A Return to Viriconium…

Way back in the depths of last year I announced my intention to read M. John Harrison’s ‘Viriconium’; a collection that had left me more than a little confused (the last time I read it) with its tendency to tell far too much all at once. If this wasn’t enough, its tone was never anything less than bleak and depressing, hardly conducive to a straightforward read.

It was the depressing nature of the subject matter that led me (on my second attempt at reading the collection) to put the book down and never really get round to picking it up again. There’s nothing like a book that questions it’s own reality constantly to inspire a feeling of alienation that leads me to pick up something a little more ‘stable’ instead…
It was when I saw that James had reviewed ‘Viriconium’, earlier on this year, that I remembered my New Year’s resolution to polish this book off but it wasn’t until the Bank Holiday weekend that I finally got round to it. I only planned on reading ‘A Storm of Wings’ but I somehow found myself polishing the rest of the book off in one sitting. Maybe my journey into the ‘Forgotten Realms’, earlier this week, geared me up for something a little more challenging…



‘A Storm of Wings’ tells the story of an alien invasion of a land that is already alien enough to defy description. As you dig further into the tale though you discover it is far more than it at first appears. How can a story like this be simple when the leading characters are fractured by traumas that are only coming to light after thousands of years? The Reborn Man Alstath Fulthor is constantly reeling from his attempts to reconcile his current life to the insanity of the Afternoon Cultures, a reconciliation that is doomed to a slow and drawn out failure. Harrison can be more than a little verbose at times but the reader does end up with a strong image of the mental anguish that Fulthor suffers on an almost daily basis. I was also left wondering if there was a little of Moorcock’s ‘Elric’ in Fulthor with his mood swinging between compassion and cruelty along with his attempts to come to terms with a world where his people are no longer in the ascendancy. Harrison also shows us that it’s not just Viriconium, and Earth, that is suffering from the effects of a reality that is fraying at the edges. The rest of the universe suffers as well as various races seek to impose their own reality on something that is at best vague and nebulous.

What happens when two realities meet and seek to gain dominance over the other? The main result is that the main thrust of the plot becomes almost incidental to the wider issues of philosophy that play out in the mysterious city and Viriconium itself. Harrison gets verbose again and I found myself really having to work to get my head around what he was saying as well as stay in touch with the story itself. I’ll confess to not succeeding at this all of the time… What you do get though is a story that is heavy on atmosphere and with the tiniest of twists that still manages to paint the story in a different light. Hornwrack’s fate is clear, once you learn a little about his past, but is no less powerful. The overall impact of the story is lessened in that Viriconium has already been established as a city constantly in flux, if change is inevitable then the ending is clear before you even start reading. Harrison is full of ideas around this though and this made the story worth the read.

‘The Dancer from the Dance’, ‘The Luck in the Head’ and ‘The Lamia & Lord Cromis’ are snapshots from various points in various histories of various Viriconiums. There are elements connecting these short tales to the longer affairs but these are purely for the reader to take up if they wish and that constant state of flux is always apparent. Viriconium is also Vriko at the same time as being Uroconium and even Vira Co; a city that lays itself open to anyone who wishes to impose their reality upon it. Throughout these stories, and the book as a whole, Harrison invites his readers to get involved in a way that you don’t normally come across in fantasy literature. Viriconium is nothing less than what you make it. All three of these stories deal with this theme to one extent or another, whether it’s confronting the reality of yourself or seeking to impose your reality on a far wider scale. ‘The Luck in the Head’ deals with this latter theme but feels a little disjointed in it’s attempts to move the players into position for the final scenes. The atmosphere is brooding and gloomy enough but I felt like I was missing something in how the pieces were moved into play. ‘The Dancer from the Dance’ is a more whimsical affair that shows the reader how joy can be found in the most unlikely of places and this casts a new light on a city that has become renowned (over the course of the book) for it’s sense of ennui. The spontaneity of this discovery is particularly refreshing as is the night-watchman’s attempts to vocalise it.

‘The Lamia & Lord Cromis’ is my favourite of these three stories. While the identity of the Lamia is fairly easy to deduce early on, it’s the way that the story ends so abruptly that gives it the added impact. If the entire reason for your existence is taken away from you, what reason do you have to go on and is your life leading up to that point suddenly rendered pointless? How do you impose your reality on what is left? Harrison leaves us to make our own minds up on this score but the way in which it’s all left hanging (and how Cromis reacts to this) is the important thing and it’s dealt with superbly.

I found ‘In Viriconium’ to be a little too absorbed in it’s subject matter to be truly effective but when it gets away from its meditations on art, and back to the characters that keep the story moving, it gives us a thoughtful insight into a city in the grip of a crisis that is more subtle than those that have come before. The plague zone offers a vague threat that is only really represented in the malady of one character but it’s the reaction of others that convey its seriousness. In the midst of this plague, one character seeks to rescue an artist from the plague zone and in doing so impose his own vision on the art community of Viriconium. Harrison delves deep into the soul of Ashlyme, our main character, giving the reader a tortured portrait of a man trying to stay true to his vision while the city goes through another of its many changes. The contrast between relative stability and outright chaos makes for some fascinating reading at times; particularly when personified in the rambunctious Barley Brothers, two brothers who may be more than they seem. ‘In Viriconium’ is a difficult read to get into at first but soon becomes one of the more absorbing tales in the collection.

Who are the mysterious Barley Brothers? ‘A Young Man’s Journey to Viriconium’ may give us a possible answer in its linking the world of Viriconium to events in our own. It’s certainly a possible reason for the story appearing where it does in the collection. This intriguing (at least to me) thought to one side though, ‘A Young Man’s Journey to Viriconium’ feels strangely out of place when the somewhat staid reality of our world is compared to the more fantastical aspects of Viriconium. This short story is one of those tales where I find myself sure that it hasn’t given up all it’s secrets on the one read. Maybe another read will shed a little more light on things.



‘Viriconium’ has made for a reading experience far more satisfying than the last time I gave it a go (way before I started the blog). I think this was in no small part down to my knowing what I was up against, this time round, and this gave me the chance to actually engage with the book instead of spending my time trying to figure out what it was all about. I’m sure that there’s a lot more to get my head around and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a book that I found myself coming back to in the future...

‘Button Man, Slaine & Rogue Trooper’ (Rebellion)

My experiences of 2000AD, when I was growing up, were more or less confined to reading it in the shop while the newsagent wasn’t looking. I read enough to know what I liked but never had the time to really get into it. Coming across the collections then has been a great way for me to fill in some of the gaps as well as finding new stories that I’ve really enjoyed.
The following post is an exercise in filling in those gaps, returning to an old favourite and discovering a new one; all at the same time…



‘Button Man: The Hitman’s Daughter’ – John Wagner/Frazer Irving

There’s something about 2000AD where you find that you know all about the stories inside it, even though you’ve never read them before. This was the case with ‘Button Man’, a modern day tale of shadowy combat between assassins backed (and wagered upon) by bored billionaires. There’s an awful lot of back story involved but, luckily for me, ‘The Hitman’s Daughter’ was a stand alone tale featuring a new character that made it very easy for me to just jump on board and get going. Adele Cotter’s saw her father killed when he tried to get out of the ‘Game’ for good; she’s twenty now and looking to get a little revenge for him. Things are never that clear-cut though soon Adele will come to realise just how deadly the ‘Game’ can be, especially when top ‘Button Man’ Harry Exton is at the centre of things…
For such a slim volume, Wagner manages to fit in an awful lot of double crossing and back stabbing. The story you find yourself reading at the end of the book is not the one you started with at the beginning; this all made for a gripping and compelling read as I found myself really invested in finding out just what the hell was going on. There’s no doubt that the reputation that Wagner has carved for himself, working on 2000AD, is well deserved.

Frazer Irving’s artwork isn’t particularly memorable to start off with but when the story really gets going so does he. Irving’s art really comes into it’s own when confrontation and combat is at the top of the agenda, really capturing how dirty and nasty it all is.

