Quick reminder: Cover of the Month, Feb '07
Today's the last day for nominating the best book covers you've seen this month for the Genre Files Feb '07 Cover of the Month accolade. Full blurb, guidelines etc. here.
And many thanks to everyone who's sent in their suggestions already. I'll look those over and try to get the first voting form sorted out tomorrow, but it might have to happen after the weekend, schedule allowing etc.
Recommended Manga Reading: Buddha and Basilisk
I don't really read a whole lot of manga. I think it's just too great a culture gap for me to bridge; I have no interest in the teenage-audience targeted section of the market, which does seem to account for a large proportion of the material currently on offer, in the UK at least, and even the fantasy-themed stories seem just a bit too impenetrable.
Every so often Sarah Ash, who is a really big manga-fan, drops me a line to let me know which of the series currently in distribution are less... um... fixated on the pre-pubescent... and as a result, there are two series that I have actually been tempted to try, and I've enjoyed them both, in their own way (so maybe there's hope for me yet).
Buddha by Osama Tezuka
The eight volume Buddha series is, in essence, a re-telling of the entire life story of the holy man himself, from birth to death. Born a Prince of a small kingdom of the Indian sub-continent some time around the 5th century BCE, history tells us that Siddhartha turned his back on his royal heritage and became an itinerant monk, later achieving Enlightenment (Buddha means 'enlightened') and going on to bring his teachings of peaceful co-existence with all nature to a sect that eventually spread his words throughout the world. It's educational, interesting, based on stories that are over 2,500 years old that lie at the heart of one of the most widely respected and admired religions in the world.
Frankly, it's quite mad. In places it reads like a cross between Asterix and a Pokémon cartoon; all 'pow', 'blam' and 'AAARGH!' one minute, and a National Geographic documentary; complete with lessons on the ancient history and culture of the Indian sub-continent, the next.
If I remember the details aright, the series was originally written in the '60s, but it has been re-translated and brought bang up to date with a whole series of contextually rather bizarre cultural references. Which means that halfway through a particular chapter in the 2,500 year old life story of the Enlightened One, one of the minor characters might accuse another of watching too many sci-fi movies, or of eating too many burgers, or there's the bit where one peasant working in the fields pulls out a transistor radio and another one turns to them and calls him an "anachronist"... you get the idea, I'm sure; it's all very odd.
But oddly compelling at the same time. I had no trouble reading through all eight volumes, even if they did start to get a bit repetitive towards the sixth or seventh installment. So if you do fancy something a bit different - and definitely educational; I now know a lot more about the story of the Buddha than I did before I started - then it's worth giving this one a go. UK editions are distributed by HarperCollins and all eight are available from Amazon.co.uk and all good bookstores, etc.
Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls by Masaki Segawa (trans. David Ury)
Ninjas! What's more: Ninjas with superpowers! Yeah, that's more like it, eh?
In Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls, two clans of ninja warriors go to war on the orders of the Shogun of Japan; the winning clan will decide which of two potential heirs gets to be the next Shogun, and so everything is at stake. Both clans - the Iga and the Kouga - have recently been forced into a truce, but this war offers the opportunity to resume four hundred years of hostilities, and so of course they go at it with a will.
The plot is fairly straightforward; ten Ninjas on either side, each with a particular special ability ('Ninja Technique') ranging from the ability to recover from any wound, to the ability to rob another Ninja of their power by gazing into their eyes, or even to force them to turn their own power upon themselves...
It's generally a cracking read, and so far (vols. #1 - #4) I only have one or two niggles: the first is that it's all just a bit predictable in places - for instance, at the start of the story the heirs-apparent to each clan are in love and due to marry; guess which two are going to be standing at the end for the final confrontation? And volume four was very slow. Mind you, the author had already killed off seven Ninjas on either side by that point; maybe he was worried he was going to run out before he filled his page-quota?
And a quick caveat emptor: it is a bit heavy on the gratuitous titillation in places, too. The (<ahem> quite well-endowed) lady Ninjas have a habit of losing most of their clothes; one instance involves a lady Ninja being captured, tied to a post and half-stripped (the whole Japanese cultural predilection for bondage thing there, obviously). So it's lucky for her that her Ninja Technique involves the use of flesh-contact... I won't spoil the effect, but suffice to say she doesn't turn out to be quite as helpless as you might have thought.
I'll leave you to decide for yourself whether the t&a element is generally a good thing or not; the cover of Basilisk does point that the series is suggested for mature readers, so just bear it in mind if you're thinking of picking this one up for your kids...
Again though, it's a series that's well worth checking out if you're tempted to try something manga, but the idea of catching up on the ins and outs of the Japanese teenage dating scene doesn't really float your boat. UK editions are being distributed and US import Del Rey editions are generally available as well.
Blogwatch: Dr Whisky
My mention of good malt whisky in my last post put me in mind of a link I was sent the other week. My Belfast-based pal Ed Ashby - as part of his quite blatant and deliberately evil scheme to give me far more good stuff to read than I could possibly have time for - sent me a link to the blog of a certain Dr Whisky.
This chap - a stout fellow by the name of Sam Simmons - has made it his mission, since the turn of the year, to sample every single one of the bottles in his quite considerably well-stocked liquor cabinet and then report back with tasting notes, thoughts, musings and recommendations for further research, should his audience feel the urge (and who wouldn't..?)
As I type this, he's up to week #8 and bottle #40, with another fortnight's worth to go (apparently someone at the Royal Mile Whisky shop in Edinburgh - well worth a visit, take it from me - spotted his blog and started sending him sample bottles to write about). Ten weeks of drinking whisky twice a day, every weekday, and all to keep his blog readers updated, informed and never more than semi-sober? Now that's what I call dedication to duty! (It's a dirty job, etc.)
But seriously, his tasting notes are well thought-out and readable, without being too heavy on the purple prose descriptions. Furthermore, the good Doctor is also providing a potted history of each single malt or blend he samples, and on the weekends is providing longer essay-style pieces about the history of the whisky industry in Scotland and other relevant topics. Plus he has a good selection of links out to fellow whisky bloggers, whisky shops and whisky lore and know-how.
And he said nice things about the Bunnahabhain 12 y.o. (pictured above-right), which is my personal favourite drinking whisky (as opposed to sipping whisky or slurping whisky, and definitely as opposed to mixing whisky).
Top blogging!
New Arrival - The Steep Approach to Garbadale
Had a busy couple of weeks on the arrivals front - evidenced by the five hours I spent yesterday putting together the latest Books Received item for UKSFBN - and one item in particular was a real stand-out for me:
The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks
Right then, laddie! Straight to the top of the 'to be read' pile for you... Iain Banks's latest non-sf novel; this time it's about the lives, loves, machinations and manipulations of a family that invents and makes millions from selling a best-selling board/computer game called Empire!.
Let's face it, it's got to be a winner for anyone who has spent as much time as I have staring at a strategy-game-filled monitor; especially as I know - from various things I've both heard in person and read at a later date - that it's not just a love of good malt whisky that I can claim to have in common with the esteemed Mr Banks; it turns out that we're both (hopefully recovering) Civilization addicts as well...
I first had my suspicions when I read about the world-spanning empire-building game that Banks's main character played in Complicity, although I don't think that was called Empire! at the time... Anyhow, I do remember confronting Mr Banks (gently, mind) after a signing session back in my W'Stone's Deansgate days. "Do you play Civ?" I enquired. "No, no, no, no..." he replied, with much head-shaking. But I did rather suspect at the time that the shaggy-bearded one was perhaps protesting just a tad too much, and merely wanted to avoid the inevitable attempt at geek-conversation to follow...
And indeed, my suspicions were confirmed when, at a publisher-funded curry night during Eastercon up in Glasgow a few years later (but still a few years ago), Mr Banks and I actually had that conversation and he admitted that yes, he was partial to a bit of Civ from time to time... although by that time the game was up to version 2 or 3, I forget which. But he did confess, and we chatted, and it wasn't too geeky, honest...
Next thing I hear, the publicity-line for the new book is that for the first time in his career he actually delivered a manuscript horribly late, because he lost a whole three months playing Civ IV and eventually had to wipe the game - and all those pesky save-files - from his machine if he was ever going to get any work done at all, ever. But hey, we've all been there, right? (At this point Jo usually rolls her eyes and adopts the look of the long-suffering Civ-widow...)
