Review Category: Books

Review: Dragon Frontier – Burning Moon / Author: Dan Abnett / Publisher: Puffin / Release Date: Out Now

Dan Abnett has a reputation for being highly prolific and extremely flexible. His work in the past includes tie-in fiction for Doctor Who and Warhammer 40K, dozens of comic books and the odd bit of original fiction here and there. Even though the range is pretty broad, most of the work tends to be on the darker side of things, so it was a slight surprise when it was announced that he was working on a range of books called Dragon Frontier, aimed at children aged nine to ninety-nine.

Dragon Frontier – Burning Moon is the latest book in the series and picks up where the last one left off. It’s the tale of Jake Polson, a young boy trying to survive on the American frontier following a tragic attack on a wagon train that has separated him from his family. This, however, was no ordinary raid; as you may have been able to surmise from the title, this version of the Wild West features fire-breathing dragons. After the events of the first book, Jake is now a Dragon Rider, taking lessons in the art from the natives. Burning Moon delves deeper into this world, and gives us strong glimpses into where the dragons are from.

Abnett skilfully blends high concept fantasy into the grittiness of the Wild West, without making things too dark. There’s plenty of action and the characters are nice. As this book is aimed squarely at younger readers do not expect overly complex characterisation; the bad guys are dumb and greedy, the father figures are gruff and fatherly and the bratty yet brave friend is amusing and annoying in equal measure.

Despite being the second part of an ongoing series, Burning Moon keeps a consistent pace throughout and has an enjoyable beginning, middle and end. That said, it does suffer somewhat from being only part of a greater whole; you really need to have read the first book. Adult readers will find this a very relaxing and easy read, whilst younger types are unlikely to have encountered anything quite like this before and should be in for a treat.

Review: Veins and Skulls / Author: Daniele Serra / Publisher: SST Publications / Release Date: Out Now

An art book of breathtaking erotic horror from British Fantasy Award-winner Daniele Serra.

Desolate and haunting, this collection of watercolours from Italian artist Daniele Serra juxtaposes images of beauty and death. Abandoned cityscapes play home to women mourning the loss of love ones or playfully celebrating the grave. People sink into their environments or enliven them with their presence, as the animate and inanimate clash, exposing the psyche of the artist. Minimal introduction or exposition is given, letting the art stand on its own strength, evoking wonder and dread in the viewer.

Serra’s limited palette imbues every setting with an apocalyptic finality, a world used and forgotten. The women that he paints are always alone, posed with bones, as if mourning the transience of their youth and beauty. Known primarily for his horror artwork, Serra’s art book is chaotic and mischievous more than it is disturbing. Like the works of 44FLOOD, this is art that transcends genre boundaries and deserves to be seen more widely. Our only complaint is that 64 pages felt too brief. Anybody in love with the darkness should seek out a copy of Veins and Skulls.

BOOK REVIEW: THE GOSPEL OF LOKI / AUTHOR: JOANNE M. HARRIS / PUBLISHER: GOLLANCZ / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (HARDBACK), JUNE 4TH (PAPERBACK)

Purporting to be a memoir which even the blurb specifies should be taken with a pinch of salt, this book presents the history of Asgard through the eyes of Loki, the trickster god. From his initial meeting with Odin to Ragnarok itself, The Gospel of Loki delves into the “truth” behind Norse mythology.

Much of the fun comes from Loki’s irreverent first person perspective. With his side remarks, cocksure attitude and brashness, he’s an undeniably entertaining narrator. Even when he is spawning monsters and working to undermine his fellow Asgardians, Harris always finds a way to make the reader root for him.

Running through a vast number of legends, The Gospel of Loki serves up a great number of events for the protagonist to work with. Some directly involve Loki, others do not, but each time there is a unique spin put on the tale. The results are often comical, and while this is not a bad thing in itself, there are moments which would have served the story better had they been played relatively straight-faced. In particular, you feel the lack of a convincing throughline towards Loki’s eventual betrayal of Aesir and Vanir.

