Joe Abercrombie on 'The Steel Remains'

Someone else has been granted an early sneak-peek at Richard Morgan's The Steel Remains. And it just so happens to be one of the authors of the sort of dark, intriguing, fantasy fiction that I was talking about in my own review, Joe Abercrombie, who concludes:

"I hesitate to say, 'if you like the works of x, y, or z, then give The Steel Remains a try,' because really it's pretty much unlike anything else, and that's why you should give it a try. You might love it, you might loathe it, but you'll certainly find it difficult to ignore..."

Read the full review over at Joe's blog.

Highly Recommended Reading - 'The Steel Remains' by Richard Morgan

Since the publication of his debut novel Altered Carbon in 2002, Richard Morgan has steadily been building a reputation for producing rather excellent, high-octane, action-fuelled sf-noir with a very hard edge and plenty of grit.

Yet for all the blood, guts and hi-tech über-violence, his books have always been driven by superb characterisation and a very eloquent writing style, two characteristics that have ensured his novels are held in the high regard - by both critics and fans alike - that they so richly deserve.

I for one have been a fan of Richard Morgan's work from day one and I most definitely sat up and paid attention when, back in September 2006, Morgan announced that he was planning a change of direction; that his next book wouldn't constitute hi-tech science fiction of any kind; that he was, in fact, going to write an epic fantasy novel (or three). Speaking as a lifelong reader of fantasy fiction and one with a distinct preference for the darker end of the epic / heroic / low-fantasy spectrum, this was a prospect that I found... tantalising, to say the least.

And so when Gollancz's Simon Spanton asked me, a couple of weeks ago, if I wanted to read a manuscript copy of Richard Morgan's first foray into the fantasy genre, I didn't so much bite his hand off as rip his arm away at the shoulder.*

I will confess that it was a slightly trepidatious prospect - seeing what sort of a fist one of my very favourite non-fantasy authors would make of one of my very favourite fantasy sub-genres - but I'm very glad to say that I really needn't have worried in the slighest: The Steel Remains is absolutely superb.

I won't go into too much plot or character detail here, because I'd hate to ruin that same sense of anticipation for anyone else by dropping spoilers, but for the sake of making this review a worthwhile exercise I will try to convey a sense of the over-arcing elements that made it so satisfying a read.

For a start, it's written with all the flair and aplomb that you'll find in any and all of Morgan's other novels; it has the same flowing, readable prose style, the same tightness of dialogue and succinctness of description. It's also possessed of an incredibly dark atmosphere - both in terms of its setting and its overall tone - and as you'd expect from Richard Morgan, the action sequences tend to be violent to the point of viciousness... brutality, even.

In fact, I'll pause there and attempt to coin the term 'brutalist fantasy' (not actually a Googlewhack, but thankfully not for the reasons you might suspect...) to describe the overall feel of of pain- and anger-drenched atmosphere that Morgan conjures up amidst the sucking swamps, stark wilderness badlands and slum-infested city-scapes of his world.

The setting for The Steel Remains is a post-war society and several of the main characters are veterans of that titanic struggle to save humanity from the invading hordes. As I mentioned in my recommended reading piece on Joe Abercrombie's Last Argument of Kings, this isn't something you get to see all that often; it's more often the banner-waving, marching off to battle, heroic standing against overwhelming odds and subsequent last-gasp Saving of Everything by the Forces of Righteousness that gets all the attention. The aftermath to such a conflict often amounts to little more than a chorus of fanfares and a medal-bestowing ceremony, or simply becomes the jumping-off point for the next great quest or battle.

The Steel Remains, on the other hand, devotes a great deal of thematic attention to the concept of aftermath, and is all the more fascinating for it. Some of the major themes of the novel include: loyalty (and its obverse, betrayal), courage, camraderie, honour, and the struggles of war veterans to come to terms with the psychological scars of the conflict.

Morgan also addresses a number of wider socio-political issues, among them: the mechanisms of political control, economic recession, forced repatriation, sexual repression, institutional bigotry and religious intolerance. Quite a number of the issues which we ourselves are made painfully aware of with every news bulletin, in fact; really not at all what you'd normally expect to find in a novel with the 'fantasy' label on the back cover.

In a recent blog post, Morgan describers the book as a "retro-dystopic vision" of a time when "people resolved their differences with bits of sharp steel ... probably not a very nice time to be alive". He also says:

"Look - it's like this: if you really, really love Tolkein with a firmly burning uncritical passion, then there's a good chance The Steel Remains is going to upset you. If you really, really love all those stories about simple, good-hearted farm-boys becoming princes or wizards, then there's a good chance The Steel Remains is going to upset you as well. And if you like your heroes masculine, muscular and morally upright, well, then you could be in serious trouble here."

I'd definitely echo that. If you pick up a copy of The Steel Remains expecting to read a traditional (which I feel is kinder than saying 'bog-standard') fantasy adventure story, then you're going to be in for a shock.

All of which raises the question: will the fantasy-fiction reading audience - a notoriously conservative one for many reasons, not least of which is the generally accepted desire of large sections of its readers and fans to escape from exactly those sort of issues - decide to embrace Morgan's almost unique take on the genre, as a bold attempt to help drag a sometimes overly cliché-ridden genre into more relevant thematic subject areas? Or will legions of avowed acolytes recoil from the lack of familiar, safe reference-points, picking on the one or two more obviously controversial elements of the novel as a convenient scapegoat to justify a rejection of the novel which masks their own lack of willingness to explore?

'Controversial elements'? Oh, aye. Just a couple. In fact, I'd go as far as to predict that The Steel Remains is a book that will split the fantasy reading audience right in two, straight down the middle: love it or hate it. Because it's also a very provocative novel: politically, socially, sexually and psychologically; a genuinely challenging read all round. And there are certain scenes in the book - I won't say what they are, but you'll definitely know them when you get to them - that will make more conservatively-inclined readers very uncomfortable indeed.

Which raises another question: how much of the more overtly provocative (in a genre-standard sense) material in The Steel Remains is there as a result of Morgan wondering just how far he could push the envelope; just how much he could get away with? It's tempting to imagine him sitting there, working out what you almost never see in fantasy fiction and then making sure he throws plenty of that in, along with a bit more of this on top for good measure.

As it turns out though, the question is possibly an unfair one. In a follow-up chat, Simon Spanton assured me that Morgan hasn't actually read all that much within the fantasy genre - a suggestion borne out by the reading lists and recommended books occasionally posted to the author's website - so it's hardly a case of Morgan working out what was missing from everything else, then lumping it together and chucking it all in for maximum effect.

Instead, I was assured that the author has set out to write 'a Richard Morgan novel in a fantasy setting', rather than 'a fantasy novel by Richard Morgan'. It's a subtle distinction, but an important one, and it's one that should help to explain why there's so much in The Steel Remains that you just wouldn't expect to find in a typical example of the genre, along with quite a lot of material that readers of Morgan's earlier work will find both enjoyable and intriguing, despite the change of milieu and the very definite rooting in the fantasy genre (albeit with some intriguing hints that the world, or even the universe, could potentially be a much larger and more complex place than initially assumed).

In conclusion, then: The Steel Remains is one of the darkest, most intense epic fantasy novels I've read to-date. I also think it's a fantasy novel that doesn't so much transcend as extend the genre, into the sort of thematic territory that the majority of fantasy writers wouldn't even consider going anywhere near. As a result, it could just turn out to be one of the most important fantasy novels, epic or otherwise, to have been written in the last ten or twenty years, if only because it could provide an additional impetus for the growing number of similarly-minded writers to think even harder about how far they can actually push their own ideas.

Anyone with a hankering for the sort of intensely interesting fantasy fiction that the likes of Steven Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, Glen Cook China Miéville, Scott Lynch, Alan Campbell and co. have been writing recently, or even a glimpse of what might have been if the likes of George R.R. Martin, Paul Kearney, Greg Keyes, or even David Gemmell had teamed up with Quentin Tarantino for a novel or two, then this is definitely a story you should seriously consider reading.

But on the other hand, if you already suspect that you don't like your fantasy in the slightest bit brutalist, then I'd simply suggest this: steer clear. You won't be doing yourself any favours by daring the beast in its lair... unless you think the time has come to leave the safe and well-worn paths behind and venture a little deeper into the swamp-muck...

Author Info: www.richardkmorgan.com
Publisher Info: Gollancz (UK)
Publication Date: August 2008
Ordering: Amazon.co.uk

Highly Recommended Reading: 'Black Ships' by Jo Graham

Black Ships, which will be published by Orbit Books in the US in March and in the UK in July, is author Jo Graham's debut novel; although this is something I found increasingly hard to believe the more I read of this stirring, gripping, excellently-written and thoroughly engrossing tale of the last Prince of Troy and the remnants of his once-proud people.

The story is told from the point of view of Pythia - once called Gull - a young priestess of the Goddess of Death. We first learn of her early life as daughter of a Trojan woman captured into slavery by the Achaeans and her initiation into the Dark Lady's Mysteries. The character then truly bursts into life when she becomes one of the pivotal points of the narrative as the Sybil and Oracle to Aeneas, the Trojan Prince who comes to the lands of her captors to seek a newly-enslaved group of his people, before setting sail for the mighty kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean.

The emphasis of the book is placed very firmly on three principle characters: Pythia herself, who is an extremely well-rounded individual and, as both narrator and narrative instrument, someone who is incredibly easy to empathise with, and the two great loves of her life - Aeneas and Xandros - who are equally human and three-dimensional in their presentation. The inter-relationship between these three is the framework on which the tapestry of the novel's events is woven, and is explored in a manner that's thoroughly accessible, yet feels equally well-rooted in the customs and traditions of the time.

I also found the setting and background detail particularly fascinating. Jo Graham must surely have read some of the same tomes of historical investigation that I was once almost completely hooked on. She presents a subtly altered version of accepted historical events; one that draws on some of the more intriguing alternative theories of Bronze Age history surrounding the 'Hyksos', or 'Sea-Peoples', that have been published over the last twenty years or so. Of course, her book is still a work of fiction - she's not attempting to re-write history herself - but it's interesting to see some of these twists on the accepted timeline given a context and detail that makes them seem tantalisingly feasible.

