'Way of the Barefoot Zombie' - Youtube Videos...

I was 'half and half' over Jasper Bark's 'Way of the Barefoot Zombie' but he's made up for it, as far as I'm concerned, with some great youtube videos promoting the book. Have a click Here to watch them. All the videos made me laugh but they're probably not for the slightly squeamish (the same goes for the book)...

Have fun!

‘Mercy Thompson: Homecoming’ – Patricia Briggs, David Lawrence, Francis Tsai and Amelia Woo (Del Rey)

As much as I can’t stand certain tropes being over used in Urban Fantasy I just keep on coming back for more. When it’s done well Urban Fantasy can make for some absolutely engrossing reading; even when it’s not done so well it can still be a fun and entertaining way to pass the time. There are a few Urban Fantasy books that I make a point of reading and one of these is Patricia Briggs’ ‘Mercy Thompson’ series. Here’s a series that never fails to entertain (with a shape shifting female lead that really is more than a match for her male counterparts) and if you’re an Urban Fantasy fan I’d recommend these books wholeheartedly.
Just in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m trying to cover more comics on the blog and ‘Homecoming stood out as a way to do just that while getting my ‘Mercy Thompson’ fix at the same time. ‘Homecoming’ may be one for fans only but it’s still worth a look...

‘Homecoming’ tells the story of Mercy Thompson’s arrival in the Tri-Cities and her bid to settle down and make a life for herself. With her usual sense of great timing, Mercy has chosen to come into town just as two rival werewolf packs are getting into a turf war. She also has to find her own place in the Fae community as well as avoiding the inevitable stint flipping burgers in the local bar. Could things get any worse? Maybe...

‘Homecoming’ is the perfect ‘origins’ storyline where we see Mercy come to town and also see her meet established characters for the first time. Everything Mercy gets up to in the books (‘Moon Called’, ‘Blood Bound’, ‘Iron Kissed’ and ‘Bone Crossed’) plays out from these first meetings. You would have thought that a prequel like this would be a great place for newcomers to jump on board but I wasn’t so sure in this case. Here, the introductions come across as a nod to established fans rather than people meeting for the first time. This might just be because I’ve read the books, and met these people already, but that’s how it felt…
‘Homecoming’ is a fairly slender book and after all the groundwork laid there isn’t an awful lot of room for the story itself. What room there is though is used efficiently and the story doesn’t appear to suffer for it. The plot itself is a fairly simple affair (two werewolf packs stand off, there can be only one winner…) but this is balanced out by the sharpness of the prose and the intensity that bleeds out of the artwork…



Say whatever you like about the Dabel Brothers (who originally published this mini-series), and if you’re someone that’s still waiting for last year’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ calendar then you have every right to, but one thing that they do very well is match up the story with just the right artists. Francis Tsai and Amelia Woo both have the skill of being able to ratchet up the tension, and capture the sheer animal power of the werewolves, just by drawing a picture. The chase scene at the beginning just blew me away and I’ll happily admit that I forgot to breathe at certain points. I’ve a slight preference for Tsai’s artwork but it was a really close run thing.

‘Homecoming’ is definitely one for fans who are in for a treat here if they haven’t picked it up already. The artwork is gorgeous; the story is simplistic but, really, it’s all about the characters.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

'Fire' & 'Red Claw' Competitions - The Winners!

Thanks to everyone who entered these competitions; 'Fire' in particular garnered a great number of entries. I'm looking forward to seeing if the book lives up to the buzz you guys have for it!
There could only be four winners though and these lucky folks were...

'Fire' - Kristin Cashore

John Morley, California

'Red Claw' - Philip Palmer

Sandro Pergameno, Italy
Bob Beaupré, Somerset, UK
Solange Thomas, London, UK

Well done everyone, your books will be on their way shortly...

Better luck next time everyone else! (There are another couple of competitions on the go, scroll down and have a look...)

Stick around in the meantime, I've got Robert Holdstock's 'Avilion' and James Enge's 'Blood of Ambrose' on the go and should hopefully have reviews up this week...

I am Harry Markov's Evil Twin!

That's what he says anyway (well, apart from the bit about being evil)...

I was lucky enough to be interviewed for Harry's 'Reviewer Time' slot over at Temple Library Reviews. Harry asks great questions and hopefully I gave as good as I got. Have a click right Here and see how we got on...

Giveaway! 'Bite Marks' (Terence Taylor)

Further to my review of 'Bite Marks' (have a little scroll down, you'll find it!), St. Martin's Press have kindly offered up three copies of the book for you lucky people to win! The catch is that only residents of the US and Canada can enter. Sorry about that...

Are you still here? Great! All you need to do to enter is drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your mailing address is. You also need to make it clear which competition you are entering (there's another one going on right now). I'll do everything else.

I'll let this one run until the 27th of September and will announce the winners on the 28th.

Good Luck!

Giveaway! 'Shamanslayer' (Nathan Long)

You've read my review for 'Shamanslayer', now how do you fancy winning a copy of the book? (What do you mean, you haven't read it? Scroll down the page right now!) Thanks to the good people at the Black Library I've got five copies of 'Shamanslayer' to give away. Don't worry about whether you can enter this one or not as this competition is open to everyone, it doesn't matter where you live!

What's that? You want to know how to enter? It's really simple. Just drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your mailing address is. I'll do everything else.

I'll let this one run until the 27th of September and will announce the winners on the 28th...

Good Luck!

‘Fast Ships, Black Sails’ – Edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer (Nightshade Books)

‘Talk like a Pirate Day’ isn’t until tomorrow but since when does a real pirate follow any rules other than his own capricious whims? Yeah... today’s review has nothing at all to do with me getting the dates mixed up. No, not at all...
‘Fast Ships, Black Sails’ is a 2008 release that sought to fill in the ‘skull and crossbones’ shaped hole where an anthology of ‘fantasy and science fiction pirate stories’ should have been. This book certainly filled in that hole but what did it fill it with...? I’d already found the place where X marked the spot; it was time to get digging and see what treasure I could find. There were plenty of doubloons to be found but also a couple of smelly old boots at the same time...

The VanderMeer’s set out to show their readers that while there is plenty of fun to be had with the typical pirate stereotype (black beard, parrot on one shoulder etc) there is also a lot more fun to be had with the kinds of pirate that you wouldn’t normally expect to find at all. I wasn’t entirely sure what the overall point of Katherine Sparrow’s ‘Pirate Solutions’ was but what it did show was that software pirates can make their way across the seven seas just as easily as regular pirates can. Were they on the seas though or were they sailing the internet itself? I don’t know... Maybe a re-read will help there.
Pirates don’t necessarily even have to be human as Rachel Swirsky show’s in ‘The Adventures of Captain Blackheart Wentworth’, a story that ended up becoming one of my favourites. Two rats take to a life of crime on the high seas (or at the very least, a large stream) and stray into Edward Lear territory when they meet a shipwrecked cat. Maybe it’s because I’ve kept rats in the past but the sight of these two black hearted villains taking on a world much bigger than them never failed to make me smile and Sully’s burgeoning romance with the cat was so unlikely that I had to see how it all panned out.
Another favourite was Rhys Hughes’ ‘Castor on Troubled Waters’ where, in the best traditions of cheating pirates everywhere, a Welshman comes up with a novel way of getting out of paying his friends their winnings from a game of cards. What I love about this story is the way that our ‘hero’ tells it all with a totally straight face; his story is outlandish but this is a collection of fantasy tales so it’s almost like you’re expecting something like this anyway. It’s only right at the end when everything fits together (almost perfectly) and the punch line is delivered that you realise that you’ve been taken in just as much as Jenkins’ friends were. Not many stories make me laugh out loud but this one did.