Speaking of the Norse gods, don’t expect too much from them. As everything is filtered through Loki’s extremely biased point of view, many characters lack complexity. While there are exceptions such as Odin, the likes of Heimdall, Thor and Baldr are presented as relatively one dimensional brutes/pretty boys. Also, don’t expect to ever get used to Loki using modern language as opposed to pseudo-Shakespearian lingo, especially when he resorts to “chillax”.

Ultimately, The Gospel of Loki is worth it for a good many laughs and an ingeniously skewed retelling of Norse mythology. It’s fun and you’ll keep going to the end, but you can’t help but feel it could have used a few less winks at the audience.

Review: Feylander / Author: Liz Noble / Publisher: Noble Servant Books / Release Date: Out Now

The self-published debut of English fantasy author Liz Noble, Feylander is the first novel of a planned series named The Dreamer’s Chronicles, taking us deep underground into a sun-starved world of lost history, ancient feuds and uneasy alliances.

After a long ago event – the precise details of which are lost to time – magic vanished from the world and the Fey who once ruled the skies lost their wings and fell to earth, forced underground to endure a lifestyle they were never suited for. Four hundred years later, orphaned princess Isabelle ascends to power as Queen of the Feylanders. Young, impetuous and mistakenly believed by most to be a simpleton, she soon proves her detractors wrong and begins ruling her own way. Not content to passively sit as the disposable figurehead of a governing council, she sets out to better her nation for the lives of its citizens, as well as those they must deal with. Soon after, a chance encounter sets her on a path that could change the fate of her entire people. The only question is what it will require her to sacrifice to see it through to the end.

There’s nothing revelatory about observing that a self-published book can often make people wary of its potential quality. With its synonym of “vanity publishing” often turning out to be accurate, the process has garnered a reputation as an assurance of literary inadequacy. However, not everyone fires the first draft of the previous year’s NaNoWriMo effort into Smashwords and hopes for the best; as independent publishing becomes a viable alternative for authors disillusioned with the mercenary attitudes of large publishing houses, increasingly greater care is taken over the quality of books before they are released into the unforgiving wilds of the Internet. Happily, Feylander is one of the more positive examples of a self-published novel, and an indication of what can eventually be achieved when enough time and sanity has been sacrificed at the altar of its development.

Isabelle is a remarkable and highly engaging protagonist. Self-reliant, intelligent, stubborn and not above delivering withering put downs to people who annoy her, she certainly owes more than a little to the heroines of Terry Pratchett. That said, she’s a lot more than just Magrat with pointy ears. Her sense of responsibility over her tiny nation compels her to do all she can to maintain her position, even though stepping aside would mean an end to all her problems and obligations. She is, perhaps, a little too worldly for someone as young as she is, but when a girl’s parents are murdered in front of her as a small child and she grows up under the constant threat of assassination, a certain wisdom beyond her years is understandable.

For a debut author crafting a fantasy setting, it can be a tempting shortcut to go down the well-trodden route of a pseudo-medieval realm populated by some combination of elves, orcs, dwarves and humans. Noble, however, envisions a less bog-standard and much more elaborate world. As well as the Fey (wingless fairies) in their underground realm of mud and rock, other species seen consist of the Uoi (humanoid rabbits), the Treejumpers (bandit-like squirrels) and the Drimh (black-eyed creatures of personified malevolence). Tiny individuals from a real-world perspective, these races are of the size where a bird is a lethal force streaking from the sky like a feathered lightning bolt, a mole is a destructive monster burrowing through homes without effort and people without thought, and a rat is the equivalent of the wolf goddess Moro from Princess Mononoke. Later in the book there is even an entire city contained within a hollowed out oak tree.

Noble also dispenses with the usual tactic of introducing a clueless audience surrogate to ask expository questions. Instead, the world is organically revealed to us through Isabelle’s journey as circumstances motivate her to investigate precisely why the magic disappeared, the stories and myths of the forgotten past eventually playing their part in the plot’s development.

Although the ending of Feylander is a complete resolution, The Dreamer’s Chronicles is envisioned as an ongoing series and the way is left wide open for further instalments to expand on the intricate basics it sets out. Can’t wait.

Review: Doctor Who – The Eleventh Hour – A Critical Celebration of the Matt Smith and Steven Moffat Era / Author: Andrew O’Day / Publisher: I.B. Tauris / Release Date: Out Now

Publisher I.B. Taurus has in recent years released several scholarly appreciations of everyone’s favourite Time Lord. This, the latest, focuses on the series during the tenure of the recently departed Matt Smith and current showrunner Steven Moffat.

Editor Andrew O’Day has previously contributed to several Who-related works, as well as co-authoring a book on Terry Nation. Here he has put together a collection of essays by various academics looking at different aspects of the series under Moffat’s stewardship, as well as the show’s wider cultural context. It also contrasts Moffat’s version of the show with those of his predecessors, in particular Russell T. Davies.

What the book is not, however, is an episode guide. You’ll find no discussions of the merits, or otherwise, of individual stories. Rather the book takes an overview, looking at different aspects of the show over the first three years of Moffat’s era.

Matt Smith’s performance, the look of the show, Murray Gold’s music, Christmas specials, selling the show to America and marketing all get their own chapters. There are even sections on the online games that accompanied Season 5, and The Sarah Jane Adventures’ story Death of the Doctor, which shows how the BBC dealt with the tricky problem of how to portray the returning Davies in the Moffat era .

By far the most entertaining section is Brigid Cherry’s chapter on Who fandom. For those unacquainted with the world of Doctor Who forums (which include this writer), it offers a glimpse into some of the more extreme reactions to be found online. Particularly enjoyable are some of the hugely negative overreactions that appeared following Smith’s unveiling as the Doctor in 2009, with one particularly surreal Facebook comment claiming that the actor ‘looks like a gay dog’. Another section highlights those fans who see nothing contradictory in decrying David Tennant’s female fanbase, while trawling the net for pictures of Karen Gillan in her underwear.

On the subject of sexism, a whole chapter is dedicated to gender portrayals under Moffat. The current showrunner has come in for a great deal of stick for his portrayal of female characters on Doctor Who. The chapter offers several interesting arguments which would seem to counter that, looking in depth at the portrayal of both Amy and River as strong, complex (and yes, sexually confident) female characters.

The breadth of topics is comprehensive, so it’s a shame that, rather than looking at the whole of Matt Smith’s era, the book only goes up to the first half of Season 7, as far as The Angels Take Manhattan. Whilst the back cover blurb and the episode list suggest it covers the whole era, even cheekily making mention of Peter Capaldi, in fact no episodes from the anniversary year, or 2012’s Christmas special, The Snowmen, are discussed. As a result, Clara doesn’t get a look-in beyond her appearance in Asylum of the Daleks. It would have been interesting to see her character given the same kind analysis afforded the 11th Doctor’s other companions. Also suffering as a consequence is the otherwise interesting chapter on the Christmas specials since, of the four Smith/Moffat shows, only Christmas Carol and The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe are covered.

Although primarily aimed at those with an interest in the field of television studies, the insights offered by The Eleventh Hour means it should easily find an audience outside of academia. Despite occasional lapses into technobabble that even the Doctor would struggle with, it is, for the most part, a fairly easy, entertaining read. Whether you’re a fan of the show under Moffat or not, it offers an intriguing, insightful look at all aspects of the series. It’s just a pity they couldn’t have waited a few months and covered the whole of Matt Smith’s era

Review: The Who’s Who of Doctor Who / Author: Cameron K. McEwan / Publisher: Race Point Publishing / Release Date: January 9th

Having just celebrated its fiftieth anniversary worldwide, Doctor Who is more in the public consciousness than ever. It’s no surprise that the past months have seen a spate of tie-in material, both official and fan-published. The latest offering comes from Cameron K. McEwan, who set up the Blogtor Who website as a news source for Who fans in 2008 and has since become an increasingly known name in fandom, having also directed a documentary about Whovians. His book, The Who’s Who of Doctor Who, aims to be an essential handbook detailing the eclectic cast of the show’s fifty years.

This takes the form of over 300 encyclopedic articles, categorised into ‘Doctors’, ‘Companions’, ‘Friends and Allies’, ‘Robots’, ‘Time Lords and Ladies’, ‘Villains’ and ‘Aliens and Monsters’. McEwan’s passion for Who shows in his light and entertaining prose, making this a book that’s very easy to pick up, flick through, become immersed in, and suddenly realise it’s half an hour later and you’re meant to be out of the house by now.

The problem is that, in having to pick and choose his entries, McEwan is far from comprehensive. He’s open about this, stating in the introduction to one section that he’s picked the “more interesting ones”, though his choices do skew heavily towards the new series. The reader may therefore get the feeling that, in a world where we can access an incredibly comprehensive Doctor Who wiki free of charge, a book of this nature, summing up what we’ve seen on screen without adding any new insights, is irrelevant. Adding to this problem is the fact that it’s already out of date, having clearly been written before The Day of the Doctor – the Eighth Doctor’s entry states that “no one knows for sure which incarnation of the Doctor was involved” in the Time War. Oops.

These issues shouldn’t preclude the book from being an enjoyable volume, and it’s visually well put-together too. Many articles are accompanied by brand new illustrations from the talented Andrew Skilleter, who’s been linked to the Doctor Who brand since 1979 due to his artwork for novel covers. Other articles use photos, which are hit-and-miss. Presumably for rights reasons, some are set photos or photos of actors not in character, which is quite distracting – Rassilon showing up in a suit and tie, for example.

Though the hardcore Whovian might not find enough new in The Who’s Who of Doctor Who to justify the asking price of £18.99, it does have enough in its favour – finely written prose and effective illustrations – to make it a decent coffee table book for those who don’t already have an encyclopedic Who knowledge.

Review: Half Bad / Author: Sally Green / Publisher: Penguin Books / Release Date: March 3rd

With a launch in 36 countries and the film rights already in the hands of Fox, the publishing world seems to be preparing for a cuckoo reaction to the debut novel from Sally Green, a former accountant whose sharply written tale about a society of witches residing in Britain contains all the ingredients for a fantastical smash hit. Brilliantly paced with more than a few nasty surprises, Half Bad is a wickedly addictive read that will capture the imagination of any fan of YA fiction.

The hero is Nathan, a 15 year-old who is locked in a cage, bound by shackles, exposed to the elements and slowly running out of escape plans. As a witch of mixed parentage, he’s hunted by black and white witches, both seeking to create a singular and ‘pure’ race by eradicating the existence of the other. In this world of seemingly clear divides, he is the anomaly. The witch who is “wanted by no one; hunted by everyone.”

This is how we are introduced to Half Bad in its spectacular opening chapters, dragged kicking and screaming into Nathan’s shoes as he struggles to cope in his caged life with a vigorous daily exercise regime. Green takes you through his journey before and beyond, revealing a dark world filled with memorable characters and twisted family relations.

The societal themes may sound familiar, but Half Bad manages to dodge genre fatigue through the snappy and entertaining voice of its central character. Green’s direct and efficient prose jets you along, delivering a story that gallops from one thrilling encounter to the next and creating a world of wicked witches that feels fast and surprisingly uncompromising. These aren’t the croaky broomstick-riding hags you’ve come to expect, neither are they highly romanticized beings caught up in love triangles; these are cold and ruthless sorcerers who pack a serious punch.

It’s this dark, peppy spirit that sets the book apart from its contemporaries. Whenever the story delves into gruesome territory, Green isn’t afraid to twist the knife, and you might be surprised by some of the wince-inducing scenes of torture and scraps that occur over the books entirety. But this isn’t a bleak trip – quirky characters colour the world, and although you might crave a little more detail surrounding the bigger picture, the energy and charm is more than enough to keep you totally absorbed.

While the final verdict on Half Bad will depend upon the impact of the planned future instalments in the series, as a debut novel it is still a remarkably enjoyable read. Many have tipped it as doing for witches what Twilight achieved for vampires, but that seems like a great disservice to author Sally Green. Half Bad is edgy, imaginative and worth the attention of any fan of fictional thrill rides. A sure fire contender for the wickedest witch this side of the west.

Review: The Harper Connelly Omnibus / Author: Charlaine Harris / Publisher: Gollancz / Release Date: Out Now

This collected edition gathers together all four Harper Connelly novels by Charlaine Harris, author of the Southern Vampire Mysteries, informally and far more popularly known as the True Blood books.

Ever since being struck by lightning as a teenager, Harper Connolly has been able to locate dead bodies and intuitively ascertain how they died. Turning it into a specialised skill, she and her stepbrother Tolliver travel the country, hired to either search for people who are missing and presumed dead or relate what happened to those who have been found, circumstances often drawing them into a murder mystery in the process.

On the surface, these books bear some superficial similarities to those upon which True Blood was initially based, principally with the protagonist of each series being a woman in her twenties with a tragic childhood, a close relationship with a brother of a similar age and a psionic ability that makes people uneasy and renders her a social outcast. However, Harper is a far more sympathetic character than Sookie Stackhouse: she’s considerably less sanctimonious and nowhere near as self-absorbed, and subsequently is far less annoying and a lot more engaging as a narrator. Also, while the SVMs soon spiralled into a supernatural soap opera featuring almost every kind of entity from popular mythology, these stories are grounded in (relative) reality, with only psychic powers (unusual) and ghosts (extremely rare) to counterpoint the everyday life forming most of the stories.

Harris has always had far more interest in writing about the investigation of a mystery rather than its ultimate resolution, and these books are no exception. The unmasking of each killer and revelation of their motive is treated almost as an afterthought, an inconvenient necessity dictated by genre conventions. Additionally, she seems to assume her readers have as much affection for small-town Americana as she does, not realising that plots propelled by generational feuds and gossiping neighbours do not resonate as strongly with many others as they quite clearly do with her. While the official law enforcement characters aren’t exactly incompetent, they’re certainly lacking a degree of intellect and common sense that you’d assume would be a prerequisite for doing the job, leaving Harper and Tolliver the only ones capable of solving each book’s underlying mystery.

The books are short and easy reads (only the final of the four is over 200 pages) and while the simple mysteries are unlikely to tax your brain, they’re never less than entertaining.

Review: Robert Holmes – A Life in Words / Author: Richard Molesworth / Publisher: Telos Publishing / Release Date: Out Now

It’s a truth almost universally acknowledged that two Doctor Who fans in a room together will vary rarely share the same opinion on their favourite TV show. But the exception which proves this rule is that both of them – indeed, all of them – are likely to agree that the extraordinary Robert Holmes was surely the best scriptwriter to ever work on the classic (i.e., 1963-1989) incarnation of the series – and some might even argue he could show a clean pair of heels to most of those who contribute to the glitzy 21st century reboot.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, in what might be said to be the glory days of British television, TV scriptwriters would turn out hours and hours of competent, if mundane, scripts for the tide of routine medical, police and detective dramas which made up so much of the early TV schedules (some things don‘t change). Robert Holmes, an ex-policeman who earned his spurs writing scripts for 1960s soap dramas like Emergency Ward 10 and long forgotten series like Knight Errant Ltd, Ghost Squad and Harpers West One, finally found his way into Doctor Who in the late 1960s when he contributed two unremarkable scripts for second Doctor Patrick Troughton’s final season. 1970s Who script editor Terrance Dicks, who’d baby-walked Holmes through his first two stories, commissioned the writer to pen ‘Spearhead From Space’, Third Doctor Jon Pertwee’s memorable first serial. Holmes quickly established a remarkable affinity for Doctor Who; his scripts were clever, witty, deliciously written and effortlessly imaginative. During the 1970s he was responsible for creating the Autons and the Sontarans, he introduced Sarah Jane Smith to the series and his 1973 script ‘The Time Warrior’ finally gave the Doctor’s home planet a name. In 1975 he became the show’s script editor just as Tom Baker arrived as the Fourth Doctor and, along with firebrand producer Phillip Hinchliffe, created a new template for Doctor Who which took the series, for three seasons, to new heights of popularity and creative acclaim. Holmes controversially reimagined the Time Lords in ‘The Deadly Assassin’ and crafted ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’, one of the classic series’ very best serials. But Holmes did so much more for Doctor Who than just write great scripts; he was an immaculate, passionate script editor, often reworking and rewriting weak scripts whilst never compromising his determination to make the series grittier, darker and more adult. Leaving Doctor Who in 1977, Robert Holmes wrote the well remembered BBC fantasy serial The Nightmare Man (based on David Wiltshire’s Child of Vodvanoi novel) and worked on friend and colleague Robert Banks Stewart’s series Shoestring and Bergerac. Who-ed out in the 1970s, he returned to the series not a moment too soon when he wrote Peter Davison’s dazzling finale ‘The Caves of Androzani’ in 1984 and he was still working on scripts for the by-now troubled show at the time of his premature death in 1986.

Richard Molesworth’s A Life in Words is a stunningly researched chronicle of the working life of a tragically underrated writer who considered himself as just a hack. But what it isn’t – and to be fair, what it doesn’t purport to be – is an autobiography. Details of Holmes’ life are thin on the ground; the book will tell you of his pre-writing career, the facts that he married and had kids and grandchildren and that he moved house occasionally. But of the man himself there’s precious little beyond the popular, occasionally recorded perception of him as this gaunt, sallow, pipe-smoking figure possessed of a prodigious imagination, a formidable talent and a marked failure to appreciate just how damned good a TV writer he was. Molesworth’s text really is a ‘life in words’ – the words of Holmes himself culled from numerous fan magazine interviews and contemporary commentary and those of friends and colleagues such as Dicks, Banks Stewart, Chris (Blake’s 7) Boucher and Eric Saward, the 1980s script editor who brought Holmes back into the Doctor Who fold. Not just a book about Doctor Who (there may be some glazing-over of eyes at the detailed reprinted storylines of old Doctor Finley and Ward 10 episodes), A Life in Words is a fascinating story and an extraordinary insight into a long-gone world of journeyman TV scriptwriting. Sadly there’s no happy ending – plagued by ill-health in later life, Holmes died at the age of 60 from a sudden liver illness and his story is punctuated by tales of failed series pitches and aborted projects. But the book is a gloriously readable testament to the work and talent of a TV writer who, if there was any justice, would be as lauded and respected beyond the occasionally insular world of Doctor Who in the same way that modern-day showrunners like Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat are. It’s a terrific book which sits right alongside the very best Who-related volumes issued during the fiftieth anniversary year.

Review: Limit / Author: Frank Schatzing / Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books / Release Date: Out Now

This novel by noted German writer Frank Schatzing has built up a loyal following in its native language. Now translated and released in English, and with recent interest in space at new heights in both fact and fiction, does Schatzing’s work boldly cross frontiers or does it remain lost in translation?

The story sees the Earth reach a new dawn in the year 2025; the world’s first space elevator provides a new way in which to launch the human race into space by connecting our fair planet with the Moon. However, with this new frontier comes a new space race; China and the USA are now scrounging the Moon for helium-3, the answer to our long-running energy problems. Meanwhile in Shanghai, the search for a missing girl leads detective Owen Jericho into the talons of a secret society known as Hydra whose plans become dangerously linked to the Moon and helium-3.

Limit has the wonderful quality of possessing extremely vivid detail. It’s able to blend fact with fiction and the fantastic with the real, all into a world which you could genuinely believe we’ll be inhabiting in just over a decade’s time. The state of the world, with China and the USA still being the superpowers, allows Schatzing to develop a new Cold War which takes the space race of yesteryear to extremely plausible new heights. Meanwhile, the noir-ish story of detective Owen Jericho evokes memories of Harrison Ford in Blade Runner without borrowing from that film directly.

Where Limit lets itself down (for this reviewer at least) is in the longevity of the story. At a whopping 1135 pages, it’s a book for those who love an epic read. Those who don’t may feel that some of the plot threads go on for too long or simply aren’t necessary in the first place.

To wrap things up, Limit is extremely original in its plot and its blend of fact and fantasy has you re-evaluating the current state of technology. However, it does go on (in parts) longer than is necessary; one has to wonder whether the book could’ve been developed as a trilogy or two-parter. Nevertheless, Limit is a very welcome gift from our German sci-fi cousins.