Floor to Ceiling Books

That's All, Folks!

2011-11-17T10:12:00.000Z

Yes, in the immortal words of Porky Pig, I am announcing the closure of Floor to Ceiling Books.

This is not a decision made lightly. But it is, I feel, a necessary decision to make.

You see, I have a new job. A dream job. I am going to be heading up the new imprint from Angry Robot - STRANGE CHEMISTRY. I am taking my place as editor of Strange Chemistry (sister imprint of ANGRY ROBOT BOOKS), and will be bringing you the best in YA books in the future.

As such, I felt there was simply too much of a conflict of interest to continue blogging and reviewing books - especially those that are published in the same arena that I will be working in.

I love you all, my readers who have been loyal and who have come back to my blog time and again to read the words I put out. I will miss blogging. I will miss enthusing over new book finds with you and encouraging you to part with money for those novels you really shouldn't be missing.

But *deep breath* I will now be choosing some of those novels that I think you should be reading (and I'm afraid to say I grin madly every time I contemplate that fact!) I will be discussing with you the new directions we can see YA going. I can enthuse to you about how important and vital I think young adult fiction is.

I'm glad that I can finally tell you all what has been going on the past few months (I think some of you probably had your suspicions anyway!) and I hope that you will all join me on my new journey, bringing Strange Chemistry to life.

Thank you all so, so much and see you on the other side!

www.strangechemistrybooks.com

Angry Robot Open Door Month

2011-11-15T14:14:00.000Z

So, y'all knew that I was involved with the Angry Robot Open Door reading of manuscripts. I wrote a blog post about it HERE stating which of the manuscripts I sent through for final approval to Lee and Marc.

Today I received a rather exciting press release from Angry Robot, which explains that two of the authors who submitted through the Open Door process have been signed up. And... well... they're two of mine! I am utterly over the moon about this and I cannot wait for you to read The Mad Scientist's Daughter and The Dead of Winter. They were such different novels, but both so great!

Here is the press release in full:

Like most successful publishers, Angry Robot only accepts submissions through literary agencies. Earlier this year, however, the company ran a pilot programme to see how many unpublished – but talented – authors there were without representation. During March, Angry Robot invited all un-agented authors to submit completed manuscripts as part of an “Open Door Month”. Over 990 novels were submitted during that period.

Today, Angry Robot are delighted to announce the first acquisitions from the first Open Door Month. Two new authors, each with a minimum two book deal, have now joined the Angry Robot family.

Cassandra Rose Clarke was the first signing to come through this process. Her two novels for Angry Robot show the versatility of this important new talent.

The Mad Scientist’s Daughter is the heartbreaking story of the journey from childhood to adulthood, with an intriguing science fictional twist. The Assassin’s Curse is a fantastical romp, starring Ananna, a no-nonsense lady pirate, born into pirate royalty.

Clarke said: "I'm beyond excited to have Angry Robot publishing my first-ever novel, and not only because of the delightful coincidence that my novel involves a robot who is, on occasion, angry. Angry Robot’s reputation is stellar and their author list incredibly impressive – I’m humbled to be included amongst their ranks!"

We take a somewhat darker turn with a pair of books from Lee Collins – The Dead of Winter and She Returns From War. Both novels follow Cora Oglesby, a bounty hunter with a reputation for working supernatural cases.

Collins said: "As excited as I am at the prospect of rubbing shoulders with Angry Robot's outstanding authors, publication was really a secondary goal of my submitting to them. My primary reason was the hope, however slim, of cybernetic augmentation."

Both deals were negotiated by Angry Robot’s editor, Lee Harris, who stated: “There is an enormous amount of talent out there, waiting to be discovered, and I am thrilled we have found two great new talents as part of our search.”

Both authors’ debut novels will be published by Angry Robot in autumn 2012, with their second books scheduled for spring 2013.

I'm jumping for joy - and very much hoping to be involved with the Open Door again next year!

Lest We Forget

2011-11-11T12:31:00.000Z

Take a moment today to remember those who have fallen in the protection of the innocent.

We shall always remember.

Rosebush by Michele Jaffe

2011-11-03T11:00:00.002Z

Rosebush was a seriously compelling read. I started it over the course of one evening, and felt aggrieved at having to put it down to go to sleep. I then spent the next day picking it up every chance I had. I just HAD to know what was going to happen, and which of Jane's friends was responsible for what happened to her.

Jane's voice is very strong - written in the first person - and means that the reader ends up living every nightmare that Jane suffers. Her descent into doubting herself and possible madness is chilling and kept me absolutely gripped.

The whole "rich gal with secrets" thing has been done before on TV, but it was the first YA novel I'd read with that sort of theme, and it lends itself well to the short snappy chapters that Jaffe used to construct her novel. I also liked the flashbacks and the confusion that left me guessing all the way to the end who would turn out to be the would-be killer.

I felt a little strange at the fact that Jane was snogging three different guys during the time that she was in hospital - it went against the way that I "felt" she should act. I would have preferred to see just David and Pete as the guys that Jane feels drawn towards - Scott is a strange addition to the story.

This definitely has more depth than a lot of the YA that I've read, and has a deliciously dark edge. I would warn against starting this when you have other things that need to be done, because you won't be able to put it down. Enjoyable, and psychologically scary.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

2011-11-01T11:07:00.000Z

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf – her wolf – is a chilling presence she can’t seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: in winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human – or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

The positive of Shiver is the prose. It is delicate and fragile, like ice crystals and the wind through leaves. It is haunting and desperate, like the best parts of Romeo and Juliet. Maggie Stiefvater writes beautifully. I found myself drowning in the loveliness of the prose - to the point where I was *almost* able to ignore the flaws of the novel. If Stiefvater had managed to take the plot to the same places as the prose - stratospherically good - then this would have been an AMAZING book.

As it is, I think the best words to describe Shiver are ephemeral and fleeting - much like the summers that the wolves experience as humans before turning back to animals. As I read it, I was drawn into this story, but I can't imagine that it will stay with me beyond a few days.

Even while reading and luxuriating in the stunning writing, I found myself frustrated by Grace's character. She loves Sam just because. Why does she love him? Why is she so obsessed? Why is she willing to overlook the fact he is a wolf half the time?

I also found the background around the story very limited. Why are there werewolves anyway? Why have they settled in Mercy Falls? Why does Beck need more werewolves? Why did he decide that Sam should be a werewolf?

Why doesn't Olivia - who is such friends with Grace, apparently - come to her friend about the issues she's having? Why is the ending so very artificial?

Ack, just writing all of these questions makes me become more frustrated. Shiver should have been a superb novel. A brilliant book. A book that you are dying to share amongst all your friends. As it was, I enjoyed it and will want to read Linger and Forever, but it wasn't the classic that it deserves to be.

Gorgeous Cover Art!

2011-10-28T15:43:00.000+01:00

I was happily browsing the forthcoming titles available on Play.com (one of my fave activities on a slow Friday afternoon) and this gorgeous piece of artwork jumped out at me....

This comes hard on the heels of:

And:

Pierre Pevel must be thrilled.

Nice work, Gollancz! One of the best looking trilogies of recent times, IMHO!

Do you like?

We Love This Book

2011-10-27T13:26:00.000+01:00

Okay, so I just had a press release drop into my inbox and it's something that I figure my readers might just be interested in...

Introducing 'We Love This Book':

We Love This Book is the new, quarterly consumer book magazine, published by The Bookseller Group, alerting readers to exciting new books and providing a platform for publishers to reach readers in an imaginative and engaged way.

This is the second issue, published for the autumn, and it brings readers a crop of literary delights including an interview with Jeffrey Eugenides by Mark Lawson, a snapshot into the world of Sir Ranulph Fiennes through his ‘Desert Island Books’ selection, an exclusive piece by one of this autumn’s most hotly anticipated
debut novelists Erin Morgenstern and a glimpse at medieval life through the eyes of Peter Ackroyd as he embarks on a fascinating series of biographies looking at The History of England.

Among other highlights, Simon Barnes, chief sportswriter for The Times and bestselling author teaches us how to be a bird-spotter with our eyes closed; Alexander Masters, award-winning author of Stuart: A Life Backwards treats us to an intimate portrait of one of the greatest mathematical prodigies of the twentieth century who happens to live in his basement and Misha Glenny, author of the international bestseller McMafia explores the increasingly sophisticated world of teen hackers.

In addition to these exclusive pieces, this new issue includes We Love This Book’s regular features including the innovative ‘Book Tree’ taking us from Lolita to The Da Vinci Code, the ‘Three-Course Crush’ providing culinary delights from Dan Leppard, Matthew Evans, Jon Simon and Tristan Hogg and an extensive reviews section including both fiction and non-fiction, reviewed by booksellers and We Love This Book’s own reviewers, as well as readers’ choices of the best paperbacks.

The dedicated children’s section – with its own special cover – includes three features: looking at new innovations in pop-up books for a younger age group, the eternal popularity of dragons in children’s and young adult-fiction which includes interviews with Cressida Cowell and Christopher Paolini on their new books and a look back at the childhood of novelist and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, who is writing a new series of books featuring the world’s most famous flying car,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

The associated website, www.welovethisbook.com will come out of Beta to coincide with the launch of the second issue and will have additional features, interviews, reviews and blogs including an interview with the much loved fantasy author Terry Pratchett on the publication of his 39th Discworld novel, an exclusive twitter interview with Margaret Atwood, a slot with Conn
Iggulden talking about what’s next for the Khan Dynasty in his best-selling Conquerer series and recipes from Jamie Oliver, Rachel Allen, Gordon Ramsay and The Hairy Bikers.

The website will also include extensive event and festival information and a ”find a bookshop“ guide. Additional content will be added to the website all the time including image galleries, video, competitions and a “find a library” guide.

We Love This Book are also proud to be sponsoring Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Misha Glenny’s events at The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival and Christopher Paolini’s appearance at the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature.

Subscribing to both the magazine and the associated newsletter can be done via the website.

I will certainly be subscribing - it looks like a lively mix of interviews and features with a good range of authors and genres being tackled.

What do you reckon?

It's Oh So Quiet.... Shush....Shush....

2011-10-26T10:46:00.000+01:00

Y'all must have noticed it's all been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately. Well, okay, a lot quiet.

I've been taking an odd break, which came about spontaneously thanks to a few factors. One is that I haven't felt the need to review the last few books I've read. Here are very short thoughts about them:

Rynn's World by Steve Parker - Good start, but ultimately tiresome with some very repetitive one-on-one combat scenes.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore - Enjoyable. Strong female character who had enough flaws to feel real.

Fire by Kristin Cashore - Took a while to get going. Fire annoyed me as a central character in this one, and I found the world building to be too insubstantial to connect with.

Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast - Hmm.... A guilty pleasure? Not sure it could even be classed as that! Awful writing, including throwing in a whole heap of "hip" teen terms that felt very awkward. The very definition of a perfect Mary Sue in the form of Zoey, who is wonderful and has loads of boys after her etc etc

Betrayed by P.C. and Kristin Cast - Yep, I went ahead and read the second one - despite my feelings about the first. And it all just got much, much worse. Not impressed. And, with the overt sexual themes, not terribly impressed that youngsters are reading it...

Now tackling Rosebush by Michele Jaffe and you might even get a full review of that!

The other thing keeping me away from reading/blogging is that I have started to knit again, and I'm enjoying it hugely. I have two projects on the go - a lovely chunky red jumper for me, and a soft baby blanket for Mieneke's second little bundle of joy. Those are definitely keeping me busy.

What have y'all been up to?

Conjugal Rites by Paul Magrs (review by Steve Aryan)

2011-10-13T11:57:00.000+01:00

This is the third outing for the dynamic duo of old biddies, Brenda and Effie, where they battle the supernatural in Whitby, and then go for a nice cup of tea and a slice of walnut cake in the local cafe. This time around the supernatural menace is something much closer to home and a lot more personal for Brenda. Book 2 ended on a bit of a cliffhanger when Brenda received a note from her betrothed, the person for who she was originally created in the literal sense. Her Frank is coming back and he wants them to be together forever and won't take no for an answer. But Brenda is a modern woman and after many years of moving from place to place she has finally found a place she can call home. She doesn’t want to move on but she doesn’t think he is just going to go away because she asks him nicely.

As if that wasn't enough to worry about the town seems to be turning against Brenda and other locals because of a new late night radio show run by the creepy Mr Danby. Gossip and rumours are abound and the ever glitzy and sparkly Christmas Hotel and its humongous evil owner, Mrs Claus, seems to be the nexus of all the goings on. A convention of retired and wrinkly superheroes in costume with rubbish powers adds even more fuel to the fire and by this point I was just waiting for someone to strike a match. The result was very colourful as anticipated, but the story went in a very different direction to the one I expected which was a good thing, as I don’t like it when I can predict what will happen next.

This novel was different to the previous two books in a number of ways. Firstly the novel is more traditional in that it is set around one story, whereas the previous books were split into different sections or connected novellas and each had its own mystery. That isn’t a complaint at all as there is a lot of to sink your teeth into with this book and I’ve been waiting for Frank to turn up at some point ever since I found out who Brenda really is.

The story is also more fantastical than the others. It dips into it and then just throws the characters into it head first. The supernatural and bizarre has always been present and quite often its written as quite tongue in cheek. Brenda and Effie both have a certain amount of experience with it, but they’re also quite dismissive. They have a duty, but they don’t like any shenanigans spoiling the peace and quiet of their lives and their schedules. They want to deal with it as quickly and quietly as possible, without attracting undue attention to themselves, so life can go back to normal again.

Whereas the previous books were dotted with nice Easter Eggs from literature and history, Conjugal Rites leans more heavily on what has been set up before in the series. There are still a few little nods here and there, but it felt to me like a very different sort of book. I think this story was one that had to happen at some point, and without spoiling anything, I’m glad to say I didn’t see the end coming. This isn’t the last book in the series but it’s clear from this point forward the foundations of the series have shifted a bit. Effie previously had a man-friend and that nearly ended in disaster and it upset her friendship with Brenda for a time. This time it’s Brenda’s turn to rock the boat and I have a feeling both of their beaus will end up coming between them.

Overall this was a funny, dark, silly, giddy and laugh out loud book. It’s incredibly rare that I ever laugh out loud while reading, but Paul Magrs does it at least once every book in this series. A wonderful, light hearted and very enjoyable read.

A Big Welcome to Steve Aryan

2011-10-11T09:37:00.000+01:00

I'm really sad about the news over at Walker of Worlds - Mark is a great friend of mine and his is one of the blogs I've had in my RSS feed since the early days of starting out blogging. Hope you feel better soon, Mark, and come back to us refreshed!

Having said that, it also means very GOOD NEWS for me and my blog readership! I have offered a home to Steve Aryan, for his reviews of comics and novels. It's a great fit for me, since I *never* cover comics and I know some of you lot read them avidly.

So, please give a massive welcome to Steve!

What's Your Favourite?

2011-10-09T21:58:00.000+01:00

On Friday I had an amazingly retro evening, watching some classic cartoons (which are improved immeasurably by a glass of wine, I found :-p) and I thought that it would be a good idea to share 10 of my absolute favourites. I'm desperate for you to share yours too! Leave me some love in the comments.

10) Dungeons and Dragons

So... the cartoon that kicked off all the fun was Dungeons and Dragons. I loved it when I was younger. It doesn't quite stand up to how I felt about it from childhood (as in, cried when I missed it! I was very young) but it was still incredibly entertaining. I can never decide whether Uni was inspired or the natural forerunner of such comedy sidekicks as Jar Jar Binks. And Eric was horribly whiny and annoying!

9) The Dreamstone

This was actually one that my brother was obsessed by. I considered myself too sophisticated for cartoons, but soon discovered it wasn't so as I became sucked into the story. It is basically a fantasy story in cartoon form, with good and evil, awesome characters who develop through the course of the series and some sterling animation. (This is a long clip but totally worth it!)

8) The Frog Song

Prepare for an earworm. This is a one-off rather than a proper cartoon series or anything, but I ADORE it!

7) The Trapdoor

I guess technically not a cartoon, but still animation of a kind. My whole family would watch an episode of this immediately after dinner. It is gently amusing, with some great little characters and insanely imaginative monsters. My four year old nephew is just beginning to get into this and I'm so pleased.

6) The Family Ness

Another that I watched some of on Friday evening. This is impossibly Scottish, but very charming and still something I'd happily watch casually *grins* And this song is just a joy! Altogether... "You can knock it, you can rock it...."

5) She-Ra

So, my brother loved He-Man, but I was always about She-Ra! She was just awesome. Kickass, clever, beautiful - what more do you want from your heroines as a child?! Oh, and I loved the horse Swift Wind. I am all about the horses... "For the honour of Greyskull!"

4) My Little Pony

Told you it was about the horses - adored this programme - and the movie is absolute quality (*tries to keep a straight face*) I had hundreds of the toys, collected the sticker albums, subscribed to the monthly magazine, was part of the fanclub. I lived and breathed My Little Pony for many years *nostalgic*

3) Thundercats

Couldn't do a list of fave cartoons without including Thundercats, really, could I? It was a massive part of my childhood, and one cartoon that EVERYONE seems to mention as something they used to watch. Who was your favourite character? I loved the twins.

2) Tom and Jerry

A bit more old school this, but classic Tom and Jerry is one of my feelgood watches. It is so clever, so musically brilliant. Both characters are amazingly drawn and my sides have ached while watching it - yep, proper full on belly laughs.

Enjoy seven wonderful minutes of The Cat Concerto, one of the all-time best works of animation...

1) Transformers

And, finally, my very favourite cartoon. We're not talking the series or owt like that. We are talking the animated movie. I love every single second. Everything about it. But one man said it all way better than I ever could - check out this post by James Long: 10 reasons why Transformers the Movie is PURE AWESOME!

Those are my ten beloved cartoons. Which did I miss, in your view? Which do you miss watching? Which of these do you agree with?

BSFA Award Nominations

2011-10-07T10:30:00.000+01:00

Okay, this is a timely reminder! After the BFS Awards discussion that has been taking place this week, it seems appropriate to remind readers of this blog that the BSFA nominations are open, enabling those members of the BSFA to nominate those works that they believe should be celebrated.

Here are all the details:

What are the BSFA Awards?

The BSFA awards are presented annually by the British Science Fiction Association, based on a vote of BSFA members and – in recent years – members of the British national science fiction convention Eastercon. They are fan awards that not only seek to honour the most worthy examples in each category, but to promote the genre of science fiction, and get people reading, talking about and enjoying all that contemporary science fiction has to offer.

The 2011 awards will be held at Olympus 2012, The 2012 Eastercon, 6th - 9th April 2012
Radisson Edwardian Hotel, Heathrow, London, UK.

Who can nominate?

You may nominate a work if YOU:
Are a member of the BSFA

AND

Send or give your nominations to the Awards Administrator to arrive by midnight on January 13th 2012.

We are officially open to receive nominations for the 2011 BSFA Awards from September 2011… but did you know you can send in your nominations now? As soon as the previous year’s ceremony is over and done with, I am happy to accept your nominations for the next year at any time. So, you don’t have to try to remember about that great story you just read, or the wonderful piece of art you just saw. Tell us about the things that impress you, and come September we’ll make sure eligible nominations are included on the list of nominated works on the website.

What are the categories?

The Best Novel award is open to any novel-length work of science fiction or fantasy that has been published in the UK for the first time in 2011. (Serialised novels are eligible, provided that the publication date of the concluding part is in 2011). If a novel has been previously published elsewhere, but it hasn't been published in the UK until 2011, it is eligible.

The Best Short Fiction award is open to any shorter work of science fiction or fantasy, up to and including novellas (40,000 words or under), first published in 2011 (in a magazine, in a book, in audio format, or any electronic or web-based format). This includes short fiction published in books and magazines published outside the UK

The Best Artwork award is open to any single science fictional or fantastic image that first appeared in 2011. Again, provided the artwork hasn't been published before 2011 it doesn't matter where it appears.

The Best Non-Fiction award is open to any written work about science fiction and/or fantasy which appeared in its current form in 2011. Whole collections comprised entirely of unrevised work that has been published elsewhere previous to 2011 are ineligible.

Subject to these other rules, you may nominate as many works in each category as you wish. You may not make multiple nominations for a single work.The shortlists for these four awards will normally comprise the five works in each category that receive the most individual nominations by the deadline. In the event of a tie for fifth place, the number of shortlisted works may be reduced to four or increased to six, for example, as appropriate. Works published by the BSFA, or in association with the BSFA, are ineligible for a BSFA award.

Not sure if the work you want to nominate fits the above criteria? Don’t worry, the definitions are kept as open as possible to allow for multifarious multimedia interpretation… if you’re not sure, just ask!

Please do not vote for your own work.

Please return your nominations to Donna Scott, BSFA Awards Administrator awards@bsfa.co.uk / 11 Stanhope Road, Northampton NN2 6JU

Got all that? Great! If you're a member of the BSFA, then get voting. Use your voice. And if you're not a member of the BSFA, then you ought to consider it. You are supporting one of the genre constitutions, and you get snazzy magazines and such throughout the year.

Personally, I'm thinking about nominating Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

What would you nominate?

Haven't the British Fantasy Society Awards always been a bit odd?

2011-10-05T15:32:00.001+01:00

Okay, so there is currently a massive uproar from the awards of the BFS, held at Fantasycon 2011 last weekend. The most detailed explanation of this hoo-ha can be found here, written by Steve Jones. I can totally understand the issues that are being faced by the BFS, and that a shake-up of the awards is overdue, but I can't help feeling that the awards have always been...well, a little odd compared to others.

Here is a list of the award winners for Best Novel since the BFS Awards came into being:

2004 - Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler
2005 - The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King
2006 - Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
2007 - Dusk by Tim Lebbon
2008 - The Grin of the Dark by Ramsey Campbell
2009 - Memoirs of a Master Forger by William Heaney (pen-name for Graham Joyce)
2010 - One by Conrad Williams
2011 - Demon Dance by Sam Stone

In my view, when looking at that list, Sam's win suddenly doesn't look quite as out of left-field as it did to me before checking out the other winners. After all, novels from small presses have been celebrated in the past. There has always been a tendency towards the weird and wonderful and niche in the awards (barring perhaps Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman). Although most of these are celebrated authors, with great talents, it would be strange to see the same names on any other awards being handed out. Just for contrast (although admittedly of only small value, because of the differences between them), here are the Best Novel winners from the Hugos from the same period:

2004 - Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
2005 - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
2006 - Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
2007 - Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
2008 - The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
2009 - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
2010 - The City and the City by China Miéville
2011 - Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

How can two awards for Best Novel reveal such inordinately different names? How can the BFS Awards (British FANTASY Awards) have revealed such a list of horror writers as their preferred talent?

Just for fun, let's also throw in the winners for the World Fantasy Award:

2004 - Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
2005 - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
2006 - Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
2007 - Soldier of Sidon by Gene Wolfe
2008 - Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay
2009 - The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford
2010 - The City and the City by China Miéville
2011 - ????

Once again, the BFS Awards have shown themselves to be distinctly odd with respect to the particular winner they've picked (although, again, I state that some of these differences are thanks to the assumed ineligibility of some of these winners compared to the BFS Awards).

Having said that, let's look at some of the fantasy novels that have been published and were eligible in the same year that Sam Stone's Demon Dance was declared top dog of fantasy novels (bearing in mind that I cannot easily find any reference to what makes a novel eligible, so I'm guessing it would be by a British author and published within 2011):

- The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie
- Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
- The Hammer by K J Parker
- The Fallen Blade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
- The Neon Court by Kate Griffin
- Savage City by Sophia McDougall
- By Light Alone by Adam Roberts
- Songs of the Earth by Elspeth Cooper
- The Age of Odin by James Lovegrove
- Corvus by Paul Kearney

I have to say, if I were Sam Stone I would be feeling embarrassed to have been handed an award when the above weren't even shortlisted... (in fact, I see that she has been moved to return her award, which is incredibly fair of her but also a damning indictment towards a system that allowed it to be awarded in the first place).

But is this Sam's fault? Only to the extent that she lobbied her fans to vote in a system that allowed them to vote. The first past the post system utilised by the BFS means that Sam could fairly easily drum up enough support in an award that is notorious for not receiving very many votes.

For me, the issue is not so much the winner, but is the longlist and shortlist itself - far too heavy on horror, small press and niche authors - and the lack of support from the members. Over the years the members must have grumbled each year at the Best Novel winner, and yet NOTHING has been done to make extensive changes to date. Therefore, in my mind, the fault lies with the majority who don't vote and then bitch about the winners afterwards. In my mind, if you have the opportunity to vote in an award/election/anything then you do so otherwise you forego bitching afterwards.

Personally, I think that positives are already emerging from this matter - although Sam has been put into a vile position, and although some harsh words have been passed across the divide between the two camps, it looks as though new members are being encouraged to join the BFS and effect change by nominating and voting next year. I certainly plan to do so. So here is the call to arms: if you've even been remotely interested in the Awards handed out this year and feel it could and should have been different, get yourself a membership of the BFS and start making a difference. Next year, the BFS should be handing out awards that mean something from a massively strong shortlist. We have one of the finest communities of fantasy writers in the world and need to use the awards to celebrate that fact.

The Ugly Sister by Jane Fallon

2011-10-05T10:39:00.000+01:00

When it comes to genes life's a lottery . . .

As Abi would the first to know. She has spent her life in the shadow of her stunningly beautiful, glamorous older sister Cleo.

Headhunted as model when she was sixteen, Cleo has been all but lost to Abi for the last twenty years, with only a fleeting visit or brief email to connect them. So when Abi is invited to spend the summer in Cleo's large London home with her sister's perfect family, she can't bring herself to say no. Despite serious misgivings. Maybe Cleo is finally as keen as Abi to regain the closeness they shared in their youth?

But Abi is in for a shock. Soon she is left caring for her two young, bored and very spoilt nieces and handsome, unhappy brother-in-law - while Cleo plainly has other things on her mind. As Abi moves into her sister's life, a cuckoo in the nest, she wrestles with uncomfortable feelings.

Could having beauty, wealth and fame lead to more unhappiness than not having them? Who in the family really is the ugly sister?

The Ugly Sister by Jane Fallon is an examination on how and to what extent a person's looks can affect them and those around them. I appreciated the message contained within the pages (that beauty is only skin deep and true beauty comes from within), but felt that Fallon rather over-emphasised the matter over the course of the novel.

Due to the message she was conveying, it was hard to like a number of the characters within the pages. I'm used to more character growth in my chick lit novels, whereas The Ugly Sister showcased some incredibly one-dimensional people. Cleo, one of the sisters, is the main culprit. I actually dreaded reading more about her complete self-obsession, and I wondered why on earth Abi would be so hellbent on trying to work on a reconciliation. Cut your losses, girl! (that's certainly what I would be saying to a friend if she was in the same situation as Abi...)

In addition to this, I felt deeply uncomfortable with one of the romantic frissons that takes place in The Ugly Sister. For me, it was immoral in many ways. Fallon tried to deal with it as well as possible, but I just felt that it was an unnecessary part of the story. All of the rest of the story could have been just as effective (maybe more so?) if that romance had been excluded.

I did like the children, and their journey through The Ugly Sister. It was delightful watching them regain a sense of childlike joy, and become as children really should be. I did like the idea of the elder, Tara, deciding not to follow in her mother's footsteps by becoming a model - but I think it might have been more empowering had she decided to become a model, but remain grounded about the realities of what beauty actually means for a person.

One aspect that I thought Fallon dealt with well was the idea of a single mother who has concentrated so much on the bringing up and development of her child that she has neglected her own development, and has no real idea how to fill her life when that child leaves. For me, this was incredibly realistic, and I enjoyed reading Abi's thoughts on how to deal with it, and the dangers of becoming stuck in a job that ultimately didn't fulfil.

This, however, was a small part of a novel that I found to be littered with flaws. I didn't like the characters. I didn't enjoy the breaking of the fourth wall during narrative. I didn't like the central romance. And I didn't like being bludgeoned by the message that beauty is only skin-deep (seriously, I've seen Disney being subtler on the same matter). So, for me, The Ugly Sister is a pass. It was only briefly entertaining and not really worth the price of entry.

September Retrospective

2011-10-04T14:57:00.000+01:00

A Look Back at September

This was the month where I let go of my blog for two weeks and headed away on vacation. I left you with plenty of guest posts, which looked to be received in a great way. Have to confess, I was ready to have such a long break from blogging - it did me loads of good, and helped to bring me back refreshed. Although my blogging might start to take a backseat to real life for a couple of months. My hockey season has started and I need to get back into training. My dance exam needs a LOT of practice! With all this in mind, and with the sheer number of books currently squeezed into my shelves, I have decided to decline all review copies. I simply can't do them justice and I'm way more stressed than I should be about reading. I am still reviewing - a lot of people seemed to think I was quitting altogether - but I will be choosing my own books in a guiltfree manner.

Reading

A slight dip in form, with only nine books completed, but, honestly, my two week vacation did not allow much time at all for sitting and reading.

73) Dangerous Waters by Juliet E McKenna
74) Shelter by Harlan Coben
75) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
76) Cyber Circus by Kim Lakin-Smith
77) Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
78) Getting Away With It by Julie Cohen
79) The Portal by Alan Zendell (self-published)
80) VIII by H M Castor
81) Queen of Kings by Maria Dahvana Headley

- A little more balanced this month, with 6 books by women and 3 by men - over the year, though, the women are absolutely dominating.
- 3 YA (historical, fantasy and thriller); 1 chick lit; 1 steampunk sci fi; 1 straight sci fi and 3 fantasy.
- A terribly rare month for me where all nine novels tackled were review copies.

Best Book of September

I simply can't choose between these two books - they will be competing for which of them takes away the 'Best Book of the Year' title. The first is:

The second is:

I'm dropping the Pages Covered and Places Visited features for this month.

Plans for October

I have just now dug out all of my Black Library titles. There are a whole heap that I love the look of but have never managed to get to until now. Expect to see a large number of this featuring over the next month and onwards. Apart from that I am deliberately making no plans and just enjoying my reading!

Over To You

How did your September go? What did you read? What did you get up to? Spill!

Fantasycon 2011

2011-10-03T14:04:00.000+01:00

At the weekend I attended Fantasycon 2011 in Brighton at the Royal Albion Hotel (one of the dreaded Brittania chain...) Last year I was also at Fantasycon in Nottingham - and I had a few issues with the content of the convention. I was a little worried that this convention would again be all about the horror - and I was thrilled to be proved entirely wrong.

The schedule warmly embraced every facet of genre - fantasy, SF, horror, comics, YA. Last year I struggled to find panels to attend - this year I was full of woe about this panel clashing with that reading, or that guest of honour being put against that book launch. No complaint about the scheduling - there was just so damn much that I wanted to see. Add to this the fact that the organisers also decided to throw in a burlesque and a disco, and Fantasycon 2011 might be one of the better conventions I've been to.

In the end, despite my grand intentions, I only attended two readings and one panel (and I do regret that - but talking with all the very cool people in attendance seemed more important at the time!) I saw Lou Morgan and Anne Lyle reading from their forthcoming novels - both did an excellent job to rooms that were reduced to standing room only.

The panel - The Rise of YA - actually made me a little angry. The panellists made numerous disparaging comments about Twilight and other novels of that ilk, which seems curious regarding they also write for the people who are reading and enjoying Twilight. There didn't seem to be much knowledge or appreciation for the YA scene - it seemed as though the panellists haven't read much in the way of YA since Judy Blume *sad* There was no mention of Monsters of Men hitting the Arthur C Clarke shortlist. There was no talk of the fact that the YA shelves are simply full of books with exceptionally strong female protagonists, presenting a wonderful example for teenage girls growing up. There was no discussion of the fact that YA right now is mostly about celebrating the fact that we are different, but that that's okay. In my mind YA is forward-thinking, dynamic, progressive and an area that writers should be desperate to be included in - rather than something to be looked down upon, and considered to be only about Twilight. But enough of that...!

The rest of the time I spent nestled in a corner of the bar, talking to many fantastic people about such diverse and important topics as alligators, magnetic dwarves and leaping cacti. Yes, Fantasycon 2011 lived up to the madness and joy of other excellent conventions.

Thanks to everyone for the excellent company, and to the organisers for such a tremendous job. This was a good one!

VIII by H M Castor

2011-10-03T09:00:00.000+01:00

VIII is the story of Hal: a young, handsome, gifted warrior, who believes he has been chosen to lead his people. But he is plagued by the ghosts of his family's violent past and, once he rises to power, he turns to murder and rapacious cruelty. He is Henry VIII.

The copy for VIII states that it will do "for Henry what Hilary Mantel did for Thomas Cromwell - VIII is Wolf Hall for the teen and crossover market." I don't dispute that VIII most certainly introduces the life of VIII, but I have definite misgivings about the novel.

Key amongst these is the pacing of the novel. Over half of VIII tackled the early life of Henry and his marriage to Catherine, after the death of his brother. The remaining half showed the rest of his reign and the other five wives. In a novel that only just tips 300 pages, that is far too much to try and squeeze into the final half of the book. It made for a very rushed narrative, where Castor was unable to really showcase the way in which Hal changed from charming young man to absolute tyrant. When this came after such a leisurely opening, it caused me to catch my breath. It also meant that whole swathes of Henry's reign were not even touched upon - the whole monasteries malarkey wasn't even mentioned, and I believe this could and should have been added to the narrative.

The other facet of VIII that I didn't enjoy much was the ghost story/horror element. You have here one of the most famous personalities of all time; one of the most horrific tyrants; one of the most boisterous and downright larger-than-life monarchs - VIII didn't need any embellishments of this sort. It could have stood on its own two feet simply telling the crazy story of this King who beheaded two of his wives and divorced two others; destroyed the monasteries and introduced himself as the Head of the Church. Who needs ghosts when you have all of that actual material?

Lastly on the negative front, I found the style of writing a little odd - first person, but in a present tense e.g. "It's a beautiful morning, and the sunlight makes a halo around my mother's figure as she walks." Because this is such an unusual narrative choice in the novels I read, I found it jarring and that feeling never entirely left me.

Despite this failings, I still found myself entertained enough to read through VIII. Skipping the 'boring' bits and focusing on the soap opera style relationships and tensions of Henry's life definitely made it an interesting read. Castor has a nice flair for narrative (aside from the POV choice) and, for younger readers, it provides a good stepping on point for historical fiction. It has enough historical accuracy to appeal, and presents a decent perspective of Henry and how he became the tyrant we all know.

VIII is a decent stab at historical fiction for younger readers - and, in fact, one of the main failings was not being longer, so that Castor could do justice to the life of Henry VIII. Having said that, through personal preference I'm not sure I could read a longer novel from first person present tense perspective! Castor effectively showcases the monster that Henry is believed to have been, from arrogant young boy through to a man who truly believes he is God's hand on earth. An effective, although rushed, novel.

Floor to Ceiling Books No Longer Accepting Review Copies

2011-10-02T19:48:00.000+01:00

The title of the post says it all.

For a few reasons, Floor to Ceiling Books can no longer accept review copies of books.

I will be emailing all the publicists that I know to communicate this.

I want to say a massive, MASSIVE thanks to all those publicists who took a punt on a blog that was only just starting out, and who have continued to support me over the last twenty one months.

I am changing my review policy to reflect this.

Queen of Kings by Maria Dahvana Headley

2011-10-02T09:00:00.001+01:00

What if Cleopatra didn’t die in 30 BC alongside her beloved Mark Antony? What if she couldn’t die? What if she became immortal? Queen of Kings is the first instalment in an epic, epoch-spanning story of one woman’s clash with the Roman Empire and the gods of Egypt in a quest to save everything she holds dear.

As Octavian Caesar (later Augustus) and his legions march into Alexandria, Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, summons Sekhmet, the goddess of Death and Destruction, in a desperate attempt to resurrect her husband, who has died by his own hand, and save her kingdom. But this deity demands something in return: Cleopatra's soul. Against her will, Egypt's queen becomes a blood-craving, shape-shifting immortal: a not-quite-human manifestation of a goddess who seeks to destroy the world. Battling to preserve something of her humanity, Cleopatra pursues Octavian back to Rome - she desires revenge, she yearns for her children - and she craves blood...

It is a dangerous journey she must make. She will confront witches, mythic monsters, the gods of ancient Greece and Rome, and her own, warring nature. She will kill but she will also find mercy. She will raise an extraordinary army to fight her enemies, and she will see her beloved Antony again. But to save him from the endless torment of Hades, she must make a devastating sacrifice.

Queen of Kings, by Maria Dahvana Headley, should have been a book that I adored. It has a fantastic premise; it involves one of the strongest female characters from history; it has both Egyptian and Roman flavour (some of my favourite periods of history); and it includes a cover quote from Neil Gaiman. I should have been proclaiming my love of this book from the rooftops - and yet...

I liked it, but didn't love it. Headley's prose is dark and elegant, and her imagination is vivid. The tale comes across very much as an historical epic such as The Odyssey or The Iliad. It is fantastical and gripping in many ways, but at times I found myself turning the pages only because I had read so far and ought to at least finish, which is not what I envisaged when I started Queen of Kings.

Despite the fact that Queen of Kings is deemed to be meticulously researched, I found that Headley didn't imbue her writing with a true feeling of the time period. Egypt could be exchanged wholesale for Rome, with no issues. I didn't see any of the colour and attitude of the Egyptian people. Certain historical facts seemed to be thrown in just because Headley had discovered it, not because it fit that particular scene. I especially disliked a couple of situations where characters told other characters myths and legends that were incredibly dry and felt as though they'd been taken from Mythology 101.

Added to this, I completely failed to engage with Cleopatra as a character. Now, this is a Queen who ruled at a time when women were deemed only fit for childbearing. She seduced famous generals of the time. She was romantically associated with two of THE most famous Roman personalities: Mark Antony and Julius Caesar. This is a woman who doesn't need any real dressing up to be fabulous and interesting and someone who should leap from the page. Unfortunately, Cleopatra in Queen of Kings is relatively lifeless (and I don't intend any pun there...) I couldn't understand her motivations at all - at one point she seems entirely focused on Mark Antony, then suddenly her children are what she is concerned about.

Like I say, Headley's writing is very skillful and hence I'm sure there are others who will adore this dark fantasy about Cleopatra - in fact, this review details many of the plus points from another reviewer's point of view. For me, the characterisation of this famous queen was lacklustre and I didn't "feel" the historical aspect. If you have any interest in Ancient Egypt, then do yourself a favour - pick up River God by Wilbur Smith and avoid Queen of Kings.

The Portal by Alan Zendell (self-published)

2011-10-01T09:00:00.003+01:00

Harry Middleton is born in an America staggered by a century of decline, a time of medical and technological marvels beyond the reach of most people in a shattered economy. Pessimism and despair are more common than optimism and hope, and a desperate government bets the future on space. The lunar and Martian colonies have not provided the hoped-for salvation, so despite an angry, disillusioned public, the first star mission will soon be launched.

Harry is a special child, smart, precocious, his only confidante an embittered grandfather. When the old man dies, Harry is lost, until he meets Lorrie. At thirteen, they bond, certain they’ll spend their lives together, but a year later, she disappears, and Harry is desolate.

With help from his friend Carlos, Harry begins a quest to find her, but he quickly learns how powerless he is. Even the police lack the resources to help. Harry and Carlos can only depend on themselves and each other. An unlikely duo, Harry is an academic prodigy while Carlos is a stud athlete. Realizing that school and baseball are their tickets out of the morass they’re caught in, they inspire each other to greatness in both.

Trying to move on with his life, Harry has a college sweetheart, but as long as Lorrie haunts him, he knows the relationship is doomed. He gains celebrity and wealth, but the thing Harry wants most, finding and saving Lorrie from whatever fate took her from him remains beyond his reach. And always, in the background, are the deteriorating state of the country and the coming star missions.

The Portal by Alan Zendell is one of the most smoothly written self-published novels I have experienced. Zendell's writing is of a good quality, and there are very few mistakes that registered while I was reading my .mobi copy of this book. He has a very natural quality to his prose that kept me entertained throughout.

I enjoyed the story a great deal, but felt that there could have been a great deal more emphasis on the futuristic aspects and the drive to inhabit other planets in a bid to escape the mess created on this world. Zendell pitched a good idea here, but didn't fully explore it. Rather, we have more of a psychological thriller - as Lorrie disappears from Harry's life, and we discover the emotional impacts this will have on his future. This saddens me a little, because I would have preferred much more concerning the state of Earth and the reasons for looking towards the stars. The areas of The Portal that dealt with this really were of high quality, and presented a dark future of what might happen to our own world.

The areas of the novel that I didn't enjoy concerned the "tell, don't show" aspect of Harry's relationships. The novel is written from a first person perspective, so we hear all of his agonising, all of his thoughts and feelings - and yet it never felt very natural. The sex scenes were there more for show, it seemed, than as a way of driving the plot forwards.

Despite this, I would recommend taking a look at The Portal as a decent example of what self-publishing can achieve. Zendell is a writer with talent - one of those who probably would be able to gain a publishing deal with future novels if he continues to turn out work of this standard. Definitely worth reading if you are sceptical about the quality of self-published novels.

Blog Tour: VIII by Harriet Castor

2011-09-30T13:00:00.000+01:00

Today I am pleased to be part of the blog tour for VIII by Harriet Castor. The other tour participants are as follows, so make sure you check any you might have missed:

(Click to embiggen!)

This is the blurb/info as lifted from Amazon UK - VIII is published on 1st October 2011!

VIII is the story of Hal: a young, handsome, gifted warrior, who believes he has been chosen to lead his people. But he is plagued by the ghosts of his family's violent past and, once he rises to power, he turns to murder and rapacious cruelty. He is Henry VIII. The Tudors have always captured the popular imagination, but in VIII, Henry is presented fresh for a new generation. H M Castor does for Henry what Hilary Mantel did for Thomas Cromwell - VIII is Wolf Hall for the teen and crossover market. The contemporary, original writing style will have broad appeal and VIII brings the tension of a psychological thriller and the eeriness of a ghost story to historical fiction.

Finally, a very warm welcome to Harriet...

Writing my new book VIII, a YA novel told through the eyes of Henry VIII, took a huge amount of research. I’m not complaining – I loved every bit of it. But today I wanted to tell you a little about some of the more… well, unusual aspects of the research process.

You’d expect me to have read great tomes on Tudor history, to have studied documents, visited palaces and consulted experts on everything from costumes to archery techniques, wouldn’t you? Yes, you’d be right.

But how about my endless obsessive watching of Elton John videos (or rather, two in particular)? How about my mining of Youtube for clips of Robert Downey Jr and John Malkovich? How about studying a huge in-depth biography of Elvis Presley?

No, I’m not mad. Don’t start backing away. Look, I’m a trained historian. Cambridge University, BA, First Class – honest! Let me rummage for my certificate…

You see, I wanted to steep myself in the detail of research, the known facts, the contemporary maps, the historians’ theories, the politics, the policies – all that. But I needed to find the emotional reality of Henry’s story too. This, for me, is a very different process. Because although historical research enables you to make the past vivid and present to yourself, at the same time it highlights the differences between the past and your own world. This is, of course, very necessary – you need to be aware of these differences, work with them, dig into them for insights. But, but. At the same time, because I was writing VIII in the first person, speaking in Henry’s voice, I needed to forget those differences and bring Henry closer… I needed to become him. And above all, I needed to get that Holbein image – of Henry standing arms akimbo, bearded and jewelled – out of my head. I could not inhabit an icon. I had to make Henry a human being.

Take, if you can, a couple of minutes to watch the video below. It’s a fantastic film made by the artist Sam Taylor-Wood of Robert Downey Jr lip-synching to Elton John’s song I Want Love. Downey is alone in palatial surroundings; to me the film speaks viscerally, immediately, of the loneliness of power. And of how easily it can push you into strange states of mind. Downey – or Henry, as he was to me when I was writing VIII – looks hard yet vulnerable, cold yet emotional… and dangerous. Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufbexgPyeJQ

Completely by chance, another video I found hugely useful was also an Elton John one – here it’s Justin Timberlake doing the lip-synching, to This Train Don’t Stop. It’s a brilliant portrayal of the isolation and disconnection of the constantly accompanied ‘star’ (as Henry was in his own day). How, it makes me ask, can such a person remain emotionally undamaged? What madness must it be to live in that situation and have no one (pretty much) to check you, to have life-and-death power over everyone around you? Surely that sort of power must be a hellish, lonely trap? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsuHAn54wPs

When Henry was young he was handsome, charismatic, ridiculously talented. Constantly surrounded by a gang of male friends and hangers-on. Yet, inside, he was in many respects child-like and insecure. Here, Peter Guralnick’s monumental and brilliant 2-volume biography of Elvis came in. Of course Elvis didn’t develop into the monster that Henry became – but, in a radically different time and place, he shared so many of Henry’s natural advantages, and he did manifestly fail to cope with his power and success. How could his story not be relevant to my study of Henry?

John Malkovich’s meltdown in the Coen brothers’ film Burn After Reading put flesh, for me, on Henry’s rage, while a particular scene with Robert Downey Jr and Nicole Kidman in the film Fur epitomised one of Henry’s relationships. Another scene with Robert Downey (him again! My casting for Henry, you see) in The Singing Detective conjured Henry’s grief – these were visual, emotional talismans that I came back to time and time again as I was writing.

The real creative alchemy happens inside the writer, of course. It’s no use trying to stitch together moments from other works – and I don’t in any way mean to suggest that that’s what I was doing. These film and video talismans inspired me as a piece of old glass or a walk by the sea or a painting might inspire… and I have no notion whether anyone else can see, in what I watched, what they signified for me. Perhaps it’s too deeply personal. But I hope, in reading VIII, that you might appreciate the results.

www.hmcastor.com
Twitter: @HMCastor

Thanks so much for stopping by, Harriet!

Getting Away With It by Julie Cohen

2011-09-30T08:51:00.000+01:00

After years of misbehaving in the quaint country village where she grew up with her identical twin sister Lee, Liza escaped to LA for a thrilling life as a stunt woman. But when her job brings her a little too close to death for comfort, Liza has to go back to the one place she couldn’t wait to get away from—home.

Only, when Liza arrives she discovers that her seemingly perfect sister has run off, leaving behind their difficult, ailing mother, a family ice-cream business that’s frozen in time and a dangerously attractive boyfriend. And what’s more, everyone thinks Liza is Lee. This is Liza’s one chance to see how it feels to be the good twin. She might be getting away with it, but there’s no getting away from facing up to who she really is…

This seems like such a frivolous novel to begin with - the very girly front cover, the identity swap of the twin sisters at the centre of the novel, the stuntwoman job of Liza - that I felt as though it would be a throwaway book; one of those you read and then instantly forget. Getting Away With It is far from this - in fact, I think it will prove to be pretty unforgettable.

Cohen does incredibly well because at the start of the novel I really didn't take to Liza at all - she was selfish, prickly, arrogant and generally horrendous to everyone she comes into contact with. Lee, on the other hand, is sweet and vulnerable and anxious to please - I found her to be a little bit like a doormat in the way she allowed people to treat her. Both sisters were clearly trapped in places that they didn't want to be, and the absolute joy of this novel is watching them develop and change and open their wings. Liza's journey is by far the most satisfying - her growth as a character really is brilliant - but it was also lovely seeing Lee start to take charge of her life.

Getting Away With It also contains some incredibly touching moments. Liza and Lee's mother has Alzheimer's, and her change in personality and her confusion and impatience with her disease caused me to choke up a few times. This ensures that the novel never feels frivolous.

Add to this the fact that Cohen has done her work concerning twins - she emphasises a number of times that, no matter the connection between twins, they are always two whole and unique people rather than two halves of the same whole. I absolutely love this, since I imagine that often twins must become very tired of being compared to each other and being treated in the same manner.

The only part of the novel that made me feel a little uncomfortable was the Will situation. Will is the aristocratic boyfriend of Lee at the start of the novel, and I felt a little bit odd that he and Liza strike sparks, especially considering he has already slept with Lee. Having said that, Cohen does write a very, very good sex scene!

Getting Away With It is begging to be made into a movie - it's written beautifully, and I can easily imagine a film about Liza and Lee. I've even entertained myself wondering who could possibly play the twins!

I absolutely loved Getting Away With It. It was a long luxurious novel with plentiful character development and truly lovely writing. In the future I will be reading any of Cohen's output. She is that rare creature - someone who can write a novel that becomes more than just a particular genre; who writes a book that should be tried by anyone. Don't be put off by the girly colour; this is not just a chick lit novel, it is a damn good yarn. Highly recommended.

A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words?

2011-09-29T15:53:00.000+01:00

I posted the following cover artwork on Twitter and asked people what genre they believed it belonged to:

The general consensus was 'crime' or 'thriller' and I confess that this was my first thought on seeing the cover.

I have, however, read this novel in an embryonic stage (submitted to Angry Robot Open Door Month, before being signed by Jo Fletcher Books - it's excellent!) and I would say it is distinctly horror.

Now, cover artwork is often a little bit of a minefield, in terms of getting it right - and here it seems as though Jo Fletcher Books have chosen to go with artwork that plays down the horror angle. Is this because horror really doesn't sell?

Or, on the other hand, are they trying to tap into some crossover appeal and beckon in the crime/thriller readers? In this case, they are going head to head with some real heavyweights and so A Cold Season might find itself disregarded.

I did find it very interesting to see people identify a whole genre by a piece of cover art i.e. crime. I worry, though, that the wrong readers will therefore pick up this novel. Honestly? I think that Alison Littlewood has been done a disservice with this generic cover and I would hope that people look beyond that to the novel inside.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

2011-09-29T09:00:00.000+01:00

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages - not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers - beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor has received a great deal of pre-publication buzz - trailers, limited proofs and plenty of information. This often makes me a little concerned about whether the book can possibly live up to all my expectations. With the case of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I am pleased to say my expectations were absolutely surpassed - this is an exceptionally special book.

It tells the story of Karou, blue-haired artist living in Prague - ward of Brimstone, a chimaera who creates wishes in the world of Elsewhere. Karou has always felt as though she doesn't belong entirely in either world, and only comes to find out why when she meets akiva, one of the seraphim - and her mortal enemy.

From the very first page Taylor opens up a world of folklore and fairytale. The winter location of Prague feels 18th Century and very mystical - a perfect setting for the otherworldly Karou. She - with her tattoos and blue hair and artistic ability - is one of the strongest female protagonists I've seen in a YA novel for a while. She is strong yet vulnerable, talented, sardonic and brave.

Taylor's prose is exquisite. It is whimsical and delightful, playful and wistful by turn and kept me enthralled from first page to last. I just can't emphasise enough how beautiful it made this book to read.

The story feels a little like the weaving of a tapestry - thread after thread pulling together to create a glorious whole. I really enjoyed the unveiling of some of the mysteries - and I'm glad that some of them have been left to discover in the further two novels of the trilogy.

