Review Category: Books

REVIEW: KOKO TAKES A HOLIDAY / AUTHOR: KIERAN SHEA / PUBLISHER: TITAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Five hundred years in the future and the world is a very different place due to disease and environmental disasters. Koko Martstellar lives and works on one of the resorts on the manufactured Sixty Islands. Having left her mercenary lifestyle behind, she now spends her days running a brothel full you of young male prostitutes, drinking a type of alcohol called Beauty and sunning herself in the warm climate.

The Sixty Islands are set up as a pleasure resort, any sick, dangerous or twisted perversion you fancy can be found somewhere, so Koko isn’t too surprised when a couple of Kongercat re-civ ilk walk in and start causing trouble. She handles it like an old pro, gunning them down, burning their bodies and letting the wild lizards clean up the blood. But before she knows it, Koko is to be incarcerated and if not compliant, terminated. Obviously there must be some mistake but when Koko protests she’s flatly informed that the orders come from the top, straight from her old pal Portia Delacompte herself.

Why would the one woman Koko counted as a friend turn against her after all they’d been through together? Then Koko realises, it’s exactly because of all they’ve been through together.

Koko Takes a Holiday opens with the script of a television advert to promote The Sixty Islands, making a strange and slightly disconnecting start. That is then followed by a brief section, written from the perspective of Koko’s boyfriend/favourite prostitute, in a phonetic Jamaican-esque style. If you can see past this rather uncomfortable beginning you start to get into the computer game style action and violence.

A male character is later introduced who is suffering from a disease called Depressus, a fatal form of depression. This interesting notion is never fully explained, as although it is described as fatal, it seems to be only because the sufferers kill themselves… but only because they’ve been told it’s fatal. It’s hinted at being a conspiracy but the lack of any real detail leaves the reader more infuriated than engrossed.

This novel will possibly appeal to older teens or young men who are looking for something light to and easy to get their teeth into. Hardened science fiction lovers will most probably find it slightly lacking. You feel no real emotion or tension for the characters or situations. The unusual and interesting setting of The Sixty Islands is left behind very quickly for a duller environment, which was a real shame. A number of women may also feel a disconnect with the novel as it does come across as a sexed-up male image of tough women who can survive the toughest conditions and carry out massacres but fall apart when it comes to babies.

REVIEW: FOOL’S ASSASSIN /AUTHOR: ROBIN HOBB / PUBLISHER: HARPER COLLINS / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 12TH

Robin Hobb is a world-class fantasy author and is regarded by many as the fantasy writer’s writer. She’s best known for the The Farseer Trilogy, a series of books about a royal bastard called FitzChivalry Farseer, and the novels set in Fitz’s world are by far the most popular and best regarded of her work.

It’s been a little while since her novels have focused on Fitz and the last time we saw him the reluctant hero married the girl of his dreams. Fool’s Assassin takes place ten years after the events of the Tawny Man series and Fitz’s life is one routine and gentle luxury. The book opens with Fitz enjoying the quiet life and as always, bemoaning his fate without really acknowledging how lucky he actually is. This doesn’t last, of course.

Fool’s Assassin is a gently paced novel that gathers momentum slowly but surely, only hitting a really breakneck pace toward the very end. This means that not a lot happens at the very beginning, with Hobb skilfully placing plot devices in plain sight amid the humdrum activity of Fitz’s nice life. Things pick up with the introduction of Bee, a new member of the Farseer line. Bee is a nine-year-old girl with the maturity and mind of a twelve-year-old and the body of six-year-old. The strangeness about her will cause all fans of the series to raise their eyebrows so high that they may go into orbit. Luckily, Hobb neatly side-steps most of the clichés associated with super-talented fantasy children simply by making Bee believable as a child.

Those who find Fitz’s relentlessly negative worldview a little much will be pleased to hear that he’s not the only narrator of this tale and the other perspective is as refreshing as it is odd. Fans of the supporting cast are also well served; Chade is back on the scene and the cranky mentor is as interesting and amusing as ever, as is the Mountain Queen.

Overall, Fool’s Assassin is a fine addition to Hobb’s legacy and guarantees that she will remain the envy of her peers for a long time to come.

REVIEW: MR MERCEDES / AUTHOR: STEPHEN KING / PUBLISHER: HODDER & STOUGHTON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Horror is in the eye of the beholder; what one person might find disturbing, another might not. It’s all a question of tastes and sensibilities. Stephen King probably knows this more than any person living, dead or undead. Thus, although most celebrated for his out and out horror novels, he also drops the occasional what can only be loosely described as suspense thriller in for good measure. And these are every bit as memorable and disturbing. Non-supernatural horror, in other words. Really, ask yourself – who’s the more frightful, ‘Salem’s Lot’s Barlow stalking you, or Misery’s Annie Wilkes nursing you?

Mr Mercedes is right up there with Misery in the thriller stakes. The title refers to a killer, who one day, steals a high end Mercedes Benz and uses it to plough into a queue of people waiting for the doors of a job fair to open. A random, senseless killing and maiming of innocents by the true face of evil, a baby-faced mother’s boy (in more ways than one) who just wanted to know the power of ending the lives of others. No fangs, no scales, no claws – just plain old Brady Hartfield, an ordinary misfit working two jobs. It could be the guy next door.

And for his next trick, a few months later, he wants to goad the now retired investigating cop whose life has become an increasingly miserable, depressing and pointless drudge of daytime TV, convenience food and staring down the barrel of a pistol into committing suicide.

However, retired detective Bill Hodges is up for a challenge and the hunter and hunted switch roles in a story that becomes increasingly urgent. King’s talents as a storyteller for the ages haven’t shown themselves to be this sharply honed for a few years, as he concentrates more on plot and exposition at the welcome expense of the overly drawn-out character building which slows down so many of his books.

Highly recommended as THE must-read of the summer.

 

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REVIEW: THE CYBERIAD – FABLES FOR THE CYBERNETIC AGE / AUTHOR: STANISLAW LEM / PUBLISHER: PENGUIN MODERN CLASSICS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

In the west, Stanislaw Lem is probably still best known for the adaptations of his works – chiefly Solaris, made for the screen no fewer than three times. The narrowness of his reputation is a shame as his work stands among the very best of science fiction.

Of that very best is The Cyberiad, a collection of fifteen stories that describe the (mis)adventures of Trurl and Klapaucius, two ‘Constructors’ of dazzling inventiveness who create mind-boggling machines to amuse themselves and antagonise one another. They inhabit a bizarre world that fuses a feudal system with interplanetary travel and combines science fiction creativity with the fiat of ancient fables.

The collection is subtitled ‘Fables for the Cybernetic Age’, a descriptor that becomes more familiarly appropriate with every turn of the page. The Cyberiad is the softest of soft SF, with precious little concern for the mechanics of invention or indeed for the hard psychology of the impact of technology on human lives. Instead, it reads more like a treasure trove of twentieth century fairy tales, with background details reduced to the barest minimum required to serve as a vehicle for the cautionary (and occasionally violent) tales within.

The presence of capricious monarchs and Blytonesque names such as A Machine To Grant Your Every Wish adds texture to the fairy tale quality but the second part of that subtitle, ‘the Cybernetic Age’ is no less important. Hints, sometimes heavy, are given to the time and space in which Lem crafted his tales. One story concerns a planet on which two powerful and opposing forces face one another. Each is oppressive of its people, but one mounts its tyranny coldly, by removing all penalties but death and ‘nationalising high treason’. That state’s foe, led by an ‘autocrat libertarian’, decrees ‘Universal Happiness’, subjugating his people through amusement. It’s an allegory that should be no less lost on Lem’s modern readers than it was on those who devoured his pages at the height of the Cold War and this collection remains as compelling to twenty-first century eyes as it did to his original readers.