So, anyhow, yes. This one will definitely be next, just as soon as I've finished conquering the Mongols reading Richard Morgan's Black Man.
Honourable mentions also for proofs of the new Ian McDonald and Justina Robson novels... if only there was another 12 or 13 hours in the day...
300
Quick follow-up to the previous post, and the good news is it looks like I've got a week less to wait than I thought... 300 will be on general release in the UK on the 22nd of March. Joe Gordon's ever-informative FPI blog points the way to Warner Bros' UK 300 website. Trailers, posters, all sorts of multi-media goodness.
I've read a few comments elsewhere about 300's likely lack of plot, character development and so forth. I've read accusations of its ahistorical bias towards a modernised view of the concepts of democracy and freedom, and its glossing over of the historical Sparta's attitude towards slavery, the role of the female in society and the importance of homosexuality in the warrior classes as a means of forging stronger emotional links on the battlefield.
Well, I hear all that, but it doesn't make me want to see the movie any less. If I want to learn about the historical Sparta - and after seeing the film there's every chance that I will - then I'll read a history book. But 300 is a fantasy; a work of fiction. I want to see one thing from this movie, and one thing only: spectacle. It just has to be magnificent. And if it is, then for me that will make it a complete success...
At the Movies: Hot Fuzz
Went to the cinema last Friday for the first time in about 18 months. Saw Hot Fuzz, the smash-hit Brit comedy starring two funnymen I've always got time for: Simon Pegg (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Run, Fat Boy, Run and more) and Nick Frost (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hyperdrive et. al.) plus a vast range of cameo appearances by just about anybody who's anybody in British comedy acting.
Anyhow, great movie. A quite wonderful send-up of every cliché-ridden Hollywood buddy-cop blockbuster under the sun, but set in a sleepy Gloucestershire village (turns out it looked familiar for a reason: it was filmed in Wells, which isn't so far from where my Gran used to live, so I must have visited a fair few times as a lad).
Won't spoil the plot, or pre-empt any of the punchlines for you... you should just go see it. But don't bother buying the bucket of fizzy pop on the way in: you'll be in too much danger of snorting the stuff down your nose to be able to drink it.
And now that Jo and I have tentativley re-established the cinema-going habit, we might be tempted to check out a couple of new releases that my Odeon Cinemail tells me are out this week: The Good Shepherd looks like it might have potential, but is probably more likely to be Sky+ fodder for next year. The number 23 looks a bit more interesting. And the movie I really want to see on opening night, 300, isn't on general release until March 28th. But that one's a definite.
New client website goes live: www.JayAmory.com
Another new client website went live yesterday: a simple (but hopefully effective) initial page for young adult fantasy writer Jay Amory, at www.jayamory.com.
In effect it's a holding page for now - Jay is hard at work on his next book and so doesn't have the time just at the moment for generating additional content for a full site. So this initial page presents a section of information on his first two books, links to Amazon.co.uk for anyone who would like more information on availability and ordering, an email address for fans that would like to get in touch, and an email list sign-up form for folks to register for further updates as they occur.
Do let me know what you think... bearing in mind that minimalism and simplicity were the client's watch-words, is there anything else that ought to be on the page that isn't there? Or does it do the job it sets out to do?
Recommended Reading: The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction
The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, the debut release from Games Workshop's Solaris Books imprint, is a very good collection indeed: a good selection of varied and (on the whole) interesting stories, themes and tropes. The anthology also acts as a showcase for some of the best British authors currently writing in the field, with the honourable inclusion of one or two overseas guests to provide a shot of alternative flavour.
Personal highlights included James Lovegrove's wittily amusing 'The Bowlder Strain', Paul Di Filippo's 'Personal Jesus' - an eye-opening tale of techno-spirituality for the Apple age - the exotic and colourful 'Bioship' by Neal Asher, the vividly visceral 'The Wedding Party' by Simon Ings and Eric Brown's 'Last Party', which rounded things off quite nicely, and had me pining for a proper local pub to call my own. But my absolute favourite was Stephen Baxter's powerfully cathartic end of the world offering, 'Last Contact', which stayed with me long after I'd finished the rest of the anthology.
There was a couple of flat notes - based purely on my own subjective opinion etc. - as you'd expect from so wide and varied a selection of work, including what I couldn't help feeling was a rather indulgently self-referential piece, 'Jellyfish' from Mike Resnick and David Gerrold. Another one was Brian Aldiss' 'Four Ladies of the Apocalypse' snippet. I'm probably showing my ignorance here, and I fully expect that those better-read than me will look down their noses with utter disdain for my having the temerity to say so, but I really didn't get much out of it apart from a density-induced headache.
Definitely worth tracking this antho down if you'd like to sample a good selection of current writing, and I do hope that it goes on to become a regular feature of the Solaris list, preferably with companion Fantasy and Horror volumes to match: it's not like the market isn't big enough. It was published on Feb 5th so should be available right now from all good bookstores, Amazon.co.uk etc.
Happy Birthday to the missus! Happy Birthday to yoooooo!
It's Jo's birthday today. Her tumty-tumth. What? Like I'd ever be so ungentlemanly as to reveal a lady's age! Although I must confess I do take a quiet satisfaction in knowing (and occasionally reminding my beloved) that she's three short - but quite definite - weeks older than me... ;)
Anyhow, we're off out tonight for a food-based celebration of the event, and tomorrow night for a movie-based follow-up, so do excuse me if I don't get a chance to blog much again until the weekend...
And do feel free to join me in a rousing chorus:
"Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday..!"
The Altered Images version, obviously...
New Arrivals / Recommended Reading - late Jan '07
No fewer than four must-read new titles came in at the back end of last month, which threatened to throw my to-be-read list into fresh disarray. As it happens though, I've already finished one of 'em(The Intruders - highly recommended!) and started another. Hmmm. So, perhaps not so much 'disarray' as 'temporary abeyance'...
The Intruders by Michael Marshall
Michael Marshall (Smith) fans are going to love this one. It's a classic MM(S) tale: the protagonist, Jack Whalen, is basically an ordinary guy with a background in taking care of himself - in this case he's an ex L.A. cop - who finds himself flung into having to deal with an extraordinary situation, and with little idea of how big a situation he's landed in, or how deep the trouble goes.
In this case events are triggered by the disappearance of his wife, Amy, with whom he's very much in love, and the re-appearance of an old high school acquaintance, Gary Fisher; the golden jock who went off the rails following a suicide by a secret admirer and has since wound up practising law, and who is now dealing with a rather odd-feeling last will and testament.
But of course, nothing is ever quite as it seems in an MM(S) novel, and The Intruders is no exception. I'll say no more, to avoid spoilerage - although speaking of which, if you're planning on reading The Intruders, then do not read the blurb on the back of the book as it contains a moderate spoiler that could damage the narrative tension of a particular segment - but suffice to say it's full of all the MM(S) hallmarks: rich prose, great characterisation and an absolutely wonderful observational eye. No other writer I've encountered to-date is quite as good at summing up the intricacies of human relationships in so few words. And dammit, he writes a damn good shoot-out as well...
Black Man by Richard Morgan
And, having finished a contemporary conspiracy-plot thriller, I've launched myself straight into a high-tech, futuristic techno-thriller by another of my very favourite authors: Richard Morgan. Black Man is, as far as I can ascertain so far, set in the same milieu as Morgan's earlier Takeshi Kovacs novels, although I think it might be set in a much earlier time-frame; I'd have to check back with the earlier books to find out for sure.
I'm only a few chapters in so far, but already the book has the classic Morgan hallmarks; special agents running more or less amok, hard-pressed police detectives having to deal with far out-of-the-ordinary cases (in this case a downed spacecraft that crashes in the Pacific Ocean en-route from Mars) and a dark, gritty atmosphere that you can taste in the back of your mouth.
I'm looking forward to losing myself in this one over the next couple of weeks and I'll let you know how I get on, of course...
Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay
For years now, I haven't met a Guy Gavriel Kay novel that I haven't instantly liked; well, not since his debut trilogy outing, The Fionavar Trilogy, which frankly I wasn't too keen on at all (the author and I have exchanged emails on the subject at some point, and apparently I'm not alone in the hate/love thing... although he did explain that there's a fair bit more to the series than I first read into it... but I was only 17 or so at the time, so we can blame the callowness of youth...)
Anyhow, Ysabel is a rare outing for Kay, in that it's set in a contemporary environment, albeit one in which the mythical past seems to be magically impinging. In his last few novels he's established an alternative version of our own world's Iron Age and Medieval histories and has written about various time periods within this new timeline. I'm intrigued to find out whether this new novel represents a blurring of the boundaries between our own world and this alternate universe, or whether the 'contemporary' setting of Ysabel actually turns out to be the modern-day equivalent in that world all along... if you follow me.
I'll be reading this one before too long, I expect, so again, I'll report back as and when.
The Terror by Dan Simmons
Now, this one looked highly intriguing when it turned up, but I have to confess to being somewhat worried by the daunting 784 page-count. Plus, whilst I enjoyed the artistry of Ilium - Simmons' re-mix of The Iliad - I probably didn't get as much out of it as I should have, given the rave reviews it received elsewhere. So, my initial reaction to The Terror was coloured by the worry that I might suffer the same fate here - and at a considerable investment in precious time as well.
Then I had a coffee with the esteemed John Berlyne, proprietor of The Works of Tim Powers and UK reviews editor for SFRevu, and he said that it was an absolutely wonderful book. In fact, he went as far as to say that it's one of the best three books he's ever read... and this from the guy who's one of the world's leading authorities on Tim Powers (you can read his review on SFRevu).
So now I'm really going to have to read it. Although I might wait until the end of October and take it away on my hols to read by the pool. A chilling tale of terror set in the Arctic ice fields might be just the antidote to all that Maltese sunshine I'm planning on soaking up...
Mass-media muppetry and the mediocrity of the mundane masses
<Begin rant...>
They announced the winners of the Brit Awards, the UK music industry's annual self-congratulatory back-slap and circle jerk, last night.
Normally I wouldn't deign to pay even the slightest bit of attention to this sort of claptrap, but I happened to catch sight of the results of one particular category, and it seemed to me to sum up the essential problem with elevating and celebrating mass-popularity over quality, and encourage the great un-thinking masses (the Brit Awards are decided by a vote of all things, and apparently anyone can join in) to be the arbiters of a nation's supposed 'taste'.
The category in question was 'Best International Male Solo Artist'. The nominees included:
Damien Rice - An Irish singer-songwriter who eschews the sometimes mawkish elements of the Emerald Isle's 'traditional' music in favour of complex, dark, multi-layered compositions that seek to investigate and lay bare the very roots of emotion (well, he sings songs about love and what it means to be human, anyhow). Two albums so far; both of them a lot more interesting than anything by James Blunt, by the way...
Jack Johnson - A modern-day troubadour; a beach-bum folk-singer of great talent and great voice, who strolled onto the music scene a few years ago strumming a collection of cheerful, sunny tunes about life, love and living it up in Hawaii (which, let's face it, ought to make just about anyone sound cheerful) and hit exactly the right note with almost everyone, from old folkies to lovers of melodic, radio-friendly guitar pop.
Beck - A musician and entertainer who for fifteen years has been creating a bewildering array of soundscapes and song structures - everything from mellow ballads to funked-up hip-hop. Sometimes challenging, sometimes not so accessible at first, but always interesting, always worth a second listen. And a third, and a fourth...
Bob Dylan - What can I say that hasn't already been said? A living legend, an inspiration to countless singers, songwriters and strolling balladeers, a modern-day bard of the highest echelon - okay, maybe some of his music is a taste that has to be acquired... but once sampled, it's never forgotten. One of the true, all-time greats.
And who did the award go to?
Justin fucking Timberlake.
A pretty-boy who can dance a bit and occasionally hold a tune; who wouldn't even have crossed the musical radar if he hadn't shacked up with Britney Spears a few years back; a genuinely talentless waste of CD space who couldn't write a song if his bank-balance depended on it (which, luckily for him, it clearly doesn't); beloved of the record label execs mainly because he knows how to grind his hips and make the little girlies go weak at the gusset...
<Deep Breath...>
I despair... I really do.
<...End rant>
Take a look: Jasper Morello
Charley Parker's Lines and Colors is one of my favourite blogs (one of only six in my 'read every day' list, as it happens). Recently it featured a rather stunning piece of animated film called The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.
