Pile o' Shame

"Everyone’s got one.

That secret pile of novels, so very well regarded by the literary world, sitting in a dark corner of their house, sadly neglected despite assurances by so many others that “you’ve got to read them!” It’s a secret Pile ‘o Shame that haunts readers, always calling out longingly to be conquered but always growing bigger."

So says Aidan at A Dribble of Ink, with his great article, so I thought if might be fun if I had a go at my own Pile o' Shame. Meme time!

Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun


I like his short stories. I like his essays. Hey, from what I've heard, I like him. But no matter how many times I start The Book of the New Sun, it always slips of my radar; improbable things start happening once I begin reading, that I never get very far in. My first, and only, lava lamp exploded last time I reached page 43. The time before that this weird thing happened to February where it ended up with 29 days. Needless to say, I went straight to the nuclear bunker. No room for dense fantasy novels in there.

In all seriousness, I don't think I'll ever read this one. I have just the right amount of Fate against me, and just not the right amount of determination...


Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy


Maybe this one doesn't count, since I have read the first one, and the third one isn't out yet. But, by now, with all the great reviews, and enough gifted book tokens, I should have purchased the second volume of this (Hugo nominated) series.

I can see nothing to stop me. I would order it now, but ... well, I'm typing this. I'll do it tomorrow. A bit like that passport renewal I was meant to ... damn! Oops...




Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series


I realise now, that, for a lot of the hard-core militant fantasy fans that read this blog, with a book in one hand, and a Kalashnikov in the other, I'm straying from "...oh, silly person, he hasn't read so and so..." to "call yourself a book reviewer, boy?!". [Enter gunshots here].

The annoying thing is that I have most of the books in this series! I've read the first two books enough that I knew I really liked the magic system Erikson used. I'm just lazy that way...




Greg Keyes' The Kingdom of Thorn and Bone


The "pile" part of this meme goes a bit metaphorical here.

I've been hearing great things about this series from a number of my favourite bloggers, and I really should get around to reading them, particularly as the last book is due out so soon.

Aidan: "In my opinion, Keyes is the most criminally under-read writer of Epic Fantasy. It baffles me that the guy doesn’t sell numbers of novels similar to Tad Williams and Robin Hobb. Get on it!"

I suspect, and this is really bad of me, that the main reason I haven't gotten hold of it, is because I'm not too sure which publisher published this in the UK. Not (just) for the free-ness of it, but it's a book I'd like to review. Tor UK -- what does that mean?! ;) I'll get a copy soon.




Everything by Guy Gavriel Kay


A lot of people describe Kay as "fantasy's best kept secret". Entranced by the word secret, I bought a few of his books straight away ... and then ignored them forever, occasionally looking at the cover art, going, "hmm", and putting them back on the shelf again.

One day I'll get to them. One day.





That's it from me. What does your Pile o' Shame (think of Irish, book-loving, leprechauns here) look like?

Bloodheir

Brian Ruckley
Bloodheir
Orbit Books

544 pages
June 2008

Brian Ruckley's Winterbirth was one of the most celebrated débuts of 2006, and, incidentally, having won a copy on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, it prompted me to begin "the whole blog thing" in the first place... I ask you not to hold it against Brian! After that, I was delighted to grab one of the last advanced review copies of Bloodheir (consequently, Brian is called Brain on most pages, but I doubt he minds)...

Following from Winterbirth, and the na'kyrim Aeglyss' recovery from his crucifixion on a sacred Kyrinin stone, the disturbance in the Shared is now so large that even we plebbish humans (called the Huanin) can sense it, and, though this could be taken out of context, Ruckley really manages to create an air of inevitable death and destruction. Bloodheir, albeit definitely not the calm, is certainly awaiting the storm. As it becomes clear just how strong Aeglyss is in the Shared now, and with the squabbling and back-stabbing that is rife amongst his enemies, I finished Bloodheir thinking, for the first time in a while, I can't see how the bad guy can lose. This is, of course, how I'm meant to feel, but the danger is now, that with the Godless World series' gritty bent, and magic still largely in the background, short of deus ex machina, which I'm certain Ruckley won't stoop to, I'll be shocked at any other outcome. Excellently done. The only one powerful enough to harm Aeglyss is himself ... but enough of that.

Ruckley introduced a small, but interesting, group of non-human races in Winterbirth. Although, as the blurb says, the Anain are in this book, we see them from accounts of other people, rather than as actual characters which is a shame. In Bloodheir, though, we do learn more about them (whether from the Robin Hobb style entries at the beginning of every chapter or from Aeglyss) and, although they seem to be doing rather badly at restraining the mad na'kyrim, it will be interesting to see whether "the most potent race this world's ever seen" have anything else up their (probably metaphorical) sleeves. The Kyrinin, especially Ess'yr and Varryn, play a part in Bloodheir, but I was a bit disappointed that their characters weren't fleshed out more.

Bloodheir. The strange thing is, I'm not sure just which one that refers to. I suspect it's Orisian, who does a lot of travelling around in Bloodheir, but the High Thane's brutish son, Aewult, gets more page time, too.

After a slow start, Bloodheir quickly picked up speed, and a lot of different threads are starting to move together; it does suffer from some of the problems of a "middle book", and every character seems to be travelling somewhere (this is a world at war), but, nonetheless, Bloodheir is a good read, and Ruckley has definitely built upon the success of Winterbirth to produce a worthy sequel. Best scene? Five words: Highfast; Aeglyss; long distance possession.

There isn't one in the ARC, but I gather there is also going to be an extract from the concluding volume of the trilogy at the back of the book. There's also a rather useful "What Has Gone Before" section at the beginning! And damn those Orbit lying types: the book wasn't written in blood, at all...

For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

--Previous review--

The Gail Z. Martin contest winner is...

Melinda Seckington of the UK! Congratulations!

I'm currently busy writing interview questions, and for once, haven't had much time for reading, but I suggest you look at the cool blogs to my right (and hopefully you're right to, unless you're hanging upside down).

Back soon.

When I do start reading, I'll be moving onto Brian Ruckley's Bloodheir (again -- because I need a re-read!), Mad Kestrel by Misty Massey, the latest Wildcards book, Neil Gaiman's American Gods (hmm...), Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, and more ... after that, we'll see!

Auralia's Colours

Auralia's Colors
Jeffrey Overstreet
Waterbrook Books

352 pages
September 2007

This is a book that got a fair bit of coverage a while back on the blog circuit, and I was lucky enough to win a copy (from Fantasy Book Critic) just after I'd asked for one from the publisher, anyway!

Auralia's Colours was, admittedly, more "Young Adult" than I expected. For some people, YA comes with instant associations of cardboard characters, inevitable plots, and generally weaker, more conventional stories. Sometimes this is true, but, in my opinion, the best YA (and children's) stories should be readable for all ages. This is, fortunately, true of Auralia's Colours.

Twenty years before the story begins, there is the Proclamation of the Colours: The plan being that the poor should give everything of value to the ruling class: all their greatest treasures, family heirlooms, things of colour; it would be taken, thus enhancing the greatness of the House of Abascar, and the people -- when in time, Abascar became again the greatest of the ruling Houses -- would be rewarded based on their contributions. (At this point, I was going to point out that I highly doubt this could be done without a peasants revolt, but a friend pointed out the many historical precedents...). Years later, though, that "contribution" has not been repaid, Abascar is still not the highest of the high, and the peoples' world is a dull, drab world, without colour*.

Until Auralia arrives. She was found as a child in a monster's footprint, and raised by the Gatherers -- people who, well, gather stuff, and live outside of the protection of House Abascar because of various wrongs they've done. They raise her ... and marvel at the gifts she can make, weaving colours -- illegally -- into fabulous designs that bring a little light into everyone's lives, changing them forever. There are those, though, that envy her gift, and others that fear it...

A lot of Auralia's Colours is, however, very conventional: there's a deadly threat from the North (where else?), Kings and Princes, children with mysterious powers, etc, but it was the way it was told that made the difference. There's a lyrical style to Jeffrey Overstreet's writing that worked brilliantly well with this story; I don't think this story could be told without it. There's a poetic nature to a lot of the names and the key focus of the novel -- a world where colour has been hidden away, now feared, by a King who has slowly gone mad with grief.

There's also a fair amount in Auralia's Colours where children play a large role, or if not that, see a lot of things that the adults don't. The Keeper, for instance, a mysterious "fairy tale" type person whom children can find in their dreams, but adults can't, and thus, fear it.

On a pedantic note, I'm not sure whether the sticker putting it as Christian fantasy is really valid, although, with hindsight, there are many allegories to Biblical stories -- 'Joseph and the techni-colour dream coat' is an obvious example, and the tale of Esther ... perhaps even a very alternate version of Moses. I do think though, that a general Young Adult categorisation would have been better.

Auralia's Colours is then, a good book. And on re-read it's better. It's definitely not what I expected, though, and I'm sure it will surprise many readers. Whether that's a plus or a negative, I'm not sure.

--

*For Americans: I should really have spelt it "Auralia's Colors", since the book is American, but, I'm English, so I get away with it, surely?! :) Having forced the dread machine to allow an actual English dictionary to be used, since I am in actual England where actual English ist sprechen, I wasn't going to confuse it by speaking American ;)

For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

--Previous review--

Online SFF Linkfest!

Free books, and authorly essays:

• PS Publishing have made the entire text of Jeff Vandermeer's forthcoming novelette 'The Situation' available in Adobe pdf format over on Wired.com's GeekDad.

• Night Shade have a variety of short stories, novellas and even novels for download in a variety of formats! Andy Duncan’s Nebula-nominated story “Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse”; Garth Nix’s Ditmar-nominated story “Bad Luck, Trouble, Death, and Vampire Sex”; Richard Kadrey’s novel "Butcher Bird". All can be found on the download page, here. I'd suggest going back there fairly often, as the stories available there change quite often.

• Ursula K. LeGuin's short story, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, is available here.

