Highlander's Book Reviews

The Edge Of the World

by Kevin J. Anderson

Format : Paperback, 592 pages

Publisher: Orbit, 2009.

Kevin J. Anderson has written over 100 novels covering everything from the Dune universe, X-files and Star Wars tie-ins to his epic  SF series The Saga Of The Seven Suns. Now Anderson has turned his talents to epic fantasy with the Terra Incognita series starting here with The Edge Of the World.

The book starts with the simple premise of two separate continents connected by topography but separated by culture, religion and politics. This is the tale of the political and military battle as the two cultures seek, first peace, then later, following a simple accident, war. The book is also about a wider exploration of the lands beyond the known and mapped world. From beyond the sea and over the great desert come rumours of new lands but only the most heroic adventurers dare to undertake these journeys into the unknown.

Kevin J. Anderson has managed to create a really interesting narrative structure which switches to a different character and location with each chapter. The two continents Uraba and Tierra, have more than a passing similarity to Western society (Tierra) and the Arab nations (Uraba), the respective religions are also distinctly Christian (Aidenist) and Muslim (Urec) but this actually makes the clash of cultures easier to understand for the reader without the need for long and drawn out backstory.

The politics and court upheavals are reminiscent, at times, of George R.R. Martin’s work but the characters do not quite reach GRRM’s level. Although interesting and well drawn there is a lack of either true heroes or nasty villains and several characters seem to exist in the story and then fade away (no doubt to be revitalised in the sequels).

If I have one gripe with this book it is that the adventure element seemed somewhat underplayed. Sure there is action but it’s not really jaw dropping or awe inspiring, in fact it’s all a bit detached, perhaps this is scene setting for further books in the series, too much revelation at this stage would leave nowhere to go in the future but it is a bit of an anti-climax. Anderson’s mammoth SF series The Saga Of The Seven Suns also began as a bit of a slow burner.

Overall though I enjoyed this book. The mixture of politics and adventure sustained interest right to the end. I am also sure that the world created here will serve as excellent background for future books in the series. Kevin J. Anderson has shown that his talents are extremely diverse and can now add successful Epic Fantasy to his burgeoning CV, what’s next? Horror, I hope so.

You can read more about Kevin J. Anderson here, get details of an excellent musical project which accompanies this book here or visit his publishers, Orbit here.

Rating 4 out of 5

Coming soon from Lev Grossman, author of Codex, is The Magicians, this is from the publisher :-

THE MAGICIANS follows the adventures of Quentin Coldwater, a high school senior who is obsessed with Christopher Plover’s series of fantasy novels set in the magical land of Fillory, only to discover that Fillory really exists!

I hope to review the book fairly soon but in the meantime if you would like to find out more you can head to these websites :-
·        You can explore Fillory here: www.emberstomb.com
·        Read excerpts from author Christopher Plover’s Fillory series here: www.christopherplover.com.
·        Explore Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy’s secret website here: www.brakebills.com
·        And make sure to visit www.themagiciansbook.com!

That lot should keep you entertained for a while

Black Static 11

Edited by Andy Cox

Format : Magazine, 64pages

Publisher:  TTA press, 2009

The sun is shining, it’s blazing hot and all the smiley happy people are out and about, what possible cure is there for this abomination, why if only there was something that could take us to a darker place in times of need……ah thank you Black Static.

And so while the barbecues are fired up, suncream forgotten and shorts are seen on the most bizarre bodies, I settle down in a dark shady corner and devour the contents page like a greedy kid given the keys to the sweetshop. All the usual stuff is here, film and book reviews, interesting articles and news but it is the stories which draw the eye like a wasp to a can of coke.

De Profundis by Al Robertson is a moving story of a police diver. Thinking he is at rock bottom as his family and friends have all but disappeared, a chance encounter with a body he pulls from the Thames opens up a whole new world. It’s dark and desolate but beautiful and redemptive at the same time.

None Had Sharp Teeth by Will McIntosh examines the true horrors which prey on our children through the eyes of a grieving mother. Anyone who finds dolls, clowns or fairground rides scary will love this one for it’s dark surreal qualities.

