Review Category: Books

The BBC shows no sign of stopping its relentless saturation of all possible channels for Doctor Who products. They are releasing a trilogy of Twelfth Doctor and Clara books under the banner The Glamour Chronicles, and these are Big Bang Generation (by Gary Russell), Royal Blood (by Una McCormack) and this title, Deep Time by Trevor Baxendale.

The basic plot is mysterious ancient power (the Phaeron), once known to the Time Lords, vanished into history. They left behind a few relics and travelled the stars through hyperspace byways known as Phaeron roads. A spaceship is about to explore the last Phaeron road, and the Doctor and Clara have joined the expedition.

Of course, things take a turn for the worse and would be simple if only they hadn’t all become separated from the TARDIS. The Doctor and Clara also get split up (for a change) and they pursue and ancient mystery on a world full of threats that holds the answer to the disappearance of the Phaeron themselves and also clues as to the nature of the Glamour.

If the plot seems somewhat familiar, Trevor Baxendale shows his experience of writing for Doctor Who with both the science and action. His twelfth Doctor captures Capaldi to a T. The story has a lot of characters and Trevor wisely takes his time to introduce them and flesh out their characters. As is the way of things, many characters take the role normally reserved for Star Trek red shirts and die in a range of unpleasant ways. The main story (without spoilers) is about sacrifice and ends convincingly after giving the reader several memorable moments.

Deep Time and the rest of the Glamour Trilogy are released on 10 September 2015. Are they essential reading? Maybe not, but on the strength of this book you could do worse.

DEEP TIME (DOCTOR WHO) / AUTHOR: TREVOR BAXENDALE / PUBLISHER: BBC BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Which brings us to Gestapo Mars. The main character, an unfrozen agent of the space-faring German Reich, screws his way across the gorgeous girls of the galaxy faster than you can say ‘ropey plot’. The fact that the savvy reader can predict almost to the page when the panties will drop makes for quite a laughable read (and not in the intended way). That combined with the somewhat unnecessary prolonged Star Wars nod at the end makes the whole thing feel more than a little juvenile.

Don’t get us wrong, the book definitely has high points. The cover art is wonderfully barking, while Gischler’s writing style provides some proper belly laughs throughout. He has also perfectly captured the breathless writing style of the classic pulps; here is a man who was born to write action scenes. But while the character of Carter Sloan is entertaining and the world of the space Reich is one we’re looking forward to exploring more, we can’t help but wonder if the cheap sexual content was really necessary.

The Deadlands franchise started out as a table-top roleplaying game, but like many of these things, it’s slowly expanding its appeal thanks to the growing interest in stories with solid world-building. It is an alternate history Wild West world, were the presence of a supernaturally-enhanced fuel (called Ghost Rock) has sped up technology in an anachronistic sort of way. It’s also a world where ghouls, ghost and other hideous creatures seem to have clawed their way out of Hell. In short, it’s steampunk horror for those who prefer cowboys to Victorian explorers.

Jonathan Maberry is a highly prolific creator of pulp horror fiction who mostly focuses on short and snappy horror stories that feature vampires and zombies. The Bram Stoker Award-winning author’s work includes Patient Zero, Ghost Road Blues and Rot and Ruin. Given his back catalogue, you have to wonder why they hadn’t thought of bringing him into the Deadlands franchise sooner.

Deadlands: Ghostwalkers brings the two together to create a superior piece of pulp adventure. Make no mistake; this is not high literature, its pulp adventure. The horror is of the gross-out and jump-scare kind, with extended action scenes and lots of gun play. The story focuses on Grey Torrance, a cowboy cut-and-pasted from any given Clint Eastwood or Yul Brynner movie. He has a trusty Native American sidekick who tags along to mostly provide endless sarcasm and pull Torrance’s fat out of the fire during the scarier scenes. The ladies are tough yet sassy, the holy men are brave yet easily shocked, and so on.

Deadlands: Ghostwalkers is a perfect introduction into the world of Deadlands; it’s filled with tropes, actions and violence yet at the same time has a sharp and distinct vibe throughout. Those who know the world well (and know the broader story arcs) will read this with a sly grin on their faces, as they are well aware of what is coming next. Newcomers are in for a treat. A great start to what we hope becomes a regular thing.

DEADLANDS: GHOSTWALKERS / AUTHOR: JONATHAN MABERRY / PUBLISHER: TOR / RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 22ND (KINDLE), NOVEMBER 1ST (PAPERBACK)
 
 

The fiftieth anniversary of the late Gerry Anderson’s seminal Supermarionation smash Thunderbirds – the exploits of the Tracy family and their fleet of sophisticated way-beyond-iconic rescue aircraft and paraphernalia – is celebrated in glorious style in this extraordinary, lavish and incredibly thorough examination of the origins and making of a genuine TV classic. Marcus Hearn, who put together a similar Vault title for Doctor Who’s half-century a couple of years ago, has again come up with the definitive work on its subject matter and if the story of how Thunderbirds came into existence is one familiar to hardcore Anderson fans, it’s never been presented so beautifully and with such magnificent care and attention as The Vault.

Thunderbirds – The Vault’s 240 wonderfully-presented pages are packed with rare and unseen publicity and behind-the-scene photographs, images of long-forgotten merchandise from toys to ice lollies to comics and all points in between. The first two chapters briskly recount how Gerry Anderson and his partner Arthur Provis created AP Films (later Century 21 Productions), of their early work for the fearsome Roberta Leigh and their eventual progression into their own projects – Four Feather Falls and Supercar – and the formation of Gerry’s long, fruitful working relationship with the legendary Lew Grade. Packed with comment and observation culled from new interviews with surviving cast and crew and previously unpublished archive interviews with both Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the story of an enduring and beloved phenomenon is told in fascinating detail with each of the show’s thirty-two episodes examined and chronicled for posterity. It’s warts-and-all stuff, too; Hearn isn’t afraid to let his contributors speak their mind about aspects of the show’s production and Century 21’s working practices which didn’t sit so well with them, but by and large the mood is celebratory and congratulatory – this was clearly a very special time in all their lives, working in a thriving, creative and exciting environment.

But the joy of the immersive sections on Thunderbirds is inevitably soured by later chapters which detail the slow, steady decline of Anderson’s fortunes – and his marriage to Sylvia – post-Thunderbirds. Two poorly-performing feature films couldn’t keep the series alive and Grade’s failure to secure a significant American sale made continued production of Thunderbirds a financial no-no. Gerry’s subsequent series were markedly less successful and by the end of the 1960s the glory days of Century 21 were over and by 1971 the company’s Stirling Road studios in Slough were closed.

But Thunderbirds – The Vault is a book that venerates one particular televisual success story and in that regard, it’s virtually beyond criticism. It’s a visual treasure trove, page after page of evocative photographs and illustrations complementing Hearn’s crisp, purposeful text. Whether you’re an Anderson devotee or just a fan of classic television, this is a book to savour, to sit, relish and glory in. They don’t make TV like Thunderbirds anymore but, fortunately, they do still make books like The Vault. An essential purchase.

THUNDERBIRDS – THE VAULT / AUTHOR: MARCUS HEARN / PUBLISHER: VIRGIN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 10TH
 

Back in the heady days of the early ‘90s, Tremors seemed to be in heavy rotation
as the Saturday movie on BBC One. Part Jaws,
part ‘50s sci-fi B-movie, Tremors is
a cult classic with a legion of fans the world over. Given its cult status, it’s
surprising there hasn’t been any books written about Tremors in the 25 years since it was first unleashed on the world.
That is until this one of course.

Beginning
life as an article for SFX Magazine,
Jonathan Melville’s Seeking Perfection
takes an in-depth look at the making of the original Tremors movie from its inception to its release. The book gives 5
of its chapters to the film, using interviews with members of the cast and crew
(including Kevin Bacon), a couple of photos and some storyboards.

The rest of
the book looks at the subsequent movies (including a chapter looking at the
road to Tremors 5 – which should be
released later this year) and the TV series. The book gives a chapter to each,
with the TV series getting a full episode guide, with a commentary for each
episode.

The book is
largely text, with (very) occasional pictures dotted throughout. It would’ve
been nice to have seen the book presented as a hardback coffee table book full
of pictures from the film shoots instead of a paperback with a few black and
white photos printed onto the text pages, but – much like the films themselves
– it’s a nicely put together package, with a fun pulpy look and feel.

What comes
across most from the book is the fondness that everyone involved has for the
franchise, especially Michal Gross (who also provides a wonderful foreword to
the book). It’s also clear from reading the book that Melville is a fan with a passionate
enthusiasm for the films, which goes a long way over in making the book
informative, entertaining and, above all, a joy to read.

SEEKING PERFECTION: THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO
TREMORS / JONATHAN MELVILLE / PUBSLISHER: FOUNTAINBRIDGE PRESS / RELEASE DATE:
OUT NOW

 

Overall, Star Wars: Aftermath is a cracking read and only adds to the growing excitement for the new Star Wars movie.

 

But a straight-up take on the grail quest would be boring, standard… not things Doctor Who does well at all. So as usual, there’s kinky space stuff going on as the Doctor and Clara pop up on a world in the last days of a bloody war. This leads into an ongoing storyline about the Glamour, one of the most powerful and motivating artefacts in the universe. What’s really neat about it is that though that storyline continues over the other two books in this wave of releases (Deep Time and The Big Bang Generation), you could just leave it here if you want to. The story that Royal Blood tells is more or less self-contained and satisfying in its own right. But why should you stop after this one? McCormack has the characters of the Doctor and Clara down to a ‘T’, and if the other two authors are anywhere near as good in this regard then they will also be essential reading. We’ll be picking them up off the back of reading this one because we just have to know how the Glamour storyline ends.

The only issue we had with this novel (though we can appreciate why it happened; literary experimentation sometimes comes with a price) was that the decision to tell part of the story from a historical and first person point of view meant that some of the events of the climax turn out to be a foregone conclusion, which takes away a lot of the suspense.

But this is forgivable in an otherwise excellent book, and if BBC Cardiff ever decide to adapt this one for television, they could do a lot worse than getting McCormack herself on board. Hell, we’ll be favoured with good fortune if Cardiff turns out anything near this level of quality come September 19th.

 

No, this is nothing to do with werewolves. The story is written like a memoir, the adult Lumen jotting down moments from her teenage years to sort them in her mind, but instead of the series of vignettes developing into a coming of age narrative the scenes come across as disorganised, disjointed an undeveloped. The story also occasionally jumps to the present (where the prose jarringly shifts to the present tense) and relates brief passages of Lumen’s suburban life as a wife and mother where nothing of note actually happens.

Lumen perceives life in a clinical and detached manner, as though she were an outside observer of her own existence. For her, affection is a sequence predetermined movements, verbal interaction a series of required responses and human behaviour a collection of obligatory actions, but despite this she still wonders why people think of her as aloof and distant. It seems as though she feels nothing, both physically and emotionally, and as such is difficult to relate to or even care about. Anyway, so what if she thinks she’s indefinably different from everyone around her and out of place in the world; what teenager doesn’t?

Any possible reason for the teenagers’ breaching is unknown and barely even given lip service, and neither considered is why it only occurs in this one small town, appearing only to be something requiring unqualified acceptance. If the whole thing is supposed to be a visceral metaphor of puberty with the feral abandon a representation of the raging untamed desires of teenagers, it’s an overly lengthy and rather laborious one. With so little to actually say, it might have worked better as a short story rather than a full length novel, so that its central concept wouldn’t have been lost amidst the flowery prose.