Aidan Interviews Drew Bowling

Scholar and gentleman, Aidan at A Dribble of Ink, has just conducted a really rather excellent interview with Drew Bowling, the 21 year old author of The Tower of Shadows, which Aidan, and others, really enjoyed.

That one interview, Drew's style, love of language, and intelligence will have me trying very hard to get hold of Tower of Shadows. It was also Aidan's interview with Patrick Rothfuss (whom I later interviewed*) that got me interested in that The Name of the Wind.

*Apparently I have some new victims -- erm -- visitors lately, so I'll probably be drawing up an Index a la Pat, rather than constantly referring to stuff people know already ;)

Quote of the Week #10: Toby Barlow

This week's Quote of the Week, is from the author of Sharp Teeth, a really rather brilliant novel in verse, and a book about werewolves in America...

Picking this week's Quote of the Week: Toby Barlow



Toby Barlow's début, Sharp Teeth, a werewolf novel in verse, was a really good read earlier this month, and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on his future projects :)

“I feel sad for people and the queer part we play in our own disasters.”

Don Delillo, While Noise.


I’m a tremendous “White Noise” fan. Frankly, most of Delillo leaves me cold, but “White Noise” and “Pafko at the Wall” are both absolute masterpieces. And I’ll happily fight anyone who says otherwise.

This quote in particular is one of those lines that I feel like reciting to people and then just sort of watching them as it sinks in. My friends hate it when I do that sort of thing. I don’t blame them either ‘cause it’s really kind of obnoxious and childish and pretentious of me. And most of my friends, they don’t even want to talk about that kind of heavy stuff. They just want the damn waitress to bring the salad and the drinks and then maybe we can talk about how lousy work is these days or great music from the 70’s or that girl over there with the cargo pants and the monkey tattoo or, quite honestly, anything else under the sun.

Just not the truth, please. Nobody wants to talk about that. In fact, the last thing they want to talk about is something as truthful as this particular quote.

But this quote has everything in it, doesn’t it? From Oedipus Rex to the fact that I haven’t made the bed yet today, from losing the family nest egg on a bad bet in Reno to the entire planet’s blossoming ecological nightmare, a huge chunk of the entire history of man is summed up in that one sentence. It’s all there, in just fifteen words.

The part of this quote that is most incredible to me, the part that shows the genius of Delillo, is that it’s actually got this tiny undertone of humor to it. Partly it’s just a continuum of the bleak, dark humor that hums throughout the book, but it’s also wholly in the line, in and of itself, too.

Maybe because the word "queer" is in the sentence and that’s just a funny word, or I suppose it’s the fact that there’s condescension in the line, and in that very condescension lies the some of the hubris and the doom the character is referring too. So, in a way, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But however it does it, somehow that line manages to be wise, sad, and funny all at once. What more can you ask from language, really?

Thanks to Toby for that great QotW! Some reviews of Sharp Teeth:

• My Review of Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow!
  

• Fantasy Book Critic's!

• Next Read's!

Amazon UK Fantasy Sale

Amazon UK are are really rather good for fantasy and science fiction, and they currently have up to 50% off on new releases including:

Iain M. Banks' Matter which I reviewed earlier this month.

Raymond E. Feist's Wrath of a Mad God, which I also reviewed earlier this month.

The new Kelley Armstrong, Personal Demon.

A new Torchwood novel -- shall try to get hold of this :)

Jim Butcher's latest: Small Favour. Will also read this at some point!

Joe Abercrombie's Last Argument of Kings -- will read this, too, eventually! :D

Robert VS Redick's The Red Wolf Conspiracy -- I reviewed this earlier this month, too! I also did an interview with Robert back in January.

And quite a few more. The full inventory is HERE. Please be aware that if you buy through these links I make a little bit of money at no extra cost to your good selves! ;)

Sorry I've been so slack this week (and any others!). Make me some money and I can afford a laptop ;)

News Bits

• 2008 is the 50th anniversary year of the British Science Fiction Association and as part of their year-long celebrations, they've announced the launch of a short story competition for writers from the UK and Ireland, with a £500 first prize for the best example, as decided by their illustrious panel of judges.

The closing date for entries is midnight on Friday, September 5th 2008. The winner - to be decided by the panel of judges comprising British science fiction authors Justina Robson, Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds - will be announced at the BSFA 50th Anniversary Birthday Party, on November 26th 2008.

Quite a while to get writing then, but still, a very cool contest! More details via UK SF Book News, a fantastic site for up-to-date news -- where a chunk of the stuff on this blog comes from ;)

• A Dance With Dragons cover art released:
  

Quite generic, but having cover art released always gets me fairly excited for a book's release, and this, IF it's released in 2008 (living as I am, in the UK) will be one of my must reads.

• Naomi Novik reports that the fifth volume in her Temeraire series, Victory of Eagles, has been completed and turned in. It's due to be published in July by HarperCollins UK and by Del Rey in the US.

• Nebula's Final Ballot Announced:

In the novel category, I have shamefully read none!

Novels:
Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell (published by Tor)
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins)
The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman (Ace)
The New Moon's Arms by Nalo Hopkinson (Warner Books)
Odyssey by Jack McDevitt (Ace)


Again, none...

Novellas:
"Awakening" by Judith Berman (published in Black Gate #10)
"The Helper and His Hero" by Matt Hughes (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February-March 2007)
"Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress (Asimov's, July 2007)
"Stars Seen Through Stone" by Lucius Shepard (F&SF, July 2007)
"Kiosk" by Bruce Sterling (F&SF, January 2007)
"Memorare" by Gene Wolfe (F&SF, April 2007)

The same applies here...

Novelettes:
"The Children's Crusade" by Robin Wayne Bailey (Heroes in Training, DAW)
"Child, Maiden, Mother, Crone" by Terry Bramlett (Jim Baen's Universe #7)
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang (F&SF, September 2007)
"The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs Of North Park After the Change" by Kij Johnson (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Viking Juvenile)
"Safeguard" by Nancy Kress (Asimov's, January 2007)
"Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter" by Geoff Ryman (F&SF, November 2006)
"The Fiddler of Bayou Teche" by Delia Sherman (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Viking Juvenile)

Yes! I've read these! Well ... some ...

Short Stories:
"Unique Chicken Goes In Reverse" by Andy Duncan (Eclipse 1: New Science Fiction and Fantasy, Night Shade Books)
"Always" by Karen Joy Fowler (Asimov's, April/May 2007)
"Titanium Mike Saves the Day" by David D. Levine (F&SF, April 2007)
"The Story of Love" by Vera Nazarian (Salt of the Air, Prime Books)
"Captive Girl" by Jennifer Pelland (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly, Fall 2006)
"Pride" by Mary Turzillo (Fast Forward 1, Pyr)

Seen the Doctor Who one, and good it was...

Scripts:
Children of Men by Alfonso Cuaron, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, and Hawk Ostby (Universal Studios)
Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro (Time/Warner)
"Blink" by Steven Moffat (Doctor Who, BBC/The Sci-Fi Channel)
The Prestige by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan (Newmarket Films)
V for Vendetta by Larry Wachowski & Andy Wachowski (Warner Films)
"World Enough and Time" by Marc Scott Zicree and Michael Reaves (Star Trek: New Voyages)

Just one...

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy:
Vintage: A Ghost Story by Steve Berman (Haworth Positronic Press)
Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst (Penguin Razorbill)
The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu (Jump At The Sun)
The True Meaning of Smek Day by Adam Rex (Hyperion)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic)
The Lion Hunter by Elizabeth Wein (Viking Juvenile)
Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog by Ysabeau S. Wilce (Harcourt)

That's it, coffee needed. Ciau. Last tidbit:

• Over on the GRRM Not A Blog, George mentions one of his nominations for the Hugo in the fanzine category.
  

Like the bullet point-ness? I don't, but it's the only way it'll let me have pictures centred at the moment! ;)

Oh, and ...

• Stephen Fry has a podcast -- this trumps every other bit of news in the world. Listen now. The man is a genius.
  

• The Reading List council has a cool 2008 pick for fantasy. Tolkien is #2, behind a certain Mr. Rothfuss whom I interviewed last year.

• Scientists are electronically tagging bumble bees.
  

I should have a few new interviews coming soon, I've been rather slow on that front lately.

Win A Copy Of SHARP TEETH by Toby Barlow

I really enjoyed Toby Barlow's novel in verse, Sharp Teeth, so it's only fair, and with thanks to Random House, that someone else should else get a copy!

The rules:

• Send an email to: thebookswede@googlemail.com, containing the subject (aka header) "SHARP"...
  

• No multiple entries -- unless you wish to die. Sharply, with teeth involved.
  

• Open only in the UK.
  

• Please also include any Message Boards you frequent, if any.

• Make sure your email contains your full mailing address (snail mail!) -- where you live. I delete any that don't have this, and quite a lot haven't.

• Be nice -- there was one contest where I asked people to blackmail/bribe me as a joke, and the funniest, cleverest won. I may do that again at some point, but death threats, either way, aren't great ;)
  

Good luck!

Sharp Teeth

Sharp Teeth
Toby Barlow
Random House

320 pages
January 2008

I first read about Sharp Teeth on Fantasy Book Critic -- along with the news that this has been out in the UK for months now! -- and I'm really pleased I did...

Sharp Teeth is a novel in verse, my first. I've read the Odyssey by Homer, and some really long stuff by Keats, but never anything like this. Unlike those two, this rarely rhymes (that said, there is the odd couplet) and it often feels like bits of prose have been cut and pasted into meandering columns:

Some of us have problems,
they still talk about Bone and what the grease does to him.
He can't go into fried chicken places
the smell, the scent, turns his blood right away.
They say he took out a whole Popeye's once.
He walked in, just to pick up a bucket.
The smell hit. the change happened,
and the place had to go.
Chicken, customers, biscuits and gravy.
There's no percentage in hating
your nature, it's just in your blood.

Of course, the subject matter is rather different, too. Sharp Teeth chronicles the lives of a group of lycanthropes (werewolves) -- and Anthony: a doghandler; Peabody: a policeman -- living in modern Los Angeles, as they go against rival clans, and their leader, Lark, comes up with a cunning plan. As you can probably tell from the (IMO, darkly funny, as with a lot of the novel) above quote, Toby Barlow has put a few new spins on what can be a tired old cliché. These werewolves "pay no heed to the moon", change at will, don't hate vampires (mainly because I don't think there are any in Barlow's universe!), and turn into large dogs rather than giant, clawed, mindless human eaters.

So get this straight
it’s not the full moon.
That’s as ancient and ignorant as any myth.
The blood just quickens with a thought
a discipline develops
so that one can self-ignite
reshaping form, becoming something rather more canine
still conscious, a little hungrier.
It’s a raw muscular power,
a rich sexual energy
and the food tastes a whole lot better.

That bit has been quoted in a lot of reviews, but I love it.

There are multiple point of view characters, and I think this really helped the novel, particularly when it switched to characters like Anthony, the dog-catcher, who falls in love with a lycanthrope, Peabody, the intrepid cop investigating a number of cases where bodies turn up ripped apart. Those outside characters looking in on what was going on brought it a sense of realism -- I know it has werewolves in it!, but still, sometimes I find you almost need a characters disbelief, a human character you can associate with, to heighten your belief.

Toby Barlow has also managed to find every quote that even vaguely mentions dogs, and has put them at the beginning of every new chapter. To which I can only reply with: "Time spent with cats is never wasted.", Freud!

There were a few flaws though: particularly towards the end, when some of the novelty and story drive was beginning to wear off, Sharp Teeth started venturing into more stereotypical territory, even if there was a ridiculously over the top ending with helicopters, etc. There was also a fair bit left unresolved -- for example, why did Lark want some of the pack to travel to a cards tournament?! It was all part of "the plan", but I'd have liked to know more of what that plan actually was.

