy of Law’ was a thoroughly entertaining read that I couldn’t get enough of. Any book that makes you want to go out and read everything else an author has written is doing its job very well indeed.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

P.S. If you're in the US then Tor are publishing 'The Alloy of Law', you probably knew that already though ;o)

Win A Set Of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Hardback Editions

Not here, it feels like ages since I've run a competition here. Might have to see what I can do about that...
No, if you want to win all those lovely hardback editions then you need to click Here and follow the instructions. There aren't many instructions as it happens, looks like all you need is a Twitter account and there's no restrictions on who can enter either.
You know what to do next... :o)

‘Them or Us’ – David Moody (Gollancz)

When I reviewed ‘Hater’ and ‘Dog Blood’, I mused a little bit on what we really mean by ‘hate’ and how (more often than not) we’re far off the mark when we say that we hate something. We are though, aren’t we? ‘Hate’ is such a strong word with only one outcome to it; we’re not talking half hearted ill feeling here, if you hate someone then you want them dead and out of your life forever. There are a number of people that I really dislike (some of them might even know who they are...) but I don’t want any of them dead!

David Moody is a man who really knows what it’s like to really hate. He should do, Moody has already written two books detailing the breakdown of society when one half of the populace suddenly realises that it must kill the other half if it is to survive. Both ‘Hater’ and ‘Dog Blood’ have stayed in my head ever since and not just because of that initial premise. Where both books shone for me is that Moody is not afraid to follow that path to its inevitable conclusion, no matter how dark and bloody the path is. ‘Disturbing’ isn’t a strong enough word for the resulting journey but you can’t help but make that trip. After all, who among us wouldn’t want to see the results when an author pulls the curtains right back on his creation and lets his readers see it in all its bloody glory?
It was this raw honesty that gripped me for the first two books and made sure that I picked up ‘Them or Us’ pretty damn quickly when it came through the door a couple of days ago. I had to see how it all ended and, although it wasn’t the ending that I saw coming, Moody didn’t disappoint.

The war between the Haters and the Unchanged is almost at an end but will there be anything left for the eventual winners? After the events of ‘Dog Blood’, much of the United Kingdom is a smoking radioactive ruin and the few remaining safe areas are hotly contested by surviving Haters. The coastal town of Lowestoft is one such area and Danny McCoyne has not only found himself there but has made himself indispensable as a man who can ‘hold the hate’ and therefore hunt out surviving Unchanged.
As the Unchanged grow less in number though, pressure increases on Lowestoft’s ruthless leader (Hinchcliffe) to consolidate his position by other means and Danny finds himself in a number of situations that he’d rather not be in, including a pivotal confrontation that could have immense repercussions for everyone still alive. Danny has a decision to make, it’s either ‘Them or Us’ and there’s no third way...

If you’ve dropped at least one nuclear bomb on your main character (ok, not ‘on’, it’s more like ‘very near to’ but you know what I mean) after he’s clawed his way out of a rapidly disintegrating city, where can you go with him next? The answer is ‘nowhere really’, not when the rest of the country is in the same kind of situation and the war on the Unchanged is becoming a fight to survive instead. The only direction you can go is down and that’s where Moody takes us.

This approach is, for me, the main reason why ‘Them or Us’ feels a little more lacklustre than the previous two instalments. Everything that’s flammable has been blown up. All the people who need to die are pretty much dead. All that’s left is to either carry on fighting whatever is in front of you, and rail against the inevitable, or quietly accept your fate and wait for the end. Danny McCoyne’s story essentially ended in ‘Dog Blood’, ‘Them or Us’ is an exercise in tying up loose ends that doesn’t sit particularly comfortably with the other two books in the trilogy. I wouldn’t say that this is Moody’s fault particularly; if anything it’s a case of following the natural flow of the plot just that little bit too far.

That’s not to say that ‘Them or Us’ didn’t need to be written though, Danny is a character that I wanted to keep on following and ‘Them or Us’ rounds his story off in a manner that is inevitable yet strangely fitting at the same time. Danny is a man who never wanted to be in the position he has found himself in and will do anything to distance himself from the conflict. His ability to ‘hold the hate’ makes for an interesting perspective on the events of the book (and the trilogy as a whole) as it sits him right in the middle of the two opposing factions whilst giving him enough internal conflict to keep him interesting enough to make you wonder what he’ll do next. Being able to ‘hold the hate’ is exactly what makes Danny so important to everybody though and this throws him right into the middle of the plot when he would rather be on the outskirts. I couldn’t help but feel for him and that’s one of the things that kept me reading, Danny McCoyne is a man who always tries to do the right thing.

Moody also gives his readers an interesting look at how life ‘post conflict’ is panning out. The short description would be ‘not very well at all’ but Moody’s characters all live in such a way to make for a compelling post apocalyptic society, with the strongest Haters living off a starving underclass that is too tired to fight anymore. Brief flurries of violence (both against the few surviving Unchanged and each other) propel the plot forwards at a decent rate, and at just the right times, as well as conveying Moody’s message in a stark and unforgettable manner. The war was ultimately pointless as the winners don’t have the mindset to do anything with what’s left other than wait for the inevitable end. It’s a bleak message but one that’s very much in keeping with the overall tone of the series in general.

The final chapters of ‘Them or Us’ hearken back to the more frantic feel of the previous books and not only signed things off in the style I’d come to expect from Moody but also served to emphasise the utter futility of this war. There is nothing left to fight for but no-one realises it as they can’t see past the hate and fear.

‘Them or Us’ is a gradual tailing off of the ‘Hater’ trilogy rather than an explosive finale. While this kills the pacing and flow to a degree, it also serves as the ideal platform for what Moody has been trying to say with this series. In that sense, it provides a fitting end to the trilogy and keeps up the tradition of these books staying in my head a long time after I’ve finished them. If you’ve read the last two books then I reckon you’ll get a lot out of ‘Them or Us’. If you haven’t read the trilogy, and you’ve got the stomach for it, go and pick up ‘Hater’.

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

‘Zombo: Can I eat you please?’ – Al Ewing and Henry Flint (Rebellion)

It was a couple of weeks ago now that I had a little bit of a moan about zombie fiction and that’s not something that you see very often around these parts is it? I mean, you’re looking at the guy who loves nothing more than to pick up a book full of the shambling (and rotting) dead; I can’t get enough of it. The thing is though... Well, you’re essentially reading the same story over and over again aren’t you? The dead rise, people get eaten and any survivors try to make a life for themselves amongst the ruins (whilst either shooting a loved one, who has been bitten, or having the crazy member of their team shows the zombies where they are...) How the author treats their characters is where the differences lie but, at the end of the day, it’s the same plot propping each book up.

If you’re after something a little different though (that still has zombies) then there are books out there will take care of business for you. A couple of weeks ago it was ‘Double Dead’, this time round it’s Al Ewing’s ‘Zombo’. As it happens, Ewing does have previous form for tweaking bits of the zombie sub-genre and turning it into something fresh. His ‘I, Zombie’ remains a book quite unlike any zombie book I’ve ever read as well as being one of the few zombie books that has made me feel physically sick. Great stuff :o)
So when I was given the chance to read ‘Zombo’ I pretty much jumped at the chance. After all, I’d never read a book with a zombie main character that was desperate to enter ‘X-Factor’, until now...

When Flight 303 crashes on the lethal death world known as Chronos things really don’t look good for the surviving passengers, not good at all. There are death worlds out there that are far more dangerous than Chronos but there is plenty here to make life for our stranded survivors pretty damn grim... and very short.
Luckily for the passengers though, Flight 303 was also carrying a top secret government experiment designed specially to combat environs such as Chronos. Enter Zombo! Part zombie, part human ghoul; he might end up eating you but you can rest assured that he will ask nicely first before taking a bite...

I don’t think I’ve ever read a zombie book that manages to be irreverent and frightening all at the same time. ‘Zombo’ manages to combine both approaches with some considerable aplomb and, as a result, was a book that I couldn’t help but chuckle at (even while I was reading certain pages with my eyes half open).

Having read Al Ewing’s work previously, I thought I had some idea of what to expect from ‘Zombo’ but, as is the norm, Ewing still managed to pull the rug out from underneath me by ramping things up to another level entirely. A bodyguard duo who are really one person, inbred hillbillies who play ‘Twister’ whilst snacking on our rapidly depleting group of survivors, a zombie entering X-Factor... Yep, I still can’t quite get my head round that last one and that’s the beauty of Ewing’s writing. Ewing may go a little too far over the top, every now and then, but you can always rely on him to come up with something that will stick in your head for days afterwards.

Al Ewing really doesn’t like Russell Brand and I could take a pretty good stab at guessing his feelings on Robbie Williams as well...  As amusing as what happened to them was, these were the moments that things went a little too far over the top and I felt that I wasn’t reading a story, more like an opportunity for Ewing to take a little revenge on people he doesn’t like. I don’t blame Ewing for this but couldn’t help but wish he’d done it elsewhere and just let the story run on its own. It’s a great story just on it’s own. I’ve mentioned the irreverence already but there is also plenty here to scare as well; whether it’s a jungle planet picking off people one by one (the bit where one woman just disappeared, leaving a pair of shoes behind, was particularly effective) or fleeing zombies through the bowels of a space station. Everything runs at a madcap pace and Henry Flint’s vivid artwork does its bit to keep your eyes on the page. Here’s an artist with a surplus of red ink and he’s not afraid to use it...

‘Zombo’ does suffer when Ewing decides to take out minor celebrities (for no reason that actually advances the plot) but on the whole is a lot of fun and another reminder that there’s a lot more that can be done with zombie fiction than you would think. I’m hoping for more to come from Zombo but if Ewing wants to write more zombie fiction then I’d pick it up whether Zombo makes an appearance or not.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

Monday Morning Free Reading!

Before we get started on all that though, I posted on Saturday asking whether you thought I should read Joe Abercrombie's 'The Heroes' or Mark Charan Newton's 'The Book of Transformations' (as my 'book that I'd really like to read before the end of the year'). It was a close run thing, well.. at least to start off with. Things were fairly evenly matched until last night when a few last minute votes made it an emphatic win for...

So there you go :o) If I can get both books read then I will but, for now, it's 'The Heroes' that I'll be concentrating on in the meantime (as well as a whole load of other books that I want to read between now and the end of the year).

Back to the point of this post though, free reading :o) We all love a nice bit of free reading don't we? Especially on a cold Monday morning... Richard Ford's 'Kultus' has been out for about a month now and is a book that I'm planning to read over the next week or two. Check out the blurb...

A steam-powered burlesque of brutal demonic action! Thaddeus Blaklok mercenary, demonist, bastard and thug-for-hire is pressed into retrieving a mysterious key for his clandestine benefactors. Little does he know that other parties seek to secure this artefact for their own nefarious ends and soon he is pursued by brutal cultists, bloodthirsty gangsters, deadly mercenaries and hell-spawned monsters, all bent on stopping him by any means necessary. In a lightning-paced quest that takes him across the length and breadth of the steam-fuelled city of Manufactory, Blaklok must use his wits and his own demonic powers to keep the key from those who would use it for ill, and open the gates to Hell itself.

Sounds good doesn't it? Like I said, look out for a review probably next week. In the meantime though, have a click Here and you'll find yourself halfway towards downloading a free pdf where we get to meet Thaddeus Blaklok in comic book form! This short story takes place before the events of 'Kultus' so it's half 'setting the scene' and half watching Thaddeus tear bits off a very nasty man. I enjoyed the read and I reckon you will too.

Which Cover Is The Best? (Slightly Hungover Edition)

It was a great night though... :o)

I'm going to keep things short and fairly sweet this afternoon; not only because there's a nagging pain behind my eyeball (Sambuca shot) but also because the following author needs no introduction whatsoever. I'll be posting my review for 'The Alloy of Law' later this week (Adam has posted his already) but I thought it would be interesting to look at the US and UK covers to see which one people are into the most. I think it should be a foregone conclusion but I've been wrong before. Check em' out...

The US Cover...

The UK Cover...

So, which one would you want on your bookshelf? It would have to be the US cover for me :o)

What to read next?

“I can’t wait to read the next book in the series...” “Author X is superb, I’ll definitely be picking up whatever they write next...”

And then the end of the year comes round, I look at the reading pile and think ‘damn... I wish I hadn’t made all those bold promises...’ :o) I started the year off with the best of intentions and a whole load of new releases to look forward to. You know the books I’m talking about, you’ve either read them already or you have copies sat in your reading pile as well. But life took over, it always does and I wouldn’t have it any other way. With a toddler in the house there just hasn’t been the time to well and truly get stuck into ‘The Wise Man’s Fear’ or ‘A Dance With Dragons’. It’s cool, they’ll be waiting if I have a couple of quiet hours over Christmas and the New Year :o) What books do you want to polish off before the year ends?

I wanted to have one last shot at getting at least one of the ‘Talked About 2011 Releases’ read though; and before the end of the year as well. I haven’t left myself time to read one of the ‘chunky’ books but there are a couple that I reckon I could feasibly polish off in the next few weeks.

I’m thinking of either reading...

‘The Heroes’ – Joe Abercrombie

Everyone else loved it, I just never got round to picking it up. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything else Joe has written though and this book has been glaring at me reproachfully for several months now...

‘The Book of Transformations’ – Mark Charan Newton

Same deal as ‘The Heroes’ albeit it with a little extra added weirdness to the proceedings. Newton hasn’t written a bad book yet and I’ve got high hopes for this one.

I might even be able to finish off both books but I’m not going to get too far ahead of myself just yet. One will do for now but which one first? That’s where you come in :o)
Leave a comment, next to this post, saying which one you think I should read first. Whichever book has the most votes on Monday morning will be the book that I go for. Let the challenge begin!

Competition: Get killed in the second story arc of 'The Strain'.

You don't have an awful lot of time to enter this one (competition closes tomorrow night) but I thought I'd post it anyway as it does look pretty cool :o)

From the Press Release...

The plague is coming and we want to know how you will survive.

Win a chance to get killed in the 2nd Story Arc of The Strain!

We're making preparations for the coming infestation, storing food, comics and weapons. The Strain #1 is on its way, infecting comic shops on Dec. 14th. And here's a little contest to get you excited for the comics from Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan, David Lapham and Mike Huddleston.


We want to hear how you will survive the vampire plague. In the comments below give us at least a 200 word description of how you plan to survive the coming epidemic. What supplies will you need? Where would you go to hide? Who would be with you? What weapons would you need? Give us all the details, we need help figuring out how we'd survive.

Official Rules:


1. Post a comment of at least 200 words on the Dark Horse Blog (http://www.darkhorse.com/Blog/741/strain-survive-plague-contest) by 11:59p.m. PT on Sunday Dec. 4th, 2011 and describe how you plan to survive the coming plague.
2. Come back next week as we post the top 5 Survival Tales, once per day through Dec. 9th.
3. Starting Dec. 9th. come back to the blog and Vote for the best Survival Plan Through Dec. 13th.

***We'll post the winner on Dec. 14th, the release date of The Strain #1


The Winner of this contest will have their likeness drawn into one of The Strain arc two comics to be killed by a Vampire. We will finalize details with the winner individually.

I don't think I'll have time to spare to enter this competition (what with cleaning the house, getting the Christmas decorations up and looking for a new job; more on that last bit another time) but... two hundred words for the possibility of getting killed off in 'The Strain'? Sounds like a fair trade to me :o)

‘Blood of Aenarion’ – William King (Black Library)

Elves. If there’s a ‘fantasy world’ then you can pretty much bet your life savings that the Elves settled there first (probably while fleeing an unnamed evil from beyond the sea) and built a long lived civilisation and empire due to their near immortality and just being generally better than those scruffy haired humans living in those caves over there.
For everyone that thinks Elves are a little too smug and need to be taken down a peg or two... don’t worry about it, Elves are more than capable of doing that all to themselves. If they’re not growing too complacent (not noticing that those humans have come out of their caves now and are looking pretty handy with a sword) then they’re growing more decadent with age and letting their empire go to wrack and ruin. That’s where the Elves of the Warhammer world come in, a previously mighty empire divided with one half of the population trying to stave off the murderous attentions of the other half. Just the kind of dynamic that sits very well in the war torn battlefields of the Old World.

William King is best known for kicking off the long running ‘Gotrek and Felix’ series (now in the capable hands of Nathan Long) and has also catered for the Warhammer 40K side of things with his ‘Space Wolf’ series. The Black Library hasn’t seen an awful lot of him for the last few years but now he’s back to give readers his take on two of the mightiest Elf heroes of all. Regular Warhammer gamers might want to correct me on that last sentence as there’s a lot of this world that I’m still finding my way around. One thing that’s clear even to me though is that William King is building Teclis and Tyrion up to be something pretty special and he’s written a book that backs this up.

The twins Teclis and Tyrion have a bright destiny in front of them. Tyrion is an unparalleled swordsman with an eye for the ebb and flow of warfare unlike any other. Teclis has a natural gift for magic that will mark him out as potentially the most powerful sorcerer of the age. This is all a long way in the future though as there are more pressing concerns that could stop the twins from even reaching adulthood...
Tyrion and Teclis can claim direct descent from the line of Aenarion, first and greatest of all the Elven Kings, but this comes with the risk of being struck by a deadly curse that could demand their immediate execution.  The twins must travel to the court of the Phoenix King, and be tested, but even this comes with its own dangers. The city of Lothern is full of Elven intrigue all waiting to trip up two naive Elves from the wild lands of Chrace; any such trips could easily prove fatal. If that wasn’t enough, not only does the Witch King himself have his eye on the twins but a daemon from the dawn of history itself has broken free from its prison and has sworn revenge on the line of Aenarion. Even if Tyrion and Teclis can escape all this attention, the island of Ulthuan itself could fall into a war it can ill afford...

It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything by William King (in case you were wondering, it was ‘Trollslayer’ and I had a lot of fun with it thanks) so I only really had vague recollections and a love of any cover drawn by Raymond Swanland to get me going with ‘Blood of Aenarion’. That proved to be more than enough though; once I was in that was pretty much it, I devoured ‘Blood of Aenarion’ but (if we’re going to stick with the whole eating metaphor) some of it did make for some stodgy reading. Having said that though, I’m in a position now where I’m already looking forward to next Christmas and the release of the next book in the trilogy, ‘Sword of Caledor’.

From practically the very first page, William King throws the reader straight into the last days of Aenarion’s rule; a time of swords, blood and the very real possibility that the world will end in fire. Once you’ve managed to surface from the frantic pace of battle (and you really are dropped in the middle of it) what you get is a great way to start any book. The pace flows like quicksilver and you’ve got to run to catch up. Bang! Before you know it you’ve been drawn into what looks to be one massive adrenaline rush of a book. The enemies are truly monstrous but the heroes are big enough to make a stand that will echo down the ages. Even if you don’t know your Warhammer history you’ll be left in no doubt that you’re witnessing something momentous.

And then it all comes crashing to a juddering halt.

Don’t get me wrong, any book has to introduce its main characters and let the reader know what they’re all about. It’s just that, after such a rip roaring start to the book, to have things slow down that quickly makes the flow of the entire book choppy to say the least. And how many times do we really need to know that Tyrion and Teclis are something special? Really?  I don’t know about you but I only need telling the once, maybe twice if something huge happens. By telling us so often, King doesn’t leave himself much room (if any) to actually show us who these characters are right at the start. To be fair, this is addressed in the later stages and I not only got right into the heads of Tyrion and Teclis but I also got a real feel for their relationship and what they meant to each other. I just couldn’t help but feel that this had all been approached the wrong way round. Tell us who the characters are first, then show us what makes them so special.

Luckily for us though, all the other aspects of ‘Blood of Aenarion’ are bang on the money. Once the twins reach the city of Lothern then the game is well and truly on and King delivered as far as I was concerned.
Where King really got it right for me was his creation of a scenario where Tyrion and Teclis are possibly in danger whichever way they turn. You’ve got a daemon tearing up the countryside (escalating the tension of the book with each new conquest) and the brooding menace of the Witch King promising dark events to come in the future. If this wasn’t enough, the city that Tyrion and Teclis should be safe in is full of intrigue and ready to take advantage. This makes for some deliciously uncertain passages where a mere double-cross is considered passé; we’re talking real intrigue here.

King signs things off with a battle sequence that’s in keeping with how he kicked the novel off. I had an idea how things had to turn out but all credit to King that I couldn’t take my eyes off the page in the meantime, especially for the explosive finale.

‘Blood of Aenarion’ isn’t without its issues but rises above these, as the plot progresses, to become a gripping read that has you on your guard as well as the main characters. I’ve got high hopes for this series and I’ve got every faith that William King will deliver.

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

Author Interview! Sarah Cawkwell

I had a lot of fun reading 'The Gildar Rift' (have a look at my review over Here) and, once I'd finished, found that I had a few questions that I would have loved to run past Sarah given half a chance. Well, not only did I get that chance but a whole load of answers came flying back; thanks Sarah!

Check it out...

In what’s becoming a question that I ask Black Library authors... Do you have your own army of Space Marines and (if so) did you use them to enact key scenes when writing ‘The Gildar Rift’?


I’m in the process of building my first full army. At the current rate, I might actually have a game-ready force by around 2017. My entire army presently consists of a Terminator Librarian and two-and-a-half Devastators. But you know. They could probably fight off a couple of angry squirrels.

I happily admit to using a couple of figures to block out certain scenes. More fun though was the blocking of the space battles. ‘This stapler is the strike cruiser… and this hole punch is the Wolf of Fenris, these pencils are…’ Things were swept off the desk and the battle of office stationery was waged.

I do something similar with my office stationery, the big difference though is that I'm not writing a book... On your blog you mention that you get to ‘write about super-human, 7ft tall, heavily armoured killing machines with BIG guns, bigger swords and a collective mental age of about 15’. How do you go about making an emotionally stunted post-human character someone that a reader wants to spend time with (when he’s not blowing stuff up)?

I enjoy creating characters that people feel something about. Whether that ‘something’ is sympathy, dislike, affection or whatever. Contrary to other people's beliefs, I don’t think that Space Marines are flat and emotionless. They fascinate me. Everything about them is exaggerated – and that includes the way they interact, particularly with each other. They're only flat and emotionless if you write them that way. Of course, there's always a need for 'red shirts'.

If you aren’t emotionally invested in your own characters whilst writing about them, you can’t expect readers to care about what happens to them. If I have a character I don’t enjoy writing about, I tend to assess their behaviour and try to make them start behaving the way I would want to read about them behaving.

There must be countless Chapters of Marines fighting their way across the Imperium, what led you to focus on the Silver Skulls? Can you see yourself writing more about this Chapter in the future?

I’d developed some stuff about the Silver Skulls alongside some friends on the old Bolthole forums and over time have grown very fond of them. My fellow forumites were very supportive of my pursuing getting some of our stuff into canon. Of course, some of the things that were originally developed were thrown out for being too radical and stringently anti-codex, but many other things have remained. Above anything else, I like the tribal, superstitious nature of the Silver Skulls.


I also like that they are going through a vital period of change in their history, a change that they may have left too late.

I’d definitely like to write more about them. There are too many characters in my head I want to give screen time to.

Huron Blackheart is a pretty major character in the Warhammer 40K universe. What was it like to have him stride around in your novel? Were there any constraints that you felt in writing about a character that may yet have a part to play in future books written by other authors?

It was wonderful. He took on a life of his own. Whilst I was writing The Gildar Rift, Aaron Dembski-Bowden was also completing Blood Reaver, so we spoke a bit about how our different realisations of the same character could marry up properly.

It was definitely a great honour to get hold of a character like Huron. There’s just something so immensely satisfying about being able to write for a character who is as mad as a box of frogs, but who still possesses the remnants of one of the most brilliant strategic minds ever.

‘The Gildar Rift’ ends with one particular story left unfinished (and it just had to be about the guy I was rooting for the most...), are you planning on tying up any loose ends in a future book?

I most definitely hope so. The character I’m guessing you are talking about is one who actually survived the original draft cull. He was scheduled to die somewhere around page 300, but I’d gotten too attached to him (see previous comment about investment in characters). So his over-arcing story changed completely during the process of storytelling.

I’m shamelessly stealing this question from my interview with Chris Wraight... You’re writing in a universe that isn’t just shared between writers but also between thousands (at least) of wargamers. How has this second group of people taken to your work so far? How does it feel to be the one depicting cities and even entire planets that have been fought over for years now?

Feedback so far has been brilliant. It’s an unnerving experience watching your first novel go out into the wild, particularly amongst an audience with as much enthusiasm and eagerness as the Warhammer fandom. I’ve been to several signing events now and without fail, people have been highly encouraging, having read one of the several Silver Skulls stories that have appeared throughout the ‘life’ of Hammer & Bolter. Now that the book has gone on more general release, with a full release very shortly, I’ve started getting a trickle of feedback. And it’s all been encouraging stuff.

I love this universe. I have researched and read until my eyeballs bleed and I am glad to be seen to be doing it some justice. If I can continue produce stories people enjoy reading… then that’s good enough for me.

If you could be any other Black Library writer, which one would you be and why?

Aaron Dembski-Bowden. Nobody can rock the beanie like that man.

Actually, every other one of the BL authors has 'something' going for them that I envy in one way or the other. But being fundamentally pragmatic, I'll just have to carry on learning from them - and believe you me, these folks are very generous with their time and advice.

Why should someone who has never picked up a Black Library book give them a go?

It’s too easy to dismiss Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy books as ‘just more tie-in fiction’. But the universes are both so stunningly unique. There is so little that’s meh… generic… about the fantasy/40K verses. For the most part, there is a great mix of character-led stories and high energy action set pieces. And they’re just plain fun to read.

The ‘Horus Heresy’ books are a pretty big deal for Black Library at the moment, have you got your eye on writing one in the future?

That’s the dream of any author who gets taken into the Black Library fold, I’m sure. It would be an absolutely brilliant opportunity should it arise and I’d leap at it. To be able to contribute to such a rich series would be amazing.

And finally, you have another Black Library book coming out next year, who is Valkia the Bloody?

This lovely lady is the consort of Khorne and one of the most notorious Warriors of Chaos of the Old World. She’s a former barbarian queen who has something of a penchant for doing things her own way and dishing out fast punishments to any who dare challenge her. After a bit of a heated discussion with a daemon prince of Slaanesh who suggests that she might be more suited to being one of his slave girls, she dedicates herself to Khorne and…

And lots of things happen… mostly involving blood, decapitation, pitched battles and all the other things you'd expect of a Champion of Khorne.

Thanks Sarah!
 
You can find out more about Sarah, and what she's up to, at her blog over Here.

‘Doctor Who: Touched by an Angel’ – Jonathan Morris (BBC Books)

Welcome to the last day of November (that was quick, where did the month go?) and a review for a book that I actually read way back in September, I think. That’s the way my reading seems to gone over the last few months; books were read but then seemed to spend a lot more time on the ‘I really need to review this’ pile than they would do normally. I don’t know why this is, actually... yes I do.
I try to review everything that I finish reading but doing this really depends on the reaction I get from reading a book. A strong reaction (positive or otherwise) will invariably lead to a book being reviewed here shortly after I finish reading; that’s pretty much why you’ve probably seen a number of positive reviews in quick succession here. If it’s a book that doesn’t really leave me feeling anything though... Well, if a book doesn’t fully engage with me then I’ll often find myself not really wanting to engage with it in return (especially just recently). This is all the more disappointing when it’s a ‘Doctor Who’ book that I’m reading but you can’t win em’ all I guess. I promised a review though so...

Eight years after his wife’s death, Mark Whitaker is still grieving and has no idea how he will get his life back on track. That is, until the day he receives a battered envelope containing a set of instructions and one simple message... ‘You can save her’.
Mark now has a second chance at happiness and will do whatever it takes to save his wife Rebecca. The Doctor however knows that far more is at stake than the life of one woman. The Weeping Angels have returned and they will stop at nothing less than using history itself as a weapon in order to achieve their aims...

I’ve mentioned it before but Doctor Who novels are great comfort reads for me and with the best ones it’s like reading an actual episode of the show straight off the page. Because of this I always look forward to the new releases and will always pick them up for a read. After ‘Touched by an Angel’ though, maybe this won’t always be the case. For the first time in a long time I can see myself re-reading a few old favourites instead of picking up the latest book.

‘Touched by an Angel’ is the story of a man wracked by grief who is given the opportunity to bend time itself in order to be reunited with his one true love. As far as this goes, the book works very well with a story told in flashbacks of how Mark and Rebecca came to be together. You get a really strong feeling of how much Rebecca means to Mark and the grief he feels at her passing and, with this more than sold foundation, it’s not too much of a leap at all to see how Mark would do whatever he could to bring her back. The ending is a little bit predictable but the reasoning behind it is made very clear so you can understand why it has to turn out the way it does (even if, like me, you’re secretly hoping for something else entirely).

So what’s the big issue then? A bittersweet tale of time travelling romance is just the kind of thing that the current series of Doctor Who seems to thrive on so what could possibly go wrong here? Unfortunately, Morris’ treatment of the Doctor himself pretty much killed things off for me when it really should have got things going...

What I love about the Doctor (whether he’s on the screen or in a book) is the sense you get that he is doing everything on the fly. He may be the most intelligent being you’re likely to come across but villainous aliens will give him a run for his money and he’ll only save the day at the very last minute. As a result, you may know when to expect the ‘big reveal’ but there’s always a tense time guaranteed before you get there.

Not here though, not in ‘Touched by an Angel’. The Doctor is in control of things just a little too much and things fall into place just a little too neatly for there to be any real tension at all. If there’s no tension then there’s no fun, not for me anyway, not when everything is explained away so neatly and so quickly. It got to the point where every eventuality was covered so well that I found myself thinking that the book only needed maybe ten pages maximum to tell its story, not the two hundred and thirty seven pages that we get. Explaining everything away via ‘Bill and Ted’s Theory of Time Travel’ was funny in ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure’ but it’s just annoying here.

This approach also had the knock on effect of rendering perhaps the scariest new monsters in Doctor Who ineffective and pretty much pathetic. The Doctor takes care of the Weeping Angels without breaking a sweat and I had to ask myself why I’d bothered reading if things were going to be taken care of that easily. The answer was a very quick ‘it’s Doctor Who’ (have you guessed I’m a bit of a fan?) but that answer rang a bit hollow this time round.

‘Touched by an Angel’ is a tale that delivers on one front but fails to deliver on what it really needed to in order to make it a good ‘Doctor Who’ novel. Like I said, a real shame...

Six out of Ten

'Rise of the Governor' Audio Book- Free Audio Clip to Download

I've already reviewed 'Rise of the Governor' (over Here if you're interested) so won't be reviewing the audio book that I was also sent (there's no point in reviewing the same thing all over again is there?) You can bet I'll be listening to it though (gotta stave off the agony of the commute somehow) and now you can as well. Not the whole book, just a 'teaser' audio clip that MacMillan have posted over Here. Check it out :o)

‘Neonomicon’ – Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows (Avatar Press)

I’m still working my way through the H.P. Lovecraft collection, slowly but surely, but seem to have come to a bit of a halt right now. Not sure why exactly... At a guess I’d say it’s partly down to a baby who is completely indifferent to the aims of the Elder Gods and whose nappies bring new meaning to the word ‘eldritch’ (possibly ‘squamous’ as well)... I hate to admit it but it’s also down to me reading the book on my own, one night, and being scared rigid when my wife whispered my name from the next room. What? I was reading a reading a really scary story.

I need to get back into the Lovecraft collection (all the more so because it’s quite frankly brilliant in its weirdness) but reading it in the first place has made me all the more aware of the influence that Lovecraft has had on a number of present day writers. It’s definitely there if you look hard enough and it all makes for gripping tales of the darker side of a universe that we only think we know. I want more of this and when Alan Moore’s ‘Neonomicon’ came through the door, the other day, I had a chance to explore the mythos a little bit further; perhaps even use the book as a way of getting back into the original source material that had stumped me first time round.

‘Neonomicon’ has certainly got me interested in picking up the Lovecraft book again; it’s also the most unsettling book I’ve read in a long time...

Just what happened to top FBI agent Aldo Sax while he was investigating a wave of serial killings (and a possible connection to a certain drug)? All anyone knows is that Sax went on to kill a couple of people himself before being locked up in a maximum security facility? He’ll happily talk but it’s in a language that no-one can understand. The killings have begun again and it’s now the job of two younger agents to not only get to the bottom of Sax’ condition but pick up his case from where it went cold. Who is Johnny Carcosa and just what is he peddling? What lurks beneath the waters of Innsmouth and will it ever let Agent Merrill Brears go? What will be left of her if it does...? Cthulhu is stirring from his dreams and R’lyeh is in the last place you would ever expect to look...

After reading ‘Neonomicon’ I can’t believe that there was ever a time when I seriously thought that comics were just about superheroes doing what superheroes do (for the record there was such a time, long ago now). ‘Neonomicon’ is about as far from all that as it’s possible to get. This tale of terror pulls no punches and spares no sensibilities; it’s all the better for this approach and I’d say that ‘Neonomicon’ borders on essential reading for fans of Lovecraft and the Cthulhu mythos...

My edition (a lovely looking hardback collection) collects ‘The Courtyard’ as well as ‘Neonomicon’ and we get to see just how the mystery unfolds without any inconvenient breaks in between. Maybe we find out a little too much too soon, we’re certainly in on the secret a long time before Lamper and Brears get there and maybe that spoils things a bit. One of the dangers of bringing two separate stories (albeit with a connection between them) into one collection I guess; ‘The Courtyard’ would have had a lot more impact to it if I’d read it on it’s own. The ending to ‘Neonomicon’ more than made up for this though; I don’t want to give too much away but you really feel Sax’ horror as things suddenly become very clear.

Both ‘The Courtyard’ and ‘Neonomicon’ are jammed full of references not only to Lovecraft but also other ‘weird’ writers of the time. You get the feeling that Moore is a bit of a fan and is revelling in the chance to namedrop a little with other likeminded readers. This ‘overflow’ of references was starting to verge on the annoying until I realised that this approach had a greater significance to the plot than was at first apparent. What Moore is actually doing is sowing seeds, very early on, for a mystery that incorporates police procedural themes with a case that no human law enforcement agency could ever be prepared for. As the story unfolds you get a real sense of the confusion, and underlying terror, experienced by the agents as they realise that they are way in over their heads.

As I said before, Moore doesn’t pull any punches when the endgame kicks in and Merrill learns to her cost what she has become involved in. ‘Graphic’ doesn’t begin to cover what’s on these pages but I would say fair play to Moore for letting the story take the path it was best suited for, deeply unsettling as it is. I originally thought that Jacen Burrows’ art would be too ‘clean’ and cartoonish for what is a very dark tale. I was surprised though at how well the art dovetailed with Moore’s plot. Burrows’ style is still clean and straightforward but it also shows the darker side of human nature (just cast your eye over the nightclub crowd...) as well as the full weirdness of Cthulhu and his cohorts.

The ending is not only a real punch to the gut but also somehow manages to tell an extra four or five pages of story that you will only see in your minds eye. I can’t stop thinking about that ending and what it means...
It may not be by Lovecraft himself but ‘Neonomicon’ can sit proudly amongst the rest of the mythos that sprang from Lovecraft’s writing. It’s a deeply unnerving read that grips you while it puts the fear of the Elder Gods up you...

Nine out of Ten

‘Zombies: The Ultimate Guide’ (SFX Special Edition)

I’m not one for picking up magazines as a rule. While there are loads of lovely looking genre magazines out there, the ever growing book pile (in the corner of the study) gives me little twinges of guilt every time I think about reading anything else. I really ought to finish what I’ve got before I pick anything else up, surely? You would think that but, every now and then, a magazine appears that has my name written all over it. Well not literally, that would make for a very boring magazine, but you know what I mean... ;o)

I don’t pick up as many copies of SFX magazine as I used to (see the whole book pile thing a few lines up) but I do like to hang around on their forum, best forum on the net as far as I’m concerned, and this is where I heard about their September special and how it was full of everything zombie related. News like that is pretty much like waving a red rag at a bull as far as I’m concerned! It took me a while to bag myself a copy of ‘Zombies: The Ultimate Guide’ but, once I got it, there was plenty of zombie goodness in there waiting to read.

If you call something the ‘Ultimate Guide’ then you’re making a real statement of intent that you’ve got no choice but to back up. To be fair, SFX have a good stab at it with a fairly comprehensive slice of all things zombie related. There’s a little something here for everyone although I personally would have liked to see more about zombies in comics (other than the nod to ‘The Walking Dead’ that you get in the article about the TV show). This is an area that I think there’s a lot of scope for, having read ‘Essential Tales of the Zombie’, ‘Zombie’ and ‘The Mammoth Book of Zombie Comics’ amongst others. I wouldn’t have minded seeing a little more about just how many zombie novels there are out there, waiting to be read, as well. I know I go on about it but there are loads of great zombie novels and I think SFX missed a trick not highlighting some of these (you do get a couple of author interviews though and David Moody’s short story ‘Muriel’ though so I guess that balances things out).

I guess there’s only so much room in a magazine to fit everything in and some stuff will inevitably be missed out. The articles that you do get are really easy to get stuck into and are backed up with the kind of photos that remind you just why you got into zombie films in the first place (heavy on the gore, just how I like it). I really enjoyed the ‘Top 66 Zombie Films of all time’, there were a few films there that I really need to get my hands on now; I wasn’t surprised to see that ‘Hard Rock Zombies’ didn’t make the final cut though... :o)
An ultimate guide to zombies wouldn’t be ‘ultimate’ at all without at least a mention of George Romero and this ultimate guide duly obliges with some reader questions. If you’ve ever wondered whether George Romero has watched zombie porn then this is the magazine that will answer your question. The answer is.... nope, I’m not going to say :o)
I managed to while away a happy few hours reading this magazine and came away with a few more films that I want to track down as a result (‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’ for one). ‘Zombies: The Ultimate Guide’ may not have had everything that I was looking for but I couldn’t really complain about what was on offer.

Two for 2012? Well... Yes and No...

It’s that time of year again where the books coming through the door are more likely than not to be 2012 releases as well as books still to be published in 2011. Some of them I’ll be reading, others will be gently but firmly ignored for whatever reason is applicable. What most of them will all have in common though is that I’ll be featuring them in a series of posts that will give you guys a heads up on what you can expect to see in 2012 (if you weren’t already expecting them that is).
You get two books today, here goes...

‘Crucible of Gold’ – Naomi Novik (Release Date: March 2012, Del Rey)

For Laurence and Temeraire, put out to pasture in Australia, it seems their part in the war has come to an end just when they are needed most. Newly allied with the powerful African empire of the Tswana, the French have occupied Spain and brought revolution and bloodshed to Brazil, threatening Britain’s last desperate hope to defeat Napoleon.

So the British government dispatches Arthur Hammond from China to enlist Laurence and Temeraire to negotiate a peace with the angry Tswana, who have besieged the Portuguese royal family in Rio—and as bait, Hammond bears an offer to reinstate Laurence to his former rank and seniority as a captain in the Aerial Corps. Temeraire is delighted by this sudden reversal of fortune, but Laurence is by no means sanguine, knowing from experience that personal honor and duty to one’s country do not always run on parallel tracks.

