BOOK REVIEW: THE WOLVES OF LONDON / AUTHOR: MARK MORRIS / PUBLISHER: TITAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW 

London-set urban fantasies are almost a distinct literary category in themselves these days. What with a large chunk of the UK’s population living there and, as the national media would have us believe, absolutely nothing of any note whatsoever happening outwith the confines of the M25, increasing numbers of authors are setting their contemporary magical worlds in the nation’s capital. The urbanised ancient forces of Ben Aaranovich’s Rivers of London; the modernised magic of Kate Griffin’s Matthew Swift books; the phantasmagoria of Simon Green’s Nightside; and the blue-collar exorcism of Mike Carey’s Felix Castor series are only some of the supernatural sagas currently setting fire to the city’s streets with paranormal chaos.

The Wolves of London is the latest in this sub-subgenre, the first of a trilogy titled after its macguffin, the Obsidian Heart, a self-explanatory supernatural artefact that reformed ex-con Alex Locke is singled out to steal for reasons never adequately explained, and for his trouble becomes the quarry of the novel’s titular group of supernatural assassins. Reminiscent of the Witchblade (although involving far less strategic shredding of clothes), the Heart appears to be a mutable weapon/armour shaped by thought, but Alex’s control over it is shaky at the best of times and its full nature remains a mystery. It’s also infused with the power of time travel, bringing with it some temporally circular cause and effect of the wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey variety.

The premise of the story is an interesting one, but is unfortunately let down by the execution. Alex spends the entire book stumbling blindly from one situation to the next, remaining completely clueless of what is actually going on. The first-person narration often does little more than echo the questions of the reader, occasionally reiterating unresolved mysteries to remind you they’re still outstanding, but never actually progressing them towards anything resembling an answer. Several chapters are ended by the Heart whisking Alex from one point in time and/or space to another without anything in the way or reason or prompting, a convenient overreliance akin to the seemingly limitless powers of the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.

Even the Wolves of London themselves remain a somewhat ill-defined and nebulous threat, although the two encounters who are almost certainly of their number are the story’s most interesting parts: a shape-shifting entity consisting of thousands of insect-like creatures combining and recombining to mimic living people; and a mad undead surgeon with an entourage of nightmarish biomechanical chimera, steampunk cyborgs of flesh both human and animal fused with clockwork weaponry. A couple of Victorian thugs whose M.O. consists of emerging behind someone from a cloud of eldritch smog and slashing their throat might be connected to the group in some way, but like the rest of the book, no elaboration is forthcoming.

While trilogies are by definition structured of three tales tying into one overall narrative, it’s also necessary for each individual instalment to act as complete story in itself, something The Wolves of London utterly fails to do by any stretch of leniency. Its myriad of unanswered questions will doubtless be addressed in the forthcoming The Society of Blood and The Wraiths of War, but by itself the book is a frustratingly incomplete experience. Even the ending isn’t an actual conclusion, merely an arbitrary point at which the ongoing and unresolved story just… stops.
 

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BOOK REVIEW: THE SLOW REGARD OF SILENT THINGS / AUTHOR: PATRICK ROTHFUSS / PUBLISHER: DAW BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss is best known for his two volumes of The Kingkiller Chronicles, a pair of vast tomes that could hold back any door. His latest, The Slow Regard of Silent Things, is a novella set in the same world; one that, at only 150 pages, is easily read in one sitting. It’s also a bit of an experiment.

In his introduction, Rothfuss warns us that we might not want to buy this book. It’s not the best introduction to his world, nor is it a rollercoaster ride of a story. Much the opposite; there’s no dialogue, and it features only one character, the mysterious Auri, who dwells in a network of passages under the heart of a city. With regard to story, it’s essentially a telling of what happens over a few days of Auri’s life. One of the longest scenes is about the making of soap, so that should give any prospective readers an idea of how action-packed it isn’t.

In theory, a story about a girl wandering around tunnels, encountering nothing but rooms filled with objects, shouldn’t work. Frankly, it sounds incredibly dull, if not self-indulgent on Rothfuss’ part. Yet, he’s a bestselling author for a reason, and this book shows it. Auri’s story may not be exciting, but what it lacks in thrills it more than makes up for with its warmth. It’s not a gripping read, but it is completely charming, a tale that captivates the reader from start to finish. There’s something of the fey about Auri – the way she drifts from place to place, moving objects around that she feels aren’t ‘true’ – and despite spending every page with her, she remains an alluring mystery. It’s telling that in the pictures of her, we can never make out all of her face.

It’s a brave move by Rothfuss and his publishers to release this book, as it’s likely to divide his fans. It’s no vast epic like his previous works, but it is wonderfully written, the prose verging on poetic in places as the author plays with words. There’s a sense that Rothfuss has chosen every one of those words with great care and precision, using them to tell a story that’s lyrical, heart-felt and unique.
 

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BOOK REVIEW: ROBOCOP: THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY / AUTHOR: CALUM WADDELL / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

It’s hard to believe that twenty seven years have passed since the cyborg supercop of Old Detroit stomped on to cinema screens and made an indelible dent on our genre. In the span of those twenty seven years, RoboCop has made his way to a film trilogy, animation, computer games, direct-to-DVD movies, a full season of a TV series, novels, comic books, action figures, clothing and a cinematic reboot, if you’ll pardon the pun.

What started as a socio-political satire on mass consumerism, political and corporate corruption, and social breakdown in a bleak and dystopian world complimented by the tragedy of the existentialist angst of the hero is worthy of an in-depth study.

So, given a rich tapestry of history involving genre heavyweights, such as directors Paul Verhoeven, and Irwin Kershner, with comic book writer and artist Frank Miller, the backdrop of a production company forever fighting for their financial lives and gambling everything on a long shot, one could easily be forgiven for expecting a book calling itself The Definitive History to be bursting at the seams with detailed stories and analysis about its subject matter from a range of different angles.

Though it is without question a handsome volume, the book essentially falls short of its lofty goal. Most of its 224 glossy pages are filled to the brim with backstage photos, production art, and publicity shots. The pages containing actual text are about one in four. The bare bones of the events that led to the character’s many screen incarnations are here, but the reader is left hungry for more meat at the end of what is a very quick read as the author breezes through the history with a brief quote here and there but no real insight. The TV series is barely touched, same for the comics, DVDs and other merchandising. The emphasis is firmly on the original film and the remake with everything else reduced to little more than a mention in passing.

Disappointing.
 

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BOOK REVIEW: THE PERIPHERAL / AUTHOR: WILLIAM GIBSON / PUBLISHER: PENGUIN / RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 20TH

Thirty years have passed since William Gibson’s debut novel Neuromancer hit bookshelves. Often imitated but never equalled, Neuromancer arguably set the standard for the cyberpunk genre it helped to create, but also for all of Gibson’s work that followed. His latest is The Peripheral, set in two worlds. The first is a near-future, while the other is seventy years after that, a world that is recovering from a global disaster.

Gibson tells his tale of two futures with seamless precision. Flynne Fisher lives in a rural America of drones and illegal drugs, while Wilf Netherton inhabits a decadent and powerful London, a city that is almost empty. Opposites in many ways, they find themselves united by their humanity as well as their technology, and each learns from the other. This is something Gibson handles extremely well, never letting the concept dominate. He builds his characters from the core, allowing us to grow with them, care for them and wish them a good ending. He creates sympathy by making them feel like pawns, manipulated for nefarious ends, or victims of tragic circumstances. The plot of The Peripheral tests the characters to their limits, but it never feels forced, just a series of events that they have to adapt to, believable twists in their everyday lives.

His writing has been refined over the years, but Gibson still maintains that sparse, edgy style that has been a characteristic of his work from the very beginning. Dialogue is spoken in short, sharp bursts – a question can be asked in a single word – littered with slang that can be confusing at first, referring to technology that they take for granted as everyday parts of their lives; it may be a struggle initially, but once the reader becomes accustomed to it, everything slots naturally into place.

Ultimately, The Peripheral is a story about people; their hopes, their fears and frustrations. Despite advances in technology, the worlds still consist of the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’,  making Gibson’s protagonists and their companions constant battlers against the system, striving for change, for something better, something they deserve. Gibson remains as unnervingly prophetic as ever, making his futures feel like they’re just around the corner, products of humankind’s inability to act when necessary, transforming a sci-fi whodunit into a work of fiction that feels both ahead of its time and frighteningly relevant to today’s world.

 

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BOOK REVIEW: AN ENGLISH GHOST STORY / AUTHOR: KIM NEWMAN / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The haunted house can be a difficult beast. At some point, we’re likely to shout at the page or screen, imploring characters to just leave the building. What solution could be simpler? In An English Ghost Story, author Kim Newman realises this and gives his characters good reason to stay, until it is too late. 

Newman’s making a resurgence lately, with his Anno Dracula novels and other works being re-released with bonus short stories and author notes slipped between the covers. An English Ghost Story is a less hefty tome than the aforementioned works, weighing in at just over 300 pages. You won’t be stopping any doors with it, but be prepared to give it your time and full attention; once begun, it’s a story you won’t want to put down.

The Naremores are a typical family – parents, a teenage girl and a younger boy – who eschew city life and move into a house in the country, former residence of a children’s author. Yet, it soon becomes clear that they all wish to escape something more than the rat-race; however ‘typical’ this family may appear to be, each is gradually revealed to have their own psychological flaws. 

Newman tells the story through all four of these characters, making them all hero or villain at some point, leading us through their thoughts and feelings with a deft hand. When the conflicts begin and the neuroses resurface, they’re not entirely unexpected, but the pace and the build-up ensure they still come as a shock. It’s these contradicting points of view and attitudes that give us the drama, making the book as much about how the family works and then starts to disintegrate as it is about the ghosts. Sometimes, there’s nothing scarier than people and what they’re prepared to do to each other. 

That’s not to say the book doesn’t have its supernaturally chilling moments. It starts subtly – in one early scene, removal men comment on two children playing where there’s only one – and in this house, even objects themselves have a presence about them, acting just as they do in the ghost stories written by the woman who used to live there. It’s all done well, making the book unsettling rather that aiming for shock value. 

Newman’s writing is deceptively gentle, making the reader feel comfortable – as if we’re being led by the hand rather than gripped by the story – which makes any surprises all the more unsettling. Perfectly paced and atmospheric, An English Ghost Story is a stunning book that will keep you reading, promising yourself one last page, only to find that Newman’s hooked you with his prose and characters, pulling you into a story that you can only surface from when the last word has been read.
 

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BOOK REVIEW: THE CURIOUS CASE OF H.P. LOVECRAFT / AUTHOR: PAUL ROLAND / PUBLISHER: PLEXUS PUBLISHING / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

If you’re a fan of horror literature or cinema, the name Howard Phillips Lovecraft is one that has more than likely directly or indirectly influenced a great deal of what you will have read and seen. The membranous reach of a writer vastly unappreciated in his own time has influenced the creative thoughts of the likes of Guillermo del Toro and Stephen King. But what of the mysterious author himself?

Paul Roland’s book is centrally more literary essay than pure biography, but is without doubt a keenly written insight into the life of one of the most recognised names in fiction. Roland has perhaps hinted at the issues possibly encountered with the title of the book itself: The Curious Case of H.P.Lovecraft. Reading this book gives a clear indication that the man behind the mythos was distinctly less interesting a character than the ones who populated his weird and wonderful tales, and it is in this apparent lack of personality that Roland has encountered the main issue. How do you make Lovecraft’s work interesting and engaging to those not yet fans? The answer sadly is that maybe you can’t.

A fan approaching this book will rightly be impressed by the detail Roland has included, the intelligent, informative analysis of many of Lovecraft’s stories, how his life influenced the writing, and how the writing equally influenced the life. But casual readers may struggle with the seriousness of the tone and the occasional lapse into Lovecraftian language. When Lovecraft himself writes in critique of a student’s work, he states the younger man indulges in “monstrous adjectives, malign nouns and unhallowed verbs”, something Lovecraft’s critics, and the author himself, declared his work fell victim to. It is perhaps fitting then that Roland himself constructs sentences at times deeply reminiscent of his subject matter, something possibly more in unintentional homage than for any intellectual reason.

The Curious Case of H.P. Lovecraft is a must read for fans of a man whose name is synonymous with stories of fear and fantasy, or anyone interested to know more about this literary master. It is informative and clear, almost to a point of being reference-like in style, and while it would improve any collection, casual readers may find it slightly unapproachable.
 

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BOOK REVIEW: GRIMM – THE KILLING TIME / AUTHOR: TIM WAGGONER / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The Killing Time is the third of Titan’s Grimm series of tie-in novels and has two tough acts to follow. This time, author Tim Waggoner is given the Grimm world to play with, and his story is startling. There’s a new monster in town, one that can dissolve a victim with a single touch while stealing their appearance, personality and memories. When Nick Burkhardt comes into contact with this changeling, it turns his world upside down, as well as having serious ramifications for Portland’s Wesen population. 

Despite the scale of the story, it gets off to a shaky start; an introduction to the monster-of-the-week is followed by a scene showing Nick in action, kicking Wesen ass, but kind of being nice about it, too. It all feels very formulaic, and there’s a concerning amount of description regarding what people wear, enough to stall the action at times. An investigation into the initial murder follows, then the doppelganger assumes a new form and is on the loose, after which it takes far too many pages for the detectives to figure who out this new identity could be.

Then something else is introduced to the story in the form of a deadly Wesen plague, and the story suddenly reaches epic proportions. The pages turn by in what becomes an enjoyable romp, yet one that also gets right into the heads of its characters, especially Nick and – perhaps even more so – the creature itself. All the usual supporting cast are present to fulfil their roles; if this was an episode of the TV series, you’d be wondering if they’re all going to survive.

It’s this that makes the book’s story its weakness as well as its strength. Such is the scale of it, it could have been a superb addition to the TV series, a mid-season or end of series double episode cliff-hanger that would have left the viewer desperate to know its conclusion. Sadly, knowing exactly which TV episodes the story sits between means we also know everything is going to be ok at the end. It’s a real shame, as this could have been a game-changer.

Still, The Killing Time is, like its predecessors, a worthy addition to the Grimm mythology. Despite initial misgivings, Waggoner’s writing is well-paced, thrilling, exciting, and amusing when it needs to be, and he’s captured the essence of the show and the spirit of its characters incredibly well.
 

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BOOK REVIEW: DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS MONSTER MANUAL – FIFTH EDITION / AUTHOR: VARIOUS / PUBLISHER: WIZARDS OF THE COAT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Dungeons and Dragons editions come in threes; The Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide. This new iteration of the game has to be a world-beater – the previous edition of D&D wasn’t a hit with the fans and this jeopardised the game’s position of top dog in the hobby.  The first book in the series (The Player’s Handbook) was a critical and commercial success, but one good book on its own is not enough to save the game. Roleplaying games need well thought-out monsters in order to be playable, and believe it or not previous editions have gotten this vital component wrong in the past.

The fifth edition Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual is, fortunately, a skilful blend of previous design elements. Much like the earlier editions, most monsters have unique challenges associated with them, making it easier for the Games Master to invent fresh challenges. The squeamishness of previous editions has been excised; these monsters are as nasty as they need to be, and often much worse than that. Most of the beasts have a solid write-up as well, with plot and story ideas baked into each concept. Obviously, creatures like vampires and demons get a bigger write-up because there are more things a storyteller might want to do with them. Dragons, being the monster in the title of the game, get the best descriptions, with lavish illustrations, 40 separate types of winged lizard, and plenty of plot ideas, many of which scale nicely depending on the party.

Old-school fans may be pleased to know that things such as ‘Giant Frogs’ are also included, but as a stat block in the back; there’s plenty of critters in the appendix that don’t need  a detailed description (we all know what a wolf is) but need stats to be used in the game. Some beasties have been added for the sheer fun of it as well; The Flumph, a monster that has often been the punchline in many a geek gag, gets its own page. Even better, they actually make the silly-looking bag of gas worth your time – it could even be plot critical if you wanted it to be.

A good monster compendium should be a source of inspiration for any would-be games maker. It needs to be filled with well written ideas, diverse creatures and plenty of lavish illustrations that will ignite the imagination and send the creator on a flight of fantasy, all the better for the production of an evening’s entertainment amongst friends. Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual Fifth Edition achieves all of these goals effortlessly, making it quite possibly the greatest bestiary ever produced for a dungeon-crawling roleplaying game, the product of decades of development. This difficult middle book has passed with flying colours; we await The Dungeon Master’s Guide with eager anticipation.
 

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BOOK REVIEW: BOOK OF THE DEAD / AUTHOR: JAMIE RUSSELL / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

If knowledge is indeed power, then you’d better equip yourself with Jamie Russell’s Book of the Dead for the inevitable outbreak. The culmination of years’ worth of work, Russell’s efforts have paid dividends. Who could have predicted the living dead coming out top dog over the fanged, the furry, and the weird?

The revised introduction demonstrates the huge cultural shift in attitudes towards zombies between the publication of the first edition in 2005 and the printing of the second; moving from niche taste to big bucks – how many ‘this is my zombie killing (insert clothing here)’ garments have you seen?

Russell makes his debt to critic and author Kim Newman clear, along with all the filmmakers mentioned and the delightfully titled zombie scholars who have helped to make the book a runaway success. The prologue lovingly defends the zombie, kicking off a guide to the walking dead that reveals just how potent a metaphor for political and social upheaval and injustice they are.

Laid out in twin columns on each page, with an occasional black and white photograph, the text is more of an extended essay than encyclopaedia. Russell’s writing style is witty and welcoming, sometimes dense but never elitist. This won’t be one for casual fans, but for those with an academic leaning and more than a flirtation with zombie cinema, this is going to go down a treat.

Put together with aplomb, the sheer dedication is impressive, gathering together plenty of lesser known facts and films. The book goes above and beyond, with fascinating chapters including Zombie Darwinism and Gentlemen Prefer (Dead) Blondes. It’s great to dip in and out of, but its power lies in its chronology, watching the mythos build and snowball into the pop culture phenomena it remains today.

Following the bulk of the book is a fanboy fulfilling interview with zombie granddaddy, George A. Romero. Covering the director’s entire career, there’s a few nuggets you might not have been aware of, with this followed up by the afterword where Russell dwells on the moment he first fell in love with the living dead. One of the best revisions, however, is the expanded and comprehensive 100-plus page zombie filmography, which will swiftly become the only movie tick list you’ll be bothering with.

If your coffee table isn’t made of bones and bound in flesh, this book is the next best thing. A gruesome addition to any horror hound’s household, Book of the Dead mark II has arrived in time for Halloween.
 

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