• Kelly Link's short story, The Faery Handbag, is available here.

• Tor Books have an excellent new thing where you can get a free novel online every week! You just need to sign up for their newsletter. This week's novel is Farthing by Jo Walton. Next week’s book will be Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell.

• Theodore Goss' The Rose in Twelve Petals is available here.

• Lynn Viehl has a lot of content she's giving away, here.

• Darren/ D.B. Shan has a lot of stuff related to the writing of his new book, and some deleted chapters, etc, here.

• Neil Gaiman stuff: The first Sandman comic is available here. There are five short stories available free, here. And a number of essays, notes from his writing, etc, can be found on his blog. Oh yeah, you can read the whole of American Gods, the "it's won too many awards to mention" book, here.

SFF Writing Contests:

• Parsec 2008: April 15th Deadline

• Writers of the Future

• The BFSA 50th Anniversary Contest

Hope there's something of interest amongst all these links; I'm now off to attempt a short story ;) By the way, Who Are SF's Visionaries now...?

"Writing Excuses" Podcast

This is actually a really cool podcast by fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson, cartoonist Howard Taylor and horror writer Dan Wells, where they spend fifteen (often quite funny) minutes talking about various writerly things. It's emphasis is on the craft of writing, rather than getting published, and it's excellent.

15-minutes long because you’re in a hurry and we’re not that smart.

Visit the Writing Excuses page here.

Eclipse One

Eclipse One
Ed: Jonathan Strahan
Night Shade Books

256 pages
October 2007

Eclipse is a new science fiction and fantasy anthology series edited by the popular, award-winning anthologist, Jonathan Strahan.

After having read my first anthology, Wastelands, with stories post-apocalypse, I was eager to read some more. I've come to the (admittedly obvious) conclusion that it's a great way to find new authors, and is a good sampling ground.

There are some really good stories in Eclipse One. One thing I did notice, though, is that a lot of the stories in the anthology are quite whimsical and playful. We have the (multiple award nominated) story by Andy Duncan, Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse, with a backward walking chicken that may or may not be the Saviour incarnate, and the priest who is suddenly developing a phobia of everything birdlike...

“Best thing for her,” the bishop said. “Get over this morbid fascination. You, too. Not healthy for a man of the cloth to be combing Scripture for chickens…”

I also really enjoyed Garth Nix’s story. I’d always heard about him through his Young Adult stuff, and Bad Luck, Trouble, Death, And Vampire Sex is definitely one of the more accessible pieces in the anthology -- and very funny, too. Unlike Andy Duncan’s story, Nix’s sets out to be funny right from the word “Granny”, and with a ridiculous, madcap story, that works well.

Then there are stories like Peter S. Beagle's The Last And Only or, Mr. Moscowitz Becomes French which was a strangely disturbing, sad story of an American who suddenly turned French, loving everything that was French, losing his ability to speak English, and ending up disappointed with even France's lack of true French-ness. It was a good story, but perhaps slightly over-long.

I had hoped to like Maureen F. McHugh's story, The Lost Boy, but for some reason it didn't do much for me, although it had an intriguing idea. Generally, though, I really liked nearly all of the stories in Eclipse One. The last one I shall mention is by Ellen Klages, called Mrs. Zeno's Paradox. It was one of the shortest stories in the book, with two women in a café, chatting, and splitting a brownie into smaller and smaller chunks -- until the brownie is the size of the smallest possible particle, and now theoretical. A strange story, but very good!

All in all, this is an excellent anthology. Especially living over in the UK, I don't think we see enough of them, and I'd definitely like more. Solaris Books have taken a few good steps in that direction, however. Eclipse One is a definite must-read, and Night Shade have some good stuff going on, that's for sure.

For more information:

Amazon US

--Previous review--

The Dragons of Eden

Non-SFF Book Pimpage!

A great many people probably know Carl Sagan from his work with NASA, and his ground-breaking TV series, Cosmos, which, for a number of years had the record for the largest audience in America.

But he writes some damn cool science books, too.



I'm currently reading The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, which sounds rather mighty and fine, but is in fact written in Sagan's ever-popular friendly style. This book is very interesting, and in places actually very funny. He writes in a way that not only makes stuff accessible, but he's quite happy to point out some amusing experiments and results. A very funny page dealt with a chimpanzee called Lana, who'd been taught American sign language -- and would frequently -- and with full humour, and intelligence -- create swear words to refer to her "dumb" colleagues.

In fact, that section is perhaps my favourite of the whole book. Sagan is very clearly against the caging of chimpanzees, but expressing his opinions in a way that doesn't bash his views over the head of the hapless reader -- instead he just points out some remarkable facts, and constantly sheds new light on a variety of subjects. I came away from this book pondering many things I hadn't considered before, and this subject -- evolution of human intelligence, rather than just chimpanzees! -- is a particular favourite of mine.

Dr. Sagan also deals with the ancient purpose of sleep -- apart from the idea that the brain organises events from the day before, there are a number of other cool hypothesises for this primarily mammalian function -- and the fact that we don't actually "need" to sleep ... it's just that the primitive mammalian brain evolved to force it's stupid self to sleep, for reptile evasion purposes! Something that is no longer needed, as we've exterminated -- even within the last 1000 years -- any reptile dangerous enough to us, as a species. The Komodo dragon, for instance, survives only because it's stuck on a desert island. And even that has to go to extraordinary -- desperate -- lengths to protect its young from nasty mammals!

The Eden part, it should be pointed out, is not suggesting that Sagan is Creationist. Rather he has, as do I, a great interest in the link between folklore and myths and parables (which I don't think, nowadays that many Christians would object to the Eden story being called), and actual species group "memories" of earlier events. Such as the pervasiveness of dragon myths -- and the innate fear of reptiles that many mammals (including we) show at birth. That's quite remarkable really, since the only other innate fears at birth are falling and darkness. Sagan is also a student of history, and there are a lot of mentions of the arts and literature...

Wow, I can ramble. Just buy the book, OK?! At £3.93, it's ridiculously cheap...

It was, incidentally, the Pulitzer Prize winner for the year it came out, where it spent over half a year on the NY Times Bestseller list. It's been out for a while, so some of the ideas put forward are slightly out of date, but on the whole, Sagan did really well, and was -- and still is -- is one of the best popular science writers. He died of cancer not very long ago, and how cool would it have been to have him release an up-to-date version, or debate climate change. The man rocked.

For more info:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

RIP Arthur C. Clarke

It seems that Arthur C. Clarke, prolific sci-fi writer, has died. News here. I've never read any of his works, but his non-sci-fi stuff, essays and such, are brilliant. He will be missed. He was good friend to a number of awesome people: James Randi, etc; it's time for me to dig out that battered old copy of 2001: Space Odyssey.



He was also the first person to conceive of a geostationary orbit; one in which a satellite orbits the Earth once every 24 hours, giving it a view that always shows the same face of the Earth. This is (mostly) where we put weather and communication satellites today. He was a good guy.

Procession of the Dead

Procession of the Dead
D.B. Shan
Voyager Books

320 pages
March 2008

I'd expected to get a bit of reviewing done yesterday, but then someone informed me that it was in fact St. Patrick's Day, and, rather than celebrating (as everyone, Irish and non-Irish does) with copious amounts of alcohol, I was expected to celebrate my father's birthday instead. Slightly taken aback at this ridiculous tradition, I needed a gritty, dark, urban fantasy to set me back on the straight and narrow...

Procession of the Dead is all of those things. Nearly. D.B. Shan is, of course, the nom de plume of Darren Shan, the hugely successful author of a Young Adult vampire series of the same name. A series I rather enjoyed, I might add! Moving on from that series, and the later Demonata series, Procession of the Dead is Shan's first adult work. And does it show?

That's a very difficult question. This edition being a supposed "directors cut" it certainly moves away from whatever YA elements I was anticipating, and was written well, funny in places, and a captivating read. Procession of the Dead is also a suitably moribund title, and Shan doesn't shy away from killing (lots and lots) of people. The cover, however, does do nothing to dispel ideas that this is aimed at a younger audience, which is a shame.

Procession is very gritty and dark, and although I was slightly disappointed by how late the magic came into the novel -- it had up until that point just been a well-written crime novel --, when it did come, it was surprisingly creepy, and utilised ideas that aren't that commonly used. I particularly enjoyed the links with the Incan people -- each chapter (and some characters) are named after a month in the Incan calendar -- but I would have liked a stronger explanation of why certain things happened.

Capac Raimi (June in the Incan calendar, I believe), the wannabe gangster suddenly employed by The Cardinal -- the most powerful man in the city, with infinite resources, loyalty ... and strange, almost life-like puppets with beating hearts... --, was the main protagonist and we saw everything from his (first-person) point of view. While it was a fun ride with him, and he was a very interesting character, I found some of the things he did at the end of the book a little unexpected. A character of more interest to me, Paucar Waimi -- the probably psychopathic murderer -- was quite entertaining in a disturbing way.

This is a good book, and the characterisation was one of the best bits. Sadly, though, there seemed to be a sudden change in many characters attitudes towards the end of the book, but on the whole, I was surprised by just how good this was. I'll be there for the other two books in the trilogy, though this book was fairly self-contained. There is also a rather cool thought at the end on what it's like to be immortal and un-killable ... while having hold of some weapons of mass destruction...


For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

--Previous review--

SFF TV: Moonlight (US) & Bionic Woman (US/UK)

A recent post by Philip Palmer on the hit show Heroes, got me thinking about a lot of my favourite SFF TV shows -- and the fact that a lot of them are from the States! Of course, we have Doctor Who and Torchwood (the latter of which I've really gotten into in the latest series, cheesy though the titles always are!) and, erm, others, but, especially recently, a lot of the hit shows over here in the UK are imports.

Curiously, though, a lot of UK actors are starting to make it big in US dramas before they make it big over here. That's probably quite a dangerous sign for the UK dramatics, however!



By the way, David Tenant will be staying on for the fifth series of Doctor Who, but this won't be shown until 2010. The upcoming fourth series will go out later this year, and in 2009 there will be three Doctor Who specials, rather than a whole series, as David will be starring in a play called Hamlet written by some unknown playwright :)

There are also rumours of a Time War movie.

Where was I? Imports! Take Bionic Woman, for example. (And bear in mind that this is a bad example since Michelle Ryan, the lead, was quite famous over here as a star of the BBC soap, Eastenders, before slipping off the UK drama radar for a while). This flop US show (I believe), when the first epidode was shown on digital channel ITV2, attracted a record 2 million viewers. That may not mean a lot for US people, where any advert probably gets watched by that many people (!), but that's phenomenal for a digital channel over here. Strangely, I wasn't actually one of the 2 million!



I've lately been engaging in the somewhat nefarious practice of watching TV online, and last night I watched the first 7 episodes (so, I was bored?!) of Moonlight, an urban fantasy series that first aired (and still is airing) on CBS. And I really like it. Mick St. John, a vampire P.I -- hardly unusual? A lot of the set-up is fairly convential with Beth, the intrepid reporter, with a past that's closely linked (not that she realises) with Mick. But it's brilliant. Each episode gets better, and something that I viewed expecting it to be "hot vampire for the girls, chick flick stuff" is quickly becoming one of my favourite series. It could probably do with a bit more background mythology, but there are some interesting twists on the vampire legend -- that I won't spoil!




I also really like the way it jumps around in time, Mick isn't really that old -- but some of his friends are, such as Josef, 400 year old vamp. It's interesting that the past always catches up in some way. It's fun, has quick dialogue, good fight scenes, and good characterisation -- particularly once it starts skipping round in time. This just has to come to UK TV!

I'm off to watch the rest of the series, and after this post, it better not disappoint! ;)

Shadowmage

Shadowmage
Matthew Sprange
Abaddon Books

Shadow Mage. Shadow Mage. SHADOW MAGE. No matter how many different ways I say it, it still sounds remarkably cool. A mage who moves in shadow. That is pretty darn cool. Guild Wars. That's another excellent phrase, also. Giant sea monsters clambering out of the sea to kill pickpockets... Oh.

A lot of the stuff in Shadowmage is fairly conventional (perhaps minus the giant sea monster) -- quite good fun, certainly, but too reminiscent of other series to be truly worthwhile. That's a shame, because it's the first out-and-out fantasy series that Abaddon has got going, and I was hoping that it might be something a bit more exciting, though what we have in this book is good enough in its own right.

Lucious Kane is a Shadowmage. Having fled the city when the new powers moved in, he later returns and joins a Thieves' Guild, just before war breaks out between rival guilds, and blood and sea monsters start flowing in the street. He also meets up with the old Mage guild, now in hiding, only to discover that he's actually remarkably powerful and completely unlike the others...

The sea-monster angle was quite interesting, as it introduced the ancient evil that will be plaguing Kerberos again in the future ... Sorry, did I say interesting?

Yes. Mainly because it actually was interesting. There's a nice set-up for book two in there. This wasn't a half bad book at all, actually. It has some rather cool magic scenes, plenty of blood (in a nice way...), and potential for the rest of the series. It does many of the same things, that many books do better, but I don't think Shadowmage was ever intended to smash down stereotypes. It was aimed at a core readership of sword/sorcery/sea monster/Guild-war book readers, and there it will nicely sit. It's a quick, fun read, one that can be read in a day, then forgotten about, and it serves as a nice rest between longer works. I'll be back for book two, and that's what counts.

I never seem to go on trains, but if I did, I'd read it on one quite happily. Well ... I'd probably get stabbed by a Devonshire thug -- they do exist -- with that "so obvious it's fantasy" cover, but if I hid it behind New Scientist ... No, that wouldn't work, either. It's too expensive.

This is why I never go on trains.

For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

--Previous review--

On Magic...

Someone asked to write an article on fantasy writers and which ones use magic best, a while ago. This is article is very mildly related to the one I should have written! 'Cause of WiFi problems, now sorted, it's been stewing on my laptop for a few days now, but hopefully it does what that person asks, and isn't too meandering, or dull. And bedamn it: if I have to hit the spacebar any harder to get a space, there won't be a keyboard left...

The move lately in fantasy seems to be towards grittier, darker works, with a lesser importance placed on magic. Take Brian Ruckley’s Godless World trilogy for example. Sure, magic users, the na’kyrim exist. [The na’kyrim are, incidentally, the offspring of a Huanin (a human) and a Kyrinin (essentially, elves). Neither race can do magic, but their progeny -- who cannot reproduce -- can. This is similar to Katherine Kurtz’ Deryni series, another recommended read.] The na’kyrim are dying out though, and a lot of modern fantasies have magic seen as a thing of the past -- of course, when a character who can do magic goes crazy, no one is prepared! The same goes with George R.R. Martin’s excellent A Song of Ice & Fire series, though there’s dragons in that, so an exclamation mark is obviously required!

Some fantasies often include what I like to call magic by proxy -- which is probably a misnomer! -- where in whatever past the fictional world has, it was once populated by beings -- be they gods, elves, etc -- who did vast, mind-bogglingly powerful amounts of magic, and then somehow managed to die out/get lost/move away for some other impenetrable reason, leaving miraculous things behind -- things which bring powerful, kick-ass magic to a story where normal magic has declined. In Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, all sorts of nasty things are left behind! And some good things, too. The Trollocs -- OK, so maybe this isn’t a great example; after all, once these nasty guys were created they didn’t really do any magic or anything magical, they’re just gruesome human animal hybrids -- and, ipso facto -- very cool! But, ordinary though they are, they are a left-over from a previous age, something that cannot be created by the standards of the day when we begin the story. These types of creatures are perhaps bit of a cheat, something which, by the necessary rules the author has imposed over their world, can’t exist at the time of the story -- so it’s necessary that they’ve hung around from whatever Golden Age/Monumental Disaster occurred. That doesn’t necessarily diminish their awesome! factor, though =]

=== Incidentally, I think the “Golden Age left in the past, followed by immense disaster, with primitives trying to regain their former glory” thing definitely has overtones of Eden and Genesis, but that‘s a whole different discussion. And probably quite a fun one, too, so long as it’s done right. Religion plays a large part in fantasy, whether actual gods start appearing, or whether it’s just the religious mythology that influences the writing. **I say that as an atheist. (I‘ve had emails about this kind of thing, you know.) ** ===

A much better example of something magical left behind in the WoT world is the Myrdraal. When the story begins in the Third Age (I’ll try not to go too fan boy here!) the capabilities no longer exist to create something like this, and the Myrdraal are dangerous, puissant creatures, able to travel vast distances simply by stepping into shadow, and are somehow out of sync with the rest of the world -- which is why their cloaks flap all the time, even when it’s not windy, or is it the complete opposite?!

Of course, the Wheel of Time is an excellent example of the fact that at some point, Arthur C. Clarke’s famous observation that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” comes into play. (Which wasn’t famous to me until the wonderful Philip Palmer made it so. See left, for some shameless pimping.) The Myrdraal, as with a vast number of other fell dark denizens of the night were created in that long-lost Golden Age by science. Magic was around too, a lot of people were capable of it, and vast wonders were achieved, but the creation of the human/animal hybrid monsters was done by a micro-biologist! (Of course, such a thing no longer exists when the main story of the WoT starts!) As with most of the Forsaken, he’d had a fairly ordinary, respectable job, then turned out to be insanely evil. That’s life.

=== Another “incidentally“. There’s nothing not to trust about modern scientific advancements with the splicing (probably not the technical term!) of human cells with tiny amounts of animal DNA. Trollocs aren’t going to swarm up your garden path. And people aren’t going to turn into them, either; it’s almost the same scenes as when Jenner tried (and thankfully succeeded) to introduce his inoculation against smallpox by using bits of the cowpox virus -- nobody turned into cows. And small pox went away, too …. almost as if by magic! ;) ===

There’s also the question of how much can be done with magic, and why. In Steven Erikson’s epic Malazan series, magic can be phenomenally powerful, allowing unimaginable world-changing events. This results in scenes that are often too awesome! to express. I do like some rules, however, some order. For example, in The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss’ use of Sympathy, the relationship between two or more things (which is what the bloody word means in the first place, so why explain it, Swede…), was particularly cool, and introduced a quite scientific aspect to the ordering of magic, etc, even if it still allowed Angels, and other things to exist.

I’m not that keen on dead people coming back to life, either (unless it’s to consume the flesh of the living, in which case it’s fine), and even when Garion brought back that cute horse baby thing -- foal! -- in David Eddings' Belgariad (one of my guilty pleasures), I was hoping that the monumental power required to bring the foal back to life might result in the roof of the cave crashing in and crushing it, as a cool divine sign that dead people/fantasy horses must stay dead!*

*Don’t judge me. I meant no offence to the stupid animal.

Win A Copy Of "The Execution Channel"...

Sorry for my lack of content lately, hopefully this will be some recompense...

Thanks to the good people at Orbit, I have one copy of Ken MacLeod's (recently Arthur C. Clarke Award nominated) The Execution Channel, which I enjoyed recently.

The rules:

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

• No multiple entries.

• Open worldwide.

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

• Make sure your email contains your full mailing address (snail mail!).

Good luck!

Win The First Two Books in "The Chronicles of the Necromancer" by Gail Z. Martin!

When I reviewed The Summoner the other day, I remarked that a lot of it was generic stuff, but that I had such fun reading it, regardless... well, thanks to the nice people at Solaris Books I have one set of Gail Z. Martin books to give away!

They comprise of The Summoner, and it's sequel, Blood King!

The rules are the same as ever:

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

• No multiple entries

• Open worldwide

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

• Make sure your email contains your full mailing address (snail mail!) -- if it doesn't I won't be able to (find you to) kill you, but I'd definitely like too :)
  

News & A Thought On Urban Fantasy ...

Shout out for Damon :)

The 2007 Fantasy Book Tournament over at FantasyBookSpot has begun! The tournament aspect is something I haven't seen anywhere else (but I haven't looked hard!), and it's a really good idea -- pair up two books to go against each other, and...
Each match-up will have its own dedicated thread. Voting is simple. All you have to do is:

1) Name your pick
2) Tell us why
3) Defend your choice to the death if need be. (Poke them with the soft cushions if you have to, just make sure that all the stuffing is in the point.)

You only get one vote but can continue to post on the thread to debate your selection or convince someone to change their mind.

---

"This week, 11 of the Top 20 Fantasy best-sellers in the US are urban fantasy titles, including the Top 3. Most people are aware of the growth of urban fantasy over recent years, but I wonder how many are aware of the degree to which it now dominates the fantasy best-seller lists? This week’s chart shouldn’t be a surprise, either. Looking back over the fantasy best-seller charts of recent years, there’s a clear trend:

2004: 1 urban fantasy title in the Top 20.
2005: 4 urban fantasy titles.
2006: 5 urban fantasy titles.
2007: 7 urban fantasy titles.

Without any doubt, urban fantasy has changed the face of SF and Fantasy publishing in the US over recent years and there’s no sign that it won’t continue to do so." That, via the Orbit blog.

Interesting news. I do like urban fantasy, but I can't help feeling a sniff of sorrow for the large sprawling, often confusing, annoyingly delayed Proper Meaty Fantasy :)

I also can't help wondering what will happen for me after Robert Jordan (with Brandon Sanderson) delivers the last Wheel of Time book. Still got George R. R. Martin of course, and a great many excellent writers, but has long-series fantasy seen it's day?

The Summoner

The Summoner
Gail. Z. Martin
Solaris Books

637 pages
February 2007

The Summoner is a fun, fast read -- even at 637 pages -- with it's fair share of flaws. It's bursting with stereotypes, and reminiscent of quite a few other fantasies.

Harking back to some of the stereotypes of the fantasy genre, the good guys are all seriously attractive -- and the bad guy so unnervingly attractive (in an icy cold way) that he must be evil. There's an evil despot prince, Jared, him of the evil beauty -- brother to the hero Tris -- who had a powerful magical advisor who soon sees to it that the king is bumped off ... and is, what else, trying to summon a vastly malignant evil, The Obsidian King, back into the world, because yes, that's a good idea.

The Summoner, while not treading new ground per se, does integrate a few cool ideas. One of which is the vayash moru, essentially: vampires. I've always been a fan of those guys, but with so much stereotypical urban fantasy around, I've often thought how good it would be to have them show up in a fantasy novel. There's nothing fantastically new done with them as characters but 'twas good nonetheless. Another thing is the necromancer aspect of The Summoner, and here it does do something I haven't read that often before. Why do necromancers have to be evil just because they communicate with the dead? Well, they don't. Our hero, Tris, is one of these guys -- in fact, he is the only one at present, following the death of his grandmother, an extremely powerful Summoner herself.

Reading so many books, one after another, it's only the really memorable characters that will stay fresh in my mind -- barring another re-read -- and those, of course, tend to be the most developed, and interesting. In The Summoner, Tris was one of those, as was Kiara -- princess of another nation -- and despite the put-the-book-down-in-shock surprising fact that they inevitably fall for one another, they were to the large part good characters to read. Not that fleshed out, but better than the rest. Vahanian, even if he was the atypical Lan ... erm, soldiery type, was fun to read, too, and as the novel progressed, he definitely got more interesting.

While there is a fair bit that can be poked fun at in The Summoner, it was a very fun read, and those nigh on 700 pages flew by. It's not redefining the genre, and with the promise it showed with some of it's better ideas, it is slightly disappointing, but I did immediately -- even if it was a quick, guilty fix -- get stuck into book two, which has to say something. It's the kind of thing I'd give to someone who doesn't read fantasy that often and isn't quite so weary of the stereotypes as we might be. There was a lot of enthusiasm in The Summoner; Ms. Martin is clearly in love with her genre, which is more than can be said of some writers. Plus, I love the artwork, and on a purely aesthetic point, that counts for something!


For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

--Previous review--

ALT.FICTION LINE-UP IS CONFIRMED

ALT.FICTION LINE-UP IS CONFIRMED:



The line-up for this year's Derby, UK-based sci-fi and fantasy fiction event, Alt.Fiction, has been confirmed.

Alt:Fiction 2008 takes place on 26 April 2008 at Derby Assembly Rooms, and features readings, workshops and panels with some of the UK's leading talent in science-fiction, fantasy and horror writing.

This year's line-up includes authors such as Stephen Hunt, Brian Lumley, Michael Marshall Smith, Mike Carey, Charlie Stross, Graham Joyce, Ramsey Campbell, Justina Robson and many more. Which is a bummer, really, as I won't be there!

Tickets for the day cost £20, or £16 concessions and can be booked from the Assembly Rooms Box Office on 01332 255800. Doors open at 11am for a 12pm start, with a 9pm close.

