Review Category: Books

Review: Skarsnik / Author: Guy Haley / Publisher: Black Library / Release Date: Out Now

The Warhammer Heroes series tends to shine when the novels focus on the bad guys; demonic warrior adventure tale Valkia The Bloody was a highlight of last year’s releases, and this time round it’s the turn of Skarsnik, the cunning and brutal leader of the Crooked Moon goblins, one of the greatest threats to civilisation in the Warhammer Fantasy setting.

Telling a story from the monster’s point of view is always a tricky thing to do; go too far one way and the book become incomprehensible, go the other way and you make the monster too human. Luckily, Haley is a very adept and skilled storyteller, and Skarsnik is a rise to power story told from the perspective of an insane playwright. This device also lends some quiet horror throughout the narrative, and gives those unfamiliar with the setting enough room to get comfortable with it.

This is a Warhammer book, so there is plenty of war and a small amount of hammering, but the real charm is the utter sense of terror and horror that Haley brings to the goblin horde. It would be all too easy to make Skarsnik and chums into comedy monsters, but instead we have some nicely scary highlights and these horrible little creatures are portrayed as a wicked, nasty things that will destroy everything good in the world.

If you’re in the mood for some brilliantly written villainous fantasy, then you should add this to your reading list.

Review: Star Wars – The Blueprints / Author: J.W. Rinzler / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: August 15th

As Star Wars fans will know, there are enough behind-the-scenes books out there already, detailing how that galaxy far far away came to be, to fill up any freighter’s cargo hold. The latest offering from Titan Books, however, has a very different focus to what’s come before. The Blueprints, originally released as a limited edition in 2011 but now with a mass re-release, showcases the technical drawings used to map out the details and dimensions of the saga’s iconic sets and props.

While these drawings may not have the immediate visual glamour of Ralph McQuarrie’s oft-seen concept art, the work collected here details a less explored and incredibly important part of the series’ production. From Dagobah swamps to Death Star corridors, the worlds of Star Wars were built from the ground up at England’s Elstree Studios, and this is the story of that process.

It’s an enormous tome, with over 250 blueprints from the Lucasfilm archives printed in precise detail over 2’ x 2’ pages, plus 500 more photographs and illustrations, and 10 impressive gatefolds. This size enables close study of the blueprints, to the extent that you could theoretically use this book to build your own full-scale Millennium Falcon. I missed the page explaining how to construct a working hyperdrive, though.

J.W. Rinzler, the author behind several ‘Art Of’ and ‘Making Of’ books, guides us through the collection with insightful, meticulously researched commentary, further backed up by interviews with the production directors, art directors, set dressers, and draughtsmen behind the work on show. The interviewees bring with them a range of fascinating and funny anecdotes, from how a droid malfunction delayed the first ever shoot to the artist who’d draw pictures of Ewoks being killed when Lucas’ enthusiasm for the space teddies became grating. All of these experiences, together with the archive material, come together to give the full story of this side of the production.

One possible criticism is that the focus is clearly on the original trilogy, which is covered over 252 pages, and so the three prequel films are skipped over, only receiving 62 pages between them. Though it’s true that the prequels used more CGI and less practical set work, Rinzler does point out that The Phantom Menace alone had sixty practically built sets, so there’s undoubtedly a lot which missed the cut.

The only other criticism is the price; at £60, it’s not cheap, especially if you then need to top up on plywood to build your Falcon. Nevertheless, The Blueprints is a truly absorbing study of the saga’s masterful craftwork, an important and under-appreciated aspect of what made Star Wars such a big part of sci-fi culture, and it is a great addition to any fan’s bookshelf.

Review: Scars Parts I and II / Author: Chris Wraight / Publisher: The Black Library / Release Date: Every Wednesday from August 7th

The Black Library has been threatening to release a serialised drama for some time now, ever since it closed its regular short story anthology, Hammer and Bolter. Speculation has been rife as to what they’d turn into a multi-part drama, and despite high hopes of a multi-part Gotrek and Felix audio drama, the honour has gone to the ubiquitous Horus Heresy brand. We got a sneak peak at the first two parts of this twelve part story, and like what we see so far.

Scars gives us an insight into the White Scars; a faction of Mongol warrior style warriors who have been barely touched so far.  Part one catalogues the journey of Tamu, a young boy who is recruited (and then surgically altered) to become part of the elite White Scars Space Marine Legion. Pulled from his home and dipped into a strange world with standards and traditions radically different to his own, this protagonist seems destined to have a rough time of it. Wraight is clearly laying the groundwork for future dramatic tension, giving our protagonist a sort of duality and cognitive dissonance that is unique to the origins of Warhammer 40,000 Space Marines, especially those during the Horus Heresy era.

Part two introduces Ilya Ravallion, a starship captain charged with ferrying the White Scars from victory to victory. Strong Imperial Captains have almost become a cliché of the series, but it’s always nice to see the promise of more spaceships blowing up, so it’s forgivable.  There is so much ship –to-shop combat in the Horus Heresy that it’s quite remarkable that Games Workshop haven’t made it into its own fully supported game, maybe something involving the setting’s gothic looking battle fleets.  We also see the mighty Jaghatai Khan for the first time; the god-like leader of the White Scars, and the tendrils of conflict and heresy continue to grow. Wraight is clearly keen to make this tale a match for the more popular books in the series, and there is certainly a lot of potential here.

Though both parts are short, they are also tightly written and interesting pieces, without an ounce of fat on them. Wraight is certainly a steady and clever story teller who seems to be willing to exploit the advantages that serialisation can bring. We look forward to the next instalment of the drama.

Review: Pacific Rim – The Official Movie Novelisation / Author: Alex Irvine / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: Out Now

The humble movie novelisation is a grand tradition, harking back to the pre-VHS days in which the grubby old paperback was many folks’ only hope of owning a copy of their favourite film. Despite the leaps and bounds in accessibility that have been achieved since then, the tie-in novel lives on. I’m not sure who’s reading these things any more, but it’s nice that they’re still there.

Alex Irvine’s Pacific Rim adapts Guillermo del Toro and Travis Beacham’s screenplay into a fairly hefty 352 page novel. Author of the Transformers movie tie-ins, Irvine is no stranger to giant battles and carnage on a global scale. While something is inevitably lost in the translation from screen to page, Irvine is very good at what he does. The story, while it won’t surprise anyone who’s seen the film, does have a few extra titbits of information and hints of character motivation. Given that Pacific Rim is all about the giant mech/monster fights and little else, we should be grateful for all that we can get. Some niggling questions are answered, a little extra Kaiju history clarified. The action is broken up with news reports and military files handily scattered between the chapters. It’s a nice idea, keeping the book from feeling too redundant. Fans of the movie impatiently awaiting its DVD release would be recommended to pick up this well-written, fun little book. I prefer a little more surprise in my books, but it is among the best of its kind. Doesn’t hold a candle to Troma’s Toxic Avenger novelisation, though. But then, not many books do.

While Irvine’s Pacific Rim could never hope to compare with seeing the film itself, it’s a treat for fans of film novelisations. When they’re as well done as this one, long may the tradition continue.

Review: Evening’s Empires / Author: Paul McAuley / Publisher: Gollancz / Release Date: Out Now

Paul McAuley has established himself in recent years as one of the doyens of hard SF, and his latest book confirms that reputation. Its hero, Hari, is the scion of a family of space age scrap merchants. At the start of the novel, their ship, the Pajubi’s Gift, had been hijacked and Hari, who has escaped and is a hunted man, is stranded on a lifeless asteroid. If he has any hope of winning his ship and the surviving members of his family back, he must get to civilisation, and his one bargaining chip is the severed head of a cyborg philosopher whose files might reveal the true meaning of the Bright Moment, a strange energy pulse that has passed through the universe, causing controversy and strange awakenings…

From the first page onwards, this is a tense, gripping, cinematically vivid read. Narrow escapes; dodgy spacecraft prone to falling to pieces; various trading towns and off-world city states, some Byzantine and Machiavellian, others just downright shady – these all figure in Hari’s quest, and there’s a nice mix of intrigue, plotting, detective work and gunplay. Hari himself, sadly, is a bit of a cipher, but he soon acquires a couple of interesting comrades in arms – namely, Rav, a wheeler-dealer with leather wings and a streak of obsessive paranoia, and Riyya, the daughter of a murdered scientist. The whole thing is wrapped in a melange of weird cultures and mind-boggling tech and steeped in a thoughtful and intelligent vision of the future, but, unlike some of his peers, McAuley delivers a tight-knit, propulsive storyline too. Grown-up SF that still manages to pack a punch.

Review: Emperor of Thorns – The Broken Empire, Book 3 / Author: Mark Lawrence / Publisher: Harper Voyager / Release Date: August 1st

It’s been less than a year, but Emperor of Thorns is a book long awaited by many – the conclusion to Mark Lawrence’s Broken Empire series. Final instalments of trilogies can often be an anticlimax, especially after a strong second book, sometimes disappointing the readers by not giving them what they’d either hoped for or expected. As the book’s narrator says: “Follow me, and I will break your heart.”

