Review Category: Books

Review: Frankenstein’s Prescription / Author: Tim Lees / Publisher: Tartarus Press / Release Date: Out Now

Tim Lees isn’t the first author to throw the lever on a Frankenstein spin-off, and he won’t be the last, but this stormy Gothic yarn is very welcome nonetheless. The setting is the turn of the last century, and the narrator is Hans Schneider, a caddish and dissolute medical student who is cut off without a penny after accidentally slaying another man in a duel. As penance for his folly, he’s forced to serve as an assistant at a remote asylum run by the mysterious Dr Lavenza, who turns out to be none other than the great-grandson of a certain infamous scientist (clue: his name begins with F and you’d think twice before offering to lend him a hand).

No sooner has he arrived than Hans finds himself holding down a writhing patient while she has her skull trepanned, and then there are encounters with various unsavoury inmates, including the golem-like Carl, who serves as the doctor’s factotum. Lavenza himself isn’t much company: a feverish, preoccupied character who divides his time between hitting the bottle and conducting secretive experiments. It’s a nightmarish scenario, and it only gets worse when the dismembered pieces of a peasant woman are found scattered outside the asylum.

No question who dunnit: it’s the monster, who, years on from the original Frankenstein’s demise, is still persecuting his descendants with malicious glee (and anyone who knows them, which sucks for Hans). And now he’s tracked down Lavenza, he wants something from him: a mate. Trouble is, Lavenza’s not really up to the job. His only hope of success lies in reconstructing the research of the Frankensteins who went before him.

To this end, Lavenza, Hans and Carl embark on a shambolic picaresque which takes them to Italy, France and Belgium before culminating in a return to the laboratory where it all began. It’s a story full of Germanic doom and gloom, but light relief is provided by Hans, a cowardly dandy of the Flashman type who lives in hope that all of this weird science might somehow bring him fame and fortune. He’s always good for a wry quip, and his narration rattles along at top speed in short, staccato chapters brimming with dark atmospherics.

The monster spends much of the book offstage, and this works very well, allowing him to loom all the more over the other characters. When he does make an appearance, he comes bringing shock and awe. As a portrayal, it sticks reasonably close to Mary Shelley and is all the more chilling for that. Laverna emerges rather less vividly, but then you would expect that of a character who’s overshadowed by his tragic forebears.

Moody, fast-paced and told with verve, Frankenstein’s Prescription has the feeling of vintage Michael Moorcock in a black, Gothic vein. It’s available in a hardback edition limited to 300 copies from the Tartarus Press website.

Review: Anomaly / Writer: Skip Brittenham / Art: Brian Haberlin /  Publisher: Anomaly Productions / Release Date: November 22nd

What we have here is an ambitious first release from a new company, Anomaly Productions. And when we say ambitious, we’re talking about a whopping, Jane’s Fighting Ships-size, 300-pages-plus, full colour graphic novel sturdily bound in hardcovers, with a dust jacket, and presented in an attractive box, the whole package weighing nearly two pounds. It’s a lot to take in, especially as there’s actually even more to it than meets the eye (but back to that later).

Written by Skip Brittenham (of Pixar and DreamWorks) and comic book artist Brian Haberlin (Witchblade, Spawn), with art by Haberlin and Gierrod Van Dyke, Anomaly is essentially a good, old fashioned, Avatar-meets-John Carter sf/fantasy story, but envisioned and executed on a massive scale. It’s the future, and the Earth is controlled by a tyrannical big business called the Conglomerate, which aggressively colonizes other planets for their natural resources. Not everyone agrees with this way of doing things, though, especially rich girl Samantha, who embarks on a peaceful mission to a distant planet without a name. Sent to babysit her and the rest of the diplomatic team is Jon, a soldier recently reinstated after being the fall guy for a bloody incident on another world.

Unfortunately, all does not go to plan. A virulent type of mould gobbles up their equipment, and they soon find themselves captured by the People, one of many intelligent bipedal species that populate the planet’s surface. Their arrival also draws the unwelcome attention of Erebos, leader of the Muties, demonic creatures that threaten the other species with extinction. But here’s an idea – maybe everyone should band together against this common foe? Hmm, if only they had a ringleader. Sounds like a job for a fast-talking Earthling!

Alright, the storyline isn’t very original, but the script has a Hollywood-style slickness and the characters are all fleshed out in a lively, engaging way. Similarly, the fantasy design goes down a familiar route, with Muties who look like WWF wrestlers with antlers, and multiple borrowings from Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy (the People are noticeably elvish and one species, the Gigantus, bears a marked resemblance to a cave troll). But this is more than compensated for by artwork of extraordinary, painterly complexity, culminating in some incredible panoramic double-page spreads as events career towards their warlike conclusion.

On top of that, Anomaly has a whole other dimension. If you own a tablet, you can download an app which will enable you to experience 3D Augmented Reality pop-ups, voiceovers by well-known actors and a wealth of interactive material, with further updates in the future – an impressive way of bringing extra longevity to what is already a very substantial and worthwhile offering.

Review: Dark Shadows – The Visual Companion / Author: Mark Salisbury / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: Out Now

In the wake of Tim Burton’s big screen adaptation of Dark Shadows comes this glossy making-of book. A landscape format hardback stuffed full of behind-the-scenes photos and with a smattering of well written text, it’s very much like the film in that it’s quite nice but nothing to go bats about.

Mark Salisbury does a good job of taking us through the early stages of the creative process – which involved two scriptwriters in regular sit-downs with the film’s director and star – and there’s also a slightly plodding survey of the major characters. But – as anyone who’s seen the movie might expect – the most interesting chapters are the ones dealing with the sets, SFX and costumes, with Burton’s regular production designer Rick Heinrichs emerging as the hero of this Gothic tale.

What do we learn? Some pretty cool stuff. Collinsport, that archetypal Maine fishing village, was built from scratch on the backlot at Pinewood Studios, a massive construction job covering in excess of an acre. The mechanical fireplace through which Barnabas descends into the hidden treasure vault was a fully working marvel of pneumatics. (Wonder where it is now? It would look awesome in Starburst HQ.) And so forth, enough to make you flicker an eyebrow half a dozen times. Not a book you’d want to burst out of your coffin in broad daylight for, but a diverting glimpse into the genesis of a Burton movie.

Review: Zom-B / Author: Darren Shan / Publisher: Simon and Shuster / Release Date: Out Now

‘Master of horror’ Darren Shan, multi-million selling author of young adult fantasies such as the Cirque du Freak saga and… er… adult adult books like Procession of the Dead and City of the Snakes turns his attention to the reliable old zombie apocalypse for his latest attempt to terrify the bejeesus out of his more youthful audience. Zom-B is the first in a twelve-part book serial in which the undead do their thing the way only they know how. It’s good to see fantasy fiction for kids in robust health but Zom-B is worlds away from the cozy world of Harry Potter and his hokey spells, pet owls and Quidditch matches; this is a tough, grim and sometimes rather unpleasant book set in a very real and sometimes uncomfortably ugly modern Britain with nary a muggle nor a broomstick in sight.

B. Smith is a bully and a racist, hanging around street corners and robbing local shops, terrorising younger kids and wasting time until school’s out and the opportunity arises to pick on someone else – usually someone with a different coloured skin. Home life’s no better; Dad’s a short-tempered, racist wife-beater who sometimes keeps strange company – a mysterious big-eyed pot-bellied man’s deep in conversation with dad when B comes home from school one afternoon – and although B senses that something’s not right and maybe Dad isn’t the ideal role model, the need to keep the family unit together and prevent Mum from being beaten black-and blue means that B has to toe the line just to keep Dad at bay. Shan’s no-nonsense real-world story is engrossing enough and we’re torn between feeling repelled by B for following in Dad’s grotesque footsteps and hoping that, somehow, there’ll be some sort of redemption and that the tables will turn. The zombie outbreak which has been bubbling away in the background suddenly erupts into carnage and chaos as B’s school comes under attack and B has to work together with friends and former enemies to fight impossible odds and find a way out of a building which has suddenly become a blood-drenched prison.

Zom-B is a bleak and unrelenting contemporary urban horror story for older kids, touching on issues which some adults might find challenging and disturbing. In some ways the zombie violence, when it comes – and it’s as graphic as anything in an adult zombie novel – is a relief from the downbeat mirror-to-the-modern world no-nonsense tone of the first half of the book. The book’s title might give away one of its secrets (and I’ve been careful not to blow another major one here) but there’s plenty of stuff seeded throughout the novel to keep kids of a less nervous disposition coming back for the next instalment in what promises to be a long and bloody journey.

Back in my day it was all Just William and Jennings and Darbishire. It’s another world.

Review: Pariah: Ravenor vs Eisenhorn / Author: Dan Abnett / Publisher: Black Library / Release Date: Out Now

Pariah sees Dan Abnett return to writing about Inquisitors, Warhammer 40,000’s super-cops who are a heady mix of detectives, super-powered badasses and Torquemada. This is the first book in a planned trilogy and follows on from his last two Inquisition inspired trilogies, Eisenhorn and Ravenor. This new book carries the sub-title Eisenhorn Versus Ravenor, so fans should know what to expect. However it’s much more than simply two extremely resourceful detectives duking it out.

Pariah follows the fate of a Beta Bequin, a name that has appeared in the previous two series, and is told from a first person perspective. The conceit is that this character is caught between a conflict involving the two main characters from the previous books. Abnett has created a powerful protagonist and placed her into a decidedly creepy world of spies and deep occult weirdness. Fans of the Cthullhu Mythos will be on familiar ground at key points here and though Warhammer 40,000 tends to draw inspiration from Lovecraftian creepiness, the author really has mined that source for all it’s worth and has pulled out some real gems, giving us a wonderful sense of occult horror tinged with a subtly surreal vibe.

Abnett is known for his strong, character focused writing and the protagonist is sympathetic and engaging, despite being quite damaged and a little strange. It’s worth remembering that the author also has the blackest of hearts and delights in pulling the wool over the eyes of his reader – expect shocks, revelations and to be knocked over by various twists, even when you’re sure that you know what’s coming.

There are a few flaws, of course. The pace is uneven, some of the stranger elements seem a little forced and some of the character descriptions seem deliberately obtuse at times. It’s also part of a trilogy, so the narrative doesn’t so much end as pause, as if waiting for the next novel. This is fine as you know more is coming, but it’s still frustrating. Fans will love this, and those who haven’t read Eisenhorn but are thinking about doing so can be assured that the series continues to improve and delight.

Review: Crown Thief / Author: David Tallerman / Publisher: Angry Robot / Release Date: Out Now

Crown Thief is David Tallerman’s second novel, and sees the return of thief and reluctant hero, Easie Damasco. It’s good to have him back. 

Damasco is one of those characters who could easily fall into trite cliché, but David Tallerman’s writing ensures that this never happens. As in Giant Thief, Damasco is the ultimate victim of circumstance, and it’s often his situation that forces him to act rather than his better judgement. As narrator, he is first to admit this failing, that he is caught up in events rather than the creator of them.

It’s here where the book could fall down; as Easie tells the story, it’s difficult to believe he’s in any real jeopardy – anyone trying to kill a narrator is (usually) going to fail – but that doesn’t mean to say they won’t do him any damage, physically or emotionally. Crown Thief sees up to three would-be assassins on Easie’s tail, providing more jeopardy for the accompanying characters than himself, yet Tallerman’s writing is such that it prevents this from being a concern; if Easie is worried, the reader is worried, so convincing is his voice. 

Another welcome return is Saltlick, the giant who accompanied Easie through the first novel. Saltlick has a smaller part to play in Crown Thief and, although the story doesn’t suffer from it, I missed him. Saltlick’s a simple character, yet this makes him all the more warm and genuine. His interactions with Easie can make the reader laugh or cry, and it’s a shame not to have these characters together more. Easie’s a better person when Saltlick’s around, surprising both himself and the reader with attacks of conscience, and the two of them are becoming one of my favourite fantasy novel pairings.

When Giant Thief arrived at the end of last year, I didn’t expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised. Crown Thief is more of the same, a sequel that matches rather than surpasses the original; nothing too challenging, it’s a light and entertaining read, one that can raise a smile or even shed a tear from the most hardened reader. Tallerman’s strengths as a writer shine through, compensating for a plot that is comparatively simple for a fantasy novel, yet ultimately refreshing for it. Like James Bond, Easie Damasco will return; once again, I’ll be waiting.

Review: Dark Vengeance / Author: C Z Dunn / Publisher: Black Library / Release Date: Out Now

Dark Vengeance is the stand-alone novella that also happens to expand the tale told in the audio drama The Ascension of Balthasar. It’s a short and action packed tale of fastidious space monks (known as Dark Angels) taking on a cult of demon worshipping power-armoured warriors, and is the sort of tale that should be familiar to fans of the franchise. Each chapter, short though they are, has been written from a first person perspective, and the tale jumps around quite a bit. One moment we’re seeing things from the perspective of a spooky space monk with mind reading powers, the next we are a huge mechanical beast living a tortured existence.

Dunn tells the tale quickly and cleverly, setting up the various twists and plot hooks in rapid order and then exploiting them just as quickly. It’s a skilfully woven tale, but because it’s quite short, it also lacks substance. The novella is also £12 for about 125 pages; it may be hard backed, but that’s still a little steep. That said, I am a sucker for tales that tell things from the bad guy’s perspective, and it has some great (and scary) moments; it could just do with being longer.

Both The Ascension of Balthasar and Dark Vengeance have been created to promote the latest edition of the Warhammer 40,000 game, also called Dark Vengeance. Though you could make a case that all of Black Library’s products promote some game or another, these two are direct tie-ins, so much so that you can almost picture the little toy soldiers in your head whilst you’re reading it. Neither of them read like adverts however, they seem more like a way of enhancing the imagination of those who are interested in the game. Unlike a lot of the Black Library range, Dark Vengeance is perhaps best consumed by those who are heavily into Warhammer 40,000, simply because it is so plugged into its source of inspiration.

Review: Where’s My Shoggoth? / Author: Ian Thomas / Publisher: Archaia / Art: Adam Bolton / Release Date: Out Now

When I was growing up, the really cool and creepy things were hard to get your hands on. Children weren’t supposed to go near genuinely scary ideas, and so we had to make do with low quality Halloween costumes, vampire teeth, and if we were very lucky, the occasional horror comic. It was years before I even heard of some of the more classic horror stories, and many people thought it was all genuinely nasty rather than spooky fun.

These days of course, you can go online and find all the spooky fun you want. Parents can happily ease their children into the idea of scary stories, and show them how to have fun with the dark and weird. Sometimes, this can be a little kitsch (such as Cthullhu baby costumes), but when done well, it can be a great experience for everyone. A fantastic example of this is Where’s My Shoggoth, a children’s book aimed at all ages.

This glow-in-the-dark stocking filler draws its inspiration from the works of HP Lovecraft, and treats that elderly (and difficult to get into) work with a joy-filled heart and a tongue rammed firmly into its cheek. This is a beautiful book, each page lavishly illustrated by Adam Bolton. The story is about a child looking for its shoggoth, a horrible monster from Lovecraft’s classic story At the Mountains of Madness, and is short, funny, clever and apes the style of many a children’s book. Ian Thomas has a real wit and really captures the things that people love about monsters and HP Lovecraft. The tale really flows, and is the sort of thing you can happily read out aloud.

This a firmly recommended gift for anyone in life who has a taste for the bizarre, or if you fancy a pretty looking and personality filled book to show off to your friends

Review: Throne of the Crescent Moon / Author: Saladin Ahmed / Publisher: Gollancz / Release Date: December 31st

At first glance, we thought Throne of the Crescent Moon would be light reading. Its easy flowing style seemed like a fun diversion. The next thing we knew, the entire day had vanished. Reader beware; Ahmed has the power to mesmerise even the most hardened of fantasy fans and suck you into his deceptively simple yet incredibly rich and involved worlds.

This is the tale of Doctor Adoulla Makhsood, the last ghul hunter who has long since gone to seed. He’s a chap who’s gotten older and more cunning rather than wiser, and he swiftly finds himself dipped into a world of intrigue when a series of mysterious murders starts causing a stir amongst the citizens of the great city of Dhamsawaat. He teams up with a chap who is essentially a younger, dumber version of himself and a mysterious stranger with an unusual secret, and goes out to find out what is happening.

So far, so simple? However the city itself is a rich and interesting setting, it heaves with people and personality. Ahmed has set the entire tale in a world inspired by the legends of the Middle East, and you can almost feel the sunbaked walls of the city on every page.  Dhamsawaat is as much a character as Doctor Makhsood and his companions, and there is a real investment in the characters here.

Throne of the Crescent Moon is a fun fantasy novel, and comes from the school of entertaining swords and sorcery tales that don’t have a point to prove, they’re just a great way to waste time. If you like your fantasy engaging and character driven, with a nice dollop of action, give this a look, but be aware that it benefits from being read in a single sitting; it takes a while to build up momentum, so make sure you have a day free.

Book Review: Not Flesh Nor Feathers / Author: Cherie Priest / Publisher: Titan / Release Date: Out Now

This is the first UK edition of this wonderful slice of Southern-fried Gothic from Cherie Priest, perhaps best known on these shores as the author of Hugo and Nebula-nominated steampunk opus Boneshaker. Published Stateside by Tor Books in 2007, it’s the third entry in her Eden Moore Trilogy, following on from Four and Twenty Blackbirds (released here by Titan this past Feb) and Wings to the Kingdom (May).

Like the young hero of the recent Paranorman, Eden Moore can see and converse with ghosts and, thanks to past escapades, has earned no small amount of local notoriety. Her services are soon enlisted by TV news reporter Nick, who wants the skinny on a particularly malignant haunting by a ‘Woman in White’ in Room 236 of a nearby hotel. In fact, this is such a disturbed entity that Eden barely leaves the room alive, and probably wouldn’t have had her body not developed the power to regenerate itself as a result of an earlier exploit.

Meanwhile, townsfolk speak in hushed tones of disappearances down at the riverside, where some development work is taking place and a sinister find has been covered up by the company. Things get a whole lot worse when a nearby dam breaks in the middle of a catastrophic storm, not only flooding the town, but bringing a legion of the walking dead back from their watery graves. And while they might not be of the flesh-eating, contagious variety, they are every bit as deadly. What has brought these creatures back to life and what do they want? And what does this have to do with the mad ghost in Room 236 and a mysterious crime committed over eighty years ago?

You’ll be hooked on this page-turner from the outset, thanks to Priest’s crackling first person prose and sassy, smart, realistic dialogue. The characters, especially Eden herself, are likeable and, for the most part, believable. The flood and its ensuing chaos are described with such verisimilitude that the reader feels as though one is hearing a first hand eyewitness account. Some elements of the scenario may be dependent on a little backstory, but the novel still reads perfectly well as a standalone opus. Which isn’t to say don’t seek out the previous two entries.

As it stands, this forms the end of a trilogy, but who knows; if enough of us buy and read this one then perhaps we can tempt Priest into bringing Eden Moore back for another adventure sometime. On the strength of this, I certainly hope so.