I’ve discovered another favourite story that I’m now going to have to go back and catch up on. Highly recommended for those who wonder just what could be hiding behind those familiar surroundings… 9.5/10



‘Slaine: Demon Killer’ – Pat Mills, Glenn Fabry, Glen Staples, Dermot Power

Slaine is a character whom I’ve been following for a while now, in one way or another. I’m a little behind with his adventures so ‘Demon Killer’ was a good way to catch up and get back into the swing of things.
Slaine is coming to the end of his tenure as King and is due to be ritually sacrificed to the Earth Goddess. The Goddess has other plans for Slaine though, sending him forward in time to aid the warrior queen Boudicca against the invading Roman Legions. The ensuing fight is far more than a clash of cultures however, the demon Elfric marches with the Legions and is looking forward to meeting Slaine once more…

One thing that I’ve always loved about Slaine is that he’s a little more thoughtful than your average barbarian warrior is and this comes across over the course of ‘Demon Killer’. Slaine isn’t averse to a spot of plundering and warfare in true Celtic style (as you see during the massacre in Colchester) but he displays a level of self awareness that makes him a character you can engage with rather than just watch. His sadness at the gulf of time between him and his old tribe is particularly poignant.

Digging up an old enemy for Slaine to fight makes you wonder if there was a lack of inspiration going on but Elfric’s wonderfully over the top character keeps things flowing nicely. He’s beautifully rendered on the page and his almost childlike joy in death and destruction casts him as the alien that he is.
Fabry, Staples and Power combine well over the course of the book to portray Slaine in a light reminiscent of Bisley’s work on ‘The Horned God’. Maybe this was a little too reminiscent for my liking but you can’t deny just how good it all looks on the page. ‘Demon Killer’ may be revisiting past glories, in an effort to come up with new ones, but it’s 100% Slaine in all the ways that matter the most. 9/10



‘Rogue Trooper: Tales of Nu Earth 01’ – Gerry Finley-Day, Alan Moore

If you’re wondering whether you’ve seen ‘Rogue Trooper’ mentioned here before then you’re bang on the money. I’ve covered ‘Rogue Trooper’ elsewhere in the past and I’m pretty much standing by what I said about those stories as far as this new collected edition goes. ‘Tales of Nu Earth 01’ is an exercise in filling in the gaps though as it contains ‘All Hell on the Dix-I Front’, ‘The Marauders’ and ‘Fort Neuro’; all stories that I missed out on while I was reading the series first time round. Alan Moore’s ‘Pray for War’ and ‘First of the Few’ are also in this volume and they proved to be real highlights for me.

One of my complaints about the ‘Rogue Trooper’ books that I read before was that their ‘episodic, face off against the villain of the week’ didn’t translate well to a collected format. This is still the case for those stories that have made it into this collection but ‘All Hell on the Dix-I Front’ and ‘Fort Neuro’ adopt a more long term ‘plot arc’ style that I found to make a refreshing change. ‘Fort Neuro’ does fall into the trap of recycling the same concept over each of the episodes (which is understandable but tedious) but ‘All Hell’ grows organically and is all the better for it. Dave Gibbons, Cam Kennedy and Brett Ewins’ artwork differs a little too much (in terms of providing a cohesive style for a single collection) but still does a fine job of portraying the tragedy and outright weirdness of warfare in the far future.

‘Tales of Nu Earth 01’ isn’t without it’s issues but proved to be a great way for me to fill in the gaps that I’d missed before. I’d definitely pick up Volume 2, when it’s released, to see what else I’ve missed… 8.25/10

‘The God Catcher’ – Erin M. Evans (Wizards of the Coast)

My sporadic, occasionally enlightening but just as often disappointing journey into the land of tie-in fiction and shared worlds continues…
The one thing that I’ve come to realise (and what has kept me reading in this sub-genre) is that there really isn’t a great deal of difference between tie-in fiction and that which is solely the author’s own creation. Either is just as likely to be well written and a compelling read. On the other hand, either is just as likely to be disappointing for one reason or another. You really don’t know until you pick the book up and start reading…
One thing that I really enjoy about fantasy and sci-fi is spending time in the innumerable cityscapes of this fiction and maybe that’s a post for another time. Suffice it to say that when the blurb told me that ‘The God Catcher’ was entirely city based, that as well as the chance to have another go at fiction of a tie-in nature piqued my interest. As it turned out, things didn’t entirely go my way…

Only in a work of fantasy would you find the heroine living in an apartment in the hollowed out remains of a formerly sentient statue. That’s what ‘The God Catcher’ is and that’s where it all begins…
Tennora’s ambition is to become a wizard but some things just aren’t meant to be. What life really has in store for her starts to unfold when a mad woman turns up outside the God Catcher and starts screaming for the landlady. Nestrix is far more than just another mad woman on the streets of Waterdeep however and Tennora will find that her well meaning attempt to help will land her in the kind of trouble that she never even dreamed of. Intrigue and other machinations abound in Waterdeep and it’s never the right time for a clueless bystander to get involved…

At first glance, writing tie-in fiction seems deceptively easy in that a writer doesn’t have to worry about filling in the background. It’s all there already and all the writer has to worry about is telling the story that sits against this backdrop. I’d disagree here and say that if a writer has been given all the background details already then the pressure is on even more for said writer to put their stamp on the scenery as well as telling a great story with memorable characters. Erin Evans succeeds in two out of these three areas…

Under Evans’ pen, the city of Waterdeep really comes to life on the page; full of everything that a city needs to be a thriving home for a great story. Waterdeep’s geography is mentioned enough so that the reader really gets a feel not only for where they are but also where they are in relation to the street they read about a couple of chapters ago. Erin really takes time to ground the reader in these streets as the story progresses, giving us a solid background to base the plot against. It’s not just a solid background either, Evans drops us in the middle of a city that is thriving with life and leaves us with the impression that Tennora’s story is just one of many that are taking place all at the same time. Each of the areas of the city are distinct in their character, maybe a little too distinct to really give the impression that this is one city (it’s more like a collection of smaller towns). The important thing though is that Evans really gives her reader a feel for what’s happening on these streets; whether it’s the cosmopolitan area around the God Catcher, the shadier areas around the dock or the dank city sewers… Waterdeep is a city that I would quite happily spend more time in!

If Evans’ portrayal of Waterdeep wasn’t enough to whet the appetite, the plot itself well worth sticking around for. Evans proves to be a bit of a master at laying the seeds for one plot and then having it turn into something else when you’re not expecting it (even though it ends up looking like it was going that way the whole time). This approach is encouraged along by plenty of action and the end result is a story that bristles with intrigue and burns along at a heady pace just when it needs to. Evans is always in control and steers things in just the right direction, no mean feat when you’re dealing with at least one dragon and all the Machiavellian scheming that comes with it. That ‘story within a story’ slant cast all the events happening in Waterdeep when it became truly apparent.

It’s a shame then that the characters playing their parts didn’t quite match up to the heady expectations I had after reading my way through the city and plot. I think it was the fact that ensuing events drove the characters (rather than the other way round) that left things feeling a little flat, almost like there was so much happening that the characters didn’t have time to fully flesh themselves out. This was a pity as characters like Veron had the potential to make for an interesting read (I wouldn’t mind seeing more adventures featuring that particular character) but didn’t really have the time to shine.

Despite this issue though (and a small one surrounding the cityscape itself) ‘The God Catcher’ proved to be a fun read that has more to it than you would think at first. Like I said earlier, I wouldn’t mind spending more time in Waterdeep and I would certainly pick up Evans’ next book to see what she comes up with next.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

‘The Poison Throne’ – Celine Kiernan (Orbit)

I was sent a few ARCs at the end of the last year and thought it would be fun to post the blurbs etc and see what people thought in terms of whether these books would make it big in 2010. ‘The Poison Throne’ was one of these books and from what I recall (Internet access being non-existent at the time of writing thank you very much Mr Internet Provider…) opinion was divided. Having just finished the book myself, my opinion is pretty divided as well… You’re going to be seeing a lot of Celine Kiernan over the coming months as Orbit have bought the rights to her ‘Moorehawke’ trilogy and will be releasing the books on a monthly basis (it worked for Brent Weeks’ ‘Night Angel’ trilogy and if it ain’t broke…) There’s enough here to have me interested in the sequel but ‘The Poison Throne’ wasn’t an easy book to get into…

Wynter Moorehawke and her sickly father have returned to the Court that held such happy childhood memories for her only to find that everything has changed. King Jonathon was a kind and just ruler but has since become a violent despot whose people live in fear and whose son has been driven away to plot a coup from exile. The King’s other son, Razi, is being forced to become heir to a throne that he doesn’t want and finds that he must obey his father or lose all that he loves. Wynter is a close friend of Razi and finds that she must tread a delicate path or else become embroiled in the King’s machinations…
At the heart of all the politicking and lies is a war machine so deadly that it’s name must not be mentioned. Whoever has possession of this machine will rule a kingdom but the consequences of its use are so deadly as to be beyond consideration. Wynter’s father built it…

‘The Poison Throne’ is a beautifully drawn picture of just how ugly the business of Court can really be underneath the sumptuous banquets and bright livery. The more lavish a court is the more evidence you’ll find of people prepared to do whatever they must to hold onto the power they have gained. This is very much the case in Jonathon’s court where the reader sees a King prepared to sacrifice his sons to safeguard a future under threat from foes only hinted at. And therein lies a problem with this book…
Kiernan throws her readers in at the deep end right from the start and assumes that they have some prior knowledge of the events that led to the current situation, glossing over these in order to concentrate on the characters instead. There is mention of a prequel (in the author interview at the back of the book) and I’m not sure whether this has already been published or not; maybe the answers are there. Whether this is the case or not, the upshot is that the reader is left with a book that keeps it’s background tantalisingly out of reach and the story itself feels like it has nothing to stand up against. Such an approach can either leave you too frustrated to continue (as the book doesn’t give you a lot to go on) or leave you eager to find out more in the sequel. I fell towards the latter but, funnily enough, not because of the plot…

Kings gone mad on power, and terrorising their kingdoms, can be found in most fantasy novels in one form or another. Well-written characters are a rarer commodity and should be treasured wherever they are found. Kiernan gives her readers a bit of a treat in that while her characters may appear generic at first there’s a lot more to them under the surface and they are all worth spending time with. I’m after reading the sequel to ‘The Poison Throne’, not so much to find out what happens next but to find out what happens next for Wynter, Razi and the rest of them. Not a lot happens in terms of action, it’s all about how people deal with what is happening. It’s a small distinction but an important one.

Wynter Moorehawke is very much the female version of the ‘kitchen boy who ends up playing an important part in the fate of a kingdom’. Through her naïve eyes however, the reader gets a real sense of tragedy in the way that a kingdom can fall into ruin so quickly. It’s all the more poignant for being seen through her eyes. Wynter’s attempts to impose any kind of order on events, that she has previously been sheltered from, merely emphasise how out of control everything is. I found her growth as a character, through all of these events, a compelling path to follow and one that I will be travelling for the next book at least.
It’s not just Wynter who gets the ‘well rounded treatment’; Kiernan shows us that while everyone has some good in them life can lead to unpleasant choices that will shape a person. The result is a cast of characters who can surprise the reader when it’s least expected. People can do the wrong things for the right reasons and this casts the King in a new light just when the reader thinks that he’s got him figured. The same goes for all the other characters and it’s a pleasure to spend time with a cast that springs to life on the page in all the right ways (even though the exploration of these characters can sometimes be a little verbose…)

Kiernan’s world is that of 14th century Europe but with a hint of magic and fantasy that makes this world all her own. These elements of fantasy are not expanded upon but this time it’s very much the right thing to do. Kiernan knows that the reason things are magical is because they’re not explained and uses this to good effect in adding a little more depth to the shadowy corners of her kingdom.

‘The Poison Throne’ is a tough book to get into but is a book that is saved by chraracters that I found I wanted to take time to get to know. I’d like to see things made a little more clear in the sequel however, I’ll let you know how it goes…

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

Which ‘Older’ Book Should I Read Next?

After what seems like far too long, I’ve finally managed to work my way through the rest of ‘Viriconium’. I found it to be a lot better read the second time round and you can expect to see my review posted at some point over the weekend. So, what book should I pick up next..?

While the focus of the blog remains primarily on the newer genre releases (and I’ll be continuing to read these) there are a few older books on my shelves that I bought a while ago and haven’t got round to reading. Seeing as one of my New Year’s resolutions was to do just that (and it’s April already) I thought that not only should I get on with this but I could enlist you kind people to help me decide what book to pick up next.
The choices are...



‘A Nomad of the Time Streams’ – Michael Moorcock

Oswald Bastable’s adventures in the Multiverse are collected in ‘The Warlord of the Air’, ‘The Land Leviathan’ and ‘The Steel Tsar’. It’s been years since I read these and I found myself a very nice first edition of this collection which has been sat on the shelf for far too long now. Will it be the book I end up reading or will it have to wait a little longer? Check out the other two options...



‘The Anubis Gates’ – Tim Powers

Brendan Doyle is a twentieth-century English professor who travels back to 1810 London to attend a lecture given by English romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This is a London filled with deformed clowns, organised beggar societies, insane homunculi and magic. When he is kidnapped by gypsies and consequently misses his return trip to 1983, the mild-mannered Doyle is forced to become a street-smart con man, escape artist, and swordsman in order to survive in the dark and treacherous London underworld. He defies bullets, black magic, murderous beggars, freezing waters, imprisonment in mutant-infested dungeons, poisoning, and even a plunge back to 1684. Coleridge himself and poet Lord Byron make appearances in the novel, which also features a poor tinkerer who creates genetic monsters and a werewolf that inhabits others' bodies when his latest becomes too hairy.

This book was the overwhelming reply when I asked readers where would be a good place to start reading Tim Power’s work. Life got in the way though and I still haven’t picked this one up yet. Should it be the next book that I read...?



'No Present Like Time’ – Steph Swainston

The Emperor San and his Circle of Immortals strive to protect the medieval empire of the Fourlands from monstrous creatures called Insects, but the continuity of the Circle is threatened. Serein, the Swordsman, is unexpectedly defeated in ritual combat by a young upstart, who is then sent—along with Comet, the Messenger, and other Immortals—on a mission to Tris, an idyllic and recently discovered island nation. Unfortunately, the Immortals, who assume their own superiority to mere humans, make a mess of things, upsetting the democratically minded islanders and accidentally loosing on them an Insect they'd brought along to help persuade the natives to join the empire...

Swainston’s ‘The Year of Our War’ was one of the first books I read for the blog and the release of her latest book, ‘Above The Snowline’, makes it a good time for me to catch up on the books of hers that I haven’t read in the meantime. Should it be the next book that I read though...?

It’s the same deal as ever, if you think one of these books should be read before the other do then simply leave a comment next to the post and tell me which one you think it should be! The book with the most votes wins :o) I don’t know how long I’ll leave the voting open for (a week maybe?) so don’t be shy about posting a comment...

Judge Dredd takes on the US: 2000 AD announce the launch of US Graphic Novel Line

From the press release...

Rebellion Publishing is pleased to announce the upcoming US launch of iconic British comic 2000 AD’s US Graphic Novel list this June. The books are to be printed in the United States and distributed by industry major Simon and Schuster. The new North America-only list includes classic collections, outstanding new work from the hottest up-and-coming talents as well as thematic compilations which collect the work of some of the biggest names in comics, such as Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison, Alan Davis, John Wagner, Brian Bolland, Pat Mills, Mark Millar and many others.

2000 AD will be releasing two books a month, with the first two books going on sale June 15th 2010.
The first releases are:

•Judge Dredd Case Files 01, a 400 page collection of John Wagner’s iconic creation Judge Dredd – this starts an ongoing series of Judge Dredd collections which are already European bestsellers.

•The Complete D.R. & Quinch: Alan Moore and Alan Davis’ comedy masterpiece, featuring a new Alan Davis cover and excerpts of Alan Moore’s original script.

Founded in 1977, 2000 AD was acquired by the internationally-renowned independent video game developer, Rebellion, in 2000. In the ten years of its ownership, 2000 AD has gone from strength to strength, with the definitive Graphic Novel collections becoming best-sellers throughout the UK and Europe. Many of the biggest-names in comics today honed their skills and wrote their first important works within its pages.

For many years 2000 AD Graphic Novels have only been available in North America in highly sought-after imported editions through the direct comics-store market. 2000 AD has developed a large following in the United States, evident in the success the cult British comic has had selling out at every San Diego Comic-Con. This new list meets the clamouring demand from thrill-seekers throughout North America for Judge Dredd and 2000 AD’s roster of stellar characters.

I'm a fan of 2000AD's output (although I've never read 'D.R. & Quinch'...) and it's always good when people can beat the 'import trap'and pay regular prices for quality comic books. Good news all round! (Look out for some 2000AD reviews later on this week...)

I’ve never read anything by...

Am I the only book blog quite happy to admit that I could be more widely read? Quite possibly... These posts are my own little way of acknowledging books on the ‘to read’ pile that appear interesting enough to warrant a place but are books that I somehow never seem to get round to reading. It’s also a way of finding out more about certain books from the people who read this blog (that’s you... and you as well) that seems to have done alright so far :o)

So, without further ado... C.E Murphy is an author whose two books, ‘The Queen’s Bastard’ and ‘The Pretender’s Crown’ have been sat on the pile for an absolute age but have barely been picked up, let alone read. These two books have very much been victims of my lack of rhyme and reason in picking the next book to read, all pretence at a reading schedule falls by the wayside and many books fall with it. Also, call me a stereotypical guy but I’m not quite ready to take a book with vast amounts of cleavage on the cover on the train with me to work... Check it out and see what I mean...



You’ve seen the cover art, here’s the blurb for ‘The Queen’s Bastard’,

In a world where religion has ripped apart the old order, Belinda Primrose is the queen's secret weapon. The unacknowledged daughter of Lorraine, the first queen to sit on the Aulunian throne, Belinda has been trained as a spy since the age of twelve by her father, Lorraine's lover and spymaster.

Cunning and alluring, fluent in languages and able to take on any persona, Belinda can infiltrate the glittering courts of Echon where her mother's enemies conspire. She can seduce at will and kill if she must. But Belinda's spying takes a new twist when her witchlight appears.

Now Belinda's powers are unlike anything Lorraine could have imagined. They can turn an obedient daughter into a rival who understands that anything can be hers, including the wickedly sensual Javier, whose throne Lorraine both covets and fears. But Javier is also witchbreed, a man whose ability rivals Belinda's own . . . and can be just as dangerous.

Amid court intrigue and magic, loyalty and love can lead to more daring passions, as Belinda discovers that power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

Am I missing out by not having picked up these books yet? Hopefully that’s where you come in. Have you read ‘The Queen’s Bastard’ or ‘The Pretender’s Crown’? I can’t promise that I’ll have the time to read these books but I’m interested to see what you thought of them. C.E. Murphy has written a whole load of urban fantasy style books as well (which I also haven’t read) so if you have any thoughts on those feel free to leave a comment... :o)

‘Tome of the Undergates’ – Sam Sykes (Gollancz)

After a couple of lean years where I’ve ended up being the last one to turn up at the party (only to find that everyone else has already left for the next one...) this year has seen me up my game in terms of being there at the start when hyped new debuts arrive on the scene. At least this way I now know what everyone else is talking about when they mention a book!

Hype is a funny old thing and more than likely the subject of a post all to itself. Suffice it to say that you can’t blame publishers for hyping their work (they wouldn’t be doing their job otherwise) but I’m often left wondering why one particular book gets all the attention while another doesn’t. What makes a book ‘hype worthy’? Is it purely the book itself or do publishers also take into account the willingness of the author to get in on the act and ‘hype away’ themselves...?
The latter may well be the case in terms of Sam Sykes, a debut author who’s more than willing to get down and dirty in various corners of the internet and talk up his work. Gollancz are pretty excited about ‘Tome of the Undergates’ and seeing as they’ve got good form as far as picking up debuts go I was more than interested to see how ‘Tome’ panned out. As it turned out, ‘Tome of the Undergates’ was an enjoyable enough read but...



‘When one requires a herd of cattle guarded from rustlers, a young maiden protected, a family tomb watched over or an enemy driven away, all for an honest fee, one calls upon a mercenary.
When one requires a herd of cattle stolen, a young maiden deflowered, a family tomb looted and desecrated or an honest man driven away from his own home, all for a few copper coins and a promise, one calls upon an adventurer.’

If adventurers are the lowest of the low then Lenk’s own dysfunctional crew are certainly the lowest of these... A mix of non-human and human members in the band is no obstacle to them all hating each other with equal measure; the only thing that unites them is the promise of gold easily come by, a promise that never seems to apply to adventurers.
This is definitely the case when the ship they are travelling on is attacked by pirates. If this wasn’t bad enough, an invincible demon decides to get involved and takes the one thing that Lenk’s band didn’t even know that they had been assigned to protect. The Tome of the Undergates contains everything you need to know in order to open the Undergates, the portal that keeps boundless evil locked up and away from the rest of the world. Only a demon would want to open the Undergates; Lenk and his band are out to make sure this doesn’t happen...

As much as I enjoyed ‘Tome of the Undergates’, it ended up being a real struggle to get through at times. Sam’s author bio says that he began writing this book when he was seventeen and he is now twenty five; at times it felt like this was a reflection of how long it felt that the book was taking to read... This is a real shame as ‘Tome’ has moments where I found myself more than glad to have stuck around and continued reading.

It is clear from reading ‘Tome’ that it is a labour of love for Sam Sykes and a world that he really wanted to write about. I wonder though if he fell into the trap of wanting to spend too much time there at the expense of the story itself.
The bottom line is that the book is far too long (six hundred and thirty three pages in ARC format) to justify what is essentially a very short and snappy plot. Lenk’s crew are attacked by pirates and then find themselves taking a job to go to a deserted island and retrieve the Tome; that’s the whole plot summed up. What would make a decent 300-350 novel is unnecessarily burdened by an extra three hundred odd pages that don’t do much other than to tell us things that we already know. We know that Lenk’s crew all hate each other to the point of drawing blades on each other. We know all their little idiosyncrasies that stop them functioning as a team (although Sykes does well to show us how they all somehow manage to muddle through). We know that Lenk and another of his team are fighting an attraction that can only end in tears. We really don’t need to be told over and over again. What happens as a result is that ‘Tome’ comes across as repetitive and unwieldy in that the flow of the narrative is constantly being interrupted by stuff that we already knew. There’s nothing wrong with the plot itself but it’s crushed by the sheer volume of pages, making it come across as more shallow than it really is.

Other bloggers have already mentioned the two hundred page fight scene at the beginning of the book. I’d say that it was more like a hundred and seventy pages but whatever the difference in page count, I’d agree with those who said that this was a little too drawn out for what was essentially a skirmish between two ships. The ebb and flow of a city under siege (with lots of stuff going on in different quarters) might warrant such a page count but applying it to a confrontation between two ships leads to all the outcomes that I mentioned just now. Having all of this at the start of the book wasn’t a good move, there were times when I wondered whether to keep reading...

You know what though? I’m glad I did.

It’s not often that you come across an author so clearly enthusiastic about the world he has created as Sam Sykes. This enthusiasm is infectious and ultimately is what kept me reading. Sam loves the world he created and although he gets bogged down in needless detail he’s still very much out to give his reader the best time possible. Sam’s invested a lot of time in his world and I found myself wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt and do the same. This paid off for me with moments of swashbuckling action combined with world building that is deceptively simple.

When he really gets going, Sam Sykes can write moments of combat that had my heart in my mouth. His trick is get you interested in the characters first so that when they’re being throttled by a demon you really want to know if they make it out the other side! Lenk’s crew are the stereotypical D&D band but Sykes takes time to make his characters a little more rounded than this. This portrayal may end up being repetitive but there are still a lot of engaging characteristics, to Lenk etc, that I had fun getting my head around.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot to the world building at first but Sykes springs a welcome surprise on his readers by making it all about the culture rather than geography. The reader may not have much of an idea as to where they are, physically, but there’s no doubt that it’s an alien landscape that they’re walking on. The religion perpetuated by Mother Kraken and the superiority complex of the Longfaces are deftly handled with enough left unspoken to have me interested in reading what happens next.

‘Tome of the Undergates’ is an entertaining read, once you make your way through the morass of detail. I’d hope for something a little more streamlined in the sequel but there’s no doubt that I’ll be around to see what happens next.

Seven and Three Quarters out of Ten

‘Unholy Ghosts’ – Stacia Kane (Del Rey)

A reader recently asked me if my ‘current overwork and malaise’ had coloured my perception of a certain book that I reviewed for the blog. I’ll stand by what I said about that book but I can see where they’re coming from, especially with some of the stuff I’ve had to deal with over the last couple of weeks. I don’t know about you but if I’m having a bad day then it’s only really going to be a ‘comfort re-read’ that does it for me.
There are some books though that will get on my nerves no matter what mood I’m in. Despite a promising beginning, ‘’Unholy Ghosts’ ended up being one of those reads. Here’s the blurb...

The world is not the way it was. The dead have risen, and the living are under attack. The powerful Church of Real Truth, in charge since the government fell, has sworn to reimburse citizens being harassed by the deceased. Enter Chess Putnam, a fully tattooed witch and freewheeling ghost hunter. She’s got a real talent for banishing the wicked dead. But Chess is keeping a dark secret: She owes a lot of money to a murderous drug lord named Bump, who wants immediate payback in the form of a dangerous job that involves black magic, human sacrifice, a nefarious demonic creature, and enough wicked energy to wipe out a city of souls. Toss in lust for a rival gang leader and a dangerous attraction to Bump’s ruthless enforcer, and Chess begins to wonder if the rush is really worth it. Hell, yeah.

Anything with a hint of the ‘post apocalypse’ is always a welcome thing for me and ‘Unholy Ghosts’ provided that in spades, creating a dark and oppressive landscape for a battered humanity to cower in. Add a drug using main character whose job is to debunk ghost sightings (but seems to end up getting on the wrong side of real ghosts) and I thought I was in for some fun.

And then things went south in rather a hurry. I should have read the blurb a little more closely...

I was ok with Chess having an awkward time with the one night stand she was still attracted to. I could even let it slide when she started to develop feelings for her drug dealer’s chief enforcer. When she started to fall for a rival gang leader as well? It was at that point where I found myself thinking that I could be reading any one of a number of other urban fantasies. While the setting promised something original (or at least, something that I hadn’t come across), the willingness to steer the plot wholeheartedly into generic love triangle territory really lessened the impact of what was turning out to be a fast paced and fun adventure.
One lady having to choose between three guys, call me a cynic but I could tell how it was all going to go down - loads of sexual tension, Chess goes off with the one that the reader least expects but who is also the one that the reader secretly wants Chess to get together with. If you can see what’s going to happen this early on (just over a hundred pages into a three hundred and forty six page book) then there isn’t a lot of point in continuing reading. At least, that’s what I thought. Other than urban fantasy series that I’m already reading (where a relationship is growing and could go anywhere) I’m pretty much done with this kind of plot.

‘Unholy Ghosts’ promised to be fun and if you’re into urban fantasy where the heroine has to make a tough choice between three likely guys (while saving people from the perils of the supernatural) then I think that you’ll still end up having a lot of fun with this one. Unfortunately, I’m after something a little different and this one just wasn’t for me...

Author Interview! Guy Adams

Sometimes you read a book and by the time you're done you're full of questions that you want to run past the author... That was the case with 'The World House', a book that already has one foot planted firmly in my fledgling 'Best of 2010' list. Luckily for me, Guy was more than happy to answer my questions, thanks Guy! Here's what we had to say for ourselves...

I’ve just found a box with strange looking writing on it, damn thing won’t open though. What should I do with it?

Run. Like hell.

When you started writing ‘The World House’ which came first, the world or the plot?

The world. Whenever I write plot tends to come last. I always start with ideas and flavours, maybe even little scenes -- and I do visualise those in movie terms. For The World House it was the House, it's thick, carpeted corridors, marble busts and the flickering gas lamps. Then there was an image of walking into a room and seeing -- just beyond the persian rug and wing-backed chairs -- a mountain stretch up towards a ceiling obscured by clouds. Then there was a girl finding the box on a cliff top. Then cellars that stretched for miles, old New York docks, all dark, stained bricks and dripping water.

These things build, when I'm writing I'm as much of an explorer as the eventual reader, I get myself in that environment, surround myself with characters and run with it, see where the ideas take me. It's an exciting way to work but a frustrating one at times because you do come up against blank chapters and have no idea where to go from there.

When pitching The World House I pitched an idea (with a lot of trimmings, enough sense of the scope and story that idea offered) but when that was accepted and I sat down to write I realised that an idea is a world away from a plot and it was scary for a while as I waited for it all to come together.

The plot could have worked out quite thin in that situation, surprisingly it didn't. The World House is actually quite a complex book, it just pretends not to be!

Does the World House look anything like your house?

It looks a lot like my ideal house. I adore Victoriana and once had a flat half-decorated in that style, the lounge and my office were dark places. Lost of stained floorboards and deep paint. No mountains though, sadly.


After finishing reading ‘The World House’ I was left wondering whether it was a work of fantasy, sci-fi, horror... or all three. Does the book fall into any one of those categories for you or is it a little bit of everything?

It's a bit everything, my favourite books always are. I wrote a section of the sequel the other day and it's dark as hell, pure horror... let's sneak a chunk in, there are no spoilers in it:

Ryan’s mother walked him in time with the music, his feet stood on hers. Despite his size she managed this just fine, towering above him, a plump giant in pink satin. She swung him around the dance floor, the sprinkled light from the mirrorball above trickling over her grey, loose skin.
“I wish you weren’t dead mum,” said Ryan.
She said nothing. Her jaw hung too low for words, clanking around her chest like dirty pearls. She simply pressed his face into her gaseous belly where it sunk deep, as if there were not flesh beneath the fabric of her dress but rotting leaf mulch.

That's horror. And yet the chapter before had another two characters cracking jokes in a Dunkin' Donuts in preparation for fighting a God.

I like contrasts... I like big ideas, humour, a little bit of noir/pulp (the chapter introducing Tom and Elise in The World House has a real pulp feel I think). They're all good styles, why stick to just one of them? That's like writing an album and only using a single guitar.

How do you write? Was there a map of the World House in your head, right from the start, or were you happy to have your characters open doors and be as surprised as they were with what was on the other side?

A map! Ha! No, nothing so sensible (though I did use maps of St. Pancras a lot for the sequel actually so I'm not that slack). As I say above, it's all about the surprise, walk through your story and see what you can find. Surprise yourself, challenge yourself. Even though you do need some plans with a big book you must always be willing to ditch them. If you pulled up at a crossroads in your car, planning on turning left and heading towards the supermarket, but to your right you saw a tap-dancing Orca offering card tricks to passing penguins you'd turn right and to hell with the supermarket.


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

That no other book offers? Hmm... You don't often read about Whistler's Mother frigging I suppose... (though that is SO out of context now that it makes the book sound far dirtier than it actually is!) In general terms I think it offers scope and a sense of fun but with an idea juicy enough to get your teeth into underneath. I'd say it was an easy read, my style is light and the book never feels dense (does it?) but there's some nice views, monsters and car crashes so you shouldn't get bored.


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

I just finished Peter Straub's A Dark Matter and you should read it because Peter Straub wrote it. That is a perfectly adequate reason. If you want more justification then I offer it's sumptuous, rolling prose (literate as hell but smooth, Miles Davis before he went bugshit and incomprehensible in his latter years -- complex but a pleasure to digest). The book folds story in on itself wonderfully. Layer after layer, like a light pizza dough, all mixed up and releasing new details with each mouthful. I'm talking Straub and I've mentioned jazz and food... I think he'd be pleased.

I've got a copy of 'A Dark Matter' waiting on the shelf, I might have to bump it up the list a bit now... Angry Robot is still a relatively new publishing house. Bearing this in mind, what has it been like writing for Angry Robot compared to your experiences with other publishers? Is there more of a buzz about the place?

Yes, they're uncontrollable. It's like Pinky and the Brain have moved into publishing. They love what they do and it's infectious, there's a genuine sense of wanting to smack the marketplace in the mouth with books that matter. Mine was an exception naturally, like a venus flytrap in a field of roses.

You also write tie-in fiction. What has been the world you’ve enjoyed writing in the most and what world would you most like to write for in the future?

I love my own fiction more than any other of course, you can never beat telling your own stories. Having said that I enjoyed Torchwood and am still a bit cross that I haven't written any Doctor Who. Maybe one day they'll give in and stop calling the police when I beg.

Finally, Is there anything that you can tell us about ‘Restoration’ (the sequel to ‘The World House’)? What is the world in store for following the climatic events of ‘The World House’?

Having just finished the initial submitted draft you ask at a good time... The book is suitably different to the first (always my intention, this wasn't one book split in half, they follow on seamlessly from one another but are very different animals).

Restoration is set more in 'our' world than the House, that's the major change I suppose. It opens things up a lot. There are sections in Tibet in the early twentieth century, big chunks in Florida in the seventies, India, Spain, a post-apocalyptic Stratford-upon-Avon... the whole thing opens up.

What it shares with the first book is the structure of several plot threads that come together in the end. There's a lot more character depth in Restoration. There just wasn't space in the first book as everyone was on the run all the time, they barely had time to breathe and I intentionally avoided 'internal monologues' etc.

I can't tell you too much about plot without ruining the climax of The World House but suffice to say the characters pick up the challenge they're left with and deal with the fall-out.

I think its a much better book, but then I should, otherwise I'm doing it wrong!

Great stuff, I'm really looking forward to it. Thanks Guy!

