Between Two Thorns – Book Review

Title: Between Two Thorns

Author: Emma Newman

Publisher: Angry Robot

Published: Out Now

RRP: Print £8.99 – Kindle £5.49

Something is wrong in Aquae Sulis, Bath’s secret mirror city.

 The new season is starting and the Master of Ceremonies is missing. Max, an Arbiter of the Split Worlds Treaty, is assigned the task of finding him, with no-one to help but a dislocated soul and a mad sorcerer. There is a witness, but his memories have been bound by magical chains only the Arbiter’s enemies can break. A rebellious woman trying to escape her family may prove to be the ally Max needs.

 But can she be trusted, she a daughter of one of the Great Families of Aquae Sulis, a family allied to one of the most powerful Fae Lords. And why does she want to give up eternal youth and the life of privilege she’s been born into?

This is a beautifully crafted story, the characters fit, the settings fit; everything fits. Reading it you’d expect it to be the author’s 4^th or 5^th book, but this is Emma Newman’s debut novel; and it doesn’t show. Emma’s been very ambitious leading up to the release of this book, she embarked on a project of releasing a short story a week for a year, all set somewhere within the Split Worlds. I signed up and received an email every week and really enjoyed them all. It was a taste of what was to come, but upon starting this book I realised she’d saved the best for these pages.

Long ago there was a war between the Fae and sorcerers, the sorcerers won and the Split Worlds were created. The normal world (our world called Mundanus and humans are referred to as Mundanes) is devoid of magic and is off limits to the Fae. The Fae are trapped in Exilium, a prison from which there is no escape. Between the two, the Nether – neither here nor there – a world locked in time, its people living a strict caste system, a world where the puppets of the Fae live and plot and scheme. Great Families; all allied to one Fae Lord or another, all vying for power. But much like the Fae they too are trapped in their own prison. Making sure the Fae and Great Families behave – and do not interfere in Mundane life – are the Arbiters, soulless guardians immune to Fae magic, led by a sorcerer who has the power to force the Fae and their puppets to do as they are bid.

This is the Split Worlds, each world unlike the other. It’s a nice twist that Exilium – the Fae prison – is seen as a beautiful world, full of colour, dance, music. Whereas the Nether is dull monochrome, a silver sky, no stars, no sun, no day, no night; its people ageless and trapped. Emma manages to bring each of these worlds vividly to life, no detail is left unclear, the worlds themselves characters as well.

Emma’s work over the previous year with her weekly short stories means she is freed up here to get straight into the story. That being said you can read this without having prior knowledge of what came before; there is ample world building so you know what is what, and who is who. Several strands are started in the opening chapters that run the length of the book, and interestingly not all the strands are tied off in the closing chapters. There are a couple of late reveals that leave the book on a sort of cliff hanger. This bodes well for the future of the Split Worlds.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book; I’ve recently got into stories about Fae and Fae magic. This adds a nice twist to that mythology and it’s obvious from the off that Emma knows and loves what she is writing about.

Rivers Of London – Review

Title: Rivers Of London

Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Publisher: Gollancz

Published: Out Now

RRP: Print £7.99 – Kindle £1.99

My name is Peter Grant, and until January I was just a probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known as the Metropolitan Police Service (or the Filth). My only concerns were not getting assigned to the Case Progression Unit and how to get into WPC Leslie May’s pants. Then one night I tried to take a witness statement from someone who’d been dead for over a century, that brought me to the attention of DI Nightingale, the last wizard in England.

 Now I’m a DC and trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become a whole lot more complicated. Nests of vampires in Purley, digging up graves in Covent Garden, brokering a peace between the warring gods and goddesses that rule over the Thames and its tributaries. But there’s something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious, vengeful spirit that takes ordinary people and turns them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.

 The spirit of riot and rebellions has awakened in the city, and its fallen to me to bring order to the chaos; or die trying.

 I’ve been hearing about the PC Grant books for a while, I’d always steered away because I was worried that it would just be a Harry Potteresque story, about an apprentice who is better than everyone else and shows the experts how to do it. I’m glad to say that when I finally did get round to picking a copy up that I was so wrong.

