January Releases
Well as this is my first official post over at my new blog I thought I’d start with books that are appearing on the UK shelves in January either as brand new releases or paperback re-releases or for some other reason to make them worth mentioning.
Starting with a collection of tales by a master of the genre. Gollancz are releasing The Necronomicon: The Weird Tales of H.P Lovecraft. I’ve read a few stories by Lovecraft and this collection of just over 1000 pages looks likes it’s going to be a definite edition for new readers, fans and collectors. As a writer Lovecraft has a had an influence of some of my favourite writers like Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Charles Stross and his ideas have seeped into popular culture.
Next is the Black Swan paperback The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I’m not sure what to make of it. The blurb goes like this; ‘The story of a young German girl who steals books, of her family and the Jewish boxer hidden in their basement as they struggle to survive in Nazi Germany when the bombs begin to fall. ‘ The twist is that it’s narrated by Death. The other other novelist that personifies Death is Terry Pratchett even giving him his own series of Discworld Books. It seems that Mark’s take is very different. It’s had excellent and long reviews in a Guardian and Independent and depending on where it’s published is marketed at both the YA and adult audiences.
This paperback has had a long road to a paperback release. Back in Oct 2006 Penguin released The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters as a 10-book series of chapbooks before releasing the complete hardback in January 2007. What’s it about? ‘Miss Temple didn’t come to the city for an adventure - she came to find a husband. But, when her fiance, Roger Bascombe, threw her over for no reason, Miss Temple decided to find out why. Yet, following Roger to a masked ball (one with a most sinister purpose) will take Miss Temple very far from the respectable world she has always known.’ It’s had mixed reviews which is putting me off. I think I’m going to have to read a few pages to see if the writing is engaging.
Continuing my support of debuts here is one with a very dodgy cover. Die With Me by Elena Forbes. This time we move to crime and to a newish publisher Quercus. It’s had some good reviews here and here. What’s it about? ‘For fifteen year old Gemma it is already too late. Her body is found in the nave of a church in Ealing, west London. At first all the signs were that it was a suicide. But then the autopsy suggests it is not and Detective Inspector Mark Tartaglia and the Barnes murder squad are called in.For Tartaglia and his team it is just a matter of time before the tragedy repeats itself.’ I don’t read enough crime and enjoy it when I do plus the reviews are very positive.
Now this one I’ve picked up and put down so many times when I’ve been browsing my local bookstore. It’s calling to me. It might be the Western wanted poster effect cover or it might be that I have an unhealthy obsession with debut authors. I love the synopsis on Amazon, “‘Be warned. This book has no literary merit whatsoever. It is a lurid piece of nonsense, convoluted, implausible, peopled by unconvincing characters, written in drearily pedestrian prose, frequently ridiculous and wilfully bizarre. Needless to say, I doubt you’ll believe a word of it.’ So starts the extraordinary tale of Edward Moon, detective, his silent sidekick the Sonambulist and devilish plot to recreate the apocalyptic prophecies of William Blake and bring the British Empire crashing down. With a gallery of vividly grotesque characters, a richly evoked setting and a playful highly literate style this is an amazingly readable literary fantasy and a brilliant debut.’” The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes seems worth reading to find out how he mixes with William Blake vivid imagination.
The follow-up The Domino Men is also also being released by Gollancz this month, ‘A young man discovers a manuscript and so begins a bizarre tale that brings together his grandfather, every conspiracy theory you’ve ever heard about the royal family and the true story about where the power of Number 10 really lies. Readers of The Somnambulist may well recoginise the characters kept within a chalk circle in a cellar beneath Downing Street. With a gallery of vividly grotesque characters, a gleefully satiric take on modern life and a playful and highly literate style, this is an amazingly readable literary fantasy. In his sequel to the crazed Victoriana of The Somnambulist Jonathan Barnes brings his invention, reality, grotesquerie and curiosities bang-up-to-date.’ Which gives me more reason to read the first one.
Were now moving into space with Debatable Space by Philip Palmer a debut from Orbit. ‘Flanagan (who is, for want of a better word, a pirate) has a plan. It seems relatively simple: kidnap Lena, the Cheo’s daughter, demand a vast ransom for her safe return, sit back and wait. Only the Cheo, despotic ruler of the known universe, isn’t playing ball. Flanagan and his crew have seen this before, of course, but since they’ve learned a few tricks from the bad old days (being particularly bad if you happen to have been one of the myriad sons or daughters the Cheo let die rather than give in to blackmail) and since they know something about Lena that should make the plan foolproof, the Cheo’s defiance is a major setback. It is a situation that calls for extreme measures. Luckily, Flanagan has considerable experience in this area…’ There’s a great interview with Palmer over at The Book Swede.
I enjoyed reading Charles Stross (see here and here). They even made my books of the year. Halting State from Orbit has had some great reviews like this one from Chris and here. And if the cover wasn’t interesting enough here is the blurb, ‘It was called in as a robbery at Hayek Associates, an online game company. So you can imagine Sergeant Sue Smith’s mood as she watches the video footage of the heist being carried out by a band of orcs and a dragon, and realises that the robbery from an online game company is actually a robbery from an online game. Just wonderful. Like she has nothing better to do. But online entertainment is big business, and when the bodies of real people start to show up, it’s clear that this is anything but a game. For Sue, programmer Jack Reed, and forensic accountant Elaine Barnaby, the walls between the actual and the virtual are about to come crashing down. There is something very dangerous and very real going on at Hayek Associates, and those involved are playing for more than experience points. No cheats, no extra lives, no saving throw - make a wrong call on this one and it’ll be more than game over.’
Speaking of books by writers I enjoy, White Night by Jim Butcher is the ninth book in The Dresden Files released by Orbit. I’ve been playing catch up. Book reviewing is a double edged sword sometimes as I’m lucky enough to have a review copy of this but I’ve to catch up first. So if you see a disproportionate number of Dresden related reviews you know why. Harry Dresden is a wonderful creation. He has all this power but it’s mixed with a huge amount of compassion and a tendency for trouble to find him.
Moving into horror we have The Terror by Dan Simmons. It’s been drawing my attention for a while especially after it was reviewed by the Fantasy Book Critic and it made it into the book of the year list by Of Blog of the Fallen. It’s based on ‘real events’, ‘The men on board, Her Britannic Majesty’s Ships Terror and Erebus had every expectation of triumph. They were part of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition - as scientifically advanced an enterprise as had ever set forth - and theirs were the first steam-driven vessels to go in search of the fabled North-West Passage. But the ships have now been trapped in the Arctic ice for nearly two years. Coal and provisions are running low. Yet the real threat isn’t the constantly shifting landscape of white or the flesh-numbing temperatures, dwindling supplies or the vessels being slowly crushed by the unyielding grip of the frozen ocean. No, the real threat is far more terrifying. There is something out there that haunts the frigid darkness, which stalks the ships, snatching one man at a time - mutilating, devouring. A nameless thing, at once nowhere and everywhere, this terror has become the expedition’s nemesis. When Franklin meets a terrible death, it falls to Captain Francis Crozier of HMS Terror to take command and lead the remaining crew on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. With them travels an Eskimo woman who cannot speak. She may be the key to survival - or the harbinger of their deaths. And as scurvy, starvation and madness take their toll, as the Terror on the ice become evermore bold, Crozier and his men begin to fear there is no escape…’
A Stephen King release is always something to look forward to and contrary to earlier reporst from the man himself he shows little sign of slowing down. Hodder & Stoughton have got a wonderful painted cover for the Duma Key and it explores the tortured of an artist, ‘DUMA KEY is the engaging, fascinating story of a man who discovers an incredible talent for painting after a freak accident in which he loses an arm. He moves to a ‘new life’ in Duma Key, off Florida’s West Coast; a deserted strip, part beach, part weed-tangled, owned by a patroness of the arts whose twin sisters went missing in the 1920s. Duma Key is where out-of-season hurricanes tears lives apart and a powerful undertow lures lost and tormented souls. Here Freemantle is inspired to paint the amazing sunsets. But soon the paintings become predictive, even dangerous. Freemantle knows the only way forward is to discover what happened to the twin sisters — and what is the secret of the strange old lady who holds the key? The story is about friendship, about the bond between a father and his daughter. And about memory, truth and art. It is also is a metaphor for the life and inspiration of a writer, and an exploration of the nature, power and influence of fiction.
And finally for now is the sequel to Vellum by Hal Duncan. Ink from Pan Books has had some great reviews like this one from Sandstorm Reviews and it made Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist’s Top Ten Books of 2007. I’m currently reading Vellum I’m enjoying Hal Duncan’s writing even if it’s not making that much sense yet due to the leaping narrative. It’s good to see that the next one is going to be worth reading.
This isn’t an exhaustive list but does give you a good idea of what attracts my attention. It does also give you some idea of the strength of writing that we have to look forward to in 2008
