Review Category: Books

REVIEW: THE DARKNESS WITHIN / AUTHOR: SAM STONE / PUBLISHER: TELOS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Sam Stone has been carving her own niche in the world of horror literature since her debut novel, Killing Kiss, in 2007. The Darkness Within marks her first foray into the world of sci-fi. It is a perfect fusion of traditional horror with a science fiction setting. Literally, zombies in space. The setting is the future, aboard Freedom, a colony ship, the second of the Ark line carrying fertile humans to populate new terraformed worlds while the Earth, now as barren as those left behind, is left to wind down its existence.

Unfortunately, things don’t go quite as smoothly as planned, and a routine maintenance spacewalk finds a truly repugnant parasite brought on board and accidentally allowed to thrive. The parasitic worms which feed on the hapless victims from the inside are transmitted by intimacy initially – and what better breeding ground than a spaceship full of potential Adam and Eves whose mission includes procreation? Worse, on a spaceship in the middle of… well, space, there’s nowhere to hide, especially as the parasite seems to evolve and, although it can’t survive direct contact with air, can manage quite well in drinking water. The odds are against the Ripleyesque chief engineer Madison Whitehawk if the human race is to survive.

It’s a fast-paced story that doesn’t let up from the opening paragraph, with sharply defined characters. In its exposition and scene setting, it comes across like a film that John Carpenter would’ve made back in his late ’70s/early ’80s heyday, and we can think of no better compliment to pay the book.

REVIEW: 50 FOR 50 – CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE DOCTOR WHO FAMILY / AUTHOR: PAULA HAMMOND / PUBLISHER: TELOS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Last year, our favourite fugitive Gallifreyan celebrated fifty years of time and space travelling (at least, as they are reckoned on Earth). There was a flurry of books and memorabilia to mark the prestigious event, which covered every single imaginable facet of the rich tapestry of the series, past and present. However, author Paula Hammond offers us something new and fresh, giving us an insight to Doctor Who that we’ve never seen before.

She has gathered together fifty interviews with the often overlooked heroes of the series, going back to its genesis in 1963. You won’t find interviews with Matt Smith, David Tennant, Billie Piper or Steven Moffet here, but you will uncover a treasure trove of the reminiscences of Bernard Lodge who designed the iconic title sequence, Warris Hussein, who directed the first episode, Peter Purves, Louise Jameson, past Cyber Controllers, set designers, bit part actors and so on – each with rich tales of working on the set with each successive Doctor.

From a personal point of view, I found the interviews with the older actors and technicians to be far more insightful and involving than the recent era, but that’s a matter of personal preference. I enjoyed reading about the low budget early days, where, to quote Bernard Lodge, “There weren’t many creative expectations of us at the B.B.C. We all wanted to do super duper things, but we didn’t get much chance”. Those pioneers of visual effects proved conclusively that necessity is the mother of invention and without ever dreaming they were doing so, they created immortal television magic on a budget that would barely cover the catering bill in this day and age.

It’s an absorbing, wonderful book that really deserves to be on the bookshelf of every self- respecting Whovian and don’t be surprised if it inspires you to rewatch some vintage episodes.

REVIEW: MIDNIGHT CROSSROAD / AUTHOR: CHARLAINE HARRIS / PUBLISHER: GOLLANCZ / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Charlaine Harris is best known for writing the Sookie Stackhouse novels, which served as inspiration for the hit TV series True Blood. These books have also established her as one of the most important creators of urban fantasy in print today, and her latest novel, Midnight Crossroad has been keenly anticipated by her fans.

Though very broadly set in the same world as the Stackhouse books, the pace and tone could not be more different. The story takes place in the sleepy little Texas town of Midnight, a small and out of the way community that is a haven for those touched by the supernatural. Harris’s world is one much like our own except that vampires, werewolves and the like are real and the public have a growing knowledge of their existence. As such, sensible folk stay away from Midnight, though of course not everyone is sensible. The inhabitants of Midnight keep themselves to themselves as well. That is until a corpse turns up.

The novel is a character-driven tale, using a third-person structure to give the reader multiple character perspectives. This means we get to see the same thing from different points of view and this draws us further into the world. Those who know Harris’ previous books will recognise one or two supporting characters from other stories who take a more central role here. Though this is a bit of a treat for the hardcore fans, prior knowledge isn’t needed. The diversity of the supernatural beings in Midnight Crossroad and the way they deal with intolerant and violent strangers is also a key plot point here and though it’s an obvious metaphor for real-world social issues, at no point does it feel out of place or overwrought. Instead it makes the world feel all the more real. The various social dynamics are skilfully woven and the contrast between everyday town life and the strange inhabitants makes for a compelling read.

Harris’ gentle, meandering style is not for everyone but though slow, the book is packed full of story as well as a richly developed world. The author has skilfully blended American Gothic sensibilities with old-fashioned tales of the South to create a compelling and often discomforting story. If you like your soap-opera with fangs and magic, then this will delight you.

REVIEW: MURDER / AUTHOR: SARAH PINBOROUGH / PUBLISHER: JO FLETCHER BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

One of the problems with the steampunk genre is that it has become very difficult to simply find a good murder mystery set in the Victorian era without cogs and Zeppelins being involved on some level. Sarah Pinborough’s latest novel, Murder, thankfully lacks any sort of cog-foppery or high fantasy shenanigans and is instead a good old-fashioned tale of horrific crime and those who try and discover the culprits, all set during the time of Victoria’s reign.

Those expecting it to be a simple, true crime-style story will be disappointed. This is Sarah Pinborough, a writer who has quickly established herself as one of the most exciting spinners of twisted tales of terror in print today, and though there isn’t a whiff of steam about Murder, it does have the lightest touch of the supernatural about it, which handily keeps the reader on edge throughout.

A take on the infamous Jack the Ripper case, Murder begins with the characters picking up their lives from the events of Mayhem, the first book in the series. Having successfully foiled the source of the Ripper murders, the protagonists are doing their best to forget that anything too weird ever happened and move on with their lives. That is, up until the murders begin again, and old wounds, both physical and psychological, are torn open. Yet again, Dr Thomas Bond gathers up his friends to find out who is responsible for all this death and the novel is told mostly from his point of view with the occasional insight from the rest of the cast. We also get snippets of information from various newspaper and medical reports dotted around the book and these serve to foreshadow the narrative as well as drive it forward.

Pinborough pulls no punches here; the murders are gruesome and dark. Victorian England was not the nicest of places and the horrific inequality and brutal living conditions are underlined repeatedly throughout the tale. This refreshing and historically accurate honesty allows the author to be truly nasty with her narrative and tell a horrid yet gripping tale of blood and death. The succinct, efficient and yet multi-layered writing style works very well here; enough is left up to the imagination to make the reader devise their own horrors and yet the atrocities of the author’s own design are clear and unwavering. The book promises murder and delivers it in spades. Those looking for both visceral and psychological horror will enjoy this gore-soaked offering, but you are firmly advised to read Mayhem first as the two complement each other perfectly.

REVIEW: HOT LEAD, COLD IRON / AUTHOR: ARI MARMELL / PUBLISHER: TITAN / RELEASE DATE: MAY 23RD

Hot Lead, Cold Iron is the latest offering from fantasy author Ari Marmell and it is quite a different affair from his previous works such as The Goblin Corps and the Widdershins Adventures.

The setting is Prohibition era Chicago, where Elliott Ness and his Untouchables have accomplished the impossible by bringing down criminal overlord Al Capone, and the city is on the brink of an all out mob war as rival gangs fight over the remains of Capone’s empire. In the midst of this is Mick Oberon, a private detective who is anything but human despite his appearance. Oberon is among the last in a line of aristocratic fae who, for undisclosed reasons, has turned his back on his kind.

Oberon only takes mundane cases until he reluctantly agrees to locate a gangster’s missing daughter, who was replaced with a changeling sixteen years before. The cold case soon becomes hot as the trail leads him back to the corruption of the fae court and he becomes the target of a dangerously insane witch.

Hot Lead, Cold Iron is as hard boiled a detective drama as anything written by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler or Mickey Spillane, and Marmell captures the vernacular of the period wonderfully. Women are “broads”, guns are “gats”, and eyes are “lamps” or “peepers”. And as with all the great crime fiction of the ’30s and ’40s, Hot Lead, Cold Iron’s narrative is delivered in the first person.

Marmell has also created a character that’s as tough as Mike Hammer or Philip Marlowe in Mick Oberon, even if his favourite tipple is a glass of milk or, if he really feels like getting wild, cream. Instead of packing a Smith & Wesson Oberon packs a Luchtaine & Goodfellow Model 1592 wand. Well, he is fae after all and fae have difficulty using technology. A telephone, car or even just catching a subway train can cause varying levels of pain and discomfort to fae which, as Oberon explains, is why they no longer inhabit our world. But it is with no small degree of irony that Oberon notes that the major fae cities are based on human cities. So the Otherworld Chicago is a mysterious hybrid of fae culture and human architecture.

Hot Lead, Cold Iron could easily have been published in any one of the popular pulp detective magazines of the ’30s and yet it’s pace and characterizations are undoubtedly contemporary. The conclusion strongly hints that there will be another Mick Oberon case and if it’s as fun and entertaining as this one, then Ari Marmell will soon be crowned the foremost purveyor of Macabre Noir.

REVIEW: THE SUICIDE EXHIBITION / AUTHOR: JUSTIN RICHARDS / PUBLISHER: DEL REY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

If ever it was possible to be nostalgic for a war, the Second World War is the one to pine for. Justin Richards has perfectly captured a sepia-toned world of wax-sealed envelopes, typewritten orders and Nazi supernatural conspiracies… erm, okay, we may have missed the history lesson that featured the last one. Yes, one of the obvious influences here is Indiana Jones (albeit some weird mishmash that would mix the first and third films with the fourth), although this book’s version of him comes without the whip. Shame.

The narrative quickly moves from a pastiche of a Jones-style archeological dig to a complex spy thriller reminiscent of Operation Mincemeat (a fascinating true story, incidentally) or James Bond, if James Bond had aliens in it (which, frankly, would’ve made for better films than Moonraker or Quantum of Solace). The aliens are interesting and have the potential to become incredibly threatening in future volumes. One thing that did bother us was the ease with which the characters accepted somebody breaking out of a Bronze Age tomb and walking the Earth.

The title doesn’t feel particularly relevant to the story, as it only crops up a few times and the scene that the book was presumably named for doesn’t quite have the dramatic impact that Richards was going for. Nevertheless, this doesn’t harm the story in any tangible way and any kind of deficiency is more than made up for by a cast of well-developed characters and a good tale, well told. This particular tale does end on a cliffhanger, but that’s no bad thing. We’re looking forward to the next one.

REVIEW: THE QUICK / AUTHOR: LAUREN OWEN / PUBLISHER: JONATHAN CAPE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The Quick is a novel of the supernatural, although it may not appear this way at first. It opens by introducing the reader to James and Charlotte, a brother and sister who live in an expansive house in Victorian Yorkshire. We’re given snippets of their childhood, with an appropriate trauma thrown in, before James leaves for London.

James’s life in the capital reads somewhat like a Sherlock Holmes novel, but without the detective work – apart from an ‘inappropriate’ relationship, there’s not much more than a build-up of location and characters for a hundred pages. It’s good, but less patient readers may think the plot is going nowhere until, in one startling moment, everything changes. The novel abruptly switches to become the journal of one Augustus Mould, taking a turn from standard historical novel to something much more macabre.

To reveal any more would be to spoil some wonderful surprises. Suffice to say, the London Lauren Owen has created is a sinister and dangerous place, a city revealed to be inhabited by factions of a certain supernatural creature that – thanks to some deft writing and use of varying points of view – now feels back in its rightful era, and treated with deserving respect.

There are some great characters in this book, some of whom may seem initially superfluous but eventually come to be an integral part of the plot. Once hooked, readers will find themselves slowly drawn in, wrapped in the macabre atmosphere that permeates the novel. Any complaints are purely personal – characters that feature heavily can be despatched too quickly, while part players are so interesting that it feels like they’re not in it long enough – and, while the initial stages are mundane in comparison to what follows them, they are paid off in a chilling climax.

The Quick is an accomplished debut from an extremely talented author, a work that has clearly been crafted with love, care and respect, weaving plot and characters in a chilling combination that makes it a worthy addition to the Gothic horror genre that has inspired it.

REVIEW: THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OF THE YEAR – VOLUME EIGHT / AUTHOR: JOE ABERCROMBIE, MADELINE ASHBY, NEIL GAIMAN, JAMES PATRICK KELLY, CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN, YOON HA LEE, IAN MCDONALD, IAN R. MACLEOD, RAMEZ NAAM / PUBLISHER: SOLARIS / RELEASE DATE: MAY 13TH

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Eight continues a very fine tradition of selecting high quality short stories that not only make for a cracking read but also happen to reflect the state of the industry so far. This latest volume proves that fantasy and science fiction writing is not just healthy but thriving; seemingly it is a golden age for good writing. It’s also a firm reflection of modern times; many of the stories here are gritty, dark and dystopian.

This is a big book – at over 600 pages and nearly thirty short stories, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find something that you’ll enjoy, and there isn’t a single poor or filler story here. Each tale deserves to be here and all of them are good.

There are, of course, some that stand a little bit higher than the others. Neil Gaiman’s Spindle and the Spider is the sort of clever fairy tale remix that we’ve come to expect from the world class author and will please even his most casual of fans. Lavie Tidhar’s contribution, The Book Seller, is a clever bit of sci-fi that benefits from its brevity. In a world where almost everyone has access to all knowledge, those who collect old-fashioned media can be heroes, if only they can find the courage. Ramez Naam’s deliciously creepy tale of advertising gone wrong is strongly reminiscent of his Hugo-nominated book Nexus and as such works as a great sampler for this highly promising author. Caitlin R. Kiernan’s The Road of Needles is also a nice blend of frontier sci-fi and fairy tale that draws the reader in and leaves you wanting more. Another highlight is The Sun and I by K. J. Parker. It’s essentially a heist/confidence trick adventure story, but with a unique twist that could only work with a high fantasy setting. Clever, wry and yet quite dark, it sums up this entirely collection perfectly.

Jonathan Strahan is a skillful and award-winning editor, and he has curated an impressive collection here. The overall tone and mood of the work not only reflects but also informs the science fiction and fantasy publishing world. This is a perfect anthology for those looking at the bewildering array of talented authors out there who are seeking to dive right into the world of modern sci-fi and fantasy literature.

REVIEW: THE LEOPARD / AUTHOR: K.V. JOHANSEN / PUBLISHER: RANDOM HOUSE INTERNATIONAL / RELEASE DATE: JULY 10TH

There is something heart-warmingly old-fashioned about K.V. Johansen’s latest novel, The Leopard. The fantasy genre is currently full to the brim with gritty and post-modern versions of A Game of Thrones or overly dark retellings of Lord of the Rings. The Leopard bucks this trend by drawing on a legacy of pulpy, swords and sandals-style tales reminiscent of The Wheel of Time series but with a classic edge that feels as if it’s come from the 1950s.

The plot is nicely convoluted. The titular Leopard is an assassin called Ahjvar suffering from a rather nasty necromantic curse. It is a fiendishly unbreakable problem, which we’ll leave vague to avoid spoilers, but it is quite wicked, if not terribly original. One of the ways he can get out of it is to murder a false prophet, known as the Voice of Markand, who happens to have a horde of horrific minions (called Red Masks) running across the land causing all sorts of strife.

Ajvar isn’t a very likeable central protagonist and seems very keen to avoid getting involved in anything. Thankfully, the rest of the cast of characters keep the reader engaged. Deyandara the bard works partially because she’s also the world’s most reluctant noble and mostly because she’s a strong character with actual motivation. She’s helped by the perpetually put-upon Ghu who seems the most competent yet least capable member of the party. As the adventure progresses, things get even more involved and Johansen clearly delights in thinking up new ways to surprise her readers; the novel is filled with all sorts of pleasing twists.

Johansen’s style is not for everyone; there is a steady rhythm to the writing that does not change throughout the novel. It doesn’t matter if the characters are sharing a meal or fighting ghoulish minions – the pace remains painstakingly detailed throughout. Though this makes for an easy read, it also means it’s a little bland at times and coupled with a very dark tone, this may be unpalatable for some. It suffers greatly from being part one of a set –  a lot of the more interesting twists and turns are clearly set-ups for the next part in the series and this means that The Leopard has an unsatisfying ending, but one quite likely to leave you wanting more.

REVIEW: LIFE’S LOTTERY / AUTHOR: KIM NEWMAN / PUBLISHER: TITAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

A choose-your-own-adventure without an adventure. A Fighting Fantasy without the fighting… or the fantasy. Except, that’s not quite true. Kim Newman’s Life’s Lottery is so many things at once that it’s almost impossible to keep track of. Horror story, thriller, kitchen sink drama… what it is depends entirely on you, dear reader.

You are average everyman Keith Marion, and Life’s Lottery will follow you from (pre) birth all the way to your end. Will you be rich and successful? Jobless and miserable? Married? Separated? A ladies man, lothario or, um, rapist and murderer? It all depends on how you play the game.

Where most role-playing novels are fairly linear – a lot of choices, but only one ‘true’ path – no two read-throughs of Life’s Lottery are ever the same. The seemingly smallest decisions will affect the path upon which you are set, dictating whether you’ll be happy, depressed or doomed to die in a multitude of terrible ways. Where some outcomes appear to be completely random (your first choice, for instance, being your favourite of two TV characters) others will be dictated by karma, chance and plain old intelligent choice-making. Look, just because you can have sex with your sister, doesn’t mean that you should.

Just when you think you have a handle on the book, up comes another surprising outcome, ending or event. The first ten or so times you read it, Life’s Lottery seems inexhaustible. It’s more a book of short stories than a role-playing game, each one revealed as you choose your way through school, university and the dating scene. It can be a gritty revenge thriller, steamy sex tale or grisly murder mystery. This can make for uncomfortable reading at times, particularly as your choices lead you into progressively darker territory. Existential, depressing and terrifying, it leaves the reader feeling dirty in a manner I’d not experienced since playing Manhunt on the PS2.

Horror critic, scholar and writer Newman handles the multiple narratives with aplomb, packing the book full of humour, horror and so many geek references that it necessitates a hefty annotations section at the back. Clever, unpredictable and fresh, Life’s Lottery is a great read. How you play it us up to you. Just don’t blame us if it leaves you feeling miserable and dirty afterwards. Karma, as they say, can be a bitch.