Directed by Anthony Lucas and written by Mark Shirrefs, it's a series of rather superb silhouette animation pieces that tells the story of one Jasper Morello, an airship navigator from the city of Gothia.
Charley sums it up nicely in his blog post on the piece: "The films are set in a somewhat dystopian world with a decidedly steampunk look and feel. It's in the graphical representation of that world, full of arcane Victorian machinery, elaborate airships, cranes, gantries, gears and attendant intricate objects that the silhouette format becomes a brilliant choice."
The Gothia Gazette is the official website for the series, and has details of a DVD release, which unfortunately is only available in the Antipodes at the moment.
Here's the first trailer, and you can find other sections on Wired.com. Quite lovely stuff, do take a look.
YouTube oddness IV - Web 2.0
It's Friday afternoon and I'm on a tea-break, so here's another short stop-motion live action filmlet for your general amusement and edification:
And here's a funny sent through by the missus, specially for all my UK / US readers and pals (Scots gourmand Joe Gordon and Northern Irish beer monster Ed Ashby both spring to mind for some reason...)
The Final Word on Nutrition
After an exhaustive review of the research literature, here's the final word on nutrition and health.:
1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
4. The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
5. The Germans drink beer and eat lots of sausages and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.
The 'Where Are They Now?' Files - Patricia Anthony
Following on from yesterday's Potted Bookshelf post, the first in that aforementioned new series: the 'Where Are The Now?' files.
In short, I'm genuinely interested to see if I can find out what Patricia Anthony is up to at the moment.
According to various online sources, her last published novel came out in 1998. Her Wikipedia entry states: "After the publication of Flanders, Anthony withdrew from the science fiction spotlight and spent several years quietly working as a screenwriter. Though none of her scripts were green-lighted, the regular work kept her busy. Anthony completed a new novel in 2006, but it remains unpublished."
I also found a short story and interview published online in 2000, but the patricia-anthony.com website address given in the latter has been taken over by a domain-squatter.
So, if anyone has any more information, or can shed any light on the status of her new novel, please do drop me a line and I'll post anything concrete that I can find out. I'm just curious as to why such a critically-acclaimed author dropped out of the genre scene quite so completely, is all...
Horror fiction: the next big thing?
A recent article by Danuta Kean in the Independent Online's Enjoyment section forecasts healthy growth for the horror genre in 2007, following a good decade or so in the publishing doldrums.
The piece is very well researched and includes quotes from some of the biggest names from the publishing end of the UK horror field: Gollancz editor Jo Fletcher, Orbit editor Darren Nash, Waterstone's head buyer Michael Rowley and legendary horror afficionado Stephen Jones.
The article also thoroughly outs Joe Hill as the son of Stephen King (if you hadn't heard that one already) and highlights a number of forthcoming titles to watch out for.
It's a very good piece, well worth reading if you're at all interested in the future of the genre in the UK. Heads-up via Mark Chadbourn's Jack of Ravens blog.
Steve Wilson's Elves: definitely Different…
Check out My Elves Are Different, a "highly irregular web comic" by Steve Wilson, starring regular protagonists 'Sideburns' (a would-be fantasy author) and 'The Bowler-Hatted Gentleman' (his chum, one assumes).
Very droll indeed.
My personal favourite to-date is this one:
I got the heads-up from Simon Spanton of Gollancz books, and his personal favourite, for some reason, is this one:
Both cartoons are copyright Steve Wilson, and have been pinched without his express permission (sorry Steve! I did try get in touch to ask first, but I checked all four of your websites and couldn't find an email address...)
Edit 09.02: Immortalised in a webcomic! I've arrived..! :D
Potted bookshelf, episode 1.3
The Vampyre by Tom Holland
Tom Holland was going to be the subject of my first 'Where Are They Now?' piece. But a bit of basic research has revealed that he's moved away from writing the sort of gothic horror and / or historical fantasy that he started out on and has begun to focus on historical fact rather than fiction, with the recent Rubicon [Amazon] and Persian Fire [Amazon]. But back to The Vampyre...
If you're a really, really big fan of the original Bram Stoker treatment of Dracula, then you'll probably enjoy this one immensely. A modern-day (well, 1990s) journalist discovers that Lord Byron is un-alive and un-living in London, having been made into a Creature of the Night in the nineteenth century. Byron then proceeds to tell said journalist all about it. Colourfully (there's quite a lot of purple involved) and at some length. I persevered despite the sometimes cloying (clotting?) prose, because to be fair it wasn't awful. But I'm sure I would have appreciated it a lot more when I was seventeen and was still in my Anne Rice's books are really cool phase.
Worth tracking down if you've got your Goth head on, otherwise, it might best be left to younger, more darkly-clad folks; within whom the vampiric yearnings are still strong...
Hawkes Harbor by S.E. Hinton
S.E. Hinton is a well-known young-adult fiction writer - her credits include The Outsiders and Rumblefish - and this is her first 'adult' outing. This isn't a bad book by any means, but it is a rather odd one. Hinton uses a mixture of current action and flashbacks to tell the tale of a man called Jamie Sommers. He's an orphan, later a tearaway and delinquent, who in his thirties is subjected to a horrifying experience at the hands of one Grenville Hawkes. He becomes a mental wreck, a shadow of his former self, as a result, and ends up in psychiatric care, which is where we first meet him.
The story is basically one of his rehabilitation and gradual recovery, intermingled with reminiscences of his time as a tramp-sailor and adventurer, and then the body-servant to the aforementioned Hawkes. And Hawkes is... well, let's just say he' s other than he seems and, without wanting to give the game away, that's where the genre element comes in. The thing is though, perhaps as a result of the way the story was told, I was utterly convinced that what I was reading was actually the sequel to one of Hinton's earlier books; that in a previous novel Hawkes himself had been the protagonist, with Jamie as a supporting character, whose story she had now decided to tell in full.
But that doesn't seem to be the case after all, which leaves the book with a rather odd structure and feel to it. But it is oddly compelling at the same time; you just can't help ending up rooting for poor old Jamie and you can't help wanting to find out what happens to the guy in the end. Worth trying the first few chapters of this one to see if you like the style.
God's Fires by Patricia Anthony
God's Fires put me in mind of Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow, although it's perhaps more strongly sf-nal in terms of its approach. The premise is an intriguing one: something crashes to Earth in medieval Portugal and, as a result, some of the inhabitants of a nearby village end up believing they've experienced miraculous encounters; with angels, or even with the Virgin Mary herself.
Enter the district Inquisitor, Father Manoel Pessoa, for whom the Inquisition is far more a career choice than a holy vocation, and who must act quickly if he is going to stop these damaging rumours of celestial contact reaching far more fanatical ears. If that happens there's a risk that the full might of an auto da fe could descend on the heads of people he's come to care deeply for... and, in one particular case, love with a passion that's not entirely Christian...
Thoroughly enjoyable, character-driven, literary prose, written with the sort of assurance that tells you that here is an author who really knows what she's doing. Worth tracking down or picking up a second-hand copy if you see one anywhere, especially if you're a fan of intelligent, intriguing science fiction.
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Cover of the Month - Feb '07 open for nominations
Right then, I've posted a general page of rules & regs etc. over at the appropriately-named Genre Cover of the Month page.
Please feel free to nominate-away, as you see fit; the more participants the merrier, etc. Nominations will close at the end of the month and I'll set up a poll so you can vote for a winner.
BBC R2 Folk Awards 2007
The results of the BBC Radio Two Folk Awards are in, and the headline-grabber this year is Devonian fiddler Seth Lakeman, who won both 'Folk Singer of the Year' and 'Best Album' for his 2006 release Freedom Fields.
Jo and I saw Lakeman in a fantastic support slot for The Levellers at a Manchester Academy gig a year or so back, before he was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize. The highlight of the evening was when the Levellers invited Lakeman on-stage for one of their encores, during which he and Jon Sevink staged a fiddle-off version of 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia', and that really had the crowd up on their toes.
Anyhow, there's a lot of good stuff happening in British Folk Music at the moment. Not that I'm an expert or anything - more of an interested dabbler and occasional eBay purchaser - but what I've heard so far I've tended to like a lot.
If you're folk-curious, or are looking for a good selection of current highlights - or you just think you might enjoy the sort of music that puts more emphasis on good story-telling and technical accomplishment than a bass-heavy synth beat and associated merchandising opportunities - then the 2007 edition of the annual Radio 2 Folk Awards CD [Amazon] - a compilation of tracks by all the nominated artists - is a damn good place to start.
Apologies - email blunder on my part
D'oh!
Due to an administrative cock-up on my part, I completely failed to set up this blog's contact@ email address properly, and have only just noticed. Which means that I've just downloaded a bunch of emails stretching back to December, which I'll shortly be replying to... I do apologise, just one of those things that slipped my mind.
Better-than-normal service has now been resumed.
'Genre Cover of the Month'… what do you think?
I'm thinking of experimenting with a 'Genre Cover of the Month' feature / accolade, to run alongside the series of pieces I'm going to be writing soon on the art, craft and science of genre book covers. It'll be for a number of reasons: to generate research material for the articles, out of interest to see what sort of response this sort of thing might be able to generate, and as a bit of fun as well.
Here's the general idea:
1) Any reader of The Genre Files will be welcome to submit up to three covers for a given month's accolade. Ideally, they should be covers of new books first published in that particular month, but we'll see how that goes.
2) At the end of that month I'll select a shortlist (length dependent on number of entries) of either the most-nominated, or just the best-looking (in my humble opinion) of all the covers that have been submitted that month.
3) I'll set up a poll so folks can vote for the cover that they feel should win the accolade. Voting will stay open for the following month (or two) to allow as many TGF readers as possible to participate.
4) I'll then declare a winner (bearing in mind that February's winner might not be unveiled until April or May), and attempt to get in touch with the author, publisher, publicist and cover artist (if applicable) in question, for any comment they might like to make as to why they chose that particular cover design, what techniques they used to achieve the effect etc.
5) There might also be a 'wooden spoon' category, depending on how mean I'm feeling, to give folks a chance to name and shame the worst covers they see (although we might have to find a way of omitting self-published authors, it'd be like shooting fish in the proverbial hogshead).
6) I might (depending on how generous and/or flush I'm feeling) send some sort of Amazon voucher themed prize to the person who nominated the winning cover in the first place, as a thank you.
7) We'll see how it goes. Like I said, it's an experiment at this stage and if it doesn't take off, then no harm, no foul.
Do let me know what you think, folks. Would you be interested in joining in? Or is it a dumb waste of time? Or is it already being done on hundreds of other blogs, and I've just been too damn lazy to check? Comment away, and in the meantime, I'll get some rules & regs drawn up and posted to a permanent page.
Debut authors: has your novel got what it takes?
John Jarrold - editor, script doctor, literary agent and raconteur extraordinaire - has posted a fascinating insight into the approximate number of hoops that an editor working for a mainstream, commercial publisher sometimes has to jump through in order to get a new author into print, over on his TTA forum. (Worth noting: John does stress that this isn't the business model for every big publisher out there, just some of the majors.)
It makes for particularly fascinating reading, whether you're just generally interested in the machinations of the publishing industry, or a debut author who's wondering why that manuscript you submitted to 'ExWiZee Publishing Co. Inc.' didn't get picked up and published straight away and isn't flying off the shelves and into the bestseller lists already...
And the piece also highlights a significant area in which small and independent presses have an advantage over the majors: if the publisher likes a book and their gut instinct tells them it will sell, they can publish and be proverbially damned... just so as long as they have the resources to put it into print, of course; the obvious flip-side of the coin there.
New Poll: Genre Book Covers
I've posted a new poll, on the subject of genre book covers. This is by way of a spot of general head-count research for a piece (or more likely a series of pieces) I've been planning on writing for a long time now, on the general topic of genre book covers: the good, the bad and the ugly.
What I'm after is a feel as to whether your gut reaction to a 'bad' cover would be enough to put you off actually buying a book. I've tried to give a varied spread of responses, although obviously I might not have covered all possible bases, but it should be enough to give me a rough idea of whether a poorly-designed - or just too-obviously sci-fi, or too-horror, or too-fantasy, etc. - cover might have an immediate, negative impact on sales.
So if you've got a minute, please do visit the appropriate poll page and register your opinion, if you feel so inclined. Or scroll the screen until the poll-widget-thingy in the right-hand column appears, and the use that. Thank you in advance, very much appreciated.
Poll Results: Would a 'cheesy', 'loud' or 'too-genre' cover put you off buying a book?
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