Bits & Pieces...

You’ve probably noticed that the reviews have been a little thin on the ground this last week; I’m taking a little break from the review side of blogging so I can build up a nice little backlog of books and also because, well… I’m really tired at the moment and want to read books just for the hell of it rather than to a deadline. Starting from next week, I’ll be reviewing stuff again but that’s not to say that cool things won’t be happening here in the meantime with a couple of guest posts lined up and interview questions to come back from an author whose work I enjoyed fairly recently. Check em’ out over the next few days.

In the meantime, here’s a couple of bits and pieces that landed in my inbox over the last day or two…

Zeno Agency Press Release - James P. Blaylock

James P. Blaylock‘s first novel length Steampunk story in twenty years has sold to Titan in a world English deal negotiated by John Berlyne. THE AYLESFORD SKULL, which features further gaslight adventures of Langdon St. Ives and his nemesis Ignatio Narbondo will be published by Titan late next year or early 2013. A limited edition is also planned. In addition to THE AYLESFORD SKULL, Titan will also be re-issueing two Blaylock steampunk classics, the 1988 Philip K Dick Award winning HOMUNCULUS and also LORD KELVIN’S MACHINE. Audio rights for all three novels went to Stacy Patton Anderson at Audible.

James Blaylock… One of those names that I feel like I really should know although I haven’t read either ‘Homunculus’ or ‘Lord Kelvin’s Machine’, or any of his other books for that matter. What have I been missing out on? Is there a particular book of Blaylock’s that I should start with (in the event that I ever get round to checking him out)…?

I was also emailed a couple of blurbs, from Pyr, that I thought might interest some readers here. It goes without saying that the ‘Society of Steam’ blurb contains spoilers for those people who haven’t read the first book so watch out there… I didn’t enjoy Book One so can’t see myself picking this one up but I enjoyed Resnick’s ‘Starship’ books so will definitely give ‘The Doctor and The Kid’ a go…

Hearts of Smoke & Steam -The Society of Steam, Book Two

By Andew P. Mayer

Sir Dennis Darby has been murdered, the Automaton has been destroyed, and Sarah Stanton has turned her back on a life of privilege and comfort to try and find her way in the unforgiving streets of New York. But Lord Eschaton, the villain behind all these events, isn’t finished with her yet. His plans to bring his apocalyptic vision of the future to the world are moving forward, but to complete his scheme he needs the clockwork heart that Sarah still holds.But she has her own plans for the Automaton’s clockwork heart—Sarah is trying to rebuild her mechanical friend, and when she is attacked by the Children of Eschaton, the man who comes to her rescue may be the one to make her dreams come true. Emelio Armando is a genius inventor who had hoped to leave his troubles behind when he and his sister left Italy for a life of anonymity in the New World. Now he finds himself falling in love with the fallen society girl, but he is rapidly discovering just how powerful the forces of villainy aligned against her are, and that fulfilling her desires means opening the door to a world of danger that could destroy everything he has built.The Society of Steam takes place in a Victorian New York powered by the discovery of Fortified Steam, a substance that allows ordinary men to wield extraordinary abilities and grants powers that can corrupt gentlemen of great moral strength. The secret behind this amazing substance is something that wicked brutes will gladly kill for, and one that Sarah must try and protect, no matter what the cost.

The Doctor and the Kid (A Weird West Tale)

Mike Resnick

The time is 1882. With the Gunfight at the O. K. Corral and the battle with the thing that used to be Johnny Ringo behind him (see The Buntline Special), the consumptive Doc Holliday makes his way to Deadwood, Colorado, with Kate Elder, where he plans to spend the rest of his brief life, finally moving into the luxurious facility that specializes in his disease.


But one night he gets a little too drunk—hardly a novelty for him—and loses everything he has at the gaming table. He realizes that he needs to replenish his bankroll, and quickly, so that he can live out his days in comfort under medical care. He considers his options and hits upon the one most likely to produce income in a hurry: he’ll use his skill as a shootist and turn bounty hunter.


The biggest reward is for the death of the young, twenty-year-old desperado known as Billy the Kid. It’s clear from the odds the Kid has faced and beaten, his miraculous escape from prison, and his friendship with the Indian tribes of New Mexico that he is Protected by some powerful magic. Doc enlists the aid of both magic (Geronimo) and science (Thomas Edison), and goes out after his quarry. He will hunt the Kid down, and either kill him and claim the reward or die in the process and at least end his own suffering.


But as he is soon to find out, nothing is as easy as it looks.

Either of those two blurbs take your fancy…?

Cover Art! 'The Mechanical Messiah and Other Marvels of the Modern Age' (Robert Rankin)

Because sometimes what this blog needs is a little Robert Rankin on a Sunday morning... :o)

I can't find any blurb at all but that's not going to stop me picking this one up as soon as I can get my hands on it, I love Robert Rankin and the way he has of making me laugh without even realising that I'm doing it. Have you guys read any Robert Rankin? Does he make you laugh as well or are you not a fan? Go on, leave a comment in the usual place... ;o) (And if you're looking for somewhere to start with his books, let me recommend either 'The Antipope' or 'Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse'; both are very good indeed).

Giveaway! 'Heir to the Empire - 20th Anniversary Edition' (Timothy Zahn)

Thanks to the good people at Del Rey, I have one copy of the 20th anniversary edition of 'Heir to the Empire' (reviewed Here) to give away; guaranteed to be a better way of getting your 'Star Wars Fix' than watching the prequel trilogy... ;o) I'm afraid that this competition is only open to US residents though, sorry about that everyone else...

If you're still with me, entering is as easy as ever. Just 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. The subject header needs to be 'Heir'.

I'll let this one run until the 18th of September and will aim to announce the winner on the 19th.

Good Luck!

‘Howard the Duck Vol. 2’ – Steve Gerber, Phil Winslade (MAX Comics)

It’s very possible that I am the only person in the world who hasn’t seen the ‘Howard the Duck’ movie. I can’t remember what I was doing while everyone else was checking it out but there you go. The word is that I haven’t missed out on much though, did anyone enjoy that film?


Before the movie, ‘Howard the Duck’ was one of the most acclaimed comics of the ‘70s, featuring savage satire and incisive characterisation. At least that’s what I was told on the back of this edition… I’m going to have to take the blurb’s word for it, at least as far as the ‘70s comic goes. I was interested to see if the present day version lived up to those standards though. I not sure that it does but ‘Howard the Duck Vol. 2’ was a fun read in the meantime.

It’s a man’s world and Howard is very clearly a duck… That’s not going to stop him taking on boy bands though, especially when the latest boy band hides a dark genetic secret at its very core. Howard also finds the time to deal with an ancient mystical curse, check in at the boarding house where old comic book characters all end up and take on an unholy hybrid of talk show host and biblical being. The one thing he can’t be sure f though is what shape his body will be in while he’s doing all this…

Savage satire? I’m not sure about that; ‘Howard the Duck’ is a little too in your face and obvious to be satire, at least as far as I’m concerned. What we’ve got here is a more straightforward piss take and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It may not be as subtle as it likes to think it is but there were still more than enough bits that had me laughing out loud. I can see where they’re coming from though regarding boy bands… There’s plenty of visual humour on display here, courtesy of Phil Winslade (the bit where Howard turns into an anteater, yes I'm childish like that...) and Steve Gerber gives Howard enough of an acerbic edge that I kept wanting to hear what he came out with next.

If you’re going to give this latest version of ‘Howard the Duck’ a go then a passing knowledge of ‘Preacher’ will be good to have when you get to the later parts of the book. I know I’ve skipped over the ‘Witchblade’ storyline but that’s mostly because not only did Fabry’s art leave me cold (Winslade’s art didn’t try and take over the story like Fabry’s did) but so did the story itself; a lacklustre piece where the only aim was to get a pair of breasts on Howard. This aim was eventually successful but the only thing that kept me reading was the promise that this sequence would end soon. There was nothing else here to recommend it.

Back onto the ‘Preacher’ storyline which proved to be a great way to round things off, although the conversation with God was far too long-winded and robbed the ending of the impact that it deserved.
The lead up to that end is good though. The message is a little too heavy handed to be satire but I couldn’t help but chuckle (and even nod my head a little) at the fun being poked, by Gerber, at the aforementioned talk show lady.
‘Howard the Duck’ isn’t the satirical read that it wants to be but is still entertaining nevertheless. It’s just a shame that the middle part felt so flat, a little consistency would have made all the difference.
Seven and Three Quarters out of Ten
P.S. Was the film really that bad?

‘Nowhere Hall’ – Cate Gardner (Spectral Press)

Gary McMahon’s ‘What They Hear In The Dark' had me sorely tempted to take up a subscription to Spectral Press’ limited edition chapbook series, it was that good. Unfortunately, my wallet has the deciding vote in such matters and felt compelled to exercise its power of veto on that occasion… I was lucky enough though to have the chance to get my hands on another chapbook from Spectral and I didn’t pass up on the opportunity, even though I’d never read anything of Cate Gardner’s until now.


Having read ‘Nowhere Hall’, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Spectral Press have a keen eye for writers who can tell a very spooky tale in less than thirty pages. Gardner has a novella and short novel on the horizon and if ‘Nowhere Hall’ is anything to go by then I will have to seek them out.

While Ron was contemplating the biggest decision of his life the world moved on without him and left him standing outside a ruined hotel, the Vestibule.
What lies inside won’t answer that one question; instead it will leave him with many more. Ron is about to enter a haunted house like no other…

‘Nowhere Hall’ is a flickering tale that leads you into a haunted house that could either be hiding in plain sight or could just as easily be the last crumbling bastion of a man’s crumbling psyche. It’s a compelling question that Ron has no answer to; we have to take that journey with him if we are going to find out. I’ll tell you now that it’s a journey worth taking, for the sake of the journey itself if not the final destination.

‘Traffic-borne wind gusted. A fist to his stomach urged him back, the wind flapping through layers of starch to wrap Ron’s trousers round his shins. The kerb edge drove its ridge through his soul.’
Right from the start, Gardner reels you in by the simple method of only telling you three quarters of the story. Just enough to get you started but you have to work out that last quarter for yourself and that’s what gradually leads you through the doors of the Vestibule hotel… That’s when things get seriously weird.
Ron has no idea what’s happening and Gardner uses this to make everything that happens even more terrifyingly strange, moving you forward in Ron’s footsteps as he seeks to make sense of his surroundings… and escape.

The hotel itself makes for an unsettling background with its ability to change the rules of a game that only it knows it’s playing. Some of the imagery is perhaps a little too familiar (mannequins in a dusty ballroom) but no less creepy for that.
The answers we are finally given bring into focus that isn’t the one that you were expecting. A picture that perhaps could breathe more easily had the tale been a little longer. I did find myself questioning the likelihood of the ending but, thinking back on it, possibly only because I’d really come to like Ron and wanted better for him. I think he found what he was looking for though.
Full of the kind of familiar yet insidious imagery that gives you weird dreams days after you’ve read the book, ‘Nowhere Hall’ made sure that there was no doubt that I’d finish it off and I’ll be sure to look for Cate Gardner’s name on the shelves in the future. I want to see what she writes next.

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

‘Red and Black’ – James Swallow (Black Library)

‘Black Library, making Graeme’s daily commute a hell of a lot more bearable since about 2008…’ Ok, I can’t really see this slogan being adopted but that doesn’t make it any the less true. Sometimes the quality varies but I’m always guaranteed something that will take my mind off the trip to and from work; sometimes I even find myself wanting to stay on the train… This is more often than not the case when I have one of their audio books playing on my iPod as I can blot everything out and really get into what is happening in the countless worlds of the Imperium in the forty first millennium. The arrival of the latest audio book from James Swallow was a pretty big deal then and I didn’t hang around in giving it a listen…


No man may carry arms under the banners of the Imperial Church… It’s a good job then that, due to a legal loophole, the other half of humanity is allowed to take the Imperial truth to heretics and Xenos everywhere with flamer and bolter. Sister Miriya is a zealous member of the Church but her faith is about to tested as never before. The planet Hollos has emerged from a millennia long warp storm and begs to be allowed back into the Imperial fold.
What has happened to Hollos, during its exile, merits the attention of the Church though and Sister Miriya has the final say on whether an entire planet lives or dies…

‘Red and Black’ is a bit of tough one to call; while it grabbed my attention from the off I couldn’t help but wonder if this tale was a victim of it’s format and could have been a lot better on the written page instead.

There is a lot going on here but only so much running time to fit it all into and, as a result, it felt like the whole story wasn’t being told. Of course you do get a whole story and Swallow does well to fit in what he does; I just couldn’t get away from the feeling that the intrigue (and counter intrigue) really wanted to spread itself out rather than be shoehorned into a small space…

This is a shame because the premise is definitely interesting (Swallow asking the question of what it really means to be human and applying this to the 40K universe) and Swallow adds enough twists and turns to make the inevitable outcome a little more surprising than you would at first think. It’s not a great final twist in the tale (this particular setting will always demand a certain end to any story based there) but it does move the plot in a new direction just when you are least expecting it and it does a good job of forcing Sister Miriya to confront the big issues of the plot.

The production is as great as ever with background effects really drawing you into the story itself and also proving that female narrators really don’t have to be stuck with reading female characters. Beth Chalmers and Lisa Bowerman bring the characters to life in such a way that 40K fans will definitely approve of and I hope we see more of them in this line.

Like I said, ‘Red and Black’ is a tough one to call but it does enough to come down on the side of all that is good about the Black Library audio book series. I’ve got the books to be going on with in the meantime but I’m looking forward to seeing which audio book comes my way next.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

Tor.com teams up with Barnes & Noble for Monthly Recommended Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading List.

Tor recently teamed up with NASA and now Tor.com are teaming up with Barnes & Noble for a Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading List affair. I wasn't too keen on the idea of the NASA 'team up' but this sounds more like it. Check out the announcement (from Tor.com)...

Tor.com is pleased to announce a joint collaboration with Barnes and Noble Booksellers to bring the best in genre fiction to fans and new readers alike.  Tor.com is partnering with Barnes & Noble for a series of appreciations, the “Barnes & Noble Bookseller’s Picks” a monthly recommended Science Fiction and Fantasy reading list.

