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: '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.
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? :)
More follow-ups and reaction to the current 'quality fantasy' debate
UK fantasy author Joe Abercrombie has added his own thoughts on the topic, highlighting George R.R. Martin's ongoing Song of Ice and Fire series as a good example of how a concentrated, focused dose of innovation within a narrative that's structured on familiar fantasy themes and tropes can produce impressive results. As Joe says: "Epic fantasy is, in book terms, extremely successful and so it tends also to be conservative. But that doesn't mean you can't offer something new while still working within the form," and adds a few pithy thoughts on the non-desirability of too much innovation, which will do nothing to diminish his burgeoning reputation as a notorious potty-mouth...
Meanwhile, in the comments on my previous post, Mark Newton - of the UK's Solaris Books - points out the hard commercial realities afflicting the publishing industry at the moment, due to the mergers of various conglomerates into even larger super-conglomerates and the internal pressures that this generates, which he hopes will allow mid-list publishers - like, say, the UK's Solaris Books - to step in and offer a wider range of material to exactly those readers who are crying out for more than just the same-old, same-old.
And in the same thread, David Hebblethwaite wonders: "...how many writers of unchallenging fantasy actually do make a comfortable living from their writing? Are there any writers of good quality material who make a living; and, if so, what differentiates them from writers of similar stuff who do not?" Good questions. Any writers out there care to comment?
Also, SF Diplomat, pondering the issue further, asks whether the problem only applies to fantasy and why, indeed, that should be the case: "...why is it fantasy's job to be weird and different? Isn't the problem, from Harrison's perspective, that there aren't enough genre publications in general that are all that interested in The Other?" And he's rewarded in the comments on that piece with a visit from the man himself, who elucidates further on his original polemic: "To me, the very word 'fantasy' is what's at issue here, & my rant really asks the question, 'How do we bring the fantastic back to fantasy?' ... It's my contention that, by normalising and rationalising 'myth' and 'magic' the sub-genre you call 'non-weird populist' fantasy has become actually anti-fantastic. As a result, the appetite for the genuinely fantastic is less well served."
And finally, a certain Mr GBH Hornswoggler, Gent. is terribly, terribly bored by yet another debate on the death of quality genre fiction. Well dammit Mr Hornswoggler, but if we all spent as much time reading and writing blogs as you do then we'd all be just as well-informed and just as adroitly cynical about the whole jejune mess, I'm sure. But until that happy day, you'll just have to excuse some of us for being shallow... ;)
Mind you, our Mr H also makes a rather important point, opening with: "Insert my standard rant about the world primarily needing books that real readers will want to spend their own money on." Yes, this is exactly what we do need. As I posted in the comments thread back on Mr Chadbourn's original piece this morning: 'Without a receptive audience, any brave pioneers leaving the beaten track will run the risk of ending up in the literary wilderness - legends in their own literary lifetime, perhaps, but more than likely unable to sustain a decent income.'
So what we need to do is prime the readers to be more receptive to the sort of quality work that we're all pretty much in agreement here about wanting to see.
Again, more on that later in the week. Hopefully.
Client website update: full Joe Abercrombie site goes live
Well folks, here it is: the full version of www.joeabercrombie.com, including an extract from Last Argument of Kings, the third and final part of Joe's rather superb The First Law trilogy, which hasn't been published anywhere else to-date.
It's been an absolute pleasure working with Joe on the site-build. As a film editor by trade he's got a very keen eye for both visual arrangement and fine detail, so his feedback and suggestions have been great all the way along. And as I've always confessed to not counting graphic design as one of my greatest strengths (but dammit, I'll build you a website that works) I've really appreciated the input.
And I reckon the end result is not too shabby at all, if I do say so myself... :)
New client website goes live: JoeAbercrombie.com
Another initial page of content went live as of yesterday; it's been a good couple of weeks on the work-front. This one is for a brand new client, and someone I'm particularly thrilled to be building a website for, given that I really, really enjoyed his first book or two.
