Book Review: The Art of Luke Chueh – Bearing the Unbearable / Author: Luke Chueh / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: Out Now

Luke Chueh – pronounced “chew” for name-dropping purposes – is a luminary of the L.A.-based Pop-Surrealist art movement. Otherwise known as “the bear guy”, Chueh specializes in using cuddly anthropomorphic characters – mainly bears and rabbits, with the occasional monkey or chicken – to embody his personal demons in enchantingly comedic fashion. A teddy paints a target on his chest, a rabbit crops his ears with a pair of scissors to make himself look more like the bear on his T-shirt… Sporting cute titles such as My Happiness Is Riding Your Misery, the result is a form of hip, self-deprecating, confessional art with roots in the Californian singer-songwriter tradition and plenty to say about our image-obsessed popular culture.

This book gathers together over 200 of Cheuh’s paintings. Being between hardcovers suits them very well – they read like panels from a great, lost underground graphic novel, somewhere between Art Spiegelman, Gilbert and George and the Rupert Bear parody in Oz. Titan have pulled out the stops in producing a handsome volume that faithfully captures Chueh’s vibrant stained-glass palette.

But it’s a shame that the text is so flimsy, amounting to no more than a few teasing paragraphs by the artist and some rambling tributes from colleagues (“Thank you for continuing to create. Thank you for creating a world of creative inspiration.” No, thank you, dude.) Given how witty Chueh obviously is, you can’t help wishing a giant bunny had put a gun to his head and forced him to pen a long, indiscreet accompanying memoir. Nonetheless, Bearing the Unbearable is food for thought and a delight to the eye, as well as being a likely talking-point at furry conventions for years to come.

Book Review: Ghoul Interrupted / Author: Victoria Laurie / Publisher: Obsidian / Release Date: June 19th

Victoria Laurie is a professional psychic as well as a best-selling author, so she probably already knows what I’m going to say about this, her sixth Ghost Hunter Mystery. For the benefit of those who can’t see into my head, Ghoul Interrupted is a lively, unpretentious romp that should satisfy Laurie’s existing fans and bring her plenty of new ones. It doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is – light entertainment and an easy read – and that’s why it works. See, I’m not going to say anything unpleasant, so you can put down that voodoo doll, Victoria…

The central character and narrator of the Ghost Hunter Mystery series is M.J. Holliday, a medium with her own ghostbusting reality-TV show, Ghoul Getters. In this novel she takes a break from being in front of the camera in order to track down a vicious three-toed demon that is picking off members of her boyfriend’s family in New Mexico. Said boyfriend, Heath, is Native American, and M.J. is soon sticking her nose into old legends and sacred tribal burial grounds, not to mention some tasty burritos.

The Achilles’ heel of paranormal romances tends to be over-complication. By the time you get to the second or third book in the series, everyone and his uncle is half leprechaun, a quarter dragon or at the very least somewhat Fae. Laurie keeps things refreshingly simple, brisk and down-to-earth. Despite there being a thumping great denizen of the lower depths to tackle, the supernatural element of Ghoul Interrupted feels restrained and sensible. M.J.’s powers are limited to occasional waking visions, and her team have a decidedly shoe-string approach to ghostbusting which involves a lot of screaming and running away. There’s broad comic relief in the form of M.J.’s jelly-spined but somehow still fiercely loyal gay sidekick Gilley. The Native American milieu, with its dusty pueblos, long-running family feuds and taciturn tribesfolk, provides a vivid backdrop. And everything is suffused with easygoing charm thanks to M.J. herself, who makes for a lovably cheery and low maintenance heroine, unlike some I could mention.

Yes, it’s all very school of Scooby-Doo. It’s not very subtle or deep, and it can sometimes read like a cartoon in prose, with its characters who hover just on the right side of larger-than-life, and its spooky bits which send the ghost hunters into choruses of shrieks and paroxysms of helpless quivering. But Laurie makes a virtue of frivolity, and sure-footedly delivers an addictively feel-good yarn that should delight teens and anyone who enjoys fantasy with a light touch.

Book Review: The Other Log of Phileas Fogg / Author: Philip Jose Farmer / Publisher: Titan Books / Release Date: May 15th

Ask the average fan of Montag’s Monorail ‘Who was the inventor of Steam punk?’ and you have the sort of debate that can grind on for hours with the only thing ultimately agreed upon being that Wells and Verne got there first. Ask these same fans about Philip Jose Farmer and they will probably mumble something about The River World Saga and leave it at that. With this book we have something a million miles away from Farmer’s renowned works and something with more than a whiff of literary steam.

In a book (originally published in 1973) we find a collection of literary/fictional characters hanging around with historical figures all living a sci-fi adventure located firmly in the fictional realms of other authors works as well as partaking in a much larger narrative that would have frankly surprised the original authors.

With a description that could have been taken from the wiki entry for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen this novel stakes its claim to have got there first in 1973. A surprisingly canny publisher has embraced the similarities with the later work and has used a quote from Allan Moore on the back jacket to acknowledge its remarkable antecedence.

In Farmer’s other (and more) popular work the famous and the infamous have been reborn into a mystical landscape, while this book is set in the Wold Newton universe – a place populated by out of copyright characters.

Origins of the linking narrative lie with a meteor strike in Yorkshire witnessed by a cross section of its more famous fictional inhabitants. This results in an alien incursion and subsequent civil war, these events acting merely as background to a whole series of novels by both Farmer and his fans.

The premise of this specific novel is surprisingly simple. ‘What if Jules Verne only wrote the socially acceptable (and largely believable) account of the real journey of Philias Fogg… leaving out the real story that was happening in parallel.’

And on this point he achieves a simply wonderful yarn, full of corrections and side notes explaining the odd actions and peculiarities of the original novel’s characters. Small moments of charity by Fogg become intricate information exchanges. Card games become a battle of wits and the extraction of an alien teleportation device is a plot point worthy of a James Bond movie.

Does this book require you to have read the original? No – though a certain familiarity with the 1872 novel wouldn’t hurt. A familiarity that can be quickly gained through watching the David Niven movie (and a side order of Disney’s 20,000 Leagues wouldn’t hurt either.) The main villains of the piece are the representatives of the opposing alien race, here brought to vivid life in the form of James Moriarti who also goes by the name of Captain Nemo.

In all honesty I was expecting the novel to be relatively annoying, as any reader would know for a fact that the central characters achieve their goals and survive. However, this is seldom the case and I was actually surprised to see new plot threads and holes that should have been obvious in the original. A glorious ret-con of a novel which is part literary criticism and part pulp fiction. And 100% a rip roaring read.

If you want to experience a modern classic while adding to the debate about the origins of streampunk this is the summer read for you. Hell, it’s got an airship on the cover! What more does one need!

Book Review: Bites / Author: Ninfa Hayes / Publisher: Bitten Fruit Books / Release Date: Out Now

Bites is an odd little collection; two short stories, no more, no less. The first story, Last of the Blood, is a tale of love, loss and despair, which also happens to feature vampires. Firmly pitched at the more mature end of the young adult fiction market, Last of the Blood is a sad little tale that will enchant those looking for a little bit of melancholy in their romantic fantasy. Fans of horror will be disappointed, but those who enjoy a regular diet of Anne Rice and Julie Kagwa will find a lot to love here.

Demonica tells the tale of a young girl who is whisked away into a world of darkness, and rather than becoming overcome with angst, embraces every moment of it. It’s set in an interesting and exotic world, and is a fresh angle on a theme that has been overdone. It’s also a nice counterpoint to the previous tale, and is surprisingly absorbing and exciting in equal measure. Again, fans of supernatural fantasy will find this a lot of fun. It contains enough twists and turns to keep even the most cynical of readers going until the very satisfying end.

Overall, Hayes has a strong talent and a real feel for building mythologies in a short space of time. One of the secrets to telling a good short story is to build a believable world with engaging characters, and the author gets this pitch perfect for both tales. Bites is an interesting showcase for the writers talent, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they do next.

Book Review: Suncaller / Author: John Shaw Liddle / Publisher: Deadstar Publishing / Release Date: July 11th

One of the nice things about small press books is that the good ones tend to be unaffected by current trends in publishing; this can be a breath of fresh air, depending on the quality of the story.Let’s take for example, Suncaller. This debut novel could almost be an off-the-shelf young adult fantasy novel, and though it has a lot in common with that sort of thing, it does something I rarely see in YA books. It features young adults actually behaving like young adults; dumb, irresponsible teenagers doing the sort of things that Channel 4 likes to make incredibly worthy dramas about. This splash of originality on its own makes it worth a look, but it also happens to be a good read.

Suncaller is the tale of Mortimer Hope, aka Hopeless; an awkward, gangly teenager who isn’t good at anything. He’s haunted by strange nightmares, and things take a turn for the worse when his waking world begins to become just as horrid. The book flips between Hope’s fantastic dream-world and his less than brilliant real world. What this means is on the one side we have a nicely gritty urban fantasy story, laced heavily with a coming of age story, and on the other we have a classic fantasy tale that feels like it’s been lifted from the pages of an old-fashioned pulp fiction magazine. Though jarring, both tales are extremely refreshing and very engaging.

That isn’t to say the book doesn’t have its faults; it’s very flawed in places. Liddle has a real talent, but it’s a little raw in places; the pacing is slightly off, it jumps about a bit too much and it could do with being about 50 pages longer. However, it’s littered with tiny gems and great ideas; it takes a lot to make me laugh out loud when reading a book, and Suncaller did it at least twice. (It has some real zingers, as they say.) For a first novel, it’s a promising start, and I look forward to seeing what the author does next.

Book Review: A Confusion of Princes / Author: Garth Nix / Publisher: Harper Collins Children’s Books / Release Date: Out Now

A Confusion of Princes, by Garth Nix, is a solid, engrossing tale that while aimed for teenagers can be enjoyed by anybody, regardless of age.

In A Confusion of Princes we are introduced to Prince Khemri, stolen from his parents at birth to become a prince of the star-spanning Empire. Princes are the ruling class, but they are also superhuman by mere mortal standards. Stronger, smarter, and faster with all types of technological boosts, the Princes see themselves as godlike when compared to the human race. They even have the ability to transcend death and be reborn into new fully-grown bodies. Once trained by priests and linked to the Imperial Mind – a kind of thought activated internet – the Princes then set out to make their mark in the universe.

This also breeds – understandably so – a certain level of arrogance and our protagonist Khemri is no exception. Barely turned sixteen yet plans to command a luckless star-system and become something of a universal player surrounded by fawning courtesans dominate his thoughts.

But all is not as it seems in this young prince’s world. Shortly after being announced a prince and meeting his personal master of assassins, Khemri becomes the target of his own assassination and learns the hard way that the universe is a vastly different place than he had once believed. In reality, the princes are a devious, back-stabbing lot, constantly searching for ways to outclass and kill each other.

Khemri embarks on what he thinks is his quest to gain power, perhaps even make Emperor, but in truth he starts on a journey to discover his lost humanity.

Garth Nix has created a believable protagonist in the form of Prince Khemri, and his character arc is extremely entertaining. His arrogance and conceit for anything other than a prince lands him into endless amounts of trouble. Yet, as the character progresses just enough emotion is shown for the reader to identify with him, even root for Khemri as he learns what it means to be human.

Now if any of that sounds a little cliché, don’t worry, it is! But when handled right, even clichés can become engaging story points and Garth Nix is no stranger to a children’s novel, leading us through his world with a deft hand and expert care.

However, Confusion of Princes is let down by the fact that Khemri never manages to control the forces of antagonism laid out before him in any meaningful way. Not wishing to spoil the ending, of course. This leads in the later Act to a frustrating read while the reader waits for Khemri to finally take control of his life.

Even so, A Confusion of Princes remains a well-plotted, story driven novel and a fine addition to the science fiction genre as a whole.

Book Review: Day of Demons / Author: Various / Editor: Colin F. Barnes / Publisher: Anachron Press / Release Date: Out Now

Day of Demons is an interesting idea for an anthology; nine stories about demons, the pacts they make and the people they make it with. It’s a broad idea, and the collection is mostly filled with stories set in the modern age. However, it does open with Deal, a fantasy adventure by Karen Davies. It’s a strong first story, filled with wit and strangeness. I get the feeling this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the half-demon protagonist either, at least I certainly hope not.

Equally powerful is the last story in the set, The Devil and Mrs Milton by Sarah Anne Langton. Written in a slightly unusual, almost chatty style its savvy wit and easy style bookends nicely with the first story, even though they’re nothing alike.

The rest of the set is also entertaining. Highlights include Inheritance (by Phil Hickes) and James M. Mazzaro’s tale A Mother’s Love, both solid tales of urban horror which are weakened by being a little too short and a little too keen to have some spooky chills in them. Serpent’s Kiss (by Krista Walsh) however, hits the mark perfectly, playing on the readers’ expectations right to the end. Nicely creepy, nasty and slightly sexy. Sam & The Spear by Gary Bonn is the weakest in the collection, simply because it’s the least fitting. Bonn’s casual (and slightly messy) style doesn’t sit well amongst the others. It’s different, and in a themed anthology, that can be jarring.

Anthologies are always hard to give a single rating too, and Days of Demons especially so. Though it starts incredibly strongly and ends with a cracking little tale, not every tale is as good as it could be. Still, they’re worth a look, especially if you like your short stories with a twist of sulphur.

Book Review: Valkia the Bloody / Author: Sarah Cawkwell / Publisher: The Black Library / Release Date: July 5th

Valkia The Bloody is the eagerly anticipated origin story of its titular protagonist, Valkia. She’s one of the most underused villains in the Warhammer Fantasy world; the bride of the Blood God Khorne (who’s catchphrase, “Blood for the Blood God” is known to many a nerd), Valkia has the potential to be one of the most iconic characters of the entire range. Not only does she look striking and powerful, the mere idea of a demonic warrior queen is the sort of thing geeks go crazy for.

Until now, we’ve only had a few glimpses at the character; the odd mention in related sources, a handful of drawings. Sarah Cawkwell’s novel adds flesh to these bloody bones, and they’re gloriously drenched in gore. This is the tale of how a humble barbarian chieftain’s daughter unites disparate tribes to form a great nation, and how such a figure could become the demonic consort of the dark god of bloodshed.

As you might expect, this is a tightly paced action story. Don’t expect that much subtlety; though there is some, it’s tucked in between all the fight scenes and blood. Cawkwell makes the main character sympathetic and interesting, and plunges the reader into the dark and dangerous barbarian north, filling it with horrors and death. She also paints a powerful picture of Valkia’s tribe, and we really get a feel for the world. None of the main characters are particularly nice; if you’re looking for a tale of villains with a heart look elsewhere, but they are sympathetic, well drawn and interesting. This is a strong tale of tragedy, victory and most of all, blood. Fans of darker fantasy and demonic destruction will love every gore-soaked page.

Book Review: The Science of Avatar / Author: Stephen Baxter / Publisher: Gollancz / Release Date: Out Now

It’s exceptionally easy to be cruel about James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster Avatar, especially as it’s a fairly simple morality tale about looking after the environment, though one with big blue cat people and a 3D gimmick. It does, however, have a consistent and well thought out world, and Cameron is known for being very thorough when it comes to making his science fiction fantasy as realistic as possible.

The Science of Avatar takes Cameron’s work and uses it as an excuse to explore the wonderful world of science. Baxter is a well regarded science-fiction writer and also a scientist, and he takes the reader through the basics with an extremely engaging and entertaining narrative style. Avid readers of New Scientist magazine will find no great revelations here; this is very much a science book for the casual science fiction fan, but Baxter does pepper the book with lots of interesting insights and a sense of fun.

Highlights include quite a neat explanation of Unobtainium (the plot McGuffin from the movie), the ecology of alien worlds and one of Baxter’s favourite topics; space flight. It doesn’t really given any real insights into the movie; anyone expecting an explanation as to exactly how a global organic neural network would actually work may find themselves a bit disappointed. This is not a book filled with deep insights, but it’s a great way to conquer one’s fear of all things science related.

The Science of Avatar is firmly aimed at the non-science nerd, but for those looking to understand more about the science part of science fiction, then this is a pretty good place to start.

Book Review: A Dance with Dragons / Author: George R. R. Martin / Publisher: Harper Voyager / Release Date: Out Now

As a long time fan of Fantasy novels, George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series was known to me only as “That massive fantasy series where it takes four years for the author to bring the next bloody book out”. As a result, it wasn’t until the rather successful HBO television series that I started to become interested in the novels that inspired the series, and when the latest book turned up for review I jumped at the chance. Of course there was only one problem with my enthusiasm. I hadn’t read the preceding four books.

A month later, I emerged from my man cave, unshaven, bleary eyed and muttering to myself in ye olde English about turncloaks, honour and faceless ones. Then I realised that I had to try and condense the five or six thousand pages that I’d just read into something approaching a coherent review. So bear with me if I start to ramble.

By the time I’d finished book three in the series, I felt that the vast majority of the major plot points had been sorted out. There were a few loose ends floating around and a couple of characters whose fates needed to be clarified, but for the most part I’d been loving the books right up until the end of A Storm of Swords. Then A Feast for Crows arrived and it almost killed the series for me. All of a sudden, I was reading a thousand page novel that ignored almost all of the characters who were interesting and introduced a whole lot of other ones that I didn’t really care about. It contained almost nothing about Jon Snow, Danaerys, Bran or Tyrion. A cardinal sin as far as I was concerned. It felt like padding and if I’d been sat around for four years waiting for that instalment then I probably would have walked away from the series in disgust.

Fortunately, A Dance with Dragon’s gets right back to the main event. In other words, its focus is primarily on the characters mentioned above, although the first part does run in parallel with A Feast for Crows, which means that you read about things happening that were mentioned in the previous book, although not always in the way that you expect. In the second part, the plot actually moves forward and you can start to see where things are going to end up.

As a story, I really can’t complain too much. The writing is tight, the pacing is good, the plot clever and intricate, and the characters are brilliantly written. It’s everything that A Feast for Crows should have been, and it managed to rekindle my interest in the series.

However, by the end of the book, we are still nowhere near the end of the story. Dany and her Dragon’s are no nearer Westeros than they were at the end of book three. The Other’s haven’t assaulted the wall, and a good few more plot threads have been kicked off. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that. On one hand, I’m loving the characters and the vast scope of this series. On the other hand, I’m sort of wishing that he’d just get on with it.

At the end of the day, if you’ve read this far then you owe it to yourself to carry on, especially if you felt upset by the last book. Martin get’s things back on track, kicks things up a notch and throws a few unexpected surprises into the mix.

I’m just hoping that as a result of the TV series, the next book will materialise some time before 2016.