The series will kick off with a focus on the opening volumes of various epic fantasy series. The recent release of George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons and the smash success of HBO’s Game of Thrones– not to mention bestselling author Terry Goodkind’s debut on the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list this week –have put interest in epic fantasy at an all-time high. Those just beginning to read this subgenre, may be wondering what to try next. Over the next nine days, Tor.com bloggers will take a look at Killen’s monthly picks and reassess first trips into worlds of dragons, swords, and magic. And as an added bonus, through September 30th, Tor.com will offer the ebook editions of Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World, Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon, and Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn for only $2.99 each.


Join us in the upcoming two weeks while we discuss these great epic fantasy beginnings:

•Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
•The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
•The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham
•Empire in Black and Gold: Shadows of the Apt. Book One by Adrian Tchaikovsky
•The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (with $2.99 ebook from Tor)
•The Fallen Blade: Act One of the Assassini by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
•Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson (with $2.99 ebook from Tor)
•The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
•Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (with $2.99 ebook from Tor)


The introduction to this exciting venture will be posted on Tuesday, September 6th at 9am EST along with the first “Epic Fantasy Beginnings” essay, with posts following each weekday. “We are very excited about this new series,” says Irene Gallo of Tor.com. We’re constantly reminded of how engaged our readers are, and we can’t wait to see the conversations sparked by these knowledgeably-curated lists from our colleagues at B&N.”

 To be honest, if you read this blog regularly then you've probably read most of (if not all) of these books already. Some of the resulting discussion could be interesting though and the books are all good (haven't read 'The Fallen Blade' but I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt for now...) How about pointing this link out to someone who's thinking about picking up some epic fantasy for the first time?

The Return of… The Goon!

It's the weekend and you’re on a four hour train journey with two manic twelve year olds, a sixteen month old baby who really doesn’t want to be there and a wife who throws crisp packets at random strangers (you had to be there…), what do you do?


The answer for me was very simple, I’d had the foresight to stop off at Forbidden Planet, the night before, so I was able to totally lose myself in a couple of issues of ‘The Goon’…

Long term blog readers will know that I’ve been a fan of ‘The Goon’ for a few years now and didn’t really know what to do next when the last story arc came to its tragic conclusion. Luckily I haven’t had to wait too long before my favourite zombie hunting gang boss made a welcome return :o) ‘The Goon’ takes place in a strange looking piece of nineteen forties America that may or may not exist; there are zombies on Lonely Street and if you drive down Crestwood then you’re liable to get squid beak all over the bodywork. Anything goes here…

‘The Goon #35’

I’d missed out on #34 (really need to do something about that) but this issue seemed like a good place to start with its tale of a ghostly carnival (the clue is in ‘Brigadoon’) and what happens to it when the Goon and Frankie decide to stop by. You know what happens… Violence, circus freaks and a Nazi worm! The fun is in following the story to its conclusion though as the Goon in particular teaches you a lesson in making assumptions about a character based on his looks. The panel where the Goon sees a picture of his long dead Aunt shows you (without words) that this is a man with hidden depths.

Eric Powell and guest writer Evan Dorkin combine to spin a great tale that has me looking forward to the next plot arc of ‘The Goon’. I think it’s going to be another good one.

‘When Freaks Collide’

I love the one shot comics where you don’t have to worry about getting caught up on the story and this is no exception. Two sets of monster hunters are hired (by different parties) to off each other before getting down to the serious monster hunting business. Cal McDonald will find himself facing off against the Goon and you can guess what happens when they both find out they’ve been set up…

I’ve never read any ‘Criminal Macabre’ but if Cal is anything to go by here then I’ll be searching some of these books out in the very near future. Cal has a line in sharp quips and might just be the only person who can take a right hook off the Goon and live to tell the tale. There isn’t as much to the Goon this time round but that’s balanced out by the surprise appearance of someone else right at the end. Maybe this won’t be a one shot after all but I’m fine with that :o)

All in all, two comics designed with a long and stressful train journey in mind; just what I was after…

The 'Just the Competition Winners' Competition Winner's Post!

Hope you all had a great weekend! I did, got plenty of reading done and that always goes down well as far as I'm concerned, 'The Damned Highway' is shaping up nicely and I've got 'The Cold Commands' on the go as well :o)

Just a quick post today as I'm rushing all over the place being incredibly busy. I couldn't pass up the chance to announce the winners of last week's competition though; the two lucky winners of a copy of Simon Spurrier's 'A Serpent Uncoiled' were...

Andris Bekmanis, Riga, Latvia

Sascha Walter, Mainz, Germany

Well done guys and, as ever, better luck next time everyone else... See you all tomorrow :o)

Cover Art! 'The Damned Highway' - Brian Keene & Nick Mamatas

Check out the blurb...

A hilarious, shocking, terrifying thrill-ride across the American landscape, The Damned Highway combines two great flavors of weird: the gonzo journalism of Hunter S. Thompson and the uncanny terrors of H.P. Lovecraft! Horror legend Brian Keene and cult storytelling master Nick Matamas dredge up a tale of drug-fueled eldritch madness from the blackest depths of the American Nightmare. On a freaked-out bus journey to Arkham, Massachusetts and the 1972 Presidential primary, evidence mounts that sinister forces are on the rise, led by the Cult of Cthulhu and its most prominent member - Richard M. Nixon!

I don't have the faintest idea what's going on in this cover and isn't that the whole point of Cthulhu when you think about it...? Us mere humans cannot hope to comprehend his eldritch majesty after all. That makes this cover bang on the money as far as I'm concerned ;o)

You probably know already that I'm a huge fan of Brian Keene, never read anything by Nick Mamatas though. I'll be reading this over the next few days and I'll let you know what I think. Anyone else picked this up?

Giveaway! 'Farlander' & 'Stands A Shadow' (Col Buchanan)

I'm having a great time, so far, with this series (see yesterday's post) and I thought it would be cool to give someone else the chance to enjoy the series as well. Luckily, so did the people at Tor UK and the upshot is that I have a pack containing 'Farlander' and 'Stands A Shadow' to give away to one lucky UK reader (it's a 'UK Only' competition I'm afraid...)

Entering is simple, just 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. The subject header needs to be 'Shadow'.

I'll leave this competition open until the 18th of September and will announce the winner on the 19th.

Good Luck!

‘Stands a Shadow’ – Col Buchanan (Tor UK)

I read Col Buchanan’s debut novel ‘Farlander’ way back in February last year and, despite a couple of issues, had a great time with it. You can read my full review over Here if you like but it’s all summed up pretty neatly in the two sentences below,

‘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.’

Pretty emphatic stuff from me there and, off the back of ‘Farlander’, ‘Stands a Shadow’ became a highly anticipated 2011 read as far as I was concerned. It took me longer than I would have wanted to finally get round to reading it as the reading pile has developed a nasty habit of hiding the books that I really want to read. It’s like it’s developing a mind of its own...  I got there in the end though and am very glad that I did. ‘Stands a Shadow’ isn’t perfect but is still a book that made the morning commute just disappear in a haze of backstabbing intrigue and all out warfare. Seriously, one minute I was opening the book up and the next minute I was at work... Best commute ever :o)

The time has come for the Empire of Mann to finally exercise its considerable military might and remove the one obstacle that stands between the Empire and its goal of spreading the Mannian Creed across the face of the world. The Mercian Port of Bar-Khos has held out against overwhelming odds for the last ten years, now its time has come.
Or has it? There are doubts that the Holy Matriarch of Mann is the person to lead the assault on Bar-Khos and elements within the Empire stand ready to act if they are proved to be correct. The Diplomat Che stands ready to deliver the fatal blow and wonders whether this task will prove to be the death of him. The Roshun assassin Ash is also in the thick of things, ready to take his own revenge on the Matriarch but struggling with the knowledge that this act goes against everything he has ever stood for.
No matter the outcome, the war is on in earnest now and the lives of everyone will change forever...

‘Stands a Shadow’ is a very different type of book to its predecessor and sometimes I found myself thinking that this perhaps worked against what Buchanan set out to achieve with ‘Farlander’. The good news though is that Buchanan does everything, that he did in ‘Farlander’, as well as he did last time round. The series is really beginning to take shape now and those hints of promise are paying off in a great way.

I said of ‘Farlander’ that is was a ‘manic romp that takes in politics affecting nations at war as well as bringing the people who shape these nations into sharp focus’ and this is still the case with ‘Stands a Shadow’. Through his cast, Buchanan shows us once again that the sweeping movement of warfare and politics is made up of ordinary people who can affect the larger picture in the most unexpected of ways. The nature of the book means that this balance has shifted slightly though and not necessarily in a good way. The bottom line is that ‘Stands in Shadow’ concentrates more on the big picture itself than what it’s made up of and, as a result, the book lacks the more intimate and personal tone that its predecessor did. That’s not to say that it isn’t there at all because it very clearly is. It’s just not given the same kind of treatment that it got last time.

It’s a very good job then that Buchanan proves to be more than adept at showing just how difficult it can be to get an army from A to B whilst dealing with storms, supply shortages and the other army that is doing its best to get from B to A. You really get a feel for the drudgery and just what it’s like to be an invading army on foreign soil for the first time; you can’t help but follow such a realistically drawn path to its inevitable conclusion.

When you reach that conclusion you will find that Buchanan has lost none of the ability he originally displayed, in ‘Farlander’, for writing scenes of war that punch you right in the guts as you’re seeing others (on the page) lose theirs all over the battlefield. The character of Curl is used to good affect here (as a battlefield medic) as a means of showing the reader just what it’s like to really be up close and in the thick of things. Anything can happen and it will... just when you least expect it. Buchanan loves springing surprises on his readers and none of his characters are safe from one another. There’s one moment in particular that I wouldn’t have thought would happen in only the second book of a series, it’s good to see that Buchanan is happy to take risks with his story and see where it leads.

The battles that Buchanan shows us are the culmination of pages of intrigue and trickery, more often than not within the same faction. Again, neither side is safe from this treatment and Buchanan does very well to show us how mankind’s inherent selfishness can make things a lot worse than they should ever be. Ironic really, considering the creed of one of the opposing sides. There are plenty of twists and turns to the plot, all of which did a sterling job of keeping me turning those pages.

The supporting cast might not get as much attention as they did last time round but Buchanan still does more than enough to give us a fully fleshed cast who cannot fail to be affected by what is happening around them. Chief amongst these is Ash whose dilemma, over taking revenge, is played out until the very last chapters; all done at just the right pace to maintain interest over the course of the book. Ash has plenty to think about in this regard and I couldn’t help but find myself thinking it through with him.
I enjoyed seeing Curl slowly come to play a more prominent role in the book and the way that her relationship with Che played out made for some very touching moments; I really want to see what happens next with these two.

‘Stands a Shadow’ takes things in a direction that I wasn’t too sure of but still manages to come up with a gripping tale of politics and bloody warfare that will not fail to stir you when it really counts. Tor have come up with another series that I’ve found myself hopelessly caught up in... and I’m loving it.

Nine and a Quarter out of Ten

‘Ship Breaker’ – Paolo Bacigalupi ((Atom)

 

I was never very much good at keeping up with all the new releases here before the baby came along; the high profile ‘chunky stuff’ was never particularly conducive to reading during rush hour commuting after all. Since Hope’s been around though... Well, forget any chance of ever keeping up with the new releases; not when you’re dealing with a baby that insists on you wearing swimming goggles all the time (best joke ever, apparently) and views all books not being read to her as a threat to her position as number one most important thing in the house. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll get caught up sometime...

This is yet another very longwinded way of saying that I now must officially be the only person in the world who hasn’t read Paolo Bacigalupi’s multiple award winning novel ‘The Windup Girl’. It’s there on the pile but there’s no way it’s going to get read right now. If that wasn’t bad enough, the rest of Bacigalupi’s work had passed me by, over the last couple of years, so I couldn’t help but wonder just what I was missing out on.
The arrival of ‘Ship Breaker’ in the post (a few weeks ago) gave me the ideal chance to find out just what I’d been missing out on, if anything. Weighing in at just over three hundred pages, it looked like ideal commuter fodder and a great way to get a feel for Bacigalupi’s work without it being torn out of my hand by a rampaging toddler...
So, what have I been missing out on? I’m still not sure... I came away from ‘Ship Breaker’ feeling strangely non-plussed about the whole affair but feeling that if this book was anything to go by then ‘The Windup Girl’ could be worth my time. Confused? I was, at least to start off with...

Oil is scarce in this world of the near future and all the old oil tankers have pretty much been allowed to run aground so that they can be salvaged for spare parts to build the boats of the future. Nailer’s job is to strip copper wire from the innards of these tankers but he’s growing too big to fit into those small passageways and there’s no guarantee that he’ll be able to find work anywhere else. An uncertain future awaits Nailer and the only way to stave it off is through a ‘lucky strike’, the kind of salvage haul that comes by only once in a lifetime.
When a luxury clipper beaches during a violent storm, Nailer’s luck finally changes... or so he thinks. There is enough oil on board to guarantee Nailer’s future but the surviving passenger could very well get him killed...

‘Ship Breaker’ is one of those books that looks like it has everything a book needs in order for you to be able to sit down and enjoy it in one sitting. That’s what I thought when I started reading but found this wasn’t the case. As a result, ‘Ship Breaker’ falls short of being a truly engaging read but what Bacigalupi does give us was more than enough to make me think that I really need to finally pick up ‘The Windup Girl’...

‘Ship Breaker’ offers us a post-apocalyptic landscape where a mixture of ecological disaster and natural resources drying up have reduced a large chunk of humanity to scrabbling around and trying to salvage what they can from obsolete machinery. I’ll say right now that Bacigalupi’s commentary on what we’re doing to our environment is a little too heavy handed to feel like it’s part of the story. Bacigalupi perhaps his voice a little too strongly on the book at times... Bacigalupi’s world is still a world though where the rich can live in luxury and come up with genetic creations like the augmented ‘half men’ who act as bodyguards and soldiers. A world of sharp divides then that Bacigalupi uses to bring the focus squarely onto those who must scrabble in the dirt to survive. It’s a clever device that really hammers home how precarious Nailer’s existence is and when he has to the chance to go for something better you can’t blame him at all for doing it. The claustrophobic opening chapters, where Nailer must work within the bowels of an oil tanker, are a superb example of this and the book is full of moments like these. It’s a harsh world but gorgeously drawn and a lot of thought has obviously gone into it.