Currently www.joeabercrombie.com is a holding page containing some information about the first two books in his The First Law series: The Blade Itself and Before They Are Hanged, as well as a mailing list sign-up form and an email contact address. Joe and I will be working on a much more comprehensive site later in the year; the target is June / July (ish), work-load (Joe's) permitting.
Again, it's a simple design, using the parchment background to reflect the cover-theme of The Blade Itself. The only thing I might do differently, thinking about it, is improve the header, try to put it into a gothic-serif font to try to match the book's lettering. That would look better, but give Google less relevancy-matching to get its teeth into, but then the primary domain should grab Google's attention quite nicely. I'll think I'll see how it goes for now.
And as always, any comments or feedback - or thoughts as to what sort of content you'd like to see on the finished site - would be gratefully received!
Highly Recommended Reading - Joe Abercrombie and Joe Hill
I've read two books so far this year* and they've both been quite wonderfully enjoyable, in quite distinct and different ways. Here are a couple of mini-reviews** to whet your appetite.
Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
This is the sequel to my fantasy read of 2006, The Blade Itself [Amazon], and what a bloody marvellous sequel it is too. There's a rather unfortunate phenomenon that can strike a new author - something like 'second book syndrome' - whereby said author spends years honing their debut novel, a publisher buys it, then the publisher points out that the sequel really ought to be churned out in months rather than years, the eager-to-please new author complies, standards plummet as a result and the second book iend up a bit of a dog compared to the first.
But I'm delighted to report that there's not so much as a whiff of it in evidence here as Abercrombie successfully builds on the firm foundation of his debut to deliver a second installment that's equally entertaining, if not even more so. In the process he treats us to the same levels of superbly rich prose, desert-dry wit, excellent characterisation and effortless dialogue, all topped off with lashings of action, adventure, drama, conflict, politics, intrigue, love, laughter... you name it.
Admittedly, it won't be to absolutely everyone's taste; those who insist on the cut-and-dried, pre-meditated plotting of a bog-standard kiddie quest or lacklustre dragon-taming saga will be sorely disappointed... which is reason enough for celebration of its own accord, if you ask me. Instead, Abercrombie seems to take great delight in subverting some of the most seemingly-sacred of fantasy tropes and twisting our expectations wherever feasible. And I'll tell you for nowt, there's nothing I like more than a story that can take me by surprise.
Worth reading for one particular scene alone (I won't say which one exactly, but suffice to say it involves Jezal dan Luthar in the role of distinctly embarassed eaves-dropper), the whole book is a refreshingly delightful antidote to the painfully trite, staid and predictable fare that the bulk of the fantasy genre is so often guilty of delivering (and there be any greater crime in fantasy writing than predictability?)
So anyway, if you're a fan of any sort of fantasy fiction - but especially the sort of dark, gritty, character-driven fantasy fiction written by the likes of George R.R. Martin, Steven Erikson, David Gemmell, Paul Kearney, Glen Cook, Grey Keyes and co. - then you should definitely be reading this series. Pick up The Blade Itself first, or you'll miss out on a whole lot of essential story development, but go on... treat yourself.
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
This is one of the most enjoyable novels - never mind most enjoyable horror novels - that I've read in a very long time. It's about an ageing rock star by the name of Judas Coyne and a girl Georgia - the latest in his string of young goth-girlfriends - and what happens to them when Judas decides he's going to buy a dead man's suit on eBay... which comes complete (unbeknown to him) with the dead man's vengeful spirit, and a whole truckload of trouble.
As plot foundations go, it isn't a blindingly original one, but then it doesn't particularly need to be; because on top of this simple but effective premise, Hill builds a novel of superb characterisation and rising tension that builds to a denouement of highly cathartic power. Judas Coyne is haunted and his story will end up haunting you; it's packed full of imagery that's so rich, so vividly cinematic that it'll be almost impossible to shift from your head... as much as you might actually want to in some instances, because let's not forget that this is a horror novel, and bad things do happen to the people in it. Not one for the squeamishly faint-hearted.