I don't normally mention things like this, but Sharp Teeth is beautifully designed and I love the black and white cover art. Strangely, though, there's an excellent recommendation from Michael Moorcock that doesn't make it onto either cover. Despite the flaws, Sharp Teeth is one of the most original, funny, and interesting books I've read in a while. It's a book I could easily have missed and never heard of, and that makes it even more precious. 9/10.

For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

--Previous review--

Quote of the Week #9: Lauren Groff

I apologise for the stop-start nature of QotW lately, I should be bringing them (Heaven forbid!) on a weekly, week-by-week basis now ;)

Picking this week's Quote of the Week: Lauren Groff



Lauren Groff is the début author of The Monsters of Templeton, which was published earlier this month in the USA (with a fabulous recommendation from Stephen King, even though it's not horror). My copy arrived this morning, after I read a couple of wonderful reviews...

"I have a belief on my own, and it comforts me...that by desiring what is perfectly good, even when we don't quite know what it is and cannot do what we would, we are part of the divine power against evil--widening the skirts of light and making the struggle with darkness narrower."--George Eliot, Middlemarch


I adore George Eliot--she's a rare paragon of empathy in literature--and this quote pins down exactly why I love her so much. Nowadays, would take some incredible self-delusion not to see some severe dark times on the horizon, and in the face of all the change that is necessary it is sometimes easy to feel discouraged, or too small to do much. But this quote is full of hope: even in our exhausted moments, when it's hard to regulate our own daily lives, we can know that an earnest and intense desire to do good, even when we don't know how to act, or are unable to do what we need to, is helping to make "the struggle with darkness narrower." I believe this is both a deeply true and deeply kind sentiment, one that doesn't absolve us from doing what we can, but one that can give us comfort when we're confused or lost.

Thanks to Lauren for that excellent QotW! :) I'll have my review up (just as soon as I've finished it -- give me a chance!) soon, but in the meantime, have a look at some of these:

• Fantasy Book Critic's

• SF Gate

• Globe & Mail

Wrath Of A Mad God

Wrath Of A Mad God
Raymond. E. Feist
Voyager Books

528 pages
3rd March 2008

At 516 pages, this is a lot chunkier than Into A Dark Realm -- and it shows. While there were definitely some interesting threads in IADR, I don't think they really had the story time to come to fruition. They do in this one. The incursion into the Dasati realm picks up pace in the story, with Pug, Magnus, Nakor and Ralan Bek (having met up with a surprise visitor in the last book) meeting the White and the Bloodwitch Sisters in full. That surprise visitor both pleased and annoyed some people -- we learn more about his nature, as we do about a lot of characters, particularly two of my favourites: Ralan (who really comes into his own among the Dasati) and, gambling, extremely powerful, funny Nakor.

The "three worlds at stake" bit is very true in this novel, as not only is the Dark God of the Dasati trying to force his way into the first realm -- which the planets Midkemia and Kelewan call home -- but Dread also seem to be making incursions, too. Something which is baffling everyone. It seems that even the Nameless One -- the god of absolute evil -- is trying to stop this happening. Kelewan is also under threat; as we know from the last book, the Dasati managed rifts to Kelewan ... well they're are about to manage some more!

Valko, the Dasati, upon which their prophecy -- not too much emphasis on it, which was great for a prophecy hater like me! -- hangs plays a large part in this novel, but we didn't really see his character develop that much. To be honest, I don't really think it was really very possible. The Dasati while fascinating, and on the road to becoming "normal", have been restrained by millennia of barbaric tradition -- and though the White are different, they still have to fight those murderous impulses. We did, though, see Martuch -- one of my favourite Dasati -- and others show a dry sense of humour which didn't require the spilling of blood.

Miranda is also a much stronger character in this book -- even if she does occasionally mention how much she misses Pug a bit too much -- and while at the end of Into A Dark Realm I was surprised and a little annoyed by how easily she was taken by the enemy ... well, it was just as easy to escape. There's also a new character called Jim who seems to be Jimmy the Hand reborn -- while this is explained, it was still a bit too similar and still a bit too easy for my liking.