Anyone wanting further details can contact Alex Davis on 01332 715434, minicom 01332 256666, or at alex.davis@derby.gov.uk. Or they can visit the Alt.Fiction blog at http://altfictionday.blogspot.com

Sharp Teeth winner

The lucky winner of Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow was:

Mr M. Adam, Sheep the Evicted on Westeros, and other forums.

Congratulations!

The Charon Covenant

The Charon Covenant
Brenda Munday Gifford
Publish America

First off, I'd like very much to thank the author for being kind enough to send me a copy of her book. Sadly, I didn't enjoy it. I wasn't going to review it, but with it being a Publish America book -- a vanity press -- you have to pay them to publish your book ... the least I can do is review it.

I'm normally fairly OK with typos, but when they are so constant that if interrupts your reading, it becomes really annoying. When the meaning of the word is changed by this typo, and you don't realise it's a typo for half a page (during which time you are wondering, e.g., how someone can possibly shag under the weight of something) it's time to put the book down.

The dialogue was stilted (and unintentionally funny), the characterisations typical. Were it a fantasy novel, it would have been chock full of caves "hewn from the living rock", and very ugly -- therefore, immensely evil -- people. The Charon Covenant certainly has it's fair share of cliché's... Like the alien race helping to save the people of the Moon by use of ESP communication through a woman without any access to weapons, intelligence, vehicles, etc, but who they, in their mighty wisdom, choose to save humanity. (OK, so maybe this isn't so common?!) I did get to the end, though. It was difficult however, what with the change of scene every paragraph, and ultimately unrewarding.

On the plus side, the real Charon doesn't get enough space:


(That's it being viewed from Pluto.)

Again, thanks to the author; I feel almost guilty for not liking the book someone spent the trouble sending to me, and I wish her every success at anything in the future. 2/10.

--Previous review--

Bacteria Causes Snow...

Yah, I knew that... Very cool article in the science magazine, Nature, about this. Is that why people get ill when it snows, all them bacteria flying around? No. At least, I think not. But it's still cool.


My shiny new laptop arrived today -- yes you, the one person I haven't told! -- so I should be bringing you a veritable, um, kaleidoscope of content very soon!

Some of which will involve author interrogations, "author threatening so they let us have free books to give away", and other stuff, too :)

The Execution Channel

The Execution Channel
Ken MacLeod
Orbit Books

320 pages
April 2007

The Execution Channel is set in an alternate near future ... one where terrorism and the war against it can often mean the same thing. In the fight against terror, certain civil liberties have been lost, and states sponsor conspiracy theories ... with devastating results.

It wasn't until I was a little way through the book that I actually realised it was an alternate future. It was interesting to see that with a small change things could be completely different, but often, with a big change things stayed the same. Take Al Gore as President of the USA for example -- in The Execution Channel it was his attacking of Arab soil that led to 9/11 ... except it wasn't the Twin Towers ... and people were wishing that George Bush had become President, after all he'd had known from his father's mistakes not to attack the East, and it's inconceivable that 9/11 would have happened just out of the blue...

While those are slightly morbid musings, it was a good comment on the inevitability of certain things, but also a warning that instead of just hoping things will be different, we should try to make them different. Of course, it was also a political comment ... and there are lots of warnings in The Execution Channel, e.g. over the loss of certain human rights, and how paranoia can set special relationships into hostile beginnings of another world war.

The Execution Channel wasn't a dry rant on politics and social climates, though, even if MacLeod's anger at the injustice at what's going on presently and what will happen is clearly palpable. Far from it.

Travis, a British citizen, angry at the special relationship with the US, works under cover for the French secret service. But when something goes nuclear up in a Scottish army base -- where his daughter, Roisin, a peace protester trained in espionage by her father, just happens to be -- his cover is blown, and worse, the authorities are after her, too. She will have to flee, while around the UK, chaos ensues, as it seems that not only Al-Qaeda, but European countries, are launching their own plans, and making their own assumptions. With countries, former allies, biting at each others throats -- their own operations often ending up looking like terrorist attacks -- Roisin, Travis, Mark Dark -- the runner of a conspiracy website -- and a group of unlikely -- and too few -- allies will have to do their best to avert Armageddon.

While I thought that MacLeod managed to very convincingly create a paranoid, terrified atmosphere, and the story raced along at breakneck speed, with plenty of twists and turns, dark humour and clever comment, the ending did slightly let me down. It had been building up for such a while, all the threads in place, that when it actually happened, the explanation -- while otherwise very cool -- seemed a little out of place. It could perhaps be that my grasp of science wasn't quite up to touch, and I didn't realise the full implications of what so and so meant.

There isn't that much science in The Execution Channel, though. Just a bit, and those bits are explained fairly well. Even if Faster Than Light travel does pop up occasionally...

I really enjoyed The Execution Channel; it was clever, very subtle and absolutely riveting. Taking my minor disappointment with the ending into account, 8.5/10.

For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

--Previous review--