Something else I genuinely enjoyed and appreciated was that Heart-Shaped Box is a straight-up, out-and-out supernatural horror story. Not one of those tales in which the ghost might be real, but then again might just be a figment of the protagonist's deranged imagination and hey, you decide, dear reader.
No, Joe Hill makes it damn clear that what's haunting Judas Coyne is not merely the psychotic summation of his past mistakes, internalised guilt and existential fear of losing his hair; it's a fucking ghost. A spectre, a spook, the immortal essence of a dead man; one that's now hell-bent on seeking revenge for... well, I'll not say, for fear of giving away too much too soon. But suffice to say, the bad thing in this story is something that's come back from beyond the veil of death, and it isn't going to go be sent packing with some sprinkled holy water and a few mumbled homilies.
In a comment on an earlier post John Berlyne said that he thinks this book is "...the best candidate in a long time to reinvigorate the novel length horror market". I do hope he's right and that the book's future success - I predict awards by the shelf-load - doesn't just spawn the usual raft of pale imitators, the same sort of schmaltz that dragged the same horror market down and almost knocked it right out in the mid-'90s.
And I just hope that when the movie version inevitably appears they do full justice to a story that's just crying out to be put right up there on the big screen. One of the worst things I've ever seen on television was a guy who looked like '80s TV comedian Russ Abbot playing the supposedly anti-Christ-like Flagg in Stephen King's The Stand. If some numpty studio exec signs the likes of Tom "the nutter" Cruise or Keanu "the plank" Reeves up to play Judas Coyne, I think I might have to top myself and then sell them my suit on eBay...
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*Yeah, I know, but I get far less leisure reading time now than when I had to make a 40-min each way commute to and from work...
** Making them the first I've written in, oooh, must be eighteen months... about time I got back in that particular saddle, I reckon.
Reading List - Mid Jan '07
I've just finished Joe Abercrombie's Before They Are Hanged - which was wonderful by the way, more on that later - and so it's decision-time again.
I've already decided on Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box as my next read - I love his short fiction and I'm just too intrigued to see what he can do when he's got the larger canvas of a novel to play with to put it off for too long - but after that I'll be open to suggestions again.
So, here are my next twelve most likely 'to-be-read' items. Please feel free to shout out if you've read something on the list and would like to add your vote of confidence: no plot spoilers, please, but do feel free to suggest other authors and / or titles it reminded you of, that sort of thing.
- Evil For Evil by K.J. Parker [Amazon] (most likely candidate at the moment)
- The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction ed. by George Mann [Amazon]
- The Summoner by Gail Martin [Amazon]
- The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes [Amazon]
- The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt [Amazon]
- Nocturnes (short fiction collection) by John Connolly [Amazon]
- Unbecoming: And Other Tales of Horror by Mike O'Driscoll [Amazon]
- Coalescent by Stephen Baxter [Amazon]
- Stamping Butterflies by Jon Courtenay Grimwood [Amazon]
- The Memory of Whiteness by Kim Stanley Robinson [Amazon]
- Indigo by Graham Joyce [Amazon]
- No Dominion by Charlie Huston [Amazon]
Of course, the final decision will rest on my mood at the point of finishing Heart-Shaped Box... but please feel free leave whatever comments you feel are appropriate...
Best books of 2006 - a personal selection
Every January, I open a brand new spreadsheet and start making a list - one that I faithfully promise myself I will update both regularly and diligently - of all the books I've read over the course of that year. Every March or so I start forgetting to keep track. And then every December I sit down to have a think about writing some sort of 'review of the year' piece, and end up wishing I'd bloody remembered to keep the damn list up-to-date for a change...
2006 was no exception, but I'm going to gamely have a stab at remembering my personal 'best of' without the benefit of an electronic aide-memoire. I'm working on the theory that if a book made a strong enough impression on me that I still remember it by now, then it must have been a good 'un.
So here, in no particular order, are the seven titles that made the biggest impression on me over the course of '06. Bear in mind, these are books I read in '06, not necessarily books published in '06. And as usual, you can click the cover images to obtain ordering information etc. from Amazon.co.uk, should you feel so inclined.
