Review Category: Books

Whether
or not you enjoy Pirate Utopia will
depend upon one thing – How well you can appreciate an unconventional approach
to stories. The very name and idea of this book is an oxymoron after all,
combining Eden with a bunch of pillaging, raping corsairs seems like something
which would only end in disaster. However, Sterling approaches this to explore
a few personal views on the subject of politics and societal evolution,
resulting in a remarkably unique book.

In the middle of the Adriatic Sea, the
world is changing. In the Regency of Carnaro, a population of futurists,
dreamers and raiders seek to make their make upon the world. Going so far as to
raid their European counterparts, they seek to oppose capitalist and communist
governments alike in a bid for world dominance.

The nation itself is founded upon a union
of complete absurdity, twisting certain historical figures and names until the
book’s world is both familiar and alien at once. Almost reflecting the sort of
“What if?” nature of comic books, you frequently find characters playing out wholly
different roles than what life had planned for them. In this case however, it
is used to explore themes of possibility and rising power. It’s oddly
entertaining in its own way without coming across nearly as pulpy as you would
expect, both due to Sterling’s own narrative skills and often focusing upon
lesser known figures. It helps make his messages clear without entering the
usual filibusters which typically ruin such tales.

However, this book is also a very difficult
one to get through for a few reasons. Foremost among them is the books
structure, both in terms prose and simple presentation. The sentences
themselves are extremely brief, as are chapters, meaning you’re rarely given
enough time to truly immerse yourself in a particular scene before the book
moves on elsewhere. What’s more, the characters themselves can often seem
fleeing at times, to the point where the book struggles to balance out such a
large cast, and a few key moments are delivered with a surprisingly
heavy-handed approach to storytelling.

Overall, it seems that Sterling’s ideas can
be appreciated far more than the actual book itself. What he crafts here is
truly remarkable, offering a fascinating look into a rising society; how
civilisation can be forged in blood and the danger of demagogues to such a
place, dooming it even as they raise it to new heights. Yet, despite this, the
story in question can be awkward to read and often heavy handed, with a
difficult prose to navigate. Read a few extracts and consider its themes, but
seriously mull things over before you decide to buy this one.

PIRATE UTOPIA / AUTHOR: BRUCE STERLING /
PUBLISHER: TACHYON PUBLICATIONS / RELEASE DATE: 8TH NOVEMBER 2016
 

Warfare of any kind, whether on a worldwide scale or at the
level of terrorism is a grisly business. So why do nations and people continue
to fight? That’s obviously not an easy question to answer, otherwise we’d all
be living on a peace-loving planet.

This anthology of stories
collected by Douglas Lain attempts to look at warfare from new perspectives and
viewpoints, to help us get a grip on why and how wars are still as prevalent
today as they were at the dawn of humanity.

First up is Norman Spinrad’s
‘The Big Flash’ that shows how a rock group called the Horsemen is used by the
military to whip up the public imagination, until they are begging for nuclear
weapons to bring about the end to end all ends.

Since 1969 when ‘The Big
Flash’ was published warfare is not just about who has the biggest nuclear
arsenal and who uses them first. The fact that if nuclear weapons were deployed
by both sides meant there would be Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) and, like
in Spinrad’s story, the consequence would be a ‘big flash’ that would have
apocalyptic consequences.

In the same decade, the
Vietnam war escalated showing that biggest wasn’t always best against a persistent
enemy. ‘The Village’ by Kate Wilhelm (first published in 1973) cleverly shows
this type of conflict from the viewpoint of the civilian population and makes
us take another look at our ‘evil enemies’.

Taking us to more recent
wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East, we are treated to stories that
underline the moral complexities of making war legitimate. On a national level
we get the ‘justification’ for the invasion of Iraq through a cut-up version of
US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s speeches in ‘Text of Colin Powell’s Speech
to the UN Security Council Cut Up With Regret’ by Anonymous. It contains such
gems as ‘These people know that they knew that I will know’ regretfully that is
indicative of the slippery use of military intelligence (and language) to
legitimise putting troops on the ground.

Some of the stories cover
the latest advances in technology, including the way drones smudge the
relationship between the soldier and the enemy as depicted by ‘In the Loop’ by
Ken Liu. The relationship between the soldier and their own moral compass and
instincts is highlighted in ‘Light and Shadow’ by Linda Nagata. This features a
skullcap that is used by combat squads to help the soldiers stay logical, calm
and focused on their mission. But one soldier tries to escape it to re-embrace
her humanity.

James Morrow’s ‘Arms and the
Woman’ is the last story in the collection, which asks ‘What did you do in the
war, Mommy?’ This is a fable about Helen of Troy that looks at how wars can
take on a life of their own.

The realities of war are
harsh; here speculative fiction is used effectively to look at the underbelly
of conflict and tries to make some sense of it beyond the headlines and
rhetoric of politicians. An intelligent read that is as mind-blowing as
no-man’s land.

DESERTS OF FIRE /
EDITED BY: DOUGLAS LAIN / PUBLISHER: NIGHT SHADE BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
 

Set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, the children’s series Star Wars: Adventures in Wild Space follows the adventures of the resourceful and adventurous Lina and Milo Graf, children of Outer Rim explorers, as they attempt to find their parents, who have been kidnapped by the Empire. Now the Empire’s metal-jawed Captain Korda is in pursuit of the siblings and their droid CR-8R for the stellar cartography information it contains. And yes, for the Star Wars completist, these books are canon.

The Dark by Tom Huddleston is the fourth volume in the Wild Space series, and begins immediately after the events depicted in the previous adventure, The Steal. Milo and Lina are the captives of the bounty hunter the Shade, but when the Shade’s ship is sabotaged after picking up two Imperial prisoners for transport to a forced labour mine, Milo and Lina find themselves adrift with a dangerous criminal on the loose and a prisoner who is not what they seem.

As with The Steal, children will be swept along with this book’s breakneck pace, even if there is nothing new or original here for cine-literate and book-savvy adults; The Dark is Star Wars‘ answer to Alien and, well, any Star Trek episode that featured a charismatic genocidal madman. However, it makes for a slightly darker adventure than the previous books, which younger Goosebumps fans will particularly enjoy.

Originally, the Wild Space series was only supposed to be four volumes, not including the novella length Volume 0 that was published for World Book Day, but publishers Egmont are clearly looking to continue the series, as The Dark is left open ended. And that’s not a bad thing, as although these books lack anything near the complexity an adult would expect, they’re perfect for primary school children. This reviewer’s son can’t wait for the next adventure – and you can’t get a better endorsement than that.

STAR WARS: ADVENTURES IN WILD SPACE: THE DARK / AUTHOR: TOM HUDDLESTON / PUBLISHER: EGMONT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

A new refreshing epic fantasy tale has hit
the bookshelves. The first book in The Dragon Lords series, Fools Gold has just
been released by debut author Jon Hollins. At first glimpse, this novel seems
to be a standard epic fantasy tale involving a heist from a dragon. Although
this may sound like The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien, it’s actually a more
complicated plot with a more humourous side to the story.

The story takes place in Avarra and is concentrated
on the world being ruled by dragons. The Dragons charge taxes to ensure their
complete control of the world. However, it becomes clear and quite obvious that
a group of misfits will be embarking on an adventure to take control and to
obtain their wealth. It may sound like this is a standard epic fantasy story,
with the story being heavily focused on action and adventure. However, it is
much more than the standard novels released, with a heavy focus on the group
setting out to steal back their wealth. The characters are slowly developed
throughout the novel, allowing the pacing to be well maintained throughout the
500 plus pages. It also has a humorous side whilst also containing some
important life lessons along the way.

There is no denying that this novel sticks to standard
epic fantasy cliques, but there is so much added to the novel with the likeable
characters and thrilling action that it is easy to forgive. The humorous side
to the novel does offer some distinction from other epic fantasy tales and some
added twists make it a very enjoyable read. An epic start to a series that will
be adored by fantasy lovers.

THE DRAGON LORDS: FOOL’S GOLD / AUTHOR: JON HOLLINS / PUBLISHER: ORBIT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
 

Alex Davis leads an interesting life. As he tells it in this first volume of what will become an ongoing series of reprints of his web reviews, in January 2015 he answered the call from the Ginger Nuts of Horror website for new writers to sign up and, while they were about it, pitch in with new ideas. I know, said Alex, how about I start watching the most extreme and disturbing horror movies it’s possible to find, and write about them once a week? Great, came the response, and off he went down the helter-skelter of depravity to the film gutter – a place that, based on this evidence, only the most stoical of STARBURST readers should consider inhabiting…

Davis casts a wide net, seeking out hoary old classics as well as the scum de la scum of modern visual atrocity. So it is that more recent works like Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist and the Human Centipede trilogy rub shoulders with venerable old gut-wrenchers like the Guinea Pig and Nekromantick series from the 1980s and 1974’s scatological epic Sweet Movie. All are reviewed with breezy insightfulness by our strong-stomached hero, truly taking one for the team so that we don’t have to. Not that he doesn’t make compelling cases for viewing quite a few of these films, often on the basis of really strong performances and storytelling. We’ve made a secret watch-list.

Mind you, if you are tempted to seek out any of the ‘rarer’ material, you may be surprised at how easy it is to find via a cursory online search. Men Behind the Sun, T.F Mou’s notoriously queasy depiction of war atrocities committed by the Japanese at Unit 731?  It’s on YouTube, completely uncut, for example. Then there’s the movies you’d be well advised to seriously think twice about, that even the heroic Davis finds seriously difficult viewing. Exhibit A: the Vomit Gore Trilogy, in his words “the pinnacle of sick cinema”, the very existence of which will surprise some people when they find out the content. Although the title is a bit of a giveaway. And no, that one isn’t on YouTube uncut. Just a sort of fussy zoomed-in version. Not that we were looking for it.

And yet, though you may never wish to set eyes on some of the seriously extreme offerings here, it’s hard to deny the creative impetus behind them. For anyone who experienced the underground art-horror boom of the 1980s, there’s an odd pleasure in discovering that characters like Vomit Gore director Lucifer Valentine are still ploughing the kind of extreme furrow once inhabited by transgressive rat packers like Richard Kern and Jörg Buttgereit. High five, Lucifer.

This is a great little volume, all the better for opening up the field of inquiry to include short films, which would otherwise fly under the radar. Hopefully Davis will continue to unearth enough unspeakable cinematic expulsions to keep this up for a good while yet.

FILM GUTTER VOLUME 1: A YEAR OF EXTREME HORROR / AUTOR: ALEX DAVIS / PUBLISHER: CREATESPACE INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING PLATFORM / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

When
Abe and his long-time partner Joanna befriend the mysterious, hypnotically
beautiful young woman they find waitressing at their local diner, they cannot
be prepared for what happens next. No sooner has Lioness Lazos taken up
residence in Abe’s garage than the Puget Sound island on which they live begins
to enjoy unseasonably glorious weather. And Lioness’s arrival doesn’t just
affect the seasons – Abe, a resolutely private man who plays his harmonica just
to annoy the neighbours, suddenly finds himself drawn into a Blues Band and
enjoying a lease on life he never thought possible, whereas Joanna – who has
always had a deep fear of the water – inexplicably discovers a passion for
kayaking. And Joanna’s grown-up daughter Lily has also fallen under Lioness’s
spell, harder and more dangerously than Abe or her mother. But when Lioness’s
terrible secret is revealed, life will never be the same again, not for any of
them.

Peter S. Beagle’s latest novel is a
bewitching, impossible-to-categorise masterpiece. Is it a romance, a fairytale,
or a fantasy that straddles reality and mythology, with (especially in the
scenes involving Joanna and a strangely out-of-time old man called Mr.
Mardikian) the slightest hint of wonderful supernatural romcoms like ‘Bell Book
and Candle’ and ‘I Married a Witch’? Or is it suggesting that we are never too
old to chase our dreams, even if our dreams come at a price, so maybe we should
be careful what we wish for? It is probably all of these and more, and even if
you find yourself half-guessing Lioness’s secret long before it is actually
revealed, the climax will still take you by surprise and may even break your
heart a little. With prose that is more akin to poetry, Beagle’s storytelling
casts a spell as potent as Lioness’s magic – if magic is what it is – and his
characters, especially Abe and Joanna, are exquisite creations. It’s so good to
read a story wherein older people are allowed to be the ‘heroes’ of the
adventure, and not relegated to the supporting cast. As a fantasy, this might
not have enough darkness for many readers, but as a work of fantastical art it
is flawless.

SUMMERLONG / AUTHOR: PETER S. BEAGLE /
PUBLISHER: TACHYON PUBLICATIONS / RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 29TH
 

In a
bid to recover from the death of his wife, John Mason gives up his big city
advertising job and buys a cottage in the sleepy country town of Hambleford
where events quickly spin out of control. Who is the ratty pale faced boy who
stalks John when he is walking home one night, and why didn’t the attractive estate
agent tell him about the sinister past of his new home – the young girl who was
found hanging in the woods, the pilot’s wife who went mad… and what about the
weird erotic dreams he is having about the former inhabitants? More than that,
the local Vicar is obsessed with John’s cottage, and there is something about
the Vicar that John doesn’t immediately trust, an incident in the man’s past
concerning a young girl that sounds suspiciously like an exorcism gone bad.

But it is when John’s stepdaughter comes to
visit, and the spirit of his dead wife materialises to warn John they are in
danger, that things really turn nasty. With the line between fantasy and
reality and the dead and the living swiftly becoming blurred, John Mason is
afraid that his stepdaughter has become possessed by a malevolent supernatural
force, but the only possible remedy is too awful to contemplate and the final
revelation will completely turn everything John Mason thought he knew violently
on its head.

Can You Always Believe Your Eyes?

The Unseen is a very neatly crafted ghost
story that owes a lot to old-school psychological horror and the classic ‘Turn
of the Screw’ question, “Are the spirits really there or is it all in your
mind?”, a theme that has been so written-to-death it’s almost impossible to
find anything new to say about it. For that reason, it’s to Dave Weaver’s
credit that he manages to keep the story interesting even though he adds
nothing new to the mix. In fact, if anything, he almost over-eggs the pudding
with ghosts, possession, poltergeist phenomena, flashbacks, insinuations of
witchcraft and even a spot of voodoo (the most unsettling sequence in the book,
and very well written). He even throws a bone(r) or two to paranormal erotica
fans when the story briefly threatens to go a bit ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ but,
thankfully, those moments are few and far between.

The only thing that doesn’t completely work
is the finale which (the back cover erroneously promises) “will shock you”.
Anyone who has read enough of these stories won’t be shocked, but will probably
admire how close Weaver comes to almost pulling it off.

THE UNSEEN / AUTHOR: DAVE WEAVER / PUBLISHER:
ELSEWHEN PRESS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
 

In the introduction to this new revised edition of
a book that is almost twenty years old and was last seen propping up a computer
monitor, paranormal investigators (and leaders of the new Ghostbusters squad)
Erin Gilbert and Abby L. Yates admit “When we wrote the first edition we were
young and green and full of Chinese takeout”. They also concede that the book
might contain “one too many mentions of The X-Files – but, hey, it was the nineties.”

But if you’re expecting a completely
tongue-in-cheek spoof of some po-faced paranormal textbook, you’ll be in for
something of a surprise. In words that former Ghostbuster Egon Spengler might
have used, ‘Ghosts From Our Past’ “is something of an anomaly.”

To start, the ladies describe how they met and
where their obsession for all things spooky began: Erin, dubbed ‘Ghost Girl’ by
her unforgiving classmates, tells the stomach-churning but oddly funny story of
how she was haunted by the ghost of a crabby neighbour, an old lady who
resembled Cruella de Vil and vomited blood like she was coughing up a hairball.
Meanwhile, Abby was in search of leprechauns with her imaginary dog Zorp. When
they eventually met each other in the school cafeteria and bonded over a
discussion about astral projection, it was a force as powerful as crossing
proton streams. Within moments they had founded the Metaphysical Examination
Society, a club which was only ever destined to have two members.

But this is where ‘Ghosts From Our Past’ takes an
interesting and unexpected turn, because instead of continuing the crazy story
of Erin and Abby’s burgeoning career as ghostbusters, the book actually
delivers a fairly accurate (albeit with comic asides) breakdown of the history
of ‘real life’ paranormal investigation. The Fox Sisters – whose attempts to
communicate with an entity called ‘Mr. Splitfoot’ ushered in the modern
spiritualist era – get a pretty big mention, as do other well-known paranormal
heavyweights like William James, Harry Price, Harry Houdini and The Ghost Club,
which adopted a rigorous ‘men only’ policy that is beautifully punctured by
Abby’s cute drawing of a Jane Austen-type trapped behind the familiar
Ghostbusters ‘no entry’ logo.

The science stuff comes next, including an
explanation of Abby and Erin’s Spectral Field Theory (“So new it’s still got
that new theory smell”) and entries about psychokinetic energy, ectoplasm and
ley lines that are worthy of a genuine paranormal primer. But there are gags
concealed along the way, and by the time we reach the chapters on
paratechnology and the classification of spooks, we’re back into more familiar
Ghostbusters territory, even though the chapter on ‘Preparing for the
Metaphysical Examination’ (ie. going on your first ghost hunt) does contain a
lot of genuinely useful advice.

It’s actually Abby and Erin’s ghostbusting
colleague Jillian Holtzmann who provides the too-brief chapter most fans will
love – a look into the ghostbusting arsenal, with miniature blueprints of the
new proton pack and ghost trap. But things get too cheesy when their
receptionist Kevin writes a couple of pages, and confuses the Patrick Swayze
movies ‘Ghost’ and ‘Road House’ in the question, “Why would a bar hire a ghost
as a bouncer?” Please bring back Janine Melnitz, so she can slap this vacuous
imposter-to-her-throne upside the head.

The whole volume is rounded off by a handy appendix
containing a ‘Paranormal Quickstart Guide’, an ‘Is It a Ghost’ quiz and various
other bits of indispensable documentation, including a waiver of liability if
an investigation goes wrong.

It’s actually this last section that typifies what
is both right and wrong about ‘Ghosts From Our Past’: it’s kind of a
schizophrenic book that wants to be funny but also wants to take the subject of
ghosts and paranormal science seriously, so that readers who are new to the
field actually come away with some genuine knowledge. In many ways, that’s very
true to the ‘Ghostbusters’ universe because part of the appeal of the movies is
that they do treat paranormal science with a certain reverence. But, in this
case, it means that the book doesn’t quite know what it wants to be and any
fans who are expecting to laugh out loud or learn anything fun about the new
movie will probably be left disappointed. More illustrations would also have
been nice, especially pictures of the ghosts from the movies (which are
conspicuously absent even in the Malevolent Case Studies chapter.)

On the other hand, as a serious paranormal study
aid with a little bit of spoofing on the side, ‘Ghosts From Our Past’ works
very well indeed. From that POV, it deserves a very strong recommend and a
Slimer-friendly…

GHOSTS FROM OUR PAST: BOTH FIGURATIVELY AND
LITERALLY / AUTHORS: ANDREW SHAFFER, ERIN GILBERT, ABBY L. YATES / PUBLISHER:
THREE RIVERS PRESS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
 

Mort(e)
used to be called Sebastian. He was a satisfied house cat who lived with a
young family and proudly kept guard on their home. But then the family fell
apart when the new neighbour arrived and began an affair with Sebastian’s female
owner. The new neighbour had a dog – Sheba – who quickly became Sebastian’s
best friend and cuddling companion, despite the fact that cats and dogs don’t
speak the same language. When Sebastian’s male owner discovers his wife’s
infidelity, there is violence. Sheba runs away into the night. Little does
Sebastian know, this is only the beginning.

A war has been raging behind-the-scenes.
Sebastian has watched it on the TV news without understanding what is
happening. The ants have turned on humanity. Over the course of centuries, they
have grown huge and are now rampaging across the world, the size of cars,
killing all the humans they can find. The ants have recruited all the other
species to help them and have found a way to transform surface animals into
intelligent bipeds who are now picking up weapons and slaughtering their
masters.

When Sebastian wakes up to find himself
changed, able to stand on his hind legs and talk and reason like a human, he
turns on his owner and begins the long journey to find Sheba. He reluctantly
joins an army of cat vigilantes called the Red Sphinx and discovers that
human-kind has unleashed a biological weapon called EMSAH which is destroying
animals in all kinds of disgustingly painful ways. He becomes a soldier and
then a war hero (earning the right to name himself, so he changes his moniker
to Mort(e)), while the Queen of the Ants becomes God and the animal’s revolt
turns more and more into a Jihad, with their feverous blood lust making them
little better than the humans they are supplanting. This isn’t just a
post-apocalyptic fable about the search for a friend, this is a story about
genocide, religious fanaticism, and how quickly and insidiously we humans might
lose control of our planet. Those are all big subjects, and author Robert
Repino is only marginally successful at juggling them.

As a concept, Mort(e) is well put together.
Although an end-of-the-world landscape populated by walking, talking warrior
animals with a main character that has a distinctly ‘lone samurai’ flavour about
him isn’t exactly an original idea, it’s definitely a good one. And everyone
loves a cool giant ants story so it isn’t the set-up that’s the problem here.
The main weakness lies in the writing, which has its moments but too often
feels like a banal and unrelentingly grim first draft loaded with
not-as-smart-as-it-thinks-it-is ‘movie of the week’ dialogue and shallow
characterisations. For example, Mort(e) is much more interesting at the start
of the book when he is just Sebastian, the house cat who enjoys hanging out in
the attic, than he is after his transformation when he sets out into the world like
some kind of wishy-washy feline Mad Max. What’s worse, many of the incidental
characters are more charismatic than Mort(e) is, which is definitely a no-no.
Luckily for Mort(e) – but sadly for us – those characters usually don’t survive
very long.

Still, it’s not all bad: ‘Mort(e)’ has made
me think twice about being nicer to ants, and consider how cats and firearms
might not make for the best combination. No other book I’ve read this year has
made me do that.

MORT(E) / AUTHOR: ROBERT REPINO /
PUBLISHER: SOHO PRESS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
 

Commander Elena Shaw, chief engineer of the Galileo, has a whole bunch of ‘formers’ going on in her life. Her
Captain, Greg Foster, is a former friend. They were once close but thanks to a
furious argument in front of half the crew their working relationship is
fractured, possibly beyond repair. Then there’s Danny Lancaster. He’s Elena’s
crewmate, and former boyfriend. He’s also formerly of the living. Murdered in
cold blood whilst on shore leave, the prime suspect is Treiko ‘Trey’ Zajec.
He’s a (wait for it) former pirate. Pirates are usually untrustworthy sorts but
Elena knows that Trey is not guilty because at the time of the murder, they
were in bed together. Elena’s determination to prove Trey’s innocence leads her
to openly defy Foster’s orders in an effort to bring Danny’s true killer to
justice.

Elena’s not the only
one dealing with a bad day. If having one crewmember murdered and another going
rogue isn’t challenging enough, Captain Foster also has to contend with a first
officer hiding secrets, an adulterous wife, and the small matter of discovering
that Danny was investigating the destruction of the Phoenix, the ship his mother died on when Greg was just a boy, at
the time of his murder.

Elizabeth Bonesteel’s
debut novel is a confident and entertaining page-turner that makes good use of
a wide variety of enjoyable characters to introduce the reader to the world of
Central Gov. The dual narratives are nicely served by switching both settings
and storytellers, with supporting players Jessica Lockwood, Will Valentis and
Ted Shimada all getting a chance to shine. Trey’s personal history provides a
nice contrast to the regimented environment of the Corps, although there’s
plenty of scope to expand on his pirating escapades in the future.

The action comes
thick and fast; the secrets behind Elena’s breakup with Danny and her fallout
with Greg are built up to the point that when they’re finally exposed they serve
as legitimate WTF moments. Ideally, we would have seen these significant points
told via a ‘real-time’ flashback as some of the intended impact is buffered by
letting the reader learn about them solely through third-hand dialogue, but
overall this is an assured start to what has all the potential to be a
compelling series. With a sequel slated for release at the end of the year,
Shaw, Foster and the crew of the Galileo have plenty of adventure ahead of
them, and we’re looking forward to being along for the ride.

THE COLD BETWEEN /
AUTHOR: ELIZABETH BONESTEEL / PUBLISHER: HARPER VOYAGER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW