Some April Releases that Caught my Eye on Amazon.co.uk

Going on Amazon is a really dangerous thing for me, as is stepping in places that sell books, as I usually end up buying something. On this occasion I resisted buying anything but here are some of the books that caught my eye. I’ve also added a couple of moments about why they looked interesting.

It’s also a reminder why it’s impossible to read all the books that come out month by month, where could you find the time? Hopefully I’ll find time for a couple of these at some point. And if you’ve read any of them please do let me know what you thought. Thanks.

The Burning Man by Mark Chadbourn
Published by Gollancz

Synopsis

After a long journey across the ages, Jack Churchill has returned to the modern world, only to find it in the grip of a terrible, dark force. The population is unaware, mesmerised by the Mundane Spell that keeps them in thrall. With a small group of trusted allies, Jack sets out to find the two ‘keys’ that can shatter the spell. But the keys are people – one with the power of creation, one the power of destruction – and they are hidden somewhere among the world’s billions. As the search fans out across the globe, ancient powers begin to stir. In the bleak North, in Egypt, in Greece, in all the Great Dominions, the old gods are returning to stake their claim. The odds appear insurmountable, the need desperate …This is a time for heroes.

If you’ve following this blog for a while you’ll know I have a huge admiration for the works of Mark Chadbourn and would recommend that anyone with any sort of interest in modern fantasy read his work. I’m looking forward to seeing where he takes the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons next and how he’s changing the rules of the game again. Very exciting. This Book Two of the Kingdom of the Serpent. You can find my review of Book One, Jack of Ravens, here and I’ve also written a brief overview of the series so far here. Plus I managed to get my hands on a review copy so look for a review soon!

The Ninth Circle by Alex Bell
Published by Gollancz

Synopsis

This is The Bourne Identity …as if Neil Gaiman had written it …A man comes round on the floor of a shabby flat in the middle of Budapest. His head is glued to the floorboards with his own blood. There’s a fortune in cash on the kitchen table. And he has no idea where, or who, he is. He can do extraordinary things – speak any number of languages fluently, go three days without food or sleep, and fight with extraordinary prowess. But without a name, without a past, he’s isolated from the rest of the world; a stranger to everyone, including himself – until a chance encounter with a young scholar leads to his first friendship, and his first hint that someone out there knows more about him than he does. Someone is sending him clues about his past. Photographs hidden in books and crates of wine.Cryptic clues pointing towards a murdered woman. And clear warnings against Stephomi, his only friend. But that’s not all; Gabriel Antaeus is seeing strange, impossible things: a burning man is stalking his dreams and haunting his mirrors, his dreams are filled with violence from the past, and his pregnant young neighbour is surrounded by an extraordinary golden aura.Something dark and violent in Gabriel’s past is trying to resurface.

And as he pieces the clues together, everything points towards an astounding war between angels and demons …and a battle not just for the future of the world, but for the minds and souls of everyone in it.

Ok, I must admit that I’m interested in any book that’s described as, ‘The Bourne Identity …as if Neil Gaiman had written it’. What more can you say?

The Battle for Gullywith by Susan Hill

Published by Bloomsbury

Synopsis

A stone army, an enchanted castle, mysterious ancient powers – and some very clever tortoises – Olly finds there’s more than meets the eye at Gullywith. When his family move to Gullywith Farm in the Lake District, Olly just can’t imagine being happy in his new home. Gullywith is the coldest house in the world and no one has lived there for years. Then Olly meets KK and she tells him locals won’t go near the place. It does seem to be jinxed – the roof falls in, walls collapse but even more strangely, Olly notices that there are stones at Gullywith that can move around of their own accord – stones with ancient markings on them. He feels sure that they are angry about something.KK takes Olly to see the mysterious NonnyDreever to ask his advice and he tells them they must return the stones to Withern Mere. As they search for the answer to Gullywith’s secret, Olly is drawn into a world of myth, magic and midnight adventure deep inside the surrounding hills. What is the ancient power that controls the stones and can anything be done to end their hold over Gullywith? Susan Hill deftly weaves a tale of real life and enchantment to delight young readers.

I must admit that I have a soft spot for celtic-centred stories (I guess that comes from having Welsh rural roots and loving my country.) And this is a book I’ve seen mentioned a couple of times during blog post of the author and Scott Pack whose children has a sneak peek. I’m also a big kid at heart so this intrigues me. The cover is also amazing.

Small Favour by Jim Butcher
Published by Orbit

Synopsis

Harry Dresden’s life finally seems to be calming down. The White Council’s war with the vampiric Red Court has entered a period of detente, no one’s tried to kill him in nearly a year, and the worst problem he’s had lately is working out how to remove the stains his apprentice bungled into his carpeting. The future looks fairly bright. Unfortunately, the past isn’t nearly as promising. An old bargain placed Harry in debt to Mab, monarch of the Winter Court of the Sidhe and the Queen of Air and Darkness. Harry still owes the Winter Queen of Faerie two favours, and it’s time to pay one of them off. It’s a small favour that he really can’t refuse, but it will trap Harry between a nightmarish foe and an equally deadly ally, stretching his skills and loyalties to their very limits. It figures. Everything was going too well to last.

I was a great fan of the sort-lived Dresden Files TV series and tuned into the books when I couldn’t get my TV fix. Jim Butcher is a wonderfully immediate writer and I’ve enjoyed the first two and so this’ll make book ten. I might have to be a few books behind for quite a while but as someone said, and I can’t remember who, this series just gets better and better. I’ve got a lot to look forward to.

Oh and Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review has a…review.

The Butt by Will Self
Published by Bloomsbury

Synopsis

Tom Brodzinski is a man who takes his own good intentions for granted. But when he finally decides to give up smoking, a moment’s inattention to detail becomes his undoing. Flipping the butt of his final cigarette off the balcony of the holiday apartment he’s renting with his family, Tom is appalled when it lands on the head of one his fellow countrymen, Reggie Lincoln. The elderly Lincoln is badly burnt, and since the cigarette butt passed through public space before hitting him, the local authorities are obliged to regard Tom’s action as an assault, despite his benign intentions. Worse is to follow: Lincoln is married to a native from one of the rigorous, mystical tribes of the desert interior, and their customary law is incorporated into the civil statute.In order to make reparations to Mrs Lincoln’s people, Tom will have to leave his family behind, and carry the appropriate goods and chattels deep into the arid heart of this strange, island continent. Any of this might be bearable, were it not for Tom’s companion, forced on him by his enigmatic lawyer, the mixed-race Jethro Swai-Phillips.

Brian Prentice, like Tom, has to make reparations and although there is a taboo that prevents either man from knowing the exact detail of the other’s offence, Tom’s almost 100 per cent certain that he’s a child-abuser. As they drive into the desert and encounter a violent counter-insurgency war that Tom has allowed himself to remain in ignorance of, the relationship between the two men becomes one of complicit guilt as well as seething mistrust. Refusing facile moral certitudes, Will Self’s latest novel is set in a distorted world, in a country that is part Australia, part Iraq, part Greeneland and part the heart of a distinctively modern darkness.

The reviews are already in the Independent on Sunday and The Times. Plus the guardian has a picture of and comment by Will Self on his Writing Room.

Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell
Published by Sphere

Synopsis

The ‘book of the dead’ is the morgue log, the ledger in which all cases are entered by hand. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to have a new meaning. Fresh from her bruising battle with a psychopath in Florida, Scarpetta decides it’s time for a change of pace. Moving to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, she opens a unique private forensic pathology practice, one in which she and her colleagues offer expert crime scene investigation and autopsies to communities lacking local access to competent death investigation and modern technology. It seems like an ideal situation, until the murders and other violent deaths begin. A woman is ritualistically murdered in her multi-million-dollar beach home. The body of an abused young boy is found dumped in a desolate marsh. A sixteen-year-old tennis star is found nude and mutilated near Piazza Navona in Rome. Scarpetta has dealt with many brutal and unusual crimes before, but never a string of them as baffling, or as terrifying, as the ones before her now. Before she is through, that book of the dead will contain many names – and the pen may be poised to write her own.

I’ve fallen out of love with Patricia. It was the gap that did it when she went off to find Jack the Ripper and somehow forgot how to write. Or at least that’s how I felt and still feel after picking up Blow Fly. With an ongoing series it’s always dangerous to play with the format too much. You’ve got to shake things up a bit but changing the narration from first to third person was a step too far. Cornwell isn’t a great writer, she’s good, but not outstanding and what kept me reading was the will and the mind of Kay Scarpetta and that was compelling enough that I didn’t mind Cornwell’s lack of flair. In Blow Fly all the roots and foundations that I was used to is missing. I might still pick this up and add it to the rest in case urge to find out what happens takes me.