I really enjoyed the ending to Wrath. Epic on scale -- beyond anything we've seen, even Magician and the Serpentwar Saga --, very tragic, but still hopeful, and then, with that epilogue -- bitter-sweet, darkly amusing and wrapping up another mystery. With Wrath of a Mad God there was more sense of closure than at the end of any of the other cycles -- there are of course some mysteries left. I'm not to sure whether they will play any part in the next few books, but I found a new race introduced -- the Quor -- to be extremely interesting, and I have a few guesses to what they are -- guesses which will, of course, be wrong! Beyond that it will be interesting to see if there any other travels to the Dasati to give them a helping hand -- and the Tsurani.

I really enjoyed this one, and it is -- with a few flaws -- still one of the best Feist book of late. I stayed up very late for this one. 9/10. Another thing: where are the maps?! Where are the be-damned ... Oh, enough of that. I don't like maps, anyway ;)

This volume wraps up the Darkwar cycle; there is now the two book cycle, Demonwar, then the three book cycle, Chaoswar, and the series is complete.

For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

--Previous review--

Matter

Matter
Iain M. Banks
Orbit Books

593 pages
2008

After finishing Consider Phlebas a few weeks ago, I absolutely had to read another Culture novel... I don't take half measures on this blog (!), so I skipped straight to the front of the series with the recently released Matter, which, at 593 pages, kept me busy for a few days...

It's fortunate then that, although there is an overarching storyline between all the Culture novels, you don't have to have read all of the ones in between -- it's just recommended! Despite that, there are various allusions to the story in Consider Phlebas (which happened hundreds of years ago) and more than a few mentions of how pointless the Idirans stance against the Culture was.

Witnessing the murder of the king at the hand of one of his closest advisers, tyl Loesp, Ferbin is a wanted man. He must flee before tyl Loesp manages to remove all trace of his treachery. The only problem is where to? Ferbin's people are not technologically advanced and his world, Sursamen, is care-takered by alien species far above them ... who do not always have the best cause at heart. Ferbin's only hope [sorry, couldn't resist] lies with Djan, his sister, now an agent with the Culture...

The ruminations on politics and suchlike occasionally went on a bit long, particularly with tyl Loesp, and more than once I skipped portions of his speeches. Generally, though, and from my only other Culture experience -- Consider Phlebas -- Matter was well written, and distinctly funnier -- Oramen, Ferbin's brother was great fun, if a little naive at times, and the dialogue overall was sharper. There was even, to my Mind, something of a Jeeves and Wooster relationship between Ferbin and his (vastly more intelligent) servant, Holse.

While Matter is typically inventive and jam-packed with as many different ideas as any Culture novel, a good portion of the novel takes place upon a world with very limited technology -- think muskets -- and bits of it, with the court intrigue, etc, felt more like fantasy than science-fiction -- even with Sursamen being controlled by highly technologically advanced alien species, they were so far above Ferbin's people, the Sarl, that they might as well have been gods. That wasn't necessarily a criticism, it was just an unusual approach that, for the most part, worked.

After Ferbin and Holse left Sursamen though, in the search of Ferbin's sister, Djan (now a Culture Special Circumstances operative), the pace of the story really picked up, and we begin to see more of the universe -- in which Culture is no longer dominant: there are many more Optimae species, many of which now regard the Culture as interfering.

Someone once said that it's ironic that while science-fiction often takes place many hundreds of years from now, it is always relevant to the time it is written -- Matter is no different. It's mentioned quite often that the Optimae are always spying upon the lesser species -- for their own good, of course -- and the spying, surveillance, always being watched feeling, some would say, is very relevant to today. Banks doesn't hit us over the head with the fact, however, and more often than not it's actually quite funny -- a knife missile disguised a sex toy, for example...

It's a nicely designed book, with cool cover art, but I did find the fact that the appendix was put before the epilogue a little strange! In fact, I completely missed the epilogue until I started writing this review -- but a very good epilogue it is ;) 8.5/10.

For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

--Previous review--

Snake Agent

Snake Agent
Liz Williams
Night Shade Books

375 pages
January 2008

Impressed with my last Night Shade title (the wonderful Wastelands), I moved with typical speed (!) onto Snake Agent, the book that arrived in the same package over a month ago... With my latest forays into the vampire sub-genre of urban fantasy, I thought something that was a little unusual would be perfect...

With the police force of Singapore 3, Inspector Chen specialises in the jobs that half the police force doubt exist, and the other half are terrified of: the supernatural: namely Hell, and, in some cases, Heaven. Snake Agent depicts a a near-future earth -- where interaction between Hell & Heaven is becoming more and more normal (so long as you have a visa, perforce: can't have just anybody wandering in (and out) of Hell!) ;)

Under the protection of his Goddess, Chen is charged with finding a murdered girl, due in Heaven, but who has ended up somewhere with rather less fluffy cherubim and rather more snarling, erm, things. Actually, that's probably unfair of me... something I really enjoyed in Snake Agent was the exploring of stereotypes; when Seneschal Zhu Irzh, a demon, member of Hell's own police force comes into the story, it was great to see his interactions with Chen, and also, later, Irzh's reflections on his own often-hidden flaws -- compassion, mercy, benevolence. Great fun.

I really loved the idea of a beaurocratic oriental Hell -- with the intercenine bickering between the various Ministries of Hell (War, Epidemics, etc, etc), each vying for power and kudos by coming up with the right ways to attack earth -- so long as it wasn't a too costly, time-consuming, form-filling job. And the, ahem, balance between Hell and Heaven was maintained. I also liked that Williams managed to make allusions to the current situations in our world -- with Hell actually coming up with lots of the technological breakthroughs -- that way we can use these advances to damage ourselves: no work required for busy demons. It was cleverly done, and funny too.

In fact, Hell, for all it's Vices, was a really fun place to visit! Williams doesn't by any means glorify the place, but she definitely took a non-stereotypical approach to it.

Towards the end of the novel, it seemed that a character came out of nowhere (well, Hell, actually) merely to help the plot move along, and while the nature of the character was itself a minor mystery, this did slightly disappoint me -- and the character turned out to be what I expected! It seemed that closer to the end of Snake Agent, characters seemed to stumble their way around Hell, meeting just everyone they needed, simultaneously bringing all the plotlines together -- there was a fun depiction of some of Hell's Circles, though. Still, these were small flaws in an otherwise original, very entertaining, interesting book.

The other books in the series are being published in monthly intervals (this one last month, another in February, March and then another in May -- after that, I'm not too sure!). I'll definitely be getting hold of them!

For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

--Previous review--

Already Dead

Already Dead
Charlie Huston
Orbit Books

288 pages
February 2007

After finishing Jennifer Rardin's Once Bitten, Twice Shy, which I really enjoyed, my vampire fix was not yet sated. So I eagerly dug into Already Dead by Charlie Huston...

What a difference between the two books -- Once Bitten, Twice Shy was like finding a baby polar bear on a mountain-slope, thinking, "wow, this is cool", enjoying the time spent with it, thinking "I need more polar bear" ... and then stumbling across its big daddy (Already Dead), who promptly kicks you in the face, chases you, and then tries to ravage you as you ski away screaming...

Which is not to say I didn't enjoy it. (The bear analogy really fails here). Just that Charlie Huston's take on the vampire novel, is grittier, more direct, sharper and more original. But clearly, not as nice.

In Manhattan, clans of those infected with the Vampyre virus fight for control of the island. Only one Vampyre, Joe Pitt, remains clan-less -- he must get his own blood, look out for himself, and, if he wants to survive, not get into anything he can't handle alone... Which is where the best laid plans of voles and Vampyre's go awry...

Joe, like most Vampyres, isn't keen on daylight. But, as with several other key vampire concepts, the reason is biological rather than supernatural ... despite this, Joe's sceptical nature will be tested...

Already Dead is told in first person narrative (Joe's point of view), in present tense, and I enjoyed the fact that, for all the harshnesses of his world (very well depicted, and with some great potential set-ups for the future books in the series), Joe still cared for people -- even if it seemed he didn't want to admit it, and covered it up with swearing and his blunt telling of his tale.

--Zombies don't torture people. They don't torture and they don't interrogate people and they don't set traps. Someone is fucking with me. And my people.

While I enjoyed the way the dialogue was laid out:

-- Like this.

without any speech marks, giving it a snappy, immediate feel, it could be confusing at certain points when you had to take a pause from the story to work out whether it was still normal dialogue or whether it was Joe's own narration. Anything that interrupts reading and drags you back to reality can be a bit annoying.

At 277 pages, Already Dead is a short read, and that, coupled with the dark, witty way in which Charlie Huston writes as Joe Pitt, the snappy dialogue, and, above all, the good story, had me racing through this book. Being trapped indoors during the sunlight hours, I finished it before there was any question of sleep ... but I would have stayed up for it. 8.5/10.

For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

--Previous review--

Stardust: The Movie

Stardust: The Movie



Stardust is based on the novel of the same name by the frankly awesome Neil Gaiman, who's recently had his adaptation of Beowulf in cinemas -- and no, he may be awesome, but he didn't write that one :P

In Victorian-ish England, a boy, in a village called Wall -- where the boundaries between two worlds co-exist -- a boy travels out of his sleepy village into a magical land where ... he gets hit by a fallen star. Ow...

At heart, really, Stardust is a family film. It also has the sharp, funny dialogue that we associate with Gaiman, and Robert De Niro takes a hilarious turn as the "pirate", Captain Shakespeare of an airship ... more into cutting hair and dressing up than cutting people!



It's chock full of fairytale stuff, with evil witches, stars (aka very pretty people who fall to earth occasionally), princes fighting for the control of a kingdom (in very funny scenes of "accidental" stabbings, etc). There's a kind of inevitability to the story -- after all, it is a fairytale -- but Gaiman takes every opportunity to subtly twist the conventions.

Being a fairy tale, there's the love between the two main leads, Tristan (Charlie Cox) and Yvaine, the star (Claire Danes), which is being manipulated by the evil witch, Lamia (You like the name don't you Gaiman! Michelle Pfeiffer) into bringing Yvaine into her grasp... I found myself grinning (and cringing sometimes) for silly, bumbling, Tristan, and that's a very good thing.

There was one scene that slightly disappointed me towards the end (Deus ex Machina...), but, other than that, I really enjoyed Stardust, and I was kind of surprised by that, since it is "family film" all the way through -- but with that special Neil Gaiman touch. Stardust.

Since I'm very slow at getting to watch films (although Sweeney Todd and Cloverfield, I will be seeing soon) Stardust is probably close to (or has) coming out on DVD. Go get it.

The Red Wolf Conspiracy

The Red Wolf Conspiracy
Robert Redick
Gollancz Books

480 pages
February 2008

There has been some talk of comparisons between this novel and Paul Kearney's nautical fantasy series, but, perhaps fortunately for me, this is not really apparent. While I (sort of) enjoyed Kearney's novel, I've never really been that fond of the sub-genre he worked in. The Red Wolf Conspiracy is set aboard a (extremely large!) ship, The Chathrand, but there's not actually that much mention of sails and stuff, even though, in the small details, it's obvious that Redick really researched this aspect well.

In my opinion, The Red Wolf Conspiracy definitely has a more than a flavour of Young Adult novel to it -- not that that matters in and of itself: one of last year's favourite sci-fi/YA reads for me was Peadar O' Guilin's The Inferior -- with a woken (intelligent) rat; a wizard from another world taking form as an animal; the main character, Pazel, being endowed with three powerful spell Words (on top of the previous (very cool) ability to speak every language on the planet. And my favourite of all, the Ixchel, little people (much like brownies just without all that darn magic dust), often called crawlies.

With the exception of the Ixchel, these were all things that I cringed at when I first saw them, but I actually found, as the story picked up, and these elements were wounds together, that I didn't mind much at all. The crazy mixture of a wide array of characters really worked for me, and definitely helped to build a much stronger, and more interesting, world for Redick's story. It was later, when the story slipped into much more conventional trappings, that I was slightly disappointed by the way things turned out.