There are elements of Harry Potter in there – the story has magic – but its how Harry Potter would have been if he’d been ten years older, a lot more cynical and was born a raised in London. Peter Grant is not your ordinary wizard; he’s not your ordinary copper. He over-thinks things too much, but in over-thinking them he manages to see what is there better than some others. Deemed to be too cerebral to be an ordinary copper Peter is sidelined into the Case Progression Unit, his role, in-putting all the data “ordinary” coppers collate. It’s a dead-end assignment and not what he’d signed up for; lucky for him the guy he took a witness statement from one cold January morning happened to be a ghost.

One dead body, one ghost witness and Peter’s life is turned upside down. Within days he is thrust into a world of magic, gods, demons and other creatures that shouldn’t be allowed into polite society. To his credit Peter handles the transition fairly well, he guided through the rules and pitfalls that come with him being an apprentice. He is introduced to age old agreements between the supernatural world and the Metropolitan Police Service. But something is hell bent on tearing that fragile peace to shreds.

The plot slowly builds, each set piece introducing Peter – and the reader – to the hidden world that coexists alongside ours. There is a lot of interesting history thrown in for good measure, showing the author has gone out of his way to set his story in a grounded reality. I liked the fact that London itself is a character in the story, its streets, buildings and the rivers that flow through it, all have a part to play and add something to the tale as a whole.

If I had any niggles it’s that I’d liked to have seen more of DI Nightingale, but I suppose this isn’t his story, and seeing there are already three more books in the series out, I’m guessing more of his story will come out as Peter’s training progresses.

Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L Powell – Book Review

Title: Ack-Ack Macaque

Author: Gareth L Powell

Publisher: Solaris

Published: Out Now

RRP: Print £5.62 – Kindle £4.86

In 1944, when waves of German Ninja’s parachute into Kent, Britain’s only hope lies with a Spitfire pilot code named ‘Ack-Ack Macaque’. The trouble is Ack-Ack Macaque is a cynical, one-eyed, cigar chomping, booze swilling, foul mouthed monkey. And he’s starting to doubt everything, even his very existence.

 2059 is a world where France and Great Britain merged in the late 1950s to form the core of the glorious Commonwealth of Europe and nuclear powered Zeppelins ply the skies. Ex-Journalist Victoria Valois finds herself drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man who butchered her husband, and stole her electronic soul. In Paris, after taking part in an illegal breaking at a research laboratory, the heir to the throne goes on the run, with a self aware cynical talking monkey who wants answers.

 And all the while the Doomsday clock ticks towards Armageddon.

Ack-Ack Macaque started life as a short story in the pages of Interzone, the same year it was published the readers of the magazine voted it the year’s best story. The short story is included in this book, allowing the reader to see the evolution of the character and what was kept in and what was taken out.

This book is a story within a story, partly set in an alternative WWII, with Ack-Ack Macaque fighting off hoards of black clad German Ninja warriors. And partly set in 2059, a future with an alternative past to what we know now. The link between the two is the title character. How, you might ask, does the character fit into two time frames 115 years apart? Well that would be giving a little too much away, but let’s put it this way, he does fit in both time frames, and it doesn’t involve any complicated time travel plot.

The move from past to present is deftly done, almost seamless, and allows the character to carry on unchanged. He is assisted in his adventures by a supporting cast that are not what you would expect to be adventurous, danger seekers. Of the bunch the heir to the throne is the most interesting, and because of events shares a common ground with Macaque.

The action is handled well, no-one, except the monkey, is a skilled fighter, and the author manages to put this across well. People are clumsy, they get injured; they make mistakes. This gives the action a more realistic feel for me. Too often in books, TV and films you see an average Joe take on the big bad and become an expert fighter overnight. Here this does not happen.

I nice touch is the inclusion of news items, blog posts, scattered between the chapters, about events happening in the story and in the wider world. It helps build a bigger picture without coming across as info-dumping. It’s also is a nifty way of world building.

If I have one criticism it’s there are a lot of long talky segments in the middle section, talky segments that made the middle drag. I’m not sure if these were put in to bulk the book out to novel length, but for me they seemed superfluous, as several times the conversations were just going over ground that had been covered. As a reader I think of myself as fairly perceptive, I can get the gist of what’s going on without having to be reminded.

All in all this is a rip roaring adventure yarn, with a smattering of steampunk, a smidge of alternative sci-fi and a lead character that seriously kicks-ass.

The Alchemist Of Souls by Anne Lyle – Book Review

Title: The Alchemist of Souls

Author: Anne Lyle

Publisher: Angry Robot

Published: Out Now

RRP: Print £8.99 – Kindle £4.38

When Tudor explorers returned from the New World, they brought back with them a name out of half forgotten Viking legend – Skayling’s – and following in those explorers wake came red sailed ships, native American goods, and a Skrayling ambassador to Queen Elizebeth I court.

 Mal Catlyn, a down on his luck sword for hire, is seconded to the Skrayling’s guard as the Ambassador’s personal bodyguard – at his behest – but assassinations are the least of Mal’s worries. What he learns about the Skrayling’s, their unholy powers, could cost England her new ally; and Mal his soul.

If you like your historical fiction with a twist then this is for you. Anne Lyle has obviously taken a lot of time to learn about the period she is writing in, the muddied streets of Elizabethan London jump from the page, full of colourful characters, sinister plots and rip roaring adventure. On top of this she has layered an alternative history where Queen Elizabeth I married and has children, as if that wasn’t enough to create another timeline she has added the Skrayling’s – creatures from legend – to add to the political melting pot that was Europe in the late 1500s.

The plots and schemes that were famously around during that time are still there, numerous characters seem to be working to their own agenda, whilst proclaiming to be working for the Crown. The mystery at the core of the story though has nothing to do with the plots and machinations of high ranking peers. It’s a story of lost love, murder and possession.

Mal Catlyn serves well as the main character, he hides secrets of his own, carries a burden that could see him accused a traitor and hanged. He is ably assisted by Ned and Corby – a young gay man and a girl pretending to be a boy, both of whom work in the theatre – both of whom are well equipped to deal with the dangers of living in London at that time, and both of whom on more than one occasion save the day and possibly Mal’s life.

The story rattles along at a healthy pace, there is little time to catch your breath as Mal and his friends go from working for the Crown, to fugitives, to heroes. The action is handled well and the suspense kept bubbling nicely to keep you engaged. If I have any qualms it’s that everyone, no matter their standing in society, seems to have easy access in and out of several important castles – including the Tower of London. I’m unsure what the level of security was in the late 1500s, but I imagine it to have been tighter than this.

Bait Dog by Chuck Wendig – Review

Title: Bait Dog

Author: Chuck Wendig

Publisher: Terribleminds 1^st Edition

Published: Out Now

RRP: Kindle £3.19

This title includes the novella Shotgun Gravy

The last time Atlanta Burns tangled with the town bullies it seemed like she and her friends won the day. But then one of those friends ended up dead – dead by his own hand if you believed it. Atlanta and her friend Shane are not so sure.

Atlanta, afraid of once again stirring up the hornet’s nest by looking into Chris’ death, instead focuses on looking into the death of a local teen’s beloved dog. But doing this is no easy task, and soon Atlanta and her friends are embroiled in the world of dog fights. But also she finds that events surrounding the death of the dog shed light of Chris’ alleged suicide.

As events unfold Atlanta once again finds herself face-to-face with bullies, and staring down a corruption that’s seeped into town like a septic infection. It’s all too much for one girl to handle, and she knows she and her trusty .410 Squirrel gun must go up against some of the most callous and cruel people she’d ever likely to meet.

One girl, her single-barrel Winchester shotgun and a whole town full of terrible that deserves her brand of teenage justice.

Chuck Wendig certainly knows how to write strong young women with bad attitude and the sort of mouth that would make a docker blush. Atlanta Burns is very much in the Miriam Black mould, strong willed, independent. She’s the sort of take-no-shit girl that I imaged Ellen Ripley was growing up. But unlike any other Chuck Wendig book I’ve so far read this one is set in the “real world”, no one has psychic powers, no one is a vampire, its about real people trying to deal with real world issues.

This is a very hard book to read. It covers three subjects that are disturbing and upsetting, bullying, racism and animal cruelty. All are prevalent no matter where you live, and all something that needs to be addressed. Chuck has managed to do this in a way that is informative and entertaining (though I’m not sure that is the right word, there is nothing entertaining about either of the subjects, but in order to sell a story you have to entertain somewhere).

As with the Miriam Black character Atlanta is from a dysfunctional family, she has a fractured relationship with her mother, and in some way blames her for being the way she is. Atlanta is the victim of abuse at the hands of one of her mother’s boyfriends, an event that happened prior to the start of the novella Shotgun Gravy, but an event that very much haunts her – and drives her – still. Because of that event Atlanta has a certain reputation with her peers. She is some parts admired and some parts feared. People do not know how to interact with her, afraid they may offend, worse that she may react.

Is Atlanta Burns a violent person? No, I don’t think she is. She’s a girl that has gone through some seriously bad shit and is dealing with it in her own unique way. Does she win? The jury is out, although there is an end of sorts to the story in this book, it’s not the end to the story as a whole. The bullies, racists and downright nasty fuckers are still out there, and so is Atlanta.

 

Red Country by Joe Aberceombie – Review

Title: Red Country

Author: Joe Abercrombie

Publisher: Gollancz

Published: Out Now

RRP: £16.99 (Hardback) – £8.99 (Kindle)

They burned her home, they stole her brother and sister, but vengeance is following.

 Shy South hoped she’d buried her bloody past, but she’ll have to sharpen up her old ways to get her family back. She sets off in pursuit with a pair of oxen and her cowardly old step-father, Lamb, for company. But she learns along the way that Lamb buried a bloody past of his own, none bloodier, and out in the Far Country the past never stays buried for long.

 Their journey will take them across the barren plains to the frontier town from hell that is gripped by gold fever. Through feud, duel and massacre they must go, then high into the mountains for a confrontation Ghosts. But worse their journey will force them into an alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer Temple; two men no one should ever want to trust.

I’ve been following the progress of this sixth book set in the First Law universe with interest. I’m a late comer to the works of Joe Abercrombie, I only discovered him after he’d published the original trilogy, but since then he has fast become my favourite fantasy author. So it was with a tingle of excitement when I read on his blog that his next project after The Heroes would be the fantasy take on the classic Western. I grew up watching the genre, my Dad is a fan of John Wayne, and he instilled that same interest in me. From Bonanza to The High Chaparral, from True Grit to The Wild Bunch. Westerns were a big part of my non SF/F growing up.

Red Country is themed very much in that classic mould, with sweeping vistas, dangerous natives and lawless towns without a sheriff in sight. But it also draws from more modern takes on the genre, it is clear as soon as we reach the frontier town of Crease that the brilliant Deadwood was very much in Joe’s mind when he described it. With all the ingredients taken from the past few decades mixed together, the ingredients from the First Law world were delicately added, the outcome the best of both worlds, but with some minor glitches (more of them later).

Red Country is very much a swansong book. In a recent interview Joe has already hinted at his next project, another trilogy set in the First Law world, but set some fifteen to twenty years after the events of this book. So it should come as no surprise that one fan favourite character doesn’t survive this book and the other rides off into the sunset, with more an idea as to his fate than we were left with after he fell into a fast flowing river at the end of Last Argument of Kings. It feels that with this book Joe is drawing a line under the events and characters we’ve seen over the past six books, and laying the foundations for what is to come. The world of the First Law is moving on, unlike most other fantasy worlds there is a definite sense of progress, of time moving forward. Industrialisation is sweeping across the civilised world, the boundaries of the map are being pushed back on the unknown, but I feel that after six books of building his world and the forces at work within it that perhaps the unknown is about to push back.

That’s not to say this is a perfect book. I did find after reading it somewhat empty, I’d not felt like that since reading A Dance with Dragons last year. I think in my mind I’d built it up to such a height that when it came down to it that height wasn’t reached. I did enjoy it, it is still miles ahead of anything else on the market at the moment; but there was still something missing. I have no idea what it was; I have no answer to what is needed to set this book up alongside the pinnacle that is the original trilogy. But there are something’s that either didn’t work (for me) or could have been done differently.

The Ghosts for me were a missed opportunity. For the first third of the book we were led to believe these tribes of the plains were a big danger, they were uncompromising, vicious and could not be reasoned with. But when it came down to it they were little more than a desperate ragtag band, scavenging from the weak and unwary. And all it took to deal with them was for Lamb to kill their chief to make them fade away into the night. OK, I know the whole Ghost threat, when it came to the Fellowship, was a set up and the expected outcome was for the pioneers to pay out. But even so, I thought the son of the chief was going to break the deal that his father had made with Sweet and go native; alas he was never seen again.

The Dragon people, like the Ghosts, seemed to be all hype and little else. I appreciate the bulk of their strength was away dealing with the growing Shanka problem, but even so I was expecting more. And being honest I was hoping to see some Lamb/Shanka action which would have tied into the original trilogy.

But these were my only major quibbles. Joe Abercrombie has said himself that this book was the hardest of all the First Law books to write. I think some of those difficulties he experienced might be why there are some flaws with the finished product. That being said it is still a great read, and a great ending for two of the series stand out characters.

GRRM Posts Second Winds Of Winter Chapter

Over on his Not A Blog! George RR Martin has posted a second chapter from the sixth book in the A Song Of Ice And Fire series. This one is titled Arianne.

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/if-sample.html?20130108

Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review

Read some sad news today that Graeme Flory has decided to call an end to his reviewing blog Graeme’s Fantasy Book Review.

http://www.graemesfantasybookreview.com/

Along with Adam Whitehead’s Wertzone, Graeme’s blog are the only two review blog’s I’ve read. Partly because of his reviews I was introduced to some great authors and books I would probably never have heard of.

End of an era, I’d like to wish Graeme well in the future.

Mockingbird – Book Review

Title: Mockingbird

Author: Chuck Wendig

Publisher: Angry Robot

Published: Out Now

RRP: £7.99 (Hardback) – £5.49 (Kindle)

Miriam is trying. Really, she is.

 The whole “settling down thing” that Louis has going on just isn’t working. Living on Long Beach the whole year long. Home is a double wide trailer. She has a full time job. And her and Louis, Louis who spends most of the time on the road, well they’re relationship is subject to the same old piss and vinegar Miriam brings to everything she does.

 Life isn’t going well, she’s struggling with it and trying to keep her psychic ability in check. But that feels wrong, like she’s keeping a tornado trapped in a bottle.

 Then comes one bad day that turns everything on its head.

Miriam tried to do the right thing and it’s turned round and bit her in the butt. Events from the first book – Blackbirds – still haunt her, not only the eye Louis lost, but the scars she earned saving him, and the promise she tried to keep. But one inadvertent touch and the house of cards comes tumbling down, futures are revealed, death is abroad and Miriam is drawn into the world of a serial killing family with a penchant for young girls.

It’s good that this second book draws back the curtains on Miriam’s world more. There is more of the powers that surround her and seem intent of guiding or stopping her. It’s nice that we learn there is another – and possibly others – like her with varying degrees of sight. But moreover it’s good that Chuck Wendig chose not to take the easy route and settle Miriam into a Buffyesque role of champion of light and all round equalizer.

She has flashes of that character, she chooses to do the right thing and see her visions through to the end. But she chooses to do it her way, the Miriam Black way, and that way takes her through pain and heartache and lavish helpings of sticking-it-to-the-man.

It’s been said that male authors cannot write decent female characters. Wrong. Chuck Wendig has not only created a believable, three dimensional character in Miriam he’s also put her in a world populated with similar characters that jump off the page and make a grab for your throat.

If there is a downside to this second outing, it’s Louis. He fitted into the frame of the first book, but for me with its resolution his story was told. Here it’s like he’s been kept around just so Miriam has an in to the main setting of the story. Sure he has other stuff to do, saving Miriam for instance, but keeping him around just for that didn’t fit into the whole Miriam Black world view for me.

In The Tall Grass by Stephen King & Joe Hill – Review

Title - In The Tall Grass

Authour – Stephen King & Joe Hill

Publisher - Gollancz

Price – £0.99 (Kindle) – £10. 10 (audio)

 

 

 

 

 

King and Hill, Father and Son, a dynamic duo with equal strengths, twisted imaginations and the ability to turn in a diabolical tale from something as simple as a field of grass.

Going in I was expecting some side-story along the lines of Children Of The Corn, but I was wrong, this is as far removed from that classic King tale as Count Duckula is from Bram Stokers Dracula. OK maybe slight exaggeration, but you get my drift?

Anyone familiar with both author’s work will know they are brilliant at visualising everyday settings with a sinister, supernatural twist. In this trimmed down short story you get all that, without the high page count. A brother and sister taking a road trip across America hear a cry for help from within a field of tall grass. Deciding to go help they soon find themselves disorientated, lost and slowly becoming spooked by their surroundings.

The scares are fast in coming, the horror slow in building, and the pay-off though predictable is satisfying. Also, as an added bonus you get two neat excerpts after the main event, a preview of Stephen King’s Dr. Sleep – a prequel to The Shining – and an excerpt to Joe Hill’s next novel NOS4R2, which might be about vampires (based on the title alone).