‘Apartment 16’ – Adam Nevill (Pan)

Horror isn’t as stagnant as you would think; it’s certainly not dead. Horror is simply doing what it has always done; lurking in shadowy corners waiting to trap the unwary… Have a look at the ‘Mammoth Book of Best New Horror’ series and you’ll see what I mean.

A quick look at the bookshelves though would have you excused in thinking that this isn’t the case at all. Go into any bookstore and you’ll see the usual suspects taking up shelf space along with certain urban fantasy titles that booksellers really don’t know where to put. I’m looking forward to seeing writers like Brian Keene, Gary McMahon, Conrad Williams and Maynard & Sims making the horror shelves as varied as they deserve to be. Maybe that’s for the future but, in the meantime, this coming May could well be the start of it all. Adam Nevill’s ‘Apartment 16’ is by no means perfect but I found that I couldn’t put it down until I’d finished reading…

There’s an empty apartment in the exclusive Barrington House in London. There’s also a night porter who, over the coming weeks, will come to wish that he had never looked inside… If that wasn’t enough, there’s also a young American woman (Apryl) who has been left an apartment, in Barrington House, by her mysterious Great Aunt Lillian; a woman who died in strange circumstances. It isn’t the same flat but the two are connected by a horrific event that took place decades ago. Barrington House hasn’t been the same since and Apryl is determined to discover why. She may end up wishing that she hadn’t though; evil lives on in Barrington House and Apartment 16 is the gateway to somewhere even more horrifying…

‘Apartment 16’ is a bit of a slow burner. When it really gets going the book has a ready capacity to shock but you do have to jump through some over familiar hoops before you get to the good stuff. It’s a bit of a shame really when you see how good the book can be once Nevill lets his imagination run wild and unleashes fear on his reader. I found myself wishing that the whole book could have been like that.
The opening chapters do a fine job of setting the scene and laying little clues in place that end up making a lot of sense once you get to the end. What they also do however is throw a lot of typical ‘ghostly moments’ at the reader that I’ve seen many times before. Shadowy figures in the corner of Apryl’s eye, Apryl waking up to find all is not as it seems through one nasty surprise or another. The concept was enough to keep me reading through these early stages but I just wasn’t getting that delicious chill down my spine that genuinely terrifying ghost stories give you. Stick with it though, it’s worth sticking with.

Was Nevill just lulling his reader into a false sense of security, through a sense of the familiar, or was he aiming for scares that didn’t hit the mark? I don’t know. What I do know though is that the mid to latter stages of the book had me hooked and unnerved all at once. As the mystery of Barrington House unfolds, the tension is racked up mercilessly as Apryl begins to understand what she is facing. The whole landscape of the novel changes as things become clearer, what at first appears to be normal slowly becomes anything but and the tone of the book becomes more and more oppressive as time passes. The sense of evil is overpowering (is there anything more evil than a nasty child…?) and that’s when occurrences get truly scary. All of this is skilfully drawn out until a finale that’s in keeping with all good ghost and horror tales. If someone deserves a bad ending then that is what ‘Apartment 16’ has in store with them. However, no-one comes out of a good ghost tale unscathed and ‘Apartment 16’ plays by these rules too…

Apryl is a hard character to engage with purely because she is so out of her depth in a city that she has never visited before as well as out of her depth in terms of the evil that she faces. She spends so much time trying to work things out, or fit in, that you never get much of a chance to find out who she really is, only what she is trying to do. This is great in terms of moving the plot forward quickly but I would have preferred to see a main character with a little more substance to her.
Luckily, there is a lot more to the character of Seth and this was where the real fun was for me. While things that go bump in the night are scary enough, the true terror is in seeing someone fall under the sway of evil and gradually deteriorate mentally. This is what Nevill gives us and he really plays with his reader’s emotions by swing Seth back and forth between a forlorn hope of redemption and eternal damnation. You don’t know where Seth will end up and that’s what kept me reading, that and the sense of London as a dead weight hanging around Seth’s neck and driving him to distraction all the more.
The chapters mainly switch back and forth between Seth and Apryl’s viewpoints (with the occasional switch to a supporting character) and that’s where things fell a little flat for me. I loved Seth’s chapters but was ambivalent about those featuring Apryl. What I got as a result was a ‘seesaw’ effect of enjoyment and being a little non-plussed, something that made the book feel a little choppy in terms of it’s pacing on occasion.

Nevill’s writing is powerful enough though for this issue not to be too much of an obstacle though and once you get past the opening stages of the book you’re in for a real treat if you like ghost stories that will scare you to your core. I love reading horror fiction/ghost stories and Adam Nevill is definitely a name that I will be keeping an eye open for in the future…

Eight and a Half out of Ten

Malazan Burn Out?

For my money, Steven Erikson is writing the best fantasy series out there at the moment. Why is it then that I’m finding it more and more of a chore to read his books…?

I’ve had the last couple of weeks off work and I thought I’d use the time to finally crack on and finish ‘Dust of Dreams’ (you know, the important stuff…!), a book that I’ve been trying to get into since the hardback came out last year. Every time I tried to read it I never got much further than page one hundred. This time, I got to around page two hundred before I found myself dipping into some of the other books that you’ve seen featured on the blog these last few days.

Now I could say in my defence that I’ve been moving house, I’ve been in and out of hospital, I’ve been unpacking loads of boxes in the new house, getting stuff ready for the baby etc. That would be ok if I hadn’t had exactly the same problem last time round with ‘Toll the Hounds’, another Malazan book that took me a year’s worth of bite sized chunks of reading before I finished it. If that wasn’t bad enough, I find myself with no urge to read Esslemont’s ‘Return of the Crimson Guard’ at all. But I still think that the ‘Malazan’ series is the best fantasy series on the shelves at the moment.

So what’s going on?

Is it that I’m slowly travelling through a world where every character internally philosophises in the same dry tone? Has Erikson succeeded in portraying the utter pointlessness of war to the extent where I can’t see the point in going any further? Everyone must die sometimes… Is it the fact that Stonny’s son can’t possibly be as old as he is in ‘Toll the Hounds’, can he? Or is it the fact that various Malazan armies (or their allies) have been marching hither and yon for almost ten books now and I find myself wondering if the climax could have maybe come a couple of books ago…?

It’s a mixture of all of them to be honest but it’s the last reason that’s the killer for me. Erikson could pull something out of his hat in the next book that makes the ‘Book of the Fallen’ a series that couldn’t be anything less than ten books but, right now, I feel that things are starting to drag a bit and that’s what’s stopping me continuing.

I’m looking forward to being proved wrong here as, like I said, I think the ‘Malazan’ books are the best fantasy series on the bookshelves; I can’t help feeling a little tired of it all though…
How about you? Are you finding the home straight to be more of a slog than a sprint? Or have you finished ‘Dust of Dreams’ and know something that I don’t? Like I said, I’m looking forward to being proved wrong so all comments are more than welcome!

‘The Sword of Albion’ – Mark Chadbourn (Bantam Press)

If you’re living in the US (or couldn’t be bothered to wait for the UK edition) then you may have already seen this book, courtesy of Pyr, going by the name of ‘The Silver Skull’. I never got round to reading this last year but heard lots of good things about it and resolved to wait until its UK release before grabbing myself a copy. It won’t actually be published until May but I was lucky enough to get hold of an advance copy to take a look at. I still haven’t got round to reading the ‘Age of Misrule’ series but I did enjoy Mark Chadbourn’s ‘Lord of Silence’ (still ‘not so secretly’ hoping for more to come from this series, will another publisher pick it up?) and was hoping for more of the same from ‘The Sword of Albion’.
Being an historical fantasy (as opposed to a fantasy in an imagined world), ‘The Sword of Albion’ is very different to ‘Lord of Silence’. Having said that though, ‘The Sword of Albion’ is very much Mark Chadbourn doing what he does best. I’m hoping for more books in this setting as well…

What use is a spy when everyone knows his face and who he is? Such a spy is of great use when he’s being employed for entirely different reasons to those that everyone else thinks. Such is the case with Will Swyfte, swordsman, scholar, rake… and England’s last hope against an enemy that has stalked humanity since time began. It’s 1588 and while the Spanish Armada gathers sail in Lisbon, Swyfte’s mission is to counter the otherworldly forces that lend their support to Philip of Spain. A weapon of deadly force has been stolen from the Tower of London and is in the hands of the Faerie. Swyfte must steal this weapon back before it is put to use in the worst possible way and England’s green and pleasant land become a festering charnel pit…

I don’t know about you but whenever I read any kind of spy novel (which isn’t very often, I’ll admit) I always find myself looking out for the ‘James Bond Moments’. You know the ones I mean, those moments where the author decides to tip their cap in the direction of film and literature’s greatest spy. Sometimes this works very well but sometimes these moments can come across as a little forced and they detract from the story itself. Unfortunately this proved to be the case with ‘The Sword of Albion’. The scenes with Swyfte being kitted out for his mission (by the alchemist Dr John Dee) were a little too reminiscent of Bond being kitted out by ‘Q’, right down to having Swyfte poke fun at Dee’s inventions in much the same way that Bond would have done.
The dialogue was quite humorous but didn’t provide the comic relief that it was aiming to, at least as far as I was concerned. Instead, it seemed totally at odds with Swyfte’s ability to fully focus on the job at hand (especially when the stakes were so high) and made the pace falter at a time when it really needed to be building up a good head of steam. It really didn’t work for me…

It’s a good job then that this came very near the beginning and was got out of the way relatively early. The rest of the book is more than a little bit special.

