Festive Reading...

It’s a bit of a slow day for the blog so I brazenly strode into the SFX Forum and shamelessly pinched the idea from this thread (thanks Boo!)

I haven’t re-read a book in a long time but I used to do nothing else but re-read all my books as a kid, especially at Christmas when I could tell that new books were sat under the tree and I had to find some way of passing the time until I could open them on the big day. If there wasn’t a decent film on then I’d probably end up either reading something or watching TV while reading something (which inevitably led to some interesting cross-over storylines... Someone needs to write a Ladyhawke/Star Wars crossover if they haven’t already).
What did I re-read though? I read a lot as a kid so it’s actually quite hard to narrow it down but a couple did stand out...

What is it about winter that makes me want to read books where the weather is even colder? I’m not a big fan of winter so I guess I want read something where the main character is even colder than I am. ‘The Dragonbone Chair’ (Tad Williams) was a good one, for this kind of reading, as poor Simon Snowlock had a very cold time of it when he journeyed into Rimmersgard in the face of some really brutal weather. Michael Scott Rohan’s ‘Winter of the World’ books were also good ‘cold reading’ with an entire world under threat from glaciers under the control of the gods. I’ll always remember when Alv steps onto the ice for the first time and the intensity of the cold is like physical pain... You guys really should read these books if you haven’t already, I highly recommend them. Like I said, these days I very rarely re-read anything although I’m getting a little bit nostalgic as we speak... ;o)

Going with the other question from the thread... I can’t help but associate Terry Pratchett’s ‘Discworld’ books with Christmas for the simple reason that there were a number of years where the latest paperback would be under the tree. I would deliberately set out to lose the family game of ‘Christmas Afternoon Monopoly’ (or cards, or whatever game it was) so I could get back to reading me some Pratchett. That was what Christmas was really about in those days :o)

Tad Williams’ ‘The Stone of Farewell’ is another book that I’ll always associate with Christmas as well; another present that I couldn’t help but dive into and only surface for things like food and drink. The big one for me though is...

I watched the TV adaptation, as a kid back in the early eighties, and was given the book not long afterwards. If there was ever a book the screamed ‘Christmas!’ then this is that book. Not only is the whole book covered in a thick blanket of snow but Christmas itself has to be saved (from a gang of criminals who have a car that can turn into an aeroplane, it’s funny what details you remember...). You just can't get a lot more 'Christmas' than that, you just can't.
The last time I read 'The Box of Delights' was one May and it just didn't feel right, this is a book that absolutely has to be read at Christmas or not at all :o) Now I'm feeling even more nostalgic for a re-read...

How about you folks then? Are there any books that you make a habit of re-reading over the festive season? Are there any books that mak you think of Christmas when you were a child? You know where the comments go...

Cover Art Sunday! 'Dark Eden' (Chris Beckett)

If there was ever cover art that got me reading a book straight away it's this...

Simple yet... absolutely gorgeous. I've got a stack of books that I want to read before the end of the year, so I think I'll have to put 'Dark Eden' down for now, but what I have read looks very promising. Check out the blurb...

You live in Eden. You are a member of the Family, one of 532 descendants of Angela and Tommy. You shelter beneath the light and warmth of the Forest's lantern trees, hunting woollybuck and harvesting tree candy. Beyond the forest lie the treeless mountains of the Snowy Dark and a cold so bitter and a night so profound that no man has ever crossed it. The Oldest among you recount legends of a world where light came from the sky, where men and women made boats that could cross between worlds. One day, the Oldest say, they will come back for you. 

You live in Eden. You are a member of the Family, one of 532 descendants of two marooned explorers. You huddle, slowly starving, beneath the light and warmth of geothermal trees, confined to one barely habitable valley of a startlingly alien, sunless world. After 163 years and six generations of incestuous inbreeding, the Family is riddled with deformity and feeblemindedness. Your culture is a infantile stew of half-remembered fact and devolved ritual that stifles innovation and punishes independent thought. 

