‘Cold Warriors’ – Rebecca Levene (Abaddon Books)

I’ve only read a couple of Rebecca Levene’s books from Abaddon (‘Anno Mortis’ and ‘Kill or Cure’) and while they were entertaining enough, they didn’t stand out for me in the same way that Abaddon books from Jonathan Green, Al Ewing, Gary McMahon and Simon Bestwick have. This record could well be about to change though with Levene’s latest offering.
I’d been lulled into thinking that Abaddon had settled in to all the series that they were going to publish but it turns out that they have at least one more new series up their sleeves. The only thing really missing from their repertoire was something along the Urban Fantasy line. Abaddon have plugged in this gap and have done so in some style with Levene’s debut offering in this series. If ‘Cold Warriors’ is anything to go by then I’m already looking forward to Levene’s next work in ‘Ghost Dance’...

The Hermetic Division was Britain’s answer to supernatural threats that came about over the course of the Cold War. The Cold War may be over but the Hermetic Division’s sole mission is still very much at the fore of the defence of the Realm. The Ragnarok artefacts have the power to bring about the end of the world; the only problem is that no-one knows where they are or even what they look like... Now information has come to a light that a corrupt Russian oligarch may know of their whereabouts, or even have them in his possession. Two of the division’s most powerful agents are soon on his trail, a trail that will lead them across Europe and into the midst of secrets that should have stayed hidden...

This is going to sound more than a little contradictory but when it comes to Urban Fantasy, I like it to be as ‘real’ as possible. It’s all set in the real world after all and I find that the extra dose of reality emphasises the weirdness that’s going on just below the surface. If the balance is right then you feel that this sort of thing could almost be happening outside your window. Levene gets the balance just right in ‘Cold Warriors’, a novel that really did have me feeling that the events it portrays could be happening right now...

‘Cold Warriors’ gives the reader everything you would expect from a Cold War style spy novel... and then adds demons and the undead to the mix. The living dead are always welcome in my reading so it was an added bonus to see them here :o)
This is a book full of double agents being followed down dark Eastern European streets, double crossings over the exchanging of mysterious packages and comrades who aren’t quite what they seem. If that wasn’t enough for you, there’s at least one moment where a taxi driver is to ‘follow that car!’ There is an argument to be had here that this has all been done before in other spy novels and, to be fair, it has. Demons and zombies aside, you’re not actually getting a lot that is new here. I’d say that is almost the point though. Levene uses these familiar tropes to create just the kind of atmosphere a book like this needs, a brooding and dark affair that draws you into the shadows just enough to jump in shock at what comes flying out at you. The over familiarity lulls you into a false sense of security; you’re sure that you know what’s coming but you couldn’t be more wrong. The only slight drawback is that this approach does have a tendency to slow the plot right down to a crawl at times when it could do with going a little faster. Maybe there’s a little too much description of the scenery when a little more action is required...

The plot itself lures you in with it’s accessibility and then proceeds to turn things inside over the next two hundred and ninety five pages. The reader is never sure who is on whose side although I have to say that I saw the revelation about Morgan coming a lot earlier than the book pointed to it. Balancing that out though, I thought Levene handled the plot thread involving two particular characters superbly (I can’t say much more than that without spoiling the plot). In the meantime, Levene proves herself more than adept at setting scenes up and allowing them to play out either in a hail of bullets or a swarm of the undead/possessed animals. ‘Cold Warriors’ is a novel that’s just as good as hitting you with the supernatural as it is with all the other more mundane stuff. As I said earlier, these two aspects of the novel balance out well and make the reader feel that this stuff could really be happening just beyond the corner of their eye...

For such a gripping tale (plenty of twists that kept my attention), with characters that are interesting to get to know, it was a bit off a shame that the story felt a little flat just as the climatic scenes came to the fore. The energy was there but Morgan’s actions felt a little too predictable to me; I wasn’t surprised by what he ultimately did and that’s where it all fell down for me, only slightly but just enough to make a difference.

It’s a shame that the ending felt a little flat, especially as the story leading up to that point was generally excellent. ‘Cold Warriors’ is an opening shot in the ‘Infernal Game’ series that has got me itching for more of the same. Look out for 'Cold Warriors' around the middle of May.

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

‘Blood Angels: Black Tide’ – James Swallow (Black Library)

Ok, I’m reading a lot of stuff from the Black Library at the moment (although I’m sure they’re not complaining!) There are a number of reasons why and most of these centre around the fact that life has been bloody annoying just recently, what with one thing and another, and I’ve found myself in need of books that will take the edge of my urge to commit acts of violence with blunt objects. If you can’t give idiots a clip round the ear (at the very least) then the next best thing is to read a book where this kind of thing happens on almost every other page. Talk about wish fulfilment!

Amongst other thing, Black Library books (I’m talking about the Warhammer 40K ones in particular) are a rich source for this kind of action; hence my picking them up more and more. On the whole, they’re also very well written which means I don’t have to sit through piles of dross in order to get my kicks. It’s a win/win situation really! Other than ‘Flight of the Eisenstein’ and ‘Heart of Rage’, I haven’t really come across much of James Swallow’s work in this setting (compared to others) so ‘Black Tide’ looked like as good as place as any to jump in and see what it was all about...

Following on from the events of ‘Red Fury’, the home planet of the Blood Angels (another Chapter of Space Marines) has been secured against the threat of Chaos. All is not well though; the Chaos Traitor Fabius Bile has escaped with one of the Chapter’s most precious relics, a vial of their dead Primarch’s blood. Honour demands nothing less than the return of the vial and the death of Bile for his insult against the Blood Angels. Honour will lead Brother Sergeant Rafen and his men to Dynikas V, a planet swarming with Tyranids but home to the object that they seek. Will the Blood Angels exact their vengeance before the twisted plans of Fabius Bile come to fruition...?

I’ve read a few WH40K books now and what I saw in ‘Black Tide’ doesn’t match Dan Abnett’s ability to get into the soldier’s mindset or the relentless new energy of Aaron Demsbki-Bowden. Where Swallow does stand out though is in his ability to give the Warhammer universe the full weight of forty thousand years worth of history (both remembered and forgotten) and show us how this weight hangs heavy on the servants of the Imperium. I haven’t come across another Black Library author who can do this as well as James Swallow.
Swallow’s Imperium is a strange and dark mixture of high technology held in superstitious reverence by a populace mired in ignorance through misplaced religious dogma. Almost everything has a ritual to it and when the reader realises how long these rituals have gone on for it becomes clear just how stagnant the Imperium has become. This becomes even more apparent when you meet the servants of Chaos and see what their relative ‘freedom’ allows them to do. Swallow paints some pretty gruesome pictures of a madman free of conscience and willing to do anything for the biggest prize of all. The only thing that changes, in the Warhammer universe, is the ebb and flow of battle...

‘Warhammer 40K’ novels are all about the warfare and ‘Black Tide’ is no different in this respect! You’re looking at four hundred and nine pages of genetically enhanced warfare taking place in locations such as a burnt out asteroid colony, a ship full of lethal traps for the unwary and a planet swarming with vicious alien life bred to consume everything in it’s path. There is plenty for the Blood Angels to pit themselves against but although the foe they have sworn vengeance against is devious enough you never get the impression that their attempts to negotiate the intervening obstacles is never anything more than a foregone conclusion. There never seems to be a lot of thought going into solving problems; guns are pointed and unloaded until the problem isn’t there anymore.

You can’t deny the sheer spectacle of this and Swallow’s dialogue evokes the spirit of the ‘questing knight’ rather nicely. You could also say that Swallow has captured the spirit of all Space Marines perfectly by their simplistic response to threats. After all, this is what they have been bred to do... I just found myself wishing that things had been a little harder for the Blood Angels. Only the physical size of the enemy really differs, the level of force in reply never does.
It got to the point where even Rafen’s captivity (although very well handled in terms of atmosphere and the machinations of the enemy) wasn’t enough to have me worried for his safety; not with a bunch of invulnerable Space Marines coming over the horizon. I also lost a little more of the sense of urgency when it became clear how Fabius Bile was managing to be in more than one place at a time. When that revelation came out I found myself waiting for the next book rather than waiting to see how this one played out...

If you’re after a book where the plot is driven by more than the chatter of bolter fire then ‘Black Tide’ might not be the one for you. If you’re after atmosphere, spectacle and full on warfare then you’re not going to find much better than what’s inside these pages. I fell somewhere in the middle. Whilst I was after something a little more challenging for our heroes to go up against, I couldn’t deny just how entertaining and dark it all was...

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

News Bits!

A press release from the Zeno Agency...

Betsy Mitchell, Editor-in-Chief at Del Rey has concluded a deal for US rights for the first three titles in Ben Aaronovitch’s RIVERS OF LONDON series, after an auction conducted by John Berlyne and John Parker at the Zeno Literary Agency. The first two books will be published in Spring 2011.

RIVERS OF LONDON is a fresh and exciting London-based Urban Fantasy focusing on 20-something police constable Peter Grant who finds himself seconded – much to his surprise! – to a secret and arcane branch of the Met specialising in crimes of a supernatural nature, and thus apprenticed to the last wizard in Britain.

“Ben Aaronovitch is a new Del Rey darling,” Mitchell said. “Both male and female readers here were delighted by the character of Peter Grant and Ben’s new take on the urban paranormal genre.”

Aaronovitch is best known as the writer of the classic Dr Who story "Remembrance of the Daleks.

I'm not sure the world needs another Urban Fantasy but 'Remembrance of the Daleks' is a favourite Doctor Who story of mine, I'll check this one out.

In other news, if you've been following Gav's Blog then you'll know that he's setting up an electronic magazine publishing short stories. He's quick on the ball and is accepting submissions for the first issue! Click Here for more information.

And finally, UK fans of Kelley Armstrong (who didn't know this already) will be pleased to know that she's going to be in the UK, for the first time, between March 21st and 23rd for a series of book signings. I don't know quite where she's going to be as yet though, I'll let you know as soon as I know!

The 'Yeah, it's a day late' Competition Winner's Post!

We only got the keys to the new house on Friday but the demands of wallpaper stripping, sanding and poking loose bits of plaster out of the walls is already playing havoc with the ol' blogging schedule. There's still plenty of work to be done before we can move in (and only three weeks to do it in) so lets see how it all pans out...
In the meantime, here's what should have been yesterday's post! The winners were...

'The Extra'

Christopher Hall, Los Angeles, USA
Ed Tambini, Arizona, USA
Kasey Armstrong, British Columbia, Canada

'Farlander'

Kathryn Scholz, Colchester, UK
Stephen Castle, Kent, UK
Roger Robar, Northampton, UK

Well done everyone! Your books should hopefully be on their way very soon... Better luck next time everyone else ;o)

Author Interview! Col Buchanan

I had a great time reading 'Farlander' and it seemed like the only way forward was to run some questions past Col for the blog. The man himself was very obliging! Here's what Col Buchanan had to say for himself...

Hi Col, thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions!

If you were approached by a shadowy assassin and offered a chance to be his apprentice, would you take his offer?

If I was Nico, in his situation, yes absolutely. If it was simply me, in my situation, Christ no.

Assassins aren’t a new addition to fantasy fiction, they’ve been around for a while in fact. What do your Roshun bring to the table that other assassin cults don’t?

Sure. The last thing I wanted to do was rehash old clichés. Like many of the tropes found in the book, I use them to create the appearance of familiarity, and then subvert them in surprising, realistic ways.

With the Roshun, it was the idea of the Seals that came to me first, and their use in terms of vendetta. The Roshun order grew out of that. People who exact revenge on behalf of those who have been murdered. So I don’t see them as ‘assassins’ in any traditional sense. They operate more like a force of nature, and consider themselves neither good nor bad, but morally neutral.

Which came first for you when writing ‘Farlander’, the world or the plot?

The earliest conceptions of the world arose out of the necessities of the plot. But then the Mideres, the Heart of the World, very much began to take on a life on its own.

As a writer, do you find yourself basing your characters on people that you know or are they completely made up in the confines of your mind? I’m assuming that you don’t actually know any assassins or adherents to a psychotic religion…

I’m laughing at that. I grew up during the Troubles. That was a time when assassins and adherents to psychotic religions could be living next door to you. Or in your own house for that matter. They were usually called Billy or something and sported paramilitary prison tattoos. Or Trevor, the reformed wife-beater now practicing the medieval beliefs of Dr. Ian Paisley.

I’m probably admitting to the common narcissism of the writer here, but if I was to be honest, I’d have to say the characters of Ash and Nico are each based to some degree on myself. I’m very much a sensitive boy and a grouchy old man rolled into one.

I should have read your author bio a little more carefully... Magic is conspicuous by its almost total absence in ‘Farlander’, any particular reason or is that just the way the dice fell?

I guess this had to do with flavour. I wanted a fantasy world that was both realistic and different. Whilst there’s no ‘magic’ in the story, there are moments of otherness, of meaningful dreams and strange intuitions that appear to be right, but it’s usually left open as to whether they’re real or not. There’s also the mysterious Isles of Sky, which supplies the nations of the Mideres with their subtle forms of organic ‘technology’. These allow me to be playful in the same way I could be with magic, but without having to resort to spell systems and the like. They also allow me to use rifles and cannon alongside swords and shields in a way that remains logical.



You’re recommending ‘Farlander’ to that proverbial guy in the bookshop who’s wondering whether to pick it up. What does ‘Farlander’ have that no other book on the shelves does?

I’d find that a hell of a double-bind. You really need to read the book to get what’s different about it. So I’d suggest he opens it up, reads the first page, and sees if its bites him.

Sample chapters (and reviews) can be found on my author site: Colbuchanan.com.

Some writers write fantasy fiction but never read it, are you a fan?

Very much so, though I read it much more when I was younger. Even though my reading time is limited, I usually have two or three books on the go at any given time, mostly SF, historical or non-genre. I’m an extremely picky reader because I’m so easily bored. The story and characters have to grab me pretty quickly or I’m out of there.

What are you reading right now and why do you think we should read it too?

I’m currently re-reading ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy. One of the most powerful stories I’ve ever read. I’m also reading Jon Ronson’s ‘Out of the Ordinary’, great laugh-out-loud observational writing (I also highly recommend his previous ‘Them’ – an exploration of the world of fanatics and conspiracy theorists). And I’m reading some old Allan Watts material that I found online. But I wouldn’t recommend that to anybody - they’d only think I was a hippy.

Tor are giving your book a mighty big push, are you feeling the pressure to deliver here or are you cool?

In all truth I usually like a deadline, even when I’m sweating over it - it gets my juices going. I would love to have all the time in the world to write book 2 (as I had with book 1), but I don’t, and that will be a part of the second book in as much as having a leisurely pace was a part of the first book. The world is there, the story is naturally unfolding … I just have to run with it.

It helps too when you have few expectations for these things – expectations tend to get in the way of the process, I’ve found. I’m simply continuing to enjoy the story and the characters and trying to have as much fun with them as I can.

Is there anything that you can tell us about the sequel to ‘Farlander’? It sounds like Ash has a job on his hands...

Yes, I can say that it’s a story about revenge. And that it has another surprising twist in its tail.

Finally, having read ‘Farlander’ I have to ask this... Do you have any plans to patent a hotel where even the act of opening the window has to be paid for?

LOL. In this day and age I’d be amazed if someone out there wasn’t designing a Budget hotel with just those features installed.


Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

Pleasure Graeme. All the best to you.

Colin

Giveaway! 'Salute the Dark' (Adrian Tchaikovsky)

The 'Shadows of the Apt' series has been an 'up and down' one for me but one that I've enjoyed overall. I'm looking forward to reading 'Salute the Dark' very soon...

In the meantime, Tor UK have very kindly offered me three copies of 'Salute the Dark' to give away to UK and European readers on the blog (they're the only people who can enter!) Read on if you fancy your chances...

To enter, simply drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your postal address is. That's all you need to do, I'll do everything else.

Due to the impending house move (decorating etc) I'm letting this one run a little longer than normal. All emails need to be in by Wednesday 10th of March, I'll announce the winners on the 11th.

Good Luck!

Giveaway! 'A Thousand Sons' (Graham McNeill)

You've read my review of 'A Thousand Sons' (What do you mean you haven't? Click Here right now!); now here's your chance to win a copy for yourself!

Thanks to the Black Library, I have five copies of 'A Thousand Sons' to give away to five lucky readers of this very blog. It's worth mentioning at this point that this competition is open to anyone, it doesn't matter where you live!

To enter, all you need to do is drop me an email telling me who you are and what your postal address is. I'll do everything else... ;o)

Due to the whole house moving thing I'll be letting this one run a little longer than normal. All emails need to be in by Wednesday 10th of March, I'll announce the winners on the 11th.

Good Luck!

First Impressions and some Questions for you…

Because first impressions are important aren’t they? They certainly are with books, first impressions can have me picking a book up straight away or deciding not to bother at all. What’s the first thing that grabs you about a book? Cover art? The blurb? For me it could be either or a mixture of the two, with this book it was the blurb on the back. Check it out,

SHINE is a collection of near-future, optimistic SF stories where some of the genres brightest stars and some of its most exciting new talents portray the possible roads to a better tomorrow. Definitely not a plethora of Pollyannas (but neither a barrage of dystopias), SHINE will show that positive change is far from being a foregone conclusion, but needs to be hardfought, innovative, robust and imaginative. Let’s make our tomorrows shine.

Now, I’m pretty sure I don’t read enough sci-fi but what I have read comes across as very negative in terms of the worlds it portrays. If we’re not being beaten down by rampaging machines then an evil genius has got us all downtrodden in his sinister utopia. This technology was supposed to make things better for us, wasn’t it?
I didn’t even know I was in need of some optimistic sci-fi until I saw this blurb and now I’m wondering how I could have ever not known. ‘Shine’ has been bumped right up the pile and will be read in the next week or so, all on the strength of a few lines of blurb.

What? Oh yeah, questions! I’m sure there must be other ‘optimistic sci-fi’ out there that I’m missing, what is it? And are there any genres that you feel are a little too negative and could do with being more optimistic?

All comments welcome!

Patricia Briggs - On Tour in April

If you're a fan of Patricia Briggs' 'Mercy Thompson' series (I enjoy them), and you live in the US (I don't...), then you might want to take note of the dates below when Briggs will be touring and signing loads of copies of her latest book 'Silver Borne'...

March 30th in SEATTLE
UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE@ 7 PM
4326 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105

March 31st in PORTLAND
POWELL'S BOOKS @ 7 PM
Cedar Hills Crossing
3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd
Beaverton, OR 97005

April 6th in LOS ANGELES
BARNES AND NOBLE #2743 @ 7 PM
7881 Edinger Ave.
Huntington Beach, CA 92647

April 7th in SAN DIEGO
MYSTERIOUS GALAXY @ 7 PM
7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd: Ste 302
San Diego, CA 92111

April 9th in HOUSTON
MURDER BY THE BOOK @ 6:30 PM
2342 Bissonnet St
Houston, TX 77005

April 10th in MINNEAPOLIS
UNCLE HUGO'S SCIENCE FICTION BOOKSTORE 1-2PM
2864 Chicago Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55407

‘Farlander’ – Col Buchanan (Tor UK)

As I’ve mentioned before, this year is going to be the year where I’m in at the start on all these debut series that people are saying will be the next big thing. You know what it’s like, being the only person who can’t join in the conversation because you haven’t read the book? Well, no more of that for me!
Col Buchanan’s ‘Farlander’ won a hotly contested battle to be the next ‘thick’ book picked off the pile for a read, Sam Sykes’ ominous comments (next to that post) mean that I’ll be getting to his book very soon! Given some of the advance blurbs etc that I’d read, I was more than cool with the outcome here. Assassins and ravenous empires worked well for me with the ‘Malazan’ books and I saw no reason why this shouldn’t continue with ‘Farlander’.
As things turned out... ‘Farlander’ isn’t quite on the same level as Erikson’s ‘Malazan’ series but what you do get for your money is something very solid with the potential to be very special indeed.

For fifty years now, the Holy Empire of Mann has conquered nation after nation in it’s quest to spread it’s religion across the face of the world. Only the Mercian Free Ports still stand free and once the city of Bar-Khos finally falls there will be no hope left at all. Against this backdrop of incessant war and politicking, the Roshun assassin cult offer protection through the threat of vendetta but this isn’t enough to deter the most foolhardy of murders; like the son of the Holy Matriarch of the Empire of Mann.
Vendetta is vendetta and the resulting quest for this will lead a sickly assassin and his apprentice into the heart of the Empire itself. With the hand of everyone turned against them, the only thing they can be sure of is that there will be much bloodshed and death before the job is done...

Buchanan sets up a world that is perhaps a little too similar to the Malazan world (certainly ‘Gardens of the Moon’) for comfort, at least for a while. A predatory empire ruled by a scheming Empress with her own cult of assassins. One last city that still stands against the invaders. The parallels are plain to see.
As Buchanan progresses with his tale though, it becomes clear that he has not set out to emulate Erikson and Esslemont’s work. Maybe such similarities can be found in fantasy based empires and there will always be one last city standing in the way of total domination...

‘Farlander’ is a manic romp that takes in politics affecting nations at war as well as bringing the people who shape these nations into sharp focus. There’s a little something here for everyone and Buchanan shows that he’s not afraid to throw everything up on the air and see how it all lands. This uncertainty not only propels the plot forward at a ferocious rate but also results in one of the biggest surprises (for me anyway) in fantasy since a certain Lord got his head chopped off in a major fantasy series that we’ve all read. I’m trying desperately to avoid spoilers here! :o) I never saw this one coming and spent pages sure that things would work out. They didn’t and it’s all credit to Buchanan that he was able to keep me so rapt with the way that he gradually drew things out...
It’s not just the characters either. The fortunes of war have never seemed so random and capricious as they do here. Anything can happen and the mighty can be brought low far more easily than their stature would suggest...
By doing what he does, Buchanan not only tells his readers that he’s here for the long term (this isn’t a series about just one character) but he also tells us just what we can expect if we stick around. I’m sticking around.

You’re always starting off up against it if you’re writing a fantasy novel with assassins in it. Assassins are pretty much everywhere in fantasy and you’re going to need to come up with something pretty special if your assassins are going to stand out from the pack. The notion of vendetta immediately sets the Roshun apart from the rest and adds an interesting spin to the assassin’s work. The history of the Roshun also casts this group in an interesting new light. This is no offspring of a death cult or mercenary unit; the Roshun do what they have to because they really had no other choice. The characters of Ash and Nico also add fresh impetus to this concept. We get to see the Roshun for the first time through Nico’s eyes while, at the same time, Ash’s perspective gives the Roshun a sense of history that the reader is looking for. The mixture means that the reader gets the best of both worlds with a very well rounded picture of a group of men feared throughout the world.

Buchanan’s depiction of the relationship between Ash and Nico is very poignant and adds a layer of humanity to the ‘assassin mystique’. Both men are wary to trust and the way that they gradually interact and connect is touching, especially when you reach the climax of the book. Notions of honour and revenge are explored with a hand that is somehow deft and brutal all at the same time. Buchanan is sometimes guilty of using more words than is perhaps necessary but when you finally see the picture that he’s painting, well... you don’t mind so much.

If you’re going to be writing about assassins then you need to make the fight sequences go with a bang. Buchanan does this in style, aided in no small way by the discovery of gunpowder in this world. The resulting pyrotechnics are suitably explosive and the acrobatics, as well as the cold blooded fury, of the Roshun make for some spectacular scenes. The Roshun are ones for the shadows but they’re also not afraid of a full frontal assault in broad daylight, this sequence is more than worth the price of entry!

Despite some early issues that I had with the book, ‘Farlander’ kicks off Col Buchanan’s debut series in some style and promises great things for the future. If you’re a fan of blood drenched epic fantasy then this is a series that you should keep an eye on.

Nine and a Quarter out of Ten

‘Zombie: An Anthology of the Undead’ – Edited by Christopher Golden (Piatkus/St. Martin’s Press)

In his foreword to this anthology (titled ‘The New Dead’ if you’re in the US), Christopher Golden asks his reader what the big deal about zombies is these days. That’s quite a brave move to make considering that the foreword comes just before a whole load of zombie tales! For me personally, zombie tales have never really been about the zombies themselves; it’s more a case of just what the surviving humans will do to carry on living in this brave new world. The walking dead throw up a lot of new challenges and people end up discovering so much more about themselves in these situations. That’s why, for my money, Robert Kirkman’s ‘Walking Dead’ series is pretty much the best zombie fiction out there right now.

Golden makes a very good attempt at compiling a collection of great zombie fiction and for the most part he succeeds (I’ll go into that a lot more in a bit). Where things fell down slightly for me were a couple of the definitions of our current fascination with zombies that Golden bought to the mix here. Golden talks about a fascination with the concept of death and resurrection that I can understand but doesn’t click with me. Like I said, for me, a zombie tale is a survival tale that just happens to have zombies in it. With this in mind, John Connolly’s ‘Lazarus’ didn’t hit the spot for me (as well written as it was); not so good when you take into account that this was the opening tale. It had nothing in it that marked it out as a zombie tale in my eyes. It also requires you to look at a particular tale in a way that was at odds with my own personal beliefs. I just couldn’t engage with what it was trying to say. Like I said though, ‘Lazarus’ was a very well written story. Derek Nikitas’ end of times tale, ‘My Dolly’, handles the whole issue of resurrection a lot more smoothly with a hefty dose of the kind of surreal intensity that only the last days would bring.

Having said all that though, I’ve still got a lot of time for the zombies of Voodoo lore and Holly Newstein’s ‘Delice’ is a deliciously dark tale of revenge from beyond the grave. As with all the best horror stories, the real evil is in the living humans themselves and it does get pretty nasty...

I had similar issues with Mike Carey’s ‘Second Wind’, Kelley Armstrong’s ‘Life Sentence’ and Tad Williams’ The Storm Door’ although my familiarity with these authors (two of them are favourites of mine) meant that I got a lot more out of what they were saying. Cheating death is the name of the game in these stories and this search takes many different forms. ‘Second Wind’ is a look at the past of one of Carey’s more memorable characters from his ‘Felix Castor’ series and does a fine job of filling in the gaps for the long term ‘Castor’ fan as well as telling a poignant story, about leaving life behind, that anyone can get into. ‘The Storm Door’ is a chilling tale of possession that ran icy fingers down my spine but would have perhaps been better suited to another collection, it wasn’t a zombie story...
Armstrong’s easy going prose makes ‘Life Sentence’, a morality tale about the quest for resurrection, very readable indeed but when an evil businessman with no scruples is looking for eternal life... you know how it all has to end. ‘Life Sentence’ has a powerful ending but one that doesn’t come as much of a surprise...
David Liss’ ‘What Maisie Knew’ takes a similarly moral approach but adds it’s own spin. Crime doesn’t pay and the difference here (as oppose to ‘Life Sentence’) is that while you may know how the story has to end, there’s enough uncertainty around the ending that it still comes as a surprise. This was a tale that kept me hooked!

Up until now, the only really effective piece of social commentary I’ve ever seen in the zombie genre is Romero’s glazed eyed zombies wandering up and down a shopping mall. That was until I read Stephen R. Bissette’s ‘Copper’ in this collection. While it still may not be the kind of zombie tale I’m after the power of the scathing commentary on a country that does not look after it’s servicemen, and women, cannot be denied. That on it’s own made ‘Copper’ one of the stand out stories in this collection and hearkens back to the poem ‘The March of the Dead’ that Golden refers to in his foreword.
Aimee Bender’s ‘Among Us’ looks to do something similar only using the entire human race instead of just its military. This tale really didn’t work for me though as I’ve always found that it works better for zombies to be used as a metaphor for humanity rather than the other way round. What you get here is a tale that emphasises how utterly inane we can be sometimes but didn’t quite make the connection with zombies that it wanted to. I wasn’t sure if Joe R. Lansdale’s ‘Shooting Pool’ was trying to do something similar but what I do know was that there were no zombies in the story at all! Can zombies live on in our memories of the dead? Are zombies our memories of the dead? That’s the closest connection I could make with this story but I wouldn’t have minded seeing at least one zombie in the meantime...

It’s not all bad though. Not only might the tales mentioned already be just the ones you’re looking for but there are plenty of others that were just what I was after.
Jonathan Maberry has already written a bloody good zombie novel in ‘Patient Zero’ and proves that he can write just as good a short story with ‘Family Business’; a tale that lays it on the line as to what living in a post apocalyptic zombie world actually means. You can tell that Maberry has put a lot of time into building a world that would actually work under these circumstances. The same thing goes for Max Brooks’ ‘Closure, Limited’, a very interesting tale (with a real kick at the end) that offers an insight into a very specific new industry that would only arise out of a zombie apocalypse. There’s some real imagination going on in both these stories and that’s what made them stand out for me.

I’ll read pretty much anything by Tim Lebbon and his tale ‘In the Dust’ is another stand out effort that doesn’t disappoint. ‘In the Dust’ places you right at the heart of the aftermath of a zombie uprising along with the other people scrabbling for survival. It’s bleak and full of the stupidity that humanity always seems to exhibit in these situations but, in the best traditions of zombie fiction, there’s also some hope for the future. Brian Keene’s ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ offers more of the same and is an interesting offshoot from his novel ‘Dead Sea’. M.B. Homler’s ‘The Zombie Who Fell from the Sky’ is a little more surreal (and I’m still not sure that I get the ending...) but is fast paced and frantic with enough zombies to keep me happy.

One of the big questions in any zombie book is what would you do if you were bitten? Rick Hautala’s ‘Ghost Trap’ is the anthology’s answer to this question and Jeff Stewart’s realisation of his fate, and what he must do, brings a real lump to the throat. ‘Ghost Trap’ is a story that will stay with you long after you’ve read it.
James A. Moore’s ‘Kids and their toys’ is another story that will stick in the mind but for entirely different reasons. Children can be cruel and if there’s a zombie involved then they can be even more so. Childhood is about the loss of innocence and so is ‘Kids’...

The anthology started off with a bit of a whimper but definitely goes out with a bang with David Wellington’s ‘Weaponized’ and Joe Hill’s ‘Twittering from the Circus of the Dead’. Wellington’s vision for the future of warfare is terrifyingly plausible and hints at a logical conclusion of a new kind of arms race (no pun intended...) while Hill uses Twitter to slowly build up the tension in a tale that had my stomach lurching in dread...

My definition of a zombie tale is somewhat at odds with Golden’s and that made this anthology an uneven read for me. There was still more than enough there to sate my appetite though and if you’re a zombie fan then I reckon there’s plenty enough for you too...

Eight and a Half out of Ten

‘The Extra’ – Michael Shea (Tor)

Reality television is one of the reasons that I stopped paying for a TV licence; it got to a point where that there was so much of it on television that there just wasn’t room for any of the stuff that I actually wanted to watch. There’s something compelling about it though isn’t there? There’s something about watching a dysfunctional bunch of misfits locked up in a house, and going at each others throats, to make you want them to stop posturing and start throwing the furniture around. I don’t know about you but the best episodes of ‘Big Brother’ that I ever saw were the ones where you found out that the police were called in shortly after filming...
Is this thirst for blood a harkening back to the gladiatorial games of Ancient Rome or just a way to make ourselves feel all superior that we weren’t dumb enough to volunteer for yet another televised ‘social experiment’? Probably a bit of both I’d say. Perhaps a more pertinent question is where a slightly jaded looking genre should go next to deliver the thrills that hooked the viewing public in the first place. Michael Shea has a possible answer for us, it couldn’t possibly happen but what if it did...?

The LA of the not too distant future is a place where the only alternative to crushing poverty is the daily struggle to survive it. There is a way to escape this but the stakes have never been higher. Director Val Margolian has hit upon a way whereby the film industry has been given a massive shot in the arm through the peddling of a seemingly impossible dream. Extras in a Margolian film have the opportunity to earn enough money to buy their way out of LA for good; all they have to do is survive to the end of the shoot in order to be able to spend it...
Any Margolian set is a killing field and the set for his latest film, ‘Alien Hunger’, is set to be his most lethal yet. Extras are going to have enough on their hands just surviving, let alone collecting the bonus tags to earn extra cash. Curtis, Japh and Jool are up for the challenge though; will mere courage be enough?

‘The Extra’ treads ground already well covered by films such as ‘The Running Man’ and, to an extent, ‘Battle Royale’ amongst others. I’m clutching at straws looking for examples of the same kind of thing in books but I know I’ve read tales of people fighting for their lives for the entertainment of the viewing public. I’ve got a funny feeling that’s where Peadar O’Guilin’s ‘The Inferior’ is heading (although I might be wrong)... The point is that it’s not a new concept that we’re looking at here... so why did I enjoy this book so much and feel like it was a breath of fresh air?

That is what ‘The Extra’ felt like, a real breath of fresh air although I should probably upgrade that to ‘hurricane’; when ‘The Extra’ gets going you’re swept off your feet and carried along at a rate of knots the likes of which you’ve never seen before. I’m not going to say ‘blink and you’ll miss something’; not only are you carried along too quickly to blink but you wouldn’t want to even if you had the chance. Shea presents his reader with a downtrodden future LA where the vibrancy of the people matches the level of poverty that they face. As you can imagine, they are pretty vibrant; there’s no time to stand still in this city, not if you want to make a living and survive!

Shea doesn’t give you time to settle in though, the book is only two hundred and eighty one pages long and there is a lot more story to tell. The action inside the set is everything that it promised it would be and then a little bit more. It’s almost as if Shea set himself a small number pages to tell his story deliberately so that the impact would be all the more powerful for being crammed into such a tiny space.

Once the camera starts rolling all hell breaks loose and it’s all credit to Shea that he keeps his story on a tight leash, both in the streets and in the sky above the set. There are layers upon layers of plot to be teased out here and they all fit together to tell a story that had me gripped the whole way through.
The extras on set may be the ones being chased by giant mechanical spiders (which were very cool and scary all at the same time…) but their counterparts behind the cameras also face battles that could result in a loss of life. Shea may not be saying anything new about the film industry but what he does do is add a whole new layer of raw energy that lends fresh impetus to what he is saying; that’s what keeps the reader reading. There is more than one way to lose a life and Shea makes it his business to tease these out into the open and see how they relate to the characters on and around the set. No matter what someone’s motivations are (and they’re not always pure), Shea has a way of getting inside his character’s head and laying it all on the line as to how important their aspirations are. Everyone has something that they would do anything for; Shea taps into this in his characters and gives the reader something to connect to. You may not like Margolian but you’ll probably end up understanding him and why he does what he does.

At it’s heart, ‘The Extra’ is one part high octane action and one part commentary on a jaded viewing public that is happy to sit there and swallow up anything in the name of entertainment. It’s here that ‘The Extra’ fell down slightly, for me anyway. I’m all for subtle commentary and the tone of the book meant that this was never going to happen.

‘Even you miss the same point that Val, for all his greatness, has always missed. Disclosures, revelations, make no difference. People don’t give a shit about what they know, or don’t know! As long as it’s new, they’ll watch anything! They’ve got nothing else to do!’

Dialogue like this was a little too heavy handed for me I’m afraid. I’ll either get it or I won’t but I don’t like being spoon fed…

This was a minor niggle though. ‘The Extra’ was a storming read that had me thinking about what I’d read and eager to get back and read some more. If this becomes a film then I’ll be there watching it…

Nine and Three Quarters out of Ten

The 'Ooh, it's finally going to happen!' Competition Winner's Post!

After what seems like a lifetime (or at the very least, a few months more than it should have been) we're finally looking at getting the keys to our new place and moving in over the next couple of weeks. I'm not sure what this is going to do to the blog in the meantime. Stick around and we'll all find out together! :o)

In the meantime, run your eyes over this lucky bunch of people who won themselves books in last week's competitions...

‘The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms’

Paul Gibbons, London, UK
Antonios Matakos, Serres, Greece
Joshua Meeklah, Rutland, UK


‘Shadowrise’

Helena Jones, Bedford, UK
Andrew Woods, Ilkley, UK
Kim Webster, Ipswich, UK

Well done guys, your books are on their way! (Hopefully a lot quicker than I said in my email, stupid 'Cut & Paste'...)

Better luck next time everyone else!

I’ve never read anything by…

(This post has been brought to you by a hectic weekend where I got very little reading done as well as a desire to try out something a little different on a Monday morning…)

As well as sharing all the good stuff that I love about the genre with you, one of the reasons that I started the blog up was to check out books by authors that I’d never read before to see what I thought. Another reason that doesn’t get talked about so often (but is no less important) is to find out what you guys are into, especially if it’s books that I’ve never read before. I don’t want this blog to be just me talking to myself!



And so the very occasional series of ‘I’ve never read anything by…’ posts were born. There are loads of sci-fi, fantasy and horror books out there that I haven’t read. I’m hoping that some of you have… ;o)

Friday saw a package from Solaris come through the door that included the second and third ‘Falconfar’ books ('Arch Wizard' and 'Falconfar') by Ed Greenwood, an author that I’ve never read before. Not only have I never read any of his books but I’d never heard of him before now, which is surprising seeing how many books he’s written (a whole load of 'Forgotten Realms' stuff).



I’m going to give the two ‘Falconfar’ books a go but in the meantime I was wondering… Have any of you folks read either the ‘Falconfar’ books or any of his other books? What did you think? What am I letting myself in for?
All comments are welcome, they aren’t going to stop me reading the books but I’m interested to know what you all think…

Giveaway! 'Farlander' (Col Buchanan)

I've been reading this over the last couple of days and it's definitely my cup of tea; look for a review very soon...
In the meantime, how do you like the sound of winning a copy for yourself? You do? Are you living in the UK (because that's who the competition is open to)? Then read on...

Thanks to Tor UK, I have three copies of 'Farlander' to give away to UK readers of the blog. Entering is as easy as ever; simply drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your postal address is. I'll do everything else!

I'm leaving this one open until the 28th of February and will announce the winners on the 1st of March.

Good Luck!

Giveaway! 'The Extra' (Michael Shea)

This book came through the post yesterday morning and all I've been thinking ever since is... 'giant mechanical spiders!' :o)
I'll be honest and say that the spiders along sold me on this book but the blurb looks pretty cool too. Here it is...

In the not-too-distant future, humanity is so decimated by poverty that people will do anything for money.

An innovative producer gives the poor hope by offering them work as extras in a series of “live death” films where they’ll be stalked by giant, blood-thirsty mechanical monsters.

The job is easy – survive.

Ok, it sounds like 'The Running Man' but 'The Running Man' never had giant mechanical spiders did it? Did it? I rest my case... ;o) 'The Extra' will be read and reviewed here very soon. In the meantime how do you fancy winning a copy for yourself?

Thanks to Tor, I have three copies of 'The Extra' to give away to readers in the US and Canada (they're the only people who can enter this one). To be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your postal address is. I'll do the rest.

I'll let this one run until the 28th of February and will announce the winners on the 1st of March.

Good Luck!

‘A Thousand Sons’ – Graham McNeill (Black Library)

Once upon a time, the galaxy spanning anarchy of the Horus Heresy was little more than the occasional battle report in ‘White Dwarf’ magazine decorated with a couple of paragraphs of story here and there to spice things up. At least that’s how it looked to me at the time and I was left wondering just what had happened in all the gaps in between. It took a few years but it was almost as if the Black Library had somehow heard my unspoken cry and decided to set things straight once and for all...
The ‘Horus Heresy’ series has set out to tell the definitive tale of just how the Imperium of Man turned on itself all those millennia ago (or ‘all those millennia still to come in the future’, depends how you look at it really). On the whole, it’s done a remarkable job and is now pretty much the Black Library’s flagship series. My reading of the series has been fragmented to say the least, I’m getting there though! Out of all the books I’ve read though, it’s Graham McNeill’s work that has stood out here (although Dan Abnett edges him in terms of books written for the Black Library overall) so when I got a chance to read ‘A Thousand Sons’ I had a feeling I’d be in for a bit of a treat.
I got that treat although this is a book that I think will be more of a treat to the long term fan...

The Great Crusade is at it’s height and the ‘Thousand Sons’ Space Marine Legion are amongst it’s most loyal advocates; their quest for knowledge tempered only by their loyalty to the Emperor. This quest for knowledge has led them into the realms of the arcane and as such, they are viewed with suspicion not only by the other legions but also by the general populace. The ‘Thousand Sons’ Primarch, Magnus the Red, is summoned to the planet of Nikaea to answer charges of sorcery and is forbidden to dabble in these arts anymore. However, a vision of the future warns Magnus of Horus’ growing treachery, what is he to do?
Magnus’ choice will lay waste to a planet, his legion will be doomed by choices that he made a long time ago...

Graham McNeill has written a beautifully detailed account of the ‘Thousand Sons’ Legion before the Heresy took place. Nothing is missing here; the Legion’s home world, structure and beliefs are dealt with at great length, providing a world that the reader can immerse themselves in at every level.
While McNeill certainly does well in this regard, the fact that this world building is so very specific (which of course it would be, given the nature of the book) makes this more of a book for gamers using a ‘Thousand Sons’ force who want to add a little more authenticity to their play. If I’m anything to go by, fans of the Warhammer 40K setting will also get a lot out of a book that adds another rich layer to a universe already brimming with rich detail. ‘A Thousand Sons’ is however perhaps not the most accessible of books for the casual fan who may feel that they’re getting a little too much information thrown at them all at once...

Give it a chance though. As the book progresses, McNeill does move away from the world building/scene setting to give his reader a tale of tragedy that should move a few hearts. Imagine giving your all for the cause only to be hunted down for something that was totally not of your making? That’s the scenario McNeill lays out for the Thousand Sons in a long and inexorable slide towards a finale that is as poignant as it is explosive.

One of the things that I’ve found interesting about this series is the way that different authors approach the question of making the books a compelling read when the eventual outcomes are never in doubt (which they aren’t, all fans will know how the story ends). McNeill solves this problem by making ‘A Thousand Sons’ a tale of stark contrasts that grip the reader as well as springing genuine surprises on the reader at all the right moments. The way it all becomes clear at the very end (as to what is going on) is quite superb.

McNeill takes a good long look at the relationship between the Marines of the Thousand Sons and the human ‘Remembrancers’ that follow them and record their deeds. While some of the differences are obvious (the marines are physically and mentally tougher) it’s interesting to see that in some respect, ‘weak’ humans can still have a lot to teach their superhuman counterparts. McNeill sets the Thousand Sons up as new in the universe and unsure of their purpose other than to fight for the Emperor and gain knowledge at the same time. There’s something very childlike about this, especially when you look at the Remembrancers and the more adult way that they conduct themselves.

If the Thousand Sons marines come across as childlike then Magnus, the Primarch, is even more so, especially when you see him wield his considerable powers with precious little thought for the consequences. Here is a man with godlike powers but no sense of how to use them appropriately in an unforgiving universe. All he has is the same need for approval from the Emperor that all the other Primarchs have; this makes his ultimate fate all the more tragic as he did all the wrong things for all the right reasons.

The biggest contrast of all is the one between the Thousand Sons and Space Wolves legions; one side the manifestation of the Emperor’s wisdom and the other the manifestation of his unbridled rage in battle. This contrast will be further explored in Dan Abnett’s ‘Prospero Burns’ but McNeill gives us much to be going on with in the meantime with two legions that are unable to resolve their fundamental differences but must still fight together... for now. It’s a master class in how two such differing legions can fight together but it’s also a melting pot of tension that you know will boil over sooner rather than later.

When the end finally comes, McNeill defines ‘apocalyptic’ on a scale not seen since Ben Counter razed Istvaan III. When Space Marines turn on each other you know there can only be one conclusion; McNeill gives us this conclusion in the most earth shattering manner possible and it’s well worth the price of entry!
The ending is appropriately sombre and hints at a future that long term fans will appreciate more than the casual reader. All is not dust yet... but it soon will be.

Like I said, ‘A Thousand Sons’ is certainly one of the less accessible books in the series. Fans will love it but the casual reader might get bogged down in the detail. Once I found my way through the minutiae though, ‘A Thousand Sons’ personified all that is good about the ‘Horus Heresy’ books. I’m looking forward to reading more.

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

‘The Eternal Prison’ – Jeff Somers (Orbit)

This week seems to have become a week where I’ve unwittingly found myself reading the kind of books that don’t demand too much of your time while you’re reading them. To be fair, a house purchase that has become more and more drawn out and petty (not from me though!) has been at the forefront of pretty much everything these past few days. There hasn’t been a lot left of me to concentrate on the good stuff...
I’ve been reading Jeff Somers’ ‘Avery Cates’ books since, well... since this blog sprang into life! The two preceding books demanded nothing more than my sitting back and watching hit men look very cool, while the bullets fly and stuff gets blown up, and it was this kind of mindless action that pretty much sealed the deal when I was looking for my next book to read.
‘The Eternal Prison’ certainly gave me what I was looking for, and in style! I couldn’t help wondering if something was missing though...

After surviving the worst bioengineered disaster in history (check out ‘The Digital Plague’) you would have thought that things would have to start looking up for gunner Avery Cates. You would have thought, wouldn’t you?
Not so; all Avery gets for his troubles is a one way ticket to Chengara Penitentiary, a prison where the survival rate is exactly zero. Avery wants out and he’ll get his wish, only at a price he might not be willing to pay.
Now Avery is back on the street doing what he does best and looking for a little revenge along the way. What he’s up against this time just might prove the end of him though, it’s only the biggest assassination of his career...

‘The Eternal Prison’ is one of those books where you open the first page and you find yourself being carried along effortlessly by the dialogue and the speed of the bullets flying past people’s ears. I found myself glued to the page simply because there is so much going on. If you blink then you will find yourself missing two or three things happening all at once. There’s also a mystery to be solved and the way that it gradually unfolds heightens the tension and keeps the pages turning.
Somers proves that the eye for spectacle that he’s cultivated, over the course of the last two novels, hasn’t left him in ‘The Eternal Prison’. If something can be blown up, crashed, shot or graphically maimed then you can bet anything you like that Somers will be doing just that and in great style. I think these books have been optioned for film (it might just be ‘The Electric Church’) and I’m looking forward to seeing how Somers’ prose makes the leap to the big screen.

Somers’ world is as brutally dystopian as ever, even more so following on fro mthe events of the last two books. This world is starkly painted in bleak colours, this is a place that you’ll love to visit but you’d never ever want to live there! It makes you wonder how anyone could survive this and that’s part of the point of the novel. Sometimes it all boils down to survival and ‘The Eternal Prison’ really lays it on the line as to what that can involve. When the alternative is death, humanity has the capacity to surprise itself with just what it will do to survive; Somers’ characters really capture this and in ways that will make you jump with their sheer brutality.
By the end though, you’ll see that there is still some hope for the future. Maybe Jeff Somers isn’t as tough as he likes to make out? ;o)

Avery Cates stalks through all this destruction and mayhem like a cyber punk god of death with a sharp line in wry inner dialogue. Here’s a guy who has all the moves but is starting to lose his edge through age. Not only that, Cates also has no idea whatsoever what is going on (at least to start off with). This air of vulnerability offsets Cates’ seeming invincibility and makes him a character worth sticking around with. You may know that he’ll make it through to the end but you don’t know what shape he’ll be in when he gets to the finish line. Talking of which, Somers has some surprises in store for Cates and the reader; these are worth the wait!

The only real problem I had was that while the separate plots came together in a crash of noise and blood there seemed to be very little cohesion about the affair as a whole. Why did Cates let petty revenge side-track him from the job that he was hired to do? How did the revenge sub plot link in with the rest of the tale? It felt like Cates was switching between one sub-plot and the other with very little rhyme or reason. There was nothing to hang onto; you just took the punches as they came.
Now I know that sometimes life just happens like that but in a book I generally tend to look for something a little more structure. If everything’s coming at me all at once then I find that I’m wasting time trying to filter stuff when I could be reading. That’s what happened here. Maybe I should have re-read the other two books first?

What I found in the end was that if I stopped trying to follow the plot and concentrated on the high body count instead… I had a whale of a time. ‘The Eternal Prison’ is a kick ass read in that respect and I don’t regret taking the time to read it at all. I can’t help thinking though that it could have been a whole lot better had Somers decided just what story he was trying to tell…

Eight out of Ten

‘Kitty’s House of Horrors’ – Carrie Vaughn (Gollancz)

Everyone has a guilty pleasure on their bookshelf and I’m not just talking about that bar of chocolate that you’re trying to hide from your partner (which, for the record, doesn’t work)! You know what I’m talking about. You’ve spent days slogging your way through a convoluted plot with a cast of hundreds that’s spread over a thousand or so pages; you want your next read to be a book that requires no mental effort whatsoever to enjoy. This probably means that you’re also after a book that you’ve read many times in the past and that’s where the guilty pleasure book comes in. I’ll quite happily admit to having my copies of the ‘Belgariad’ series on my shelf and picking them up every now and then. What’s your guilty pleasure read?
Certain types of Urban Fantasy are also a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine; once you get over the fact that one book can be very similar to another then what you’re left with is the simple business of various supernatural creatures laying the smack down on each other. It never gets old!
I’d never read any of Carrie Vaughn’s ‘Kitty Norville’ books but Pat likes them and that was recommendation enough for me to give ‘Kitty’s House of Horrors’ a go. I got what I came for but I found the similarities to another book a little too much to get my head round...

Kitty Norville is a werewolf with her very own radio talk show, something that can come in real handy when you’re trying to promote good relations between the human and supernatural community. With this in mind, when Kitty is asked to take part in a reality show about the supernatural she is sceptical but agrees to take part.
The show is in a remote location and everything is going well up until the morning they all wake up to find that the phone is dead, the power is out and the crew that aren’t dead have vanished. Then someone starts picking off the cast one by one.
Can Kitty marshal a dysfunctional set of starving vampires, psychics and were creatures (not forgetting the sceptic who doesn’t believe any of this) or will they all be killed by whoever is hiding in the woods...?

Apart from what I’ve heard about the books I’m completely new to this series and couldn’t even tell you how many books precede this one. That’s ok though, ‘Kitty’s House of Horrors’ stands perfectly well on it’s own and, if you’re anything like me, you won’t have to read the preceding books to get the most out of it. Vaughn doesn’t give herself a lot of room to play in (the book weighs in a slightly underweight two hundred and ninety two pages) but she uses what she has to good effect. Enough background information is sprinkled over the plot to ensure that the casual reader has enough to be going on with and won’t get lost in a sea of minutiae. At the same time, it’s all delivered in such a way that it doesn’t get in the way of the actual story (although maybe a little more meat on the bones would have been nice but that’s just me). Plot is important to Carrie Vaughn and that’s what she delivers.

‘Kitty’s House of Horrors’ is a tightly written tale that doesn’t hang around in it’s mission to get from A to B as quickly as possible. While I never got the impression that Kitty was in any real danger herself (which kind of took the sting out of things) Vaughn makes up for this by making the rest of the cast fair game for what’s lurking in the woods. Vaughn’s not afraid to draw a well rounded likeable character, have them get friendly with Kitty and then kill them off in any manner of ways. Like I said, I knew Kitty was going to make it through but I was surprised by the people who didn’t. There are a couple of shocks in store.

Kitty is also an interesting character to hang out with for the course of a book. Vaughn really captures what it’s like not only to be a werewolf but also what it’s like to experience that ongoing conflict between the werewolf and human parts of a person. If that wasn’t enough for you, Kitty is an engaging character in her own right; a person who’s not afraid to have an opinion and will mix it up with the best of them. She may not want to stand in the way of a vampire but if that’s what’s needed then that’s what you’ll find her doing; this not only makes for some interesting moments but also makes Kitty a character that I wanted to find out more about. I stuck around to do just that!

The only thing that blighted my enjoyment of the book was the fact that Kitty’s character kept reminding me of Kelley Armstrong’s Elena Michaels, another reluctant werewolf trying to make the best of a bad deal. In terms of the two characters, I could let this go (to an extent) as I guess there’s only so much you can write about a strong female werewolf before she becomes similar to strong female werewolves in other books. There’s bound to be some crossover.
What did stop me fully engaging with the book was when I realised it was very similar to Armstrong’s ‘Stolen’, a novel where Elena Michaels must rally a group of supernatural beings together to combat someone hunting them through the woods. Does that sound similar to you? It did to me and those similarities stopped me getting a feel for this book as a story in it’s own right.

Despite this though, ‘Kitty’s House of Horrors’ was a very entertaining read that was well worth an evening of my time. I’d certainly give the next one a go but I’d be looking for it to follow it’s own path, we’ll see if that happens...

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

News!

From the first press release that I found in my inbox...

BLACK LIBRARY ARE DELIGHTED TO ANNOUNCE THE RETURN OF BEST-SELLING FANTASY WRITER, WILLIAM KING.

William King has signed a major new deal with the Black Library, for a trilogy based on the high elf characters Tyrion and Teclis. Twin brothers Tyrion and Teclis are the greatest heroes of an age, and their like will never be seen again. Prince Tyrion's skill with a blade unmatched by any living swordsmen, whilst Teclis is the most powerful mage of his generation. Set over two hundred years before the current Warhammer timeline, the new trilogy tells an origin story of these two phenomenal champions.

Head of Black Library, George Mann, said of the deal: “I’m overjoyed to be welcoming Bill King back to the Black Library, particularly with such an exciting and auspicious series. Bill has a real flair for a good story and his writing really brings the Warhammer world to life. I know people are going to adore these books.”
William King was born in Stranraer, Scotland, and is one of Black Library's best-selling authors, with sales in excess of half a million books. He started writing for Games Workshop in 1988, and later he worked in the design studio. His swords and sorcery series Gotrek & Felix and his Space Wolf novels have become a staple in the Black Library range. His short fiction has appeared in Interzone, Zenith, and a Year’s Best SF collection. He currently lives in Prague.
The deal was conducted with agent John Jarrold, and the first novel in the trilogy will be published in 2011.

I wasn't too keen on Bill King's first 'Gotrek & Felix' book but I haven't read a lot of Warhammer fantasy and this does look interesting. I'll be keeping an eye open for this one.

From the second press release I found in my inbox,

PS Publishing to Release the New Ian R. MacLeod Novel...

Following their wonderful success with Ian R. MacLeod's 2009 Campbell and Arthur C. Clarke award winning novel SONG OF TIME, Peter Crowther at PS Publishing has acquired limited edition rights from John Berlyne at the Zeno Agency for MacLeod's brand new novel WAKE UP AND DREAM and will publish in the latter part of 2010. The PS edition will feature cover art by Dirk Berger.

"Hollywood, 1940. It’s the Golden Age of the Feelies. All one-time actor and unlicensed matrimonial private eye Clark Gable has to do is impersonate a wealthy scriptwriter for a few hours, and sign the contract for the biopic of the inventor of a device which has changed entertainment forever. What could go wrong? Already, he’s seeing ghosts — but that’s nothing unusual. Europe is devastated by war and America is sleep-walking into Fascism — but what’s that got to do with him? By turns wry and romantic, but always gripping, multi-award winning writer Ian R MacLeod’s latest novel is a dazzling collision of science, fantasy and history. Like the feelies themselves, WAKE UP AND DREAM is film noir with Technicolor wraiths."

Peter Crowther says 'After the wonderful smorgasbord of emotion that was the multiple-award-winning SONG OF TIME, Ian Macleod could have gone two ways: the familiar and workmanlike approach of not taking any chances, or the bold sweeping-clean of the planning table in order to come up with something set to blow readers totally out of the water. Well, WAKE UP AND DREAM is that latter... in spades. It's alternate reality Hollywood steeped in film noir, Dick meets Hammett... a truly mesmerising word-trip that melds science, history and fantasy in equal parts -- and you know, you just can't see the joins. We're thrilled that Ian has allowed us to publish it -- it's a book that will take the genre's readers by storm.'

I've only read the one short story by Macleod and, to be honest, probably can't afford to spring for a limited edition from P.S Publishing. My wife would probably kill me and I wouldn't blame her! If 'The Camping Wainrights' is anything to go by though, 'Wake Up and Dream' could be worth a look...