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
I read some damn good fantasy fiction last year - including Brian Ruckley's Winterbirth, K.J. Parker's Devices and Desires, Sarah Ash's Children of the Serpent Gate, Paul Kearney's This Forsaken Earth and Scott Lynch's quite fabulous The Lies of Locke Lamora (see below) - and Joe Abercormbie's The Blade Itself was right up there with the very best of them, definitely.
Abercrombie's plotting is tight and fast-paced, his settings are vivid without being fussy or over-detailed, his characterisation is excellent (Logen Ninefingers and Glokta the Inquisitor, in particular, are both a joy to read) and he really has hit the dialogue-nail right on the head. He's a freelance film editor by trade, so maybe it's the skills he uses on a daily basis that have helped him to craft this good a story; one that reads as well as something that you might reasonably expect an author to take at least four or five outings to achieve. Or maybe he's just a natural-born story-teller. Or maybe he's been to the crossroads at midnight, with a laptop in his hand instead of a six-string...
Whatever the reason, he's bloody good. Give him those four or five book's worth of development, and I reckon he'll be frequently spoken of in the same glowing terms that most folks use when discussing (those perennial personal favourites of mine) George R.R. Martin and Steven Erikson. Seriously, if you're a fan of those two - and / or the likes of Paul Kearney, K.J. Parker, James Barclay, Fritz Leiber, Greg Keyes, Robin Hobb, David Gemmell, and so forth - then you should add this to your 'must read' list. Oh, yes.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Quite, quite wonderful stuff here from debut author Scott Lynch. The Lies of Locke Lamora received huge amounts of attention, both before and after publication. The majority has been in the form of extremely well-earned praise; a few nay-sayers have mistaken the praise of others for the fall-out from publisher-generated hype (believe me, most publishers can only dream of being anywhere near that effective). On balance though, the genuine plaudits have won out, and with good reason: this is a cracking read, and one that I'd take no hesitation in recommending to anyone with more than a modicum of taste for the finer things in fantasy literature.
Quite frankly, what's not to like? The eponymous Locke Lamora is the ringleader of a gang of intelligent, witty, charming and imaginative con-men who dub themselves 'the Gentlemen Bastards'. They dwell in the city of Camorr; a blend of medieval Venice, Leiber's Lankhmar and Miéville's New Crobuzon. Said burg is dominated by the shadowy bulk of Capa Barsavi; an old-school gangster with an iron grip on Camorr's criminal underworld, including that segment occupied by Lamora and the other Bastards. Lamora is intimately acquainted with Barsavi's daughter, or has been in the past, and when a challenger to Barsavi's crown arises, he finds himself caught slap-bang in the middle of the ensuing turf-war.
Action, adventure, betrayal and retribution all run riot throughout this extremely well-written, gleefully unpretentious saga; The Lies of Locke Lamora aspired to be a piece of highly entertaining fiction first and foremost, and in that it succeeds more than admirably. Given such a high standard of debut, I predict this author will be going on to even bigger and better things in volumes to come.
What can I say? Heed the praise. Or, if you prefer, believe the hype...
Black Juice by Margo Lanagan
My first exposure to Margo Lanagan's fiction came in the form of a publisher's promotional blad containing the story 'Singing My Sister Down'. I thought I'd give it a go - why not? - and I'm very glad I did, because it turned out to be one of the most memorable pieces of short fiction I've ever read. I'll say no more here. Just pick up a copy of Black Juice in your local bookstore and give this one story a go while you wander around and pretend to browse. You'll see what I mean.
The other highlights, for me, of a very strong collection overall were 'My Lord's Man' (which I think might just be is a prose version of the Irish ballad 'The Raggle-Taggle Gypsy') and 'Red Nose Day', (guaranteed catharsis for anyone who ever suffered a modicum of Coulrophobia; maybe after reading Stephen King's It?) The rest of the collection is highly readable, intelligent and thought-provoking as well, but these two were my particular stand-out picks.
