One of my favourite authors, John Connolly has just had a new short story published by the Irish Times which you can read here.  Hang about though, I hear you cry, he’s not fantasy, he’s not even horror what’s going on!

Well my friends, John Connolly may be a successful writer in the crime genre but he is much more than a simple crime genre writer. His recent collection of short stories “Nocturnes” was a superb introduction to a multi-faceted author with a mixture of horror, fantasy and macabre to match any of the established “genre” writers (you can read a selection online here). This was closely followed by his adult fairy tale/fantasy “The Book Of Lost Things”.

Even Connolly’s so called crime novels are sprinkled with more than a dusting of supernatural horror coming from the depths of the Louisiana swamps, his character “the Travelling man” is truly Kingesque (I’m not sure that’s a real word!).

Anyway, heed my call dear reader and head on over to Mr Connolly’s fine website here to be suitably illuminated and if you have run out of horror authors to devour, try a slice of his work.

“The Gypsy Morph”
By Terry Brooks
Format: Hardback,  pages
Publisher: Orbit, 2008

The Gypsy Morph is the final book in “The Genesis Of Shannara trilogy” but I suspect it might not be the last we hear of Shannara!

To briefly summarise the previous two books (reviews here and here) we find ourselves in the midst of a dystopian earth, where political turmoil, war and global climate change have created an essentially lawless land. Groups of humans have formed communities in enclosed defensible strongholds such as old sports centres but many others are left to wander outside these compounds and are at the mercy of various mutant creatures and the demons which now roam the land.

The first two books introduced the quest to locate the Gypsy Morph a magical creature who appears to be the key to the survival of humanity and the world. Two Knights of The Word, Logan Tom and Angel Perez have been sent visions asking them to locate and protect the gypsy morph. They are joined on their quest by a disparate group of children who have formed a gang outwith the protected communities. We also meet the elves of the Cintra (the forests of Oregon) who are attempting to locate the Loden stone which is crucial in preventing demons spreading through the earth.

Now I mentioned in the review for book two that I felt the pace of the series had slowed and unfortunately book three picks up where book two left off. The first hundred or so pages are largely based around
characters reflecting on their parts of the quest, self doubt abounds at the expense of action, the second half of the book does pick up the pace somewhat as the final denouement is reached. Unfortunately the climax is a bit of a let down, its all over very quickly and is all rather obvious and straightforward. We are also left with several strands of story which will clearly be picked up in future works but which leave this reader slightly disappointed.

So the Gypsy Morph suffers as indeed the whole trilogy has suffered by being overlong, I think if this had been compressed into two shorter books or even one very long book we would have been given a much more compelling, action driven narrative which could have avoided the protracted exposition and character introspection this trilogy suffers from. Indeed the structure of the book is very similar to Stephen Kings “The Stand” which managed to follow a very similar plot to conclusion in one single (if very long) volume. Maybe this is a case where fantasy is its own worst enemy, hey its fantasy it needs to be a trilogy. That’s not to say that this is a bad book or indeed the trilogy as a whole is poor just that it could have been so much better. The ideas and characters deserved a richer deeper plot, no doubt we will them again in future sequels. So overall a disappointing conclusion to a series which promised so much.

Rating 3 out of 5

“The Elves Of Cintra”

by Terry Brooks

Format : Paperback, 374 pages.

Publisher: Orbit, 2007

The second book in the Genesis Of Shannara Trilogy, this book follows immediately from the (almost literal) cliffhanger we were left with at the end of Armageddon’s Children (my review can be found here or just below if you prefer).

This time around we top and tail the novel with the ongoing story of the disparate groups searching for the Gypsy Morph but here more of the focus is firmly placed on the Elves. Now first of all don’t be too scared off by the Elvish connotations, these are no namby pamby, faerie creatures, rather they are remnants of the race who initally drove out the demons before human domination of the land. Driven further from human habitation and having lost much of their magic the elves lead hidden lives amongst the great forests of the Cintra, in what humans know as Oregon. This story revolves around another quest, this time to reclaim the magical Loden elfstone, needed to protect the Ellcrys tree and avoid the demon hordes being released from the “forbidding”. Of course the few demons already about are also trying to find the Lodenstone.