All in all, it's an incredibly well-told, incredibly compelling story, narrated in the sort of epic mode employed by the likes of Steven Pressfield, and (I assume, although I've not read as many as I'd have liked) other re-tellers of the sagas of the Bronze Age heroes. Jo Graham consistently maintains an appropriately archaic tone and cadence to her writing, but without making it sound pompously Epic to the point of being unreadable. She also takes pains to avoid jarring modernisms and the rhythm of her writing style is one that flows easily and naturally, making this an extremely pleasurable read, one I practically flew through. Cliché time: Black Ships is a definite page-turner, one I honestly was loathe to put down.

And as I said earlier, such was the strength of her writing that I found it extremely difficult to believe that this was genuinely the work of a debut author; surely some sneaky pseudonym instead? But the author's notes at the end of this proof copy of the book convinced me otherwise. In which case, I have no hesitation in declaring this to be a debut of rare quality and surely the first step on the road to a highly successful career. And based on Hollywood's seemingly insatiable demand for re-telling the epics, a movie deal can be only just around the corner?

Speaking of the author's notes, I also learned from them that Black Ships is actually a re-telling of Virgil's Aeneid, the National Epic of the Roman Empire. Those with a clearly superior Classical education to mine will no doubt have spotted that from my introductory papragraph (and may sneer at will...) but I wasn't aware of the fact until I'd read the author's notes at the back of the book.

I really don't think that knowing this ahead of time would have spoiled my enjoyment of this excellent novel, although it might have given me an irrational urge to read the source materail before I read the modern-day version. That, I think, would have been a major mistake, because knowing the state of my reading schedule I'd have never gotten round to it and then might have missed out on what must surely be an early contender for one of my novels of the year.

Highly recommended, to anyone who enjoys the epic sweep of the Bronze Age sagas and to fans of historical semi-fantasy everywhere; most definitely.

Recommended reading: 'Mister B. Gone' by Clive Barker

Bit of an odd one, this. Billed as a 'bone-chilling novel' I think it's fair to say that it's actually neither of those. At 248 pages of line-and-a-half print, I'd guess it's closer to novella or novelette in terms of word-count. And it's not particularly 'bone-chilling', either; if you're hoping for a return to the heady, intense, gore-soaked, genuinely scary early work of Barker's Books of Blood, then you'd be better off moving along... this isn't the book you're looking for.

But Mister B. Gone - despite the slight mis-marketing perpetrated by the blurb-writer - is an entertaining read. It's a whimsical fictional biography that tells the life story (or parts of it anyhow) of a demon from the ninth circle of hell who goes by the name of Jakabok Botch, or 'Mister B' to his one friend in the world: fellow demon Quitoon.

Barker employs a conceit throughout Mister B Gone in which the narrator, Mister B, begs you, the reader, to burn the book; employing all sorts of threats and blandishments to get you to destroy the papery vessel that apparently holds his demonic essence imprisoned. It gives a quirky, personal tone to the narrative voice, but I rather felt that it was over-done in places. I think I would have preferred a few more tales of demonic shennanigans and a little less of the chatting, in order to keep the narrative moving along.

The plot of the book is fairly simple one - demon spirit is imprisoned in book, read on to find out how - but of course the book is also a vehicle for Barker's philosophical musings on good and evil, the duality of human nature and so forth. Once again though, a quick blurb-based caveat: the "shocking truth of the battle between Good and Evil" promised on the inside flap really isn't all that shocking, and has already been done a time or two before.

Still, nit-picking aside, Mister B. Gone was, as I said, an entertaining read, and a light and easy one that I had no problem whizzing through. The Heaven vs Hell motif is one I've been intrigued by since reading some of the early Sandman and Hellblazer story-lines and I do enjoy re-visiting it every so often. Mister B Gone doesn't offer a blindingly original take on the theme, but it is an intriguing enough addition to the canon to make it worth picking up, if you're likewise that way inclined.

Highly Recommended Reading: 'The Escapement' by K.J. Parker

I've been a huge fan of K.J. Parker's work since I read The Colours in the Steel, part one of the Fencer Trilogy, back in 1998.

At the time, the qualities that really stood out were the obvious intelligence and inventiveness of Parker's non-linear, non-predictable plotting and the way in which the author experimented not only with the conventions and tropes of the fantasy genre, but with my experience and expectations as a fantasy reader as well; something that's developed into a major theme for my reading preferences nowadays.

These qualities were developed further and displayed to quite marvellous effect in Parker's second series, the Scavenger Trilogy. In Shadow, Pattern and Memory the age-old missing-memory / mystery identity scenario was explored from every conceivable angle and in so convoluted and twisted - yet utterly coherent and delightfully entertaining - a manner that I was left absolutely flabbergasted by the literally unbelievable intricacy with which Parker had constructed the - apparently chaotic but ultimately quite superbly structured - narrative arc of the series. It remains one of the most fascinating pieces of writing that I've enjoyed to-date and I definitely intend to go back and re-read it one day, if only to spend more time examining how Parker pulled off quite such an impressive feat.

In the Engineer Trilogy, Parker takes things in a slightly different direction again. I'm no trained literary critic, so I can only explain it as I experienced it, but to my mind, it seemed as though the series was - in part, and on at least one level - an examination of the concepts of story-construction and the driving forces that work to influence narrative direction and flow. To undertake this examination, Parker develops a narrative machine; an intricate, precise mechanism for processing (telling) the raw elements (characters, ideas, setting) of story into an engineered output (a trilogy of novels): quite literally, Parker constructs a 'plot-device'.

And once set in motion, this literary word-mill proceeds to blend concepts such as freedom, choice, compulsion, destiny, good and evil, along with emotional motivators like love, hate, duty, fear, patriotism and self-interest, to produce a tale in which events, once set in motion by what turns out to be an incredibly simple trigger mechanism, then power forwards with all the inevitability of a clockwork fate that has no off-switch.

Yet at the same time, the series is by no means governed by a linear, predictable sequence of cause and effect. There is method throughout, certainly, but as you read you begin to discover just how intricate a mechanism Parker has constructed and how much of the motive power is generated from deep within; it's by no means obvious exactly what the overall shape of the thing will turn out to be, because this particular writer is highly adept at springing surprises on the reader - something else I most definitely relish - and showing you what you may think is the blueprint for the entire saga whilst keeping a crafty thumb over the box in the corner that reads 'sheet one of several...'

There is a central and fairly obvious drive-shaft that powers the plot: Engineer Ziani Vaatzes' quest for revenge (possibly) or at least restitution (well, maybe) is the most obvious element in the plot-mechanism's construction. But then there's also an incredibly complicated gearing system of sub-plots and minor arcs that act, quite unpredictably, to shift the balance of the story from one moment to the next. Added to that, the interplay between the book's principle and supporting characters (again, it's never quite or immediately obvious who, exactly, is driving this thing, although Vaatzes is usually the chief suspect) is just terrific to watch and almost impossible to predict.

The whole thing is then wrapped in layers and layers of engineering metaphor - both mechanical and social - as well as a good thick plating of a philosophical exploration of the human condition - very skilfully bolted-on, mind, no shoddy work here - that's then glossed with some superbly droll word-play; burnished just nicely in turn by a quite lovely ear for convincingly under-played dialogue which provides just enough of a patina of age and writerly experience to prevent it all from seeming too shiny and work-shy.

The series is a thoroughly intriguing read throughout. One quick caveat, though: Devices and Desires and The Escapement are perhaps just a little more readable than middle volume Evil for Evil. I'm afraid the second instalment in the series is rather... long. It's as if the machinery that Parker initially sets in motion, having built up an impressive head of steam, then bursts a secondary gasket, runs low on pressure as a result and has to go back to the shop for a while so its operator can adjust a few valves, add some more fuel to the boiler, top up the water and get everything ready for another run at the home stretch. Part II involves plenty of plot-building and character development, but most of it seems to be the sort of tinkering that - whilst assuredly necessary and all very essential in the great scheme of things as they eventually turn out - isn't necessarily quite as interesting as it could be to watch at great length.

But you really should stick with it, because in The Escapement (incidentally, and in relation to a clockwork mechanism: "the part of the movement which controls the release of the motive power") Parker really cranks the revs back up and gets everything moving along again at a fair old clip, sweeping smoothly towards what turns out to be an extremely satisfying and gratifyingly well-rounded denouement.

One side-product of the whole process that I experienced was yet another bout of gob-smacked marvelling on my part: not least at the sheer amount of mental effort that must have gone into conceptualising and designing all the many interlocking parts of this incredible narrative, as well as the very obvious skill with which the author actually assembled the tale: combining in a few hundred thousand words into a configuration of amazing artifice; one that then delivers as its end-product a feat of apparently effortless story-telling. Surely another masterpiece from a writer working at the very height of their powers.

In conclusion: if you consider yourself to be any kind of a connoisseur of well-written, intelligent, mind-stretching, trope-defying fiction (in all nine quite unashamedly fantastical novels to-date I'm pretty sure I haven't spotted so much as an iota of magic, nor a hint of supernatural forces at work, and not so much as a hair of an elf or a scale of a dragon) then you simply must give K.J. Parker's books a go.

And personally, I simply can't wait to see what this incredible wordsmith is going to come up with next.

Reading Update, early February 2008: Robert V.S. Redick, Justin Gustainis

I've recently read a couple of titles that, for one reason or another, I don't feel able to post under Recommended Reading, but I'll mention them here for completeness' sake (I'm determined to at least mention everything relevant that I manage to read in 2008. Everything...)

First up: The Red Wolf Conspiracy, by Robert V.S. Redick. I really, really wanted to like - no, thoroughly enjoy - this one, for all sorts of reasons; not least that I just love the Edward Miller cover art. And for a while it was looking like a definite recommendation prospect: Redick's writing was fluid and eminently readable, and the story started well, with intriguing characters, an exotic and vivid setting setting and early plot pointers that promised all sorts of interesting developments ahead...

But then, about half-way through, it all... shifted. I began to feel that I was no longer reading an intriguingly baroque, intricate low-fantasy saga: a tale of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances and just doing their best to prevail against the (much more powerful forces) of intriguing self-interest and coherent character motivation ranged against them. Instead, the whole thing morphed into a rather bog-standard high-fantasy kiddie-quest: plucky, likeable youngster discovers they're suddenly - and rather bizarrely - the Most Important Kid in the World and immediately sets out (with help from their Gang of Assorted Faithful Sidekicks) to Save Everything from the Frighteningly Powerful Bad Guy and cast of (suitably menacing, yet easily defeated) Supporting Minions, who somehow completely fails to spot the danger and kill the little bastard while they still have the chance.

You'll have to excuse the dripping sarcasm, but I was gutted - to say the least - when that one was sprung on me after a couple of hundred pages.

To be fair, I think the problem may have been that I set my initial expectations too high and that I felt those expectations were being met to begin with. Perhaps I should have spotted the early warning signs - notably that two of the central p.o.v. characters were teenagers - and expected more of a traditional coming-of-age quest slog, rather than assuming here was a chance to get my teeth into something more firmly rooted along the Miéville - Lynch - Abercrombie axis. Maybe then I wouldn't have been quite so disappointed when the anticipated low-fantasy literary treat failed to materialise. Or rather, when the narrative abandoned its deep, stormy start and set sail for much safer, shallower waters.

Look, don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book, not by any means. The writing itself holds up pretty well throughout, and if Redick had only stuck to the much darker tone and atmosphere of the earlier chapters, then I might have been proclaiming another classic round about now. I just didn't feel as if the second half of the book lived up to the standard of the first.

And of course this is just my personal opinion, entirely subjective, normal caveats apply, etcetera... other bloggers have reviewed it quite favourably and enthusiastically (although Mark Yon seems to have picked up on some of the same issues that troubled me in the second half) so if it sounds like your cup of tea, then go for it. It's still a much stronger fantasy brew than the weak and wishy-washy, cliché-diluted stuff that's usually on offer.

My second not-so-great recent reading experience was Black Magic Woman by Justin Gustainis. Again, I really hoped that I'd like this one, mainly because I'm a sucker for supernatural / detective cross-over stuff, and just love discovering a new author's milieu to get stuck into. And again, on the face of things, Black Magic Woman seemed at first as though it was going to push all the right buttons.

Alas, though, the book has a fatal stylistic flaw: it's written in the third person. Admittedly it's not compulsory that a supernatural / detective story be written in the first person, but it rather seems as though just about all my favourite examples of the oeuvre are: Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt novels, Mike Carey's Felix Castor books, the early Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter titles by Laurell K. Hamilton and - pushing the boundaries of the oeuvre a little further - Michael Marshall's Straw Men series and John Connolly's Charlie Parker books.

And I think there are a number of very good reasons why first person works so well for this sort of story. Not only does the use of the single-narrator p.o.v. allow for a more immediate association of the reader with the main character; it also limits the reader's field-of-view: the reader only knows what the main character knows, which allows the writer to heighten the sense of anticipation as they build towards the story's revelatory climax. That makes it much easier for the writer to lay down false trails for the reader to follow as they inevitably try to puzzle out the mystery for themselves, leading to a much greater chance that the reader will be surprised by the denouement. And personally speaking, I just love a book - especially a mystery / crime novel - that's rich with the element of surprise.

But Gustainis' use of the third person narrative meant that he'd laid all his plot elements out within a couple of chapters of the start. We knew who all the main players were, what they were up to, what their motivations were. So it's a fairly simple job, from a very early stage, to work out the pattern of the plot and guess how everything is going to fit together. And I'm afraid that meant the bulk of the book was pretty much an exercise in wishing they'd all get the heck on with it so I could see if I was right or not, whilst hoping that there was one really subtle clue that I'd missed that would bite me at the end...

It wasn't to be. Everything panned out pretty much as predicted and I'm sorry to say that I was able skim-read the last 100 pages or so without spotting anything that made me want to go back and read in detail. A shame, but there you go.

I've also read K.J. Parker's The Escapement. But I will be recommending that one, just as soon as I find the time to gather my thoughts and put fingers-to-keyboard.

Highly Recommended Reading: 'White Night' by Jim Butcher

A new instalment of The Dresden Files? Gimme!

White Night went straight to the top of the 'to be read' pile as soon as I opened the packet from Orbit and I ended up leaving barely a few hours between finishing the rather superb Last Argument of Kings and plunging headlong into the latest rip-roaring adventures of gumshoe-wizard-detective turned magical-guardian-of-Chicago, Harry Dresden.

And in this, the eight book in what's rapidly turning into my favourite long-running series of all time, I found author Jim Butcher to be in rather excellent form, and no mistake.

I'm not going to summarise the narrative, because there's a lot of back-story and sub-plot in White Night that has been carefully lain down in earlier parts of the series that I'd pretty much have to re-cap the whole lot to-date. Instead, I recommend that you nip out and buy, beg or borrow all eight books, then settle down for a good, long read. You should be able to get through them all in a weekend if you really put your mind to it, eh?

I will say, though, that I'm really very pleased indeed with the way the series as a whole is still growing and changing; accreting new layers of meaning and detail with each new book. There can be a risk, with these multi-episodic narrative ventures, that the author's initial enthusiasm will wane, or a particular element of the storyline will come to dominate the narrative; I'm thinking of the way the soft porn aspect of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series came to dominate and drown out most other facets of the series at round about the same stage in its development.

Not so with our man Jim Butcher and our demi-hero Harry Dresden. In White Night, there's enough in the way of ongoing continuity to provide a warm glow of familiarity for regular readers, without any of the major themes or incidents feeling too repetitious or worn-thin. In particular, this tale is blessed with the return of several favourite minor characters, some of whom haven't been seen for at least a couple of the preceding volumes.

At the same time, though, Jim Butcher has continued to expand upon his milieu, for instance with some fairly significant revelations about the state of the global situation vis-a-vis the power struggles ongoing in the supernatural spheres. He's also continuing to develop - in subtle, but significantly ways - the character of protagonist and first-person narrator Harry Dresden; ensuring that the guy remains interesting and edgy, despite eight volumes' worth of growing reader familiarity.

All of which bodes well for the twelve volumes of The Dresden Files that Jim Butcher tells us he still plans to write. He's put down plenty of potential plot-seeds and possibilities in White Night and I look forward to seeing how they blossom and bloom (bless Orbit, they're bringing out the next volume in March, in hardback... only a two-month wait!) If he can keep up the same mix of high-octane action, suspenseful intrigue, strong characterisation and effective character development, then I'll definitely remain a fan to the very end. At which point I'll hopefully find time to sit down and re-read all twenty through again. At least a couple of times...

Great stuff! Go forth! Acquire! Read!

Highly Recommended Reading: 'Last Argument of Kings' by Joe Abercrombie

A couple of days ago I finished Last Argument of Kings, the third and final part of Joe Abercrombie's debut series, The First Law. And I reckon that all in all it has been one of the most incredible, twisted, inventive and above all utterly enjoyable fantasy reading experiences I've had in a very, very long time.

Throughout The First Law Abercrombie has taken a perverse delight in herding the cherished conventions of the fantasy genre into a dank, darkened cell before gleefully waving the instruments of their interrogation before their frightened faces. The chief implements in Abercrombie's literary armoury are narrative surprise, a very dark streak of humour, an earthy and authentic use of language and dialect, a superb feel for the natural rhythms of dialogue, and an absolute focus on the individuality and humanity of his characters. No mere trope or allotted plot-coupon can stand up to such an onslaught for long. Gradual crumbling and inevitable collapse are all they have to look forward to under his tender ministrations.

And how I've loved watching him at his work.

In the first two books in the series, Abercrombie took a smattering of staple fantasy stereotypes - the wizard mentor, the ultimate barbarian warrior, the feckless nobleman, and the quest to the far corners of the world for an object of ancient object of great power and mysticism - and dragged them kicking and screaming down from their lofty perches in order to give them a bloody good going over. Without wishing to commit an act of gross spolierage, the reveal at the end of book two was such a simple yet brilliant slap in the face for bog-standard fantasy that it had me punching the air in sheer delight.

The overall result has been a series steeped in subtle yet biting satire; one that - disguised as a traditional Campbellian quest-myth fantasy - undermines the whole tired, mangy old edifice and gives it a thoroughly modern overhaul. Sadly, a few reviewers - guilty perhaps of not reading much further than the surface layers - didn't seem to quite grasp that this was what he was about; mistaking his tongue-in-cheekery for yet another stock-in-trade fantasy quest trilogy. I fear they've rather missed the point.

Volume three continues in the same quietly anarchic vein, with more over-tired tropes battered to the canvas by Abercrombie's ascerbic wit and utter disregard for the assumed sanctity of well-worn genre conventions. I could list a half dozen off the top of my head, but again, I wouldn't want to ruin the fun for anyone else.

But before you draw the conclusion that spoof and mockery are all that Abercrombie is about, I'd also like to stress a few of the many strengths that this author brings to the writing table. His descriptive prose is succinct yet vivid, his pacing is excellent, and for a writer who claims nothing but disdain for the whole world-building process, he displays a wonderful eye for establishing consistently authentic politics and social organisation within his milieu, without boring the reader to tears with info-dumping in the process. Not for him the bog-standard three-kingdom fantasy world, with completely distinct cultures, a history of intense emnity and no economic interdependence whatsover. At least you get the sense that Abercrombie's world would actually work, however little time he's spent on building it.

And to cap it all off, I'd like to highlight the great inventiveness and originality he brings to his characterisation. For evidence of that you need look no further than one particularly superb character: the Inquisitor, Sand Dan Glotka.

First introduced to us as a tortured-cripple-turned-torturer, Glotka a man seemingly without scruples, morals, mercy or much more than a shred of decency in his whole twisted frame. Yet as the series has developed so has he, into one of the most engaging, intriguing and (somewhat bizarrely) sympathetic villains that you're likely to encounter in any form of literature, within the fantasy genre or without.

In Last Argument of Kings, for me at least, Glotka is the sublime star who steals the show. And any writer who can create a character who is as repulsively, shockingly and utterly human as Glotka, then make them live so convincingly and completely in the reader's imagination... well, that writer really does have a pretty bloody special talent at their command.

Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie, say he knows how to tell a bloody good tale.

Complete 2007 Reading List

In 2007 I managed to read 41 full-length books: 34 novels or novellas and 7 short fiction collections or anthologies.