The rest of the book is divided up along more traditional lines; namely space pirates and our very own pirates of the last three or four hundred years (don’t let this fool you though; there is still plenty of room for magic and fantasy in these tales). There are also a couple of straight fantasy tales; I’d never read anything by Carrie Vaughn before (says Graeme, frantically trying to remember if Vaughn has contributed to the latest Wild Cards collections...) and if ‘The Nymph’s Child’ is anything to go by I’ll be picking up more of her work. I love a fantasy tale with a spin and Vaughn’s tale introduces us to a dragon that doesn’t behave in quite the way you would expect... Garth Nix’ tale (‘Beyond the Sea Gate of the Scholar-Pirates of Sarskoe’) was also well worth the entry price and Kage Baker’s ‘I Begyn as I Mean To Go On’ didn’t disappoint either.

There wasn’t a single ‘fantasy pirate tale’ that I didn’t enjoy, in one way or another, but I did find that most of the science fiction tales didn’t really work for me. I’ll admit that part of this is down to personal preference (Fantasy or Sci-Fi? Always fantasy!) but it felt like a number of the sci-fi pieces came across as being isolated incidents to the point of being incomplete. Moorcock’s ‘Ironface’ tells you straight out that it’s a vignette so I wasn’t expecting much in terms of depth but it felt like all it was there for was to show off another part of the multi-verse with a little name dropping on the side. This would have worked better in a collection of Moorcock’s own work, maybe a tale of Elric’s freebooting days would have been better here?
Both ‘The Whale Below’ and ‘Pirates of the Suara Sea’ felt similarly disjointed, like a random chapter of a book rather than a complete story. ‘Boojum’ (Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette) was superb though, just how it should be done.

I found ‘Fast Ships, Black Sails’ to be a mixed bag but the treasures that it threw up made reading through the rest a more than worthwhile experience. Is there any chance of a sequel anthology?

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten.

From My Bookshelf... ‘Dead City’ – Joe McKinney

This one is for Thea, over at the Book Smugglers who said nice things about the blog a couple of days ago! :o) Actually, this was one that I’d been planning on posting about ever since I read a zombie fiction discussion thread over at the Westeros board. The recommendations for good zombie fiction were flying around and I threw ‘Dead City’ into the mix. Then it struck me that it had been a while since I’d picked this one up and it was about due a re-read...

The Texas Gulf Coast has been battered by five hurricanes in just three weeks. The death toll is mounting but the survivors have far more to worry about as they sift through the wreckage. A virus has broken out. The living are safe from this, all they have to worry about are the dead that the virus is somehow bringing back to life.
San Antonio police officer Eddie Hudson is on shift when the city falls to an undead horde intent on getting its fill of human flesh. All Eddie wants to do now is make it home to his wife and son but this one simple aim will involve a battle like none he has ever faced before. It’s a whole new world out there and Eddie is about to discover, at first hand, just what it will take to survive in it...

While other zombie books, that I’ve read (and I haven’t read them all, yet!), deal with humanity’s attempts to survive in an already broken world, ‘Dead City’ pitches the reader right in at the start of it all as things kick off for the first time. The zombies are relentless in their advance and everyone else has been caught totally unprepared. No-one knows what is going on, only that something is very wrong. At the same time though, nothing is set in stone. There’s carnage on the streets but it’s still early enough in the day that our heroes could turn everything around. Anything could happen and this makes for a delicious blend of tension that drives the plot forward.

The reader sees the gradual collapse of San Antonio through Eddie Hudson’s eyes and I think that McKinney made a good choice in this respect. Eddie is there right at the very beginning as a simple public disturbance call becomes a lot more. Through Eddie, we witness the first stand off between armed police and zombies and the massacre that ensues. Eddie’s journey through San Antonio also serves to give the reader a panoramic view of the devastation and introduce us to the other players in this drama. Our hero is a single minded and obsessed character but some situations demand this mindset so we can forgive Eddie for focussing on his aims to the exclusion of everything else. It’s a shame then that McKinney chickens out with the ending, opting to play it safe instead of explore what Eddie’s reaction would be if the worst case scenario came to pass. Having said that though, maybe Eddie has already seen too much (and he does see a lot go down!) and can be excused the ultimate test of nerve...

‘Dead City’ also takes time out from its ‘zombie dodging’ exploits to ask some interesting questions (along with the regular ‘Would you shoot your father if he was a zombie?’ stuff that you would expect to find). The big one is whether the virus kills its subjects at all and what people should do with the zombies until an answer is found. This question is quite rightly left open ended (this vagueness is important concerning how the book ends) but other questions leave the reader hanging when perhaps some kind of conclusion would have tied things off satisfactorily. The plot doesn’t stop for anyone (there’s no time to hang around!) but things like why the zombies are herding together was an interesting point that I wanted to see a little more of.

Despite these niggles though, ‘Dead City’ does its job very well. I’ll admit to some bias here (anything with zombies in it is a winner as far as I’m concerned!) but the bottom line is that if you’re a zombie fan then you could do a lot worse than pick this one up.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

Do you have a question for Peter F. Hamilton?

If you do then now is a great time to ask it! Pan Macmillan will be conducting a video interview with Peter, next Thursday, and are asking if anyone has any questions that they would like Pan Macmillan to ask on their behalf. This interview is to mark the release of 'The Temporal Void', in paperback, but you can ask him pretty much anything you like about his work to date.

If you do have any questions then you need to send them to publicity@macmillan.co.uk , if your question does get picked then you'll be credited with having asked...

I'll see what I can do about getting a link to the video once it goes live...

‘Bite Marks: A Vampire Testament’ – Terence Taylor (St. Martin’s Press)

What is your favourite vampire story? For a long time I would have gone for ‘Dracula’ as my choice but then I read Robert McCammon’s ‘They Thirst’ and everything changed. While I wouldn’t say that ‘They Thirst’ is the best written tale, this story of vampires slowly infiltrating (and taking over) Los Angeles is relentlessly intense and has stayed under my skin ever since. Thinking about it, the whole ‘vampires in a modern day urban setting’ thing may have been what persuaded me to give Urban Fantasy a go.
Whatever it is, when I saw Terence Taylor’s story of vampires living in New York I thought of ‘They Thirst’ straight away and knew that I had to give it a go. I’m glad I did, despite a couple of things that bugged me (one of them incredibly so...) ‘Bite Marks’ is an entertaining tale that I would probably go back and re-read. I’m hoping that some of the loose ends hint at a sequel...

Eternal life leaves a vampire with a lot of time to kill; while all vampires kill to feed others look on it as a kind of hobby. One such vampire’s hobby could very well reveal the hidden existence of vampires in New York... A vampire kills a teenage runaway and then makes her feed on her own child. Before she dies though, she brings the child back to life. Now there’s an undead infant toddling around the streets of Manhattan, something all vampires want dealt with if their own lives are to remain a secret. Steve and Lori aren’t vampires; they’re just working on a book about them. When they discover a lead that introduces them to the hidden vampires on the streets... well, things are about to get interesting to say the least. The city is primed to explode and it’s only going to take a small spark to set the whole thing off...

‘Bite Marks’ is one of the most readable books I have ever come across. I started reading and the next thing I knew I was a hundred pages in. Where had the time gone? Terence Taylor achieves this through a mix of interesting concepts, scary moments and characters where you want to invest your time in finding out what happens to them next. The dynamic of Steve and Lori’s relationship is one that could easily happen to anyone and Taylor makes them both likeable enough (as people) that the resolution of their relationship becomes as important as the fact that the vampire crisis is beginning to boil over.

Thanks to Urban Fantasy, every major American city has a group of vampires sucking on an artery or two; Taylor keeps things fresh, in this respect, by setting ‘Bite Marks’ in the middle of the eighties and sending things off on a tangent as a result of the AIDS virus beginning to make itself known. Taylor’s vampires are as much at risk as anyone else, perhaps even more so, and the book surprises you with its conclusions. The plot surrounding the vampire baby is handled well, as far as I’m concerned, with it made clear just how important finding this baby is (both in terms of the vampire community as a whole and for the vampire who kicked off the whole mess). The tension is manipulated very well and Taylor also isn’t afraid to get down and dirty at the same time, showing his readers the more visceral side of vampire life. I also particularly liked the way that Taylor used the plot to introduce his readers to the vampire community and its structure. It’s all done very gradually (although there’s maybe a little too much of it) but before you know what’s going on, you have a lot more background knowledge than you thought and you’re waiting to see if the lie at the heart of vampire life will be exposed...

I did wonder at times if Taylor was trying to pack too much into too small a space with the introductory pieces sometimes swamping the story itself. This could be fine if the book is the first in a series (and there’s a flow from book to book) but this approach did leave things feeling disjointed in the meantime. I was also left thinking ‘what the...’ when it transpired that Lori had been able to research the vampire villains methods (even though vampires are meant to be a secret and she had only just found out about him) just in time to foil his attack on her...

Despite this though, ‘Bite Marks’ is an engaging and entertaining page turner that had me hooked. Definitely one for vampire fans.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

‘Burn Me Deadly’ – Alex Bledsoe (Tor)

I don’t know about you but one of the best feelings in the world (at least, as far as reading is concerned) is the one you get when you pick up a book, for the first time, and by the time you’ve finished you just know that you that you’re in for the long haul, no matter how long that is.
This is exactly the feeling I had when I picked up Alex Bledsoe’s ‘The Sword Edged Blonde’ way back in July. You may think that a hard-bitten ‘sword for hire’/detective is nothing new but I think you’ll change your mind once you’ve read Bledsoe’s storming debut. Anyway... After finishing ‘The Sword Edged Blonde’ I didn’t want to be caught napping again (it took me almost two years to get round to reading the book) and resolved to get hold of the sequel as soon as possible. Even then, it’s taken me longer than I though to finally get around to reading it. ‘Burn Me Deadly’ was well worth the wait though, as far as I’m concerned it’s even better than the first one...

Life has a habit of throwing surprises at private investigator Eddie LaCrosse, up to (and including) having half naked ladies run out in front of his horse in the dead of night. This wouldn’t be a bad surprise for some but it’s about to be followed by a couple of nasty ones. The next thing Eddie knows, he’s at the bottom of a cliff with the now dead woman and having to move sharpish to avoid his falling horse.
Who killed Laura Lesperitt and why? Eddie’s promise of protection didn’t get her very far so he feels duty bound to track down her killers. In the middle of crime bosses and royal scandals, it’s the arrival of a backwoods dragon cult that will turn Eddie’s world upside down...

‘Burn Me Deadly’ is a book that you can just pick up and read, even if you haven’t already read ‘The Sword Edged Blonde’. The plot is very self-contained with enough explanatory passages to give the first time reader a thorough grounding without being overwhelming. It’s worth picking up the ‘Sword Edged Blonde’ though, just to get a broader picture of how Eddie develops as a character and the impact of this on the plot. While ‘Sword Edged Blonde’ was more of a fun filled romp, ‘Burn Me Deadly’ is a darker affair that examines Eddie’s demons in a little more depth.

The reader is treated to more of the darkness that resides in Eddie LaCrosse, a darkness that was only hinted at in the last book. Here is a man who isn’t above dropping people off cliffs himself and will torture people to find what he is after. However, Eddie has a code of honour that he will always adhere to and this is what sets him apart from those he is after. Even if it is just a case of honouring his dead horse, Eddie really believes that he is doing the right thing and what he is prepared to do in pursuit of this adds another level of intensity to the plot. Just when you think you’ve got him pegged, Eddie will always surprise you!

The plot itself is very much the same as ‘Sword Edged Blonde’ as far as ‘grizzled private eye tackles a case’ goes. I guess there are only so many places you can take a plot like this. Bledsoe makes up for this though by upping the ante on pretty much everything else. The villains are more devious, the fights more brutal and the underlying mystery even trickier to negotiate let alone solve! This time round it’s also clear that no-one can be trusted and that means everyone. Bledsoe takes the opportunity to plant loads of red herrings which makes for a plot that constantly has its readers on their toes and gives you plenty to think about. The way it all ties together at the end is masterfully done.

If I had one complaint it would be that, again (something I found in ‘The Sword Edged Blonde’), the balance between ‘fantasy’ and ‘hard boiled detective fiction’ is skewed to the detriment of the fantasy setting the book has a backdrop. A horse is a horse (not a car) but Bledsoe’s horses are very much 1950’s American Sedans and this made for some odd reading at times. You would push a car over a cliff but would you do the same to a horse when all you had to do was sell the saddle etc? I also got that ‘why are American detectives and cops waving swords at each other?’ feeling again.

It’s all part of the charm though (if you’ve read the first book then you will know what to expect) and it’s only really a small niggle when the end result is a book that I found to be compulsive reading. Like I said, I’m in for the long haul.

Nine and a Quarter out of Ten

Graeme's Weekly Comics Post...

Or, as I should have called this post, ‘Just because you’re in a comic shop it doesn’t mean that you have to buy comics...’ There wasn’t a lot on the shelves that caught my eye this time round so I grabbed one that I was after, along with another that caught my eye, and went off to the Mike Carey signing...
Two comics then; one that turned out well and another that... wasn’t so great...



‘Dead Space: Extraction’ – Antony Johnston/Ben Templesmith (Image)

When you’re only just getting back into comics the words ‘One Shot’ on a cover means that you can pick it up for a quick taste and not have to worry about catching up on a series or anything like that. Those magic words convinced me to give this one a try.
On the face of it, there’s nothing wrong with this ‘Dead Space’ video game tie-in. Templesmith’s artwork is really gloomy and sinister (just right for a haunted space station!) and Johnston does a good job telling the story of a doctor who has found herself on the wrong assignment at the wrong time.
However, the further along I went with the story the more it became apparent that you really needed to have a working knowledge of the game setting itself to get the most out of this comic. There’s a lot of stuff going on where it’s taken for granted that you’ll know that back story already, this may be one purely for fans of the game.
I also wasn’t too sure about the direction the story was taking. There were three characters (whom I suspect will appear prominently in the game) that it made a lot more sense to follow than our friend the doctor...
‘Dead Space: Extraction’ was suitably atmospheric but ultimately disappointing...



‘Olympus #4’ – Edmondson/Ward (Image)

Regular readers will know that I’ve been following this mini-series (Superheroes of Ancient Greece? I think so) since it’s beginning; now it’s time for the endgame. Castor and Pollux have grasped the full scope of Tantalus’ madness and what he is prepared to do in unleashing his rage. There’s only one way to stop him and that involves a trip into the underworld...
After everything I’ve been saying about Christian Ward’s art, he saves the best until last... Not only is the artwork as great as ever (in terms of content) but it feels a little tidier this time round, I could actually work out what was really happening!
Edmondson ties everything superbly, bringing back a character (whom we’ve only met briefly) to help deliver the final coup de grace. I love it when things like this happen, it just tightens everything up and makes it more streamlined. There is scope for Castor and Pollux to return though and I hope they do; I’ve had a lot of fun with this series so far...

'Prospero Lost' Competition - The Winners!

Thanks to everyone who emailed to enter this competition; the vagaries of fate whittled an impressive list down to three winners who were...

Sharry Cee, British Columbia, Canada
Rick Pasley, Oregon, US
Shane O'Neil, Texas, US

Well done and happy reading! Books will be heading your way shortly :o)

Better luck next time everyone else...

Giveaway! 'Red Claw' (Philip Palmer)

I haven't started this one yet, simply because I keep going back to the front cover and marvelling at how awesome it is :o) The blurb isn't bad either...

Professor Richard Helms heads up a tight-knit band of scientists and soldiers sent to explore New Amazon, a lush but savage planet seemingly determined to attack them at every turn. When they are done cataloguing every detail of this vast, unfamiliar ecosystem, they will burn it to the ground and make it fit for human habitation. But when the team falls under attack, Helms and his followers are forced to flee into the depths of the jungle. Here, old enemies and petty rivalries surface as they struggle to survive. They soon end up fighting for their lives - against the planet they are exploring, the robots designed to protect them and, most of all, against each other.

Sounds good doesn't it? How do you fancy trying your luck at winning a copy? Thanks to Orbit, I have three copies of 'Red Claw' to give away (only if you're in the UK or Europe though, sorry everyone else...) to three lucky winners.
Entering is as easy as ever, simply send me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your mailing address is. You also need to make it clear what competition you are entering! I'll do the rest.

I'll be letting this one run until the 20th of September and will anounce the winners on the 21st.

Good Luck!

Giveaway! 'Fire' (Kristin Cashore)

Thanks to Dial Publishing, I have an Advance Copy of Kristin Cashore's 'Fire' to give away to one lucky reader. Here's the blurb if you haven't seen it already...

Set in a world of stunningly beautiful, exceptionally dangerous monsters, Fire is one of the most dangerous monsters of all - a human one. Marked out by her vivid red hair, she's more than attractive. Fire is mesmerising. But with this extraordinary beauty comes influence and power. People who are susceptible to her appeal will do anything for her attention, and for her affection. They will turn away from their families, their work, and their duties for her. They will forget their responsibilities to please her... and worse, crush nations, neglect kingdoms and abuse their power. Aware of her power, and afraid of it, Fire lives in a corner of the world away from people, and away from temptation. Until the day comes when she is needed - a day when, for her king, she has to stand against not only his enemies, but also against herself...

Does this sound like your kind of thing? Do you live in the US or Canada? (This competition is US/Canada only but I do have something cool coming up for people in the UK or Europe...) If you answered yes to both of these questions then all you need to do next is drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your email address is. I'll do everything else :o)

I'll be letting this one run until September 20th and will announce the winner on the 21st.

Good luck!

‘Shamanslayer’ – Nathan Long (Black Library)

Until now, I’ve only picked up one ‘Gotrek and Felix’ novel and I have to say that I wasn’t impressed at the time (a few years ago now). ‘Trollslayer’ is a collection of tales, which I think were taken from the pages of ‘White Dwarf’ magazine back in the nineteen eighties, that worked well on their own but came across as a little too repetitive in tone when lumped together. I don’t mind re-reading stuff but only when it’s the same book; not the same story over and over again in the same book!
As a result, I’ve stayed away from ‘Gotrek and Felix’. Until now that is. Rumours of a wider ranging storyline and the promise of a new author to check out (Nathan Long is the writer in residence now, it used to be William King) prompted me to give one of the Black Library’s most iconic duos another go. I’m glad I did. ‘Shamanslayer’ may not be highbrow stuff but what it lacks in this department is more than made up for by a hefty dose of good old fashioned fun.

If you haven’t read any of the ‘Gotrek and Felix’ novels then don’t feel too wary about jumping in right here as the structure of the novel means that you will be up to speed before you know it. All you really need to know is that Gotrek Gurnisson is a ‘Trollslayer’, a dwarf who has sworn to die a heroic death in atonement for a great shame. Gotrek isn’t very good at being a Trollslayer though; nothing has killed him yet... Felix Jaeger is the poor sap who drunkenly swore an oath to follow Gotrek and chronicle his deeds some twenty years ago. They’re firm friends now, despite Gotrek’s quest constantly casting a grim shadow over them.

‘Shamanslayer’ sees the pair on a mission to the north to seek out the surviving members of the Order of the Fiery Heart. What they will find though is far more than just the remnants of the Order. Beastmen are on the march and in such numbers that an Empire already weakened by war will not be able to withstand their dark magic. Gotrek and Felix are all that stands between the free peoples of the Old World and the encroaching darkness, just how Gotrek likes it...

If you’re finding that your fantasy reading is getting a little too self absorbed, philosophical or just plain verbose then ‘Shamanslayer’ could be the perfect antidote. What you’re getting for your money here is a good slice of ‘hack and slash’ sword and sorcery. ‘Shamanslayer’ knows exactly what it is and doesn’t care; here’s a book that’s only interested in telling you a story that races along, punctuated by the clash of swords and the hum of dark magic.
The plot itself is decidedly simple, perhaps a little too simple and linear (although it was just what I was looking for after a long day at work). Gotrek and Felix have a goal to aim at and hundreds of assorted monsters and villains to fight their way through to get to it. That’s it.

On the whole, this worked for me although I did find myself looking for a little more from the plot on occasion. The plot is simplistic but this allows Long to concentrate on other areas which bulk ‘Shamanslayer’ out and make it something that I was able to get totally lost in. Chief among these is the relationship between Gotrek and Felix; these two have travelled together for twenty years now and their depth of their friendship shows not just in what is said but also in what is left unsaid. Long term fans are about to see this relationship change, perhaps irrevocably. I’m a relative newcomer but what’s on show here has already got me wondering how things will pan out. I’ll just have to make sure I’m around to see what transpires.
Long’s depiction of an Empire recovering from a bitter war is also bang on the money. Here is an author determined not to leave any stone unturned in his vision, war may be hell but it’s also a reality that needs to be shown. The aftermath of a hero’s work can be just the same as that of the villain...

Any sword and sorcery novel needs to be big on spectacle and Long does not disappoint; giving us the full range of pub brawls, skirmishes and full on warfare between opposing armies. Gotrek’s apparent invincibility can be a little wearing (as well as robbing certain confrontations of their tension) but the fight scenes more than make up for this. Every blow and sword stroke is guaranteed to make you wince and the mixture of high stakes and epic confrontations keeps the pages turning nicely.

‘Shamanslayer’ is a lightweight read but I found that I didn’t really care because it was so much fun. I’ll be back for more.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

‘Mythago Wood’ – Robert Holdstock (Gollancz)

It wasn’t so long ago that Mark Charan Newton wrote a post heaping shame on bloggers who hadn’t covered Robert Holdstock’s ‘Avilion’ and exhorting them to give the book a go post haste. I was one of those bloggers and while there’s nothing I like more than a challenge for the blog (which reminds me, I really need to find myself a copy of ‘Troll 2’ on DVD...) there was just one small problem. ‘Avilion’ is the sequel to ‘Mythago Wood’, another book by Robert Holdstock that I hadn’t read. It turned out that this wasn’t so much of a big problem, more of an excuse to get my hands on another book! I’ve been in and out of ‘Mythago Wood’ for about the last week and there were times when I really didn’t want to leave. I can fully understand why this book won the World Fantasy Award...

There’s something in Ryhope Wood; something that led Stephen Huxley’s father to an early grave and holds his brother Christian in thrall, soon the Wood will take Stephen as well...
Ryhope Wood is much more than just a three mile square area of woodland on the Ryhope Estate; penetrating the dense layer of forest will lead to a land outside time itself. Stephen will also find that he is not alone as mythic archetypes take on their own life here. There is love and beauty to be found in Ryhope Wood but also great terror, will Stephen make it out of the Wood once he steps inside...?

‘Mythago Wood’ is one of those deceptively slim books (a slender two hundred and ninety six pages) that have a habit of luring me in with the promise of a quick read. The next thing I know, it’s over a week later and I still haven’t finished. Robert Holdstock’s writing reminded me of the making of a sword, layer upon layer of story folded in on itself until what the reader is left with is something sharp enough to cut you right to the core. I can’t get this book out of my head; ‘Mythago Wood’ may even get me to try Holdstock’s ‘Celtika’ again, a book that didn't work for me...

‘Mythago Wood’ is part mystery and part ghost story. Ryhope Wood is a brooding entity that looms large over Oak Lodge and there is an obvious mystery at its heart which manifests in the haunting that Stephen suffers. Holdstock is happy to let things drag out for months at a time, skilfully racking up the tension so that you don’t even notice the passing of time. When the payoff comes it’s understated in such a way that you feel its force through Stephen’s inability to fully comprehend what is happening. Holdstock is also very good at supplying the reader with those moments where Stephen knows that someone has either been in the house... or is still there... There’s a creeping tension to be found here and Holdstock is happy either to hit you with something big or just let the tension drain away. It’s the intensity of the emotion that’s the important thing here and Holdstock certainly hits the mark.

‘Mythago Wood’ is a lot more than just a ghost story however; what we have here is a journey back into pre-history (via that reliable fantasy archetype, the forest) showing us how myths form and perpetuate throughout time. I found that having the book start in the present day (or close enough to it, the book is set just after World War Two), and work backwards, worked for me as I began with the finished concept (the myth of Guiwenneth) and was able to see how it came together rather than take the pieces and have to put them together. The constant reinforcement of the concept really drove it home for me and there were plenty of other things to think about at the same time (how Stephen’s actions in the ‘past’ shaped the myths of the ‘future’ for example).

If this wasn’t enough, the plot played out against some of the loveliest forest scenery that I have ever read. I’ve always been a fan of forests (both as a fantasy setting and in real life) and I could almost feel myself walking through Ryhope Wood. ‘Vivid’ is the word to use when looking to describe Holdstock’s vision; a fey setting where myths taking human form is not that unusual at all.

I’m glad I finally took the time to give ‘Mythago Wood’ a go, it’s a journey unlike any other. While I’m sad that it’s over (until the re-read) I know that I’ll be picking up ‘Avilion’ sooner rather than later.

Ten out of Ten

David Anthony Durham - Live Chat on Suvudu next week...

Here's a little heads up for fans of 'Acacia' (if you haven't read it yet then you really should...) David Anthony Durham will be having a chat on Suvudu on September 15th at 7pm EDT. By one of those strange quirks of fate (that isn't actually a quirk of fate at all), September 15th is the day that Durham's 'The Other Lands' is released so you get to read the book and ask all the questions you have at the same time :o)

I'll hopefully be all signed up for this (I'm looking forward to reading 'The Other Lands' as 'Acacia' was a fine read). For more information about this event, do yourself a favour and click right Here.

‘Death Got No Mercy’ – Al Ewing (Abaddon Books)

As a rule, I’m not normally the kind of person who picks up a book based on the cover alone. At the very least I’ll have a look at the blurb or maybe see what people are saying on-line. Every so often though there’s an exception to the rule, the artwork may not be great but there will be something about the cover which tells me that this is a book I have to read. Like ‘Death Got No Mercy’ for example.
Just look at that cover. Is there anything that’s cooler than a guy taking on a grizzly bear with only his bare fists, a ‘hard as nails haircut’ and a truck load of attitude? I don’t think there is either and that was the reason I had to pick this one up and give it a go. I mean, come on! It’s a guy fighting a bear! (Did I say that already? I don’t care, it’s brilliant!)
It turned out that the high I got from the cover didn’t last through the whole book but I still had a great time reading it...

Cade is a man who you wouldn’t even dare go near in a pub, let alone spill his drink! He’s certainly not going to let anything like the aftermath of an apocalyptic virus get in the way of his daily routine. When one of his companions (Cade doesn’t have friends) runs out of insulin the only option is a trip down to San Francisco, to pick up some more, and the only man who can make that trip is Cade himself. No-one else has ever returned. Cade may not be ready for what lies inside the city limits but the religious fundamentalists, cannibal cults and psychotic hippies certainly weren’t counting on someone like Cade coming to visit...

Al Ewing’s ‘I, Zombie’ was one of the more visceral stories that I’ve read and I thought that reading this would have been ample preparation for ‘Death Got No Mercy’. While Ewing takes the same approach in his latest book, I still wasn’t quite ready for Cade’s one man wave of destruction across a major city and what he leaves behind him. Like death itself, ‘Death Got No Mercy’ is brutal and gets right in your face with it’s depictions of life in the aftermath of ‘The Cull’ (a virus that has killed nine out of every ten people) and what the survivors are prepared to do in order to carry on surviving. This is a book that has no mercy whatsoever, in terms of it’s reader’s sensibilities, and is the better for it. I’d go so far in fact as to say that this is probably the best chapter of the ‘Afterblight Chronicles’, so far, as Ewing pulls no punches in telling us how it really is.

‘Death Got No Mercy’ runs on a plot that starts out compelling and becomes even more so as the stakes are raised for Cade. Things do veer off into cartoonish territory as Cade is built up to be practically invincible and the moments of spectacle intensify accordingly. While this makes for some exciting moments some of the tension is lost as it becomes clear that Cade will always make it through (although I wasn’t sure what would happen when he fought the bear...) Ewing sidesteps this small issue by showing us the more devious side of Cade’s nature (he’s not all about using his fists and will set people against each other) as well as showing us some of the events that have made Cade the man he. Ewing asks the question of whether a person can be born a killer, or if their life moulds them into one, and doesn’t give an opinion at all. Cade is who he is and it’s up to the reader to answer the question themselves. I liked the way this was left open ended as the result was that the question didn’t overshadow the story itself.

It was a real shame then, for me, that ‘Death Got No Mercy’ really fell down when it got all existential and had Cade ‘meet his maker’ partway through. Not only did this really interrupt the flow of the book but it didn’t have much bearing on the plot itself. I was also left wondering why Ewing went to all the trouble of drawing such a believable world only to pull it all down like that and show the reader what lies behind it. Maybe a re-read would shed a little more light on it (and this is certainly a book I’ll be going back to) but it didn’t make a lot of sense this time round...

Despite these niggles, I’m still standing by ‘Death Got No Mercy’ being the best thing to come out of the ‘Afterblight Chronicles’ so far. Fans of the series are in for a treat. If you’re after a short sharp dose of post-apocalyptic fiction then you could do a lot worse than pick this up.

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

‘Prospero Lost’ – L. Jagi Lamplighter (Tor)

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m actually a pretty big fan of urban fantasy but what I’m finding these days is that it has to promise a little bit more (than the guilty pleasure ‘bad ass female knocks hell out of vampires’ scenario that we all find ourselves going back to) if I’m going to pick it up. ‘Prospero Lost’ immediately caught my eye with it’s concept of how Prospero’s family might have taken shape, in the years following Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’, as well as the fact that there were no vampires or werewolves to be seen at all. That’s right, an urban fantasy without vampires or werewolves... If that wasn’t enough, the blurb also promised an interesting tale.
As it turned out, ‘Prospero Lost’ was a bit of a slog to get through but proved to be well worth the effort. This book is the first of a series (a trilogy I think, might be wrong though...) and I will make sure that I’m there to see just what happens next.

More than four hundred years after the events of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’, Prospero’s family now control a worldwide corporation (Prospero Inc) that uses magic to keep the supernatural world in check and mankind free of ‘natural’ disasters. With her father increasingly absent from daily affairs, Miranda heads up the business but is about to find that Prospero isn’t just absent; he has disappeared completely. With only a cryptic message as a clue (‘Beware of the Three Shadowed Ones’), Miranda must track her father down as well as attempting to reunite her warring family. Miranda has Mab (a wind spirit masquerading as a hard boiled detective) and her insane brother Mephisto to help her but this may not be enough when ranged against the forces who would steal her family’s magic...

‘Prospero Lost’ opens Lamplighter’s series and sets the scene for events to come. Unlike some authors, who go for self contained stories that form the wider arc of a series, Lamplighter leaves pretty much everything raised in ‘Prospero Lost’ as a matter for resolution in later books. This approach works well in terms of setting scene and introducing characters, on the whole, and the leaves the reader with a promise of exciting times to come. Like I said, I’ll certainly be back to see where the story takes me.

It’s not all good though. A number of questions are raised about Miranda’s character, and things that she does, with the assumption that these will be answered in future books. The fact is though, we don’t get these answers now and what we are left with is perhaps one of the single most annoying characters that I’ve ever seen a book hang its plot on. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone so single minded and selfish, fully prepared to sacrifice friends and relatives to blind faith in her father. It’s suggested that there may be reasons for this (which does give the reader something to chew on) but what we are left with is a character that it’s very hard to get behind and reading the ‘Miranda intensive’ parts can sometimes be more of a chore than a pleasure. I also wasn’t too sure about Lamplighter’s use of the ‘quest’ archetype as a means of getting things moving. Whilst the plot may have demanded this approach, the whole notion of ‘going to point A, finding what’s needed then going to point B (and so on)’ got repetitive and altered the pace of the story in a way that wasn’t to its benefit. The plot needed to flow and what we got instead was it becoming stuck in a groove...

To be fair, Lamplighter makes up for this with a supporting cast that is well worth getting to know. Mab’s ‘Marlowesque’ qualities stand out as a refreshing contrast to Prospero Inc’s ‘Faerie’ tone and he raises interesting questions about the servitude of the Prospero Family’s spirit retainers in modern day America. I’d like to see where this particular theme ends up.
Mephisto is also a character well worth turning the pages to read more of. Here’s a guy that is totally off his head and Lamplighter is not afraid to have him totally derail the plot and send it off in unexpected directions. This makes for some very entertaining moments and there are also hints that we will learn a lot more about Mephisto in the future.

Where Lamplighter really excels though is in her descriptions of a world bubbling with supernatural activity and the workings of Prospero Inc as it bids to stop this activity bleeding over into every day life. When a ‘priority account’ is buying off Salamanders so that a volcano doesn’t erupt then you just know that there is fun to be had with a book. Lamplighter fills the book with detail like this and even manages to get Father Christmas to make an appearance as well in such a way that it doesn’t jar at all.

‘Prospero Lost’ isn’t without its faults but what it does do is done very well indeed. I’m looking forward to returning to this world when ‘Prospero in Hell’ is published next year.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

‘Conan the Cimmerian’ (Dark Horse Comics) #10 – 13 (‘Black Colossus’)

I’ve been following ‘Conan the Cimmerian’ for a few months now (with a short break when I had to do grown up stuff with my pay packet like, you know, pay bills and stuff) and was really pleased to see them get round to the ‘Black Colossus’ storyline, one of my favourites from when I last read the Fantasy Masterworks ‘Conan Collection’. I was very interested to see how this came across in a comic so made sure to pick this one up! I wasn’t disappointed...



Natohk, the ‘veiled one’, has gathered an army from amongst the desert tribes and marches on the Hyborian nations. All that stands in his way is the tiny kingdom of Khoraja where the god Mitra has told Princess Yasmela to hand control of her armies over to the first man she meets if she is to stand any chance of defeating Natohk. Guess who just happens to have been in a fight and is walking home drunk...?
Before he knows it, Conan is at the head of an army which will meet the prophet’s horde at Shamla Pass for a fight that could determine the fate of the Hyborian nations...



Even though I knew the story already (and Conan stories are pretty formulaic so even if I didn’t know the story, I could have guessed how this one would turn out!) I found that after reading the first instalment I just knew I’d be around for the rest. This might even be the storyline that finally gets me into this comic on a regular basis. It was that good. Giorello really steps things up a gear in ‘Black Colossus’ with some brooding pictures of Khoraja by night and some real epic stuff at the Battle of Shamla Pass. I’ve mentioned it before but Count Thespides’ doomed charge is worth the price of admission on its own. I think the Dabel Brothers have the rights to Erikson’s ‘Malazan Book of the Fallen’ (which means we’ll probably never see it in this format...) but I think Giorello would be a great artist for this setting and I’d love to see him give it a go.

Timothy Truman is also on song with his writing duties, keeping things tense and also making sure that Conan stays true to the character originally drawn by Robert E. Howard. In a way, I guess that’s not exactly a hard thing to do (Conan being the no nonsense, hard fighting and womanising character that he is) but Truman does it with style. I also loved the way he fleshes out Conan’s world through character’s dealing out relevant information (in just the right amounts) and little asides like the prayers to Set...

I’ve been looking for more fantasy in comics and I think this title could become a staple feature in my monthly shop, especially if it keeps going like this!

'The Naming of the Beasts' Competition - Winners!!

Thanks to everyone who entered this competition. There could only be three winners though and they were...

Stacey Whittle, Newcastle, UK
Jon Madden, Ruislip, UK
Melissa Symonds, Carshalton, UK

Well done folks, your books are hopefully on their way even as we speak!

Better luck next time everyone else... :o)

P.S. Anyone who's in London this coming Thursday can get to see Mike Carey as he will be signing copies of 'The Naming of the Beasts' (and pretty much anything else if last time was anything to go by!) at Forbidden Planet from 6-7pm.

‘My Rotten Life’ – David Lubar (Starscape)

This isn’t so much a review as it is a ‘mini-review’, the book weighs in at an almost unhealthily slender one hundred and forty eight pages long and it only took me a couple of hours to get through. This mini-review is also proof of the fact that I will read pretty much anything if there is the promise of zombies inside. As it turned out, ‘My Rotten Life’ was by no means ‘Night of the Living Dead’ but it wasn’t ‘Hard Rock Zombies’ either so that was ok...

Nathan Abercrombie is one of those school kids who are always getting picked on and he’s sick of feeling so low about it all. An experimental serum offers him an escape from these feelings but an accidental overdose sends things in completely the opposite direction. Our ‘would be hero’ has become one of the living dead...
Nathan discovers that this isn’t such a bad thing with a new found athletic ability and cool video game playing skills more than compensating for the fact that bits of him are now liable to drop off at inopportune moments. He would rather be human though, can this ever happen?

There are some children’s books that transcend the age gap and become books that adults will quite happily be seen with on the morning commute. You know the ones I mean. ‘My Rotten Life’ is not one of those books. A great concept (more on that in a bit) is smothered by a cloyingly sweet message about how being yourself will mean you are accepted by your true friends. This is great stuff if you’re a school kid like Nathan (who wants a hero to identify with) but it makes things really stodgy if you’re a guy who picked up the book because it had the word ‘zombie’ on the front. To be honest, I think this would make stodgy reading for anyone who has left their childhood behind them. Once you know how it’s going to end (and there’s no other way it can end) then you end up wondering whether to continue. Kids would love it though :o)

Having ‘paid my zombie dues’ on more adult fare, I thought it could be fun to take a fresh look at the genre through a younger perspective. I liked the way that Nathan becomes a zombie; particularly because of the scenes that it gives rise to when Nathan is searching for the ingredients to his cure. While ‘My Rotten Life’ isn’t a ‘laugh out loud funny’ book, there were moments that definitely made me chuckle.
The book didn’t do an awful lot to hold my attention though; I kept finding myself thinking thoughts such as ‘What would happen if Nathan bit Abigail or Mookie?’ and ‘Won’t too much video game playing make his fingers fall off?’ I guess I’m just used to reading different kinds of zombie books...

It’s always good to read something that you wouldn’t normally pick up; as well as discovering new books that you like it’s also a good way of reminding yourself of the good reasons why you stay away from other stuff. ‘My Rotten Life’ does its job well enough but the feeling I came away with was that I wouldn’t be missing out on much if I never went back for a re-read...

Six and a Half out of Ten

Giveaway! 'Prospero Lost' (L. Jagi Lamplighter)

Here's a book that I've been reading this week and enjoyed immensely, look out for a review early next week...

In the meantime (thanks to Tor in the US), I have three copies of 'Prospero Lost' to give away to three lucky readers of this here blog. The catch is that only residents of the US and Canada can enter this one (I told you guys I'd have a competition for you to enter!) Sorry everyone else...

You still with me? Great! All you need to do is drop me an email (address at the top right hand of the screen) telling me who you are and what your mailing address is. I'll do everything else :o)

I'll let this one run until the 13th of September and will announce the winners on the 14th...

Good Luck!

‘Blood of the Mantis’ – Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor UK)

Despite it only being three books old, the ‘Shadows of the Apt’ series has been a real ‘stop/start’ affair for me with a great opening book followed by one that I felt went off the boil a little. While there’s never been a doubt that I’ll stick with the series (I love the concept and some of the hints regarding where the plot is going) I’ll admit that the last book left me wondering how this one would turn out.
I’m happy to say that, as far as I’m concerned, things look to be back on track...

The Wasp army’s advance has ground to a halt while they prepare for their next great offensive and the Lowlands wait to see what new weapons will be brought to the fore. Stenwold Maker and his band of followers must seek out new allies before war breaks out again and the Wasps sweep all before them.
However, just because hostilities have temporarily ceased it doesn’t mean that matters of great significance are not taking place in the background. Not only has the legendary Shadow Box been stolen but it has now gone missing altogether. Those on the trail of the Shadow Box will find that the trail ends in the marsh town of Jerez and an auction where the highest bidder will win it all. If the Wasp Emperor should come into possession of the Box then the future will be bleak indeed...

My main concern about the last book in the series (‘Dragonfly Falling’) was that its length encouraged unnecessary rambling to the point where the story was in danger of being lost altogether as characters manoeuvred for position. Happily this was not the case with ‘Blood of the Mantis’, a book that weighs in at just over half the size of ‘Dragonfly Falling’. This relative brevity doesn’t leave room for meandering; what we get instead is a book that doesn’t mess around and is straight to the point, a move that can only be of benefit considering there are still multiple groups of characters about their business.

‘Blood of the Mantis’ switches from epic battles and sieges to the cut-throat espionage that is going on behind the scenes. While Tchaikovsky writes a decent battle, he really comes into his own with descriptions of covert activity in the marsh town of Jerez and the lake towns of Exalsee. A hurried glance can mean the difference between life and a lonely death in a back alley. Deals are struck in dark corners and the outcome is nothing less than the fate of nations. Tchaikovsky excels in giving this covert activity just the right amount of heightened tension (along with a suitably murky backdrop for it all to take place against) and I was hooked right up until the blood chilling finale.

It’s not just cloak and dagger work though. The war has briefly died down but there is still room for the occasional bloody skirmish and Tchaikovsky drops his reader’s right into the heart of these, leaving them to dodge every sword thrust and wince when a blade or bolt finds its mark. Such moments are full of swashbuckling action and that’s just the kind of action I like to see in a book. There were moments when a particularly daring set piece had me holding my breath as it took place!

We’re three books in now and Tchaikovsky is still showing us that there is a lot more to this world than simply the Lowlands. This world is also one that’s developing almost as quickly as you can read it with advances in warfare meaning that this is not your regular run of the mill fantasy world. There are hints that weapons technology will become even more destructive and I’m certainly going to be around to see where things go next.

While the characters are as well drawn as ever I found myself more interested in what was happening rather than who it was happening to. Certain characters that I haven’t particularly enjoyed following (I’m looking at you Ms. Cheerwell!) still elicited the same response in me although it looks like they’re open to some interesting developments. This was more of a personal preference thing, for me, than anything that Tchaikovsky had neglected to include. Sometimes a character just doesn’t work for a reader (which can make the book as a whole a little more difficult to fully engage with).

Despite this though, ‘Blood of the Mantis’ is very much a return to form for Adrian Tchaikovsky. I’m looking forward to seeing if he can maintain this momentum when ‘Salute the Dark’ is published next year.

Nine out of Ten

‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ – Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith (Quirk Books)

‘Lady Catherine was extremely indignant on the marriage of her nephew; and her reply to the letter which announced it’s arrangement came not in written form, but in the form of an attack on Pemberley by five-and-ten of her ladyship’s ninjas.’

I’ve never been one for the classics; while I’ve given some a go I’ve always found myself going back to what I really enjoy reading (no guesses what that is). This made doing an A-Level in English literature really difficult when I was discovering Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars books for the first time!
The classics I did read were interesting enough but, looking back, I realise now that they were missing vital ingredients that would have kept me reading and probably sent this blog down a completely different path. ‘Tess of the d'Urbervilles’ would have been a lot more fun if it had happened during an alien invasion. ‘Great Expectations’ would have made excellent reading if it had been discovered that Miss Havisham was a vampire. As far as ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ goes... All I’m saying is that a tribe of cannibal pygmies would have spiced things up a lot more :o)

I’d never really had much interest in reading ‘Pride and Prejudice’, a book that (on the face of it) appeared to be about various ladies trying to work out if rich gentlemen were going to propose. Add zombies (and ninjas!) to the mix though and all of a sudden it became a book that I really had to read...

As I’ve mentioned briefly, ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ tells the tale of the Bennet sisters and their mother’s quest to find them all suitable husbands. Mr Darcy looks like he might be a good catch if he wasn’t so proud and haughty, will Elizabeth ever find out how he really feels about her? Will Elizabeth ever work out how she really feels about him? Will the armed forces of Great Britain ever succeed in turning back the undead hordes that wreak havoc across our fair isle...? The answer is to read and find out as ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ is great fun to read.

I’ve never read ‘Pride and Prejudice’ but I’m fairly certain that it never featured zombies and ninjas so it’s easy to spot where Jane Austen takes a back seat and Seth Grahame-Smith takes over. I felt this was done pretty well actually with the zombies and ninjas standing out (obviously) but the language itself staying faithful to the original text. That’s not to say that things don’t get a little... immature at times. I’m pretty sure that the characters in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ didn’t vomit quite as much as they do here. There are also frequent references to Mr Wickham’s bodily functions but these contrast so strongly with the Austen’s text that you cannot help but laugh. I did anyway. It’s childish but the book never pretends to be anything other than being fun for the sake of it

One thing I did find, reading this book, was that while I was waiting for the zombies to make an appearance I found myself really getting into what was going on in the ‘proper plot’. ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is actually a very clever comedy of manners (and misunderstandings) that fits in well with the other plot devices that it employs such as who will inherit the family home, Lydia’s elopement etc. Whether I find the time is another thing entirely but I wouldn’t mind picking up ‘Pride and Prejudice’ to find out what actually happened to Charlotte Lucas and the real outcome of the confrontation between Elizabeth Bennet and Lady Catherine. I’m not sure if this is what Seth Grahame-Smith had in mind for the book but it can’t be such a bad outcome can it?

I came for the zombies and they turned out in style! It’s a real gimmick to add something like zombies to a classic work of literature and Grahame-Smith avoids the obvious pitfalls by playing down their presence and concentrating instead on how life in zombie infested times would affect the original plot. As a result, when the zombies do turn up their antics are free to shock and amuse in equal measure. I’m not sure if baiting zombie traps with cauliflower would actually work but I had fun reading about it all the same!

I bought my copy of ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ so won’t be giving it a mark out of ten; I think you can guess how I felt about it though (the most fun I’ve ever had reading one of the classics). If only all my English A-Level books had been like this...

Rebellion accquires Solaris Books.

Now I've written the title, I can't get Star Wars out of my head for some reason!

Anyway, here's the press release...

This week, Rebellion, Europe’s leading independent games developer and owner of the iconic comic 2000 AD and sci-fi and fantasy imprint Abaddon Books, completed the acquisition of the Solaris book publishing imprint from Games Workshop for an undisclosed sum.

This well-known and highly successful brand offers a mixture of new and traditional science fiction, fantasy and horror books and has many bestselling titles from both upcoming and established names such as Brian Lumley, Gail Z. Martin, Eric Brown and Simon R. Green, amongst others.

Solaris will sit alongside, and be run in parallel with, Rebellion’s own Abaddon Books.

Jason Kingsley, CEO of Rebellion said, “We’ve been aware of the Solaris imprint for some years now and have admired its success with fantastic stories and great writers. Acquiring Solaris will allow us to continue to push our publishing trajectory upwards and expand the quantity, whilst maintaining the quality, of all our titles.”

George Mann, Games Workshop’s Head of Publishing said, “We’re delighted that Solaris has found a new home with Rebellion. After a period of fantastic growth with our Games Workshop related titles, we decided the time was right for us to focus all of our attention on our Black Library imprint. We’re sure Rebellion will now take Solaris forward to even greater heights.”

I didn't see this one coming but Rebellion are doing a great job with Abaddon Books (as well as the 2000AD line) so there's no reason to think that they won't do the same with Solaris. Here's the bit that I like though...

Mark Chadbourn was a little worried that people wouldn't be able to get hold of 'Lord of Silence'. From the press release...

Rebellion has also entered into a sales and distribution agreement with Simon and Schuster. Under the agreement, Simon & Schuster will continue to handle sales, distribution and fulfilment of all Solaris titles for all new and backlist titles to trade and specialty accounts. The agreement is effective August 31st, 2009.

So if you don't already have a copy of 'Lord Silence' (Why not? It's great!) then hopefully you'll be able to get a copy in the future... :o)

‘The Best of Michael Moorcock’ (Tachyon Press)

Calling a collection of short stories ‘The Best Of...’ always strikes me as rather a risky title for any book as it’s really only a reflection of the author/editor’s own personal opinion. Their ‘Best Of...’ is unlikely to match everyone else’s and it will invariably be the basis for all sorts of discussion (which is a good thing).
When I saw that this new collection of previously published stories, by Michael Moorcock, had input from Ann and Jeff Vandermeer I felt a little happier about the title; these guys know what they are talking about and wouldn’t stick a title like this on the front cover if they weren’t a hundred percent happy with it. There’s also the fact that Michael Moorcock has to be right up there in any list of ‘Prolific Authors’ and although I’ve read a lot of his science fiction and fantasy I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of everything else that he has written. When there’s so much still to read, the odds are good that you’ll find something that will make your own personal ‘Best Of’ list.
It’s taken me a while to get through this one but I’m glad I did. This book can be a demanding read at times but the rewards are great...

This would normally be the part of the review where I’d give you a brief summary of the plot. Well, you’re not getting that today as I’m not going to be summarising each and every one of the short stories on display here! Suffice it to say that fans of Elric and Jerry Cornelius will be pleased to see their heroes make a brief appearance and anyone who has ever wondered what else Moorcock writes about will have their questions answered. There’s a lot of sci-fi on offer here but it goes well beyond Moorcock’s ‘Eternal Champion’ series...

‘The Best of Michael Moorcock’ really isn’t a collection that you can read all in one go, at least I couldn’t. Individually, each story is well worth your time (subject to the laws of personal preference, more on that later on) but when they’re all put together the book becomes full of big ideas and heavy going prose that was a little bit too heavy for me. I found myself getting bogged down in a concept for the simple reason that I was still trying to get my head round something in the previous story! You might breeze through the whole book in one sitting but I found that the best way to tackle ‘The Best of Michael Moorcock’ was in small doses so as to get the most out of each story.

Michael Moorcock is a man who clearly knows how to tell a tale if the stories here are anything to go by. As is the case with all short story collections, not everything worked for me. I’ll own up to being a victim of the hype surrounding how controversial ‘Behold the Man’ is. I liked the idea (how ‘The Time Traveller’ could have turned out if H.G. Wells had been smoking a lot of weed) but it ended up feeling a little tame in its execution. ‘A Winter Admiral’ was another one that didn’t really work for me; I came away with the feeling that a little more grounding in the world of the Begg Family would have opened the story up a lot more.

Despite this, both stories had me hooked from the word go (in fact, all of them did). Moorcock has a way of making a character’s innermost being totally accessible to the reader (the female lead in ‘The Opium General’ is a great example) in such a way that your attention is no longer your own. His love of London also shines through in stories like ‘Lunching with the Anti-Christ’ and ‘London Bone’. If you’ve ever lived in London you’ll know exactly what he is on about and if you haven’t then you may find yourself wanting to take a wander down Portobello Road or around Notting Hill itself.

The ‘stand out’ stories for me were the ones where Moorcock decided to really let go and see what his imagination came up with. ‘The Visible Men’ demands a re-read (at least from me anyway) to get just what the heck he is on about. ‘The Deep Fix’ paints a grim picture of a post-apocalyptic earth (I’ll bet you never saw us going out like that!) and then blows it all away with a massive twist right at the very end. ‘My Experiences in the Third World War’ is a glorious descent past the point of no return into the realm of nuclear warfare. The Cossack’s charge, right at the very end, makes it all too clear that we will never be ready for the horrors such warfare will bring.

Is this collection the ‘Best’ of Michael Moorcock? You’ll get a different answer every time you ask the question (my money is still on the ‘Oswald Bastable’ books) but what I would say is that this book is a great stepping stone for anyone wanting to find out if there is more to Moorcock than Elric or Corum. There’s much more to him than that...

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

Films for a Bank Holiday Weekend!

We had a bit of a lazy one this Bank Holiday weekend and very nice it was too; plenty of reading done and (unusually for us) a chance to catch up on the pile of DVDs that always look appealing in the shops but we never seem to get round to watching. Book reviews will be back tomorrow (probably with the Michael Moorcock collection but I am enjoying ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ right now...), in the meantime here’s what we were watching over the weekend...

‘Batman Begins’

How long has it been since this movie came out? I don’t even know but Friday night was when I finally got round to watching it. I am officially rubbish at watching films when they come out and I regret hanging around so long before picking this one up. ‘Batman Begins’ was great.



It made a real change to see what Bruce Wayne actually got up to before turning up in Gotham City as Batman instead of the usual ‘this is what happened to him as a child and look... here’s Batman!’ There was more of a sense of him making an actual journey rather than just nipping to the fancy dress store for a rubber suit. It wasn’t all just thoughtful stuff though, Christian Bale is as hard as they come and when he went to work things kicked off in style with loads of explosions in all the right places. A fine supporting cast (Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon was brilliant, Michael Caine didn’t do a bad job either as Alfred) and a dark brooding Gotham backdrop rounded things off nicely. I’ve never felt the urge to pick up a Batman comic but this film could change all that. Now I just need to watch ‘The Dark Knight’...

‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Back to the Future’

What? Both DVDs were really cheap in Tesco’s and I fancied a nostalgic trip back to the eighties without the indignity of being ten years old all over again...



There’s not a lot I can really say about these two films; you’re probably thinking it already. Both are the best way to spend a weekend in front of the TV without having to think too hard and be entertained at the same time (I will fight anyone who dares say otherwise). What did get me though is the fact that both of these films are well over twenty years old now and there is still stuff in them that I hadn’t noticed until now. Hands up who noticed that when Dana Barrett came back to her apartment, after having done her grocery shopping, she had a packet of ‘Staypuft Marshmallows’ in the bag? Oh... maybe it was just me who hadn’t noticed... It was also interesting to read, on Wikipedia, that Bill Murray’s role as Peter Venkman was originally meant for John Belushi (before he died).



‘Back to the Future’ isn’t as mad and in your face as ‘Ghostbusters’ but still manages to pack a lot into a short space of time. I’ve seen it a dozen times at least and I still get tense watching the final scenes as Marty McFly tries to get back home. In the same way, I always end up cheering at the end where Biff ends up as the guy waxing cars. It’s ideal Bank Holiday viewing however you look at it! :o)

See you tomorrow...

'Olympus #4' - Cover Art

I've been following this series for a little while and it hasn't disappointed me yet! Issue Four is out on September 9th and here's a little early peek at the regular and variant covers that you can expect to see...

Christian Ward artwork...



Tony Harris artwork (variant cover)...



Tony Harris' cover isn't bad but Ward's art is where it's at as far as I'm concerned!