Review Category: Books

Book Review: The Corpse Rat King / Author: Lee Battersby / Publisher: Angry Robot  / Release Date: Out Now

First impressions count in storytelling as much as they do in reality, so when we first meet Marius Hellespont, the protagonist of The Corpse Rat King, we see him picking the belongings of the bodies of fallen soldiers, and know exactly how far this man can fall. Or so we think. Rather than being some sort of dark, gritty fantasy cliché, filled with sorrow, lament and introspection on how precious every moment is, what we get is a well pitched fantasy romp filled with good ideas and clever moments.

Poor Marius picks the wrong corpse, that of the recently slain king, and for his troubles, finds himself thrust into the land of the dead, cursed to roam the land looking for someone to rule the underworld. Of course, being less hero and more a weasel in human form, Marius does his best to out-run his fate, which presents a lot of problems as the dead are everywhere, and far outnumber the living.

Battersby mixes dark sensibilities with a pitch perfect sense of humour and strong talent for action. The main characters are likeable enough, and it is written in an easy going, cinematic style that really suits the story. We get immersed into the land of Scorby, with its mad kings, endless poor and hidden magic, whilst somehow keeping a foot in the real world, despite a heavy dose of wild fantasy. This is a tale of con-men, their victims and the undead, and will appeal to fans of Scott Lynch or Mark Lawrence, or anyone who likes a not-so-loveable rogue.

Review: Chosen of Khorne / Writer: Anthony Reynolds / Release Date: Out Now

The Black Library has gone from strength to strength when it comes to their audio dramas. Given that the Warhammer 40,000 setting is so very large and filled with a great many strange and complicated things, audio suits the franchise splendidly; after all, the pictures you make in your head are usually much better than that of any Hollywood budget. This sort of thing works especially well in tales that feature the outlandish and bizarre, and this is why Chosen of Khorne is a great choice for such a thing.

This is a gladiatorial tale, featuring one of the main characters from the setting, Kharn the Betrayer, a metahuman brute blessed by the dark god of blood and war to wreak vengeance upon humanity. The story is told from two perspectives, the inhuman Kharn and pitifully mortal Malven, a human seneschal who works for a powerful warlord. Kharn has been selected to act as champion for this warlord, and has to fight a warped and twisted Imperial Space Marine which has devolved into a horrifically mutated and savage warrior, whilst being egged on by an arena filled with the strangest of hell-twisted freaks.

The tale suffers, somewhat, from Kharn being the only signature character in the entire piece; though it’s nice to see him get the spotlight, it does rather reduce the sense of peril. We do get a lovely sense of what it’s like to be a metahuman psychotic killer blessed by hell-bound forces, however.

Renolds narrative paints a powerful picture of hell-torn cities and desperate stuggles between fallen angels, and the production standards are superb as always. As much as it is nice to see the darker heroes in the Warhammer 40,000 setting getting an outing, this piece is mostly atmosphere and little substance; it’s great choice for lifting spirits during house chores and is the audio-book equivalent of a heavy metal album,  despite the tale being rather one-note.

Book Review: A Brief Guide to James Bond / Author: Nigel Cawthorne / Publisher: Robinson / Release Date: Out Now

A Brief Guide to James Bond does exactly what it says on the tin; it provides the reader with a brief glimpse into the world of James Bond and the background of the books, films and other assorted Bondage. However, what the title doesn’t tell you is that the book itself is woefully lacking. True, it’s not called a “comprehensive” guide, but “brief” doesn’t mean incomplete. It means short, concise, and quick. Indeed, when you’re given a brief, you’re given all the information you need to complete your task.

Call us old-fashioned, but we always thought that a guide that professed to be “encyclopedic” should be certain of that claim before it goes around making promises that its contents can’t cash. The main bits we had issue with were the summaries of the books and films. At their worst they read like bad fanfiction (perhaps an occupational hazard of summarising Bond movies) and at their best they omitted events crucial to the understanding of the story. There were several passages where he says things like “the gangsters return” or “she thought Bond could be another gangster” and the reader is left to wonder what gangsters he could possibly be talking about. (One example that springs to mind is on page 213, when Vivienne Michel is being described.) This is especially damaging if the reader hasn’t read the book or seen the film in question before.

The book does work as a reference guide, but it’s very much not the be-all and end-all of Bond books. (For one thing, it can’t even decide on an origin for the name James Bond – confusingly describing both as if they were the one true explanation.)

Possibly the only purpose this would serve is being given to a relative who needs to know about Bond quickly for some reason (we can’t imagine why). This would be an average book but for the mistakes listed above, which hardly lends it an air of quality. It pains us to use such wordplay but when you talk about Bond it’s practically a given – this book left us neither shaken nor stirred.

Book Review: A Brief Guide to Star Wars / Author: Brian J. Robb / Publisher: Robinson / Release Date: Out Now

It all started in a way that so many writers will sympathise with – the trouble of staring at a blank page hoping that by some divine magic, the words will appear and form something beautiful. And over a period of time in the early 1970s, they did, and Star Wars was born.

A Brief Guide To Star Wars tells this story and so many more, thanks to Brian J. Robb’s years of experience as a journalist for and editor of Star Wars Insider. It takes you from Lucas’ challenging high school and college years all the way to his current projects, the future and exhaustively discusses everything in between.

We think it would be fair to say that biographies have a reputation for being a bit too favourable towards the author and dedicated to portraying them in a positive light. Fortunately, the book’s unofficial status allows it to bypass that and while it never tears into Lucas in the way that fans might like to see it tear into him (for instance, over the Special Editions/Han Shot First controversy or the atrocious dialogue of the prequel trilogy), it’s not afraid to remind us that he’s not perfect. It also reminds us how film-making is such a collaborative pursuit, so to credit one man for Star Wars is ultimately futile.

Not content with telling us how Lucas started the trilogy and shepherded it along to its conclusion (of sorts) in 2005, Robb also brings us a host of information that was certainly new to us! For instance, while it is a matter of public record that Lucas divorced his first wife around the time of the completion of the original saga, this reviewer had never quite found out why until now. And some of you might not have been aware that the cartoon that officially introduced Boba Fett to Star Wars is available as an extra on the recently released Star Wars Blu-ray set as an Easter egg.

What we were afraid of with this book was that it would just cover the same ground that was covered in the same old “Making Of” books. While we can’t guarantee that you won’t already know everything in this book (we don’t have direct access to your accumulated knowledge, after all), we’re certain that if you’re a casual fan, you’ll take your first step into a larger world. May the Force be with you.

Book Review: The Doctor’s Monsters – Meanings of the Monstrous in Doctor Who / Author: Graham Sleight / Publisher: I.B Tauris & Co Ltd / Release Date: Out Now

As Matt Smith’s Doctor battles his way through mad Daleks, angry cyborgs and Mitchell and Webb, sci-fi scholar and critic Graham Sleight takes his own trip through almost fifty years of Timelord history to provide a semi-comprehensive history of the Doctor’s monsters.

The Doctor’s Monsters: Meanings of the Monstrous in Doctor Who posits that many – if not all – of the creatures and monsters the Doctor faces all have meaning, reason and subtext. The Daleks are the series’ answer to Nazis – their nasal goose-stepping (or hovering, rather) a response to Hitler’s ideals of genetic purity. The Cybermen are a play on fears of surgery, and so on. There’s a lot of philosophical musing to Sleight’s well-researched, chunky encyclopaedia. As well as the philosophical, psychological content, Sleight also does a fine line in story recaps and criticism. My first introduction to the Doctor was with Russell Davies’ series reboot, so I was grateful for the history and content Sleight provides. I would have liked to see more on the Doctor himself, or the Master but the ‘monsters only’ approach does mean that there’s very little mention of the dreadful River Song or vastly overrated Rose Tyler. Those monsters that Sleight doesn’t get to in the bulk of the book are referenced in a neat catch-all A-Z in the last few pages, which attempts to fill in any gaps. It’s not comprehensive (with so much history and several lost episodes, it never could be) but it comes close.

The Doctor’s Monsters should be well received amongst casual fans of the Doctor as well as those with a little more knowledge of the character’s rich history. For me, the book will serve as impetus for me to finally seek out some of those older episodes referenced by Sleight. His passion for the subject is delightfully infectious.

Don’t let the somewhat cheap cover put you off – The Doctor’s Monsters is well written, well researched and very readable. The writer’s passion for the subject matter is evident throughout, his findings insightful and interesting. While some may accuse the book of overthinking its subject or reading like a series of essays, I would argue that Doctor Who is a series that rewards the thought and exploration that Sleight provides. Its history is far too rich to dismiss as soon as the next Doctor, showrunner or series comes along.The Doctor’s Monsters is a fun and illuminating read for fans of Who new and old.

Book Review: Let the Old Dreams Die / Author: John Ajvide Lindqvist / Publisher: Quercus / Release Date: Out Now

Whatever came of Oskar and Eli after the events of Let the Right One In? Or the zombies’ families following Handling the Undead? Swedish horror author John Ajvide Lindqvist answers these questions and more in Let the Old Dreams Die, a book of haunting, romantic, funny and chilling short stories which reacquaints us with old characters and introduces us to creations new. And yes, ‘let the old dreams die’ is another line from a song by the Smiths (the one which directly follows ‘let the right one in’, in fact).

Those expecting a proper sequel to Let the Right One In may be disappointed by the direction which Lindqvist decides to take the story. It’s an epilogue rather than a sequel, and one in which Oskar and Eli barely figure. In the book’s personable afterword, Lindkvist himself states that the story came about due to a need to clarify an ambiguity with Let the Right One In that he wasn’t too happy with. Taken on its own merits, it’s a sweet, darkly romantic little tale which is as readable alone as it is a sort-of sequel to Let the Right One In. Personally I preferred the ambiguity the novel left us with, but it is the author’s prerogative to steer the story as he sees fit. 

His other little sequel is The Final Processing, which brings back the zombies and their families from Handling the Undead. That book might be less well known than his famous vampire novel, but it’s a very interesting take on zombie fiction. As they are wont to do within a horror universe, the dead suddenly return to life. But instead of being the George A. Romero style brain munchers we all know and love, they’re much less deadly and more emotionally affecting. Lindqvist’s return to this world is a more traditional sequel than Let the Old Dreams Die, but still very worthwhile. The romantic undercurrent runs through, with yet another sweet romance amongst lost souls.

His sequels may be the main attraction, but that’s not to say that the other stories are disposable, by any means. There are eleven stories in the anthology, each one gripping and different. The best story in the book is the opening tale, Borders. A disfigured, lonely border guard forms an unlikely friendship during a chance encounter with a very strange individual and his dark secret. The tale heads in an entirely unexpected direction and there’s even a cheeky reference to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series hidden there too. To say more – about this or any of the other stories – would be to spoil the fun of Lindqvist’s work, in which very little is as it first appears.

Let the Old Dreams Die is a haunting, playful collection of stories by one of horror’s most original voices. Lindkvist is a master of subverting sub-genres of horror. While these tales are a little more straightforward than his longer form work, they’re very gripping, soulful and imaginative. It’s perhaps the best collection of stories I’ve read since Clive Barker’s Books of Blood.

As if we didn’t know already, Lindquist remains one of the most imaginative, original and affable voices in horror today. In the words of the mighty Morrissey himself: I will advise you until my mouth dries, I will advise you to Let the Right One In.

Book Review: House of Psychotic Women / Author: Kier-La Janisse / Publisher: FAB Press / Release Date: September 29th

Subtitled “An autobiographical topography of female neurosis in horror and exploitation films”, this is a rather remarkable look at the horror genre as seen not only through the eyes of the author, (a highly regarded writer who has written for Rue Morgue and Fangoria as well as programming several US and Canadian film festivals) but also how she relates to them through a rather turbulent personal life. Taking its title from the US re-naming of the 1973 Paul Naschy film, The Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll, the union of real life traumas and psychological and often extreme horror films makes for compulsive if uneasy reading. Janisse’s dissections of the films are as brutally honest and insightful as the passages on her own life, family and relationships. This blending works perfectly, and in doing so opens the reader up to make their own connection to the films that they may have parallels to themselves. We may not all have had experiences nor upbringings like Janisse, but we may have traits that push us to love the grotesque and often disturbing films we watch.

While the obvious titles are covered; Black Swan, Repulsion, Antichrist and Carrie, there are also a plethora of films that only the most hardened horror buffs would have come across such as Venus Drowning, A Gun for Jennifer and an array of foreign titles.

After the obligatory but nevertheless impressive 30+ page colour photo section, the final 150 pages are made up of mini film reviews of key films, again with many rare and obscure titles getting some well deserved and reasoned attention. This mini encyclopaedia is almost worth the price alone. The book is illustrated throughout with many rare stills and film posters and looks marvelous.

The book has been available as a limited edition hardback from the FAB press website for a while (and very few copies remain), but now the paperback has hit the shelves and online stores there is no reason not to purchase! Highly recommended.

Review: The Paradise Prophecy / Author: Robert Browne / Publisher: SIGNET / Release Date: Out Now

In this globe-trotting adventure, a Brazilian pop idol apparently burns herself to death, and kick-ass US spy Bernadette Callahan is sent to investigate. It’s all a bit of a puzzler, until she teams up with religious historian and psychic Sebastian LaLaurie. Soon they’re uncovering a plot by a group of fallen angels to end the world as we know it.

The storyline is silly and convoluted in a Dan Brown-ish way, with a broad fantasy element thrown in. As ever, the key to what is going on lies in the work of a celebrated historical personage – this time, the poet John Milton. Robert Browne makes heroic efforts to give this dusty schoolroom figure a bit of sexiness. (He hated the monarchy! He met Galileo! He had long hair!) But a guy who wrote a big old poem that bores the crap out of you is never going to be as interesting as someone like Da Vinci, who did cool stuff like inventing the helicopter. It all ends in a good-versus-evil showdown that’s just begging for celestial choir sound effects.

The saving grace of the book is Browne’s writing, which is nicely nuanced, and the pairing of Callahan and LaLaurie, who push each other’s buttons in a sparky manner. But with fictional angels becoming as common as pigeons right now, you can’t help but wish these two lively characters were in a more gritty and down-to-earth story. Still, decent airport fodder.

Review: Letters from Father Christmas / Author: J R R Tolkien / Publisher: HarperCollins / Release Date: September 27th

You’ll all be familiar with the way you can buy a kid a present and he’ll end up playing with the wrapping paper instead. One suspects it must have been a bit like that with Tolkien’s Father Christmas letters, which he wrote for his children over a period of more than 20 years – because the best parts are definitely the envelopes.

The reproductions in this book show just how stunning these are, with their coloured lettering, hand-drawn franking marks and hand-painted North Pole postage stamps. The stamps, in particular, are miniature works of art, sometimes painted directly onto the envelope, sometimes stuck on, complete with carefully serrated edges – a philatelist’s dream.

The second best parts are the illustrations accompanying the letters, with their elegant yet child-friendly designs and glowing colours, now looking better than ever in this revised edition. The letters themselves rank a lowly third in interest. In theory, they show Tolkien’s imagination working organically as, over the years, he expands Santa’s set-up, giving him a maladroit helper in the form of Polar Bear, then an elvish scribe to shoulder some of his paperwork and various other background characters, plus some evil gnomes to put his fur-trimmed boot into. But in practice there’s a sameyness to Tolkien’s jokes about gluttony and bone-breaking pratfalls which soon grows wearisome if you read more than a few missives at a time. Still, Tolkien fans might well want this smart new edition for their Christmas stockings.

Review: Trust / Author: David Moody / Publisher: Infected Books / Release Date: Out Now

Trust by David Moody kicks off to an explosive start when moments after being introduced to our protagonist, Tom Winter, a vast, alien spacecraft tears across the heavens, ushering in a new age for mankind. There’s panic in the streets of the local town of Thatcham; roads are swamped as people fight to return to their loved ones or simply cower in shop doorways lost to the sheer grandeur of the thing passing overhead. The end of the world is definitely nigh, and the writing is on the wall. Or is it?

Interestingly, this is where you might expect Trust to be a story about alien invasion, or co-habitation, or the beginning of a Star Trek inspired golden age, yet David Moody circumvents all that to tell a far more personal tale. Tom Winter, unable to cope with the pressures of city life, has returned to Thatcham and his recently deceased father’s house. While the whole world is fixated on the arrival of the Visitors, Tom struggles with a mounting sense of apathy and borderline depression. Each day becomes a battle to prevent his life from pouring down the proverbial drain.

The aliens are dealt with in a gradual way, yet with a certain sense of inevitability, their presence gradually seeping into the story as we go, and this allows for a number of conversations one might imagine actually taking place in the event of a first contact scenario. Everything from Doctor Who to Alien Nation is referenced in some form or the other and illustrates an excellent point that this is a generation raised on a diet of science fiction. The genre as a whole has ingrained itself into our public consciousness and would indeed colour our reactions when encountering an alien species for the first time.

As the Visitors integrate themselves into society, Tom feels increasingly isolated. This isolation is focused, rightly or wrongly, on the Visitors. Technologically more advanced than mankind and hailing from a vision of utopia, the aliens become an ideal focal point with what’s wrong in Tom’s life. But is it that simple? Are the Visitors what they appear to be, or is Tom being paranoid, bigoted, even racist? It comes down to a matter of trust. A quality distinctly lacking in Tom Winter’s life.

Before you think that’s all there is to Trust, remember this is a novel by David Moody, author of the Autumn and Hater series. And in the final act, Trust opens up to a truly cosmic scale with far-reaching consequences for all concerned.

Trust is a slow-burner and all the richer for it. The layers of characters and details of the story play out perfectly when matched with an ending you’re not likely to forget. It’s also an outstanding novel, delivers in more ways than one, and is worthy of a place on the discerning fan’s bookshelf.

But why take our word for it? David Moody is currently serialising the novel on his website. Take a look and see what the fuss is about.