I made myself a promise at the start of the year that, knowing full well how little reading time I have available these days, I was going to try to steer myself towards titles that I thought I'd have a very good to excellent chance of enjoying as much as possible. As a result I probably didn't read quite as many new authors (or authors that were new to me, at any rate) as I could have done. I think I kept to my promise rather well, although there were two additional titles that I started but was unable to finish.

As for 2007 being my year of the short story - as I'd mused back in December 2006 - well, seven anthologies and/or collections might not be much by some folks' standards, but it's more than I've managed to read in earlier years, and it's a trend I hope to continue into this year as well. I do love a good short story well told.

I also read (or, mainly, re-read) 36 graphic novels during the course of the year, which I might or might not list separately, depending on how the whole time / inclination pans out.

But here's the full list of all 43 prose titles, in the approximate order that I read them, or attempted to read them. In a subsequent post I plan to list my actual Books of the Year selection for 2007 (better late than never), and at the same time I'll let you know which two I didn't manage to finish. Although please do feel free to amuse yourselves by guessing which two they were via the comments section, should you feel the urge... :)

Click the book titles for buying info from Amazon.co.uk (all referral fees gratefully received...) although a couple of them will go to PS Publishing and two more to Earthling Books (where applicable).

• Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie (Gollancz)
• Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (Gollancz)
• Solaris Book of New Science Fiction ed. by George Mann (Solaris)
• The Intruders by Michael Marshall (Harper Collins)
• Black Man by Richard Morgan (Gollancz)
• The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks (Little, Brown)
• Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton (Arrow)
• Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch (Gollancz)
• Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher (Orbit)
• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (Gollancz)
• Spook Country by William Gibson (Penguin)
• This is Now by Michael Marshall Smith (Earthling)
• Unbecoming by Mike O'Driscoll (Elastic Press)
• Debatable Space by Philip Palmer (Orbit)
• Hunter's Moon by David Devereux (Gollancz)
• From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury (Earthlight)
• Scar Night by Alan Campbell (Tor UK)
• Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman (Headline Review)
• The Music of Razors by Cameron Rogers (Del Rey)
• Bitterwood by James Maxey (Solaris)
• No Dominion by Charlie Huston (Orbit)
• Dark Hollow by John Connolly (Coronet)
• Evil for Evil by K.J. Parker (Orbit)
• The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes (Gollancz)
• Looking For Jake by China Miéville (Macmillan)
• White Time by Margo Lanagan (Eos)
• Jigsaw Men by Gary Greenwood (PS Publishing)
• Land of the Headless by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
• Postscripts #10 by Ed. Pete Crowther (PS Publishing)
• Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman (Penguin)
• Halting State by Charles Stross (Orbit)
• Cowboy Angels by Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
• The Servants by Michael Marshall Smith (Earthling)
• The Modern World by Steph Swainston (Gollancz)
• The Killing Kind by John Connolly (Headline)
• The Religion by Tim Willocks (Arrow)
• Dead Men's Boots by Mike Carey (Orbit)
• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (Gollancz)
• Dusk by Tim Lebbon (Del Rey)
• Dawn by Tim Lebbon (Del Rey)
• Making Money by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday)
• The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury (Earthlight)
• Matter by Iain M Banks (Orbit)

This year I'm hoping to set aside an extra 30 minutes a day for reading, at lunchtime (to get away from the monitor if nothing else) and so I'm aiming to hit about 60 full-length books this year.

As usual I'll post Recommended Reading entries to TGF, along with occasional Reading Updates, just to help me keep track of where I'm up to, if nothing else. New Arrivals posts will likewise continue, and I'll keep an eye on things with Schedule Watch posts as and when. Just so you know... :)

Cover Artistry / Recommended Reading: 'Halting State' by Charles Stross

Via the Orbit Books website, I've just caught my first glance of the cover for the new Charles Stross novel Halting State [Amazon], which Orbit will publish later this month.

And here it is:

I read Halting State towards the end of last year and, although I didn't manage to find time to talk about it at the time (much to my annoyance), I'm jumping in late to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it and can recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good crime-solving caper that's simultaneously a bit of a laugh.

It's set in a near-ish-future Glasgow Edinburgh (and bits of Glasgow) in which Web 2.0 Wizardry - of the sort that we're all just about getting used to at the moment, and then some - has become commonplace and largely mainstream and more widely applied. So for instance: your glasses-shaped personal heads-up display will show you a) exactly where the next bus is and how far that would be from the stop you're currently standing at, and b) which of the hoodie-clad teenagers on the top-deck are red-tagged with ASBO warning flags. Very useful, if you ask me.

It's also a near-ish-future in which virtual gaming is big, big mega-business. So when a virtual robbery that takes place within one of the leading commercial game worlds it turns out to have ramifications far, far beyond the theft of a smattering of electronic loot, especially once it's linked to an actual, real, meatspace-murder.

Enter one recently-unemployed coder, one career-ladder climbing e-insurance investigator and the hapless local constabulary, un-aided, obstructed and generally made to feel unwelcome by everyone, from the M.D. of the gaming co that's been robbed, to a passing EU cybercrime special forces unit...

All in all, it's a tightly-plotted whodunnit that rattles along, and is thoroughly steeped in geek culture to boot (Paul R, James B, Ed A and definitely Joe G, you guys should definitely be reading this one if you haven't already). And there are lots of delightfully nerdy in-jokes throughout, although I have to stress that it's far from being a humour novel per se, in the sense that, say, a Tom Holt or Robert Rankin book would be. Rather, it's got the same sort of dry, chuckle-provoking wit that you get from Iain Banks at his best, or from Michael Marshall Smith's early sf novels. Think 'sarcastic semi-sentient domestic appliances', rather than 'demonically-possessed video game controllers' and you won't be far off the general tone.

The thing is, though, do you really get that impression from the cover? Don't get me wrong, having read the book I think it fits the story quite well. But then I've read the book, so I have the benefit of hindsight, and the cover isn't having to work to sell the book to me as a potential reader. I also think I know exactly which potential readers Orbit are hoping to hook with this approach to jacketing Halting State; readers of the likes of Douglas Coupland...

...which is a pretty shrewd marketing move if you ask me and one that will hopefully help to flip the book over into mainstream consciousness, with the higher sales potential that's thereby implied and that the book definitely deserves.

Although - and here's what worries me - given that Charles Stross is a well-established SF author, and that bookstores do tend to be fairly anal about the whole categorisation / shelving thing... isn't there a danger that Halting State will just be dumped into the sf section as a matter of course? And that once there, the colourful, cartoonish sprites will give it the sort of Holt / Rankin air that could put off even some readers of Stross's hardcore sf novels? What does everyone else think?

Personally, I hope that the strength of Stross's ever-growing reputation will help carry it forward regardless of placement, and that plenty of general sf readers will read good reviews (like the ones flagged by Orbit), see past the cover - if indeed they do have a problem with it at all - and give the book a go. It's certainly recommended by me, for what that's worth...

And (equally, for what it's worth) if I was in the marketing department at Orbit, I'd be sending a pack of 10 copies to the editorial departments of Wired, T3, PC Gamer and every other gadget / computer game / geek magazine in the UK (and the US* Australia as well, assuming an international launch) just to get those guys talking about it on their own message boards and blogs. Because I reckon that's where the pay-off for Halting State is going to be. But then, knowing Orbit, they'll have thought of that one already...

* My bad: the US edition is published by Ace Books, not Orbit...

Schedule Watch: Orbit, through to November 2008

The latest copy of the Orbit Books publication schedule came through from Sam Smith earlier in the week, with new titles through to November 2008. Seems like a good opportunity to pick up where I left off last time...

Glancing down the new listing, I see that Orbit are putting out a couple of new series. Well, new to the UK, anyway. The first is the Castings Trilogy by Australian author Pamela Freeman. Orbit have had great success in recent years by importing ready-published series from Down Under and releasing them in quick succession in the UK, which is a great business model for building a fan-base as it keeps the enthusiasm-levels fresh. Look for the first two of those, Blood Ties [Amazon] and Deep Water [Amazon] in June and October '08, with the third part to follow around about September '09 (according to the schedule on Pamela's website).

The second is a feisty-heroine supernatural romance type series that's already established in the US: the 'Mercedes Thompson' ("VW Mechanic and Shapechanger") books by Patricia Briggs. Moon Called [Amazon] will be first up, in June, followed by Blood Bound [Amazon] in July and Iron Kissed [Amazon] in August. Much more Jo's sort of thing that mine, I have to admit, but she does tend to throw anything really good at my head and demand that I read it, so you never know.

A few more feisty-heroine supernatural romance type titles in the offing as well, with new books from Jennifer Rardin, Lilith Saintcrow and Kelley Armstrong, so between these and the entire Gollancz Romancz list, Jo should be anticipating a full reading schedule herself next year.

But these are the titles that I'm personally looking forward to trying to shoe-horn into my reading schedule:

• Charlie Huston's new 'Joe Pitt' novel, Half the Blood of Brooklyn [Amazon] will be published in February. Good old supernatural investigation, without the excessive snogging and all the rest of that girly stuff. Much more my shot of bourbon... ;)
• The Execution Channel [Amazon] by Ken MacLeod appears in paperback in February as well. I've had the hardback on my 'godsdammit, you have got to make time for these...' shelf since publication. The paperback has to be read...
• A new Dresden Files title, Small Favour [Amazon] is out in April, the first time Orbit will have published Jim Butcher in hardback. So that's a double-dose of Harry Dresden early next year, then, what with the paperback of White Night [Amazon] appearing in January...
• Black Ships [Amazon] by debutant Jo Graham sounds like an intriguing historical fantasy: a girl with the power of oracle journeys the ancient Middle East in the company of an exiled Trojan prince... could be interesting.

That's pretty much the cream of the crop, personally speaking. And a good crop it looks like being, too, especially with the rest of the titles on the schedule - lots of new series fantasy and a few re-issues sprinkled in for good measure - weighing in as well.

Incidentally, any other publishers who happen to glance this way, by all means feel free to send me your schedules and I'll do my best to give 'em a similar once-over...

Recommended Reading: 'Dusk' and 'Dawn' by Tim Lebbon

Tim Lebbon's fantasy duology gets a definite recommendation from yours-truly: if you're a fan of dark, menacing, refreshingly cliché-free fantasy that puts an original twist on the classic tropes and has some fascinating characterisation along the way, then these are two titles that you should seriously consider.

Lebbon is primarily a horror writer - with over 20 published novel or novella-length titles to his name to-date - and in Dusk and Dawn he brings his horror writer's perspective and sensibilities to bear on the classic fantasy quest scenario. The result is a work of fantasy fiction that's midnight-dark, rock-salt gritty and bleaker than the Pennine Moors in mid-winter (I mentioned this to the author in an email. "They don't call me 'Grim Tim' for nothing!", he cheerily quipped in reply...)

His world - focusing in these two volumes on the continent of Noreela, but with hints that far distant lands lie beyond - is a pretty grim place, for a start. Three hundred years ago two psychotic, power-hungry Mages tried to take possessession of the natural magic of the land and twist it to their own ends. The land responded by withdrawing magic from the populace and as a result the natural order has been slowly decaying and dying for three centuries, until it's finally reached the crisis point that sparks the narrative.

Now, one young man might just hold the seed of magic within him; he might just be able to restore the power to the world and halt the worldwide rot, but the Mages have other ideas. After 300 years of exile in the frozen northern wastes they're intent on returning to Noreela to wreak bloody vengeance on the foes that exiled them so long ago. Because they've sensed that magic might be on the verge of return as well, and this time they want to make sure they take it for themselves, keep it, and use it to destroy everything they find in their path.

It sounds like a pretty standard fantasy scenario in many respects, but Lebbon has gone to a great deal of effort to make sure that his world is anything but fantasy-standard. There are no elves, dwarves, goblins or dragons here, nor any of the miriad cast of Tolkienesque stock stereotypes that litter so many fantasy novels.

Instead we're introduced to an assortment of weird and wonderful creatures and beasties: organic-mineral machinery, narcotic fledge demons, giant sentient tumble-weeds (which are a lot more unpleasant than they sound), sand-dwelling swarmiform nasties; a whole menagerie of twisted things that are symptomatic of a land whose spirit is dying and slowly going insane.

Through this blighted world, the main characters - for the main part as screwed-up a bunch of misfits and misanthropists as ever you're likely to find in fantasy fiction - stumble onwards towards their dimly-perceived, largely instinctive goals; lacking the bog-standard mentor-guidance that so many fantasy heroes are so conveniently provided with; lacking any incredible powers of survival above and beyond their own wits and skills.

And they need to draw on all those wits and skills to survive, beset as they are by implacable, genuinely deadly enemies on all sides: not only do they have to contend with the Mages and their Krote armies, but they also have to evade the fatal attentions of the Red Monks; an order of quasi-religious, sociopathic killers bent on eradicating all traces of magic from Noreela in order to ensure that the Mages can never be victorious.

The plot itself is tight, tense and genuinely suspenseful; right up to the denouement you really have no definite idea which way things are going to go. And that, in itself, is something of an achievement given how familiar so many readers are with the Campbellian uber-hero plot mechanism that lies at the core of so many fantasy sagas, whatever their external window-dressing.

The one thing that the first two Noreela books don't come equipped with though, is laughs. As I've said already, this is dark, grim stuff; reading both volumes in one sitting might actually be too much, however tempted you might be. And by page 300 of volume two I guarantee your psyche will be crying out for something, anything to lighten the tone, but Lebbon is relentless; once again demonstrating his horror writers' skills by driving you to the edge of despair along with the characters in the book.

So, to conclude: yes, I'd recommend Dusk and Dawn if you like your fantasy dark and egdy, but do have a Terry Pratchett - or a Robert Rankin, or a Tom Holt, or something - on hand for light relief afterwards. You might just need it...

Author Info: www.timlebbon.net / www.noreela.com
Ordering Info: Amazon.co.uk - Dusk / Dawn
Publication Info: Dusk - Bantam US, Jan 2006 / Dawn - Bantam US, March 2007

Disclosure: Tim Lebbon is a website client of mine, yes. But I only ever call 'em the way I find 'em.

New Arrivals - mid December '07

Another trip to the post office at the weekend, and another personal selection of titles of note from those in the the P.O. Box this time around:

Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

The third and final part of Mr Abercrombie's The First Law, one of the most refreshingly lo-fi fantasy series I've read for years; a wonderful blend of down-and-dirty action, skullduggery, treachery, intrigue and a very dark, witty humour throughout.

I can honestly say that I've enjoyed every word of the saga so far, and can't wait to get stuck into the denouement, which I know has already garnered very positive mentions from some of my genre-blogging compadres.

Just the small Matter of the new Iain M. Banks to finish first, and then I'll be on with this one over the Yuletide break. Will report back anon, and I'll be gutted if this one doesn't make my Books of the Year for 2007 (but hey, no pressure..!)

The Escapement by K.J. Parker

Another trilogy-concluder and another prime example of exactly the sort of character-driven, plot-rich, trope-twisting, wit-infused, magic-free fantasy writing that I find myself enjoying more and more as time goes by; from another of my very favourite authors, too.

I do have to admit though, that on reading the second part of the Engineer saga, Evil for Evil, earlier in the year, I did experience a momentary worry that Parker may have gone off the boil, just a little. Evil for Evil was very long (600+ pages, iirc) and although it was intriguingly convoluted, many of the twists and turns seemed to lead in circles around one or two developmental loci; as a result I didn't feel that the characters or plot developed quite as much as they could have over the course of so large a book.

But The Escapement is reassuringly shorter, weighing in at 407 pages, and I'm hoping that it will be much pithier, and sharper, than its predecessor; everything is now set up for the trigger to be sprung, the fully-formed mechanism to leap into life and the final twist-action to be engaged. Hopefully I'll find time for this one shortly after finishing Last Argument of Kings (although I'll probably try to read a couple of issues of Postscripts in-between, as a palate-refresher...)

Classical Comics: Henry V (Original Text) adapted from William Shakespeare

The folks at Classical Comics very kindly sent me a copy of the full-text version of their debut publication: a graphic adaptation of Bill Shakespeare's Henry V.

If you're not familiar with the Classical Comics project, check out this item on UKSFBN, which explains how they're working to bring classic works of literature to a wider audience by means of publishing two - or in Shakespeare's case, three - editions of a particular title; the idea being that reluctant readers, or those uncomfortable with tackling no-modern English from a standing start - can begin with a simplified, 'Plain Text' edition and then work their way up to the 'Full Text' at their own pace.

And I do love a bit of Shakespeare, me, having studied Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet at school and found it surprisingly accessible, once you get your head around the archaic - yet in places utterly enchanting - linguistic gymnastics required for full appreciation. So I'm looking forward to tucking into Agincourt etc. next time I have a bit of free head-space...

Honourable Mentions:

I'd absolutely love to find the time to read the latest issues of Interzone, Black Static and Murky Depths - all of which have turned up this month - but alas, I'm still working my way through the latest issue of Uncut (I'm a subscriber, so I have to read that one...) so they'll just have to wait a bit longer, I'm afraid.

Hey, I know, I'll sneak 'em into the suitcase for the trip to the in-laws' over Xmas, see what can be done... I'm sure nobody will mind if I read a bit at the dinner table next Tuesday, eh? :)

Cover Artistry: 'The Ten Thousand' by Paul Kearney (Solaris, UK)

A couple of weeks ago, Solaris Books unveiled the cover of the forthcoming (September 2008) Paul Kearney novel The Ten Thousand [Amazon] over on the Solaris blog.

Here's the cover art, with illustration by Chris McGrath:

I love the overall atmosphere that Chris has created here: the colour, tone and texture of the piece is just terrific, as is the depth of the image; with several layers of action and interaction, giving the impression of an ongoing action sequence. I like the overall design as well: the composition and layout adds to and enhances the aesthetic of the cover; typography is suitably strong and stark, not fussy or over-fancy.

Paul Kearney writes very gritty, often dark epic / heroic fantasy, with very strong military content and I think this whole package reflects that general approach very well; certainly much better than any the earlier covers for his Monarchies of God series, which played up the fantasy elements much more, or his Sea Beggars books, which I think maybe tried too hard to play down the fantasy elements and disguise themselves as nautical fiction.

I will admit that when I first saw this cover - I run Paul's website, and he sent me the cover a few weeks back to have a look at - I was rather dubious about pretty-boy on the right-hand side there. But I'm sure there are all sorts of perfectly valid, marketing-driven reasons why a cover ought to include a jolly good-looking chap like that. Maybe there are particular market segments that the publisher wants to appeal to, or maybe the cover is also intended for use in the US market, where character portraits are much more commonly used.

But still... surely that guy is just too darned pretty to have fought in and survived the sort of conflicts that the hardened mercenary warriors in The Ten Thousand will have been involved in? Then again, I haven't read the book yet, so maybe he looks exactly right. We'll see.

Although, with reference to my previous post, I do think that putting the main character in a full-face helm, like the ones the figures in the background are all wearing, would have been better. That would have allowed the reader to associate more strongly with the imagery; imagining themselves inside that helm, marching into battle on some far-flung field... rather than wondering who the male model is, and how he managed to wander into the middle of a battle without getting his stubble-jawed head lopped off...

So, to summarise: a very good cover indeed, with terrific artwork and great atmospheric effect. Well-designed and nicely laid out; only slightly let down by the portrait effect and the male-model subject matter. But I'm sure I'll get over it, because I've read the first few chapters of The Ten Thousand, courtesy of Mr K, and the story so far is shaping up very, very nicely indeed...

Cover Theory: Putting a Face to it.

Here's a question for you: do you think it's a good idea, or a bad idea, to have character portraits - specifically clear, distinct faces - on book covers?

My current theory, which I'd welcome your thoughts on, is this:

I think I'm right in saying that readers tend (however consciously or subconsciously) to identify with the main character of the novel they're reading. In doing so - by picturing themselves in that lead role and mentally role-playing their way through the narrative - they increase their sense of identification and association with the book. Which is a Good Thing, yes?

But a face is a very strong indicator of personality and individuality. So if you put a face on a book cover, won't that create the sense of entity and persona for that character that's distinct and removed from that of the reader? And wouldn't that be a psychological obstacle to the identification of the reader with the character, and result in the lessening of the reader's involvement in the novel?

In which case, surely publishers should avoid portraying characters on the covers of their books? Particularly if it's one of the principle p.o.v. characters, and definitely if it's the main, first-person narrator of the story. Otherwise there's a risk that readers won't immerse themselves fully in the narrative, and won't form such a strong associative bond with the series, or with the author's ongoing body of work. Not such a Good Thing.

Or am I reading too much into the idea of automatic reader-as-character association?

I do know it's something that I tend to do. One of the (many) reasons I'm such a big fan of The Dresden Files (covers by Orbit, example to the right reflected throughout the series: no characters in evidence whatsoever) used to be that I just knew I'd look damn good in that duster coat... but when I read the last installment, I just saw the guy from the TV series (which creates an even bigger dissociation problem than a character on a book jacket, for obvious reasons) in my mind's eye. I was no longer reading the adventures of me-as-Harry-Dresden; I was watching a new TV episode in my head, instead.

Then again, not everyone will have the same subjective experience when reading a book as I do, obviously. And anyway, isn't the quality of the prose, the degree to which the descriptive writing evokes the sense of character, far more likely to generate a sense of deep involvement than any image on the cover?

I have to admit that it's been a personal bugbear of mine for years; one I do keep coming back to. And for now I'm still on the side of 'faces on covers = bad'.

But what do you think?

New Arrivals - early November '07

I'm showing no respect for chronological continuity, I know, but as I was compiling the list of the last couple of weeks' worth of incoming books for the next UKSFBN Books Received item (during the England match on Wednesday, and my musings on that utter bloody fiasco are here, if anyone's even remotely interested...) I re-spotted a few titles that first caught my eye when they came in a couple of weeks ago:

The Family Trade by Charles Stross

Years ago I had an idea for a fantasy saga about a clan of merchant adventurers, which - what with me being a somewhat feckless lad and possessing little actual skill at prose-crafting - I never actually got around to writing. Still, the whole merchant adventurers concept has continued to intrigue me and I think there's some definite mileage in it. Having said that, Raymond E. Feist rather fouled it up in Rise of a Merchant Prince, but I'm hoping that Charles Stross will have made a better fist of it...

This is part one of the Merchant Princes series, and it's taken a while to come out in the UK, as Orbit have preferred to focus on Stross' science fiction, but Tor UK have finally taken the plunge. And so, on to the 'to-be-read' shelves it goes.

Black Magic Woman by Justin Gustainis

Okay, this one's got an intriguingly neo-noir cover by Chris McGrath, for starters. The chap in the shadows is presumably Quincey Morris, supernatural investigator, and I'm guessing that the lass in femme fatale mode is Libby Chastain, white witch, and - in the first of what will presumably grow into an ongoing series - they're trying to free a family from the curse of a practitioner of the dark arts.

Sounds familiar? Well, it probably does, because there is a lot of this stuff about at the moment, obviously. But I am partial to a bit of the old supernatural detectivery à la Jim Butcher, so if this one turns out to be anywhere near as well-written and entertaining as The Dresden Files then I'll be happy to add another to my growing list of authors to watch out for. All depends on how soon I get the chance to give it a proper perusal...

Martin Martin's On the Other Side (UK Proof) by Mark Wernham

Okay, this one has come right out of left-field. Ignoring the fact that the book is dis-graced with what has to be one the worst book covers I've seen in many a long year (I don't know what effect the designers at Jonathan Cape were aiming for, but they seem to have hit 'self-published crap' smack, bang on the head...) the premise sounds like it might have a bit of entertainment potential.

The story is set in an anarchic and dystopian near-future, a government spy is ordered to infiltrate a sinister cult. What ensues is apparently "an astonishing and crazed debut" that "breathes new life into the dystopian tradition ... a skewed and frightening vision of the not-too distant future, but also an unforgettably funny one." The prologue (just read it, only a page and a half) is suitably mysterious as well.

Okay, I'll bite. No idea when, but I'll give this one a go at some point, see what happens. Why not?

New Arrivals - mid November '07

Here's the pick of the crop from my latest trip to the P.O. Box:

Swiftly by Adam Roberts (UK Proof)

A rather intriguing alternate history-meets-literature premise this time out from Adam R: following Gulliver's return from his well-publicised Travels, the British Empire has grown rich on the slave labour of Lilliputians; but France has enlisted the aid of the Brobdingnagians and launched an invasion of the British Isles.

I'm still waiting on confirmation from Adam, but I think the novel is an extended riff on the 'Swiftly' tale first published on SciFiction.com in 2002, which would certainly explain why the new novel has the same title as Adam's Night Shade Books anthology, in which 'Swiftly' (the story) also appears. Confused? You might be...

Shooting War by Anthony Lappé and Dan Goldman

I've been looking forward to seeing this graphic novel adaptation of the original webcomic ever since Joe Gordon heralded it a year ago and I was fortunate enough to be sent a copy by UK publisher Weidenfeld & Nicholson.

It's a vicious satire on America's war in the Middle East, set in 2011 and told from the point of view of a video-blogger who becomes caught up in the ongoing media frenzy after he captures the terrorist bombing of his apartment block on his blog and is catapulted to stardom as a result.

I read a couple of the early webcomic installments and thoroughly enjoyed them. Roll on a bit of free time.

Matter by Iain M. Banks (UK Proof)

Yes, I too have been blessed with a copy of the proof that everyone's been bragging about receiving, and which I'm jolly and properly grateful for my copy of.

Matter is the new Culture novel and I didn't realise that it's the first for seven years, so no wonder it's being billed as the 'science fiction publishing event of 2008'.

All I have to do now is find a slot in the old reading schedule for 593 pages of brand new Banks. Shouldn't be too much of a chore... :)

The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick (UK Proof)

I was first told about this one a while back by Robert's agent, John Jarrold, who very klindly sent me over a couple of proof chapters by email, which I thought were very promising indeed. Gollancz's Simon Spanton has subsequently bought the trilogy for UK publication and now the UK proofs are out...

Judging by my earlier first impressions, this weird-ish (although it could of course get much weirder) fantasy, set on a legendary, 600-year-old sailing ship, should appeal to fans of Scott Lynch, China Miéville, Alan Campbell and co. This one's heading towards the top of the 'to-be-read' list and I'll let you know when I've had a crack.

Gorgeous cover art by Edward Miller as well, which is always a bonus.

Plus:

Black Man by Richard Morgan

The UK paperback of Richard Morgan's Black Man is definitely worth picking up if you haven't already got a copy of the hardback. Highly recommended.

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Good Omens is one of my very favourite comic novels, which I must have read four or five times already. Very nice indeed to see it republished in a handsome hardback edition (and a bargain at only £9.99 - less on Amazon.co.uk, of course...)

Recommended Reading: 'White Time' by Margo Lanagan

Right then, that's two Margo Lanagan collections (this one and Black Juice) read and enjoyed, one more (Red Spikes) still to be savoured.

I have to confess that I went into this volume assuming that it wasn't likely to be the strongest of the three because the stories were all written with a younger reading audience in mind. I therefore rather thought they would be less thematically surreal or situationally adult, but as it turns out there's some very odd-ball situations and some quite adult themes on display throughout. Lanagan clearly isn't a writer who pulls her punches just because her readers are a little on the small side, although she might wear slightly thicker gloves...

Personal highlights: the title story, 'White Time', had some interesting sfnal ideas that weren't dumbed-down by the application of a teenager as narrator / p.o.v. character. 'The Night Lily' and 'Wealth' both had a strong element of the bizarre. 'Dedication' and 'Big Rage' both explored the sort of relationships that you might not normally associate with a teen audience (or perhaps I'm doing the audience an injustice there?) and none of the other stories in the volume contained ideas or concepts that you could accuse of being simplistic. My favourite though was the highly entertaining 'Midsummer Mission', which must surely win the prize for the most entertainingly foul-mouthed fairy to appear in children's literature.

All in all, another very good collection which, if not quite as exotic and rich as Black Juice, definitely has much to recommend it to readers in both the young and not-so young adult age brackets.

Author info: Among Amid While, Margo Lanagan's blog
Ordering info: Amazon.co.uk (my hardback copy set me back all of £6.42, including postage)
Publication info: August 2006 (Eos Hb), originally published October 2000 (Allen & Unwin, Pb still available)

Additional 30.08.07: Ed Ashby has sent me a link to a Sci-Fi Wire interview with Lanagan on the subject of Red Spikes.

Cover Debate: Mike Carey's 'Dead Men's Boots'

On the off-chance you've been following the discussion that's sprung up in the comments section of the previous thread and have been getting annoyed flicking back and forth between here and Amazon to compare the two covers and see what all the fuss is about (I know I have), here they both are:

The version on the left is the one that was originally circulated by Orbit. The version on the right is the one that it was replaced with, and that will be on the cover of the book when it hits the shelves towards the end of the month.

Please feel free to add your own comments on the relative merits of the two on either this post or the previous one, should you feel the urge.

Schedule Watch: Orbit and Tor UK

I've just received the latest update to the publication schedule for Orbit Books, and I've been hanging on to a schedule that Tor UK sent through a few weeks back.

Personal highlights for me look like they'll be:

Orbit

• Mike Carey's third Felix Castor novel, Dead Men's Boots [Amazon] is almost upon us: publication date September 6th. (Amazon seem to have the wrong artwork there...)
• I've been promising myself that I'll put aside some time to dive into something by Charles Stross and I might just start with The Jennifer Morgue [Amazon], which is also out early next month, in paperback, and follow that up with Halting State [Amazon], which is due in January.
• The third part of K.J. Parker's Engineer Trilogy - The Escapement [Amazon] - will be published in December. Hopefully it'll improve on the rather slow pacing of the second volume (memo to self: pull finger out and post about that one, you finished it weeks ago...)
• I've already read Debatable Space [Amazon], the debut novel by Philip Palmer, which is due to be published in January. Space opera with an acid twist, well worth trying out.
• Jim Butcher's next Dresden Files novel, White Night [Amazon] is another January title. One for the must-read shelf.
• And who isn't looking forward to Matter [Amazon], the new Iain M Banks Culture novel? Due February.

That'll do for Orbit for now. I'll pick a few more from 2008 next time.

Tor UK

• The Waking [Amazon] by T.M. Jenkins looks like an intriguing sf / thriller amalgam. One for the old pool-side, read-til-I-drop holiday later in the year, maybe...
• That man Stross again... Tor are publishing the UK edition of the first part of his Merchant Princes series, The Family Trade [Amazon] will be out in November.

Time to start planning a bit of a to-be-read list re-organisation... :)

'Matter' by Iain M Banks - cover art revealed

My mate Ed Ashby seems to have managed a bit of a coup. Or at least, I'm assuming so as I haven't seen the cover art for the brand new Culture novel, Matter [Amazon] splashed across all the sf news blogs just yet.

In fact, I don't know if it's even official. It's on the Little, Brown website, sure, but there hasn't been a post to the Orbit Books blog... so either this is actually an early draft artwork that some LB website intern has managed to upload by mistake and the guys at Orbit are going to kill me, or it really is the finished product and very few others have seen it yet, in which case, full kudos to Ed!

Of course, the other possibility is that I've had my head under a rock, everyone has seen this already and the previous two paragraphs - plus the newsbite I just posted to UKSFBN - will come back to haunt me (cue a rash of comments with links to 'New Banks cover' posts written months ago...)

But just in case this is still news to a few folks, here's the artwork:

Update, 19:05 hrs: Yup, it's official!

Subterranean edition of Steven Erikson's 'Gardens of the Moon'!

File under: Want One!

Subterranean Press have just announced that they'll be publishing a limited edition of the first volume of Steven Erikson's incredible Malazan Books of the Fallen series, Gardens of the Moon, with brand new illustrations by Michael Komarck.

Two editions: numbered hardback (500 copies, $125) and lettered, tray-cased hardback (52 copies, $300) and they've dropped very strong hints that they'll be publishing the rest of the series in due course.

Given that this is one of my very favourite series (even if I haven't quite found the time to read the latest two instalments quite yet) and that the first three books in the series weren't actually published in hardback in the UK, I reckon this would make a particularly nice addition to the old hardback library. Mind you, so would the Subterranean editions of the first two in Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards series (and I've already missed out on the first of those, so I'd have to hunt it down via a dealer, which will obviously inflate the price) and a whole lot of other stuff. And it's a helluvva financial commitment across the whole series of ten books. Time to check the lottery results... nope, not a millionaire this week.

Decisions, decisions...

Reminder: BFS Awards 2007 - voting deadline looming

Just a quick memo to fellow members of the British Fantasy Society to remind you all that the deadline for voting in this year's BFS Awards is next Wednesday, August 1st, so get your postal ballots sorted out over the weekend or complete the online form, if you haven't done so already. I sent mine in this week (he says, virtuously) and I'm looking forward to the annual round of cheering and friendly barracking that is the awards dinner at Fantasycon, where I think Pete Crowther might be roping me into hosting a table on behalf of PS Publishing (cough Best Small Press Category cough), or something...

Harry Potter and the Mission to Tesco

I read the final Harry Potter installment on Saturday, publication day.

Having managed to avoid all potential spoilers and plot-hints for the past couple of weeks, it was vital that I managed to read the book without any outside interference ruining the event. I've had a good reading experience wrecked for by spoilers a few times before (one case I clearly remember was Iain M. Banks' Use of Weapons) and it's always been dreadfully disappointing. And as I've thoroughly enjoyed the entire Harry Potter series so far - and have invested dozens of hours of precious reading time in getting to the final episode - the last thing I wanted was to end up reading the entire book subconsciously waiting for such-and-such to occur, rather than reading the book as J.K. Rowling presumably intended it to be read.

I therefore formulated and enacted the following minimal human interaction purchasing plan: Out of bed 06.40. Arrive Tesco 07.00. MP3 player on, something suitably raucous - Oasis as it happens - to drown out any possibility of over-hearing some evil bastard of a career shelf-stacker with a grudge against people who can actually read discussing the denouement with his mates just inside the entrance... Enter store. Work out where they've stashed the Potters. Grab a copy of The Book. Head for self-service checkout...

[So far so good. Sticky moment here when Tesco's checkout programming threatened to thwart my carefully laid scheme and a member of staff has to come over and press the right buttons for me. Luckily she didn't say a word about the book. I'm very glad, for both our sakes, as bludgeoning her to death with the new Harry Potter could quite possibly have led to an unacceptable reading-schedule delay due to police interference.]

Right then, purchase complete, mission accomplished. Head for home. Kettle on, large mug of tea and packet of biscuits to hand. Lie back on the sofa, and begin to read...

Okay, why all the rigmarole? Easy: I'm pathologically allergic to spoilers. Paul Raven wondered the other day whether a book that's susceptible to spoilerage is worth reading in the first place, so I'll explain how this unfortunate condition affects me, personally: Well, actually, an allergy to spoilers is probably the wrong way of putting it; I think it's more to do with my having an addiction instead; an addiction to the anticipation of the unknown, to the satisfaction that's gained from the gradual unfolding of narrative events and the corresponding thrill of the moment of eventual revelation.

The way I see it, if an author has crafted a novel so that the plot unfolds in a particular sequence of events, with a specific effect in mind, then it's only right that those events should be discovered by the reader in the sequence that the author intended, wouldn't you say?

Knowing that a particular event is going to happen at some point in the novel - or even the nebulous hint or possibility that something specific might occur - can actually change the way you experience the book, sometimes dramatically, often detrimentally. It can also lessen the impact of other key scenes by drawing the focus of your attention away from them ("Oh, so that's not the bit where so-and-so happens, then..."), and of course, at a very basic level and if the plot element is a key one, it simply ruins the surprise ("Oh, yeah, there it is. Ho, hum...")

I think that it's primarily a question of maintaining the element of mystery. I don't necessarily mean that as in 'whodunnit?', but in a very essential, psychological sense. As Jung said: "Before mystery one retains a certain awe along with the yearning to explore and comprehend." And if that isn't the essence of a good reading experience, then I don't know what is.

So, that's why I hate spoilers. Not because they lessen the intrinsic quality of the book, but because they take away some of the narrative mystery, and in doing so they lessen the power and quality of the reading experience. And I have so little reading time these days that I feel I have to do whatever I can to ensure that everything I read offers the highest quality reading experience possible. Even getting up at 6.40 on a Saturday morning and then reading for eight and a half hours straight, if that's what it takes.

Anyhow, what did I think of the book?

Thoroughly enjoyed this one, too.

No, it's not a work of supreme literary genius. No - as James at Big Dumb Object pointed out - it wasn't perfect in every respect. But you know what? It was 600 pages of bloody good children's / young adult story-telling and it offered a very satisfying conclusion to the series. And given all the hype and the pressure and the sheer weight of expectation on J.K. Rowling's shoulders, then what more could we have possibly asked for? And personally, I can honestly say that I was perfectly happy to turn that last page, finally knowing how it all turned out, and safe in the knowledge that I'd finished the narrative journey in the manner in which J.K. Rowling intended it to be experienced.

Yes, Saturday was a pretty good day. Sunday, I had double chores... :(

Highly Recommended Reading: 'Scar Night' by Alan Campbell

I've been meaning to read Alan Campbell's debut novel, Scar Night [Amazon] ever since I received a proof copy from Macmillan / Tor UK about a year ago, but for some reason there always seemed to be just one more book to go before I got around to it. But now I have, and I'm extremely glad indeed that I finally made the effort.

There's a distinctly Miévillean air to the setting for Scar Night: the city of Deepgate squats astride a vast and quite literal abyss - suspended from and supported by a network of immense chains, with streets made of rope and plank bridges and buildings that exist in permanent danger of toppling to the darkness below - into which the city's dead are cast, in order (so the holy books of the priests tell Deepgate's populace) to swell the ranks of an army being gathered by the god Ulcis so that he might storm the gates of heaven, overthrow the usurper who cast him down, and lead his followers to glory. It's a wonderfully gothic, sumptuously insane vision: a city driven to exist on the constant brink of disaster by the dictates of religion (read into that as much metaphor as you like).

The city - and by extension the novel - is populated by a varied cast of eclectic and fantastical characters. The prinicpals and supporting cast largely comprise: two angels (one, Dill, is a callow youth struggling to find both acceptance and a place in his world; the other, Carnival, is a periodic murderer struggling to avoid being slain for her crimes), Rachel Hael the Spine assassin (assigned to guard and train the young angel), Presbyter Sypes the Patriarch of the temple (grown old and bent over by the weight of the secrets on his shoulders), Devon the Poisoner (a twisted genius and mastermind behind the city's very worst and nastiest weaponry who is gradually falling prey to his own alchemical experimentation), Mr Nettle the net-scavenger (who loses his daughter to the abyss but vows to regain her... if only he can first find and regain her soul) as well as diverse guardsmen (red-shirts, all), aristocratic aeronauts, Heshette tribesmen (the city's ancient and implacable foe), the priests of the temple and their Spine guards (who are all 'tempered' to remove any trace of emotion... well, all but Rachel, that is) and a few more besides, whose roles are somewhat central to the unfolding of the plot, and so will have to remain shrouded in mystery for now.

The prose itself is very good indeed. Alan Campbell's writing is very easy to read, and the visuals come thick and fast. He blends character development, background information, plot exposition, atmospheric description and action scenes with with most definite aplomb. All in all, he writes with the easy, flowing style of an expressive, imaginative, confident writer; a style that's all the more impressive when you occasionally remember that this is still his first debut. If he's this good now then I look forward to reading his work in five or six books' time, by which time he should be superb.

Highly recommended to fans of China Miéville, Jeffrey Ford, Jeff Vandermeer, K.J. Bishop, Steph Swainston, Scott Lynch... you know, the usual crowd. One to watch in years to come as well, definitely, starting with the second part of The Deepgate Codex, whenever that one's due...

Author info: www.alancampbell.co.uk / anurbanfantasy.blogspot.com
Ordering info: Amazon
Publication info: May 4th 2007 (paperback edition), Tor Books, UK

Recommended Reading: 'The Music of Razors' by Cameron Rogers

The Music of Razors [Amazon] is an incredibly assured, elegantly crafted debut novel from an Australian author who shows a very great deal of promise indeed.

It's also an automatic candidate for the much-maligned 'New Weird' sub-genre tag; taking as its premise the idea that before the Fall an angel with the power and responsibility to assign power and responsibility to other angels was un-made by the Godhead. Banished from Creation for the heinous crime of murdering one of its brethren it has been condemned to un-being; it has no name, no sigil of its own, not even a memory in the mind of the Godhead to mark its passing.

Now, in the modern day, the angel is seeking to re-establish itself; working through the machinations of its human agents - that were first set in motion in the nineteenth century - using 'instruments' forged from the very stuff of angels, instruments with the power to create and destroy, meld and change, at the user's will. A series of lives become enmeshed in the un-angel's quest for self and none of them remain unchanged or unscathed as a result of their involvement, however deliberate or unwitting it may be.

It's a powerful concept, and the story itself is powerfully told. Cameron Rogers' writing is wonderfully rich in metaphor, incredibly evocative in its description. If I'd make one criticism it's that the final third of the book is perhaps too rich in ideas for its own good. In places it felt as though the author was so caught up in the his vision that the stylistic element of the novel was rather allowed to take over from the plot. Not that the denouement was entirely deus ex machina, but the half-expected, half hoped-for cataclysmic confrontation never quite seemed to materialise and the conclusion was, to my mind at least, perhaps just a little too easy?

Putting that aside though, this is definitely a novel you should read if you enjoy well-written prose, novels of ideas, or any of the authors I mentioned in my earlier On Fantasy and a Preference for Fantastical Fiction post, if only to get in on the ground floor with an author whose star is going to rise and rise. I look forward to Cameron Rogers' next offering with eager anticipation.

Author info: www.cameron-rogers.com
Ordering info: Amazon
Publication info: May 2007, Del Rey Books, US.

Highly Recommended Reading: Neil Gaiman's 'Fragile Things'

I thoroughly enjoyed Neil Gaiman's latest collection of short stories (plus one novella, and a smattering of poetry), Fragile Things - Short Fictions and Wonders, as I rather suspected I would.

Given the sheer variety and frequency of Gaiman's major projects (novels, comic series, movies, theatre, audio performances, you name it...) it's almost a surprise to find that he actually has time to sit down and put pen to paper on a short story these days; but I'm very glad that he does, because the results rarely disappoint. It does, however, mean that his collections (or miscellanies) are rather few and far-between; there are but two of them, in fact. The first, Angels and Visitations (later re-released in an expanded edition as Smoke and Mirrors, of course) was published by Dreamhaven back in 1993, so it's been quite a wait for this, his second.

Well worth waiting for, though. I picked up Fragile Things because I was in the mood for something wonderful, and wonder is what I got. From the opening of the clever and charming Doylesque-Lovecraftian collusion 'A Study in Emerald' through to the conclusion of the moral and mythic novella 'The Monarch of the Glen' - which tells the tale of Shadow, a couple of years after the unfolding of events in Amercian Gods - I think I can honestly say that there wasn't single piece in Fragile Things that I didn't enjoy.

Particular favourites though, were 'The problem of Susan', 'Inventing Aladdin' and 'Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire' and the aforementioned 'A Study in Emerald'. I think I've always been drawn to the way that Gaiman tells the stories within stories, or the stories behind the well-known stories; this for me was the essence of The Sandman and has been Gaiman's best riff ever since; one that he continued to play on to great effect in American Gods (and, as I understand it, Anansi Boys, although I haven't had the time to appreciate that one just yet).

Would the non Gaiman-acolyte gain as much from this collection? I think so. It's a rich and varied assortment of interesting words put together in all sorts of entertaining, intriguing, amusing, evocative and wonderful (and wonder-full) ways. What's not to like?

Author info: www.neilgaiman.com
Ordering info: Amazon
Publication info: April 5th (pb edtn), Headline Review (UK)

Exo-Review: Colin Greenland on Margo Lanagan's 'Red Spikes'

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed Margo Lanagan's quite wonderful collection Black Juice last year, I've been determined to complete her triptych of short fiction collections by getting hold of copies of both White Time (which, actually, I've just ordered from an Amazon seller for the handsome sum of £6.42 - nice!) and the third volume, Red Spikes, which as you can see from the pic is graced with some particularly fine cover art.

I'm particularly determined to acquire the latter (which isn't due until October; from Knopf in the US, unless Gollancz schedule a UK edition in the meantime..?) after reading this review on Strange Horizons by Colin Greenland, who's no slouch when it comes to wordsmithery either, let me tell you.

Also in this week's Strange Horizons reviews, Richard Larson reviews David Devereux's Hunter's Moon, which I read recently. It's a well-written review and I do I agree with much of Richard's analysis on the book. The weekly update email also promised a Paul Raven review of the Elastic Press antho Extended Play, but that must be appearing later in the week.

On fantasy and a preference for fantastical fiction

"If more writers didn't write 'fantasy' so self-consciously and follow imagined 'rules' of the genre then the whole thing might not be so hidebound and repetitive. It should be the most creative writing around but is frequently the most conservative."

From an interview with Steph Swainston that I've just posted over on UKSFBN. She also says:

"What I find jarring in fantasy is 'magic'. It's usually a way of systemising lazy plot devices."

It's always a question of subjective taste - horses for courses, each to their own etc. - but I do have to say that over the past few years, the sort of fiction I've most enjoyed reading recently has been exactly that: fantasy in name, but without all the trappings and paraphernalia of magic, or a magical 'system': no spells, rituals, wizards, glowing swords, enchanted artefacts, elves, dwarves, dragons, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

A few examples off the top of my head: China Miéville (Perdido Street Station etc.), K.J. Bishop (The Etched City), Scott Lynch (The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies), Alan Campbell (Scar Night; which I'm currently reading and thoroughly enjoying), Jeff Vandermeer (Veniss Underground), Jeffrey Ford (The Physiognomy), and indeed, Steph Swainston (The Year of Our War and No Present Like Time)... oh, and yes, I do realise I've just reeled off a list of mainly 'new weird'-type authors. I'm obviously a mainly 'new weird'-type reader.

The reason these books are labelled 'fantasy' is the incredibly rich sense of the fantastic that they're steeped in: exotic settings sometimes utterly unlike our own mundane world, populated by esoteric and idiosyncratic characters and fantastical creatures, or entities with powers and abilities beyond those of your average mortal man; an atmosphere that's strangely alien and weirdly compelling and that opens up huge vistas of imagination to your mind's eye. All the stuff you'd presumably expect to find in the pages of any fantasy novel - and do to varying degrees - but, well, without the sound of dice rolling in the background...

Having said that, there are a number of 'traditional' fantasy authors whose work I do still enjoy - or would undoubtedly still enjoy if I actually had the time to read them - George R.R. Martin, Steven Erikson, Greg R. Keyes, Glen Cook - as well as a few new fantasy authors who are writing in a more traditional style but whose work I nevertheless have found to be very rich and satisfying, such as Joe Abercrombie (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, who has a wonderful habit of twisting classic fantasy tropes until they beg for mercy) and Brian Ruckley (Winterbirth, a debut that, to be truthful, could have been enriched by the inclusion of stronger fantastical elements, yes, but promises much for volumes to come).

It all comes down to the quality of the writing, obviously, which in itself is the result of a blend of natural talent and sheer, bloody-minded hard graft; the honing and polishing of prose far beyond the "it'll do" state that seems so commonly acceptable to some. So I think Steph Swainston's point about "lazy plot devices" is especially pertinent. There are a number of fantasy authors - whose names are well know and need not be reeled off here - for whom the grazing of the cash cow seems to be much more important than the exploration of new territories, the uncovering of rich troves of concept and idea, the sheer joy of expressing an unbounded imagination. "It'll do, it's set in the same world, the same characters are back again, it's got lots of magic in it, they'll love it."

But then, perhaps you actually need a fair-sized dollop of that sort of thing to keep the genre viable. If we didn't have the cash-cow-herders churning out their same-old, same-old (to return briefly to one of yesterday's themes) to sell in vast numbers to their legions of adoring fans, then genre sections in bookstores would rapidly shrink, and publishers would lose the little leeway they currently have to bring out the more interesting work alongside the mainstream mass-market stuff.

Or perhaps it's just the way the genre market is structured that naturally lends itself to a gradual, progressive filtering process. You start - as nearly everyone starts - with the obvious, in-yer-face stuff: Tolkien, Eddings, Brooks, Goodkind, Jordan et. al. but then - and this is the important bit - you have a choice:

You can, quite happily, wallow around in the shallows for the rest of your reading life, just grazing on what's put in front of you by the booksellers and bean-counters, then move on to nothing more challenging than whatever comes along from the next batch of imitators.

Or, you can evade the nets of advertising and '3 for 2' promotions and wade a little deeper, guided by the online word-of-mouth of the brave souls who have ventured forth before you, to see what's lurking out there, amongst the reefs and rocks...

Come on in, the deep water's lovely... :)

Recommended reading: 'Unbecoming' by Mike O'Driscoll

Unbecoming and Other Tales of Horror is a rather excellent collection of thirteen short pieces linked by common themes - loss, decay, trauma, collapse - and a very definite common atmosphere - worry, unease, imbalance, dread - that makes for an entirely disturbing few hours' reading.

The fact that my few hours were split over a plane trip to and from Northern Ireland and a series of staccato sessions since has done nothing to lessen the powerfully unnerving impression the collection had on me. Personal favourites included the artfully crafted 'We Will Not Be Here Yesterday', the simple but powerful 'Shadows' and 'Sounds Like', which struck a note of sympathetic resonance... until the denouement.

These stories - indeed all the stories in Unbecoming - are crafted with the intention of unsettling rather than scaring the reader. They're not so much supernatural as unnatural, but they are no less 'horrorful' than a legion of lurching zombies or any number of eldritch monstrosities lurking in dark, dank cellars. You might not feel the urge to look over your shoulder or hide behind the sofa as you read, but you'll probably start wondering just what is going on in the deepest, darkest minds of your friends, neighbours, co-workers, family members...

I fully agree with the prevailing opinion that horror's most natural form of expression is the short story. Mike O'Driscoll - an otherwise quite charming and pleasant chap who lives an almost entirely psychosis-free life in rural Wales, I should point out - is one of the most natural and expressive exponents of that form who is writing in the UK today.

Fans of Ramsey Campbell, Conrad Williams, Nicholas Royle, Michael Marshall Smith et. al. take note: if you haven't got a copy of Unbecoming on your shelf then you've got a gap in your collection. Get in touch with Elastic Press, pronto, and they'll sort you out with a very reasonably-priced (£6.00 plus £1.50 p&p) patch.

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