You are John Redlantern. You will break the laws of Eden, shatter the Family and change history. You will be the first to abandon hope, the first to abandon the old ways, the first to kill another, the first to venture in to the Dark, and the first to discover the truth about Eden.

Yep, I'm in :o) How about you? (Look out for 'Dark Eden' next month)

One for 2012? 'The Isis Collar' (Cat Adams)

The ARCs keep coming in and I'm posting em' here to give you folks a heads up on what's coming your way in 2012. Like this for example...

Celia Graves was once an ordinary human, but those days are long gone. Now she strives to maintain her sanity and her soul while juggling both vampire abilities and the powers of a Siren.

Warned of a magical “bomb” at a local elementary school, Celia forces an evacuation. Oddly, the explosion seems to have no effect, puzzling both Celia and the FBI. Two weeks later, a strangely persistent bruise on Celia’s leg turns out to be the first sign of a magical zombie plague.

Finding the source of the plague isn’t Celia’s only concern. Her alcoholic mother has broken out of prison on the Sirens’ island; her little sister’s ghost has possessed a young girl; and one of Celia’s boyfriends, a powerful mage, has disappeared.

'Urban Fantasy' or 'Urban Fantasy Soap Opera'? 'The Isis Collar' sounds a little too much like the latter to be of any interest to me. Even the bit about zombies. I mean, come on... Isn't the 'Fantasy' bit enough? Let vampires, werewolves (and so on) do what they do best and leave the soap opera stuff out of it, please... I mean, most of these creatures are undead and not actually interested in romance at all dammit! And another thing...

Sorry, I guess I'm not quite ready to pick up an Urban Fantasy novel just yet... :o) 'The Isis Collar' will be published in March next year if you're interested...

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

If Black Library books find their way here then, more often than not, they’re usually set in the grim and dark universe of the forty first millennium. As much as I love reading these books (and you can see from the blog that I do) it’s not my favourite setting out of the two on offer from Games Workshop and the Black Library. No, my longstanding preference for fantasy over science fiction (the subject of a whole other post probably) has always seen me gravitate towards the ‘Warhammer’ setting of the Old World and the constant warfare raging between its member races. It’s well written (for the most part), the battles are suitably epic and there’s a lot more intrigue and story going on than you would think; certainly for a setting that is based around war gaming. The quality can vary but very few of these books have ever let me down.

One ‘Warhammer’ book that I’ve been looking forward to, for a long time now, is the ‘Age of Legend’ anthology, a collection of tales from the dawn of the Old World. My progress through the ‘Time of Legends’ series has been a bit slow to say the least (five books down and four to go...) so I thought it would make a nice change to get stuck into some shorter stories that would fill me in on the detail without taking their time about it. I didn’t get quite what I was after on that score as there’s a lot of background history to get stuck into and the book doesn’t really give a timeline that the stories can be placed against. What I did get though was a collection of thoroughly entertaining tales that served as a great way to blunt the niggly stresses of rotten days at work and a hyperactive baby that just will not sleep. Of course there were some stories that worked for me better than others did; I wouldn’t say that the overall quality was consistent across the board. The overall effect was a good one though; a veritable tidal wave of all out war (heroic deeds, desperate last stands, you name it...) laced with engaging characters who held their respective plots together nicely. As seems to be the tradition here, I’ll take a quick look at each individual story and tell you exactly what I thought of them...

‘A Small Victory’ – Paul S. Kemp
I’ve been following Paul Kemp’s work for a long time and it’s great to see him make an appearance here. Kemp’s work is great, whatever setting he writes in, and this is very much the case here with his tale of a man braving an onslaught of the undead to save the woman that he loves. No word is wasted in a union of zombie conflict and a character that you’ll root for. The ending is a little predictable but the way Kemp tells his tale will make you want to go back and re-read it, just to see if he was telling the tale that you thought he was... 9.5/10

‘Bloodraven’ – Sarah Cawkwell
This short story is very much an introduction to the character of Valkia the Bloody who we will see a lot more of next year. It’s also a tale of heroism against all the odds as an outpost of Dwarves must stand alone against an invasion of Chaos warriors from the north. Plenty of combat lends the tale a lot of energy which keeps things moving very smoothly. Where Cawkwell really shines though is in the way she takes what initially looks like a foregone conclusion and draws out the uncertainty until the last couple of pages. This is a battle that could go either way until the last sword stroke falls; I was utterly hooked. 10/10

‘City of Dead Jewels’ – Nick Kyme
Now here’s a tale that could have shone a lot more if it hadn’t been placed right next to the excellent ‘Bloodraven’. ‘City of Dead Jewels has a lot to recommend it (particularly the tale of the apprentice Dwarf Skalf) but what is meant to be a slow, measured hunt for a monster dwelling underground ends up dragging when placed against the more purposeful ‘Bloodraven’. Actually, ‘City of Dead Jewels’ dragged anyway. There’s also much made of relationships, within the hunting party, that doesn’t seem to come to any kind of fruition. Not a bad tale but could have been better. 7.5/10

‘The Last Charge’ – Andy Hoare
I wasn’t too sure about ‘The Last Charge’ either... Here’s a tale where the ending is given away by the title and the lead character isn’t quite strong enough to make the story interesting in the meantime (you get glimpses of pathos but only glimpses). There’s a nice array of monsters on show but the story doesn’t make the best use of them... 7/10

‘The Ninth Book’ – Gav Thorpe
I’ve found myself reading a lot of Gav Thorpe’s books just recently and have found that his slow, methodical approach to recounting events has been a little offputting. Not this time though! Thorpe’s tale of a vampire, a Chaos Warband and a group of human mercenaries (caught in the middle) is exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. I’m not sure who this mysterious vampire is but I wouldn’t mind seeing more of him as well. 9/10

‘The Gods Demand’ – Josh Reynolds
When you live in a world that can punish the slightest loss of attention with instant death, what can the constant stress do to a man? Josh Reynolds gives us a idea with his story of a Count’s battle to defend a town from an invasion of beastmen. Count Ludendorf will do anything to defend his people but at what cost to his sanity? Was he even sane to begin with? Reynolds brings the realities of war in the Old World crashing down on the reader and pulls no punches. You might wince at the demands made on Ludendorf (plus those that he makes of others) but his steadfast refusal to back down makes for some absolutely glorious battle scenes. 9/10

‘Plague Doktor’ – C.L. Werner
I’m never quite sure whether I like C.L. Werner’s work or not but this time round I definitely did with his tale of an opportunistic scavenger who bites off a lot more than he can chew when he decides to impersonate a plague doctor. The confrontation, right at the end, plays second fiddle to the fractious relationship between Grau and Kahlenburg; a relationship of dependency that highlights what a harsh and unforgiving place the Old World can be. I loved the way that Werner hides the real menace in the shadows and throws it at the reader right at the very end! 9.5/10

‘The City is Theirs’ – Philip Athans
The Orcs are invading the city of Nuln and all that stands between them and victory is a grief stricken Halfling... I liked the premise here but the execution really didn’t work for me. The mix of character viewpoints made the battle look even more confusing than it probably was and when the viewpoint switched to Katzchen (the Halfling) I couldn’t make out what was going on. There was a sense of something massive happening but it didn’t really focus into much detail... 7/10

‘The Second Sun’ – Ben Counter
Here’s a tale that stands out from the rest because there is no combat whatsoever, ‘The Second Sun’ also bridges the gap between the past and present in a way that none of the other stories do, I liked the way that Counter had two stories running parallel to each other and the arrogance of the Bright College left the tale hanging on an ominous note. There was more than enough here to have me interested in more of this particular tale if Counter was to ever write it 9/10

‘Aenarion’ – Gav Thorpe
I’m not really going to go into detail about what I thought of ‘Aenarion’, simply because I’ve already reviewed the audio-book over Here and it's basically the same story. As with James Swallow’s ‘Heart of Rage’, it’s good to see these audio-books perhaps reach a slightly wider audience by making the jump to print format. I can’t help but feel a little sorry though for the people who have forked out for the CD and now find themselves coming across it again... A great tale though.

‘The Shrinking Man’ – Richard Matheson (Gollancz)

Is it just me or does time seem to flow more and more quickly as the end of the year draws ever closer? This is my way of saying that not only do I still need to write my ‘Smugglivus’ post (it’s coming, honest!) but I still haven’t started on ‘The Heroes’. It’s also my way of saying that it was only four weeks ago that I watched ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’ but it feels like a lot longer...


You can read what I wrote over Here but the gist of it goes a little something like this,

The film was so good, in fact, that I went out and bought the book not long afterwards. Check it out, seriously...


So, not only a film that I watched the hell out of but a film that prompted me to visit ‘Amazon New & Used’ the following day and pick up the book. Thanks to the Richard Matheson connection, ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’ may have also nudged me in the direction of re-reading ‘I Am Legend’. Was the film really that good? Yes, yes it was.


All in all then, ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’ made for a great way to spend an hour and a bit. Now I need to get on and read the book...

Yep, I was full of the praise that day wasn’t I? I’ll stand by it as well; ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’ was an excellent film. I didn’t hang around getting myself a copy of ‘The Shrinking Man’ but, things being the way they are these days, it took me a little longer than normal to get round to reading it. I got there in the end though and picked up the book with high hopes of a novel that was as effective as the film. My hopes were realised but what I didn’t realise, at the time, was that ‘The Shrinking Man’ would prove to be one of the most difficult reviews I’ve ever found myself having to write...

It’s around this point in a review that I give a little blurb on what the book is all about. I’m not going to go into too much detail this time round as I’ve covered this already when I spoke about the film (click on the link at the top if you haven’t already). Suffice it to say that Scott Carey has been exposed to a cloud of radioactive spray and is slowly, but steadily, shrinking. And as Scott Carey shrinks, his problems just keep growing larger and larger.

I thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Shrinking Man’, a book that somehow contrived to lose the ‘incredible’ out of the title but was no less incredible for it. Sitting down to write about it though proved to be a different matter entirely...

You see, the thing is that either the film is a very faithful adaptation of the book or the book dovetails very closely with the film. Actually, looking at the comment next to my film post, it looks like the book came first. The end result though is that I found myself in a position where I’d already said everything about the story itself whilst covering the film adaptation. It’s that faithful to the book.

So, was there anything new I could write about 'The Shrinking Man'? As it happened, yes :o)

Whereas the film sticks to a fairly straightforward, and linear, portrayal of Carey’s shrinking the book jumps backwards and forwards along the timeline, using seemingly random landing points to show us either a new facet of Carey’s character or a problem caused by his shrinking. The ‘film storyline’ works in terms of setting up just how relentless Carey’s shrinking is. I have to say though that I much preferred how the book approached things as the emphasis is more on Carey himself and how he reacts as his previously comfortable becomes something else entirely. The film veers off from the book and that it only gives a brief nod to the changing dynamic between Carey and his wife. The book goes into a lot more detail here and we get to see a much greater degree of emasculation on Carey’s part. He wants to make love to his wife but, as he shrinks, she cannot help but treat him like a child and this fosters a real sense of tension when they are together. Not only does Carey become ‘less of a husband’ but he also becomes ‘less of a father’ as well; in the book he has a daughter and Matheson uses this changing dynamic to strip away a little more of Carey’s manhood. By the end of the book, Carey’s character is stripped right down to the basics and it’s this that ultimately enables him to not only survive but also to move on with his new life. It’s an intriguing journey made all the more detailed by it being written down instead of shown on the screen.

The book also gives us an opening, into the story, that is far more effective than the film’s and has to rank in my top five list of great novel openings that hook the reader right from the off (now there’s a post that I will have to write sometime). Possible spoilers coming up here... We are given a brief description of what happened to Carey (radioactive spray) but no idea of what it will lead to. We are then shown Carey’s passage through a strange and bewildering landscape that seems strangely familiar. The reader’s perspective pans out to show us the cellar and it’s then we realise Carey’s true predicament. Matheson’s approach is masterful, throwing the reader titbits, to keep them interested, and then hitting them right between the eyes with the revelation. Even I was hooked and I knew the story before I’d picked the book up. Matheson takes things one step further by making the confrontation between Carey and the spider a real matter of life and death where the giant environs of the cellar can contain deadly traps for the unwary (at least one passage actually made me jump). The added theme of the spider’s perceived desire for revenge (which you don’t find out about until much later on in the book) adds some real urgency to these passages.

Despite having seen the film only a few weeks beforehand, I couldn’t help but find myself being irresistibly drawn into the story once again and I didn’t put the book down until I’d finished. The idea of people shrinking isn’t a new one but I’d say that it’s Matheson’s treatment of the theme that makes ‘The Shrinking Man’ a book that well deserves its place as an ‘SF Masterwork’. I’ve seen copies still available in bookshops but Amazon is probably the place to go if you’re after a bargain. Whichever way you go, pick a copy up.

Ten out of Ten

‘Doctor Who: Borrowed Time’ – Naomi A. Alderman (BBC Books)

Over the last year or so, it has become clearer to me that I much prefer ‘Doctor Who’ in it’s natural home, on the TV, rather than in book form. Not that I don’t enjoy the books not at all (especially if it’s Michael Moorcock taking up the writing duties) but, for me, the quality has been a lot more consistent in the show. As far as the books go though, for every ‘Dead of Winter’ there is a ‘Touched by an Angel’... To be blunt, the TV show churns out winners a lot more than the books do.

That’s not to say that I’ll stop reading the books though (no matter what I might have said after reading ‘Touched by an Angel’). The simple fact of the matter is that I love ‘Doctor Who’ and I’ll seek out my fix wherever I can (especially now the TV show is over for the time being) whether it’s old clips on Youtube, the old Target novelizations or what BBC books are bringing out at the moment. Which brings me neatly onto Naomi Alderman’s ‘Borrowed Time’. ‘Touched by an Angel’ was so disappointing that I briefly considered not bothering with the books anymore but ‘Borrowed Time’ was there, waiting to be read, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m really glad I did. ‘Borrowed Time’ isn’t a perfect read, by any means, but I had a lot of fun with it all the same...

Andrew Brown never seems to have enough time to get everything done, a really bad thing when you’re working at an investment bank and your main rival for promotion is always one step ahead of you. How come Sameera Jenkins always seems to find those extra few minutes in the day, where is she finding the time?
Mr Symington and Mr Blenkinsop have just the answer; they are prepared to lend Andrew time at a very reasonable rate of interest, in the same way that they have been lending time to everyone else at the bank. Has anyone read the small print though? No, they haven’t and that’s where the Doctor comes in.
The Doctor senses danger and goes undercover at the bank to find out just what is going on. Events become a little more urgent though when Amy borrows a little time for herself and realises just what it’s going to take to pay it back...

Like I said, ‘Borrowed Time’ isn’t a perfect read but what it’s just like is watching one of those madcap episodes of ‘Doctor Who’ on the TV. You know, the ones where everyone seems to be running a lot and there’s always a monster hiding round the corner when you least expect it. That’s ‘Borrowed Time’ and it was a lot of fun to read. I’d love to see a few more ‘Doctor Who’ books just like this one if that’s ok?

Now I’ve got no idea what compound interest is and precisely the kind of mind that refuses to grasp the concept. I can write a blog but numbers make me want to go and hide somewhere with loads of books to distract me, that’s just the way I am I guess :o)

What this meant of course was that when the Doctor tried to explain what was going on, to Amy Pond, the whole lot went straight over my head and I couldn’t help but find myself thinking of cake (read the book and you’ll see why...) Now this isn’t the book’s fault but I found myself wondering how the younger section of the Doctor Who fan base would cope with that explanation... The short answer is ‘probably better than me’ but I still wonder if those passages could have been a little bit clearer (and if anyone wants to leave a comment next to this post, that explains compound interest, I’d be very grateful thanks!)

Once you get past this though you’ll find yourself slap bang in the middle of some classic ‘Doctor Who’ storytelling. As far as I’m concerned, Naomi Alderman hits the target dead on with what she brings to the page.

Alderman kicks things by somehow letting us know exactly what’s going on but dressing it up as a mystery, that we need to get to the bottom of, all at the same time. We know what’s happening (well, some of it) but the Doctor and his companions don’t and the Doctor’s inquisitiveness is infectious, I wanted to be around to see him discover the big picture. That big picture is a delightful blend of investment banking with an alien flavour that intrigued me more than enough to keep reading. I loved the way that Alderman took something fairly mundane and shows the reader that the rest of the galaxy is at it as well, it has just been taken to a whole new level...

I’ve already mentioned the abundance of running in the plot, whether it’s away from something or a frantic dash to be somewhere so the day can be well and truly saved. The predatory Messrs Symington and Blenkinsop are ‘Doctor Who’ monsters in the nastiest tradition, full of teeth and utterly remorseless. They’re also very quick on their feet and this has the added affect of keeping the plot moving rapidly whenever they make an appearance. Events move along quickly and you end up moving along with them. Alderman builds up enough of a rapport with her characters to make you care about what happens to them (especially Amy Pond) and when you add this to the underlying mystery, and those monsters snapping at the Doctor’s heels, you end up with a book that almost demands you keep reading.

A large chunk of ‘Borrowed Time’ went over my head and perhaps could have been explained a little more clearly but this is more than made up for with the rest of the book. What you’ve got here is a tale that any fan will love and I hope that Naomi Alderman writes more ‘Doctor Who’ books in the future.

Nine out of Ten

Free Reading! Chapter One of 'Double Dead' (Chuck Wendig)

You all read my review of 'Double Dead' and saw how great I thought it was (You didn't? Click Here then...); now you can read it for yourself and see what you think. Well, you can only read Chapter One but that's got to be more than enough of a taster to see if you'd like to read the rest of the book, hasn't it? :o)
Click Here for loads of different formats that you can download, then come back here and let me know what you thought of it...

‘Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth’ – Ethan Nicolle & Malachai Nicolle (Dark Horse Comics)

It’s embarrassing to admit but I am a comic book seller’s dream customer. If I’m going to buy a story it will inevitably be in trade format. Not only does it save me a few pounds but they look so much nicer on the bookshelf (well, more like in my cupboard at the moment; Hope is not getting her hands on my comic books!) I save it saves me money but... Every now and then I can’t resist getting the single issues as well, especially if I’ve really enjoyed a story and want to know what happens. I’m particularly weak here when it comes to ‘The Walking Dead’ and ‘The Goon’.


This was the case way back in March this year (seems like so long ago now...) when I couldn’t help but pick up the first issue of the ‘Axe Cop’ mini-series ‘Bad Guy Earth’. Have a quick read of the review that I posted and you’ll see that both my wife and I were giggling like a couple of school kids, all the way home on the bus, as we read it. Me being me (and my daughter being, well, a hyperactive attention demanding toddler) I never picked up the other two issues and that March review looked to be in danger of becoming an unfinished tale. Luckily for me (and you ‘Axe Cop’ loving blog readers) the trade came out a couple of months ago and, once I realised it was on the shelves, I didn’t hang around picking it up.

‘Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth’ is written by a seven year old boy so attempting to summarise the plot is an impossible task at best. And why would you want to? Ethan and Malachai Nicolle clearly revel in the surreal world of Axe Cop and are more than happy to just go with the flow and see where the story takes them. That seems to be the way ‘Axe Cop’ is written (and I just know that we can all remember playing games like that when we were little, don’t pretend you didn’t) and it’s certainly the best way to read it. Just go with the flow; accept that there will be dinosaurs that can breathe fire and have gatling guns for arms, accept that entire planets can be destroyed with a tiny ‘Planet Shocker’ (it has a ‘giant’ button) and accept that Dinosaur Soldier can’t help but transform into something else whenever he comes into contact with blood (President Zombie Bear Cop? Yep...) If you still really want to know what the plot is, Axe Cop and his team must stop two psychic brothers (from outer space) turning our planet into ‘Bad Guy Earth’. I still think you’re missing the point though.

‘Bad Guy Earth’ is your chance to take a little trip back in time and be six or seven years old again, playing games in your back garden on a sunny August afternoon. Malachai Nicolle and his imagination are your hosts for the ride and you are in good hands. You might not be able to play games, like you did when you were a kid, but Malachai’s sheer joy and exuberance more than make up for it. No monster is too big and no explosion is too big either. Malachai throws Axe Cop at the most hideous dangers with the kind of joyous confidence that only a six year boy can have in his heroic creation. It’s no surprise then that Axe Cop always wins, the story just wouldn’t work otherwise (and it definitely won’t work if you approach it with an adult mindset, just relax and suspend that disbelief a little). The outcome is never in any doubt but it’s the journey there that counts, a journey that is crammed full of awesome :o)

What a story like this needs is an artist that completely gets the vision of the writer and if you’re the writer’s big brother then that is never going to be a problem. It’s clear, just by looking at each page, that only Ethan Nicolle could draw Axe Cop. He’s the guy with the insight into Malachai’s imagination and it shows with pages jammed full of monsters, explosions and a law enforcement who will chop your head off if you’re a bad guy. There’s no beating around the bush here, Ethan Nicolle absolutely nails the artwork to the extent where I found myself wondering what the point of the ‘Guest Artist Gallery’ was...

‘Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth’ is a superb read and the most fun I’ve had since I read the last ‘Axe Cop’ book. Comic books just don’t get any more fun than this.
Nine and a Half out of Ten

Monday Morning Cover Art! (Christian Slater Edition...)

Is it just me or is that Christian Slater being chased by a giant down some twisting street or other? What do you reckon...?

I picked 'Giant Thief' up last night thanks to this post from the Mad Hatter; I'm only a few pages in but will add my voice to his as far as recommending this 2012 release (from Angry Robot) goes. It's all looking very promising, check out the blurb...

Meet Easie Damasco, rogue, thieving swine and total charmer.


Even the wicked can’t rest when a vicious warlord and the force of enslaved giants he commands invade their homeland. Damasco might get away in one piece, but he’s going to need help.

Now there's a blurb that's short and sweet! No mention of the... that would probably be telling. I'm looking to post a review possibly next week so you'll find out more then :o)

What else am I reading? Well, I've picked up 'Neuromancer', for the first time in years, and I've also got Gav Thorpe's 'Deliverance Lost' and Christian Dunn's 'Age of Legends' on the go. If that wasn't enough, I'm gearing up to get started on 'The Heroes' and 'The Emperor's Knife'; my copy of 'The Call of Cthulhu' is also starting to feel all neglected and unloved at the bottom of my bag. Yet again, I can't seem to settle on just one book at the moment...

One for 2012? 'Range of Ghosts' (Elizabeth Bear)

Oooh, this could be more like it...

Temur, grandson of the Great Khan, is walking away from a battlefield where he was left for dead. All around lie the fallen armies of his cousin and his brother, who made war to rule the Khaganate. Temur is now the legitimate heir by blood to his grandfather’s throne, but he is not the strongest. Going into exile is the only way to survive his ruthless cousin.
Once-Princess Samarkar is climbing the thousand steps of the Citadel of the Wizards of Tsarepheth. She was heir to the Rasan Empire until her father got a son on a new wife. Then she was sent to be the wife of a Prince in Song, but that marriage ended in battle and blood. Now she has renounced her worldly power to seek the magical power of the wizards. These two will come together to stand against the hidden cult that has so carefully brought all the empires of the Celadon Highway to strife and civil war through guile and deceit and sorcerous power.

Epic Sword and Sorcery? I've had mixed results from the books, of Bear's, that I've read but 'Range of Ghosts' sounds like it could easily be my thing. I find myself reading a lot more fantasy these days and what I can see of the setting here looks appealing. How about you though, can you see yourself giving 'Range of Ghosts' a go?

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.