Unfortunately, with this large ensemble of characters, a number of the main ones were somewhat stereotypical. In fact, it's probably the brilliant unusualness of some of the non-human characters that allowed Robert Redick to flesh them out more -- sadly the human ones, while not entirely one-sided aren't quite as gripping. Pazel, with the intriguing gift for language, possibly an orphan, a "commoner", with his magic. Thrasha, princess, to be married off to the ancient enemies as a peace treaty, who ends up receiving, for a short while at least!, lessons in languages from Pazel, where their friendship and attraction to one another builds...

The internal politics of the ship, and the greater conspiracy, were bits that I actually really enjoyed reading. From the Chathrand's Captain Rose we learn, through the letters he writes every week to his dead parents, his perspective ... and this, and the obvious love for his parents, the fact that he is feared by everyone, but hears strange voices on the air, is most likely mad, etc, etc, made reading from Rose's point of view, one of my favourite parts of the novel.

While I had reservations about certain aspects of the novel, I did actually really enjoy this début. There were moments as the story picked up, and Redick grew more confident, that the dialogue became sharper, and there were, in fact, several laugh out loud moments which I hadn't expected. Ultimately, this début, while certainly weak in places, is not what I'd call flawed, and I will be reading it again. I got a lot of enjoyment out of this novel, and in the end, I have to take that into account.

I look forward to the next in the trilogy, The Rats And The Ruling Sea, and, if Redick builds upon the work he did with this novel, tightens up his main characterisations, that will be one Hell of a novel! As it is, The Red Wolf Conspiracy is a mid-to-high 8/10.

For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

--Previous review--

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Once Bitten, Twice Shy
Jennifer Rardin
Orbit Books

320 pages
October 2007

Noticed something missing on this blog? Well, apart from sanity, you've been craving vampires.... I certainly have, I just hadn't realised. I'd kind of ran away from the urban fantasy sub-genre, but lately, needing a lighter-hearted read, a relaxing alternative to the (fantastic) epic fantasy and sci-fi I've been reading, I've decided to reacquaint myself with the light-o-phobic, blood loving denizens of the night...

Jaz Parks is a operative of the CIA, dealing mainly with supernatural problems, and working side by side with vampires. That is, until, and with good reason, she began to work alone. Now though, her boss has ordered her to work with Vayl, the CIA's top assassin, a vampire -- why then has she been ordered to protect him? 6 months later, and with that question still unanswered, we find Jaz and Vayl on a seemingly simple mission... where, of course, the world is, forgive the pun, at stake.

There aren't really that many twists on the vampire legend -- Vayl hates sunlight, is several hundred years old, and, erm, is still rather fond of blood -- but Rardin makes him a very readable character, particularly with his subtle insecurities and phobias. Also, his ass-kicking, blood-sucking ... wait, that's not original, just very, very cool. Beyond that, though, there are enough mysteries left surrounding Vayl's history that I'll be interested to see whether these are explored further in the second Jaz Parks novel, Another One Bites The Dust.

There was the inevitable "crush on the vampire" bits -- but then, how could anyone resist a tall, dark vampire, with green eyes and strong ... damn, gotta snap out of this -- but it was actually done well, with Jaz, first-person narrator, often laughing at herself, and not taking it too seriously ... Not when there are crazy, plastic-surgeon/criminal mastermind vampires to hurt... And Jaz, a tough, funny character, is very good at that.

Apart from vampires, the plot picked up more supernatural elements with a fanatical cult attempting to bring some crazy, soul-consuming beast into our world. Even if you are a super-baddy, you probably don't want to do that. There are easier or perhaps, better, ways of taking the world over than having some uncontrollable monster consume it...

While it sounds like I'm slightly mocking pretty much everything above, I actually really enjoyed this book, and those parts I mentioned. Once Bitten, Twice Shy, is light-hearted, with just the right dose of humour -- often backed up with plenty of modern references (will they still be relevant in five years time? does it matter?) -- and as a quick, fast-paced read, it is excellent. 8 out of 10.

For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

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