link: My Favourite Books: The Toymaker by Jeremy de Quidt
The Toymaker is beautifully written by Jeremy de Quidt. It’s deeply dark and disturbing with touches of the macabre that will scintillate younger and older readers alike. The action is vivid and moves the story forward as much as the quest to find out the secret of the scrap of paper. The ending is a twisty turning thing that had me re-reading it because it took me that much by surprise.
Does indeed sound scary…
link: My Favourite Books: Soulless by Cail Carriger
Gail Carriger has created a fabulous Victorian London and her characters are well developed, totally off the wall and still so believable. More than once I sat back amazed at what Gail created. Her dialogue is witty and funny, the whole story has an energy and a pace that I thoroughly enjoyed.
I had to wait ages when this book had it’s US only release for my order to get delivered. And from all the great reviews it’s very popular.
link: And As Long As We’re In An Awards Mood … « Torque Control
Have the nominees for the Philip K Dick Award:
BITTER ANGELS by C. L. Anderson (Ballantine Books/Spectra)
THE PRISONER by Carlos J. Cortes (Ballantine Books/Spectra)
THE REPOSSESSION MAMBO by Eric Garcia (Harper)
THE DEVIL’S ALPHABET by Daryl Gregory (Del Rey)
CYBERABAD DAYS by Ian McDonald (Pyr)
CENTURIES AGO AND VERY FAST by Rebecca Ore (Aqueduct Press)
PROPHETS by S. Andrew Swann (DAW Books)
Interesting-looking list, though the only one I’ve read is the McDonald.
Unlike Niall I’ve not read any of them…. or heard of more than 3 of them. Eek.
link: Temple Library Reviews: Doctor Fate in Art
Doctor Fate came to my attention via the Justice League Unlimited series, where I actually came face to face to DC’s superhero roster. What makes him awesome to me [for the most superfluous reasons was his] is the golden ankh that appears as a trademark, when he is casting. Otherwise I am still curious to read a series with him, because so far he seems like the DC version of Doctor Strange or vice versa [I am not as well-read as I would like to be]. However I can see that the idea about a line of sorcerers, who carry the same name, has stuck in popular culture, since the very first Doctor made an appearance in 1940.
Harry’s Comic Book Appreciation Month continues – he’s been showing off some great character art and Doctor Fate is no different.
link: Walker of Worlds: One to Watch | Veteran by Gavin Smith (Gollancz)
Here’s a book that I’m looking forward to that could very well be one of my top reads of the year. The synopsis has grabbed my attention and it sounds very much like Neal Asher and David Gunn, which is always good! Veteran is by debut author Gavin Smith and due out in June 2010 from Gollancz – one to watch!
I’m looking forward to Veteran too after having a good chat with Gavin at the Gollancz party last year. Sorry Mark I’m nicking the blurb:
Three hundred years in our future, in a world of alien infiltrators, religious hackers, a vast convoying nation of Nomads, city sized orbital elevators, and a cyborg pirate king who believes himself to be a mythological demon Jakob is having a bad day:
“Nothing gets in the way of a hangover like being reactivated by your old C.O and told to track down an alien killing machine. The same kind of killing machine that wiped out my entire squad. And now it’s in my hometown.
My name is Jakob Douglas, ex-special forces. I fought Them. Just like we’ve all been doing for 60 bloody years. But I thought my part in that was done with.
My boss has other ideas. If I didn’t find the infiltrator then he’d let the Grey Lady loose on me. And believe me; even They’ve got nothing on her. So I took the job. It went to shit even faster than normal.
And now I’m on the run with this teenage hacker who’s had enough of prostitution. The only people I can rely on want to turn the internet into God. And now it turns out that They aren’t quite what we’d all thought.
I’ve been to the bottom of the sea and the top of the sky and beyond trying to get to the truth.
And I still can’t get far enough away from the Grey Lady.
All things considered I’d rather be back at home deep in a whiskey bottle.”Veteran is a fast paced, intricately plotted violent SF Thriller set in a dark future against the backdrop of a seemingly never ending war against an unknowable and implacable alien enemy.
link: Speculative Horizons: Scary alien + big gun = win
Scary alien + big gun = win
I waited for The Skinner and Gridlinked to come out in their recovers and Orbus matches them. Stunning!
On a quick aside James looks like he enabled a full feed on Speculative Horizons so you can now see his posts in full on his RSS feed! Woohoo!!
link: Book Chick City: Book Review: Mr Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett
This is the authors debut novel, but unfortunately, Mr Shivers didn’t chill me to the bone. I found it lacking the aspects I expect from a thriller/horror novel. I also didn’t like the style of writing and therefore doubt I will read anything else from this author in the future.
Oh, and I was looking forward to reading this one too….
link: Book Chick City: Too Old For YA?
Can we be too old for YA?
Lots and lots of comments… I’m probably getting too old if I’m being honest.
link: Unbound!: Richard K. Morgan – Broken Angels
If you’re looking for a fun science fiction novel that takes pleasure in wrapping itself up in the world it creates, and like a little Philip Marlowe tossed in, you can do a lot worse than checking our Richard K. Morgan and his Takeshi Kovacs novels. Although you can get by fine reading them out of order, it might b
e best to start with Altered Carbon first. However, I’ll note that I liked Broken Angels better, so take that for what it’s worth.
I like the idea of being wrapped in a world of pleasure.
link: Review – After Dark, Haruki Murakami « Dazed Rambling
The characterization in After Dark is well done. Mari is perhaps the only character that manages any kind of growth, but this is not the sort of book where I would expect otherwise. Takahashi, Kaoru and Alphaville’s maid staff, and even the businessman are all characters you might meet at some point in your life, though one of the two maids might be a bit of a stretch in that regard. In there own way most of these characters help Mari along in terms of her growth–be it by instigating the meeting of these various “night people” or by discussing secrets and paths and the occasional hope for the future.
I’ve read Murakami’s short stories and liked them though they are a little odd. Nervous about choosing my first full novel. I wonder if it should be this one?
link: Walker of Worlds: Review | Cosmopath by Eric Brown (Solaris Books)
So, another series come to an end and one of my favourites in a while. Although I have a soft spot for psychic detectives Eric Brown delivered a consistently good series and Cosmopath was the icing on the cake. This has the sort of appeal that can bring new fans to the genre and highlights all that is good about sci-fi. Excellent stuff and highly recommended.
If you’re thinking about reading more SF this year it looks like you can’t go wrong with the Bengal Station Trilogy.
link: They don’t work for me – books and authors who don’t appeal « It Doesn’t Have To Be Right…
There are a great many other books and writers I don’t like. This is just a small selection. There are also many books I do like, although I’ve no idea why – the novels of AE van Vogt, for example. They may well be the subject of another blog post.
Great post – a couple of people I like in there but most like Dune I didn’t want to read in the first place… Looks like Ian is choosing the wrong books?
link: PETRONA: My review highlights of 2009
For Euro Crime purposes, novels by North American authors were not included. So my complete list of 13, my usual baker’s dozen, including authors from this region, is reproduced below. The list, which is alphabetical, consists of reviews that were published in 2009, not necessarily books that were published in that year. The asterisks represent authors who were new to me last year.
More crime novels and novelists to stick on the list then 
link: Review: The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman « DaveBrendon’s Fantasy & SciFi Weblog
Everything Else: Paul’s writing is really easy on the mind, poetic and beautiful in places, charging along with incredible pace and tension in others. His writing seems entirely suited to Fantasy, and I’m very glad that I got the opportunity to read such a strong debut!
Hype Alert!! I don’t know why and don’t shoot me but I’m really put off this and I don’t know why! Hype?
link: Stomping on Yeti: 10 Things I Hate About You(r Blog)
Author’s Note: These issues are not addressed at a single blog. They are just general commentary on things that bug me within the genre blogosphere.
10 Things I Hate About You(r Blog)
I’m going to address these at some point in a proper post especially #4, and #9
And I think that’s enough to keep you going for now . Check out the links on the right for more great blogs.
Back to reading Hyddenworld: Spring and will be announcing the winner of the vote for my next read later.
What is everyone else doing today?
“I’ve read Murakami’s short stories and liked them though they are a little odd. Nervous about choosing my first full novel. I wonder if it should be this one?”
I had never read anything from Murakami before AFTER DARK and it worked well enough for me to ensure that I continue to read more from him. From what I have seen around, most people seem to think it is a good introduction and one of his best books, too. It certainly would not hurt to start with AFTER DARK.
Thanks – good know it's a good intro might read that over The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle which I have on the shelves.
A fan of Murakami recently warned away from reading THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE before reading his other work. Reason being, it is some of his heaviest work and hard to get.
Right, that's put me right off that has! After Dark or nothing then
Ta.