Review Category: Books

Chuck Dixon is regarded as a comic book legend the world over. His work on the Punisher for Marvel and on Batman for DC (he is responsible for the iconic Knightfall saga of the 1990s) has sealed his reputation as a storyteller. In Civil War Adventure, Dixon collaborates with artist Gary Kwapisz to recount the experiences of the American Civil War. So how does Dixon apply his storytelling to a historical setting?

Civil War Adventure chronicles individual events amidst the bigger picture of the American Civil War between 1860 and 1865. To begin with, A Choice of Targets shows the readers one of the world’s first snipers on mission; it is a tense, lonely piece of writing and, ultimately, whilst you know where the story will go you’re never quite a hundred percent that it will go that way. Elsewhere, The Boy General tells of the efforts of General Ulysses Grant to disrupt Southern rail traffic. It’s very traditional in its storytelling, with lots of dialogue which allows the story to progress without having to rely on narrative boxes. Meanwhile, Darnel Dingus tells the story of the war from a more comical point of view.

This anthology has all of the hallmarks of an esteemed writer of comics: it has clear, well developed narratives, the distinctive characters and details gave artists a lot to go to develop visually interesting comic panels, and yet Dixon doesn’t apply the same formula to his storytelling throughout; he mixes up his story telling to keep not only his readers engaged but also his artists engaged as well.

To round things off, Civil War Adventure becomes an interesting medium in which to document a period of history significant to American culture; who else but one of America’s top comic writers could achieve such a documentation? Considering that there are twelve individual chapters in this anthology, Chuck Dixon makes a concerted effort all around to do something different in every story, meaning that you don’t get bored.

CIVIL WAR ADVENTURE / WRITER: CHUCK DIXON / ARTIST: GARY KWAPISZ / PUBLISHER: DOVER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
 

The fact that the makers of Adventure Time saw the potential of releasing a book simply made up of the title cards from the first two seasons of the show is an incredible thing. The fact that it was popular enough to see a second book released is just fantastic!

It’s no secret that we are big fans of the first book, regularly pulling it back down off of the shelf to have another look (usually after having just seen one of the title cards appear on TV). As such, we were excited to get our hands on the second volume and can safely say that we’re big fans of this book too.

The book sticks to the same format as the first, giving the final title card a full page and then having some early stages of the image, some brief text about the creation of the image and a quote from the episode on the page next to it. It’s a formula that served so well the first time around so you can see why they have repeated it here.

It’s a layout and style that makes the book accessible to fans of all ages, walking the fine line between appealing to children without short-changing adults. The text is fun and breezy to read, neither short-changing older fans out for information nor going into so much depth that younger fans will lose interest in what they are reading.

The finished title cards draw their inspiration from the style of old pulp novel covers and straddle many genres, including sci-fi, fantasy, romance, crime noir and horror (the title card for The Lich is a wonderfully gruesome image for what is essentially a kids cartoon).

The images are stunning (some more so than others) and the detail is tremendous. The fact that these images appear on screen for a matter of seconds at most, makes the attention to detail even more impressive. In fact, if the book has a flaw, it’s that it doesn’t come with a selection of prints of the title cards that you could frame and put on the wall. But then we suppose the problem would be which ones you would choose.

Roll on, Volume 3!

ADVENTURE TIME: THE ORIGINAL CARTOON TITLE CARDS SEASONS 3 & 4 / AUTHOR: PENDLETON WARD / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 4TH

Victorian London. A thoroughly modern city filled with thoroughly modern technological advancements like electrical thingamajigs, steam-powered doohickies and clockwork oojamaflips. Yes, we are in the world of steampunk, that retro-futuristic subgenre forever teetering on the brink of mainstream recognisability. Comparable to Abaddon’s Pax Britannia setting – specifically Jonathan Green’s Ulysses Quicksilver novels – The Affinity Bridge sees Crown agent Sir Maurice Newbury and his new assistant Miss Veronica Hobbes investigate hauntings, undead risings, a mysterious airship crash and a series of grisly murders.

The book soars along at a swift and near relentless pace, incorporating zombies, ghosts, action, mystery and implied glimmers of artificial intelligence, but for all its genre trappings, it fails to properly establish its own identity. A few neat ideas stand out, such as a cane transforming into an electricity-shooting rifle and the ultimate revelation behind malfunctioning clockwork automata, but there is little truly distinctive enough to make the story stand out.

To its credit, the book acknowledges the poverty, disease, violence and crime rampant in Victorian times that steampunk’s rose-tinted vision of the past often glosses over in favour of a romanticised view of the world being nothing but potential, and the story’s forays into the less salubrious areas of the city give a necessary counterpoint to the quiet and peaceful world inhabited by the upper classes.

An unfortunate glaring oversight is the lack of development of the story’s central duo. Hobbes’ institutionalised sister grants her an emotional side beyond her stoic determination, but being concerned about appearing unladylike while kicking a door open is as close to characterisation as she otherwise gets. Newbury is frustratingly even less developed. While he is undoubtedly a talented and loyal servant to Her Majesty, we got no indication of how he first embarked upon his calling, or indeed what it is that drives him to regularly risk his life in service to the Empire. The largest insight to his character is an addiction to laudanum (a possibly unintentional parallel to Sherlock Holmes’ crack habit), a dependency he attempts to hide from everyone, himself included. It’s entirely possible we’ll be granted greater insight to his character in subsequent books (due for publication at an alarming rate), but for now he remains a blank enigma.

Aside from this there is nothing major wrong with the book; it’s certainly an enjoyable and easy read. It just feels that tighter plotting and a more streamlined vision could have created something new and compelling, rather than familiar and distinctly average.

THE AFFINITY BRIDGE / AUTHOR: GEORGE MANN / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

You would have to have been living in some sort of cave over the last few years to be unaware of the phenomenal success of Rocksteady’s Batman games. The video game developer has gone from strength to strength and now Batman fans have a packed art book to chronicle Rocksteady’s journey through the Arkham Asylum/City/Knight trilogy.

This is clearly a labour of love; most of the pages are covered with incredibly detailed spreads of concept art and finished set pieces from the games. We were particularly taken with the various pictures of Harley Quinn (not that we’re into that or anything…) and pretty much anything featuring Gotham City’s skyline. You can say what you like about the breed of person it produces, but the city always looks great. As an aside, we love that some of the notes on the concept art have retained the original spelling errors. What a way to convey the real and imperfect process of game development.

If we did have one grievance, it’s that there’s not really a lot in the way of written content. What’s there on the page is good, yes (and it must be said that author Daniel Wallace does a great job with the amount of text he had to work with), but we can’t help but feel that the scarcity of written passages (the book is about 80% images) has deprived us of a lot of stories about the trilogy’s development. There’s only so much that concept art can tell you.

But frankly, if you’re a Batman fan then you’ve probably already made up your mind. Pretty much any fan of the franchise at large is going to be salivating over this, and when we open the book to any one of the superb images within it’s hard to blame them. If Batman had this book, he’d never leave the cave.

THE ART OF ROCKSTEADY’S BATMAN / AUTHOR: DANIEL WALLACE / PUBLISHER: ABRAMS BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: JULY 7TH

 

Piecemeal storytelling is the found footage of the literary world. The idea of assembling a story from journal entries, first-person accounts, and medical reports is nothing new, but much like its movie equivalent cousin, it only works when done well and it tends to lend itself to horror. The Dead House is a clever attempt at doing something new with this very familiar format that doesn’t quite make the grade.

The plot is a fairly convoluted one. Our main protagonist is Carly Johnson; a teenage girl who has been diagnosed with psychological issues following the death of her parents. Carly is a shy, well behaved and studious lady. Kaitlyn Johnson is her rebellious sister who curses, swears and picks fights. The twist is that they share the same body, with Kaitlyn only coming out at night and Carly having the day. The reason why may be supernatural, or it may not.

The bulk of the story is told through Kaitlyn’s diary, and as the tale progresses, we learn more about Kaitlyn’s dark nature. Various excerpts and reports littered throughout the book refer to a thing called ‘The Johnson Incident’, a tragic event that led investigators to look for Kaitlyn’s diary in the first place.
The main problem is that the third-party storytelling style makes it hard to actually engage with the main protagonists. Add to this the fact both the plot and the storytelling method has been done many times before, and the result is a messy and rather boring journey. It is very tightly written and Kurtagich clearly has a firm handle on her world and its characters. It’s simply that the story fails to grip the reader, despite multiple attempts to draw you in.

If the plot and style of The Dead House sounds original and innovative to you, then you’ll probably have a lot of fun with the book. It’s well written and aimed at the inexperienced reader. If you’ve heard it all before, however, be aware that there is nothing new for you here.

INFO: AUTHOR: DAWN KURTAGICH / PUBLISHER: ORION / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 6TH
 

Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories by Hugo Award winner and critically acclaimed author China Mieville is, as the title suggests, a collection of twenty eight short stories. And what an eclectic mix they are. There’s horror, science-fiction, scripts for film trailers and other assorted weirdness from the self-confessed purveyor of “weird fiction.”

Highly regarded for his high concept novels such as The City and the City, Embassytown and Railsea, Mieville writes with such literary dexterity that his style could easily be compared to Ray Bradbury’s style of poetic prose. Bradbury was a master in the art of creating the short story. As too were many of his pulp era contemporaries; Philip K. Dick, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, Robert Bloch et al., who honed their craft with each story that they produced. So how does Mieville’s collection compare to the past masters?

There’s no doubt that there’s a talented cleverness at work within this collection. The Condition of the New Death is a playful tale in which when people die they die in the manner of computer game characters. The Dowager of Bees reads like an urban myth that only those in the world of professional gambling will have heard… or witnessed. And then there’s the aforementioned trailer scripts, the best being The Crawl. What a zombie-apocalypse movie that would make!

However, for all Mieville’s inventiveness and literary dexterity his stories feel coldly clinical. Worse yet, they just stop! It doesn’t matter they are three pages long or twenty, they just suddenly come to a grinding halt. This makes the shorter pieces feel like they are notes for ideas that have yet to be fully formed. The longer works aren’t truly explored and so aren’t given the room to breathe. This is particularly true of Polynia, in which icebergs suddenly appear over London. Teams are sent to investigate this bizarre phenomena, they disappear and that’s about it. What did they find? Where did they disappear too? What happened to them? Unfortunately this is par-for-the course with the majority of the stories in this volume. Ambiguous and unexpected endings are a staple of the short story form and they work best when the reader has at least acquired some information with which to form a conclusion, be it correct or not. The result is that although there is much to admire from a practical angle, there is nothing to grasp emotionally leaving an unsatisfying emptiness.

Fans of Mieville will no doubt revel in this collection of interestingly strange ideas wrapped in exquisite prose. New and casual acquaintances, however, will likely become frustrated by the impenetrable levels of ambiguity and the continual abrupt halt in narrative, leaving them to ponder “so was that about shipwrecks, or was it an analogy of the writing process, or did I just eat too much cheese before going to bed?”

THREE MOMENTS OF AN EXPLOSION: STORIES / AUTHOR: CHINA MIEVILLE / PUBLISHER: MACMILLAN / RELEASE DATE: JULY 30TH

 

There was a time when “space opera” was regarded with a certain amount of snobbish disdain by readers of hard science fiction. “Space opera” was nothing more than a western or fantasy tale disguised in a spacesuit, hiding in a rocket ship and for children, or so they’d have you believe. But then authors started appearing in which they used the familiar tropes of space operas; space warfare and melodramatic adventure, an uprising against a tyrannical regime as a backdrop for hard sci-fi with its emphasis on scientific accuracy and technical detail. Authors with scientific backgrounds themselves, such as Stephen Baxter, Peter F. Hamilton and Alastair Reynolds. Alex Lamb’s debut novel The Roboteer continues the trend of hard sci-fi opera, which has earned him favourable comparisons to the aforementioned writers. Lamb himself has a background in robotics and artificial intelligence which he puts to good use in the telling of this story.

Set in a future in which the colonisation of the stars is perilously dangerous, small human settlements cling to barely habitable planets. Warring terrorist factions have all but destroyed any coherent form of civilization on Earth itself leaving the colonies to develop ways of life heavily dependent on robotics and genetic engineering. Then a new militant unifying religion sweeps across Earth, a religion that is bent on converting all mankind to its creed, a religion that classes genetic engineering as an abomination. Fleets of starships are sent to reclaim the colonies. But the colonies are more than happy with their autonomy and so begins mankind’s first interstellar war. It is dirty war, dangerous and hideously costly. And thrown into this melee is Will Kuno-Monet, a roboteer. Will’s a genetically-engineered human whose purpose is to single-handedly control the Ariel, a ship comprised of the most dangerous and delicate technology that mankind has ever devised. He is sent behind enemy lines on a mission with which the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance.

Lamb starts the narrative at the gallop and rarely does it slow down making this a fast paced and exhilarating read. Despite its pace the character of Will still has room to breathe and develop. He’s a richly drawn character in which his thoughts and feelings are laid bare. He sometimes doubts his abilities, he doesn’t always have a grip on the situation and he is driven to bouts of explosive anger at the actions of the Eathers. Will’s antagonist, the lead scientist for an Earth weapons project, General Gustav is also afforded the same treatment. Although he sees genetic engineering as an abomination and justifies the Earthers subjugation of the colony worlds he doesn’t quite see things as so black and white. There are hints of moral ambiguity encroaching upon his beliefs. There are plenty of other characters but as they taken more at face value it feels as though their function is to propel the plot along, which actually works in the books favour. As The Roboteer is the first book in a sequence it’s possible that some of the supporting characters will develop stronger personalities of their own later on.

The history of Earth’s new brutal religious regime and its reclamation of the colonies is tantalisingly subtle and draws parallels to what is happening in certain parts of the world today. This is another facet that will hopefully be further explored in future volumes. Lamb vividly creates Will’s world, a world that is constantly ravaged by extreme weather and one that has barely enough of a population to sustain it.

Alex Lamb has crafted a terrific debut novel. If the subsequent volumes are as good as this one then Lamb will surely be prominent in many an SF fan’s bookcase.

THE ROBOTEER / AUTHOR: ALEX LAMB / PUBLISHER: GOLLANCZ / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

“There’s one truth on Australia. You fight or you die. Usually both” it says on the front cover, something which rings true throughout this dystopic science fiction adventure. Perfect for fans of The Hunger Games, Way Down Dark is the first instalment in a new trilogy of novels written by James Smythe, the winner of the Wales Book of the Year Fiction Award four years running.

Set on a spaceship called Australia, hundreds of years after the original inhabitants were forced to escape a doomed earth, seventeen-year-old Chan and the crew’s other descendants are stuck on-board the vessel. Over the years dangerous gangs have formed and things have only gong from bad to worse with the passage of time.

The ship is divided into different zones dominated by different groups: the Bells, the Pale Women, the Free People, and the Lows; the Bells were originally genetically engineered soldiers; the Pale Women live on top floor of the ship in complete darkness and are extremely religious; the Lows control over a half of Australia and are by far the most dangerous and violent group; and the Free People are free for now, but this is threatened by the Lows whose sphere of control is growing. When Chan is forced to help her mother who is a hero to the Free section of the ship, she inevitably lands on the radar of the Lows. As life gets worse on Australia, Chan must test her morals and discover how dark life on Australia really is.

Beginning with a brutal murder, Smythe’s tone is dark and violent throughout. While George Orwell included a romance in his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, Smythe resists the temptation to water down the nightmare future he creates onboard Australia. Throughout the 288 pages there is an unshakable sense that it is futile for the characters to try and escape from the circumstances they were born into. While the action scenes may go on a bit too long for some readers, they are essential for creating this feeling of futility that many young readers will identify with. And with so much to learn about the dark future universe Smythe creates, readers will want to keep reading even if they get bored of the gore…. there is also a surprising twist which will leave readers eager to get to the end of the book.

WAY DOWN DARK: AUSTRALIA BOOK ONE / AUTHOR: JAMES SMYTHE / PUBLISHER: HODDER & STOUGHTON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
 
 

The literary subgenre ‘paranormal romance’ can be split into two broad categories; those who assume that it’s all about Twilight and those who prefer the far older and more established Anita Blake novels. The two couldn’t be any more distinct; though both are aboutromantic encounters with the supernatural, the latter is more mature, more distinguished and, above all, more positive and self-affirming.

Dead Ice is the 24th Anita Blake book; author Laurell K. Hamilton has been at this since 1993, and the central character has changed quite a bit over heradventures, though the core concept remains the same. Blake lives in a world were werewolves, vampires, ghouls and the like are all real things and areknown to exist by the general public. Laws cover what these creatures can and can’t do and vampires have recently gained civil rights. Blake’s role in thisworld is to execute vampires that break the law. She’s also a necromancer and is hired by some to raise the dead; it’s a rare gift so she charges a lot ofmoney for her services. Given the legal and ethical implications of such activity, it’s mostly done for academic or legal purposes.

Blake has changed a lot from the first book; she is now engaged to the USA’s Vampire King Jean Claude, and is in a complex polyamorous relationship with avariety of were-creatures and vampires.  Dead Ice can be best described as a book of three distinct storylines. The central storyline involves an FBIinvestigation into pornographic movies that use zombies. Another arc details supernatural politics and Blake’s growing powers. The remaining plot involvesBlake and her lovers negotiating and co-ordinating their sex lives.

This latter part takes up a lot of the novel. The series has always been very dialogue driven and a lot of the characters talk in an unnatural way (no punintended). This makes the seemingly endless negotiations seem quite tedious; there’s just no passion in the way the characters talk. However, if the finedetails of polyamory interest you, then you’ll be delighted with this. The FBI investigation is a little perfunctory; the reader receives the reveal way too early inthe story. The most engaging part of the novel talks about Blake’s growing powers, and this includes some nicely horrifying moments.

If you’re looking for a sex-positive, kick-ass female protagonist in a novel filled with sexy supernatural monsters, then Dead Ice may well be your thing, but bewarned: it is quite long for what it is and it sorely needs more sex and death. Dead Ice is more of the same for those who know the territory already. LaurelK Hamilton continues to be the master of this most unusual of genres.

DEAD ICE (ANITA BLAKE VAMPIRE HUNTER 24) / AUTHOR: LAURELL K. HAMILTON / PUBLISHER: BERKLEY OUT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Finding a truly great one-off fantasy read can be difficult for many readers, but this could just be the book to get everyone reading fantasy. Originally published in 1990, Thomas the Rhymer has just been published under Gollancz’s ‘Fantasy Masterworks’. This will hopefully enable the title to gain more popularity with a new generation of readers. The title truly has the potential to get people reading fantasy, and this should be on every teenagers reading list. The novel won the World Fantasy Award in 1991, and that alone makes it worth the read.

Ellen Kushner manages to capture the imagination of readers by using the mythical legend of Thomas the Rhymer and creating a magnificent story told effortlessly through the point of view of four very distinct characters. The author sets up the story so the reader gets the point of view of Gavin, who sees Thomas as a bright but misguided boy who still hasn’t fully matured. However, when Thomas is taken by the Queen of Elfland, we see it through Thomas’ eyes. This then allows the reader to discover the ‘real’ Thomas and shows the vulnerability of the character. We then see the character through the eyes of two women, who both hold a special relationship with him. It’s these final two sections that show how well Kushner has been able to craft truly memorable characters whilst they are only in it for a few sections of the story.

The novel is effectively a love story, with many overall themes running throughout. These range from companionship, lies, human emotions and mortality. Kushner created a novel that is suitable for a wide range of readers and is highly recommended to readers of both fantasy and non-fantasy. Melodies are weaved into the novel with an effortless flow, and the deep emotional feel to the novel shows that this is a novel that transcends through multiple genres. This novel has influenced modern day writers and deserves to be on the top of everyone’s reading list.

Thomas the Rhymer is simply one of the best standalone modern fantasies written. A moving tale of betrayal and forgiveness.

THOMAS THE RHYMER / AUTHOR: ELLEN KUSHNER / PUBLISHER: GOLLANCZ / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW