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: '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: '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)
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.
Very Highly Recommended Reading - Red Seas Under Red Skies, by Scott Lynch
I've been sitting here for about twenty minutes trying to work out how to tell you how much I thoroughly enjoyed - no, absolutely loved - Red Seas Under Red Skies, Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bastards follow-up, without committing an act of wanton spoilerage. And you know what? I'm sorry, but I don't think I can do it, so...
This Recommended Reading piece contains spoilers. If you haven't read the book yet and want to avoid them, look away NOW!
There. I hope you have been suitably warned.
I'll start by saying that Red Seas... is one of the very best second novels I've ever read. If anything it's an improvement on the first in the series; which wasn't necessarily guaranteed to be the case, what with the worry that the dreaded 'second novel syndrome' might have struck. By which, I'm alluding to that horrible condition whereby the pressure of deadline and expectation conspires to rob an author of their burgeoning powers at the most critical stage of their fledgling career; resulting in their turning out a far inferior piece of work to the one that they spent six years slaving over to get into print as their debut.
But rest assured that this is most definitely not the case with Red Seas.... Oh, no. Far, far from it.
If you loved The Lies of Locke Lamora and have been crying out for a second instalment that takes the essence of the first novel and builds on the same sword, sorcery and swashbuckling atmosphere - of high adventure in the lowest of low fantasy settings - to create a sequel of equal adrenaline-fuelled excitement and descriptive delight, then your wishes have been answered. Red Seas Under Red Skies is, once again, a caper saga of immense imaginative flair, with a plot that twists and turns at breakneck pace as our heroes hurtle from one sticky situation and death-defying act of derring-do to another.
Locke and Jean have a truly grand plan this time around - a plan that will surely march them headlong into their devoutly hoped-for life of unending ease and luxury - as they prepare to stage the heist of their careers to-date: stealing all they can get their mitts on from one of the most secure and reputedly thief-proof gambling establishments in the known world. Until, that is, their plans are rudely interrupted by a despot in desperate straits; one who requires our boys to head out to sea - unfamiliar ground indeed for our two city -born and -bred protagonists - and foment a buccaneer rebellion, in order to speed his own return to prominence. Oh yeah, and to secure their loyalty, he's tricked them both into swallowing a slow but surely deadly poison, and only his tame alchemist has the antidote... Plot-twists, y'say? Oh, aye, skipper. Plot-twists a-plenty, right up th' t'gallant.
On the other hand: if you thought that The Lies of Locke Lamora was a fantastic debut, but have been hoping that Lynch would take the opportunity of a second novel to build on that initial sound basis and deliver a genuine development of both his main characters and his milieu - in addition delivering another cracking yarn - then once again, you're in luck. Character-wise the onus is once again very firmly on Locke and Jean and their heartfelt efforts to remain extant in the face of ever-increasing odds. But there's a great deal more depth imparted to both characters this time around, and a lot of the character development concerns the changes in their relationship. Initially those changes are brought about by Locke's reaction to the events of the first installment, but later, as Jean discovers that's there's much more to life than being a bodyguard and sidekick to the Thorn of Camorr - regular and highly energetic fucking, for instance - the emphasis of their relationship is altered, and Lynch charts it in such a way that it enhances the development of the plot, rather than getting in the way of the ripping yarn in progress.
I think the subtlety of the development really has to be experienced to be fully appreciated. I will say, though, that I thoroughly enjoyed the way Lynch skilfully foreshadowed one of the key scenes on the book with that flash-forward in the prologue. It was skilfully done indeed, because that vignette became key to the way in which I, as reader, was encouraged to really focus in on the two men and their changing relationship. I ended up reading the text more closely than if I'd been along purely for the action sequences. I found myself measuring the changes that occurred against the apparent situation revealed at the start of the book, and from there speculating and attempting to draw my own conclusions (often erroneously) on the basis of the clues imparted. It's a great way of immersing the reader even further into the narrative and encouraging their full participation in the book. Great technique.
An essential element in this process - indeed in the whole narrative - was one element that managed to rise above and beyond even the fantastic plotting and superb characterisation. The dialogue in Red Seas... was, once again, absolutely magnificent. I said in a recent recommendation of Joe Abercrombie's Before They Are Hanged that effective and well-delivered dialogue is rapidly becoming one of the major keys to my enjoyment of a lot of the fiction I read and right now, I think it would be a very close call indeed between Lynch and Abercrombie as to who is the most proficient. Both authors demonstrate a quite wonderful ear for the patterns and rhythms of speech and conversation, and neither is afraid to show off a little: no dumbing-down or retreating into safe cliché for either of these authors; likewise there's a bare minimum of anachronistic modernisms to distract from the flow. Just dialogue that's rich, full, varied, consistent and above all, hugely characterful. Quite simply a joy to read.