A few years ago, a ‘Temeraire’ book would have been essential reading for me. I really enjoyed the first few books but all of a sudden found myself coming to a sudden halt with ‘Tongues of Serpents’ and I’ve pretty much lost all interest in where the series goes next. I couldn’t even finish ‘Tongues of Serpents’ an incredibly dry book that started to confirm my suspicions that the series was turning into an excuse to visit different countries and showcase the ‘native dragon of the day’. That’s not what the series promised me at the beginning and it’s not a plot shift that I’m interested in pursuing. If readers want to let me know what I’m missing then you might tempt me back but ‘Tongues of Serpents’ is a pretty big obstacle to overcome first.

‘Luthor Huss’ – Chris Wraight (Release Date: February 2012, Black Library)

Witch hunter Lukas Eichmann investigates a series of bizarre murders, which ultimately lead him into the haunted depths of the Empire at the head of an army of fanatical warriors. In the Drakwald Forest, Luthor Huss, warrior priest of Sigmar, battles to free the denizens of the forest from a plague of the walking dead. As their fates entwine, the two warriors confront a threat that will decide their future, while Huss must face a secret from his past if he is to survive and embrace his destiny as the Hammer of Sigmar.

This on the other hand, this I will be reading and probably a lot sooner than its February release date. If Aaron Dembski-Bowden is the rising star of Warhammer 40K fiction (and he is) then Chris Wraight fills the equivalent position for the Warhammer Fantasy line. He’s not too shabby with the 40K stuff either. Wraight’s short fiction hasn’t quite done it for me but I’ve read nearly all of his novels (plus one novella) and none of them have let me down. That’s more than enough reason for me to be eagerly anticipating picking this one up.

I’m guessing that more people will be anticipating ‘Crucible of Gold’, than ‘Luthor Huss’, but I’m throwing the question out there anyway... Do either of these two books catch your eye?

Cover Art! 'Axe Cop Volume 3'

Because there can never be too much 'Axe Cop' on this blog! Check it out,

Never has one cover said so much so succinctly :o) I need to get my hands on Volume 2 it would appear, that will be happening very soon if I have anything to do with it!

Here's some blurb from the press release,

Axe Cop returns with a collection of exciting and unpredictable stories written by the endlessly inventive six-year-old Malachai Nicolle and drawn by his Eisner Award–nominated thirty-year-old brother, Ethan Nicolle!

This stellar volume collects eight Axe Cop stories previously published online and features “Stolen Pizza, Stolen Lives,” a crossover special with fellow webcomics superstar Dr. McNinja! It also contains the Halloween story “The Night Monster” and a special Christmas episode, “The Power of Christmas”! Axe Cop joins his comrades Uni-baby, Bat Warthog Man, and Dinosaur Soldier to fight bad guys and restore justice for kids—and grownups—everywhere!

Volume 3 will be on sale on the 28th of March next year; must remember to book a day off for then... :o)

You can read previous 'Axe Cop' reviews Here and Here.

‘Theft of Swords’ – Michael J. Sullivan (Orbit)

If you spend time on various forums online then you will have heard of Michael J. Sullivan long before now, there’s no way that you couldn’t have done. Go on; think of a genre fiction forum. Thought of one? Yep, Michael J. Sullivan has well and truly been discussed there (and on whatever forum you were thinking of suggesting next). There is a very good reason for all this discussion; namely that Sullivan has become more than a little bit of a publishing sensation with his ‘Riyria Revelations’ series, selling absolute bucket loads of electronic copies in particular. I haven’t seen a single bad review, for any of the books, but it’s taken until now for me to pick one of them up (I don’t have an eBook reader and I inexplicably never got round to reading the hard copy of ‘The Crown Conspiracy’ that I was sent, that’s my life at the moment).

It took Orbit’s acquiring of the series (they’re releasing two book omnibus editions over a period of three months, starting last month with ‘Theft of Swords’) to get me on board and my recent trip to Malta pretty much sealed it as I was looking for something fairly chunky to get my teeth into. As it happened, I couldn’t get anywhere near ‘Theft of Swords’ as my wife swiped the book and wouldn’t let me read it until we got back home. I’ve finished it now though and you can expect to see more about Sullivan’s books on this blog. I couldn’t get enough of ‘Theft of Swords’ and there is no way that I won’t be following this series through to its conclusion.

If you need something doing that’s a little ‘shady’ then you could do a lot worse than hire Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater to get it done for you. Royce will steal whatever you want stolen (if it’s nailed down then he’ll steal the nails too) and Hadrian has his back with his almost supernatural skills with a sword. They’re good at what they do, almost too good in fact as their reputation leads them to be set up as the fall guys in a plot to murder the king. Finding the real killer is only the first step in a journey for Royce and Hadrian; journeys that will see them enter into uneasy alliances with the nobility (given the number of nobles that they’ve stolen from, I’m not surprised they’re uneasy...), and uncover hidden history long forgotten, as well as trying to balance fiscal gain with doing the right thing...

When I was little, a lot of the old ‘Flash Gordon’ pulp serials were re-run for Saturday morning television (‘Zorro’ as well come to think of it). We’re talking life and death cliff hangers featuring larger than life heroes and evil moustache twirling villains going at each other with swords. Absolutely brilliant stuff that I couldn’t get enough of when I was six or seven years old.
Fast forward to 2011 and I’m faced with a similar setup in Sullivan’s work; light hearted swashbuckling tales that suffer from a couple of issues but never fail to entertain.

‘Theft of Swords’ contains the first two books in the ‘Riyria Revelations’ series; ‘The Crown Conspiracy’ and ‘Avempartha’. I couldn’t help but find myself wishing that I’d read each book in its individual format. When two books are published in one edition, you’ve got a pretty good idea about who is going to make it through book one. It’s very clearly a publishing decision and not Sullivan’s fault at all, but a little bit of the tension bled out for me here. Balancing this out though is the work that Sullivan clearly does to set things up for the next four books. Both ‘The Crown Conspiracy’ and ‘Avempartha’ are relatively self contained books, and can be read on their own (thanks to clever use of the ‘a couple of years later’ approach), but it’s a measure of Sullivan’s commitment to this series that he’s setting up future events at the same time. Admittedly this is more the case in ‘Avempartha’ than the ‘Crown Conspiracy’ but all credit to Sullivan for essentially writing a book that’s two things all at once. I like that.

Once you really get into it, ‘Theft of Swords’ is chock full of the kind of swashbuckling action that makes for a thoroughly entertaining read. Whether our heroes are stuck in a crumbling tower or facing off against an unseen monster in dark woods, Sullivan makes us fully aware of what’s at stake and gives us a rousing journey through the conclusion. We’re talking about the kind of situations that had me seriously considering missing a few stops on the tube so I wouldn’t have to wait and see what happens. I would say though that Sullivan’s writing, in these instances and a couple of others, left me in two minds about how effective it was. Sullivan opts for plain speaking which does press home just how urgent things can be. At times though, I felt his plain speaking was a little too plain and didn’t really do a great job at fleshing out the background that these scenes took place against.

I guess what you could say here is that the story isn’t really about the background as such, not yet anyway (and like I said, hints are dropped that likely won’t come to fruition until later books in the series). ‘Theft of Swords’ is more about the characters and here, Sullivan gives us a cast that I couldn’t help but root for.
You might feel like you’ve met Hadrian and Royce in many other fantasy novels; I certainly felt that way but the jury is out for a little longer at least. Sullivan is up front about playing to familiar tropes but a couple of the surprises that he includes in the plot suggest that he’s not averse to turning things on their head when he feels that the plot would benefit. My feeling is that we can expect some of that from one of the two leading characters. Things are certainly left vague enough, at the end of ‘Avempartha’, to suggest that interesting possibilities lie ahead.

In the meantime, Sullivan plays ‘Theft of Swords’ as the fantasy equivalent of a ‘buddy movie’ and you get the impression that you are listening in on an old friendship established over some years. Hadrian and Royce know each others little foibles and aren’t afraid to mix these with a little levity here and there; the end result being another reason to get behind these two men as they seek to extricate themselves from the machinations of those in power.

‘Theft of Swords’ is a book of dark mysteries waiting to be solved by a lock pick and a strong sword arm. That’s the promise and Sullivan delivers on that, I can’t wait to read more.

Nine and a Quarter out of Ten

‘The Gildar Rift’ – Sarah Cawkwell (Black Library)

I’ve had occasion to mooch around a few Games Workshop stores in my time; both as a teenager looking to kill time on a Saturday afternoon and a guy in his mid thirties (thirty six is still ‘mid thirties’ dammit!) who’s after indulging his fascination with well painted toy soldiers. I love what they do in these stores, just a shame that my wallet isn’t as enthusiastic.

One thing that seems to be the same now as it was back in my teenage years is that I’ve only ever seen guys in Games Workshop stores, no ladies at all. I don’t know why this is but that’s what I always find. If you’re a GW frequenting female please leave a comment and prove me wrong but it’s looking very one sided in the meantime.
Up until now, this phenomenon has been mirrored on the publishing side of things with the Black Library. Barring a few short stories here and there (thanks to Nik Vincent and Juliet E. McKenna), Black Library is typically a male preserve for male writers. Again, not sure why this is; maybe that’s just the way things go sometimes.
It looks like things might just be about to change though. Sarah Cawkwell has already submitted stories for ‘Hammer and Bolter Magazine’ and her short story ‘Primary Instinct’ appeared in ‘Victories of the Space Marines’. While I wasn’t too keen on ‘Primary Instinct’ I was still interested to see what Sarah’s first full length Black Library novel was like. After all, you’ve got to be doing something right if you’re commissioned to write a novel off the back of a few short stories, surely?

The Space Marines of the Silver Skulls Chapter patrol the debris strewn Gildar system with all the superhuman vigour that you would expect from these post human warriors. Waiting in the wings though is the Arch Traitor Huron Blackheart and his Red Corsairs. Their quest for gene-seed (to bolster their own ranks), along with a burning desire to steal anything that isn’t nailed down, has bought them to the Gildar system and a confrontation with its guardians. The Silver Skulls display a ferocious zeal in combat and their own secret experiments, in the Gildar system, mean that they have added cause to fight back against the predations of the Red Corsairs. Blackheart himself has come to the Gildar system though and not only is he undefeated in open combat but he also a strategist the likes of which the Imperium hasn’t seen in hundreds of years...

I kind of have a ‘love/ hate’ thing going on with the ‘Space Marines Battles’ series; if you’ve been reading for a while then you probably know this already. This particular series just so happens to be the very series that Cawkwell’s debut novel finds itself in. While I had a few issues with ‘The Gildar Rift’, they were issues that I have with the series as a whole. ‘The Gildar Rift’ fell on the right side of the fence for me though; I’d certainly stick around to see what Cawkwell comes up with next.

The big problem that I have with the ‘Space Marines Battles’ series is that, well... battles aren’t really cut out to be the main focus of an entire book are they? A battle is something that a plot might hinge upon but no more than that, certainly not an entire book’s worth. This is especially the case when your protagonists are superhuman warriors engineered to make armed combat a very straightforward and bloody affair. They do a ‘no frills’ job but a book needs some frills to make it interesting. Several of the books in this series have fallen down, to one extent or another, because of this. Like I said though, ‘The Gildar Rift’ avoids most of the obvious pitfalls and is worth picking up because of this.

Cawkwell’s master stroke is to make ‘The Gildar Rift’ about far more than just a stand up fight between two sets of fairly evenly matched Marines. The Silver Skull’s ‘Resurgent Project’ takes equal billing with the main event and it’s interesting to see how the character of Volker Straub develops under the pressures of both the project and the ensuing war with the Red Corsairs. Alongside Volker Straub, Cawkwell’s depiction of Jeremiah (the incredibly insecure navigator) also adds a human element that offsets some of the ‘superhuman’ stuff and fleshes the plot out a little bit more.

Even the Marines (on both sides) get similar treatment and the end result are protagonists where you really get a feel for why they are fighting so fiercely. I love the character of Huron Blackheart, absolutely ‘off his face insane’ but still able to scrap it out with the best of them when the need arises.
What I would say here is that although the background history of the Silver Skulls is important, there wasn’t enough there to make going into it in such big detail a good thing (especially when it’s made clear that the Silver Skulls aren’t really aware of their ultimate origin anyway). I found myself skim reading these bits, which occurred far more often than was necessary, and that’s never a good thing.

When action really kicks off, either in the depths of space or on Gildar Secundus, Cawkwell proves to be more than up to the task of displaying Marine on Marine combat in all its bone crunching and visceral glory. While the battles themselves are a little too straightforward and simplistic (X moves his squad to point Y, Z counters...) it’s the more personal moments that are worth the price of entry. Cawkwell really doesn’t pull any punches.

‘The Gildar Rift’ doesn’t quite escape the issues that, for me, have plagued this series. What it does do though is give us a bunch of characters that we want to invest in and then put us through the wringer as we wait to see their fate. You can’t really ask for a lot more than that.

Eight and a Half out of Ten