Review Category: Books

In The Beast of Fang Rock, writer Andy Frankham-Allen continues his portrayal of the life and times of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, following on from the TV story The Web of Fear. This is a long-overdue concept and one that resonates with many fans.

While the overall idea is interesting, the challenge is non-trivial in that we know events have to end with the UNIT stories of the third Doctor and beyond, so there are constraints on what can be achieved. There is also a lot of continuity to keep at least one eye on. In this regard, The Beast of Fang Rock tries to do more than it needs.

As the title should suggest, this story is wrapped around the events of the fourth Doctor story Horror of Fang Rock. Set on the same lighthouse, it starts with a story of ghostly recordings much in the style of Nigel Kneale’s Stone Tape. It then goes out of its way to bring in not only the Brigadier but also the returning character of Anne Travers. All of this careful plotting gets in the way of Andy’s natural storytelling, and once the elaborate setup is complete there is a decent, well-written story that ends well and opens up plenty of possibilities for future stories. Where it falls short is in not allowing very much for the Brigadier to do – Anne Travers rather steals the story and becomes the key character.

Overall a good tale, somewhat handicapped by its trappings. Worth a read, even if it doesn’t (yet) tell us much about what he Brigadier did between two key moments of the show’s history.

THE BEAST OF FANG ROCK / AUTHOR: ANDY FRANKHAM-ALLEN / PUBLISHER: CANDY JAR BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

When Tess Devlin meets her ex-husband in the street and is humiliated when he appears not to recognise her, she’s left angry and confused. It is only when she tells her best friend Lili about the encounter that the mystery deepens – just the other day, Lili was told about an artist who is her own exact double, working out of a gallery in the heart of the city. Meanwhile, alcoholic journalist Frank Lindbergh is attacked in his home and wakes up, naked and handcuffed inside his own basement. The man who assaulted him is not only Frank’s exact likeness, he says that he is Frank and he is taking over Frank’s life.

Who are these doppelgangers? What do they want and why are they keeping their ‘originals’ alive? Could it have something to do with the Otis Harrison House, an abandoned mansion where a handful of bodies were discovered several years earlier, seemingly victims of a demonic ritual that went obscenely wrong? And why has the psychomanteum – a kind of mirrored closet designed to communicate with the dead – that was discovered alongside those bodies suddenly reappeared inside the restaurant of the Nepenthe Hotel? But, most sinisterly, what are the motives of the raggedy blind man who seemingly appears out of nowhere, sniffing the air for the scent of his victims, who has already terrorised Tess and Lili, and now appears to be stalking their psychic friend Audrey?

Discovering the answers will involve returning to the Otis Harrison House, a place good people cross the street to avoid. Bad things have been happening around the outskirts of that house – a man attacked and killed by his own dog, another man murdered by a bizarre airstrike of birds that smashed through the windshield of his van – as if the building itself is the epicentre of evil. Yet even if Tess and her friends can summon up the courage to go inside, how long will it be before their doppelgangers take over their lives completely? And how can Tess be sure that the people she trusts aren’t actually doppelgangers themselves?

Dead Ringers is a tremendous read. Honestly, clichéd phrases like ‘unputdownable’ were created for books like this one. From its subtly affecting Invasion of the Bodysnatchers-style opening, it quickly twists and turns into something far nastier when the blind man appears and the psychomanteum is introduced, with the Otis Harrison House being a particularly well-realised masterstroke. Christopher Golden’s writing is hypnotic, he has a genius ability to make even the mundane seem terrifying and the fact that his characters are so ordinary and believable, that their reactions to what is happening around them are so true-to-life, makes the horror even more disturbing. Golden knows how to manipulate tension, and his imagery and capacity with language is first-class – not since Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, Stephen King’s The Shining and Peter Straub’s Ghost Story has this writer personally read an essentially haunted house (or haunted people?) novel that has flowed so elegantly on the page. It truly is a must-read for fans of the genre and the questions it raises about our reliance upon identity and the awful creeping banality of occult evil lurking unseen beneath the fabric of every-day life will keep you lying awake long after you’ve finished the last page.

Jaw-hit-the-floor brilliant.

DEAD RINGERS / AUTHOR: CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN / PUBLISHER: HEADLINE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

Hidden away within the generally disappointing (and you suspect cynically conceived) sequels in the Predator and Alien franchises exists the fragments of several good ideas. As Hollywood now obsesses over the need to create shared universes, it is easy to forget or dismiss the one housing two of cinemas most iconic bad guys; tusked hunters the Yautja and the seemingly unstoppable Xenomorph. As film versions struggle for credibility, there comes a new trilogy of tie-in novels from author Tim Lebbon beginning with Predator – Incursion, and it would be worth a few screenwriters giving it a read.

The challenge facing any author when it comes to tie-in novels is how to make the story original and relevant in a universe that fans both casual and committed feel they know so well. The source Alien and Predator films were so strong, so era defining, that it would be easy for any subsequent stories to devalue them. It is a challenge that Lebbon has risen to. Predator – Incursion seems to take much of its inspiration from James Cameron’s 1986 Aliens; here focussing on a branch of Colonial Marines known as Excursionists and visiting worlds that conjure up images of colonised planets as seen in that seminal film. With a detailed timeline that could have been confusing, yet cleverly isn’t, and characters that feel as real as the aliens they face, this is a story that rattles on at a great pace, rarely giving the reader time to draw breath.

As an opener to a new trilogy, Predator – Incursion is an exciting and interesting novel that opens up an abundance of possibilities for this familiar universe. It may not appeal to those not already enamoured with the genre or the franchise, but fans will relish the action and political intrigue at the heart of Lebbon’s novel.

PREDATOR – INCURSION: THE RAGE WAR BOOK 1 / AUTHOR: TIM LEBBON / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

Like any media industry, publishing is constantly looking for the next big thing that will lure in a different kind of audience and engage them in ways that haven’t been tried before. The current trend is colouring-in books with very, very complicated patterns. These are aimed squarely at adults who need to do something relaxing with their hands or just fancy learning a new skill (and yes, colouring-in is a skill. Just ask a professional colourist).

Sherlock: The Mind Palace: The Official Colouring Book is a collection of very dense black and white drawings by Doctor Who comic strip artist Mike Collins. You probably know Mike’s work if you’ve ever picked up any comic book inspired by a popular genre franchise. What we have here is some rather good drawings of the stars of the TV show Sherlock in scenes that will remind you of various episodes of the TV series. Collins has made each illustration as dense as possible, so there are plenty of little spaces for you to colour in.

This is not a colouring book for crayons (though it may be a challenge to try). This is a job for your finest colouring pens and sharpies, or even a paint brush, which is rather the point. This should take you an absolute age to do. There’s also the glee of painting Benedict Cumberbatch bright green, if that’s what you fancy. The art is clear, distinctive and very pretty.

The blurb on the back promises ‘clues’ to be uncovered, but that isn’t really the case. You get the feeling that the BBC wanted to have some sort of clever puzzle theme with hard to decipher illustrations (perhaps in the style of Kit Williams Masquerade) but didn’t really give the artist time to do this. What we have instead is a Where’s Wally?-style spot the object challenge. Various pages have an incongruous thing (such as a phone or a piece of graffiti) that you have to find. Each one is related to one of the stories from the Sherlock TV show in some way, but a mystery it is not. Nor are any the pictures a ‘mind-palace’; Sherlock’s mind is a well organised machine, these drawings are way too busy for that.

Sherlock: The Mind Palace: The Official Colouring Book is a very pretty challenge for fans of colouring-in who also happen to be fans of the BBC’s Sherlock. It’s a great idea for a gift for someone, though you want to give them so good pens to play with at the same time.

SHERLOCK: THE MIND PALACE: THE OFFICIAL COLOURING BOOK / ARTIST: MIKE COLLINS / PUBLISHER: BBC BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

There have been numerous books written about The Lord of the Rings over the years, but this new release to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the first ever publication is a little different. Within its textured and tantalising cover there are 240 lavishly printed pages containing all the sketches, drawings and scribblings made by J. R. R. Tolkien during the writing process. Given that, if you’re a fan, you may already own much of what this book contains, at least in some form, the question is why do you need it? Chances are you don’t, but you’re still going to want it.

From the astonishing and intricately thought out detail in the design of the rolling meadows of The Shire to the craggy battlements of Minas Tirith, this is a book that shows how Middle Earth came into being. Rarely has a world been so meticulously created, and the accompanying text details the exchanges between Tolkien and his publisher, and outlines the frustrations felt by the author at what he perceived to be his own limitations. At times this becomes a little long winded and too reference-like, but does offer intriguing peeks into the creation of The Lord of the Rings.

There is no doubt that The Art of the Lord of the Rings is a book any fan will want to own. It is a perfect coffee table book that you will return to time and again. Beautiful throughout and full of interesting content, it is a timeless book that, if nothing else, will make you want to watch Peter Jackson’s films all over again.

THE ART OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS (60TH ANNIVERSARY SLIPCASE) / AUTHOR & ARTIST: J.R.R. TOLKIEN / EDITOR: WAYNE G. HAMMOND, CHRISTINA SCULL / PUBLISHER: HARPERCOLLINS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

We have to ask, is there any point in us reviewing the stories contained within this collection? Many of them are over 100 years old and have been covered so many times before that it seems somewhat redundant for us to really go into the merits of any particular story. Suffice it to say that the ones they’ve picked are the better Sherlock Holmes stories and are quite a good way to introduce new fans.

The book is admittedly pretty well designed; it does a good job of conveying the modern Victoriana that Sherlock does so well, and if you were giving this as a gift it would honestly be a pretty nice thing to have (It doesn’t work as a stocking filler though; even Mycroft’s stockings would be challenged by this tome.)

But now we come to the real selling point of the book: each story features an individual introduction by the Sherlock creative duo Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. However, the issue with this is that the sum total of their contributions runs to around 600 words. We counted. The introductions are there, but if you ask us any introduction that runs to a mere 14 words is not much of one. Call us crazy but we expected more for a £20 price tag.

The fact is that this low level of input makes the whole thing come across as one hell of a cynical cash-grab for the Christmas market. Possibly the final nail in the coffin is that BBC Books themselves did this very thing a few years ago, with a range of books (including longer introductions by Moffat, Gatiss et al) that contained the complete stories. That collection is still available if you know where to look (and probably cheaper!).

The problem with this book in a nutshell is that dedicated fans will have most likely read all this stuff already, while new fans have so many alternatives (from lavishly illustrated or annotated volumes to the cheap and cheerful editions) as a good gateway to the stories. This, sadly, makes the whole endeavour seem rather pointless.

SHERLOCK: THE ESSENTIAL ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE ADVENTURES / AUTHOR: ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE / PUBLISHER: BBC BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 12TH