NextRead

I’m feeling decidedly non-booky at the moment. No curling up on the sofa and letting the world fade away. Nothing read. Nothing bought. No obsessive surfing. But despite that let’s see what I can do as I’ve still been visiting my favourite blogs and keeping half an eye on the book-o-sphere.

Graphic Novels are the new novel. Or so it seems. With novels being converted panelled and inked for the non-novel generation and Graphic Novels coming from mainstream publishers. One example that landed through the door the other day. Jonathon Cape have just released Alias The Cat by Kim Deitch, which looks absolutely bonkers. And they’ve set up Pantheon Graphic Novels to release more. And if you’re in the US the fabulous Fantasy Book Critic shows off some new adaptations of Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein, and The Dresden Files to name two.

I was a winner a couple of weeks ago much to my surprise and excitement. I just happened to checking my mail when Vintage Classics’ Newsletter arrived offering a complete set of their October Halloween-themed releases to the first person to answer a question. It took all of three minutes from it arriving to my email. So I have a Wilkie Collins, Susan Hill, Henry James, Mervyn Peake, to read for the first time as well as Bram Stoker to reread. I’m not sure I’ll read Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekylll and Mr Hyde. I’ve never liked any of the adaptations of it. I’m open to persuasion though.

Novelist Daniel Abraham has made his UK debut with The Long Price that brings together his the first two novels of his Long Price Quartet. And has some good reviews from the UK mags. It is getting a little crowded in the new fantasy series section but the more the merrier I say.

More later.

Tags: horror, reading lists

Title: Never the Bride
Author: Paul Magrs
Publisher: headline review
Published: 3 May 2007
Price: £7.99
Bought it

This is one book that after I read the blurb and just had to read.

Never the Bride is set in Whitby, which is also a setting in the original vampire novel Dracula, so it’s no stranger to scenes of weirdness and Paul Magrs has made it very strange indeed. B&B landlady Brenda and her best friend Effie like mysteries. And with age reversing beauty salons, more than perfect guests, psychic investigators and games of bingo at the Christmas Hotel there is more than enough to go round.

It’s a gentle humour filled adventure that’s split into seemingly unconnected episodic chapters. Each slowly reveals more about Brenda and shows that Effie is more than a pensioner who has taken a judo class last summer.

Magrs draws on old myth and monster tales and adds a big dollop of unique twist. The strange characters he’s created seem at home and normal in the company each of them keeps. He also makes it seem that this tale could be happening in Whitby right now.

They are a quirky couple, in a quirky place, in a wonderfully entertaining tale that’s only just begun.  Even though we meet a few strange characters this time there are other residents of Whitby who maybe more than they seem.

Paul Magrs has set himself up for a series with a lot of potential. I can’t wait to see what trouble Brenda and Effie get into next and how they manage to get out of it.

Tags: 8/10, Bookshelf, horror, reading, reading list, reading lists, review, Whitby

Title: The Jennifer Morgue
Author: Charles Stross
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 6 September 2007
Price: £6.99
Review Copy

The Jennifer Morgue is a sequel to The Atrocity Archives and takes place a couple of years after the events in original. Bob Howard has had a promotion to the lowest grade that carries significant managerial responsibility and in the Laundry it’s not always a good thing to have responsibility.

Bob’s mission is stop a megalomaniacal software billionaire from retrieving the device know as ‘the Jennifer Morgue’ though he thinks he’s just sitting in a on a meeting for Andy.

In my last review I said that Bob Howard was not James Bond, well now he kind of is. TJM is a homage to Ian Fleming (TAA was a homage to Len Deighton). The pace is unrelenting as with all good action adventures. There are Stross spins on Bond Gadgets and Bond Girls with one having a sex/death/demon issue and a link to Bob’s brain.

Stross has a vast (over)active imagination. It can get a little confusing when all his ideas cascade over one and other. Luckily this isn’t frustrating but is challenging especially if you have a habit of skim reading.

Stross has created characters and a twist on the world that I could spend books and books in. Geeks aren’t usually heroes, and don’t usually do heroic things – they aren’t usually that interesting but Stross has made geek great.

It’s a packed read that’s quirky, funny and frightening and sometimes all three at the same time..

As an extra there is a bonus short story included. It’s a tease really as I now want to read another little tale from Bob’s day-to-day life.

In the next one I’d love to see the horrors a bit more horrific just to see how far Bob can cope and I want to know more about the origins of his boss Angleton. And if I’m being picky I’d like to have the pace toned down a little bit to have more time to digest stuff.

Though there might be quite a wait for the next one. Not that I mind I need a bit of time to re-read the first two too see the what bits I missed the first time round .

Tags: horror, reading lists

Title: The Atrocity Archives
Author: Charles Stross
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2007
Price: £6.99
Shelf Copy

Charles Stross is a very prolific writer but this is my first chance to sample his very active imagination. And what an imagination: we have terrorists, Nazis, horrors from other dimensions, secret government departments, and a techie called Bob who’s just started Active Service.

Stross has created a fully believable world where technology is basis of magic and advanced maths can open holes in the universe. Shh it’s a secret.

Bob Howard is not James Bond thank god but he does have a few gadgets up his sleeve and a beautiful and intelligent girl to save, bad guys to chase and the tentacles of the Lovecraftian horrors to fight off whilst dealing with office politics and an computer audit.

The strengths in The Atrocity Archives are not only the use of ideas, which is both creative and grounded in scientific theory, but also the characterisation of the people in The Laundry (the secret government department).

It’s not really a complete novel. It is two stories bundled together. We have the fuller length ‘The Atrocity Archives’ and the episodic ‘The Concrete Jungle’. ‘The Atrocity Archives’ does all the hard work by setting everything up and ‘The Concrete Jungle’ shows Bob at work. Both enjoyable and I like the additional story as it feels like a bonus tale. And shows the potential of both the format and the character.

There are a few words of warning.

It does get very techie at times. This is partly due to the nature of the character of Bob who is also the narrator but also, I think, that Stross can’t help himself sharing what he knows. And he knows a lot!

It’s not completely polished. There are some niggling rough bits that I’ll forgive as I feel that Stross will get better and better as I work through his more recent works (This novel was written in 1999/2000.) He shows bags of potential and energy which is occasional misdirected. And I hope that he’ll revisit the actual Atrocity Archives in much more detail in a future book as there was a lot left to explore/explain.

Overall, if you’re a fan of occult tales with a techno-thriller twist this is a book for you. And if you’ve enjoyed of the Indiana Jones Nazis’ or Hellboy you’ll enjoy this too. And if anything in this review sparked your interest go get it. You’ll like it.

Tags: Bookshelf, horror, reading lists, shelf copy

Title: From A Buick 8
Author: Stephen King
Publisher: New English Library
Published: 2003
Price: 7.99
Shelf Copy

Stephen King has written a lot of books and I’ve only delved shallowly into his deep well. For me the strength of Kings comes from the voice he uses. It has a sense of place and a confidence that makes for a pleasant reading.

This voice is put to good use in From A Buick 8 as various members of Troop D lets a young Ned Wilcox into the family secret about  what the Buick Roadmaster in Shed B could possibly be and like his dead father he has more questions than there are answers.

Several of King’s stories start on a ‘what if …’ and this one is no exception. What if something that looks like a ’54 blue Buick Roadmaster is actually something alien and something to be scared of? King’s starts off with this ‘what if…’ and then explores that idea throughout the novel. The downside of this technique is that there is a fine line between exploration and rambling and King mostly stays on the right side of the line.  

This isn’t the best King I’ve ever read. It’s more subtle than I’d like and more reflective though that is the story from the outset so you have to accept it for what it is.  The horrific moments, such as they are, lack a sense of danger even though you can understand the characters reactions it’s hard to feel them.

Each part of the story snaps into place like a badly formed jigsaw puzzle. Each of the characters is solidly recreated and feels as real as the Buick itself. There is a sense of the extraordinary happening to ordinary people. I’d say if you’re in a reflective mood and thinking about the meaning of life then this is a great read. If you need something with a bit more action you might find it a bit too slow going.

Tags: 7/10, horror, shelf copy