REVIEW: THE VERY BEST OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION – VOLUME TWO / EDITOR: GORDON VAN GELDER / PUBLISHER: TACHYON / RELEASE DATE: JULY 15TH

With more than six decades worth of amazing stories, it’s no wonder there needed to be a ‘Volume Two’ of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine’s The Very Best of. Bringing together stories dating from the 1950s up to 2011, this collection encompasses everything from the golden age of sci-fi to modern urban fantasies, with everyone from Heinlein to Elizabeth Hand making an appearance. But this isn’t just a roll call of famous names – this really is a collection of some of the best sci-fi and fantasy short stories out there.

Harlan Ellison’s ‘Jeffty is Five’, about a boy who remains five years old while his friend Donald continues to grow up, captures the feeling of this collection superbly. Jeffty is able to remain permanently in a world of 1940s radio shows and comic books, never feeling that sense of loss when progress makes things you once loved unrecognisable. Stories that you may have read and re-read over the years give that sense of comforting nostalgia, but also we know as readers that themes and trends will change. The modern authors in this collection seem ever aware of the legacy of those before them, and it is fascinating to find ideas reappearing and evolving, yet managing not to lose their appeal.

For long-time SF&F readers there may be nothing you haven’t read before here, but this is still a collection worth owning – feeling reassured that your copy of Kit Reed’s ‘The Attack of the Giant Baby’ is within easy reach at all times is totally legitimate. We wouldn’t want Leonard to get hungry, would we?

Pretty much every subgenre is in here: cyberpunk, time travel, space opera, urban fantasy, horror, humour, just bloody weird, and more. Creative writers looking for a crash course in what makes a good story would find a lot to work with here, and newcomers to sci-fi will have a feast.

Basically, it’s great and it’s fun; so buy it, read it, and enjoying geeking out to your hearts content.

REVIEW: ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! – HORROR HOSPITAL / AUTHOR: MARK MORRIS / PUBLISHER: ROBINSON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Stephen Jones’ Zombie Apocalypse trilogy was an anarchic and subversive treat for living dead fanatics. The plot focussed on the ‘New Festival of Britain’, a satirical quip at the state of a country gone to pot. Built over the site of a South London church, the New Festival released contaminated fleas which re-animated the dead and infected the living. Cue zombies.

Mark Morris’ Horror Hospital is as much a companion piece to Jones’ trilogy as it is its own self-contained story arc. Again the New Festival of Britain is the focal point, set in the near future with subtle historic and speculative differences; no 2012 Olympic Games and the Trafalgar Square massacre.

Set over a nine hour period, the novel is somewhere between a thriller and pulp. The chapters, identified by the change in character and time listings, present a well-paced narrative, allowing the reader to experience the unfolding infection. The black and white pictures throughout the novel, however, are as cheap-looking as they are unnecessary.

In typical Stephen King fashion, disparate characters are brought together. Cat Harris is one of the standouts, a steadfast nurse at the titular ‘horror’ Lewisham University hospital. Gill is also a pretty complex and endearing character. Morris, surprisingly, has a knack for writing believable women, but why he feels the need to tell the reader the extent of Gill’s sagging breasts remains a mystery.

The majority of the other characters, including the corned beef-gobbling Vince, are little more than parodies. The ‘gangster’ characters in particular seem more informed by urban dictionaries than by actual observations. The novel would have been altogether tighter and more entertaining without the gangland aspect, which just seems to point the finger rather than objectively representing.

The novel presents an honest, if nihilistic, portrait of London. It’s politically charged with diatribes on NHS cuts and the coalition government. While these rants are infused with vitriol, it doesn’t take the reader too far outside of the narrative. The zombie itself seems to be a metaphor to explore Britain’s political climate.

The hospital setting taps into the reader’s instinctive fears of death, decay and ageing, it’s understandably a tried and tested locale. Indeed there’s a medical and pornographic preoccupation with violence, taken to farcical extremes. The most engaging zombie stories are character driven, but Horror Hospital often opts for the easy way out.

Thomas Moreby, however, is the book’s greatest folly, he’s pure pantomime with a whiff of Darren Shan about him. It’s a shame, there are some great passages throughout which gives insight into how good a novel it could have been.

While the zombie subgenre remains most prominently a visual medium, be it TV, film or video games, the Zombie Apocalypse novels prove that the living dead are just as effective in prose. While Morris is inconsistent and preoccupied with discharge and fishy metaphor, Horror Hospital is a biting satire and an entertaining read despite its flaws.

 

REVIEW: TIGERMAN / AUTHOR: NICK HARKAWAY / PUBLISHER: WILLIAM HEINEMANN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Lester Ferris, an ex-sergeant from the Royal Army finds himself at the end of his career. After a lifetime of battles and war zones, he is sent to be the British representative on the small island of Mancreu, a former colony that still needs a presence but in a less official capacity, due to its imminent destruction.

The tiny island has suffered from a number of companies dumping various waste beneath its surface, but when its tectonic plates shift the natural world and the chemical world collide, releasing the first in a number of toxic clouds. Once the world realises the island’s toxic potential, it is deemed a threat and sentenced to destruction, its port in the meantime becoming home for numerous ships hiding secrets.

As the end draws near, violence starts to erupt. Lester and a young boy whom he has befriended hatch a plan. Who can seek vengeance and save the day? Only a superhero, one they call Tigerman.

Nick Harkaway follows up his 2012 best-selling novel Angelmaker with his take on a superhero novel in Tigerman. Do not confuse this with other superhero novels, though, as there is no flying, toxic transformations, futuristic science or general super powers. Tigerman is a hero armed only with great military skill and the determination of a man desperate to become a father. With intelligent, witty writing you cannot help but warm to the unlikely and slightly hapless hero in Lester Ferris. Other characters are quirky and fun but there are times where you want to hurry the story along, where the writing style almost holds back the plot.

The final fifty pages pack in plenty of twists and turns that keep you guessing before speeding up into a satisfying and powerful conclusion. If you approach this novel expecting the playful science fiction and steampunk styling of Angelmaker then you will be disappointed. Although it may still be classed as science fiction, this is a slower paced literary tale of political madness and how far people will go for love.

REVIEW: GODZILLA – THE OFFICIAL MOVIE NOVELIZATION / AUTHOR: GREG COX / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Literary purists are much given to grumbling that feature film versions of their favourite novels just aren’t as good as the original book. Films, by necessity, are leaner and meaner and tend to slice out great swathes of incident and character as the story mutates to meet the needs of a totally different narrative form. No one’s going to suggest that Greg Cox’s novelization of the script of the current FX blockbuster Godzilla is a great work of modern literature but there’s an argument to be had that it’s a more satisfying experience than the rather flat feature film. If nothing else, it at least makes the film better, adding light and shade to the film’s drab, featureless characters and making a decent fist of turning into prose big special effects sequences full of fighting monsters and apocalyptic destruction.

In 1954, on a remote atoll in the South Pacific a nuclear warhead is detonated in an attempt to wipe out a monstrous and inhuman threat to humanity. In 1999 a nuclear power station in Japan is devastated by some mysterious underground seismic activity. Now – today! – retired scientist Joe Brody, who survived the 1999 catastrophe, is obsessed with finding out the real cause of the disaster which killed his wife. When his son Ford, now serving in the US military, is called urgently to Japan to take custody of his errant father, the two men discover the truth about the threat which devastated the Janjira Power Station – and the new terrors which are about to be unleashed on an unsuspecting world.

Godzilla is a thoroughly engaging little book. Cox briskly rattles through the events of the film, broadening, deepening and opening up the screenplay’s sketchy characters to the extent that now we finally understand Joe Brody’s obsession and the familiar bond between father and son which now runs deeper and truer than it did on screen. When the monsters finally turn up – the two flying MUTOS and the King of the Monsters himself – Cox deftly depicts their size and their power and the terrible destruction they wreak as they head towards San Francisco and the last great smackdown. It might help if you’ve seen the movie first just to get a real sense of the visual scale of the story and its monstrous protagonists but Cox colourfully and snappily recounts the chaos and devastation, whilst keeping the remaining characters four-square and genuinely believable. Incidents which seemed like filler in the film – the scene where Ford finds himself looking after a Japanese boy torn from his parents at Hawaii airport – now have a real pulse and a sense of urgency.

Movie novelizations might seem like redundant museum pieces in an era where fans can quickly own the original film in one form or another, but Cox’s telling of Godzilla, whilst it could have done with another quick pass by the proofreader here or there, suggests that the movie tie-in novel is an old dog which may yet still have some life left in it.

REVIEW: SHERLOCK HOLMES – GODS OF WAR / AUTHOR: JAMES LOVEGROVE / PUBLISHER: TITAN / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 27TH

Sherlock Holmes has had so many cases by now that it’s almost beyond belief there is any space left in his life for new ones. He’s taken on the Ripper, fought with Martian monsters and now, thanks to novelist James Lovegrove, he is going up (in a sense) against the gods themselves.

Joining him on this adventure is his dependable amanuensis Watson, who is penned very similarly to how Doyle originally wrote him. In this regard, Lovegrove is Doyle’s equal, and he does a fantastic job of showcasing a Holmes who is a bit past his prime but still up to pulling a few crafty tricks.

While the broad strokes of the mystery are easily solvable, the reader will have to unravel much of it along with Holmes, as the sheer scope of the plan is much harder to guess at beforehand. Indeed, after a while ‘whodunnit’ is no longer the point; the story becomes about the detecting duo’s struggle to bring the villains to justice. This allows for some thrilling chase scenes and even a few Home Alone-style japes (we feel this aspect was somewhat misjudged; if you’re going to have a chapter dedicated to this, you might as well call the invaders Joe Pesci and the Other One and be done with it).

One thing that does rankle with us is the presence of a chapter (obviously near the end of the novel) which is called ‘Dea Ex Machina’. From what we can tell, it seems to be an attempt to ward off criticisms of this particular plot point. But we thought the titular solution was adequately foreshadowed, so there is little to no point calling it that and it’s actually inaccurate to do so.

Pedantry aside, this is an atmospheric mystery which shows just why Lovegrove has become a force to be reckoned with in genre fiction. More, please.

 

REVIEW: BLOOD WILL FOLLOW / AUTHOR: SNORRI KRISTJANSSON / PUBLISHER: JO FLETCHER BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The second book of the Valhalla Saga, Blood Will Follow sees Ulfar and Audun separated as they flee from the influence of the Old Gods. However, they soon discover that the deities are far from finished with the duo, as Christian King Olav continues to extend his influence across the land.

In the manner of George R. R. Martin, Kristjansson ensures the story is extremely well grounded. Focusing primarily upon the threat Olav poses and the power plays, political manoeuvring and manipulation of his court, the story allows for a much more interesting kind of conflict than in the first book. The bloody battles are now put aside for a somewhat calmer narrative, punctuated by the odd fight and the ambitions of Valgard, a brilliantly written turncoat and opportunist.

While still retaining frenetic skirmishes and brawls, this time round Kristjansson offers a deeper insight into his two protagonists. Readers are given a much better idea of just what makes Ulfar and Audun tick as, separated and with their own paths to follow, they attempt to traverse the land. This extends to a great many of the supporting characters, who are far better realized here than in Swords of Good Men. There is rarely one you do not wish to know more of or do not want to see as a potentially major character who will add more to the story at a later date. This keeps any reader guessing as to where the plot will turn next and who will become a prominent part of the ongoing story.

Fans of David Gemmell’s work should feel right at home with this one and, while the relentless profanities make some scenes feel extremely juvenile, it’s a strong entry. Fans of Norse history and mythology should definitely enjoy this one.