Review Category: Books

Following on from the Are-you-@#*%ing-kidding-me? cliffhanger ending of The Falconer, that made all those completing it demand to know where the hell the rest of the pages were, The Vanishing Throne picks up pretty much directly where its predecessor left off. Upon escaping from the imprisonment of sadistic faery warlord Lonnrach, our heroine Lady Aileana Kameron returns to a world lain to waste by the Wild Hunt as the faeries ransack all of human civilisation in search of the one thing that can save their dying realm. 

As the middle instalment of a trilogy, The Vanishing Throne has the unenviable responsibility of continuing and expanding the original story while also being a complete tale in its own right and not just a 350-page expository infodump. Thankfully, the plot quickly veers sharply away from the ‘lone hero saves the world’ fantasy archetype that The Falconer played up to right to its dying moments, instead crafting a richer, deeper and darker tale. The principal characters, both heroic and villainous, are given far greater development, each revealing themselves to be neither wholly virtuous nor utterly immoral, but like all people lie somewhere in between the two extremes as they do all that they believe they must to defend those they care about.

As the hidden truths of faery history are revealed, Aileana becomes the key figure in a centuries-old power play, with events hanging on her death or continued survival. Her previous concerns, the presumption imparted by her nobility to marry well and remain respectable while keeping hidden her nocturnal faery-hunting exploits lest she be considered unladylike, have all now been rendered moot by war. However, she still feels the weight of responsibility to represent all past Falconers, the line of warrior women to which she is the sole remaining heir, and stand against the tsunami of devastation that threatens to annihilate the entire planet.

Figures on both sides experience the pull of forces such as tradition, duty, responsibility and destiny, while also feeling the desire to escape such expectations fostered upon them by nothing more than the accident of birth as the lines between good and evil become further blurred as the plot develops. Although the story is yet to be finished at the book’s conclusion, the ending is far more of a natural stopping point than last time, and sets things up nicely for the trilogy’s final chapter where the ultimate fate of two worlds will be decided.

THE VANISHING THRONE / AUTHOR: ELIZABETH MAY / PUBLISHER: GOLLANCZ / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

U.S. private investigator Ian Kennedy specialises in finding missing persons, an obsession that began back in childhood when his father disappeared. When the book begins, Ian is living in London. His professional life is haphazard; his personal life is a mess. Ian is finally about to throw in the towel and fly back to Texas, but then a desperate woman approaches him with a case he cannot refuse.

Peri Lensky disappeared two years ago. The police labelled her a runaway and closed the investigation almost as soon as it had begun. But Laura Lensky, Peri’s mother, believes the true facts are a lot more sinister. Like Ian, she is an American living in England. Now she is about to return to the States and she knows this is her last chance to really find out what happened to her daughter.

It is only when Ian reads the missing girl’s diary and interviews her former boyfriend that he uncovers disturbing parallels between this case and one of his earlier investigations, when he was hired to track down another young woman only to discover she had been abducted by the faeries.

But these aren’t the friendly Tinkerbell-like faeries from children’s books, these are the fae – cruel, selfish entities with the power to seduce mortals and imprison them inside the Otherworld. Peri’s ex-boyfriend believes in the fae because he can see them, he knows Peri was abducted by a fairy king – one of the Sidhe, a race of sprites from Celtic folklore – but it is only Ian who understands how to break the faerie-spell and bring Peri back, and even he may not be strong enough to do that. The magic of the faeries isn’t easily resisted.

The Mysteries is a conundrum. Lisa Tuttle is a fantastic writer and her ability to juggle convincing private eye-noir with the more nebulous genres of myth and fantasy is what really makes this book something special. Let’s face it, for most of us fairies are a couple of inches high with pointy ears trailing glittery dust behind them, so how big a menace can they actually be? But Tuttle makes them a viable supernatural opponent, which is quite a trick when you think about it.

How does she do that? Well, Tuttle has the uncanny knack of making us believe that the faerie world is possible, and she partially accomplishes this by interweaving unrelated stories and folk legends about faeries in-between the chapters of the main novel. It’s an interesting approach and it certainly gives more depth to the subject but some of these side-journeys are several pages in length, which can be quite distracting. More problematic than that, one of two of them are more compelling than the novel itself, and it is quite disappointing when those segments end and the ‘proper story’ resumes.

Another issue we had with The Mysteries is that, although it is essentially quite a simple narrative, Tuttle throws in a lot of unnecessary sub-plots (some of which don’t feel properly resolved by the end of the book) and she jumps around in time and point-of-view far too often, cherry-picking past moments from her character’s lives that ultimately don’t add very much to the main story. Just like the anecdotes-between-chapters, all this extra information really accomplishes is cluttering up a plot that already requires some patience from the reader (unless the reader’s got a degree in Celtic mythology).

On that note, anyone who is familiar with the legend of ‘Tam Lin’ will either find a lot to enjoy here or a lot to get frustrated about. In many ways, this is a modern retelling of that story with a Sam Spade-twist (and, for the record, if you like ‘Tam Lin’ check out the little-known 1970 movie directed by Roddy McDowall.)

For all those reasons, The Mysteries was a disappointing read. There’s a lot to admire here – especially if you like your folklore spiced up with a little detective fiction – but the execution is lacking, the ending feels anticlimactic and the storytelling goes off-road far too often for its own good.

THE MYSTERIES / AUTHOR: LISA TUTTLE / PUBLISHER: JO FLETCHER BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

Not an easy title to get your head around and the stories within aren’t much easier either. J. R. Hamantaschen, author of the highly memorable, terrifyingly bleak short fiction collection You Shall Never Know Security (2011) follows up with this second book of stories – With a Voice That is Often Still Confused But is Becoming Ever Louder and Clearer (no problem making a minimum word count with a title like that). Whether the title refers to a protagonist, antagonist or the author himself… one isn’t quite sure, but it’s captivating, nonetheless.

There are nine tales to this collection, each of satisfying length and immediately striking, from first page to last. Rarely is the distinction between horror and dark fiction as distinct as it is reading Hamantaschen’s work – stories that will grip you for their humanity and soul rather than any specific external threat. These here are works which deal in paranoia and existential dread rather than, say, the fear of taking a machete to the face. Which isn’t to say that the author doesn’t have a little fun with it from time to time – see Cthulhu, Zombies, Ninjas, and Robots!; or, a Special Snowflake in an Endless Scorching Universe, for example – a beautiful takedown of Lovecraft fandom, ingeniously set at a Lovecraft convention.

To say much more would be to spoil the many surprises contained within, but there’s not a dud among the lot. Hamantaschen’s prose is poetic, witty and effortlessly heartbreaking at times. Even the story titles are a work of beauty (Soon Enough This Will Essentially Be a True Story being a favourite) and Hamantaschen even manages to imbue pieces such as his blurbs (‘uncharacteristically kind words’), dedications (‘none’ gets a solid laugh) and introduction with a sense of self-deprecating wit and poignancy.

It’s been a while since You Shall Never Know Security, but this second collection was well worth the wait. Confused or no, Hamantaschen has marked his distinctive, often scary, frequently depressing voice as one worth listening to.

WITH A VOICE THAT IS OFTEN STILL CONFUSED BUT IS BECOMING EVER LOUDER AND CLEARER / AUTHOR: J.R. HAMANTASCHEN / PUBLISHER: WEST PIGEON PRESS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW 

It is the space year 2015. The impossible has happened. It would take days to recount the stories we’ve read here, so settle in.

That kind of now-hackneyed opening is now a thing of the past, if this anthology of Nebula Award winners and nominees is anything to go by. The selection features a welcome selection of new voices and cultures. These new perspectives are definitely the most interesting part of the book, but it would be churlish to single out any one story as worthy of our praise.

What the hell? We’re churlish. Our favourite story of the lot was Paranormal Romance, a charming little novelette of a witch trying not to find love in a world where the paranormal is weird but otherwise accepted. It made us laugh quite a bit, the characters are very relatable and the whole thing reads like it would be a fantastic Hollywood rom-com. (Is Bill Nighy available?) The story will pop up in your head after you turn the final page and dive into the next piece. We still get flashbacks of the Nebula anthology we reviewed last year. The beauty of this anthology is that you could completely disagree with our choice and still find something to hold to your heart.

Lord knows the science fiction and fantasy genre has encountered its share of controversies in recent years, with lots of different voices making themselves heard (some for the first time). But readers should take heart. What is science fiction if not a device to show us new ways of thinking, new perspectives on our own world through allegory? Gene Roddenberry understood that; now his little Star Trek show is worth billions in merchandising. Based on what we’ve read in these pages, the genre is in very safe hands indeed and the idiots will come around eventually. Hell, any one of the authors could be the next Roddenberry.

NEBULA AWARDS SHOWCASE 2015 / AUTHOR: GREG BEAR (EDITOR) / PUBLISHER: PROMETHEUS BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 20TH

This is an unabridged republication of the original book released under the banner of ‘Doomsday Classics’ by Dover. After London explains how generations ago a ‘black orb’ devastated our planet, causing millions of people to inexplicably leave Britain and never return. The impact on the deserted countryside is equally impressive, and Jefferies describes in detail how nature re-establishes itself and changes the British landscape.

Fields of crops are soon overtaken and devastated by brambles, trees and all manner of weeds. Rivers, streams and irrigation channels block-up or get diverted, ecological changes cause a huge lake to be created in the centre of England, and London is reduced to a swamp where no one can go without being poisoned by the vapours that emerge from it. Animal behaviour also changes in accord with the new landscape; thousands of mice and rats feast on wasted crops, whilst pigs, sheep, cattle and horses have died off in huge numbers and the few survivors have resorted to foraging in the dense woodlands.

Humans have returned to primitive forms like the Bushmen who lurk deep in the woods and are opportunistic robbers, or the Gypsies who exist in small tribes scattered across Britain. Then there are the more ‘civilised’ people who live in fortress-like settlements and are organised like the feudal systems of the Middle Ages. Little knowledge of the old technology exists and only a few books remain, though only the elite are able to read or write. The main priority is to resist the predations of the Welsh, Irish and Northern invaders who target the townships that cluster around the great lake in the midlands.

Originally published in 1885, this early example of a post-apocalypse novel, shows off Jefferies’ knowledge of natural history and the rural landscape, which he wrote about in numerous essays and other works of fiction. Once he has outlined the changes in the natural world and the return to a pre-industrial age, Jefferies’ uses part two of the book to focus on Felix Aquila, who is the son of an impoverished Baron. He is quiet, intellectual and overlooked, and seeks to find a place for himself elsewhere. Felix achieves this by building a canoe and goes off to explore the lake and what is left of London. On his trip he finally finds acceptance from a shepherd tribe who are impressed by his knowledge of technology, and with his confidence boosted he returns home to seek Aurora who is his long-term love interest.

After London is a contemplative slow-moving story which seriously considers what would happen if all we take for granted is wiped out and we have to start anew.

AFTER LONDON / AUTHOR: RICHARD JEFFERIES / PUBLISHER: DOVER PUBLICATIONS INC. / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW