Review Category: Books

The Ascension of Balthasar / By: C Z Dunn / Release Date: October / Available From: The Black Library

The Dark Angels are a mainstay of the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. They are elusive monk-like space knights who seek to atone for sins committed thousands of years ago. Secretive and vengeful, The Ascension of Balthasar is a typical Dark Angels tale, filled with deception, lies and violence, in which a squad of these warriors seek out an ancient foe, and get embroiled in a conflict that changes the nature of the team forever.

Dunn has filled this adventure with serious and gritty characters and layered on as much gothic grimness as humanly possible, whilst at the same time lending a cinematic bent to the story. You can easily imagine this as a short action movie, and it’s a tale filled with rockets, explosions and hellish brutes. The production standards on the audio are as strong as ever; the voice acting is superb, with a wide and varied cast of brilliant British vocal talent. Despite being a clear tie-in to a new Games Workshop product, The Ascension of Balthasar builds on its source of inspiration to create something that’s a lot of fun.

The boxed set also comes with an additional disc filled with extras. In addition to the usual trailers (for other audios), some wallpapers and some setting material, it also comes with the full audio script, which is a nice touch.

This is a must-have for 40K fans, and will also appeal to those who fancy a nicely action packed romp.

Review: Mars Attacks / Publisher: Abrams Comic Arts / Format: Hardcover / Release Date: Out Now

Timed perfectly to coincide with the property’s fiftieth anniversary, Abrams Comic Arts’ fourth book dedicated to the most seminal of Topps trading cards of old leaves the best to last – Mars Attacks. For the first time (unless you’re one of the very few filthy rich collectors out there) you can now enjoy the entire original 55-card set of the gloriously gory bubblegum cards reprinted in one handy tome.

Each side of the card is granted its own full page – the back featuring key developer Len Brown’s description, and the front depicting those wonderfully pulpy painting and hyperbolic headlines. While this is chiefly an art book it’s a joy to finally get to read the series narrative properly, with Brown’s blurb adding depth to each card. Who knew the victim in the (one time) controversial Prize Captive card managed to get away from her attacker, for example? (Okay, so she was probably destroyed by a frost ray or giant centipede a couple of minutes later, but still.) And if you thought Earth prevailed against its Martian marauders due to Natalie Portman’s novel use of a gramophone, think again. Not how it went down in ’62.

Printed alongside the cards is a running commentary providing interesting incites into the line, including information on the cards conception, production and, ultimately, public reaction. None of these went as Topps had planned, it must be noted.

Not only is this book a celebration of the original 1962 run, it also goes further to include later incarnations of the concept, including all 11-previously unpublished cards that were tagged onto the Mars Attacks Archives re-runs in 1994 (standout, Slaughter in the Suburbs); their comic book spin-offs (that judged against what’s come before, completely, like Tim Burton, fail woefully to catch that same vibe of the originals); early concept sketches; and the laughable attempts at a ‘cut version’ of reissues. These sanitized editions depicted doctored artwork with so little thought that they result in some wonderfully weird curios such as Beast and the Beauty – which now features a mustachioed bloke in lieu of terrified lady – and Destroying a Dog 2.0 has the Martian’s death ray blowing a hole through an army officer rather than a canine. (‘Cos that’s way less troubling.) You’d have thought Topps wouldn’t have been so thrifty as to not change the caption too, now that none of these versions made sense. Ill-judged as they are, they’re fascinating nonetheless.

Mars Attacks is bookended by humorous accounts from Len Brown (who details his quite incredible journey from teenage fan to Topps developer), and artist Zina Saunders, daughter of the card series’ primary painter Norm Saunders. Turns out that even at nine years old, she played a small but crucial role in the making of the Mars Attacks that we know and love…

As with Abrams’ previous release dedicated to Topps’ Garbage Pail Kids, the four exclusive, never-before-produced set of cards that come included are worthy of purchase alone.

Ack ack… ACK ACK ACK ACK ACK ACK ACK!!!

Translated:

Review: The Art of Wreck-It Ralph / Author: Maggie Malone and Jennifer Lee Monn / Publisher: Chronicle Books / Release Date: November 1st

You’d think that reviewing a coffee table book in the style “making of” or “the art of” would be quite difficult. That we wouldn’t have much to say than “Oh, what a pretty picture” or “That must have taken a while to build!” But with The Art of Wreck-It Ralph we had no such problems, as the book oozes that certain magic and wonder that Disney are all about.

The key to this art book’s success, to us, is the passion in which the subject matter is written about is evident from the very first page. Animation legend and all around creative genius, John Lasseter provides the forward and speaks of his excitement for the project and the scale of what was undertaken at Disney animation studios. And the introduction from Director, Rich Moore reinforces this.

We are provided with various concept images for the game’s characters and environments. And the amount of time spent creating these must have been staggering. This reviewer’s favourite aspect of the book is that we get to have a rare look at the storyboards for the movie; we can see how scenes will be shaped and sequenced ahead of time and it provides a great insight into Ralph’s digital world.

The book itself is a beautifully bound hardcover which features an embossed, 8-bit portrait of the story’s hero, Wreck-It Ralph. The passages are somewhat short and are broken down into easy to manage paragraphs and are backed up by some of the most beautiful development art we have seen in a long time. Wreck-It Ralph is yet to be released in cinemas, so all views on the film have had to be previously drawn from the trailer footage, which admittedly looked superb. But seeing how the animators and creatives over at Disney have arrived at their final product via The Art of Wreck-It Ralph is an interesting and enjoyable experience. It’s cliché to say that we couldn’t put this book down, but we genuinely couldn’t! The sheer scale of an animated project like this is astounding and we were enthralled by the dedication and love of the project from its creators.

Book Review: Dracula Cha Cha Cha (Reprint Edition) / Author: Kim Newman / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: October 26th

First published in the ’90s, Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula novels can be credited with paving the way for such popular contemporary genres as steampunk and the mash-up – but let’s not hold that against them. Rather than being defeated by Van Helsing and co as in Bram Stoker’s book, in this alternative history the Prince of Darkness triumphs against his enemies and marries Queen Victoria, ushering in a new age, with old vampires coming out of the coffin and new vampires proliferating in every walk of life. It’s a cracking idea, and Newman handles it with the same combination of wit and erudition that has made him such a well-loved movie pundit.

Dracula Cha Cha Cha, the third in the series and the last of the original group (another is coming very soon), takes place in Rome in 1959. Dracula (who has gone through various ups and down since his days with Her Majesty) is due to tie the knot with a Moldavian princess, with the who’s-who of the vampire world in town for the occasion. Unfortunately, it looks like not all of them will make to the wedding, because a masked crusader is taking the opportunity to go around slaying vampire elders. Kate Reed, crusading journalist and the most mousey, unassuming bloodsucker you could hope to meet, sets out timorously to investigate.

One of the features of the Anno Dracula novels in the way in which they cheerfully plunder other films and books for characters and ideas. This one makes free with Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (including the famous Trevi fountain scene, which here ends in a mess of undead grue) and Dario Argento’s Three Mothers mythology. The fictional characters who get roped in include versions of James Bond and Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley, and real-life personages such as Orson Welles and Fritz Lang also make cameo appearances.

Identifying these references is good trainspotting fun, but as a way of writing a novel it has its drawbacks. All of the Anno Dracula books suffer from a seepage of momentum as the story is bent out of shape to accommodate the homages that Newman is determined to cram in, and consequently you end up enjoying them for the parts rather than the whole. This is especially so with Dracula Cha Cha Cha, whose plot is rather slight in comparison to the cleverness that’s lumped upon it. That said, the period setting is very chic and you get to see a 500-year-old vampire chick riding a Vespa. Rounding out this volume is a juicy new novella, Aquarius, set in 1968, which tips its hat to Antonioni’s Blow-Up and a number of cop shows. It zips along nicely, raising hopes for the long-awaited fourth book in the series.