When Nailer’s quest for a better life takes him away from his coastal home though... that’s where things started to fall down for me. Bacigalupi has clearly gone to a lot of trouble to come up with a setting like this; using it as the backdrop for what is essentially a ‘chase story’ didn’t quite fit somehow. It really didn’t gel for me, the background setting hinted at something a little more thoughtful than the action scenes that we got. That’s not to say that Bacigalupi can’t write a decent action scene (he clearly can) and the plot had enough twists and turns to keep me reading. I guess I was after a smooth read and the use of two such contrasting elements meant that was never going to happen.

If that wasn’t enough, I found Nailer to be a character that I had real trouble engaging with. Basically, I read the book to see what happened at the end, not to see what happened to him (if you get my meaning).
The fairest thing to say here is that I’m not the ‘Young Adult’ audience that this book is aimed at. The target audience will probably get a lot more out Nailer’s character than I did. Personally, I have trouble dealing with any teenage character that attaches the same level of importance to their own adolescent feelings as they do to the prospect of being torn apart by augmented dog men. Get away from the dog man first, then work out if you’re going to make a move on the potential love interest...
I did feel for Nailer, and what he was going through, but I couldn’t help but think that perhaps Bacigalupi could have handled his character a little more effectively...

‘Ship Breaker’ is a bit of a mixed bag then but the world building is superb, enough so that I’ll put my misgivings to one side and give ‘The Windup Girl’ a go at some point. I’ll be hoping for better things though...

Seven and a Half out of Ten
 

‘The Outcast Dead’ – Graham McNeill (Black Library)

And it was only the other day that I was going on about how much I was looking forward to reading ‘The Outcast Dead’... Thanks to the wonder that is post scheduling, a copy of ‘The Outcast Dead’ actually arrived after that post went up! I couldn’t have timed it any better if I’d tried :o)

Every series has its ‘down points’ and Black Library’s ‘Horus Heresy’ series is no different; I still haven’t dared read ‘Fallen Angels’ after having to give up on ‘Descent of Angels’ halfway through. On the whole though, the series has been an amazing ride through the defining moment in the history of Warhammer 40K’s Imperium of Man.  This is very much down to the fact that ff you’re one of the Black Library’s ‘big guns’ then you’ve probably already contributed to this series. Graham McNeill has already made a name for himself with his ‘Ultramarines’ series (amongst others, I’m thinking of the ‘Sigmar’ books here) and has also made his mark on the ‘Horus Heresy’ series with books like ‘A Thousand Sons’, ‘Mechanicum’ and ‘False Gods’. So... A new book in a series that I will always make time for that is written by a writer who has proved to be one of the mainstays of the ‘Horus Heresy’ books. You can’t go wrong here... can you? Of course you can’t, Graham McNeill turns in another ‘must read’ moment in an Empire’s fall...

Astropath Kai Zulane is having a very bad day. You would have thought that it couldn’t get any worse than being one of only two survivors of a catastrophic encounter, in the Warp, that claimed an entire ship and left Kai unable to use his psychic powers. Unless Kai can master those powers once more he is fit only for psychic kindling in the Hollow Mountain.
It can get a lot worse though. As the Heresy burns throughout the galaxy, Kai suddenly (and through no fault of his own) finds himself in possession of a secret that both sides would kill for. It’s a secret hidden so deeply in his psyche that not even Kai knows what is. All he knows is that seven of the most deadly men on Terra have broken out of the most fearsome prison on the planet in order to take him to their master. The forces of the Imperium are in pursuit though, will the renegades make it off the planet or will they fail at the last? Does any of it even matter...?

Like I said earlier, I know that I’m in for a good read when I see Graham McNeill’s name on the cover of a ‘Horus Heresy’ book and that record remains unblemished with ‘The Outcast Dead’. That’s not to say that the book is perfect but it was close enough for me not to put it down (apart from that moment when the baby was crying) until I was done. The nature of this book means that it’s very difficult to avoid spoilers, I’ll try my best though...

One of my chief complaints about the ‘Horus Heresy’ series, as a whole, is that pretty much everyone reading it knows how it ends. I’m talking about the gamers mostly but anyone with a passing knowledge of the internet can do a quick Google search and see how it plays out. The big question then is how to keep things fresh and interesting in the meantime? Other authors have tackled this question in a number of ways but this time round, McNeill takes my original complaint and makes it the centrepiece of the plot. Characters in ‘The Outcast Dead’ have to ask themselves what they can do about a person they know is carrying information pivotal to the outcome of the civil war. The answer is simple, get to him before the other side does...

The outcome is a race against time with both sides trying to get their hands on a secret so secret that not even the carrier knows what it is (you can probably guess it though and it’s a good one). McNeill really ramps things up by making it clear just what the stakes are as well; most people who discover the secret have a nasty habit of dying through not being able to handle its sheer immensity and Kai Zulane is the only one who’s still alive. Nothing less than the fate of an entire galaxy rests on what is in his head, stakes don’t get a lot higher than that! McNeill gives ensuing events a pace that is appropriate to what is ultimately at stake here; things move very quickly but not so fast that you can’t keep up. McNeill has a great concept on display here and he wants to be sure that you make the most of it. It’s not just the chase though as elements of the Imperium’s earliest history make an appearance that adds another layer of detail to an already richly layered background (the Petitioner’s City adds a level of squalor that contrasts nicely with the Emperor’s Palace) . I think long term fans will get the most out of these moments but they’re worth the price of entry nevertheless.Add a healthy dose of paranoia (no-one really knows who to trust) and you’ve got a plot that captures the imagination and refuses to let go.

Every chase must come to an end though; if they don’t then things run the risk of getting boring without a resolution. McNeill gets this as well and punctuates the plot with moments where backs are against the wall and there is no way out except to fight. McNeill has already proved himself to be more than adept at throwing gene-enhanced humans up against everything (including each other) and the resulting scenes here pack all the punch you would expect from a Warhammer 40K novel.
There is a more thoughtful air to it as well though as we see Zulane’s treatment at the hands of Imperial authorities who fight to remain true to the Emperor’s vision whilst facing the demands of war at the same time. The interrogation scenes are harrowing but also a testament to the strength in Zulane’s character. If you’re anything like me then you’ll be rooting for him too. There is a real shade of grey to ‘The Outcast Dead’, especially when we see the treatment of Marines deemed to be traitors only by the actions of their brothers. Neither side comes out of this looking good and that’s the way war goes...

I only have the one complaint and this could equally well be applied to the series as a whole. There is so much going on that there is the constant need to put it all in context of the wider struggle. Constant referring back to events already covered makes the series drag and it can make ‘The Outcast Dead’ drag a little as well. We’re more than a few books in now and I really want to feel like things are moving forward, we already know that certain events have happened. ‘The Outcast Dead’ being placed in context like this made for an unwelcome counterpoint to a plot that tore ahead in other respects.

It’s a relatively minor complaint though as McNeill comes up trumps again with a tale that shows the more covert side of the Heresy as well as the more squalid side of the Imperial dream. Another highly recommended tale from one of the Black Library’s top authors.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

Author Interview! Drew Magary.

What kind of guy writes a book where immortality can give the term 'Peter Pan' a nasty new meaning and nano-technology leads to the immortal armies of the world being more interested in eating whatever is in their path rather than shooting it? That guy is Drew Magary, author of 'The Postmortal' ('The End Specialist' if you're in the UK) and I got to ask him a question or two; here's what Drew had to say for himself...

Lets get the obvious question out of the way first, would you take the cure if it was offered to you?


Hell yes. I'm getting older and I have all kinds of back pain and shit. No chance I'd ever want to get older. I know everyone getting it would be bad, but I can't SEE that now. I know drinking is bad for me, but that damage isn't immediately visible to me. So I do it. Same with this.

What led you to write ‘The Postmortal’? By this, I guess I'm asking what led you to writing about things like a mother condemning her daughter to eternity as an eight month old baby...

It was really just a simple idea, espoused in the title of the first chapter. If we all lived forever, we'd all end up pretty pissy with one another. So I tried to play that out to the last detail. Some of it gets pretty hairy, but it wasn't because I'm some weird goth kid. I just try and go where the idea leads.

‘The Postmortal’ shows it’s reader only too clearly that humanity isn’t ready for eternal life, at least not as far as you’re concerned. If the cure was available in real life though, do you think that any good would come out of it at all?

Oh, most definitely. Seniors account for pretty much all the health care expenses here in the US. If no one got old, it wouldn't cost as much to go to the doctor. And everyone would look AWESOME.

You sold it to me! Your vision of an immortal future is pretty bleak to say the least; did you find yourself having to dial the bleakness back at all or did you just go for it?

I had an original ending that was, hard to believe, darker than what's there now. Then my agent was like, "No. Don't do that." And I didn't. I tried to temper everything with humor, but the idea is just naturally a dark one. It couldn't be helped. I just did my best to keep it as entertaining as possible right to the end.

Did you know all along that your vision here would be a bleak one? Did you ever toy with the idea of having immortality as something that is beneficial and all good?

Nope. It was all bad from the get-go. It was just more fun to have it devolve into mayhem. Happiness and order aren't very compelling.

I have to ask, what did you do to cheer yourself up after writing such a pessimistic book?

I never really got down while writing it. I was fairly clinical about what would happen and how it would happen. It wasn't so much that it was bleak to write, but it was fairly intense to write. I'd spend a lot of time in my own head space and would leave the tea kettle boiling and shit. At the end of the day, I'd feel pretty exhausted mentally. But it was a good feeling, like after you spend a day doing housework or something shitty. You feel like you earned your beer.


The science behind the cure is detailed enough to be plausible but vague enough so that people can’t poke holes in it. How difficult was it to get the balance right?

I've watched enough TV and movies to know how to bullshit it so it sounds good despite it all being total bunk. I did some research to get terms right, but I didn't go all Method Writer and spend eight years in a medical library.

Talking of science, 'The Postmortal' naturally focuses just on scientific developments arising from the cure. I know this is outside the book but do you think at least one scientist used his immortality to come up with something worthwhile? I'm still feeling depressed after reading the book (in a good way), cheer me up?

Don't be depressed. Consider this: If science and the eventual advent of advanced artificial intelligence can make us immortal, think about how that same collective brain power can help solve other problems like energy shortages and overpopulation. Because it can and it may. Also, I'm real sorry I depressed you. I wanna buy you a meat pie or something.

Funnily enough, I could really go for a meat pie round about now... You write in a number of other fields, are we likely to see more science fiction from you in the future? I’ve got a feeling that there won’t be a sequel to ‘The Postmortal’...

Nope, but there likely will be more social sci-fi from me.

And finally, why should we all be picking up ‘The Postmortal’ and checking it out?

Because you'll be making my ass money.  And because the book is fucking METAL.

Good answer there Drew, honesty pays... ;o)

If that hasn't convinced to go and pick up 'The Postmortal' then have a look at my review over Here. Do check the book out though, I promise you it's worth it.

The 'It's a Bank Holiday so you're probably not even reading this' Competition Winner's Post!

I mean, seriously. The sun is up, it's lovely out there and we don't have to be at work today! :o) By 'we' I mean people in the UK of course but it's not like the rest of you don't get public holidays as well. Wait your turn and don't rub it in too much when you're lazing around at home and I'm in the office... ;o)

This is going to be a fairly short and sweet one today as I've got a garden to dig up, books to read and a small child to keep away from electric sockets... I couldn't let today pass though without announcing the winners of last weeks competition for Advance Copies of Richard Morgan's 'The Cold Commands'. Without further ado, here they are...

John Johnson, Idaho, USA

Kai Ashante Wilson, Brooklyn, USA

Karen Moore, Wisconsin, USA

Well done guys, your books should be on their way very soon. Better luck next time everyone else... ;o)

Right, I'm off to do all the chores that I somehow manage to ignore until a Bank Holiday comes round. Have a great one today and I'll see you tomorrow when Drew Magary stops by to answer a few questions about 'The Post Mortal'...

Giveaway! ‘A Serpent Uncoiled’ (Simon Spurrier)

The reading pile has got a little out of control in recent weeks but Simon Spurrier’s ‘A Serpent Uncoiled’ is still very much there and waiting to be read; check out the blurb...

 

A missing mobster. A bizarre spiritualist society. And three deaths, linked by a chilling forensic detail.

Working as an enforcer in London's criminal underworld brought Dan Shaper to the edge of a breakdown. Now he's a private investigator, kept perilously afloat by a growing cocktail of drugs. He needs to straighten-up and rebuild his life, but instead gets the attention of his old gangland masters and a job-offer from Mr George Glass. The elderly eccentric claims to be a New Age Messiah, but now needs a saviour of his own. He's been marked for murder.

Adrift amidst liars and thugs, Shaper must push his capsizing mind to its limits: stalked not only by a unique and terrifying killer, but by the ghosts of his own brutal past.

 

I’ll let you know what I thought of it as soon as I get it read. In the meantime, how would you like to win a copy? Thanks to Headline Books I have two copies of ‘A Serpent Uncoiled’ to give away in a competition that is only open to blog readers from the UK and Europe. All you European types might want to go back and read that last bit again... Thanks for being patient with me, I told you I’d sort something out sooner or later ;o)

 

Right... Entering is as easy as ever; all you need to do is drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the page) telling me who you are and what your postal address is. The subject header needs to be ‘Serpent’. And don’t even think about trying to enter more than once! Your email address might be different from the last but your name and address won’t be, multiple entries will all be deleted.

 

I’ll leave this one open until the 4^th of September and will aim to announce the winners as soon as possible afterwards.

 

Good Luck!

Some books I'm looking forward to between now and the end of the year (what books are you looking forward to?)

It’s getting to that time of year, once again, where Autumn is in the air. You know what I mean, you can smell it can’t you? Not only that, the weather is starting to turn and you find yourself looking for the winter coat that you shoved in a cupboard just before Easter. What’s particularly galling about this change in the weather is that August hasn’t even finished yet! What’s that all about? Where’s my Summer gone...? And breathe... :o)

 

There’s no escaping it though, we may not be on it just yet but we are looking at the home straight that will take us through to the end of the year. What should we be reading in the meantime? Here are a couple of reads that I’m looking forward to, feel free to add your suggestions in the comments below.

 

House of Fear: An Anthology of Haunted House Stories (Solaris)

 

The tread on the landing outside the door, when you know you are the only one in the house. The wind whistling through the eves, carrying the voices of the dead. The figure glimpsed briefly through the cracked window of a derelict house. Editor Jonathan Oliver brings horror home with a collection of haunted house stories by some of the finest writers working in the horror genre, including Joe R. Lansdale, Sarah Pinborough, Lisa Tuttle, Christopher Priest, Adam L. G. Nevill, Nicholas Royle, Chaz Brenchley, Christopher Fowler, Gary Kilworth, Weston Ochse, Eric Brown, Tim Lebbon, Nina Allan, Stephen Volk, Paul Meloy and more.

 

Jonathan Oliver did some sterling work in editing his last collection (‘The End of the Line’, reviewed Here) and I’ve got no reason to suspect anything different this time round, especially as a bunch of authors who contributed last time round are returning to contribute some more. This has the potential to be a really spooky read for when the nights really start to draw in (which will probably be tonight the way the weather is right now...) Look out for this book around the end of September/beginning of October.

 

‘Fated’ – S.G. Browne (Piatkus)

 

Over the past few thousand years, Fabio has come to hate his job. As Fate, he's in charge of assigning the fortunes and misfortunes that befall most of the human race - the 83 per cent who keep screwing things up. And with the steady rise in population since the first Neanderthal set himself on fire, he can't exactly take a vacation. Frustrated with his endless parade of drug addicts and career politicians, it doesn't help watching Destiny guide her people to Nobel Peace Prizes. To make matters worse, he has a five-hundred-year-old feud with Death, and his best friends are Sloth and Gluttony. And worst of all? He's just fallen in love with a human. Sara Griffen might be on Destiny's path, but Fabio keeps bumping into her - by accident at first, and then on purpose. Getting involved with her breaks Rule No. 1 - and about ten others - setting off some cosmic-sized repercussions that could strip him of his immortality...or lead to a fate worse than death.

 

Ok, this isn’t the kind of thing that you will normally see me reading here but you might well have done last year if my US review copy had arrived...! In the meantime I read S.G. Browne’s ‘Breathers’ instead (review Here) and the man himself was kind enough to stop by the blog and talk about the inspirations and influences that got him writing in the first place and culminated in ‘Fated’ (you can read that over Here). All of this piqued my interest in ‘Fated’ and I was lucky enough to finally receive a copy (from Piatkus this time) which I will definitely be reading. There are hints of Terry Pratchett’s ‘Mort’ here but if ‘Fated’ is anywhere near as good then that shouldn’t be too much of a big deal. ‘Fated’ should be on the shelves towards the end of next week, you might see a review then but the smart money is on that review appearing a little later than that.

  

‘The Outcast Dead’ – Graham McNeill  (Black Library)

 

Has there been a bad ‘Horus Heresy’ novel? Actually, yes there has (I’m looking at you ‘Descent of Angels’...) but the good in this series outweighs the bad by, well... a lot! :o) Graham McNeill is one of the big name writers in the series and I know for a fact that he hasn’t written a bad ‘Horus Heresy’ book, I’m hoping for more of the same from ‘The Outcast Dead’. Look out for this one in November (that will give those of you who haven’t been reading the series plenty of time ot catch up!)

 

‘The Republic of Thieves’ – Scott Lynch (Gollancz)

 

After their adventures on the high seas, Locke and Jean are brought back to earth with a thump. Jean is mourning the loss of his lover and Locke must live with the fallout of crossing the all-powerful magical assassins the Bonds Magi. It is a fall-out that will pit both men against Locke's own long lost love. Sabetha is Locke's childhood sweetheart, the love of Locke's life and now it is time for them to meet again. Employed on different sides of a vicious dispute between factions of the Bonds Sabetha has just one goal - to destroy Locke for ever.

 

Here’s a tricky one... The Gollancz catalogue tells us we can expect to see ‘Republic’ sometime in November but Amazon disagrees and reckons it won’t be available until March next year. I make a point of not trusting Amazon release dates but I would have thought there would be Advance Copies flying around kind of now-ish if the November date was accurate. Oh well, I guess I’m just going to have to be all excited about it until I find out otherwise ;o) If the last two books are anything to go by then ‘Republic of Thieves’ will certainly make for a great ‘rainy afternoon’ read.

 

That’s me for now (otherwise I will go on forever) but what about you? What books are you looking forward to getting your hands on between now and the end of the year? Comments in the usual place please! :o)

‘Heir to the Empire (20th Anniversary Edition)’ – Timothy Zahn (Del Rey)

Has it really been twenty years since ‘Heir to the Empire’ was first published? There’s no reason for the book cover to lie to us so I’m guessing it must be, what a way to make me feel really old...
I actually came to read Zahn’s trilogy a couple of years after ‘Heir to the Empire’ was first published. I was deeply into my fantasy reading before then (I’d only just discovered Tad Williams) and anyway, Star Wars was pretty much over and done with wasn’t it? There were no more films to come so there couldn’t be any more story, could there? How wrong I was... I heard of these three new books that carried the story on, after the events of ‘Return of the Jedi’, and borrowed them off a friend. It wasn’t long afterwards that I bought copies for myself and was into reading every subsequent Star Wars book as it came out. There have been countless Star Wars books since then and it would be fair to say that they all owe their existence to the trilogy that Zahn wrote all those years ago. As far as I’m concerned it’s also fair to say that very few of the subsequent books (if any at all) match up to the benchmark that Zahn originally set. Or is it? Am I just living in a glorious haze of nostalgia where Star Wars books were only just coming onto the market again with a story that was only just taking off and where it felt like anything could happen?
There was only one way to find out and I had great fun taking it. ‘Heir to the Empire’ stands up to the test of time although I’m not sure that particular ‘anniversary add-ons’ were entirely necessary...

It is five years since the decisive Battle of Endor took place and the Alliance is slowly adapting itself to the demands of governing star systems instead of fighting to free them. The pressures are great though and divisions within the fledgling government could tear things apart before they even get going.
However, a far greater danger lurks in the remnants of Imperial Space... Grand Admiral Thrawn’s duties kept him away from the one battle where he was needed the most; now he has returned to wrest control away from the Alliance and return the Empire to its former glory. If there’s anyone who can do this it is Grand Admiral Thrawn, ever the most devious and tactically adept of the Emperor’s Grand Admirals. Plans take shape and build towards an inevitable conclusion. Can even the likes of Luke, Leia and Han halt the machinations of the greatest tactical genius the Empire ever produced?

It may be a 20th Century Anniversary Edition but no changes have been made to the novel itself in terms of an ‘author’s preferred edition’ a la ‘The Stand’. This is good and totally as it should be. ‘Heir to the Empire’ stands the test of time and reading it now is just like reading it for the first time all those years ago. It’s been years since I last read this trilogy, now I think I’m going to have to dig the next two books out and read them again.

Zahn leaves you in no doubt that you’re reading a Star Wars book and you might think that’s not exactly a hard thing to do. After all, you’ve got a cast of well known characters to play around with in a setting that has been built up over the course of three films (along with role playing games, comic books and books published when the films were in cinemas). You’d be forgiven for shrugging your shoulders and saying “So what?” but bear with me a little here...

Zahn’s achievement comes in his taking a big step forward from the events of the films (a five year gap here) but still maintaining a real feel of continuity. He may be playing with established characters but he really gets inside their heads and captures what made them stand out on the screen. Han the ‘cocky smuggler’, Luke the ‘earnest Jedi’ and so on. There’s a solid link to the films right there. Zahn isn’t just satisfied with preserving continuity though as he forces his characters to move on and develop in a galaxy that is the same one we knew, from before but has changed in a number of important ways. Established characters are suddenly having to adapt to new situations (Leia trying to find time to complete her Jedi training, Han trying to form a coalition of smugglers that will work for the Alliance) and you find yourself wanting to read on and see how they cope.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Star Wars without an Imperial threat to contend with and Zahn really delivers here with the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Whereas Vader and the Emperor were a threat in terms of sheer power, Thrawn more than holds his own in terms of his constantly being three or four steps ahead of you mentally. Thrawn knows exactly what he is going to do and by the time you find out it’s too late as his plans are already in motion. It’s scary how on top of things Thrawn is and he is more than a match for our heroes here as, at this stage, they have no idea what they are dealing with. Thrawn’s plans are still in the early stages but there is still enough intrigue to them to make you want to come back for the next book and see how things pan out.

Zahn adds a fresh spin on the Star Wars universe but is clever enough to go with a tried and tested formula that worked for the original trilogy. ‘Heir to the Empire’ is space opera on that same grand scale; swashbuckling combat on alien planets, gigantic space battles and larger than life heroes. Zahn captures all of this perfectly and the pages fly by as a result.

It’s a shame then that the extra bits that make up this 20th Anniversary Edition take the shine off a little bit...
The book is annotated by the author (and his editor Betsy Mitchell) and these notes do make for some interesting reading; Zahn takes us through the process of the book’s creation and gives us some interesting facts along the way. If you’re a die hard fan then you may know it all already but there were more than a few surprises there for me. The problem that I had was that the positioning of these notes, at the side of the page, kept dragging me away from the book itself and I had to keep trying to get back in again. Maybe if these notes had been at the bottom of the page it would have made all the difference.

I have to say that the Thrawn novella ‘Crisis of Faith’ didn’t do an awful lot for me either. For me, Zahn works best when he is laying plans that won’t see fruition for at least a book or two. This short tale of bluff and double bluff just felt rushed to me and, as a result, didn’t show Thrawn in all his calculating and devious glory.

That shouldn’t take anything away from the main event though. Despite the issues I had with the book as a whole, ‘Heir to the Empire’ (in itself) is the prime example of all that is good about Star Wars fiction and I’m glad I got the chance to re-read it. Look out for this edition at the beginning of September. Now, onto the other two books.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

‘Vampire Warlords’ – Andy Remic (Angry Robot)

Without going into too much detail about my life right now (I mean, you’re here for the books... right?) I’m absolutely shattered right now and very much looking forward to a long deserved holiday. It’s not here yet but it’s so close that I can almost taste it. As far as my reading goes, this tiredness has meant that I’ve either been looking at comfort reads or books that will wake me up with their sheer energy. A shot of genre Red Bull if you will :o)

Andy Remic’s ‘Clockwork Vampire Chronicles’ is by no means a comfort read (seriously, check out my reviews for ‘Kell’s Legend’ and ‘Soul Stealers’), and I’ve had my issues with the first two books, but the series thus far has never failed to wake me up and get me moving. I have to wonder where Remic gets all that energy from for his novels, I want some of it!
When I saw that monster of a cliff-hanger scene at the end of ‘Soul Stealers’, there was no doubt that I would be around to see how things ended in ‘Vampire Warlords’. Given what happens in those final few pages there’s no way that it could end well... could it? Well, we’re talking about Kell here so that in itself should give you some ideas about how it all ends; in a tide of blood and severed limbs...

The Vampire Warlords walk the earth once more, summoned to be slaves of the Vachine but far too powerful to ever obey the commands of a lesser species. There is a world out there to be conquered and remade in their own image; the three Vampire Warlords cannot wait to get started.
As city after city falls to the newly birthed vampire hordes it becomes all too clear that the only person who stands any chance of stopping the Warlords is the axe man Kell. Kell may well be beginning to doubt himself but there is still enough strength in his arms to take up his axe for one final push at an enemy he has been fighting for almost his entire life. It’s not just the vampires that Kell has to worry about though, another army is marching out of the north and an enemy thought long dead is finally beginning to stir once more. Could these late developments be too much even for Kell? One thing is for sure; while Kell is still standing the fight isn’t over yet...

‘Vampire Warlords’ brings the first arc of Kell’s adventures to a close with things left open enough for more books to come (in the interview at the back of the book, Remic confirms that he plans to write more about the adventures of Kell and Saark). It’s all done in fine style as well with a series of climactic events that leave you in no doubt where things stand not only for Kell but for the land as a whole. We’re talking about the kind of book where you finish the last few chapters at such a rush that you have to remember to take a breath. Well, I did anyway.

‘Vampire Warlords’ does suffer some of the problems that I saw in the previous two books. Reading the book, I got the impression that Remic was basically saying, ‘you should know what I’m about with this series by now and you’ve come this far, just go with the flow and keep reading’. I think this approach is fair enough to an extent, writers should be able to set their stall out and let the readers decide for themselves whether they carry on reading or not.

Having said that though, ‘Vampire Warlords’ ended up suffering for the same kind of reasons that the last two books did. What I read was a book that sought to define itself as ‘gritty’ by being a book with more swear words in it than any other. Seriously, I defy you to find a book that swears at its readers more. The thing is though, copious swearing doesn’t make a book ‘gritty’ in tone, it’s just a book with a lot of swear words in it... This is a real shame as Remic does a lot of work in other areas that makes the book a very gritty read indeed (more on that in a bit) but the overload of swear words gives the proceedings a comedic air where there really shouldn’t be one. There is also that sense of enemies being lined up just so Kell can kill them and move on, an approach that has made the pacing stumble in past reads.

Despite all that though, ‘Vampire Warlords’ is the best read of the bunch and for very good reason.

Despite having a cast of characters who will use ten swear words where only one is needed, ‘Vampire Warlords’ is a dark and very gritty read to the extent where I found myself sucked into that darkness just to see if there was any light at the end of it. Remic has spent the last two books raising the stakes for Kell and just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse... it does. The Vampire Warlords are vicious individuals, even by Remic’s standards, and he doesn’t leave any stone unturned in showing us just what life is like in their cities under their rule. Squeamish readers might want to skip those pages...
A tough world just got a whole lot tougher and characters are faced with hard decisions that they cannot ignore. Remic lays it all on the line and the end result is a surprisingly touching novel lurking under all that cartoonish violence.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Kell himself, a character moving out of the shadow of Gemmell’s Druss and becoming an engaging character in his own right. Kell is not only faced with the fight at hand but also the terrible mistakes that he has made in the past and must find some way of dealing with this all at once. The way in which he manages (whilst taking on all comers) made me feel more than a little respect for an old warrior trying to do the right thing against all his instincts. I even enjoyed the banter between Kell and Saark in that it signalled a development in their relationship rather than just hurling insults for the sake of it. I’d like to see more books featuring Kell and Saark, just to see where they go next.

If that wasn’t enough, you’ve got Remic’s natural talent for throwing everything (including the kitchen sink) at ‘Vampire Warlords’, resulting in a book that hurtles along at a breakneck pace but never falls over once. You’ve got to admire a writer that can keep control of things like that.

The villains are even bigger than before but Kell isn’t ready to lie down just yet. The resulting clash makes ‘Vampire Warlords’ the best book in the trilogy and the best way for Kell and Saark to bow out, for now...

Eight and a Half out of Ten