NextRead

Title: Fool Moon
Author: Jim Butcher
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 01 September 2005
Price: £6.99
Own Copy

In Storm Front Harry Dresden had to battle with dark magic drawn from lust and desire. Now in Fool Moon he has to travel deeper into our animal natures and battle against werewolves. Being Chicago’s only wizard in the phonebook isn’t just about looking for lost items you know.

I have to admit having a soft spot for Dresden after watching the prematurely cancelled Dresden Files earlier this year and the main actors will now forever be etched as the characters they portrayed. Not sure a bad thing though I am missing the embodied version of Bob. Though being a novel these version are a bit more kick ass.

And kicking ass there is. Fool Moon is action from beginning to end along with the added complication of Murphy not quite yet recovered from the events of Storm Front and so has Dresden on a very short leash and a very short fuse.

Butcher knows how to keep things moving though does seem to get himself into one too many impossible corners that aren’t 100% satisfyingly got out of. Him and Dresden are still finding their feet and it’s not done badly just not as eloquently as it could have been. There are also hints of more dangers on the horizon.

This series are bags of potential and a good job too as I’m a bit behind. If you like your magic modern and fast moving and realistic then this is shaping up to be the series for you.

Tags: Bookshelf, reading lists, Urban Fantasy

I haven’t really. I’m out of the swing of posting but then I’ve had a couple of things on my mind that you don’t want boring with. Except to say that I’m older than I was last time I posted. I’m now 29! What does this mean? Well I’ve blown my chances at winning an Eric Gregory Award for poets under 30. It also means I had some wonderful gifts, namely a lovely new iPod nano, that I immediately bought For the Birds to try on it. And I’ve been playing the new The Simpons Game and that cheered me up no end.

Apart from that I have been ploughing through Fool Moon by Jim Butcher. I’ve been putting that one off for a while as after watching the TV series I thought it was going to be similar to one of the episodes. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s a complex and well thought out book. Who knew there was more than one type of werewolf?

I got to see 30 Days of Night as a birthday treat. It might have worked as a comic (though I’ve never read it so I couldn’t tell you) but it doesn’t work as a film. It mostly has to do with how time works and how they cope and partly to how the vampires go from superhuman to more human and back again for no other reason than to make the plot work. Shame.

More DRM stuff. Well not DRM as such but galleycat is reporting that Marvel and DC have teamed up against people who scan and share their comic books without permission. Fair enough. But what’s the alternative to fans who want to read all those hard to get issues of their favourite characters well Marvel has the answer. They’ve launched Marvel Digital and from that trial issues on-line it’s pretty damned impressive and not that expensive when I consider my old comic habit. Now when are DC going to do something similar?

Gods Behaving Badly might be making it’s way to the small screen via Ben Stiller’s production company. You can find a link here.

The highly energetic Book Swede has been showing off some of Orbit’s New Year Releases. I’m loving the cover for Halting State by Charles Stross, another good looking book on my TBR pile. And more Charles Stross news comes from The Genre Files reminding me that a fantasy story called The Family Trade is out now.

Speaking of fellow bloggers the Grumpy Old Bookman is taking a well deserved rest. Dovgreyreader isn’t that well read it seems having reading only 9 out of 100 books chosen as ‘hidden gems’ by the people behind World Book Day. She’s much more cultured and read then I with 0 of 100 read.

Fantasy Book Critic has reviewed The Solaris Book of New Fantasy which says, ‘I hope that Solaris will continue producing these anthologies for years to come…’. Can’t get a better recommendation than that.

Tia over at Fantasy Debut has announced a policy update. The reason I mention it is that she’s limited her time and energy to books from major publishers and prominent independents, which is, I’d suggest, a good place to go if you want to support new writers. Why? Well from my little experiment this year on focusing on debut writers there are some wonderful writers out there that we need to see more of and they need sales in order to have their second, third, fourth novels come to light. And the more sales they generate the more risks publishers will take with new authors. It’s a good circle.

I’m not knocking POD books as I’ve recently had a my hand in helping a wonderfully received book come into physical form but I might be suggesting that the risks of not getting 100% value for money might be a bit higher than a book from a more established source.

Book blogs are a wonderful source of finding books you’re never likely to hear about any other way and Mr John Self has made another appear on my ‘must by soon’ list by introducing me to, A Mysterious Affair of Style by Gilbert Adair and his earlier title The Act of Roger Murgatroyd.

And that’s it for this update. More soon.

Tags: reading lists

In my previous post on ‘ebook displays’ (for won’t of a better term) I forgot to mention the important bit. You buy a real book and you can read it anywhere you like. Not so with an ebook. There is the dreaded DRM (digital rights management) to battle with. I know an ipod has it when you buy music from itunes but I can’t see me changing from itunes at any point soon and I’m more inclined to rip a CD from Tesco’s than download an MP3. Plus my mum was adding music to her Nano the day it arrived even though they only had the computer. That alone makes the ipod/itunes combo a good deal. And they’ve kept the prices low.

The same can’t be said for an ebook. You can’t rip a book the same as a CD so you’re left with the download only option and you have a variety of formats to choose from. The Irex Iliad (and the Cybook Gen3 how did I miss this?) use Mobipocket for their DRM books. Sony Reader is exclusive to Sony Connect. Amazon Kindle is exclusive to Amazon.com (even though it owns Mobipocket!). Not one of them (as far as I can tell) supports Adobe or Microsoft ebook formats (the main ones on WHSmith’s eBookshop).

On top of that I’ve just looked at some prices. It’s just me I’m sure and might be why I’m not a big downloader from itunes (I only get the occasional single) is that if I’m going to spend £8.99 on a CD I’d rather have something for my money rather than a file on my computer and if I’m going to spend £18.99 (£11.00 on Amazon) on the latest William Gibson (which is selling as an ebook for $25.95) I want a nice big hardback.

It’s official Amazon have killed the paperback and they’ve called it the Kindle!

Well not really though the have made the reality of an ipod-esque book replacement one step closer. There are already a couple of ‘readers’ (for want of a much better term) in the US market. Sony Reader is now in it’s second generation and Irex’s Iliad (Andrew Marr gave the first generation Reader and the Iliad a good go in an article for the Guardian earlier this year). You can get the Iliad in the UK for £433!!

It seems that the Kindle takes book reading one stage further by using a free mobile phone connection so that you can buy books, read your subscriptions to a couple of newspapers and selected blogs (as selected by Amazon and for a price).

There are so many things to say about displays that masquerade as books that I don’t know where to start!

The good thing about each of them is that use a version of digital ink so that the words are permanently on. Meaning that there should be any flicker to tire your eyes. It also means that there is no back lighting of the displays so you have to use ambient light - not such a bad thing as it says the battery for turning the pages though I don’t know how using the network connection on the Kindle will effect the battery life.

My problem is that I can not see an ipod like revolution in way we read. ipods are great. I have one that was kindly bought for me. I have music on the go. That is on long car journeys and train trips.

If I want to listen to music at home I usually have it blasting from the computer as I type or I’m feeling really environmentally unfriendly the computer is on as I read. I have decent pair or headphones and good speakers so the music arrives in good shape.

Now with a book I don’t need electronics to enjoy it unlike pre-recorded music or television. I can pick up a book open it and I’m off. If I drop it that’s ok it’s not going to damage it that much. I can skim it really quickly if it’s poetry book or a non-fiction title and I’m looking for something. And if I loose it I’ve lost a couple of quid. The same can’t be said for ‘readers’. They need charging. You can’t skim it the same way. And if I drop or loose it I’m down a lot more than the price of paperback.

Guilt plays a big part in a my book reading. A big pile of books forces me to read them so the pile goes down. How to you do that with an electronic book? On top of that I like to see the bookmark progressing through the book and when I’m near the end I can see how much further I have to go.

But the more I think about it the more I like the idea of having one as long as it feels nice to use. On visuals and size I like Sony’s Reader. If I was going to have an electronic book then all I really need is software to swap books from computer to device and something to turn the pages. No keyboards, no pens, wi-fi might be alright. But the simpler the better.

I wonder when the UK is going to get a Sony Reader and Kindle? and will I actually get one??

I’m feeling decidedly non-booky at the moment. No curling up on the sofa and letting the world fade away. Nothing read. Nothing bought. No obsessive surfing. But despite that let’s see what I can do as I’ve still been visiting my favourite blogs and keeping half an eye on the book-o-sphere.

Graphic Novels are the new novel. Or so it seems. With novels being converted panelled and inked for the non-novel generation and Graphic Novels coming from mainstream publishers. One example that landed through the door the other day. Jonathon Cape have just released Alias The Cat by Kim Deitch, which looks absolutely bonkers. And they’ve set up Pantheon Graphic Novels to release more. And if you’re in the US the fabulous Fantasy Book Critic shows off some new adaptations of Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein, and The Dresden Files to name two.

I was a winner a couple of weeks ago much to my surprise and excitement. I just happened to checking my mail when Vintage Classics’ Newsletter arrived offering a complete set of their October Halloween-themed releases to the first person to answer a question. It took all of three minutes from it arriving to my email. So I have a Wilkie Collins, Susan Hill, Henry James, Mervyn Peake, to read for the first time as well as Bram Stoker to reread. I’m not sure I’ll read Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekylll and Mr Hyde. I’ve never liked any of the adaptations of it. I’m open to persuasion though.

Novelist Daniel Abraham has made his UK debut with The Long Price that brings together his the first two novels of his Long Price Quartet. And has some good reviews from the UK mags. It is getting a little crowded in the new fantasy series section but the more the merrier I say.