Lanagan's subject matter covers a wide range of themes and tropes and she is not only a superb story-teller but also an incredibly skillful prose crafter. She has a wonderfully economical way with words - hardly a syllable is wasted - and seems to have pretty much perfected the principle of 'show, don't tell'. If you watch carefully, you'll barely detect more than a hint of narrator-delivered exposition; her characters reveal their back-story through dialogue and interaction; there's a bare minimum of unnecessary background detail to get in the way of the focus of the tale. It's perhaps not a technique that will appeal to every reader, but it is one that I particularly like.
In any case, if there are any would-be short fiction writers out there, my advice to you would be: read Black Juice, and learn.
Use Once, Then Destroy by Conrad Williams
Another very strong collection indeed, from one of my favourite British short fiction writers. Conrad Williams might not be quite as big a name as some of his contemporaries, but that's nothing short of a grave injustice if you ask me. I think Williams' prose is just as lyrical, just as compact and spare and emotive as work by the likes of Michael Marshall Smith, Graham Joyce, Nicholas Royle or Geoff Ryman, and it's well worth sampling.
Only, don't do it if you're feeling particularly miserable, because Williams really doesn't do cheerful all that often. In fact, 'bleak' would be a good way of describing the atmosphere that suffuses the majority of his work - dark, disturbed psychology and broken relationships of all sorts seem to be pretty much par for the course.
My favourites (if that isn't too jolly a sentiment in this case) from Use Once, Then Destroy are the sort-of Lovecraftian tale 'The Windmill', along with 'Nest of Salt', which echoes London Revenant; Williams' eerie novel of the lost and dispossessed. This volume also contains his PS Publishing novella, Nearly People, another one well worth taking the time to track down, and is only £12.43 on Amazon at the moment for the Night Shade Books trade hardcover edition: bargain!
Three Days to Never by Tim Powers
A new Tim Powers novel is always a treat to look forward to. The thing is, you never know quite what you're going to get when you dive between the covers; it could be anything from baroque time travel fantasies to voudoun pirate magic, secret agents and desert-dwelling djinn, to far-flung dystopian futures. In this case it's a tale of father and daughter Frank and Daphne Marrity, and the bizarre treasure that his mother - her grandmother - has kept in her garden shed for the past forty years or so.
Of course, very little that you find in a Tim Powers novel is ever as simple or as straightforward as it first seems and Three Days to Never is no exception. Before too many chapters have elapsed, Frank and Daphne find themselves being visited by long-lost relatives, pursued by Israeli secret agents and haunted by spectral creatures and occultists bent on extracting - or retrieving - secret knowledge from them... at all costs.
But as you do rather expect from Powers, it's superbly written throughout and in places is frankly quite astonishing. Never one for playing a straight trope, Powers seems to delight in subverting the reader's expectations and opening up strange new avenues of idea and concept. Add this one to your list as well, and then if you haven't already read them, go buy copies of On Stranger Tides, Dinner at Deviants Palace, The Anubis Gates and Declare as well. Seriously, you've got some catching up to do...
Fly By Night by Frances Hardinge
I've already given this one a mention in my first potted bookshelf entry, but I'll just reiterate a bit here: great storytelling, lively characters, setting, well worth a read whatever your age or literary inclination. A young orphan girl escapes from her dull, boring village after (accidentally!) burning down her uncle and aunt's mill. Armed with nothing but a homicidal goose and a rare ability to read, she is swept up in a bewildering whirlwind of intrigue, revolution, murder and espionage.
Yes, it's a 'young adult' book, but one with plenty of sly word-play nudges in directions that adult readers will appreciate. Yes, it's a fantasy, but it's far from your average, mundane, kiddie-quest, dragon-taming, coming-of-age shtick. It's interesting, it's entertaining, it's well written. It's the best young adult book I read last year (no, I didn't read all that many, but that's beside the point...) and I'll be keeping an eye out for the sequel, definitely.
Every Dead Thing by John Connolly
I'm including this one on the grounds that, yes it might be an oldie-but-goodie, but it's always great to discover a new author, particularly one with a decent amount of back-list to work through.
