NextRead

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

I must admit that at the moment this looks like it could be my literary book of the year. It might be the only literary book I’ve read so far, I could be wrong about that, but it’s going to be hard to beat.

At an English Boys Private School children are going missing, they are dreaming and then disapearing but no one knows where they’ve gone. Miller mixes in war, fantasy, violence and emotion into what is turning into a clever read. Though I’m reserving judgement until I’ve finished the second half.

Things I like so far are the narrative voice and way that Miller is telling his story. It wasn’t what I was expecting and it’s not going in the direction I thought it would. The focus has shifted from Timothy, the focus for the first section, to his father. Each is building a picture from different angles. I’m looking forward to how he’s going to mix them all together. The voice as in the tone and style is very accomplished that I’m surprised that this is a debut as it is confident as a pro.

Fingers crossed for the second half.

Tags: debut, first thoughts

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: The Somnambulist
Author: Jonathan Barnes
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 10 Jan 08
Price: £7.99
Bought Copy

There is something intriguing about Victorian England. A place and time that has a personality all of it’s own. It’s that personality which Barnes draws on for The Somnambulist. Set in Victorian London we follow the latest and maybe last case of Detective and Stage Conjurer Edward Moon as he looks into the mysterious murder of Cyril Honeyman. But all is not as it seems. Something is afoot.

A good writer gets the reader to suspend their disbelief and brings them into the story’s reality. It feels like if you take a wrong turn you might run into The Somnambulist writing on his chalkboard as Edward Moon waves his hand dismissively.

The Somnambulist is a strange tale. We follow Moon as he traipses around London following leads and taking us to some weird and wonderful places like establishment of Mrs Pugsey and the butchers shop in Limehouse. The places are nothing compared to characters like Mr Cribb, who can’t possibly knows what he says he knows and Madame Innocenti whose prediction makes the investigations of Edward Moon even more urgent.

The story isn’t wholly logical and it isn’t meant to be. It’s phantasmagorical, teasing, and imaginative. The characters are extra-ordinary sometimes grotesque but quite believable in this setting. A combination of the personality of the narrator and skill of Barnes makes it strangely believable and quite compelling.

There are some oddities even in this strange tale. In part it comes down the to limitations of the point of the view of the narrator (quite cleverly chosen BTW) and partly it is the tale as a whole. It doesn’t quite all fit but no matter the journey is highly enjoyable entertaining and it doesn’t spoil the tale being told.

I’m looking forward to sampling more of Barnes’s formidable imagination in The Domino Men where characters from The Somnambulist are trapped in a chalk circle under Downing Street, a manuscript brings together every conspiracy theory about the Royal Family and explains where the power of Number 10 really lies.

8/10

Tags: 8/10, debut, debut review, Gollancz, Jonathan Barnes

Well we are into the second month of 2008 and it’s that time again. So here are some books that I like the look of that are appearing on the UK shelves this month either as brand new releases or paperback re-releases plus some books that I think that for some other reason are worth mentioning.

Lets start with the paperback release of one of novels of the year in 2007, Heart Sick by Chelsea Cain from Pan Books. In my review last year I said,

‘It’s just one more chapter reading until you come to the twisted end, which isn’t even where the ending should be. You need to know what comes next. Cain is a perfect poker player laying out the right cards at the right time but giving nothing away.’

It focuses on the investigators as well as the victims. I like this style of crime investigation. I wonder when the next one is out?

Then we have the next in the Joe Pitt series by Charlie Huston from Orbit. Half the Blood of Brooklyn is the third book in the series. The first book I reviewed a little time ago and loved. The sequel No Dominion has been floating about the top of the TBR pile, though not quite making it to the top for quite a while (there’s a review of that at The Gravel Pitt). There is a series review over at Fantasy Book Critic. I think they call it Vampire Noir. If they don’t they should.

There’s a bad vibe in the air. Every Vampyre in Manhattan feels it in their bones …and in their blood. The mother of all gang rumbles is brewing between the divided Clans of the city’s undead. A battle royal for more turf that will tear the island from stem to stern. And just his luck, Joe Pitt is smack in the middle of it. A rogue Vampyre who shunned Clan life, Joe’s his own man. Kind of. Thing is, there’s certain people have a claim on his talents. When they need someone who’s …expendable, they call on Joe Pitt. They’re calling now. With war drums beating from the Hudson to the Harlem River, Joe’s been dispatched into the uncharted territory of Brooklyn to seal an alliance with the Freaks - a Clan who more than live up to their name. But across the bridge, things go south with savage swiftness, as Joe gets swept into a murderous family feud between crazed Clans that will paint the borough scarlet from Gravesend to Coney Island.

Changing from Brooklyn to UnLondon not to be confused with London as UnLondon is where all the lost and broken things of London end up and some of it’s people too. China Mieville has been on the radar for a long time. But he tends to write very thick novels; Perdido Street Station (880 pages), The Scar (624) and The Iron Council (400 pages). OK, they get shorter as you move along but the first one at over 800 pages is a little scary. He’s also been nominated for and won various awards so it’s got to a good 800-plus pages. Anyway, Un Lun Dun is his first Young Adult novel, which btw he also illustrated. Two girls called Zanna and Deeba enter the strange wonderland that is UnLondon, but they arrive at a dangerous time. It’s a frightened city looking for a hero. Look for a review soon thanks to Pan.

Speaking of Pan. Pan/Tor were kind enough to send me this month’s paperback releases. As well as Un Lun Dun. First is Bloodmind by Liz Williams, SFX gave it a 4/5 review. And it looks interesting:

If its set-up is pure pulp fiction, Williams also throws in elements of horror, hard SF, fantasy and the techno thriller as we follow Vali’s quest to find Idhunn’s murderer. It’s an investigation of shifting allegiances and brittle alliances. Jonathan Wright, SFX.

It’s got to be tried, surely? It’s a sequel to Darkland though I don’t think you need to have read it first. At least I hope not. It’s sci-fi just in case that’s not’s clear.

I’m not sure the other two are quite me but you never know. The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi explores using DNA of the dead and turning it into prefect soldiers for the Colonial Defence Force. It seems that three alien races have joined forces to hinder Earth’s expansion into space. But a turncoat scientist knows the biggest military secrets who’s helping the alliance. I think that’s right. Actually, it’s probably clearer to see the entry on Amazon.co.uk, where it also has 3 high star reviews. Here’s an extract:

The Ghost Brigades seems to wrap up the personal storyline of the series’ main protagonists, but it sets up some huge events for the galaxy at large for the next book. There are certainly no major flaws to hinder the enjoyment of this wonderful book. Unless you have a huge aversion to any kind of military SF, pick this one up.

And lastly moving from Military Sci-Fi to paranormal romance with Dark Moon by Lori Handeland. The Romance Reader had this to say:

Handeland does an excellent job of showing us how this kind of conditional approval aimed at a child can scar an adult. Therefore, we understand why Elise is what she is, how she can rip a bad guy’s throat out with no remorse. Handeland doesn’t sugarcoat Elise’s childhood or the violent world in which she lives.

You can read the rest of the review here. So if you have an interest in paranormal romance this look like a good one to go for.

The big release of the month has to be Iain M. Bank’s return to Culture with Matter from Orbit. I’ve said before that I’ve only read one Bank’s novel, his first Culture novel, and didn’t get into it. But as Matt pointed out I really should. I’m going to read The Player of the Games at some point and see how I go. The other interesting thing about this release is the audio version is getting pre-released on iTunes. If I travelled more I’m sure I’d listen to more audio books. What do you think audio books good idea?

We also have The Domino Men by Jonathan Barnes from Gollancz, a sequel to The Somnambulist. Barnes brings the Victorian events of The Somnambulist bang up to date with a tale that brings together every conspiracy theory you’ve ever heard about the royal family and the true story about where the power of Number 10 really lies. Look for a review of The Somnambulist very soon. If you can’t wait Fantasy Book Critic has one already

And finally two translations. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski from Gollancz is seven interlinked short stories and follows;

Geralt a witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent.

Sounds like my sort of book. You can find reviews at The Gravel Pit and The Wertzone.

Finally, we have a retelling of the vampire myth in Let The Right On In by John Ajvide Lindqvist by Quercus.

Oskar and Eli: In very different ways, they were both victims. Which is why, against the odds, they became friends. And how they came to depend on one another, for life itself. Oskar is a 12 year old boy living with his mother on a dreary housing estate at the city’s edge. He dreams about his absentee father, gets bullied at school, and wets himself when he’s frightened. Eli is the young girl who moves in next door. She doesn’t go to school and never leaves the flat by day. She is a 200 year old vampire, forever frozen in childhood, and condemned to live on a diet of fresh blood.

For a comprehensive and alternative take on February releases have a look at The Fantasy Book Critic.

Tags: Charlie Huston, debut, Gollancz, New Releases, Orbit, Orion, Pan Books, Quercus, Re-releases, Tor

Title: Debatable Space
Author: Philip Palmer
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 24 Jan 08
Price: £10.00

A band of pirates kidnaps the daughter of the ruler of the universe and holds her for ransom. The trouble is ruler of the universe Cheo isn’t that receptive to their demands and their prisoner, Lena, isn’t what she first appears.

But this isn’t just a pirate story. It’s an exploration of 1000 years of human history. And what has happened? Human have travelled, colonised, enslaved, and turned into dolphins (well some of them have).

For a first novel it’s a big challenge and a bit of a balancing act. Palmer presents his story from multiple viewpoints. We delve into the minds of Lena, the pirate crew, occasionally others, but we get most of our information from Lena.

And this is where the balancing act comes in. How time do you spend with each character and how they appear will depend on their part of the story. As Lena is a big part of the story we spend a lot of time with her. As a main character she is a fascinating and a worthy companion. The problem is she goes on a bit.

Palmer through her retells how the current state of humanity came about. He does occasionally retell too much. This is slightly frustrating especially as events speed to a conclusion when we’re presented with a large chunk of history. It is relevant but maybe isn’t as vital or as enjoyable as Lena, or perhaps Palmer, thinks.

This is strange as I enjoyed most of the other tales and the asides and presentation of history. It’s probably because it takes too much time out of the current action at a point where it should be sprinting towards the finish.

This isn’t though a fatal flaw. The characters are varied and well formed; the story is well planned and interesting. And most of the time it works. When it doesn’t I’d put down to over enthusiasm on Palmers part to share the universe and history he’s created.

For a first novel and a story on such a wide scale Palmer keeps a good grip on the reins and where it does get away he pulls it back in. I look forward to seeing what tale Palmer tells next.

Tags: 7/10, debut, debut review, Orbit, Philip Palmer, review copy

Title: In The Woods
Author: Tana French
Publisher: Hodder
Published: 14 November 07
Price: £6.99
Bought It

You can never escape your past or so they say. And Tana French plays with this idea in her debut novel, In The Woods. Rob Ryan retells the investigation into death of a small girl found in the same woods where he, but not his two friends, had a lucky escape twenty years ago.

French hasn’t created a conventional detective novel. Ryan’s past comes back to haunt him during this investigation. She pitches it right. Ryan unravels as the case gets tougher. And as you read you wonder if he can solve it before he unravels too far.

It’s a very emotional read. French keeps you reading by playing with you. She builds the connections between the main characters and sparks them off each other. It’s a small world after all.

The strengths of this novel is how well French sets everything up. As I was reading I thought I had a good idea of who did it, if not why, and I was wrong. French, through Ryan’s eyes, gives a lot of leads and clues but these are muddied by Ryan own biases and obsessions. Another strength is how she explores the effect the investigation has on the relationship with his partner DI Cassie.

French foreshadows a lot of the major events, sometimes a little too heavily, and this gives a drive to find out the truth. And it is truthful and a bit brutal in its honesty. It’s an interesting balancing act between keeping plot moving in terms of finding the killer and showing us the emotional tensions surrounding it.

In The Woods keeps you reading as Ryan recounts and explores this investigation from beginning to end. French has created a well-crafted story with a believable, if highly fictional set events, told with strong compelling voice. A strong performing and haunting debut. I’m looking forward to seeing what she does next.

Tags: 8/10, Bought it, crime, debut, debut review, Hodder, New Writers, review

I’ve been reading the round-ups of the best of 2007 and it reminds me how many books I’ve missed.

Starting with one that slipped past me even though I was looking for it’s UK release. The Book of Joby by Mark J. Ferrari has had some fantastic reviews from Fantasy Book Critic, A Dribble of Ink, The Book Swede, Fantasy Debut to name a few. And the contents is right up my street with God and Lucifer betting on the Virtue of mankind.

‘ “The Book of Joby” is an epic fantasy complete in one large volume. Lucifer and God have entered, yet again, into a wager they’ve made before, but this time, the existence of creation itself is balanced on the outcome. Born in California during the twilight years of a weary millennium, nine-year-old Joby Peterson dreams of blazing like a bonfire against the gathering darkness of his time. Instead, he is subjected to a life of crippling self-doubt and relentless mediocrity inflicted by an enemy he did nothing to earn and cannot begin to comprehend. The angels watch Lucifer work virtually unhindered to turn Joby’s heart of gold into ash and stone. And so when he is grown to manhood, Joby’s once luminous love of life seems altogether lost, and Lucifer’s victory assured. What hope remains lies hidden in the beauty, warmth, and innocence of a forgotten seaside village whose odd inhabitants seem to defy the modern world’s most inflexible assumptions, and in the hearts of Joby’s lost youthful love and her emotionally wounded son. As the final struggle unfolds, one question occupies every mind in heaven and in hell. Which will prove stronger, love or rage? ‘

I’m going to have to catch it in paperback!

Tags: debut, Tor