NextRead

Well it doesn’t look like I’m going to get my July Books round up done until Saturday And there are so many good books to mention and I’ve got the rest of my expanding RSS feed to go through. July hasn’t been the most productive month on the blog.

In other news Amazon.co.uk had The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie at £4.99 so I treated myself. Looking forward to see what all the fuss is about.

Speaking of fuss Paul Kearney doesn’t seem happy with Aiden.

Oh and there is going to be one more Harry Potter-related book.

More later

Tags: Comment, news

This is just a quick post to see if I can post from my new iphone and I can!!

Tags: apple

This is always a hard choice for me. On the one hand I have books that have one the shelves for ages(read years) that I should give time to and then there is the pile of new releases that are shouting at me we’re new read me now! And usually I try and balance personal reading with review copies from publishers. The problem comes when I just can’t settle and pick a book. I think about it, put it down, read a couple of pages and then move on to the next one.

Reading for me has a lot to do with mood. Do I want to read something comforting by a writer I know or read something new that I might not like. Added to that is when my inner editor is front and centre and it takes quite a lot to impress him.

For example I’ve picked and put down two books that I’ve had sitting in the pile for a little bit. My problem is that that my inner editor is shouting and screaming as I read. “Show not tell! Show not tell!” I think I’m a bit of a snob. So this leaves me with a bit of a dilemma. Should I struggle and hope it’s a phase and that I won’t end up hating every second. Or should I move on?

I usually choose move on as I’m not enjoying it. Quality of writing I think is important for me even if I’m reading a genre that isn’t considered literary, which isn’t a fair comment to make as I’ve read more quality writing in genre fiction that I have in the literary books. Though I’ve also read some of the worse writing in genre titles as well.

Anyway, I’m hoping to find something I’ll like soon. Currently I’m trying Andrew Martin’s The Necropolis Railway. Fingers crossed.

Tags: reading

I’m just seeing if Contribute is going to be functional enough for making a blog post and I dont think it is.

I’m currently trying to catch-up with my reading as I’m behind. In some senses you’ll always be behind where reading is concerned but I’m feeling it more than usual. This is because I’ve been a little lax in prioritising my reading time and I’m trying to make up for it.

I’m trying my best to get Debatable Space by Philip Palmer reviewed before its UK release of the 24th. I don’t think that its going to be hard to do as its moving along at a cracking pace.

I’ve also been lucky enough to have review copies of Jack of Ravens by Mark Chadbourn and Ink by Hal Duncan. The trouble is I’m one book behind on both! Talk about instant gratification or maybe over indulgence…. and I need to get through them first.

Apart from that I’ve been looking under the hood of the blog and reinstated the category list (I didn’t release it was missing). I’m trying to clean up the categories and make them tags. I’ve added Feedburner and Share This options. I don’t know if they help but can’t hurt.

I’m also waiting for Amazon.com to see if they are going to discount Absolute Sandman Vol.1 again. I was supposed to get it for Christmas but it seems hard to find online from a UK source.

Look for more reviews and ramblings soon.

Welcome to NextRead.co.uk. After one year successfully posting news, comments, features and reviews on books I’ve read or would like to read on my personal blog I’ve decided to give my book passion it’s own place. And here it is. I hope you enjoy.

gav.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Jackson to produce Hobbit movies
Peter Jackson, Oscar-winning director of the Lord of the Rings movies, has signed a deal to produce two films based on JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit

I loved The Hobbit when I read it at maybe 10 or 11 and I was dreding a film version that was outside the cinematic landscape that Jackson made.

The Hobbit is Tolkien-lite and in my opinion much better for it. When I read The Lord of the Rings I couldn’t see the point of reading any more after Frodo dropped the ring in Mount Doom. I’m told that important things happened after but I’d had my fill of wondering around even if he was going home.

Tolkien is a brilliant world builder and creator but he could have done with a bit of fire under him when he was writing. A bit too self indulgent if you ask me.

Tags: Film

It’s not over yet, but I can’t see any final revelations happening, unless you count Nintendo suddenly releasing a billion or so Wiis. So what I have got to say about the year? I haven’t got a clue but let us see what I can come up with.

Way back in January I wrote a post called ‘Support‘ where I said this year if I could I was going to buy more debuts. And as it turned turned out I was able to do a bit better by reviewing and promoting some great new voices. All starting with Anonymous Lawyer which strangely, or not, started off as a blog written by Jeremy Blachman. It’s a devilishly funny novel and well worth a read. From there I’ve been introduced to some excellent new writers like Chris Ewan, Brian Ruckley and Chelsea Cain who have started off a series of books that I want to read more of.

Mostly this year I’ve read writers who are new to me even if they’ve been around a little while like Charles Stross, Peter F. Hamilton, Charlie Hutson, Chuck Palahniuk, Paul Magrs and Jim Butcher. And I’m still finding new favourite writers. Each one has their own view on what the world is or what the world could be. I guess I’m more interested in writers with an imagination and skill for making alive their dreams.

I still have books that I’m yet to read from people new to me and old friends Here is a non-definitive or exhaustive list:

1. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (Gollancz)
2. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (Vintage Classics)
3. Cell by Stephen King (Hodder)
4. Lisey’s Story by Stephen King (Hodder)
5. Scar Night by Adam Campbell (Tor)
6. Gradisil by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
7. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (Hodder)
8. Vellium by Hal Duncan (Pan)
9. Grave Peril by Jim Butcher (Orbit)
10. The Hounds of Avalon by Mark Chadbourn (Gollancz)
11. Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz (Harper Collins)
12. Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin (Orbit)
13. A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett (Corgi)
14. The Court of The Air by Stephen Hunt (Harper Voyager)
15. The Killing Kind by John Connolly (Coronet)
16. The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller (Orbit)
17. Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler (Doubleday)
18. In the Woods by Tana French (Hodder)
19. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (Phoenix)
20. Marco’s Pendulum by Thom Madley (Usbourne)

Wow, that’s probably next years reading right there if this years reading rate is anything to go by. All of them are in some way part of my taste in books - supernatural detection, detective stories, soft sci-fi, urban fantasy, and fable.

I do wish though that there were a bit thinner or by reading them I wasn’t committing myself to reading a long series. Actually that’s wrong I do love series as long as I don’t have to remember in detail what happened on page 321 of book two when I’m reading book nine page 840.

And if that back catalogue wasn’t enough there are yet more books that have just come out, about to come out, planned or books that I’ve not even heard of that are going be on a ‘want to read’ list by this time next year.

This all goes to prove that the book business as far as coming out with good and great books is a healthy one. New writers get a chance to shine but if you are looking to get published you have to be very very good. Literary fiction is best left to those who have a name or some background that supports the name they make for themselves. Genre is the way to go.

If I had to choose books of the year under gun point and on a lie detector I’d say that the ones to check out are (in no particular order):

The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton.

Heartsick by Chelsea Cain

Already Dead by Charlie Hutson

The Atrocity Archives/The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

Never the Bride by Paul Magrs

I’ll probably change my mind tomorrow but those are the ones that are coming to the surface right now.

Right back to the surprisingly good-so-far The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson

Tags: reading lists

Let’s see. It’s coming up to Christmas so you might if you’re lucky have time to read or even luckier have someone that wants to buy you books or might want to treat yourself. Well there are a few that are gathering my interest.

Starting with a new favourite, Mr Charles Stross. Tor are issuing his The Merchant Princes series in the UK starting with The Family Trade. It’s fantasy this time with Knights on horseback wielding machine guns and world-skipping assassins. Though being prolific Mr Stross has another book out in January called Halting State from Orbit and it’s back to sci-fi but with the twist that it’s in the second person. And I’m hoping it”ll persuade me to like a second person narrator

This is a bit of a surprise release as when I last looked the Bram Stoker Award winning Dark Harvest by Norman Patridge wasn’t listed as a British release but it came out just in time for Halloween.

‘…he rises from the cornfields every Halloween, a butcher knife in his hand, and makes his way toward town, where gangs of teenage boys eagerly await their chance to confront the legendary nightmare. Both the hunter and the hunted, the October Boy is the prize in an annual rite of life and death.’

Sounds creepy to me.

Brian Aldiss has been asking, ‘Why are science fiction’s best writers so neglected?’ and he sounds a little bit bitter about the fact that only the time reviewed his latest novel, Harm. Strangely he fails to mention writers like Stephen Baxter, Iain M Banks and Peter F. Hamilton. But never mind he also has an anthology from Penguin called A Science Fiction Omnibus, it sounds like a good collection works from the last 65 years.

Speaking of science-fiction writers Light is now out in paperback. My only exposure so far to M. John Harrison is his collection of stories called, Things that Never Happened. As with most collections I’m only a few stories in but I’m intrigued enjoy to want to read something a little longer. Plus the synopsis sounds good:

‘On the barren surface of an asteroid, located deep in the galaxy beneath the unbearable light of the Kefahuchi Tract, lie three objects: an abandoned spacecraft, a pair of bone dice covered with strange symbols, and a human skeleton. What they are and what they mean are the mysteries explored and unwrapped in LIGHT, M. John Harrison’s triumphant return to science fiction.’

I’m a sucker for a good cover and here is a another great one from Gollancz. Black Man (Thirteen) by Richard Morgan is a wonderful graphic cover and by all accounts (see here, here and here) the contents isn’t bad either.

‘When a thirteen escapes from exile on Mars and apparently goes on an insane killing spree, Carl Marsalis, a soul-weary freelance thirteen hit man, is hired to help track him down. Morgan goes beyond the SF cliché of the genetically enhanced superman to examine how personality is shaped by nature and experience’

Garth Nix’s Abhorsen Trilogy is one of my all time faves and with Across the Wall he returns briefly to the Old Kingdom as well as tales based on the Arthurian legend, a war story, a western, a traditional tale with a twist and a hilarious choose- your- own- adventure spoof. I’m still waiting to dive into the Keys of the Kingdom:

‘Arthur Penhaligon is not supposed to be a hero. He is supposed to die. But then he finds a key, discovers a mysterious house and meets the sinister Mister Monday… Prepare for seven breathtaking adventures as Arthur fights to save his world.’

And finally, for now, what is turning into a British institution,  Schott’s Almanac. It’s a wonderfully eclectic mix of Britishness (or German or Americanness depending on the edition). Packed full of useless, and not so useful but no less interesting information. Great to dip into at anytime of the year.

Tags: reading lists

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