Having introduced most of the characters in book one and clearly leaving the conclusive action for book three, this books has an element of second book syndrome. I certainly thought the books was less enthralling than Armageddons Children and the quest for the Loden felt somewhat drawn out but that’s not to say that the book didn’t have it’s moments of excitement and action sequences.

Clearly it is difficult to review the second book in any trilogy without using spoilers which I try never to do,  so with though for those who have yet to start the first book this will, by necessity, be a short review.

The Genesis Of Shannara series is shaping up nicely, although not having the initial bite of Armageddon’s Children the Elves Of Cintra did introduce some interesting new twists into the overall story arc and sets the stage very nicely indeed for the final book to really wrap things up in an interesting and exciting way.

Rating 3 out of 5

“Armageddons Children“

by Terry Brooks

Format : Paperback, 441 pages.

Publisher: Orbit, 2007

Does Terry Brooks need any introduction? surely one of the best known writers of fantasy fiction and certainly one of the best selling. From his earliest writings and the publication of “The Sword Of Shannara” in 1977, Brooks has revisited and revised his Shannara epic fantasy world. Readers of these early novels will know that even at that early stage the history of Shannara was being explored. It was always made clear that unlike many other fantasy novels, Shannara was actually set on earth, an earth forever changed by chemical and nuclear holocausts, now with the Genesis Of Shannara trilogy (30 years later but 2000 shannara years earlier!) we are finally shown just how the fantasy world of Shannara evolved from its horrific beginnings.

The criticism’s of Brook’s earlier novels were that they were derivative, indeed many critics felt that the original Shannara novels were a direct rip-off of “The Lord Of The Rings”, of course, none of this prevented them becoming huge bestsellers. My main problem with Brook’s earlier works were that they were clearly aimed at a young adult market, and as such the characters were fairly one-dimensional, plot was linear and the books just lacked a certain edge. Thankfully as Mr Brooks has matured his writing style has advanced and his “Word and the Void” series (which chronologically predates this story) began to show a bit more bite and depth.

So now we have a new series “The Genesis Of Shannara” an attempt to link the urban fantasy story arc of “Word and Void” set in modern day America to the epic fantasy world of Shannara. “Armageddons Children” is the first book in a trilogy (Terry Brooks is very keen on trilogies but he also created a tetralogy in “The Heritage Of Shannara”).

Armageddon’s Children is set in a post-apocalyptic world, ravaged by plague, pollution and other horrors. Throughout the land mutants created as a result of the various horrors roam and amongst these are demons, creatures of the Void. It’s against these horrors that The Knights of the Word are sworn to fight, wielding magical staffs, they are effectively wizards, but often suffer the same human frailties as their companions.

Somewhere in this ravaged land resides the “Gypsy Morph” a truly magical creature who has the power to save the world, it is up to the knights to find the gypsy morph before the demons can. So, at it’s heart, the book is a basic quest story but the introduction of many additional characters and side quests mixes things up enough to create sustained interest. Indeed some of the most interesting characters and descriptive pieces are the ordinary humans who are just trying to survive.

In many ways the book reminds me of Stephen Kings “Dark Tower” series. Both have characters who often don’t know their importance wandering a ravaged land on a quest that has no real direction. At no point however does Brooks achieve King’s level of surrealism and horror, this is a simpler book, in many ways easier to read, more accessible but less “important”.

So don’t come to this book expecting the basic epic fantasy of Shannara, also don’t come expecting the more mundane reality of “Word and Void” instead enjoy a rich and entertaining novel which successfully links both genres in a much more rounded and well….grown up way.

Rating 4 out of 5

The Terry Brooks interlude has turned into the Terry Brooks gap as a couple of computer issues ground myself and dragonfly’s book reviews to a halt. However one shiny new imac later and we are back and the Terry Brooks gap is two thirds bridged. So coming soon, reviews of the entire “Genesis Of Shannara Series” and lots of other stuff. Your reading is important to us, thank you for holding!!

“The Twilight Hour - Celtic Visions From The Past”

by Simon Marsden

Format: Hardback, 128 pages

Publisher: Little, Brown. 2003

If you are a fan of the horror genre (and if your not you may be on the wrong blog!) then I am sure you will be familiar with the work of Simon Marsden. There is a good chance you may never have heard of him but you will know his work. Sir Simon Marsden is the foremost photographer of gothic, fantastic and supernatural places in the UK (probably the world) and his work has adorned book, magazine and even album (that’s CD kids) covers for the likes of Cormac McCarthy, Phil Rickman and the delightful pop combo Cradle Of Filth.

This collection brings together some of Marsden’s iconic photography with extracts from classic celtic supernatural literature from the likes of Arthur Machen, W.B.Yeats, Bram Stoker and Edgar Allan Poe. What makes Marsden’s style unique is his preference to shoot on black and white infra-red film, followed by hours of post processing in a darkroom. This creates a unique atmosphere in his photography, producing a grainy, black and white image where vegetation is rendered in pale (almost white) tones and the blue sky takes on a dramatic dark and brooding appearance.

Within this collection are some of Marsden’s most famous shots including such magnificent works as Gothic Window, Castle Barnard pg 119, Eccelscreig House pg 69 and Duntulm Castle pg 26. You can see many examples of Simon Marsden’s work at his website here and I would urge everyone to try and get hold of a copy of this book.

The images in this book truly transcend the average illustration and imbue the text with an atmosphere completely in tune with the tone of the stories. Here the Photographs and text work together to create fully formed pieces of art. Marsden’s own experience of the supernatural means he is not purely working at a technical level here but is truly exploring “another dimension - a spirit world”. As an aspiring amateur photographer I can only stare in awe at the technical and aesthetic skill required to create these images, to succeed on page after page is testament to a truly great artist and one I highly recommend you check out.

Rating 5 out of 5

Apologies for the delay in posting new reviews but normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. You see it’s all the fault of those pesky Orbit publishers who very kindly sent me a sparkly new copy of “The Gypsy Morph” by Terry Brooks, the only problem is I haven’t read the previous novel in the series “The Elves Of Cintra”. well what the hell thinks I, I may as well re-read and review “Armageddon’s Children” as well.

So there you have it friends, starting very soon, a triple bill of Mr Brooks. In the meantime I hope to post a couple of reviews of other genre stuff which you might like but which is slightly more off the beaten track. Hope you enjoy them.

“The Devils Labyrinth“

by John Saul

Format: Paperback, 332 pages

Publisher: Pan, 2008

Thirty novels in as many years, is productivity not to be sniffed at and John Saul has created his own niche in the horror genre since the publication of “Suffer The Children” in 1977. You can read more details of his most recent novel “Faces Of Fear” at his official website here.

What we have here is John Sauls previous novel, one which treads the murky path of religion where nothing is quite as it seems. This is the story of Ryan McIntyre, a schoolboy who is bullied by his classmates but manages to get a place at the much nicer St Isaac’s Catholic School, well much nicer for the first couple of minutes. It soon becomes apparent that St Isaac’s harbours an undercurrent of evil and a secret labyrinth underground is the place where it hangs out.

A couple of interesting twists keep the plot flowing but there are some uneasy plot devices at work here. Ryan frequently gets visions of his father who was killed in active service in Iraq. Later on we meet some bad Moslem’s, so is the whole thing some kind of anti-Muslim diatribe (the good guy an American soldier’s son, the evil guys radical Islamic terrorists), well it certainly seems that this must have been, at least partly in the back of John Saul’s mind. The muslims get us away from the same old story of Catholic church child abuse which it looks like we are heading for but it does take us into some weird and quite forced plot territory which I am not sure works that well.

Indeed it almost seems like John Saul has changed his original plot  to suit the political climate and it doesn’t really come off, the basic structure is fine it is purely the pointless introduction of the Islamic terrorists and the fallen American hero, neither of which are vital, which serves to unsettle things and leaves the reader with quite a few unanswered questions. The writing, however, is in Saul’s usual tight style and the moments of horror action, well described and edge of the seat stuff. The characters, horror scenes and descriptive parts are all interesting and the book is an easy and entertaining read.

So not a bad book just a strange one, there’s nothing wrong with writers being political (see Ken Macleod’s Execution Channel) but when it appears to be squeezed into a plot just to make some kind of statement I don’t think it does the writer or the reader any favours.

Rating 3 out of 5

“The Whisperer in Darkness: Collected Stories Volume 1“

by H.P. Lovecraft

Format Paperback, 384 pages

Publisher: Wordsworth Editions, 2007

I have just realised that the coming soon announcement (you know the bit up the top) has had this book titled wrongly for a couple of weeks. Originally I had “The Whisper in The Darkness” then I had “The Whisperer In The Darkness” when in actual fact it is “The Whisper In Darkness” so first of all apologies to old Howard Philips but then I do think his title just sounds…. well odd. Just say it to yourself a couple of times, weird isn’t it, a shining example in fact of Mr Lovecraft’s weird use of language and unique style which makes him such an ambiguous figure in my opinion.

Clearly Lovecraft was a genius, his ideas, his mythos, his visions were all vastly ahead of his time, totally bizarre constructions, and of all of them the Cthulhu stories are some of his most extreme examples. The ambiguity comes in his ability to consistently form these dreamlike visions into a coherent, readable story. When he is good, he is a genius but when he is bad….

This is the first Lovecraft collection put together by Wordsworth Editions in its immensely enjoyable Tales Of Mystery & the Supernatural Series (more details here) and as far as I can see is the cheapest way to get hold of some classic and also rare Lovecraft stories. This collection concentrates on the Cthulhu Mythos, Lovecraft’s crowning glory, an entirely made up mythology (or is it!) based on the writings of the Necronomicon and telling tales of races and gods from before and indeed beyond our time and space.

Remarkably Lovecraft never managed to write a novel, concentrating instead on the pulp fiction short story market for the likes of Weird tales. Now this is a shame as undoubtedly a novel may have helped raise his profile during his life but on the evidence of this collection and it’s longest piece “The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward” it’s probably just as well, here all of Lovecraft’s flaws come to the fore. His lack of a strong plot, his use of bizarre language (cyclopean, polyphemus, shewn, and my favourite cacodaemoniacal), his inability to write cohesive readable dialogue and his need to cram words onto the page so we get whole pages without a single paragraph break make this story extremely hard work.

Luckily we also get some of his strongest short stories such as “Dagon”, “The Hound” and “The Festival” each of which succeeds either because of the excellent descriptive nature (Dagon) or the use of an intriguing plot (The Hound), The Festival manages to succeed on both levels. “The Nameless City”, “The Call Of Cthulhu” and “The Dunwich Horror” also manage to work as cohesive description driven well plotted stories.

Finally we get two of (in my opinion) Lovecraft’s strongest stories anywhere. ” The Whisper In Darkness” is an excellent example of Lovecraft’s ability to portray a growing paranoia and unease and to infect the reader with a little bit of those feelings in a realistic setting. “At The Mountains Of Madness” also achieves this but manages to up the pace delivering an event led timeline of the MIskatonic Universities expedition to Antartica and their discovery of the presence of other life. Containing magnificently descriptive writing, some characterisation, believable dialogue and a superb backstory this is Lovecraft at his best and is the antithesis of Charles Dexter Ward.

So should you buy it, well of of course you should, £2.99 is a bargain for “At The Mountains Of Madness” alone but with 4 or 5 other excellent stories it becomes almost a required purchase, so Lovecraft remains an enigma wrapped up in a mystery (to misquote Churchill). His inconsistency was perhaps his downfall and the reason why he is not held in the same esteem as many of his peers but he deserves to be widely read as a pioneer in weird and speculative fiction and as a man who created a mythology which is still being used today. A flawed genius sure, but a genius without a doubt.

Rating 4 out of 5

My review of the forthcoming special edition of F&SF was overwhelmingly positive (you can read it here). Well just when you thought it couldn’t get any better I have been informed of a special offer open only to bloggers (and blog readers, so that’s all of you!).

You can get full details from here so now you can enjoy this excellent publication at even better prices.