Book Review: Digital Rapture – The Singularity Anthology / Editors: James Patrick Kelly & John Kessel / Publisher: Tachyon / Release Date: Out Now

“The acceleration of technological progress has been the central feature in the century. We are on the edge of a change comparable to the rise of Human life on Earth. The precise cause of this change is the imminent creation by technology of entities with greater than human intelligence” – Vernor Vinge

This book is a looking glass into our technological future, portraying benefits and dangers and explores questions about what the next steps in human evolution may be. Are we at a dead end with the only path from here being a leap into fusion with machines? What would the implications be of this transition into the unknown? Could it be the technological apocalypse and the end of humanity? Someday we could all end up as immortal posthumans, linked by a hive mind. The knowledge we would all have would be wondrous, and the feeling of unity and connection, but there would also be a loss of identity, individuality, and privacy. Do we really want to be suped-up Frankenstein’s monsters?

These ideas and more are depicted in this anthology, which is brought together and edited by two Nebula award winning writers, James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel. Digital Rapture contains four sections, The End Of The Humans Era, The Post Humans, Across the Event Horizon, and The Others. Being comprised of 19 individual stories/essays by science fiction masters and some more recently emerging talents, it’s a nice pick and mix for people wanting to discover different authors in the sci-fi field, you are bound to discover an author you want to consume more of.

As a whole the book is enjoyable and really gets your imagination going into overdrive about what may happen in the future but with such a mix there will be some stories which don’t appeal as much. It was a strange choice to include chapter 6 of Odd John by Olaf Stapledon in the anthology, it’s the right subject matter but it just seems a bit lost. I hear it’s a classic but just the one chapter by itself seemed a little disconnected, and less enjoyable without finding out what happened in the previous chapters. In fact one of the best parts about this book is that it really shows how great writers can express so much in just a few pages, one of the strongest stories in the whole book was the shortest, which comes in at 5 pages long, Day Million by Frederik Pohl. And there are a handful of others which tell their stories in less than 15 pages. Other highlights include The Last Question by Isaac Asimov, Greg Egan’s Crystal Nights, and The Cookie Monster by Vernor Vinge.

Some believe the technological Singularity is closer than you would think, possibly within our lifetime, so embrace humanity as we know it whilst you still can! We recommend this anthology for futurists or anyone with an inquisitive mind.

Book Review: Professor Gargoyle – Tales From Lovecraft Middle School #1 / Author: Charles Gilman / Publisher: Quirk Books / Release Date: October 25th

It’s HP Lovecraft for kids, minus the racism. Young Robert Arthur is the new kid at Lovecraft Middle School, a creepy cross between Grange Hill and Hogwarts. There he encounters school bullies, two-headed rats and a sinister science teacher named Garfield Goyle.

It’s not exactly The Evil Dead, but Professor Gargoyle is still an enjoyable tale. Were I fifteen years younger, I would have lapped up Tales from Lovecraft Middle School as I did the Goosebumps and Demon Headmaster books. The story is fast paced and interesting enough, the characters chummy and relatable. There are lessons to be learned too, as the book teaches its younger readers how to deal with bullies and cope with moving to a new school. The best lesson, however, is in its dedication to the cause of Lovecraft. We were surprised by just how much Gilman manages to pack in there.

Attempts to appeal to adult readers are appreciated, with cheeky references to Lovecraft locations (Dunwich, of course) and even a nod to one Crawford Tillinghast, of From Beyond fame. Even the mighty Cthulu pops up occasionally, amidst guttural chants of “kyaloh yog-sothoth f’ah” and pleas to shub-niggurath (okay, maybe the author’s awful xenophobia hasn’t been completely excised). There’s a genuine sense that Professor Gargoyle was written by a man who knows and loves his horror. The book is a little too childish for lone adult reading, but it’d be fun enough for those parents who still bother reading to their children. Good luck in explaining the concept of The Old Ones to your kids, though (“well, son, The Old Ones are the things that were and shall be again”) and remember, keep away from the bloody Necronomicon, should you decide to do any further reading. We all remember what happened to that lovely Bruce Campbell when he found the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis audio book in the woods.

The story comes with a number of lovely illustrations (one of which is genuinely creepy and a little reminiscent of the old V television series) and a truly fantastic front cover. Beyond the Lovecraft references and pretty packaging, Professor Gargoyle is actually a rather conventional piece of young fiction. But to HP scholars and obsessives like us, it can do no wrong.

Stopping to consider that Professor Gargoyle is effectively a sequel to From Beyond for children, you have to admire the author’s ambition. Any book which attempts to teach HP Lovecraft to children will forever have our approval.

Book Review: Coldbrook / Author: Tim Lebbon / Publisher: Hammer / Release Date: October 11th

In a hidden research facility, deep in the Appalachian mountains, a team of scientists achieve the impossible. They create a portal to an alternate Earth. Just as they are celebrating their success, however, something comes through the portal and unleashes a plague of the undead that threaten to wipe out the human race. Only one woman seems to be immune, but there are millions of walking corpses between her and the team of scientists who hope she can provide a cure.

Yes, Coldbrook is a zombie novel, and one or two of you are no doubt thinking that the alternate reality zombie had already been covered by the increasingly bad Marvel Zombies comic books. While it’s true that both pieces of work share a very basic premise, Coldbrook is a very different kind of zombie story.

That’s not to say that most of the old tropes are not present and correct. They are, and let’s be honest here – most lovers of zombie novels would have been a little disappointed if they weren’t. Everything from the panicking staff member who breaks the containment rules, to the characters being trapped with low ammunition and surrounded by ravenous zombie hordes. Make no mistake, this is a proper zombie story, complete with numerous high tension set pieces and enough blood to please even the most discerning gore hound. We even get both the running and shambling undead, with a neat explanation of the differences between them. Some purists may complain about that, but it all makes sense in the context of the story.

What starts to set Coldbrook apart from the rest of the pack is the alternate reality plot. Rather than simply being a mechanism for getting the zombies onto the planet, the concept of infinite worlds becomes an integral and fascinating part of the story. It’s no longer just one world that’s threatened by the undead plague, but an infinite number. That sets the stakes very high, and the introduction of an external antagonist who seems to be unleashing the undead on countless Earths takes them higher still. Once things get going, the plot is incredibly fast paced and makes for compelling reading.

That’s not to say that the book isn’t without some issues. The biggest one really is that for some large sections it really is just another zombie story, albeit an entertaining and well written one. There are only so many times you can read about the same things happening over and over again, especially when the alternative reality plot line was so much more interesting. There was one character in particular that readers could find it difficult to empathise with and so in the scenes where that character is in peril from the zombie hordes, some people may find themselves rooting for the zombies. It would also have been nice to get a more definitive answer on what the undead were, and what force was driving them. Because the science was well explained throughout the book, it felt like an omission that we didn’t find out more about this particular breed of zombie and what created them.

Those minor points aside, Coldbrook is a heart pounding, blood drenched, yet intelligent and original take on the undead. It successfully blends the horror, fantasy and science fiction elements into an utterly compelling and satisfying story that stays with you after the book is finished. Zombie stories don’t get much better than this.

Book Review: Empty Space – A Haunting / Author: M. John Harrison / Publisher: Gollancz / Release Date: Out Now

Only a narrow-minded snob or someone who isn’t very well read thinks that science fiction isn’t as valid or mature as other literary genres. M. John Harrison produces work comparable to other lauded science fiction novelists such as Iain M Banks or Margaret Atwood, though alas is not as well known, and Empy Space lives up to the high level of expectation his past works have produced, and a product of his trademark skill of ignoring the limitations of genre and simply producing a cracking tale.

Empty Space is a tale that crosses time and space; we have separate incidents running in parallel to each other, intersecting at points. They are skilfully woven together and it’s hard to see the join. This is a ghost story without ghosts, a mystery filled with revelations. It’s blunt, visceral and deeply strange in places. This is a world where the future is bleak because people have made it that way; it’s a nightmarish future where everyday wonders are taken for granted and nothing is ever seen as sacred. It’s very human, and this is what makes it disturbing.

Harrison is an addictive read, and his style is instantly engaging, intelligent and quite beautiful. It is not, however, an easy read. This is a deep story, and the third (and probably final) part in the Kefahuchi Tract series. You really should read Light and Nova Swing before tackling Empty Space; you’ll get much more out of it.  Fans of the movie The Fountain, and those who love the weird and perverse should get a lot out of this. It’s an odd book, but very pretty in a strange sort of way.

Book Review: Orion Vault of Winter / Author: Darius Hinks / Publisher: Black Library / Release Date: Out Now

Wood Elves are a common mainstay of many fantasy worlds, and are quite often a strange fit; forest dwelling, bow wielding magical races may be part of the furniture, but they often seem an unnecessary garnish onto already well worked out fantasy worlds. So it’s rather refreshing that Orion Vault of Winter deals almost exclusively with these often ignored and frequently underestimated creatures.

Set in the Warhammer fantasy world, Orion Vault of Winter tells the tale of the Orion, God of the Wood Elves, cursed to obey the fall and the rise of the seasons through a cycle of death and rebirth. Alas, the blessed woods that the elves inhabit are under siege by the forces of Nurgle, lord of rot and decay, and thus the rightful inhabitants of the land must fight to protect the very thing that defines them.

What this allows Hinks to do is create a series of set pieces, some exploring the nature of the pagan beings that control the forest, and others simply being extremely bloody battle sequences. We get to read about all manner of ghastly Beastmen beating the tar out of Wood Elves, and vice versa. The problem is that the pace between these moments is rather slow, and sadly, the scenes themselves seem hampered by the setting. Black Library books tend to expand upon the worlds they are inspired by, but in this case the action is actually restricted by the existing setting material, making it predictable in places. However, if you’re a fan of the Warhammer setting, or a secret Legolas groupie, you will enjoy Orion Vault of Winter a lot, though we suspect the sequel will be better.

Book Review: The Ravenglass Eye / Author: Tom Fletcher / Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books / Release Date: Out Now

The narrator of this quirky shocker is Edie, chef of The Tup, a family pub in the village of Ravenglass, in gloomily picturesque Cumbria. When she isn’t serving up cooked breakfasts and steak and chips, she tends to keep to herself, politely fending off advances from local suitors. Because Edie harbours a secret – she has the Eye, the ability to see visions.

Then she accidentally awakens an evil spirit lurking inside an ancient stone circle, and it proposes a deal – a small quantity of her blood, in exchange for greatly enhanced powers. What makes the offer tempting is that Edie is pretty sure that one of The Tup’s regulars is a murderer, and she longs to know for sure.

Predictably enough, things soon get out of hand as the bloodthirty demon flexes its muscles. The strength of the book is in the initial setup, with its cosy pub chatter and rain-sodden rural landscapes. Also very appealing is Edie herself, an independent-spirited ladette with a troubled heart. Fletcher writes with an engagingly light touch, in an artfully meandering style which reflects Edie’s numb, perplexed state of mind. Throw in a very earthy brand of weirdness – as when an elderly local farmer, a forlorn widower, confesses to having kinky orgies with some oversexed local fae – and you have a book which isn’t entirely successful but which at least tries to do something different with the horror genre.