The story, like those before it, is split into two narratives; one set in the present, the other five years earlier. Naturally, the latter has an effect on the former, but the two are woven together with such skill that nothing is given away too early. For the first time, the author presents us with a different point of view, that of the necromancer Chella. It’s a shock initially, being torn away from Jorg’s narrative, but Chella’s story becomes a fitting tale of impending doom approaching the hero, heightening the tension as the Dead King gets ever closer.

Arguably, the success of a story hinges on its protagonist, especially when that character is also the narrator; in Jorg Ancrath, Mark Lawrence has created a controversial antihero, one who, in another tale, would likely be the villain. Jorg’s attitude and his actions are unsettling at times (he is a man who will take lives just to prove a point), yet the triumph of this series is that this vicious man, by being presented warts and all, actually comes across as a sympathetic human being. Jorg has grown through the course of the books; the amoral boy is now a king with a wife and child on the way, and now appears to be feeling the weight of his past misdeeds, prompting the reader to wonder if redemption is possible for such a person. We can’t condone what Jorg has done but, given what we know about him, we can understand his reasons without having to agree with them. Mark Lawrence’s writing makes us greedy, wanting to know more, turning pages to find out Jorg’s fate.

We can guess – several ideas went through this reviewer’s head – but the ending is more than the inevitable confrontation between Jorg and the Dead King. Yes, there’s a ‘final battle’, albeit scaled down to fit indoors, but the book stretches beyond that to offer a finale that is poignant, moving and – above all – completely fitting, given what has gone before. It’s a conclusion that is not only emotional and satisfying, but clever and unexpected, a fascinating twist within the concept of the narrative.

Here, then, is a book that promises much and delivers on every aspect. Like the previous tales of Jorg Ancrath it’s not pretty, but anyone who has read Prince of Thorns and King of Thorns will know what to expect. Be prepared to keep reading long into the night and maybe, just maybe, shed a tear or two over the final pages. Mark Lawrence has written a brilliant and enthralling tale – a trilogy that has gripped from the first scene to the very last – and I, for one, can’t wait to see what he’ll do next.

Review: The Guild – The Official Companion / Author: Felicia Day / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: Out Now

The Guild: The Official Companion is a rare thing; it’s a guide to a comedy series that started out on YouTube. It’s a credit to The Guild’s brilliance and popularity that it too can produce an oversized book to fit awkwardly on the bookshelf, filled with photos and factoids.

Fans of the show will be well served here; it’s crammed with interviews from both the cast and crew and has a lot of insight into the production of the show. Some of the crew profiles are particularly fun, especially things like prop and costume design. Each series is examined in some detail, and because it’s a web-show, each chapter comes with a QR code so you access the web-page rapidly. (Or you could just use Google.)

The Guild gathered a lot of attention through its snappy music videos, and the meme-tastic Do you want to date my avatar? is covered in depth here, as well as the other songs. The main appeal of the book is that, like the show, it’s a collaborative effort and the cast have worked together to produce it. Felicia Day and Sandeep Parikh have some very amusing things to say about the The Guild, and are as funny in text as they are on the show.

If you’re into The Guild, you’ll find this very useful as it has a lot of unique content. Those looking for more general ideas on producing their own web series won’t find it as good but there are still some hints and tips to be gleaned here.

Review: The 100 / Author: Kass Morgan / Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks / Release Date: August 29^th

Billed as “The Hunger Games meets Lost“, this dystopic young adult novel combines teen romance and sci-fi to be just that, nothing more and nothing less.

From the offset the publishers are clear that The 100 has already been greenlit as a TV series that will air on the same channel that brought the world The Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl, and that this is just the first novel in a new series. We absolutely loved the premise of The 100, which is that after a nuclear catastrophe on Earth, the human race has survived by migrating to spaceships far above the earth’s surface. As resources in space dwindle, mankind needs to find a permanent home, so the authorities send down 100 juvenile delinquents to discover if Earth is fit to sustain human life once more. The thought of a toxic planet populated by angst-ridden teen criminals is ripe with the potential for Battle Royale-style mayhem, but The 100 cares more about matters of the heart than teen conflict.

The 100 contains some fantastic teen romance. Obviously influenced by the popularity of teen love stories like Twilight, Kass Morgan puts the emphasis squarely on thwarted young lovers. When asteroids fly past the space station and star-crossed lovers are reunited with a kiss, you can’t help but visualise how powerful the TV series might be, and the beauty of The 100 is that Morgan promotes none of the oppressive Mormon tropes that Stephanie Meyer rams down readers’ throats. The 100 is packed with powerful and empowered characters, most of whom are working through the issues that they face after being raised in an Orwellian dictatorship where the needs of the many come before the needs of individuals.

Sadly, everything else about the narrative comes across as streamlined, safe and completely lacking in teeth. Given how often we hear about close family members being executed by the state, there’s no sense of danger in The 100, and no weight is given to any of the tragedies that are described. The conflict between the hundred criminals forced to survive together in a forest is minimal, other than a bit of macho chest-beating. The story is told by a range of narrators, alternating between present tense and flashbacks, completely echoing the structure of Lost. Unlike Lost, nothing shocking is ever revealed, and everything about The 100 is sickeningly anodyne. Where The Hunger Games packaged seriously disturbing dystopian issues for teenage readers, The 100 waters down serious issues so that they’re nothing but fuel for the burning loins of the protagonists.

Ultimately, most of the characters in The 100 alternate between acting sickeningly selflessly and distressingly selfishly, doing things for misguided motives that lead to the death of their parents and closest friends, but none of this ever has any real impact. Teen romance is the order of the day, and any semblance of conflict is there to drive the relationships further apart or closer together. As a teen romance, this is a roaring success, but as a dystopian sci-fi The 100 falls flat. Read it if you liked the idea of Lost but found the narrative too convoluted to follow, read it if you wished Katniss and Peeta had enjoyed more of a love arc in The Hunger Games, but don’t read The 100 if you want to have your assumptions challenged.

Review: Charm / Author: Sarah Pinborough / Publisher: Gollancz / Release Date: Out Now

Sarah Pinborough’s previous dark fairy tale, POISON, was always going to be a bit of tough act to follow; the remixed take on Snow White was clever, sexy and witty. CHARM follows on from the previous tale, but takes on another fairy tale princess, Cinderella. If you don’t know the story of Cinderella, we suggest that you read more, but in case you need a reminder, it’s a rags-to-riches tale about a young girl who defies a family that treats her like a slave and ends up marrying a prince. This book takes a slightly different look at the basic facts of the story; after all, many a teenager has complained that their parents treat them like slaves.

For those who missed the first book, Pinborough’s magical kingdom only bears a passing resemblance to the one they build theme parks about. Magic may be real but people still behave like people and their love, lusts and frailties are all too human and very believable. The Cinderella in this story still gets her ball, her magical coachman and a clever friend called Buttons, but depth and wit has been added to the tale. If you had ever wondered exactly what a Fairy God Mother might be up to granting wishes to weepy girls, then the revelations in CHARM may amuse you.

The other thing that has been added is sex. Not loads of it, but enough to add a sharp tone to the mix; after all, Cinderella is a story about love and attraction, and that rarely happens without a bit of passion. The book is very dark at certain key points, in scenes that may be familiar to those who know the non-Disney version of the original story. Yet again, Pinborough has delivered a fairy tale for adults; magic, wonder and passion are all here, as well as the odd hair-raising scene that will make most readers smile. CHARM works as a standalone story, but you’ll get more out of it if you’ve read Poison first.

Review: Satan’s Reach / Author: Eric Brown / Publisher: Solaris Books / Release Date: Out Now

Satan’s Reach is a sequel of sorts to Devil’s Nebula; same universe, same author, but it’s an entirely standalone story that builds on some of the backstory of the last book, and it’s part of a planned ongoing series called Weird Space.

The central premise revolves around Den Harper, a renegade telepath on the run from the totalitarian regime who ends up rescuing a young girl. Little does he know that a sinister alien invasion is under way and that every telepath is needed to help the fight. Sadly, Den is a little dull; he’s got a nice backstory, but his motivations aren’t terribly engaging.

This is symptomatic of the main problem with the novel, namely that all the characters are two-dimensional. An attempt is made to give them depth, but it falls flat and instead they are simply clichés. For example, one of the main characters is a strong Amazonian woman who just happens to be a lesbian – if that sounds familiar it’s because there is a very similar character in Devil’s Nebula. It also just so happens that the character’s colleague is an alien who seems to come from the planet Daily Mail. Several characters also seem to simply exist to blurt out endless exposition.

Though the novel makes an attempt at creating shades of grey, the bad guys are so evil that it’s hard to take them seriously; they just seem to be monstrous for the sake of it without any explanation as to why. The hard-bitten heroes are rather fluffy and dull. It’s short and tightly written, and an easy, if slightly repetitive read. The real pity here is that Devil’s Nebula was a great little romp, and this sequel of sorts is a huge disappointment. Brown has produced much better in the past, and we do hope that the next Weird Space book is a vast improvement.