The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan
Published by Pocket Books

Synopsis

Charlie Howard doesn’t just write books about a career thief, he also happens to be one. In Amsterdam working on his latest novel, Charlie is approached by a mysterious American who asks him to steal two apparently worthless monkey figurines from two separate addresses on the same night. At first he says no. Then he changes his mind. Only later, kidnapped and bound to a chair, the American very dead and a spell in police custody behind him, does Charlie begin to realise how costly a mistake he might have made. The police think he killed the American. Others think he knows the whereabouts of the elusive third monkey. But for Charlie only three things matter: Can he clear his name? Can he get away with the haul of a lifetime? And, can he solve the briefcase-shaped plot-hole in his latest novel?

I almost missed the paperback release of The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam by Chris Ewan. I bought the Long Barn Books hardback last year and greatly enjoyed it as you can see from my review. I hope if you like crime fiction you go out and buy a copy. It’s a great little mystery.

The Pool of Unease by Catherine Sampson
Published by Pan

Synopsis

The scream – female, high-pitched, terrified, breathless, a wordless, formless, plea for mercy – arrived from silence and was cut off, abruptly strangled, leaving a gurgling echo in its airy wake …Robin Ballntyne is investigating the murder of a British man in Beijing. But in a city thick with paranoia and corruption, she struggles to separate rumour from reality. Meanwhile, late one freezing night, Chinese private detective Song rescues a young boy from a fire on a building site. With witnesses appearing from the murky surrounds, bloody clothes on the ground but no body, and flames blazing around him, Song panics and flees through the woods – still clutching the boy.From the smog of the capital to the poverty-stricken countryside, and from the mansions of millionaires to a disused quarry where the children of scavengers root among the rubbish, Song and Robin must unravel the truth behind the murders before they find themselves silenced – and before the killer can make another sinister move …

If The Good Thief’s Guide... was a gentle little tale from the cover this doesn’t look that gentle. Not sure why this caught my eye. Maybe it’s all the Beijing Olympics? Or maybe it’s the mix of British foreigner, and rich and poor?

Murder at Deviation Junction by Andrew Martin
Published by Faber and Faber

Synopsis

A train hits a snow drift in the frozen Cleveland Hills. In the process of clearing the line a body is discovered, and so begins a dangerous case for struggling Edwardian railway detective, Jim Stringer. Jim’s new investigation takes him to the mighty blast furnaces of Ironopolis, to Fleet Street in the company of a cynical reporter from The Railway Rover, and to a nightmarish spot in the Highlands. Jim’s faltering career in the railway police hangs on whether he can solve the murder – but before long the pursuer becomes the pursued, and Jim finds himself fighting not just for his job, but for his very life as well.

Maybe I’m having a thing for historical crime fiction. I’m looking forward to reading The Necropolis Railway, book one in the Jim Stringer Steam Detective series. This is book four with book five, Death On A Branch Line, just about to be released in HB it looks like this series has steam! 

The Mesmerist’s Apprentice by L M Jackson
Published by William Heinemann Ltd

Synopsis

When the enigmatic Sarah Tanner re-opens her Dining and Coffee Rooms soon after a disastrous fire, the gossips of Leather Lane grudgingly admit she has ‘the luck of the devil’. Yet when a local butcher is falsely accused of a heinous offence, selling horse-meat, it seems her luck has run out…Drawn into an ever more dangerous series of confrontations with a gang of youths who seem determined to put an innocent man out of business, Sarah Tanner’s own livelihood looks set for ruin into the bargain.But what links the persecution of a humble butcher with a certain Dr. Stead – a leading practitioner of the strange art of mesmerism – and a desperate plea from Sarah’s former lover, the aristocrat Arthur DeSalle? As Mrs. Tanner investigates, she increasingly fears that the mesmerist, patronised by the highest in society, is a charlatan and his latest patient, the unwitting victim of a grotesque fraud. To preserve a family’s honour, Sarah Tanner sets out upon a trail of suicide, murder, deception and deceit which stretches from the alleys of Leather Lane to the drawing-rooms of Mayfair. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more she seems to be putting herself in danger…

See another historical mystery or at least that’s what it looks like from the blurb.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale.
Published by Bloomsbury

Synopsis

It is a summer’s night in 1860. In an elegant detached Georgian house in the village of Road, Wiltshire, all is quiet. Behind shuttered windows the Kent family lies sound asleep. At some point after midnight a dog barks. The family wakes the next morning to a horrific discovery: an unimaginably gruesome murder has taken place in their home. The household reverberates with shock, not least because the guilty party is surely still among them. Jack Whicher of Scotland Yard, the most celebrated detective of his day, reaches Road Hill House a fortnight later. He faces an unenviable task: to solve a case in which the grieving family are the suspects.The murder provokes national hysteria. The thought of what might be festering behind the closed doors of respectable middle-class homes – scheming servants, rebellious children, insanity, jealousy, loneliness and loathing – arouses fear and a kind of excitement. But when Whicher reaches his shocking conclusion there is uproar and bewilderment.

A true story that inspired a generation of writers such as Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, this has all the hallmarks of the classic murder mystery – a body; a detective; and, a country house steeped in secrets. In “The Suspicions of Mr Whicher”, Kate Summerscale untangles the facts behind this notorious case, bringing it back to vivid, extraordinary life.

And another one! But his one is non-fiction. Life is sometimes stranger?

Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon
Published by Orbit

Synopsis

A vast and hostile force is attacking prosperous trade centres, destroying their space fleets then moving on, leaving death and chaos in their wake. Admiral KyVatta’s family was decimated by one such attack and Turek, the pirate force’s leader, will not escape her vengeance. Ky has a loyal taskforce, but the enemy have three times the ships and the firepower to match. She must offset these advantages with her knowledge of military strategy and her ace: superior ansible technology, facilitating fast and accurate in-space intelligence. The alternative to victory is unthinkable – devastation of interplanetary trading networks on a galaxy-wide scale – and the end of a way of life.

I’m having a sci-fi pull and heard a lot about Elzabeth Moon. Not sure if this would be a good place to start!

Line War ( AgentCormac 5) by Neal Asher
Published by Tor

Synopsis

The Polity is under attack from a ‘melded’ AI entity with control of the lethal Jain technology, yet the attack seems to have no coherence. When one of Erebus’swormships, kills millions on the world of Klurhammon, a high-tech agricultural world of no real tactical significance, agent Ian Cormac is sent to investigate, though he is secretly struggling to control a new ability no human being should possess …and beginning to question the motives of his AI masters. Further attacks and seemingly indiscriminate slaughter ensue, but only serve to bring some of the most dangerous individuals in the Polity into the war.Mr Crane, the indefatigable brass killing machine sets out for vengeance, while Orlandine, a vastly-augmented haiman who herself controls Jain technology, seeks a weapon of appalling power and finds allies from an ancient war. Meanwhile Mika, scientist and Dragon expert, is again kidnapped by that unfathomable alien entity and dragged into the heart of things: to wake the makers of Jain technology from their five-million-year slumber. But Erebus’s attacks are not so indiscriminate, after all, and could very well herald the end of the Polity itself.

Speaking of good sci-fi. Neal Asher is another name that I keep meaning to read. Again, maybe not the best place to start.

Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire Derek Landy
Published by HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks

Synopsis

Just when you think you’ve saved the world! “You will kill her?” the Torment asked. Skulduggery sagged. “Yes.” He hesitated, then took his gun from his jacket. “I’m sorry, Valkyrie,” he said softly. “Don’t talk to me,” Valkyrie said. “Just do what you have to do.” Valkyrie parted her tunic, and Skulduggery pointed the gun at the vest beneath. “Please forgive me,” Skulduggery said, then aimed the gun at the girl and pulled the trigger. With Serpine dead, the world is safe once more. At least, that’s what Valkyrie and Skulduggery think, until the notorious Baron Vengeous makes a bloody escape from prison, and dead bodies and vampires start showing up all over Ireland. With Baron Vengeous after the deadly armour of Lord Vile, and pretty much everyone out to kill Valkyrie, the daring detective duo face their biggest challenge yet. But what if the greatest threat to Valkyrie is just a little closer to home!?

I’m just curious about what all the fuss is about.

Voice of Gods by Trudi Canavan
Publsihed by Orbit

Synopsis

In her new role as protector of the Siyee, Auraya investigates sightings of a landwalker stranger in their land. She meets a mysterious woman claiming to be a friend of Mirar’s: a woman who makes an offer Auraya is unable to refuse, but which she must conceal or risk the wrath of the gods. In the south, Mirar enjoys acceptance and respect as he reclaims his place among his people, but that freedom will come at a cost. Meanwhile, Emerahl is at last able to join the Thinkers in their search for the Scroll of the Gods, but the truth may not be revealed in the form she expects. And the Pentadrians, frustrated by their defeat at the hands of the Circlians, plot and scheme to bring down their enemies by means other than direct conflict. As the promise of peace dies, and two peoples are once more drawn inexorably into war, Auraya is unable to avoid being caught up the conflict. The key to everything, though, may lie with the Wilds, who embark upon a quest for secrets buried long ago. Secrets that could change the world.

Trudi Canavan gave a great quote on Scar Night by Alan Campbell, which I’m read and really enjoying at the moment. Plus this looks like a fantasy detective novel. Can you see a theme?

Dark Wraith of Shannara by Terry Brooks
Published by Orbit

Synopsis

‘The past is always with us, but sometimes we fail to recognise it for what it is.’ These were JairOhmsford’s final thoughts as he walked away from the carnage at Dun Fee Aran, having destroyed at last the book of dark magic known as the Ildatch. Following this great event, told in The Wishsong of Shannara, Jair discovers that he can draw on a form of magic that allows him to transform into other living creatures, both human and non-human. The magic is both powerful and seductive, for Jair can feel himself wanting to remain in each new form that he tries. Jair sets out for the family home of Shady Vale, seeking peace from the temptations of his unwanted gift. But fate has other plans for the heir to the elvenmagics of Shannara, and the shade of the Druid Allanon sets him, and his sister Brin, on a new path. The way is perilous, but Jair can provide protection with his new magical ability. Of course, that may be the most dangerous path of all …

Another of those big names I really should read.

House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
Publshed by Gollancz HB

Synopsis

Six million years ago, at the very dawn of the starfaring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones: the shatterlings. Sent out into the galaxy, these shatterlings have stood aloof as they document the rise and fall of countless human empires. They meet every two hundred thousand years, to exchange news and memories of their travels with their siblings. Campion and Purslane are not only late for their thirty-second reunion, but they have brought along an amnesiac golden robot for a guest. But the wayward shatterlings get more than the scolding they expect: they face the discovery that someone has a very serious grudge against the Gentian line, and there is a very real possibility of traitors in their midst. The surviving shatterlings have to dodge exotic weapons while they regroup to try to solve the mystery of who is persecuting them, and why – before their ancient line is wiped out of existence, for ever.

The Prefect Alastair Reynolds
Published by Gollancz PB

Synopsis

Tom Dreyfus is a Prefect, a policeman of sorts, and one of the best. His force is Panoply, and his beat is the multi-faceted utopian society of the Glitter Band, that vast swirl of space habitats orbiting the planet Yellowstone. These days, his job is his life. A murderous attack against a Glitter Band habitat is nasty, but it looks to be an open-and-shut case – until Dreyfus starts looking under some stones that some very powerful people would really rather stayed unturned. What he uncovers is far more serious than mere gruesome murder: a covert takeover bid by a shadowy figure, Aurora (who may once have been human but certainly isn’t now), who believes the people of the Glitter Band should no longer be in charge of their own destiny. Dreyfus discovers that to save something precious, you may have to destroy part of it.

I read and greatly enjoyed Revelation Space and these are a reminder that I really should read Chasm City.

Shadow Gate by Kate Elliot
Published by Orbit

Synopsis

Marit was pretty sure she had been murdered. She recalled the assassin’s dagger, thrust up to pierce her heart. A certain path to a swift death, as any reeve would know. Her dying vision had shown her the next world but her spirit had not made the journey. She woke alone, sprawled on a Guardian altar with only a cloak for a covering. Her eagle was dead. The Guardians had ruled the Hundred, but they had long disappeared from the world, leaving the reeves to administer justice in their stead. But this peace has been shattered by a desperate army, slaughtering all in its path. And its leaders are shadowy undead, wearing the cloaks of lost Guardians …

I’ve fallen for the cover art. It’s lovely. It’s a sequel to Spirit Gate

Empress by Karen Miller
Published by Orbit

Synopsis

When a scrawny, unwanted child – so lowly that she does not even have a name – is sold into slavery, a chain of events is set in motion that will have a profound impact on all the civilised world. Naming herself ‘Hekat’ (after a slaver’s observation that she is quite the hellcat), the girl is taken in chains to Mijak’s largest city, but makes a bargain with a ruthless god and escapes her captors. After she saves the life of a warlord, he takes her in and teaches her ways that an orphan might use to prosper in an uncaring world. When the warlord’s family dies, the way becomes clear for Hekat to carve a dynasty out of infidelity and betrayal…

Karen Miller has been an instant hit since the release of The Innocent Mage/The Awakened Mage. Chris, the book swede has had chance to interview Karen and it’s a good read to.

And that’s the lot. I’ve missed some I’m sure. But I wasn’t expecting it to take this long to do seeing as we’re in May.

I hope you found it interesting. I’ve got a list of books for May ready plus I’ve received some exciting books that I need to talk about so expect another exciting list soon-ish with a bit of luck.

gav.