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...

'Microserfs' by Douglas Coupland - Click for ordering info from Amazon.co.uk

'JPod' by Douglas Coupland - Click for ordering info from Amazon.co.uk

...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...

January 4, 2008 | Filed Under Books, Cover Art | 10 Comments

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?

November 24, 2007 | Filed Under Books | Leave a Comment

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

'Dead Men's Boots' by Mike Carey - Click for ordering info from Amazon.co.uk

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... :)