‘The Sword of Albion’ is an unashamed swashbuckling romp through a time when England stands firm against invaders both without and within. If there is a rope to be swung from, a dark alley to be chased down or a burning ship to have a sword fight on then you can bet that Will Swyfte and his friends will be doing just that. This makes for some glorious spectacles that punctuate a generally fast moving plot with scenes of real action and adventure. These moments are worth the price of admission alone! Chadbourn occasionally gets a little too involved in the world that he is painting, describing the scenery when the story needs to be moving along. Balancing this out though is the fact that he proves to be a dab hand at setting dark and gloomy scenes for the inhabitants of Faery to make themselves known in. The streets of Alsatia and Edinburgh were among my favourite moments, simply through how very murky they were. Also, Chadbourn sets the stakes so high for Swyfte (both personally and professionally) that the story can never stay still for long… When this happens, you can expect Chadbourn to raise the tension and let it explode in a flurry of action.

Swyfte is fighting a war on three fronts and this makes for some gripping characterisation that I found to be very engaging indeed. If fighting the Spanish and the Faery Realm wasn’t enough, Swyfte must find his own way through the ensuing politics to satisfy his own ends. Here is a man who will stop at nothing in order to defend that which he loves, his country and his friends. This results in a character that is unscrupulous and prepared to sacrifice his soul for ends that justify the means. Swyfte is not a clear-cut hero but he is a hero nevertheless and one whom the reader will have fun following. Swyfte may take centre stage but Chadbourn takes care to make his supporting cast just as enjoyable to read about. Characters such as Carpenter and Launceston add some real depth to what is going on in the background, making the whole experience one that you can really sink yourself into.

Chadbourn’s swashbuckling plot is full of the twists and turns that are needed in order to bring the action scenes to fruition. Betrayal is rife and it’s all credit to Chadbourn that he manages to surprise you with this every time. The way that it all comes together at the end is pretty special too, this is a picture where all the gaps have been filled in and there is still room for more to come.

If ‘The Sword of Albion’ is anything to go by then I’m very much looking forward to the continuing tales of Will Swyfte. While I found that the book faltered very early on, this proved to be a trifling matter and I’m glad that I stuck around for the rest of the ride. Bring on the sequel!

Nine and a Half out of Ten

‘The Complete Nemesis the Warlock Volume 2’ – Pat Mills, Kevin O’Neill, Bryan Talbot, John Hicklenton, Tony Luke

Thousands of years from now, humanity has reconciled all it’s differences and has found a new target to unleash its rampant xenophobia upon. The rest of the galaxy… The venom filled sermons of the tyrant Torquemada exhort his Terminators to more and more atrocities across the galaxy and all seems lost for the peace loving aliens of the outer planets. Or is it? Nemesis the Warlock still fights for freedom, from the tube lines of Termight itself all the way across the weirdness of the Time Wastes…



‘Nemesis the Warlock Volume 2’ collects books five to seven of the series, chronicling Nemesis’ attempts to find his son Thoth and how this all ends in a race to save the galaxy. The ABC warriors are on hand to lend a hand and this adds an element of humour to the madness of Torquemada’s totalitarian regime and the madness of the Time Wastes themselves. There really is something for everyone in the ‘Nemesis the Warlock’ series and Volume 2 is no exception. Books Five and Six, ‘Vengeance of Thoth’ and ‘Torquemurder’, are my favourites this time round; purely because of how utterly surreal it all is. Anything can happen and somehow it’s still surprising when it does. ‘The Two Torquemadas’ wasn’t so good though, tracking back through Torquemada’s past lives led to somewhat predictable results. Think of a tyrant from Earth’s past. Thought of one? More likely than not it was one of Torquemada’s past lives. Even Pat Mills himself hints at this predictability in the book and while I love it when writers mock themselves I still felt that I’d read all this before.

Having said this though, Mills’ plots are more often than not never anything short of gripping just through the fact that you have to see where the madness ends. The artwork complements the madness of the script in the best possible way. Kevin O’Neill and Bryan Talbot are the artists I’ll always think of when I see Nemesis; the others are good but these two are the best in this story.

Roll on Volume 3!

Guest Blog! Gail Z. Martin

Gail Z. Martin (author of the 'Chronicles of the Necromancer' series) was the latest author to very kindly agree to supply a guest post for the blog, thanks Gail! I left the 'post remit' open ended, to see what I got back, and got myself a very interesting piece on vampires. Have a read and see what you think...

Why a good vampire never goes out of style

Given that vampire stories have been told in just about every country on every continent across thousands of years, I think it’s safe to say that something about vampires has captured the human imagination.

Over time, the attributes we focus on with vampires change, but the overall concept has stayed amazingly intact. If you read the old tales, the legends and folklore, the vampires are often menacing, ugly and have exceptionally bad breath, but other legends give them the ability to appear beautiful, and co-mingle their need for blood with the attributes of an incubus or succubus. While most of the popular vampires in fiction today veer toward the good looking and sexy side of the legend, pretty much every retelling shows a darker side of power and hunger.

I think there are a lot of reasons we’re drawn to vampires. Most of the time, they’re shown to be clever, beautiful and powerful, with wealth and sophistication accumulated over lifetimes. They don’t get sick and die, and they can stand back from the tumult of daily human life with detachment, taking a long view of things. Politics, petty bickering, even the rise and fall of kings become trivial irritations to vampires, while mortals who feel their fates controlled by such things have difficulty rising above the mundane.

At the same time, vampires retain humanness many other “monsters” lack. It doesn’t require a big stretch of the imagination to envision the loneliness of outliving one’s friends and relatives or even one’s own era. Many people have felt the condemnation of religious purists who take issue with the essential nature of what they are, without regard to how they live their lives. It’s not difficult to imagine that someone who has superior strength, speed or power could become ruthless, but we’re intrigued by the vampires who cling to honor, friendship and love because those are the qualities life does its best to pound out of mortals as well.

Who would you be when the markers of identity we take for granted are wiped away by time? When you’ve outlived your family, your contemporaries, perhaps even your nation, kingdom or empire, and maybe your religion? If you had immortality, what would you make of yourself? If clinging to your humanity made you vulnerable, would you do it?

The vampires that intrigue me are the ones who wrestle with the choice between retreating into their power where they are safe, both emotionally and physically, and those who choose to keep the best parts of their humanity, to love, to care about the consequences of temporal issues on the lives of people around them, and to a personal sense of honor.

My personal view of the vampire is as an archetype for someone who has suffered intense physical or mental trauma or abuse, and who stands at a moral crossroads. Does he side with the oppressor or abuser and lash out at others to ease the pain, or does he take the more difficult road to regain humanity by siding with the victim and choosing to feel love, compassion and suffering? Does he use his wealth and power to protect himself and turn his back on others, or does he become a champion and a protector for others who lack his strength and wealth? While some people live out a more made-for-TV-movie of that kind of choice, I think it comes in one form or another to each of us, after life has knocked us around for a while. And while Bones McCoy cautioned that “Evil usually wins unless good is very, very careful,” I choose to put my money on the hero.