The Likeness by Lawrence Conquest is set in Krackow where an artist gets too close to his subject. It’s a classic tale imbued with a romantic European feel which gives it an extra and enthralling dimension.

And then as if by way of contrast we get a totally gruesome tale of revenge in Best Served Cold by Gary Couzens. It’s nasty, very nasty but also very very good.

Off With The Furies is another revenge tale this time from Daniel Kaysen but this time there is a twist as perspectives are distorted and the truth is unclear.

And finally Red Ribbons by Stephanie Burgis brings us back to classic European settings, aristocratic France at the time of the revolution, and a classic trope as vampires raise their, in this case, beautiful heads.

So there you have it six stories all of which are outstanding and a bunch of other essential genre reading for a paltry £3.95. Some 19.2 million people watched the recent final of the travelling freak show that is Britain’s Got Show Offs to be “entertained”, whats wrong with the world when true artistic talent  such as  that shown in Black Static 11 is so undervalued by the general public. What’s wrong with a world that can sanctify and then vilify a slightly hairy woman, just because she has the audacity to be able to (almost) carry a tune yet someone with the astonishing talent of the late John Martyn is largely ignored by wider society. Lets arm the Big Brother contestants and give everybody the blood bath they secretly crave.

Black Static is important, it has something to say and if you appreciate that as a value in our, increasingly passive society then you owe it to yourself to support this magazine. It is a shining beacon of darkness in an all too dazzling world. You can read more at the TTA press website here.

Rating 5 out of 5

Jesus Out To Sea and Other Stories

by James Lee Burke

Format: Paperback, 229 pages

Publisher: Phoenix Fiction, 2008.

Having featured the talents of John Connolly on this very blog recently (see here for a review of The Reapers) it felt only natural to include a review of a collection by one of Connolly’s biggest influences, the brilliant James Lee Burke. Best known for his crime novels it would be easy for non-crime lovers to dismiss Burke but with this collection he proves, once again, he can write about more than simple crime, he can write about the very heart of humanity itself.

Included here are eleven previously published stories with a recurring theme running through them. That theme is the damage that society can cause to it’s fellow citizens and the consequences it has for us all.

We start with the marvellous Winter Light as a man fights against the odds to preserve the nature around him and with it his own space in that nature. At times the descriptive power of the writing is truly poetic but Burke is also able to realise his characters through dialogue and action in a way that few can. Like Stephen King he uses a few choice adjectives and some telling dialogue to create a fully rounded character.

The Village sees a group of soldiers lose control under the stress and tragedy of war. The Night Johnny Ace Died takes us back to 1954 and is alive with rock ‘n’ roll, bobby socks and late night drive-ins.

Water People sees us in the rough world of the Louisiana oilmen and Texas City 1947 is a coming of age tale in a time of poverty.

Mist is one of two stories set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This one is a tragic tale of our failure to help people in their time of need. A Season Of Regret is similar in tone to Winter Light as an old man makes a stand for goodness against a deadly foe.

The Molester is a tale of gangs and revenge. The Burning Of The Flag is set in 1943 and whilst the war is raging a personal war is also taking place. Why Bugsy Seigel Was A Friend Of Mine is another small town coming of age tale.

Finally we have Jesus Out To Sea a dramatic, moving and heartfelt paean to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

So a remarkably diverse selection of stories but with the common thread of damaged characters. People damaged by poverty, war, race or natural disaster and abandoned or even worse shunned by society. It’s fantastic stuff, brilliantly written, touching and moving at times but streetwise and tough at others. They might be uncompromising but they are brilliantly realised pen portraits and deserved to be read by everyone.

You can read more about James Lee Burke at his website here.

Rating 4.5 out of 5

Fancy some free reading well how about a wovel, I believe it’s some kind of cross between a waffle and a shovel or something……Anyway bottom line is you can head over to Underland Press and find out yourself. Here’s the press release:-

http://www.underlandpress.com/wovel.cfm

A wovel from Underland Press

by simon drax

Start date: June 22, 2009

Mori Kim Marr’s personal force-field of drugs and drink has worn thin: she’s a burned-out teenager in a burned-out world, an Earth wracked by wars and rumors of wars, plagues and disasters, the hopelessness of every human heart. Mori couldn’t care less; just bring her the next fix, please. But when an artificial woman from the 19th century and a boy with psionic powers wander into the smoke and squalor of Mori’s favorite watering hole, gore-drenched violence and city-wide destruction erupts, catapulting Mori and her new-found “friends” into the thick of a battle that began long ago, a war that has raged since before the dawn of civilization, a blood-feud fought and overseen by the sole-survivor of an ancient, pre-human race: Trista Ska Shearn, last of the Cantarans. Trista has been waiting 65,000 thousand years for this, the final battle; she has waited millennia for the glum, sallow teenager, Mori Kim Marr. For Mori is . . . the Exit Vector.

Ancient enemies will clash. Worlds will crumble. The fate of the very universe will be decided in Exit Vector.

About Simon Drax:

SIMON DRAX was born in Gloomy, Massachusetts in 1965. He began the serious pursuit of writing fiction at 14. Drax has worked as a typesetter, graphic artist, bouncer, steel cutter, counselor to severely handicapped children, building supervisor, film critic, and art director. His stories and essays have been published in The Quarterly, Bonesaw, Midnight Zoo, Fever, After Hours, and VideoScope. His novel, A Very Fast Descent into Hell, will be published in 2010 by Underland Press.

About Underland Press’ Wovel:

Combining the pace of print journalism, the creativity of fiction, and the interactivity of web 2.0, the wovel is a weekly serial with a vote button at the end of each installment. Every Monday, the author posts an installment, usually about five to seven pages in length. At the end of the installment, readers vote on which direction they want the story to take, and the author incorporates the readers’ decision into the narrative.

Past wovels by Kealan Patrick Burke and Jemiah Jefferson have drawn more than 1,000 readers and 14,000 page views a month. Read the first installment of EXIT VECTOR on June 22 at www.underlandpress.com.

What it’s got to do with shovels is still beyond me

Admittedly you need heaps of talent but it can be done. Just ask Alastair Reynolds who has landed a £1m deal for his next ten books. You can find out more details from here in the meantime I’m off to finish my novel

Some exciting news from the ever excellent Gray Friar Press with a couple of new books due out shortly :-

“Pictures of the Dark is Simon Bestwick’s first out-and-out horror story collection – 23 powerful short stories and novelettes. This is essential genre reading, make no mistake about that, and copies will be with us within the next week or so. ”

“Second, we’ve been experimenting with a new printer for our hardcovers – the one and only Biddles. The first title produced this way is Mindful of Phantoms by Gary Fry, a collection of 18 supernatural short stories. It’s available here in a flat-signed jacketed affordable edition (limited to 200 copies worldwide).”

Now some news of forthcoming titles: after opening our doors to proposals, we’ve just signed up two new books.

One will be Gray Matter 4, the latest in our series of novellas, but this time we’ve really got a treat in store: Groaning Shadows will collect four of Paul Finch’s wonderful novellas. These have never been published before, and each demonstrates Paul’s mastery of the form. More info to follow.

The other is our first novel. The Castle of Los Angeles is Bram Stoker award-winner Lisa Morton’s superb ghostly tale of a theatre, a serial killer and much, much more. It’s terrifying, touching and wonderfully atmospheric. It has an intro by Gary Braunbeck and an endorsement from Dennis Etchison.”

So something for everyone there, assuming everyone likes a literate horror story that is. You can get more info on all this at the Gray Friar Press website here.

Something to see you through the dark days of winter. Joe Hill has announced his new book “Horns” will be published in February 2010.

Seems a long way off but given the quality of Joe Hill’s output so far, should be well worth the wait. More details from here.

Blood Water

By Dean Vincent Carter

Format: Paperback, 256 pages

Publisher: Corgi, 2009

Two brothers Sean and James are caught in the rising waters of a flood. They soon find out though, that this is not their only concern, it appears something has escaped from the local laboratory, some kind of parasite which is seeking humans as it’s host.

What follows is a mixture of action and adventure as the boys try to track and prevent the parasite from spreading, unfortunately they are not helped by the (intelligent) parasite’s penchant for deception leading to many “he has the parasite… no he has the parasite… don’t listen to him” moments.

It’s all good rollicking stuff and ideally suited to the young adult market it’s aimed at. Obviously the gore lever has been turned down a bit but is still present and some scenes push the boundaries of what you would expect in a book for younger readers (but everyone loves gore don’t they?). The sense of impending doom as the waters rise adds greatly to the tension and the spectre of teachers (who ultimately the boys are seeking help from) turning against their pupils is clever and a little disturbing.

Ultimately though it’s all a bit one dimensional. The plot is straightforward and contrived enough that you should see the ending coming a mile away and the characters are fairly one dimensional. It’s also a very short book which uses a pretty big font to fill it’s 256 pages meaning in reality it only takes a couple of hours to read, again ideally suited to the younger reader.

At one point a character exclaims that  “I know this sounds like some sort of Dr Who shit” and for me that’s exactly what it was like, a fairly interesting episode of Dr Who but without the Doctor, one that you would enjoy but not particularly remember. One thing it should be commended for is bringing horror to younger readers without the need for vampires or cartoon like stories. This is an excellent stepping stone which should lead younger readers onto the hard stuff in their later years which can only be good for the genre (my generation was stuck with surreptitiously reading James Herbert’s The Rats to get our fix and look what it’s done to me.)

You can find out more about the author from here or the publishers from here.

Rating 3 out of 5

Primal

by Robin Baker

Format: Paperback, 384 pages

Publisher: Virgin Books, 2009

A group of students are invited by their enigmatic and charismatic professor Raul to a remote tropical island. At first it appears like paradise but gradually things take a darker turn. When the leader disappears along with all their supplies and crucially their clothes, the students are left confused, vulnerable and…well a bit cold. Hoping for an imminent rescue however they make the most of a bad job but as time passes the fears anxieties and sexual frustrations within the group reach fever pitch.

The novel has two quite distinct parts. The first section is a fictionalised version of the students tales up to the time they realise things are going wrong. It’s told from the perspective of a key member of the group but turned into a narrative by the author who has (supposedly) been commissioned to report the tale of the survivors.

When the author begins to get too close to the darker side of the tale his sources dry up. The second part of the book is essentially him going through scraps of journals and drawings to try to piece together the tragedy that unfolded until eventually he has enough material to confront the survivors with.

Coming across as something like a cross between Big Brother, Lost and Lord of The Flies this is one of the strangest books I have read in a while. Containing more sex that a bumper collection of Playboy yet strangely un-erotic, this coupled with the cod-documentary style of the narrative makes the book interesting if not particularly entertaining.

The author is trying to make a point about animal instincts throughout and largely succeeds although whether you believe he is right is a separate question. The point being that left isolated long enough, people would revert to animal behavior where sex becomes an uninhibited means to an end rather than something loving or even erotic. Unfortunately in order to prove that point the author has to contrive some very strange plot points most of which left this reader smirking with incredulity rather than any sense of anticipation.

Clearly also the author has to shy away from some of the more animalistic behavior, it’s all there but much of it told from behind the screens of a third party perspective. It’s a book that is designed to shock and on that level it succeeds. It also gives an interesting perspective on a psychological conundrum but for me it lacked narrative cohesion and hence tension. The uncomfortable split between the first and second sections didn’t work for me as the pace inevitably ground to a halt just as things had begun to get interesting.

It’s not for the shy and retiring types either, the sex and violence (and often both) are portrayed in graphic detail and make for uncomfortable reading. So not without merit and as a literary take on a psychological experiment it’s certainly clever but just not my kind of thing, only really recommended to those who enjoy philosophical and psychological questions, or who collect names for genitalia! You can find out more at the Virgin Books website here.

Rating 3 out of 5