More later.

Tags: horror, reading lists

….back in a week or so.

From the Academi Newsletter:

Writers’ Copyright Protests Escalate

The following letter recently appeared in the Western Mail .

SIR – The National Library of Wales is currently digitising 90 Welsh periodicals and magazines. This project, Welsh Journals Online, aims to provide “free, online, searchable access” to complete runs of such titles as Barddas and Poetry Wales.

Set up by librarians and academics, the project does not seem to have consulted creative and professional writers or the bodies that represent them.

The project is receiving more than £840,000 in public funding. The Library, though, has not allocated any money for the people who wrote the articles, reviews, stories and poems that make up the magazines. Instead, it hopes that rights holders will allow their material to be used for free.

Writing is work. Professional writers are paid both for their work and for its re-use. In not making provision for the payment of copyright holders, the project is seriously flawed. Until this matter is addressed, writers who want to keep Welsh writing on a professional basis will not allow the National Library of Wales to digitise their work. They include:

To add your name to this list in support of payment for writers, please email Oliver Reynolds: oreynolds@hotmail.co.uk

I had a funny-five-minute-moment today. Whilst watching daytime TV I managed to come across a show called ‘Loose Women’, which is quite a good chatshow, not that I’m an avid fan I hasten to add. Anyway Michael Winner (currently famous for selling car insurance but formally the director of some of the Deathwish films) was plugging his new book Fat Pig Diet. This is the second time I’ve heard about it so i thought I’ll try and track down a copy.

It started at Borders who knew there was four instock somewhere but not sure where. So I was out of luck there. Seeing as I wasn’t in the mood to be beaten so easily I tried my local Asda, which has quite a good selection of bestsellers and high profile books. No sign . Nor was there any sign of a copy in my not so local but very very large Tesco though I did manage to find a very nice coat. Traveling back 7 miles the other way I made a trip into not quite local but not that far away WHSmith who amazingly had a copy in the New shelves.

I know what you’re thinking why didn’t I just give up and order on Amazon (who as an aside have opened their Prime service in the UK allowing you to free one day delivery all year on any item for just £49)? Well it’s nice sometimes to be able to get a bit of instant gratification even if it’s not so instant1

I was quite prepared to go into my not local at all Waterstones and Borders and incur the ludicrous parking charges to get it. It wasn’t the book itself it was the principle of finding a copy of the damned thing.

Well November isn’t naughty but I feel I’ve been a little after looking at last months post on the blog. I did a very poor show on the reading and I had high hopes for that but I got a little distracted with playing with Corel Painter and Photoshop ( I’m blogging a little about it here). Though mostly I felt a little bit burn out.

I’m almost recharged but taking it easy with more familiar or at least less taxing reading. I’ve just started on Fool Moon by Jim Butcher. It’s the second of a series of stories about Chicago’s only Wizard in the phone book and it’s the books that the TV series The Dresden Files were based on (which has also been cruelly cancelled). Only six pages in but I’m hooked already. And the good news is that I’ve got another 8 at least to look forward to. I love episodic books that are more self-contained than some of the more immersive fantasy.

I’ve still got loads that I want to read soon and some review copies that I need to get on with before they start gathering dust.

Starting with the thinner ones there is Jeanette Winterson’s non-scifi scifi The Stone Gods which has been generating a lot of interest though I’m yet to read a review.

Something more interesting, in terms of it being a debut and being more up my street, is Once Bitten, Twice Shy. It already has some great reviews here and here.

I also want to get to read another slow burning but still buzzing Gents by Warwick Collins though it falls in the literary fiction category.

Flipping back to debuts we have Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn which has a quote from Stephen King, ‘a terrific debut, relentlessly creepy’. You can’t get a much better quote than that now can you.

Still with thin books it’s The Devil in Amber by Mark Gatiss. Gatiss has recently appeared as Dr Lazarus in the third season of Dr Who as well as a fabulous actor he is also a screen and novel writer. This is his second non-series novel and a sequel to The Vesuvius Club. I’ve had this one gathering dust since July
Almost the last thin book and sticking with the Urban Fantasy theme from Once Bitten is No Dominion, Charlie Huston’s follow-up to Already Dead.

The actual last thin book, well books but I might only choose one, is a book from the Future Classics Promotion. I’m deciding whether to start with Blood Music by Greg Bear or Schild’s Ladder by Greg Egan. I want to read the others at some point too but at the moment I’m sticking with the thin ones.

Actually I’m going to end it there for now. I have more books to blog about but I’ll let you absorb those first

I’m moving servers and there may be problems in transit. I’ve turned the comments off on the old server so they don’t go into the either.

I’m working on a superpost which I’m hoping to get up tomorrow with a bit of luck. Until then keep reading.