‘The Reef’ – Mark Charan Newton (Pendragon Press)

Taking a book to read on a train journey is always a risky business. What if you get an hour or two down the track and realise that you can’t stand the thing? If you haven’t paid a visit to the newsagent beforehand then you run the very real risk of being stuck with one of those stupid free promotional magazines (although to be fair they do tell you what to do if the train crashes!)
I’m pleased to say that Mark Charan Newton’s ‘The Reef’ passed the ‘train journey test’ with flying colours. Not a perfect read but a more than worthy debut from an author that I’ll be looking out for in the future…
The threat of genocide in a tropical paradise leads a crew of freelance explorers, under the command of the charismatic Santiago DeBrelt, to travel to the island of Arya to solve the mystery behind the killings. What turns out to be of more concern though is the personal baggage that each member of the crew brings with them and how this is played out. While all this is happening, a group of terrorists are making their own way towards the island, theirs is a mission of revenge and what lies underneath the island will help them achieve this…
The first thing that struck me about ‘The Reef’ is how beautifully the continent of Has-jahn is realised on paper. Not a lot appears to happen for the first chapter or so but I really didn’t care as I was too busy getting totally lost in the winding streets of Escha, the shanty town outside Rhoam and (eventually) the island of Arya itself. Shared anecdotes between characters add depth to the background world building and made my journey an enthralling one. And this was all before I got to meet the inhabitants of the continent. The Que-Falta had echoes of Mieville’s ‘Re-Made’ but the ‘self-inflicted’ twist added a refreshing spin on this. I was really getting into the world-building aspect of ‘The Reef’ and was starting to come up with questions that I wanted answering. For example, why was there a rebellion against science? There are a lot of things left unanswered but this is ok as I never expect to have everything answered for me (it adds to the mystery). It was still a bit of a jolt though when, all of a sudden, the focus shifted onto what was going on in each character’s head. Again, this was really gripping stuff especially how the darker side of human nature was set against a bright and sunny tropical backdrop. The contrast serves to really hammer home how nasty (and sometimes just plain thoughtless) people can be. Newton takes the reader on an ideological journey through the actions of his characters and, for me, this was a real refreshing shift away from recent fantasy that I’ve read. It was just that the change in focus threw me out of the book and I had to get back into it all over again. While a book doesn’t have to concentrate on just one thing I think ‘The Reef’ would have benefited from a smoother transition between themes. The book could have benefited from being a little longer so a little more sense could be made from certain parts of the story. A character who dies gives us his commentary, from beyond the grave, but I was left wondering why he needed to suddenly appear (he disappeared just as suddenly). There is also a surreal conversation with a snake where I really wanted to see where things went but, again, nothing more happened. Was there a talking snake hiding on the island or was a certain character having a minor breakdown? I’ve got a good idea but will never know for certain…
Despite my issues with ‘The Reef’ I still think it’s a book that people will get a lot out of, especially if they’re fans of China Mieville’s work. Whether you’re after soaking up the sights of a fantastically drawn world, or being challenged by the darker recesses of the human mind (or even both!), then this is the book for you. Newton’s next work to be published will be his ‘Nights of Villjamur’ series and, on the strength of ‘The Reef’, I’m very much looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

Eight out of Ten

'Cassandra Kresnov' Competition - The Winner!

Thanks to everyone who entered but I'm afraid there could only be one winner. The lucky person (who will receive copies of 'Crossover', 'Breakaway' and 'Killswitch') is...

Ryan Frye, Seattle

Nice one Ryan! Your books are on their way... (better luck next time everyone else!)

The 'I've got a horrible feeling that I'm still hungover' link bonanza!

I've just got back from a great weekend in Sheffield with all my mates from the SFX forum; lightsaber fights, Chinese food and pretty much all the Star Trek films. Good times... :o)
I've hardly had any sleep and I'm wishing that I hadn't drunk quite so much! Here's some links for you, I'm going to bed after I've posted this...

The Book Swede has what may be the first review of Brian Ruckley's Bloodheir, he also introduces us to his Pile of Shame...

There's been a lot of talk about 'blog reviews' just recently. Jay Tomio has this to say...

Pat didn't think an awful lot of Andrzej Sapkowski's 'The Last Wish'

Over at Fantasy Debut it's time for a 'debut showcase' and it's Elizabeth C. Bunce's A Curse As Dark As Gold in the frame.

Tobias Buckell has a quick word to say about the Green Man Review's Best of 2007 List.

SQT has a guest review for Vikki Pettersson's Scent of Shadows

Last but not least, Thrinidir over at Realms of Speculative Fiction has a look at Ursula K. Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven...

What am I doing while all this is going on? I've just finished Mark Charan Newton's debut novel, 'The Reef', and will be reviewing it soon. I'm now reading Gary Braunbeck's latest 'Cedar Hill' novel 'Coffin County', it's pretty damn good so far :o)

Going on a train ride...

... in the next hour or so which means I have to carry a lightsaber (don't ask!) across a London that is not so used to these things...
It's going to be a good journey though because not only am I reading Mark Charan Newton's 'The Reef' (very good so far) but I've just had copies of 'The Born Queen' (the book I've been looking forward to most this year!) and Gary Braunbeck's 'Coffin County' land on my doormat. I may just decide not to get off the train and keep on reading! ;o)

Have a great weekend!

From My Bookshelf... 'Tailchaser's Song' - Tad Williams

This isn't so much a review, more of a 'shout out' to an old favourite of mine ;o)
In the late eighties/early nineties I'd just started reading Tad Williams' 'Memory, Sorrow and Thorn' series. After a very slow start, 'The Dragonbone Chair' really caught my imagination and I can remember one Christmas where all I wanted to do was read 'The Stone of Farewell', in my opinion the best book in the series (stupid family games of Monopoly getting in the way!) I got to the end of 'The Stone of Farewell', for maybe the second or third time, and realised that there was going to be no new adventures of Simon, Binabik and co. for a long time to come (for a good year at least) What was I going to do? And that was when I realised that the 'By the same author' page was about to come in very useful in deed... I had a choice between 'Tailchaser's Song', 'Caliban's Hour' and 'Child of an Ancient City'. 'Tailchaser's Song' won simply because it had the coolest sounding name! I'm writing this at work (naughty ol' me!) so today you get a 'copy and paste synopsis'... (thank you Wikipedia!)

Fritti Tailchaser, a young ginger tom cat sets out to stray from his home and clan, the Meeting Wall Clan, in search of his catfriend Hushpad after strange disappearances of the Folk have been reported. He and the kitten Pouncequick set out on a long journey to visit the Court of Harar with the intention of finding out the mystery of the disappearances--a journey that will take them to cat Hell and beyond.

At this time, the only 'animal books' I'd read were 'Wind in the Willows' and 'Watership Down'. While I'd quite happily defend these books as 'classics', what spoiled them for me (a bit) was that the animals involved came across as very human and 'British' in their both their outlook and mannerisms. Tad went in a different direction and made his cats so 'animal-like' that they were almost alien as far as I was concerned. I'll still say that if you want to read a book where animals act as animals then 'Tailchaser's Song' is a good place to start.
'Tailchaser's Song' was Tad Williams' debut novel and does look a little rough around the edges when you compare it to his later works, in some ways it's almost like a 'work in progress' where he is experimenting with ideas that he will use more fully later on (in particular his fascination with the art of storytelling and its influence on society). The story has plenty of twists and turns but does appear simplistic at times, what saves it (and makes it a favourite of mine) is the characterisation and worldbuilding that Tad employs. A lot of thought seems to have gone into what makes the characters tick and they always act accordingly, any aberrations always occur with the story in mind. The journey that Tailchaser embarks upon is a device for character development but also serves as a vehicle by which Tailchaser's world becomes known to the reader. The best way I can describe it is by comparing it to a journey you would make yourself, where more and more detail becomes apparent the further you go. Tailchaser has never seen the outside world before so we get to share his sense of wonder as well as experiencing our own.
'Tailchaser's Song' is the ideal solution if you want to read something by Tad Williams that isn't a multi-volume epic, it's everything that I love about his work but it's a bite size chunk rather than a three course meal ;o)

‘Small Favour’ – Jim Butcher (Orbit Books)

After having enjoyed ‘White Night’ I was pleased to see Jim Butcher’s latest ‘Harry Dresden’ tale come through the door. After a fairly dodgy start I’m really getting into what ‘urban fantasy’ has to offer and Jim Butcher is a name that I look out for. While ‘Small Favour’ wasn’t perfect it certainly didn’t disappoint either…
Things have been uncommonly quiet for Harry Dresden just recently. All the elements of the supernatural community seem to be getting on with each other and, more importantly, no-one has tried to kill Harry in almost a year. All that is about to change though. You see, Harry owes two favours to Mab (Queen of Air and Darkness and ruler of the Winter Court of the Sidhe) and she is about to call one of them in. It’s just a small favour but one that Harry cannot refuse, even if it brings the real risk of most of Chicago crashing down on his head…
As with ‘White Night’, you’ll get more out of ‘Small Favour’ if you’ve been reading the series since the first book. I got off a little more lightly this time, having read the previous book, but there is a lot of stuff happening that is the result of things that took place maybe two or three books ago. ‘Infodumps’ make up for this but only up to a point. I found myself wishing that I had read earlier books just so I could have more of a feel for the overall story. Maybe this is something I’ll get round to remedying some time… Another area where ‘Small Favour’ could prove problematic, for the first time reader is the complexity of the relationships both between characters and various factions. While there is a rich depth to the various interactions (that you could only really get from a long standing series such as this) it would have helped me as a reader if I’d had a little advance warning. Certain relationships appeared to be a little unlikely (to say the least) and the ongoing plot regarding the faerie hit men only looked as if it was there so that Dresden would have a way to bail out of the final confrontation. However, given that this is the tenth book in a series should Butcher be thinking of people who haven’t read all the other books first? I don’t think he should have to…
Difficulties aside, ‘Small Favour’ is an excellent read in terms of the plot itself. The story is convoluted but everything looks like it’s there for a good reason and the resolution of one plot line (in particular) really threw me! One thing that I have found myself looking for recently are ‘set piece battles’ that stories tend to build up to and wind down from. While Butcher prefers to concentrate more on the ‘pulp noir’ side of the story he doesn’t hold anything back when it’s time for a showdown. A pitched battle in Chicago train station, a house under siege or a final confrontation on Lake Michigan, it’s all good and some of the power on display was enough to make me gasp! This is tempered (and bought into perspective) by quieter moments where characters get a chance to kick back and relax and it’s here where Butcher’s ability to draw likeable and compelling characters comes to the fore.
‘Small Favour’ is really a book for the long term ‘Dresden fan’ but don’t let that put you off if you’re after a good slice of urban fantasy pulp noir (it’s pretty much persuaded me to find the rest of the series). I think it’s got pretty much everything you’re looking for.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

Bakker & Jones: New Prologues on-line!

This has already been mentioned over on the Westeros Forum but I thought it was worth saying again ;o) Pat has already covered the 'Neuropath' prologue, I've had a quick read and it has whetted my appetite for what looks to be quite a disturbing book!
If you fancy reading the prologue for J.V Jones' 'Watcher of the Dead' (latest in the 'Sword of Shadows' series) then Here is where you need to be looking! From where I'm sat it all looks pretty interesting...

My Wife is Great!

Sue is great anyway but she is especially great right now as, yesterday, she jumped out of an aeroplane (10,000 feet up in the air) to raise money for a children's paediatric ward in London. Sue raised just over a thousand pounds in all :o) I've seen the DVD (you can get a camera-man to skydive with you) and my heart is still in my mouth so I can only imagine what it must have been like for real...
Well done Sue! I'm really proud of you :o)

Giveaway! 'The Cassandra Kresnov Trilogy'

The last few weeks have seen me reading (and really enjoying) Joel Shepherd's 'Cassandra Kresnov' trilogy, the high octane tales of a synthetic human making her way in a brave new world and caught between various factions that would rather see her dead. The series comprises Crossover, Breakaway and Killswitch and is a hefty dose of poilitical intrigue/people firing big guns which should appeal to any sci-fi fan.
Sounds good doesn't it? How do you fancy winning the entire trilogy? You do? Well here's what you have to do...
Send me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and where you live (full postal address please, that way I can get the books to you a whole lot quicker), anyone can enter but you can only enter once!
I'm going to let this competition run until next Monday (31st March) and I'll announce the winner on Tuesday.

Good Luck!

‘The Name of the Wind’ – Patrick Rothfuss (DAW Books)

Graeme turns up late to the party yet again! While everyone was saying, last year, how great this book was I was thinking that I really must get round to reading it at some point… I actually bought a copy of ‘The Name of the Wind’ just before I started the blog and I thought it would be a good one to review. One year on and a week’s annual leave seemed like the ideal time to finally get into this book. While I’m kicking myself for not picking this up sooner I’m also glad that I waited until I had some proper free time as ‘The Name of the Wind’ really demanded that from me.
As this was one of the most hyped books of last year you probably already know the story even if you haven’t read the book. For those of you who don’t; ‘The Name of the Wind’ is the first book in a trilogy that recounts the life story of Kvothe, master wizard and stuff of legend. In this first instalment we get to learn about his formative years; including his time spent in a travelling troupe, his years as an orphan in a crime ridden city and the beginning of his time at university. All the while there are ‘interludes’ that show the reader Kvothe in the present day and how his past actions have led to his present status. There’s almost a case of ‘double foreshadowing’ as the reader gets to see the results of past misdeeds as well as present day occurrences that hint at the shape of things to come…
‘The Name of the Wind’ is a hard book to review in that Kvothe is telling his story for his own ends rather than the reader’s. Because of this you get a lot of what Kvothe wants the reader to know but there can be a lot of gaps if there are other things that you want to know. Because of the way that the story is told, there is an assumption that the reader (or listener in Chronicler’s case) has the background knowledge of an inhabitant of Kvothe’s world. For example, Kvothe will go into great detail about his time in Tarbean and Trebon (because that is part of his story) but will be a lot more vague about the surrounding area/history etc. I found it almost infuriating that that such a richly detailed account of Kvothe’s life would habitually fall short when it came to describing the wider world, especially when he gave such weight to describing things such as university lessons (the content of which failed to hold my interest). Having said that though, it has served the purpose of making me all the more eager for the next book! One other thing that I noticed was that Kvothe has a habit of flitting between the ‘Kvothe telling the story’ and the ‘Kvothe in the story’. For example; in the story Kvothe will meet someone, for the first time, and not know their name but will mention the person by name a couple of sentences later without any introduction having been made. I found this confusing until I got the hang of it.
‘The Name of the Wind’ has had so much hype and discussion that I thought I had to mention it’s shortcomings (or at least the ones I perceived) just to try and get a sense of balance in my own review. The thing is; despite the trouble I had with it ‘The Name of the Wind’ is an astonishingly good read of the kind where I’d be sneaking five-minute reads here and there when I should have been doing other things instead. Rothfuss takes a huge risk in having a character so full of himself that he is arrogant beyond belief but it does pay off as when Kvothe is bought low I really felt for him. There are great highs and sickening lows and this rollercoaster effect really kept me turning the pages to see what would happen next. ‘The Name of the Wind’ has a real sense of something amazing in the offing and I intend to be around and see what happen next. It’s not a gritty read, like Abercrombie or Lynch, but there is still a lot there for any fantasy fan to enjoy. I wish I’d read this sooner.

Nine out of Ten

The Saturday 'I hope my wife's parachute works tomorrow' link up spectacular!

This time tomorrow my wife will be doing her charity skydive and I'm getting attacks of vertigo just thinking about it. My wife seems to be taking it all in her stride though and acting very cool about the whole thing. Fingers crossed and all that!
In the meantime, here are some of the things I saw this week that made me think "ooh, cool..."

Fantasy Book Critic reviews one of the books that I'm looking forward to most in 2008.

This week saw the sad passing of sci-fi stalwart Arthur C. Clarke, the Wertzone is amongst those who paid their respects.

Sandstorm reviews looks at my Least favourite Terry Pratchett Book...

Larry looks at various award finalists and his review plans for them.

If there isn't enough links for you here then Neth Space has a few more for you...

Speculative Horizons has a few things to say about the earlier book covers for James Barclay's 'The Raven' series.

I've just discovered the Solaris Editor's Blog and it looks pretty cool, have a look over Here

There's a discussion on Pat's blog about the issue of 'voice' in blogging and Aidan has provided us with a handy link!

Last but not least, Grasping for the Wind looks at The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells.

What am I doing? Well, I've finally got around to reading 'The Name of the Wind' and am wondering why I didn't pick it up sooner. Look for a review in the next few days...

Have a great weekend everyone!

‘Truancy’ – Isamu Fukui (Tor Books)

When I was fifteen I wanted to write a book. Unfortunately, not only had Tolkien got there first but also others were copying him. That was that for me… If I’d thought about it though, I could have done what Isamu Fukui did. You see, there was a lot about school that I absolutely hated but it never occurred to me to write a book about it. However, it did occur to a fifteen-year-old Isamu Fukui and ‘Truancy’ was born.
A nameless city serves as an experiment in human conditioning where children are subjected to endless schooling by sadistic teachers. Outside the system; former students have banded together to form the ‘Truancy’, a group dedicated to overthrowing the regime. Fifteen-year-old Tack is about to find himself caught up in this struggle through the most harrowing of circumstances and will have to question who he really is as the violence spirals out of control.
I’ll admit that the first thing I thought was, “a fifteen year boy who hates school is writing about a fifteen year old boy who hates school, did someone have a couple of bad days at school and want to moan about it? Is this the equivalent of someone being told off by their parents and then writing a story about how horrible fathers are?” Well, yes and no…
Some of the school scenes are very black and white in how the characters are depicted, all the teachers are evil (and don’t care about how unfair the homework is) while the students are hard done by and resentful. I can appreciate why the scene is being set like this and the target audience (teenagers who hate school) are going to lap it up. I’m not part of the target audience though and these scenes just left me cold. I ended up thinking, “I had to deal with school, stop making such a fuss and get on with it…”
However, I think Fukui really comes into his own when the story moves out of the classroom and onto the streets. The story itself is fast paced with plenty happening and loads of twists and double crosses. I really got into it and pretty much tore through the book to find out what happened next.
The character of Tack is used to explore themes of honour, friendship and revenge and while it doesn’t come across particularly subtly there was some real hard hitting stuff going on that made me stop and think. While Fukui denounces violence he accepts that it has a part to play in the tale and doesn’t hold back. A young adult audience will love scenes of missile attacks etc on schools and I’ve got to admit that my inner teenager wanted to be the person pulling the trigger.
If I was a teenage reviewer then I’d be giving ‘Truancy’ top marks but I felt that a lot of what Fukui was trying to say passed me by purely because I was too old to really get a feel for it. It is an entertaining read though and good fun, a ‘Battle Royale’ for a younger generation.

Seven and a Half out of Ten

Movie! ‘Spirited Away’

After having watched (and reviewed) ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ just after Christmas, a few people left comments saying that I really need to check out ‘Spirited Away’ as well. I need very little excuse for a spot of DVD shopping so off I went and found myself a copy straightaway! I haven’t really had a chance to put it on until today but I’ve just finished watching it and I’m really glad that I did. It was superb.
For those of you that don’t know the story ‘Spirited Away’ tells the tale of Chihiro, a small girl who is unhappy at having to move house. On the way to their new home her parents stop to explore what looks like an abandoned theme park but is actually a ghostly town. Before Chihiro knows it, she is engaged in a quest to save her parents whilst at the same time trying to stay alive and fend for herself in a new world inhabited by Gods and spirits…
This is a really hard review to write as everything that that I liked about ‘Spirited Away’ is the same as what I liked in ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’. Suffice it to say that the DVD packaging says that ‘Spirited Away’ is “the most successful film of all time in it’s native Japan’ and I can completely see why. The artwork/ animation blew me away yet again; everything seems to have been drawn to a really minute level of detail with no expense spared. Like ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’, ‘Spirited Away’ is another anime that completely demands your attention and at times the combination of animation/incidental music meant that I actually had trouble concentrating on the story itself. Talking of the story… it’s a real mixture of the classic ‘quest’ tale (Chihiro’s attempts to save her parents) and loads of little extra bits that serve purpose other than to really open up the world that the film is set in. For example, who is No-Face and what is the point of him in the film? Why did someone take the decision to open a bath-house for weary Gods and spirits? You don’t get the answers and it doesn’t really matter either, just enjoy the spectacle that is unfolding before you. The bath-house itself is an amazing creation that’s full of life with a surprise around every corner, I was actually quite sad to leave at the end of it and I got the impression that Chihiro was as well. And that’s the only issue I really had with the film, everything seemed to build up to a confrontation that came across as anti-climatic and things just petered out after that.
All in all though, an amazing experience. I’m really glad I finally got round to watching ‘Spirited Away’, if you haven’t already seen it then I heartily recommend that you do.

Nine out of Ten

One year of blogging!

It was on this day, a year ago, that I was sat in front of the computer thinking 'what do I write in my first ever post?' One year on and inspiration has left me yet again...
All I can say is that I've had real fun telling you all what I think about the genre and meeting loads of cool folk at the same time. Hopefully there's another year left in this at least! ;o)
Happy Birthday to me!

Graeme’s Retro Classics! ‘Blake’s 7’ (Season One)

The BBC TV show ‘Blake’s 7’ ran from 1978 to 1981 (thanks Wikipedia!), four seasons in all. As a child, I probably only saw a few episodes from the last two seasons but ‘Blake’s 7’ is so great that I’m going right back to the very beginning…
‘Blake’s 7’ recounts the tale of Roj Blake and his crew of renegades and criminals, fleeing justice (of a repressive Federation) in a stolen alien spacecraft of unknown origin. The first season mainly deals with the crew’s attempts to determine the capabilities of their new vessel, ‘The Liberator’, as well as their initial attempts to strike back at the Federation. Relationships between the crew are given time to develop and the villains of the piece are introduced. While there is a lot of scene setting that takes place; individual stories still have room to shine with action, intrigue and plenty of impressive looking spaceships (that somehow looked a lot more impressive when I was five or six years old…)



As child watching ‘Blake’s 7’ I never really saw past the laser guns, spacecraft and talking computers. Nothing wrong with that, that’s what being a child (and watching sci-fi on TV) is all about! The last few days though have seen me watching Season One and realising that there is a lot more to ‘Blake’s 7’ than I originally thought. It’s so dark for a start, the first ever episode opens with revelations of a population kept docile through Federation administered drugs and a crowd of protesters are gunned down by security forces. For your money, you also get scenes of torture but this is torture ‘nineteen seventies TV’ style so it’s nothing to get too scared by. Having a ‘rebel’ crew consisting of thieves, smugglers and murderers also turns things upside down in terms of who you’re supposed to root for. Do you go with the oppressive regime (that is fighting to maintain law and order) or do you side with a bunch of criminals (who want to bring down said oppressive regime but for differing and ulterior motives)? It’s a real grey area that isn’t helped by the fact that the crew of the Liberator seems to fight amongst themselves almost as much as they do the Federation. The dynamic between Blake and Avon is particularly compelling, as they are two strong characters with very clear (and differing) ideas of what they want and how to get it. As the more self serving of the two, Avon’s character stands out and it is interesting to see how he develops over the course of the season.
Whichever side you choose (and I’m guessing you’ll make the same choice as me!), ‘Blake’s 7’ offers a ‘Robin Hood in space’ slice of sci-fi where plot and character development more than make up for the ‘card-boardy’ feel of some of the scenery. My favourite episodes, for Season One, were ‘The Avalon Project’ and ‘The Web’. I’ve got no idea if ‘Blake’s 7’ is being repeated on TV anywhere but I think it’s well worth your time if it is!

‘Killswitch’ – Joel Shepherd (Pyr Books)

This year it already feels like I’ve read more sci-fi than I did in the whole of last year and this is mostly down to my having had the good fortune of getting stuck into Joel Shepherd’s ‘Cassandra Kresnov’ books. The bottom line is that I think they’re brilliant and incredibly easy to get sucked into, the most fun I’ve had with sci-fi in a long time. All of this leads me nicely onto the topic of ‘Killswitch’, the final instalment in the trilogy and a book that insomnia led me to finish very early this morning. ‘Crossover’ was brilliant, ‘Breakaway’ was less so but still a cut above the rest. How did ‘Killswitch’ fare? Pretty well…
It’s been two years since the events of ‘Crossover’/’Breakaway’ and the planet of Callay moves towards taking its place as the centre of Federation politics. This does not sit well with the ruling body on Earth who have dispatched a fleet of warships that are threatening a blockade (and worse). The fledging Callayan Defence Force has an advantage in that synthetic human Cassandra Kresnov leads them but Cassandra finds herself at a distinct disadvantage when she discovers that her old masters implanted a ‘killswitch’ in her brainstem. The person holding the codes for the ‘killswitch’ is perhaps the last person that Cassandra wants to meet…
Before I go on I just want to get one thing out of the way. Unless I missed it in ‘Breakaway’, two years have passed and a plot-line looks like it has been forgotten and I don’t think it was ever resolved in the first place. Nothing major but I hate loose ends… That’s the grump out of the way, let’s get on with talking about how great ‘Killswitch’ was (because it is rather good)! Everything that I loved about the last two books was present here and what is really special is how Shepherd manages to ramp up the action and keep it plausible at the same time. The enemy is stronger and more challenging but ‘Killswitch’ never descends into comic book violence. The ‘set piece’ battles just keep getting bigger and bigger and this time we get to see Cassandra take on a battle cruiser by herself. It sounds a little over the top, reading it here, but you’ll be surprised at how easily you accept what Cassandra is able to do. She is a beautifully realised character and I have really enjoyed getting to know her as well as agonising with her over the dilemmas involved in being a synthetic human.
Placing all three books together shows how well the author has done at plotting a story that goes on for longer than one book. There’s a real sense of progression throughout the trilogy and, for the most part, everything is wrapped up neatly in the closing chapters. There’s scope for more adventures here and I’d certainly pick up more ‘Kresnov’ books if they were ever written.
Sure there are loose ends and you may have to go back and read certain passages again (if you blink then you’re bound to miss something!) but ‘Killswitch’ is an intelligent and engaging read that will appeal to anyone who likes their sci-fi thoughtful and action packed at the same time. Highly recommended by me!

Nine out of Ten

'A Dance with Dragons' - UK Cover

I don't know if this has been posted on other blogs already but I just saw this, on the Voyager website, and figured I'd post it ;o)
It looks pretty good from where I'm sitting! Certainly better than the US cover...

PS If anyone knows how I can make this picture a bit bigger...

New On-line service from HarperCollins, what would you like to see?

I've just had an email from HarperCollins who are planning a new online service offering exclusive limited edition versions of existing HarperCollins titles and online-only new titles. Seeing as this is aimed at folks like you (yes, you!) They've asked me asked me to direct your attention over Here where you can fill out a survey and give your opinion on the service etc that you would like to see. I've just done the survey and it doesn't take long at all...

The Saturday 'my internet is down so I'm doing this at my neighbour's' link-up bonanza!

Yes, I managed to break the internet at home so am doing this from my neighbour's house! If you haven't seen it already, these are the things I liked this week...

Gav reviews 'Un Lun Dun' over at Next Read

The Wertzone has a look at Steph Swainston's The Year of Our War and also points us in the direction of an early review of 'The Steel Remains'.

The Fantasy Hotlist has a great competition for anyone who's a Malazan fan...

The Book Swede has a few thoughts On Magic...

Fantasy Book Critic absolutely loved The Duma Key...

Aidan adds his voice to the list of people who love Last Argument of Kings

Talking of which, Joe Abercrombie has a few things to say about
Last Argument of Kings himself...

Joe Sherry has been reading Glen Cook's A Cruel Wind and has posted his thoughts...

And last but not least, Tia shines the debut spotlight on Mad Kestrel by Misty Massey (True Fact: My Deputy Head at primary school was called Mr Massey, coincidence or...)

What am I doing? Apart from waiting for the telephone connection to be fixed I've given up on 'The Oblivion Society' (Marcus Alexander Hart). It started off great but took a downturn when the author took too long recounting events leading up to the great beginning. I don't care about what happened before the great beginning, just get on with telling the story! I'm now having another crack at 'The Name of the Wind', I've got the week off work so should have plenty of time for reading :o)

Have a great weekend!

‘Happy Hour of the Damned’ – Mark Henry (Kensington Books)

I love zombies but have found the urban fantasy ‘sub-genre’ to be very hit and miss, in what I’ve read so far, so Mark Henry’s debut novel looked to be just what I was looking for. It’s urban fantasy but it’s got zombies in it! Hang on, how much character development and plot can you possibly get out of a shambling corpse? A fair bit actually, if you bend the ‘rules’ a little…
Amanda Feral is an advertising executive in Seattle, she’s also newly undead thanks to the random attentions of a zombie in a lift. This is where the comparisons with your typical ‘Romero’ zombies stop, in Henry’s Seattle there are two ways to become a zombie and Amanda’s route (being breathed on by a ‘zombie maker’) leaves her in full possession of her faculties but with an occasional yearning for human flesh… ‘Undead Seattle’ is a strange but welcoming place and Amanda manages to find herself friends and a social life, she also manages to find herself in a lot of trouble. Just because Amanda has already died once, it doesn’t mean that she wants to die again…
Once I got past the front cover (quite possibly one of the worst I have ever seen!) I found ‘Happy Hour of the Damned’ to be unlike any other ‘urban fantasy’ I’ve read and enjoyed the experience all the more for it. ‘Happy Hour’ doesn’t take itself too seriously and this is apparent in the little ‘footnote asides’ that pepper the text. These give a great insight into Amanda’s character as well as giving the reader an overview of life in ‘Undead Seattle’. Example…

‘Every now and then – and I’ve never done it – a bunch of zombies heads down to the welfare office and picks up some deadbeats for a feast. They set them loose in a fenced off field and have it. Hilarity ensues.’

Amanda isn’t your everyday heroine, not surprising for a zombie who has to be careful not to get hurt (the wounds won’t heal). She is sarcastic and self serving but is always there to help her friends. Much of the story focuses on Amanda’s interactions with her dysfunctional group of friends and it’s this ‘Friends’ vibe that adds a refreshing spin to the detective element of the plot. Imagine Philip Marlowe on the case but a Philip Marlowe who would much rather be drinking cocktails and going shopping. Add a gay vampire (always looking for love) and a zombie best friend (who really doesn’t want to be involved) and you get a good idea of the obstacles in the way of a mystery being solved!
With so much going on, Mark Henry shows real aplomb in keeping the plot quite tight and not going off on tangents. I thought that perhaps things were tied up a little too neatly but that didn’t stop the story itself being absorbing and fun at the same time. The only other thing that really got me was what looked like the author going for the world record for “number of times the word ‘bitch’ is used in a book”. It’s funny a few times but repeated use on practically every single page grew irksome very quickly. Don’t let that stop you reading ‘Happy Hour of the Damned’ though, it didn’t stop me and I’m glad of that. It’s an irreverent and fun read that has got me waiting impatiently for the sequel ‘Road Trip of the Living Dead’…

Eight and a Half out of Ten

Fantasy Book Critic has also read 'Happy Hour of the Damned'. Have a look over
Here for his review and links to a few others!