‘Legion’ – Dan Abnett (Black Library)

This weekend has somehow become all about the Black Library and the war torn planets of the forty-first millennium… As you’ve probably guessed, these last couple of weeks has been about my reading stuff that I know I’ll enjoy rather than checking out stuff that I wouldn’t normally try. To be honest, there’s been so much other stuff going on (what with one thing and another) that I’ve been after comfort reading rather than anything else. That’s going to change over the next couple of weeks but in the meantime…

My reading of the Black Library’s ‘Horus Heresy’ series has kind of been in fits and starts over the last couple of years; my fault really as I haven’t even tried to read them in order and have read loads of other books in between. Luckily they stand on their own fairly well so there hasn’t been too much trouble keeping the overall story in my head. In short, civil war divides humanity and the galaxy burns…
I’m a big fan of anything by Dan Abnett, particularly in the Warhammer 40K setting, so when I realised that ‘Legion’ was lurking in the ‘to read’ pile I didn’t have too much trouble deciding what to read next. As it turned out, ‘Legion’ was a little disappointing…

Of all the Legions of the Adeptus Astartes (Space Marines to the likes of you and I), the Alpha Legion has always been the most secretive. The Imperial Army requires their aid on a heathen world resisting compliance with uncanny powers that thwart the military push. Is that the reason why the Alpha Legion has arrived however? A third party lurks behind the scenes and seeks to use the legion for it’s own ends. Which side will the Alpha Legion choose once the Great War begins, and why…?

Dan Abnett is the man that every Warhammer 40K fan invariably turns to if they’re after top-notch military sci-fi. Quite simply put, no one does it better than him (at least, not as far as I’m concerned). ‘Legion’ sees him pull more of the same out of his hat and it’s as good as ever.

Abnett has the happy knack of being able to paint a broad picture that balances out the great ebb and flow of warfare at the same time as getting inside the head of the common trooper who’s been stuck in a foxhole under fire for days on end. He’s got the terminology to back it up and the end result is without fail a great slice of military sci-fi.
This is very much the case with ‘Legion’ as far as Abnett’s recounting of the campaign on Nurth. Abnett gives us a compelling tale of an army that expects to win through its superior technology but somehow finds itself on the back foot and doesn’t know why. The howling deserts are skilfully rendered as an enemy hiding thousands more enemies and there is always the hint of dark magic being used in the background. Sometimes this magic is more than just a hint and the action explodes on the page…

Abnett gives us an inside look at an Imperial command structure flailing at shadows and the men who are left to pick up the pieces as a result. Characters such as Soneka and Bronzi carry the story superbly in this latter regard. They are the characters on the front line and it is their experiences that truly define the shape of the war on Nurth, a war where nothing is as it seems and no one can really be trusted.

And this is where the Alpha Legion come in, a legion that holds steadfast to the Emperor’s cause but whose stealthy methods leave them open to mistrust from their allies. Abnett’s depiction of the Alpha Legion was where this book fell down for me.

For me, the Alpha Legion was so secretive that not only did I have no idea what they were about but I couldn’t see the chain of events that led to the ultimate conclusion. The way I saw things, it felt like the conclusion just happened and the Alpha Legion were on hand to say, “Ha! Things have happened just as we intended them to…” I couldn’t see how the plot pieced these two things together.

I was left wondering if perhaps Abnett had done a little too well in his portrayal of the secretive Alpha Legion as masters of espionage and deceit. While Abnett was certainly bang on the money in terms of atmosphere it felt like there was little of substance within this atmosphere to back things up. Things were a little too vague and this vagueness robbed the climax of the power that it was meant to have. If you’re a fan then you will already know which way the Alpha Legion turned and the ending needed that added intensity to burn through the foregone conclusion. That didn’t happen here.

‘Legion’ is a tale of two halves that didn’t quite match up for me. Abnett’s portrayal of war is as gritty and dark as ever, well worth sticking around for. The elements of espionage underpinning the war effort though were so vague as to be almost confusing and this made the book more of a chore to read than I would have expected from Abnett. This won’t stop me from reading more of his books but I didn’t see myself being quite so disappointed, when I started reading, as I was at the end…

Seven out of Ten

‘Rynn’s World (Space Marines Battles)’ – Steve Parker (Black Library)

The universe of the forty first millennium is a universe constantly at war, whether it’s an isolated skirmish in a hab dome or a decades spanning war encompassing entire solar systems. Every race fighting for it’s place in the universe has a tale to tell of it’s military might, be it a heroic charge or a desperate last stand. It’s no surprise then that the Black Library is kicking off a series devoted to these military actions. A quick glance at the back pages (and the title) suggests that this is all about humanity’s Space Marines, at least for now. It would be cool if some of the xenos races got a look in over the course of the series (although I’m not sure how a book written entirely from the perspective of the alien Tyranids would look…) In the meantime, the series begins with ‘Rynn’s World’, a tale of heroism in the face of a rampaging green evil…

The planet Badlanding has fallen to the forces of the Ork Warlord Snagrod; so has the expeditionary force of Crimson Fists Space Marines sent to engage him. The next planet to fall under the avaricious gaze of Snagrod is Rynn’s World, home planet of the Crimson Fists… Chapter Master Kantor must mount a desperate defence in the face of overwhelming forces; a task that proves all the more difficult when an errant missile levels the Space Marine’s fortress-monastery, killing everyone inside.
Now Kantor must gather together any survivors and make his way across a continent to lend his meagre aid in breaking the siege of Rynn’s capitol city. The future of his chapter is at stake as is the future of Rynn’s world itself…

‘Rynn’s World’ is a solid recounting of the military deployments and armed confrontations that all combined to make up the overall engagement. The reader is given a detailed and well ordered picture of what happens although I found the ‘Battle Maps’ to be more of a hindrance rather than an aid. Not only does their position in the book (right in the middle) break up the flow of the story but also they don’t actually contain any details of troop movements at all. You end up getting all this information from the text itself and this left me wondering what the point of the maps actually was…

This issue to one side, the story itself is gripping but somehow a little too predictable for my tastes. While the Space Marine’s supposed invulnerability is neatly side-stepped at the beginning by the vagaries of fate, and a very intelligent enemy, I never got the feeling that the hurdles facing the remnants of the Chapter were truly as awesome as Parker would have us believe. This was especially the case when the Ceres Protocol was activated, a mandate placing the survival of the Chapter as a higher priority than anything else. With thousands of regular militia standing between the Marines and the enemy the true suspense was in how many of them would still be standing by the time the book was over. The Space Marines themselves, while weakened, were never in any real danger and that lent a real feeling of flatness to the book at times.

On the bright side, what the reader does get for their money is the kind of high octane, heart stopping future warfare that the Black Library is proving to be more than adept at publishing. ‘Rynn’s World’ is full of the thud of bolter fire and grenades with detailed troop deployments that will please fans of the game as well as fans of military sci-fi in general. Parker knows what Space Marines are all about and his writing is more than up to describing this on the page for his readers. A Space Marine is only truly in his element when at war and Parker captures the savage joy of a Marine doing what he was born to. This single minded obsession is also nicely depicted in the ‘showcase’ moments of the novel where Parker has his Crimson Fists go up against seemingly insurmountable odds to change the course of the war. While you know what the overall outcome will be, there are enough bone crunching moments (when Marines go up against cybernetically enhanced giant Orks) to keep you reading and wincing in sympathy. Parker also isn’t afraid to kill off his characters from time to time. Again, this won’t stop you knowing how the overall story has to end but you are left feeling that this is war as it should be shown. The good die as well as the bad…
Parker also gives his readers a good look at how the Crimson Fists conduct themselves on a daily basis, adding that distinctive ‘Warhammer atmosphere’ and marking ‘Rynn’s World’ out from the rest of the military sci-fi sub-genre.

War is as much about the individual tales of the combatants as it is about the sweeping movements of large armies across continents. Parker keeps things well balanced by zooming in to focus on individual characters as the story progresses. I enjoyed getting my head around the dominant theme of a Marine’s duty to humanity being weighed up against their duty to the continued existence of the chapter. Characters (including the Chapter Master himself) find this a difficult question to answer in terms of short term goals outweighing those of the long term; especially when normal humans are placed under the care of the Space Marines. The answer is left open-ended but it is plain to see what Parker thinks himself. I’d have to agree with him.

‘Rynn’s World’ eventually falls foul of the invulnerability of its heroes, leaving the ending a little too clear cut to be in any doubt. Sometimes you need that element of doubt to make things worth sticking around for…
What it does do very well though is give its reader a clear insight into the ebb and flow of war and the minds of the people fighting. Like I said earlier, fans of the Warhammer 40K setting (and fans of military sci-fi in general) should enjoy this one.

Seven and Three Quarters out of Ten