NextRead

Title: Looking for Mr Piggy-Wig
Author: Andy Secombe
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 18 July 2008
Review Copy

Synopsis

It’s twenty years after the ‘New’ Battle of Britain, and rationing is still in force. Our hero, Jack Lindsay, is a private investigator of the old school If he has a weakness, apart from a fondness for garibaldi biscuits, it is for a woman with a sob story - and one has just walked into his office, and into his life. Jack finds himself becoming embroiled in a worldwide criminal conspiracy involving gun-smuggling, political assassination, and a chain of burger outlets.

Comments/Thoughts/Analyse

All the best private investigator stories start with a beautiful woman walking into an office and bringing with them nothing but trouble or maybe that’s just the impression I’ve picked up from the few that I’ve read. That’s what happens to Jack Lindsay and he finds himself into a lot of trouble.

Andy Secombe sets the tone at the start with the banter between Lindsey and his assistant Mango Pinkerton and Jack’s description of the arrival of Marian into the office. You can see that Secombe loves word play and enjoys a surreal sense of humour.

And that sense of fun continues with the rollercoaster of a trip that takes place following that meeting. Secombe keeps everything moving with Jack and the reader thrown in the deep end.  With its futuristic setting Secombe has been able to create a world that’s familiar but at the same time surreal and hopefully our actual future. Thankfully policing doesn’t seem to have changed much and I’m not saying if that’s a good or a bad thing. You’ll have to read it to find out.

There is a lovely mix of characters from Mango with his extreme sense of fashion to Detective Sergeant Lana O’Hara who adds a lot of tension and offers of relief to Jack’s time in the office.  The quest for garibaldis ensures we know what Jack finds important.

I loved every second of it.

Summary

A 21st century detective story that’ll keep you reading and entertained until the end.  And hopefully it’s not the end of Jack Lindsey and Mango Pinkerton as I’d love to read more.

9/10

Tags: 9/10, macmillan, review, review copy

Title: Kethani
Author: Eric Brown
Publisher: Solaris
Published: 6 May 2008
Review Copy

Synopsis

It takes an alien race to show us what humanitiy truly is. This is the irony faced by a group of friends whose lives are changed forever when the mysterious alien race known as the Kethani come to Earth bearing a dubious but amazing gift: immortality.

Analyse/Comments/Thoughts

Kethani is a reality based what if? Quite different for a sci-fi story.  Brown meditates, through a series of linked tales, on the affect on immortality on the human race, but its not just immortality we’re offered, it’s the chance to escape Earth and see the stars.

And what does humanity do with this gift? Sit in the pub. A lot.  And this is the conflict I’m having with this novel.  It’s a small-scale drama with a backdrop of something larger and life changing.  I can’t help feeling a little disappointed.

Here’s why. Brown presents a series of interesting voices and takes on the how, even with promise of resurrection on death, we still need routine and we make connections that we hold on to.  He examines our feelings around death. And all round does a good job.

But he leaves the aliens, well, alien. They’re almost as mysterious at the start as they are at the end. They have enemies but there is not explanation of who they might be or what the conflict is. They have amazing technology but we only get to see it from the surface.

Though the aliens aren’t the focus of this tale. We are. And Brown chooses a narrow focus with a reason so he can explore the wider implications for a group of friends of the aliens arrival. There is a doctor, a teacher, a priest, dry-stone-waller, in other words a mix of intelligent and insightful views to draw from. And there are some impressive insights about how we grow apart when we don’t try and how death can be a freedom as well as a devastation as well as how religion can or can’t transform to encompass new ideas.

On a technical level there is a couple of annoying traits. Everything seems to take place after a heavy snowfall and descriptions are sometimes repeated and some characters are more fleshed out than others. Some of these problems are routed in the fact that some of the sections have previously been short stories and could have been fixed I think with a little more polishing. This might seem picky but I did get drawn out of the story at a few times because of them.

Summary

I’m left with feeling that there was the potential to do a lot more with the alien material especially as it’s unlikely to have a sequel. But if it did it would have to be a different beast.

Putting aside my want to have more alien insight.  Brown shows a skill for examining the human condition and how we look at death in an unconventional sci-fi story. It’s an insightful take that’s well worth reading but it might leave you wanting more, which isn’t really a bad thing, is it?

7.5/10

Don’t just take my word for it

Fantasy Book Critic review
SCI FI Weekly review

Tags: 7.5/10, eric brown, review, Solaris

Title: Trading in Danger
Author: Elizabeth Moon
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 6 Nov 2003
Review Copy

Description
Ky Vatta is kicked out of the military academy for what should have been a small act of kindness. For the daughter of a rich trading family it should mean nothing but disgrace. Instead she is offered a captaincy that will take her away from her troubles and set her on a new path.

Her orders from Vatta Trading are simple take her ship to the scrape yard and come back with a profit. But her instincts find more profit and trade along the way and this is how her trouble starts.

Comment
All novels are about journeys. Some are plot driven and some are character driven. I’ve always preferred character to plot. I need someone or something to engage in and someone else’s to see that journey through. Elizabeth Moon has shaped a world and a situation that allowed her to take us on Ky Vatta’s journey through Ky’s eyes.

Moon really gets to the heart of the character by showing more than directly telling us how she handles herself as her and the crew of the Glennys Jones are put in a situation that they never planned. She also intersects this with scenes from other places allowing us, the reader, to see the wider situation so we’re aware of the full extent of trouble that could be coming Ky’s way.

With such a large dangerous backdrop Moon stays tightly focused on the consequences for Ky and her crew. We never get to see the full extend of what they find themselves in and we don’t need to. It is only a backdrop to the changes that take place in Ky, her ship, and her crew and I’m hoping that it’s also creating the basis for their next adventure.

A story about a trading ship could be quite boring, or so I thought, as there are only so many times you can see a ship travelling from planet to planet. Good writers though can make anything interesting; actually they show us what is interesting about anything. At no point was did my mind wander. I wanted to know what could happen next and how Ky was going to get out of it. I found it very hard to put down, which is rare with me.

Summary
Perfectly balanced. Emotional and adventurous. Trading in Danger has one of the most touching and best endings I’ve had read in ages. And the adventure is only just beginning. I’m eager to see where Ky Vatta goes next.

10/10 (I just couldn’t think of anything I wanted done differently)

Tags: Elizabeth Moon, Orbit, review, review copy

Title: Lost Boys
Author: James Miller
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 3 July 2008
Review Copy

Synopsis

At an English Boys Private School children are going missing, they are dreaming and then disappearing but no one knows where they’ve gone.

Analyse/Comments/Thoughts

I wasn’t expecting to like Lost Boys, coming of age stories aren’t really my thing. I was expecting a Lord of the Flies all boy camp bonding thing, if that’s what Lord of the Flies actually is, but that’s the impression I got from hearing about it.

There is a bond between the missing children and it’s a boy in their dreams. At the start of the novel we follow Timothy Dashwood as boys around him disappear and he dreams. We follow the effect that has on him and others around it until he too disappears.

But that isn’t really what this book is about. It’s about why he and the other boys, they’re mostly boys, have gone and what that leaves behind for their parents.

Anyone who is a parent, or is going to be a parent, should read this book. Miller explores the world we have created for our children and how a world of war, alienation and rejection separates children and adults and how that may mean they turn their backs, and weapons, on us.

This is a fantasy but one grounded in real conflicts. Arthur Dashwood, the father we follow, is powerless even to the end to save a child that doesn’t want saving. In fact his child and the other children are fighting against their parents.

Most of the conflict and exploration is internal as Arthur searches for his son and Miller cleverly takes the reader in directions and places that aren’t clear at the beginning as things are connected by links that are revealed in the telling.

The breakdown of Arthur both from internal and external events is extreme but fits the character and the story. The other characters, the wife, the au-pair, the brother and other supporting cast, feel real and rounded. Miller has drawn from a deepwell for this tale.

The only slight thing that jarred was with the sex as desire, lust, and animalistic exploration was missing from the equation for most of the novel but the stories tensions had there release in the final disturbing chapters. Though I don’t think it was about sex but more about power and loosing control of yourself and putting it someone elses hands.

Summary

Lost Boys by James Miller is a shocking and startling debut. It’s a powerful exploration on the world we are presenting and leaving our children. It’s a disburbing take on what could be. Well worth reading but don’t expect any happy endings.

Score

9/10

Links

Times Online Review
Big Dumb Object Review

Tags: debut, debut review, James Miller, Little Brown, review

Title: Astropolis Book One: Saturn Returns
Author: Sean Williams
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 05 June 2008
Review Copy

If you’re a frequent or perhaps an infrequent visitor to this blog you’ll have probably noticed the lack of sci-fi. It’s not that I dislike sci-fi as such. It’s more that I don’t go out of my way to read it. I do however watch quite a bit of it and have done for quite a few years. I’ve never left school so fast as when Star Trek: Generations opened. The reason for enjoying watching rather than reading could be that showing something technological might be easier visually than descriptively or it could be that fantasy in fiction is just my thing.

How does this relate to Saturn Returns? I must admit I found it hard going at the start. Where a dead Imre Bergamasc is brought back to life by the Jinc who are hoovering space looking for proof of the existence of god. Imre then makes it his mission to solve the mystery of the Slow Wave and its devastating effect on the galaxy. A disaster he seems to play a very important part in.

But the plot wasn’t the part I was struggling with. It was the world building as Williams uses Imre’s memory loss and flash-backs and revelations to inform the reader as well as move the plot along. I guess I’m on the show not tell side of the fence and there is a little too much tell.

But then about half-way through all the plot/world-building falls away and the story gets going. And at that point I started getting into the mystery and the story that Williams was telling. I’d have preferred this state to have come a few pages earlier but at least it came.

The strange this is that as we’re with a main character who has a Swiss cheese memory we, and neither can he, be sure that what he remembers is 100% how it occurred. And Williams uses this to change the perspective on a key event when he reveals what actually happened. I enjoyed the reinterpretation and it added something to each of the characters. As the story progresses we Imre puts back together and the story is really a quest to find them and put his team back together.

In William’s galaxy humans have diversified both space and the mind. There are now Primes, Forts, Singletons amongst others. And they have more control of their bodies and how time is perceived. All this adds to an interesting and unique mix.

Overall I enjoyed the ideas and world that is presented, what makes it worth reading at the moment is the mystery element and how each of the character is more than they appear.

This is definitely an opening chapter to something deeper and more intriguing from what I can tell of the ending and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens to Imre and his little band next.

7.5/10

Extras

Reviews from other places:

Chris, The Book Swede

The SF Diplomat

Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review

Big Dumb Object

Tags: 7.5/10, Orbit, review

Title: The Burning Man
Author: Mark Chadbourn
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 17 April 2008
Review Copy

The Burning Man brings the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons closer to the end of the world. And after eight books (three in Age of Misrule, three in The Dark Age and this is the second in The Kingdom of the Serpent.) it has been a long and challenging fight. The lives of the characters have been torn apart and rebuilt, as has the world around them. Magic has been released and it’s now being extinguished. The Brothers and Sisters have one final chance to stop the magic and hope in the world being extinguished forever.

As hinted at in Jack of Ravens the Tuatha Dé Danann are not the only Gods to be awakened in the world. As events have spiralled the quest of the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons brings them in contact with other Great Dominions some aren’t as friendly to the cause as others.

Mark Chadbourn is one of the best writers I have ever read regardless of genre. He manages to mix characterisation and storytelling so that one feeds off the other and neither is sacrificed. Not an easy thing to manage as stories need an emotional core without being emotional and soppy and characters need a journey and purpose no matter how much you like then.

In The Burning Man the pace never slows. That’s partly down to Chadbourn’s non-indulgent style. He gives just enough information and moves on. So this whole section is told in 329 pages and at no point do I feel short changed. He’s crammed in a lot.

It’s partly style but mostly he’s built up so much momentum that the story carries you forward. It’s rarely that I pick up a book just to see what happens next whilst waiting for a computer to boot or software to install (I got a new computer and usually I’d be staring at the machine keeping an eye on progress) or in ad break or choosing to read over everything else.

There were several sad and surprising moments, events happened where I wanted our heroes to hold on to their happiness a few moments longer and twists came seemingly without warning (though the signs I think were there if I’d have been paying a bit more attention).

Chadbourn has managed to make each of the characters rounded; they have their flaws, their own strengths and their own agendas. They act and react in their own and sometimes surprising (but not out of character) way.

I’d love to say more but if you’ve read this far it’ll only spoil it and if you haven’t it’s not going to make much sense if I said more about the plot apart from he ends The Burning Man in such a way that I have no idea if or how are heroes are going to save the world and what world they’ll end up saving.

I can’t wait until Book Three of The Kingdom of the Serpent.

10/10

Additional:

Here are links two reviews of books two and three of The Dark Age cycle.

A review of Jack of Ravens is here.

An overview of the series so far by me is here.

Tags: 10/10, Fantasy, Gollancz, Mark Chadbourn, review

Title: Scar Night
Author: Alan Campbell
Publisher: Tor
Published: May 2007
Price: £7.99
Bought It

Before I say anything else Alan Campbell’s debut novel Scar Night is an amazing creation. Not only does he create rounded characters, he creates a believable world for them to live. I enjoyed reading it immensely but it’s not without its problems. Though before I get into all that let me tell you what it’s all about.

Dill is the last of his line. A battle-archon whose role is to protect the faithful and the Temple of Deepgate. But he’s not a fighter. The role is now ceremonial as the battleships do the fighting and the flying. Dill is left to stand on the roof unable to fly and release the occasional bucket of snails from his room in the Temple kitchens.

The city of Deepgate is suspended by great chains that have been interlinked over the years by lesser chains and ropes. This combined with its industrial needs have created several districts but overlooking them all is the Temple of Ucis. Ulcis is the undead God who is gathering an army of Ghosts, the dead of Deepgate, to reclaim his place in heaven.

As events unfold it is Dill who has no choice but to descend below and find out what hell really looks like.
When I started reading I wasn’t sure what expect. I expected Dill to go for feeble boy to a warrior man and save everyone. But he doesn’t, well not in that Hollywood hero way and that’s a good thing.

Instead Alan Campbell presents an exploration of life, death and faith and how what we believe can build and build until its foundations are forgotten. He also shows that no one is as bad as they first appear.

The trouble is I’m not sure that Campbell always had the balance quite right. The bad characters have some qualities that strip away some of their nastiness, which is alright, but somehow made me pause and wonder about their motives.

Saying that though he does well to give individuality to the minor as well as major characters and my thoughts about some of the motivations didn’t distract or undermine my enjoyment of Scar Night.

In fact I couldn’t wait to see what Campbell did next. Somehow he kept managing to surprise me in terms of what happened in the story and how he got there.

And at the end he left me in no doubt that this was only the beginning.

I recommend this for anyone who likes their fantasy to break and twist conventions and who likes their stories dark with a light at the end of a tunnel. I’m eager to read the just released Iron Angel.

8.5/10

Tags: Alan Campbell, debut, review, Tor

Title: Un Lun Dun
Author: China Miéville
Publisher: Pan
Published: 5 Feb 2007
Price: £6.99
Review Copy

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading Un Lun Dun. All I knew about Miéville was that he was an imaginative and political writer who could be categorised as writing in the New Weird tradition plus this was his first novel for Young Adults. After reading Un Lun Dun I’d say he was all of the above and then some.

Two girls find themselves in an alternative London where London’s lost and broken things end up along with some of the people. The strange this is that the girls are expected and there is a prophecy to fulfil; the Smog is bent on it’s destruction and the city needs a hero.

Mieville has created a unique twisted take on not only London but on the quest novel where nothing quite works out as planned. And the unexpected is one of Miéville’s strengths. He plays with words, conventions, and draws from a very fascinating imagination. I can’t see anyone else making a pack of blood-thirsty giraffes quite so scary or coming up with the same wide-range of unique areas and inhabitants of Un Lun Dun like rock climbing librarians or ghost houses that fade in and out. But cutting through that is the journey that Miéville takes us on.

What at first seems right and proper is in fact quite the opposite and vice versa. It’s not every novel you read when the hero fails and falls at the first hurdle but then continues in un-expected ways. Miéville is really playful with not only the companions of our hero but also how they go about fulfilling that role.

What I liked the most is that it’s a modern fairy tale with slight mix of politics but it doesn’t preach or moralise. Any messages it does have are delivered through the events and the decisions that takes place.

Overall, Miéville’s furtile and playful imagination along with a strong story telling skills has created a modern fairy tale for young adults and adults who love a good story. Though some of the language is quite complex so it might be a challenging read to some less experienced young readers. It’s well worth reading.

There is also a slight door left open to revisit Un Lun Dun again and I hope he does. But in the meantime I’ll be reading more by China Miéville.

9/10

Tags: 9/10, China Miéville, Pan, review

Title: Jack of Ravens
Author: Mark Chadbourn
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 6 December 2007
Price: £7.99
Review Copy

Jack of Ravens continues Mark Chadbourn’s exploration of myth, archetypes and human nature. He does a lot more besides that but these are the backbone of the cycles of books that started with World’s End. Jack of Ravens starts with return of Jack Church who disappeared (or died depending on your point of view) at the end of the Age of Misrule trilogy and who was brought back following the events at the end of The Dark Age cycle.

Chadbourn has definitely taken the long view when it comes to this series. As one book builds on the next and each cycle seems to come to end only for something greater or deeper or darker is then revealed.

In Jack of Ravens Chadbourn changes tack again in his exploration of the Fixed Lands (here), the Fragile Creatures (us) and the Tuatha Dé Danann (old celtic gods who influence our lives but in this book there is hint that the world also has gods from other denominations) But instead of confining himself to the near future and the ancient sites of Britain of previous books instead Chadbourn takes us through time and across continents as Jack Church tries to stop the darkness that has altered history to make its plans work.

The best part of each book is that as the reader gets more exposed to the world that Chadbourn has created the more he changes the rules. Here he gathers again the heroes and some villains of past books but they are changed and how they act and react is different as the events that have shaped them previously has changed.

I could go on about the layers that have been built into this series and the connections that are pulled, rewired, crossed and severed as the story is told but that would spoil it. The nature and effect of experience is a major theme.

There is one slight problem with Chadbourn’s storytelling is that it relies on the reader putting things together.Lots is left unexplained but makes a lot of sense if you consider what has gone on before. But in the case of this book if you haven’t read The Dark Age and ideally the Age of Misrule you may lack the knowledge to care about Jack’s journey through 2,300 of history.

Which would be a great shame as Jack of Ravens gave me several ooo and ahh moments as I realised how events were playing out. Chadbourn also has a wonderful imagination. The characters and places of the Far (Faery) Lands are as tangible as they are fanciful.

Overall, Mark Chadbourn has again proved himself an amazing and imaginative story-weaver (he’s laid so many threads) that kept me breathless from beginning to end. I can’t imagine what he has planned for The Burning Man but I can’t wait to find out.

9/10

Additional:

Here are links two reviews of books two and three of The Dark Age cycle.

And an overview of the series so far by me is here.

Tags: 9/10, Gollancz, Mark Chadbourn

Title: No Dominion
Author: Charlie Huston
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 5 Jul 07
Price: £6.99
Review Copy

You gotta feel sorry for Joe Pitt. He can’t seem to help finding himself in serious trouble. Out of blood and out of cash and being behind on the rent Pitt needs a job. Though being a Vampyre and a Rogue it can’t be a 9-5 gig. Unfortunately he’s in the wrong place and the wrong time and a job finds him and it involves a trip Uptown.

Carrying on from the sucked dry Already Dead Charlie Huston delves deeper into the Vampyre Clans on Manhattan.  Huston keeps it simple. We see it all from inside Joe’s head as follows the trail set out in front of him.  But Huston isn’t a simple storyteller not by a long shot. He’s created a deep, dangerous and moral man in Pitt and throws that up against the different Clans who are more establishment than Pitt likes getting close to. And Huston plays on this tension, as well as tensions from the hunger for blood and from his girlfriend who needs him a lot right now.

Huston is a master of set-up and pay-off even if the payoff isn’t what it first appears and in most cases isn’t a pay-off at all but another set-up.  Something is about to go down.

I can’t wait to get my teeth into Half the Blood of Brooklyn, which happens to be out now from Orbit.

9/10

Tags: 9/10, Charlie Huston, Orbit, review