Connolly's fiction blends elements of crime with slivers of the supernatural; in this, his debut novel, ex-cop turned p.i. and gun-for-hire Charlie Parker re-lives the brutal slaying of his wife and child when similar atrocities raise the spectre of a serial killer on the loose. Parker becomes drawn into a web of sinister mind-games as he desperately tries to bring the loose strands together and somehow double-guess the intentions of a sick and twisted killer. It's a dark and gritty narrative; emotionally brutal in places, somewhat gory but not unnecessarily gratuitous. Just my sort of crime / horror cross-over tale.
And stylistically, Connolly's first novel has a very similar feel to Michael Marshall (Smith)'s Straw Men series, which is no bad thing at all in my book. It's dynamically written, with great pace, action sequences that will have you on the edge of your seat, and a cast of colourful characters that wouldn't be out of place in a well-filmed Hollywood blockbuster. Great stuff, and I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the series.
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So, there you go. My personal picks for '06, and I've already got a fave for '07 lined up in the shape of Joe Abercrombie's follow-up, Before They Are Hanged.
Now, where did I save that spreadsheet..?
New Arrivals - mid December '06
Another batch of books have come in for the Books Received section of UKSFBN, and once again there are a couple of pearls included that I'd particularly like to bring to your attention:
Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
This one's going to cause me a real scheduling headache. Joe Abercrombie's debut novel, The Blade Itself was my definite fantasy highlight of 2006. It was an absolutely superb low-fantasy saga; chock full of action, adventure and incident, shot through with a very dry, witty sense of humour, and with none of the pomposity that the heroic fantasy genre is so prone to. Great reading, absolutely flew through it, Jo loved it as well. Part 2? Hell, yeah! (or, as Jo quite literally said upon picking up the book not ten minutes ago, "oooh! oooh!")
So, this one really demands to be shunted right to the front of my 'must read' queue... except that K.J. Parker's Evil for Evil is already occupying that spot, and I definitely want to read that one for pretty much the same reasons. And then I've got the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, John Connolly's Nocturnes and Gail Martin's The Summoner coming up hard on the rails... damn! Decisions, decisions...
The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes
Another Gollancz proof that arrived in the same batch as the Abercrombie. I've been hearing some mixed background buzz about this one for a while; some say 'good', some say 'not sure'. But it looks like it'll fit into an oeuvre that I do have a definite affection for; you'd probably have to call it 'quasi-Victorian humourous melodrama' or something. Or then again, maybe not...
But you know the stuff I mean, anyway: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Mark Gattiss' The Vesuvius Club - which coincidentally I'd started reading the day before this one turned up - for instance. And I could theoretically include the recent Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by G.W. Dahlquist in there as well, although to be honest that one was comparatively top-heavy on the melodrama and rather devoid of humour.
Hmmm. More headaches...
No Dominion by Charlie Huston
Not one that'll immediatly challenge for must-read top-spot, but a definite medium-term contender. This is the second in Charlie Huston's current series about a vampire-gang-dominated New York; no place for a determined loner vampire like Joe Pitt, who just wants to be left alone to live his un-death in peace. But his staunch neutrality makes him useful - and also potentially dangerous - to a whole range of factions in the continually ongoing gang turf war, so peace and quiet are likely to be two commodities in short supply.
Thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the series, Already Dead, after Jo bought a US copy from Amazon and then hit me with it until I agreed to read it. Urban vamp meets hard-boiled private eye, with everything wrapped up in a dark, grungy atmosphere that you could choke on. Orbit will be releasing the first couple of volumes in the UK early next year.
.
And finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention the three latest titles from PS Publishing, which also came in today: Julian - A Christmas Story by Robert Charles Wilson, Flavors of My Genius by Robert Reed, and The Voyage of Night Shining White by the much talked-about Chris Roberson. All, as it happens, with stunning artwork from a certain Les Edwards (or Edward Miller) as well.
All three look very interesting indeed, so that's three more for the already-groaning t.b.r. shelf... one day I really will have to win the lottery, just so I can actually afford the time to sit down and read all this potentially rather excellent material. I tell you, it's the only way it's ever going to happen...
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