Okay, I do have just the one (relatively minor) criticism of Red Seas..., which is that it felt a little too obviously cinematic in places: think Ocean's 11 meets The Curse of the Black Pearl, albeit without the undead pirate element. But then, perhaps this was, once again, a deliberate device intended to enhance the audience's immersion in the book: an apparently familiar plot-structure intended to lull the reader into thinking that they know the score; thereby helping the coming plot twists to achieve maximum impact?
In any case, it bloody well worked. Maximum impact indeed, from a writer who's still only on his second novel. I'm absolutely delighted that Lynch was able to rise to a repeat of his own previously high-set bar and deliver a truly terrific read, one that constantly had me grinning from ear to ear as I progressed - except for those scenes of very definite and quite poignant tragedy that conjured up tears rather than laughter - and one that I was truly sorry to finish.
And that, for me, is one of the clearest marks of a damn good book: when you get to the end and just wish there had still been a couple more chapters to go.
Red Seas Under Red Skies is a definite early contender for my Book of the Year, and I'm now on major tenterhooks for part three (especially after that ending...) and thoroughly intrigued to see what direction Lynch takes the Gentlemen Bastards in next. Bring on the third instalment!
Author info: www.scottlynch.us
Ordering info: Amazon.co.uk
Publication info: June 21st 2007, Gollancz Books (UK)
Highly Recommended Reading: Black Man by Richard Morgan
I finished the latest novel from British writer Richard Morgan at about 11.30 last night. To say it was a gripping finalé would be understating things by just a tad; I've been absolutely hooked by this book since I started reading it a couple of weeks ago; if I'd had an uninterrupted slice of reading time then I reckon I would have finished it inside of a single sitting, no problem.
Black Man is set in the same milieu - as far as I can tell - as Morgan's various Takeshi Kovacs novels, albeit a good few centuries earlier; about a hundred years into our own future, in fact. Much of our own society is still recognisably extant in Morgan's vision of the future, but there are the three major changes that drive a great deal of the novel's back-story.
The first is that Mars has been colonised - and successfully atmospherically terraformed - by the Western Nations Colony Initiative (COLIN), a supra-governmental corporation with almost unlimited powers of jurisdiction and action. The second is the break-up of the United States of America into three areas: the UN-dominated North-Eastern states, the secessionist Pacific Rim, and the hard-core, ultra-conservative south and bible-belt, or 'Jesusland'.
And the third major change is that genetic engineering has been advanced to the stage where, for a number of years before the period in which the novel is set, governments and corporations have been experimenting with creating a number of human variants; such as the pliant, submissive, male-fantasy 'bonobo' sex-specials, and the regressive, aggressive, lone-wolf uber-warriors; the 'variant thirteens'.
Protagonist Carl Marsalis - the eponymous 'Black Man' - is one such 'thirteen'. Exiled to Mars along with a large number of his brethren, he won the return-ticket lottery and came back to Earth, where he was granted special dispensation as long as he agreeing to work as a bounty hunter for the UNGLA, tracking down rogue thirteens for execution or internment in the tracts; wilderness buffer zones on the fringes of civilised society.
At the start of the book he runs into some trouble with the authorities down in Jesusland, and it takes some COLIN influence to set him free, providing of course that he helps them out with some trouble they're having with a rogue thirteen who's made an unorthodox return from Mars of his own, and who has embarked on a seemingly-random killing spree across the North American continent since splashing down off the Rim States coast.
And that's pretty much where the first 150 pages or so takes us. From there the novel develops into a captivating mix of the sort of adrenaline-fuelled, high-octane action action sequences we've come to expect from Morgan - an author who's shown time and time again that he's never keen on pulling his punches - and some intense, detailed and incredibly effective characterisation.
One of the central premises of the book is that, in this future society, racism - on the basis of skin-colour, at least - has finally become a thing of the past just about everywhere, with the notable exception of the still-benighted and culturally retarded Jesusland territories, of course.
Instead, a new xenophobia has arisen that's based on genetic make-up: the bonobo's are despised as much as they are desired, and the world lives in abject terror of the thirteens. Their anti-social, hunter-gatherer, seemingly conscience-less genetic make-up means they are perfect killers, but at the same time their base-level inability to respect and obey the laws and strictures of civilised authority, or to follow any order that conflicts too highly with their own deeply-inbred instinct for survival, renders them far too dangerous to employ as soldiers; hence their extradition to Mars; hence the potential for panic should the rogue become public knowledge; hence the need to call in Carl Marsalis to finish him as quickly as possible.
Marsalis' ongoing investigation, in the company of COLIN operatives Sergi Ertekin and Tom Norton - both of whom have key roles to play in the unfolding of the Black Man's story - is a study in nature vs nurture, as Marsalis' instincts lead him in one direction, while his COLIN partners' civilised sciences and socially refined behavioural models suggest entirely different avenues of approach. It's a study that mirrors the conflict within Marsalis, as he constantly battles to keep his violent tendencies in check, partly because he has to in order to operate in human society, partly because he doesn't want to hand the victory in the battle for his soul to the scientists and governments that created him as a weapon and then discarded him when public opinion turned against such a weapon's use.
And throughout the novel we're given a great deal of insight into the past histories and psychological make-up of all the main characters, plus the supporting cast with whom they come into contact, and even the villains of the piece. These tend to take the form of - sometimes lengthy - anecdotal interludes which, whilst at times they may make you wish the author would hurry up and get on with the next gun battle or Tanindo fight sequence, are ultimately highly rewarding.
The result of all this character exposition and background detail is a novel whose themes go far deeper than those of the standard secret agent / near-future sf thriller. Morgan paints an entirely convincing and well-structured portrait of the world a century hence; one that takes on added significance in terms of his own over-arcing narrative if it does indeed demonstrate the building blocks of Takeshi Kovacs' environment (I'm sending over a few questions for a UKSFBN piece in a moment. I'll ask him...)
He also peoples that world with characters with whom you can't help but strike up a sense of empathy, whatever their genetic background. Even a stone-cold killer like Marsalis is portrayed as ultimately human (albeit throughout holding himself to be an entirely different species from the mass herd of 'socially feminised' humanity that surrounds him) with concerns and motivations that go back to the very roots of evolved civilisation. You can understand him, identify with him, even as he murders and massacres his way through an existence that the vast majority of us will never experience for ourselves.
And after all, isn't that the whole point of good fiction, whatever the variant?
Very highly recommended indeed.
Recommended Manga Reading: Buddha and Basilisk
I don't really read a whole lot of manga. I think it's just too great a culture gap for me to bridge; I have no interest in the teenage-audience targeted section of the market, which does seem to account for a large proportion of the material currently on offer, in the UK at least, and even the fantasy-themed stories seem just a bit too impenetrable.
Every so often Sarah Ash, who is a really big manga-fan, drops me a line to let me know which of the series currently in distribution are less... um... fixated on the pre-pubescent... and as a result, there are two series that I have actually been tempted to try, and I've enjoyed them both, in their own way (so maybe there's hope for me yet).
Buddha by Osama Tezuka
The eight volume Buddha series is, in essence, a re-telling of the entire life story of the holy man himself, from birth to death. Born a Prince of a small kingdom of the Indian sub-continent some time around the 5th century BCE, history tells us that Siddhartha turned his back on his royal heritage and became an itinerant monk, later achieving Enlightenment (Buddha means 'enlightened') and going on to bring his teachings of peaceful co-existence with all nature to a sect that eventually spread his words throughout the world. It's educational, interesting, based on stories that are over 2,500 years old that lie at the heart of one of the most widely respected and admired religions in the world.
Frankly, it's quite mad. In places it reads like a cross between Asterix and a Pokémon cartoon; all 'pow', 'blam' and 'AAARGH!' one minute, and a National Geographic documentary; complete with lessons on the ancient history and culture of the Indian sub-continent, the next.
If I remember the details aright, the series was originally written in the '60s, but it has been re-translated and brought bang up to date with a whole series of contextually rather bizarre cultural references. Which means that halfway through a particular chapter in the 2,500 year old life story of the Enlightened One, one of the minor characters might accuse another of watching too many sci-fi movies, or of eating too many burgers, or there's the bit where one peasant working in the fields pulls out a transistor radio and another one turns to them and calls him an "anachronist"... you get the idea, I'm sure; it's all very odd.
But oddly compelling at the same time. I had no trouble reading through all eight volumes, even if they did start to get a bit repetitive towards the sixth or seventh installment. So if you do fancy something a bit different - and definitely educational; I now know a lot more about the story of the Buddha than I did before I started - then it's worth giving this one a go. UK editions are distributed by HarperCollins and all eight are available from Amazon.co.uk and all good bookstores, etc.
Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls by Masaki Segawa (trans. David Ury)
Ninjas! What's more: Ninjas with superpowers! Yeah, that's more like it, eh?
In Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls, two clans of ninja warriors go to war on the orders of the Shogun of Japan; the winning clan will decide which of two potential heirs gets to be the next Shogun, and so everything is at stake. Both clans - the Iga and the Kouga - have recently been forced into a truce, but this war offers the opportunity to resume four hundred years of hostilities, and so of course they go at it with a will.
The plot is fairly straightforward; ten Ninjas on either side, each with a particular special ability ('Ninja Technique') ranging from the ability to recover from any wound, to the ability to rob another Ninja of their power by gazing into their eyes, or even to force them to turn their own power upon themselves...
It's generally a cracking read, and so far (vols. #1 - #4) I only have one or two niggles: the first is that it's all just a bit predictable in places - for instance, at the start of the story the heirs-apparent to each clan are in love and due to marry; guess which two are going to be standing at the end for the final confrontation? And volume four was very slow. Mind you, the author had already killed off seven Ninjas on either side by that point; maybe he was worried he was going to run out before he filled his page-quota?
And a quick caveat emptor: it is a bit heavy on the gratuitous titillation in places, too. The (<ahem> quite well-endowed) lady Ninjas have a habit of losing most of their clothes; one instance involves a lady Ninja being captured, tied to a post and half-stripped (the whole Japanese cultural predilection for bondage thing there, obviously). So it's lucky for her that her Ninja Technique involves the use of flesh-contact... I won't spoil the effect, but suffice to say she doesn't turn out to be quite as helpless as you might have thought.
I'll leave you to decide for yourself whether the t&a element is generally a good thing or not; the cover of Basilisk does point that the series is suggested for mature readers, so just bear it in mind if you're thinking of picking this one up for your kids...
Again though, it's a series that's well worth checking out if you're tempted to try something manga, but the idea of catching up on the ins and outs of the Japanese teenage dating scene doesn't really float your boat. UK editions are being distributed and US import Del Rey editions are generally available as well.
Recommended Reading: The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction
The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, the debut release from Games Workshop's Solaris Books imprint, is a very good collection indeed: a good selection of varied and (on the whole) interesting stories, themes and tropes. The anthology also acts as a showcase for some of the best British authors currently writing in the field, with the honourable inclusion of one or two overseas guests to provide a shot of alternative flavour.
Personal highlights included James Lovegrove's wittily amusing 'The Bowlder Strain', Paul Di Filippo's 'Personal Jesus' - an eye-opening tale of techno-spirituality for the Apple age - the exotic and colourful 'Bioship' by Neal Asher, the vividly visceral 'The Wedding Party' by Simon Ings and Eric Brown's 'Last Party', which rounded things off quite nicely, and had me pining for a proper local pub to call my own. But my absolute favourite was Stephen Baxter's powerfully cathartic end of the world offering, 'Last Contact', which stayed with me long after I'd finished the rest of the anthology.
There was a couple of flat notes - based purely on my own subjective opinion etc. - as you'd expect from so wide and varied a selection of work, including what I couldn't help feeling was a rather indulgently self-referential piece, 'Jellyfish' from Mike Resnick and David Gerrold. Another one was Brian Aldiss' 'Four Ladies of the Apocalypse' snippet. I'm probably showing my ignorance here, and I fully expect that those better-read than me will look down their noses with utter disdain for my having the temerity to say so, but I really didn't get much out of it apart from a density-induced headache.
Definitely worth tracking this antho down if you'd like to sample a good selection of current writing, and I do hope that it goes on to become a regular feature of the Solaris list, preferably with companion Fantasy and Horror volumes to match: it's not like the market isn't big enough. It was published on Feb 5th so should be available right now from all good bookstores, Amazon.co.uk etc.
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...
.
*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.
Recommended reading: Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins novels
I've recently finished The Smile of a Ghost [Amazon], the seventh book in Phil Rickman's ongoing series of novels about Merrily Watkins, village vicar turned diocesian exorcist (or 'deliverance consultant'). I've read all seven book sin the series, and I'm still somewhat bemused that they haven't been snapped up by a TV production company for imminent development.
I mean, it's got all the elements of a successful Saturday night drama aimed at the comfortably mid 30s-60s demographic, surely? There's the idyllic, rural Herefordshire setting for a start. Follow that up with good, strong, characterisation: a leading lady who, as well as being an ordained minister and the only female exorcist for miles around, is also, so we're told, a sexy single mum. She's ably backed-up by her feisty teenage daughter, a reclusive rock musician with a History, devious Church politicians, a veteran exorcist of the old school who lives the life of a recluse in the Welsh mountain, sundry hard-bitten country coppers, and a varied supporting cast of rustics and incoming yuppies.
All of this, plus a series of mysterious goings-on and, to top it all off, an edgy, supernatural-ish atmosphere that sometimes - just sometimes - crosses over into out-and-out occultism, but usually stays just this side of "well, there could always be a rational explanation, you know..."
All-in-all, a quintessentially English mystery series, with a slightly edgier feel than your average Miss Marple, and plenty of possibility to grow; it's got to be a winner! I mean, if they can put Jonathan Creek on our screens for a few seasons, then surely there's room for Merrily Watkins?
Anyhow, as I say, I've read and thoroughly enjoyed all seven books in the series so far, and I'm looking forward to picking up a copy of the eighth, which was published in October, some time soon. There is one slight niggle, though. By book seven the characters have rather started to take on that slightly rounded feeling of comortable familiarity; not much here in the way of shocks and surprises, and whilst the mystery itself was an intriguing one, there wasn't much of a worry that it wouldn't all turn out right in the end.
So, if you fancy a genteel dose of mystery fiction, with plenty of things that go bump in the night, plenty of opportunity to get to really like the characters as they grow and develop, and plenty of heart-warming catharsis, then these are definitely the books for you.
Amazon links for anyone who's interested:
- The Wine of Angels
- Midwinter of the Spirit
- A Crown of Lights
- The Cure of Souls
- The Lamp of the Wicked
- THe Prayer of the Night Shepherd
- The Smile of a Ghost
- The Remains of an Altar
Recommended reading: The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
When we first meet him, our hero Harry Dresden is a down-at-heel, gumshoe wizard-for-hire, living in a basement apartment in one of the less reputable areas of Chicago, taking whatever cases - mostly missing persons, or missing felines - come his way, and helping out Karrin Murphy of the Chicago PD with any cases that go so far beyond the norm that even the cops get desperate enough to call him in.
As well as trying to make ends meet, he spends a lot of his time trying to keep out of the bad books of the White Council - they're the secret society of wizards in charge of regulating the use of magic and generally keeping the bad guys under control - just in case he puts so much as a toe out of line and their enforcer, Morgan, finally gets to have his way and carry out the suspended death sentence that's been hanging over Harry since his former mentor tried to eat Harry's mind, and Harry had to get rough and kill him. See? back-story a-plenty, and we're only a couple of chapters in...
Anyhow, I have to say that so far I'm thoroughly enjoying this series. The characterisation is fantastic, the supporting cast is varied and colourful, and Jim Butcher's milieu is extremely well thought-out; it's both solidly consistent and highly intriguing. A multitude of supernatural beasties come pouring out of the woodwork at every turn, and Harry - although he's potentially one of the most powerful wizards to have lived, if certain tantalising hints are to be believed - is young and still relatively inexperienced, so he's not immune to getting his arse kicked in the line of duty.
In fact, that's one trick that Butcher manages to pull off quite neatly; he's very good at instilling a palpable sense of risk in Harry's encounters with his various and numerous foes. Admittedly, as the hero of an ongoing series, there's a good chance that Dresden's not going to get wind up slaughtered halfway through the book, but there's still every chance that something bad will happen to those that Harry works with, cares about and loves...
I'm very glad I started reading this particular series before the Sci-Fi Channel announced they were making a TV series based on them. I much prefer to experience books first, adaptation afterwards, rather than the other way around, and I'm not sure - judging by the trailer - that the producers have got the casting exactly right; Paul Blackthorne looks the part as Dresden, but I'm not sure that Valerie Cruz will make a convincing Karrin Murphy... we'll see when the series finally makes it to the UK.
If you're a fan of supernatural detective / mystery series in general, then this is one of the better ones I've come across. Here are the Amazon links for the first seven volumes, UK editions:
Let me know what you think when you've read the first book or two, yeah?
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