For me, one of the areas that most YA fails in is the way the romance develops and the manner in which the two protagonists fall in love - but here is was completely believable and organic, especially thanks to some of the reveals later in the story.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is something incredibly special. While watching it I felt the same way as I did when I watched Pan's Labyrinth. It's an Event and deserves the capitalisation. This really is not to be missed.

Guest Book Review: Ole from Weirdmage's Reviews takes a look at the Legends anthology

2011-09-28T13:00:00.000+01:00

Ole from Weirdmage's Reviews lives in deepest darkest Norway, and reads an utterly obscene amount when he is not lurking on Twitter. He has become a great friend, and deigned to write a review for me. Settle in, guys, this one is an epic!

LEGENDS edited by ROBERT SILVERBERG

This anthology contains eleven stories from what was arguably the top fantasy series at the time it was published in 1998.

I’ve chosen to write a little review of every story in this anthology, including a paragraph about how it represents the series it is a part of. At the end there will be a short review/comment on the whole anthology.

THE DARK TOWER: THE LITTLE SISTERS OF ELURIA by STEPHEN KING

This is a prequel to the first Dark Tower book, The Gunslinger.

Although unlike most of Stephen King’s writings, this still bears some of the hallmarks that make it distinctly a Stephen King story. Like many of King’s stories it is set in a post-apocalyptic world, but this is not our world - it is instead a world that mixes the fantasy and western genres.

The story itself reminded me a lot of H.P. Lovecraft. The reader knows all along that something is wrong, but we are seeing the events through the eyes of the main character, and are told it as he discovers it for himself.

If I had to classify this story into a SFF subgenre, I wouldn’t hesitate to call it horror.

King manages to put his own twist on several creatures that will seem very familiar to both fantasy and horror readers. It is a very good story and that it is mostly confined to one small location makes it stronger. The pace of the story is relatively slow, and there isn’t really much action, but for this story that is the strength. I’d go so far as to say that this is one of the better Stephen King short stories I have read.

Having read the first three books of King’s Dark Tower series I found this to be an almost perfect story. It is an interesting look at what Roland was up to before the events of The Gunslinger.

If you have yet to read anything of the Dark Tower series this is a good introduction. You get to know a bit about the series’ main character, and you are also given quite a good glimpse into the world that is the setting for the series.

NOTE: The two page introduction to the story contains spoilers for the Dark Tower books. If you don’t like spoilers, do yourself a favor and skip it.

DISCWORLD: THE SEA AND THE LITTLE FISHES by TERRY PRATCHETT

Set in Lancre, this story stars the witches Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg.

It’s basically a story about what happens when someone acts out of character and does things that are not expected of them. And anyone that has read the Witches series-within-a-series will understand, and perhaps even sympathize with the eerie feeling that the secondary characters have throughout this story.

It is a good standalone that shows us two of the most popular Discworld characters on their home turf.

There’s plenty that will make you laugh, or at least smile here. I think everyone will to some degree recognize some of the situation that Pratchett describes.

Pratchett shows that he can bring the same craft and imagination to a shorter story that he does to his novels. This is a great example of the master of humorous fantasy at his best.

For any fan of Pratchett’s Discworld books this story will probably be worth picking up the anthology for. If you have somehow managed to never read a Discworld book this would be a good place to start.

THE SWORD OF TRUTH: DEBT OF BONES by TERRY GOODKIND

This story takes place over a generation before the events of the first book in the series, Wizard’s First Rule.

This is a bit hard for me to review because, having read the whole series, it is hard for me to really keep my feelings of this story separate from that. I’ve given it my best shot though, and I hope I have given this story a chance to stand on its own.

There’s quite a bit of Goodkind’s overwriting here. The story starts slowly mostly due to unnecessary descriptions that don’t really add anything to it, and I got a bit impatient for it to really get going. I can’t help but feel that this story will be somewhat confusing to anyone who is not familiar with the series, and that it does not really function as a standalone.

On the plus side there are a couple of twists towards the end of the story that are well handled, and that raises the quality of the story a little bit.

The first time I read this anthology, in 2002, it actually got me curious enough about the series to check it out. That is because there are some good ideas here and actually in the series itself too. Unfortunately Goodkind is not very good at handling his ideas, and his blatant preaching of right-wing politics and semi-fascist views on what is heroic tend to leave a slightly sick feeling in your stomach as you read his work.

This does showcase what you can expect from the first part of the Sword of Truth series, but I have to say that the series only gets worse as it progresses, and I can’t really suggest you start on the series unless you think this is one of the best stories you have ever read.

TALES OF ALVIN MAKER: THE GRINNING MAN by ORSON SCOTT CARD

This story is quite different from the others in this anthology. Not only is it an alternative history story, but it is written in a close approximation of the style of fairy tales.

I actually found it quite hard to cope with the style and tone this story was written in; it was just too short for me to get used to it before it was finished.

The story follows many of the tropes you would expect from a fairy tale and the magic you find here has very little difference from what you usually find in folklore. The alternate history setting felt a bit wasted to me. It doesn’t really come into play except that it introduces a famous American, and gives a wholly different version of his legend. This was actually done in a very good fashion, so it might seem as if I am contradicting myself a bit here. But I still can’t let go of the feeling that the alternate history aspect could have been removed without it really affecting the story.

If you look at this story as a Young Adult, or perhaps Mid-Grade, fairy tale this is quite a good story despite the problems I had with getting into it. For fans of fairy tales, and those who have an interest in US history, I think this will be a good read.

Since I haven’t read any of The Tales of Alvin Maker books I can’t really comment on whether this story is a good representation of what to expect from the series. And as I didn’t really connect with the style of writing Card used here, I can’t say I feel very tempted to pick up the series in the future.

MAJIPOOR: THE SEVENTH SHRINE by ROBERT SILVERBERG

This story is set in the years after the novel Valentine Pontifex.

A murder at an archeological dig is the setting for this story starring the Pontifex Valentine. Although space travel exists in the Majipoor universe, and the different species here are aliens rather than fantasy races, it is a fantasy setting.

This is a very intriguing and varied story. One of the themes it tackles is reconciliation after a war between two different groups and the suspicions and prejudices that follow that.

As someone who has a stronger than average interest in archaeology the setting here is an immediate draw for me. Silverberg also manages to use the archaeological setting as more than just window-dressing, it is integral to the story as a whole.

The murder mystery part of the story is not very complex or original but I didn’t feel that this mattered much since what is really important here is the whole setting more than the story itself.

This should hit the right note for fans of crime, archaeology, and fantasy.

I have read the first Majipoor book, Lord Valentine’s Castle, and the story collection Majipoor Chronicles. This story makes for a good addition to those books, as well as a very good taste of what you can expect from the series. I feel like re-reading Lord Valentine’s Castle after reading this story.

NOTE: Both the introduction to the series, and the story itself contains spoilers for the Majipoor series.

EARTHSEA: DRAGONFLY by URSULA K. LE GUIN

This story starts out as what seems like a run-of-the-mill unrequited love-story, and with a male point of view character. After the first part it suddenly changes to the point of view of the women he was in love with, and he disappears completely from the narrative. What follows after that seems like a re-telling of Terry Pratchett’s Equal Rites. However nothing really happens at all before the female main character saves the day without there being any real explanation as to how she managed to do this.

Dragonfly contains the beginning and ending of a standard “chosen one” fantasy tale, but it completely lacks the middle part of such a story. There is very little character building, no heroine’s journey and no discernible development of any power that is needed to fight evil. It is a bit like reading the chapter of The Lord of the Rings where Gandalf tells Frodo that the ring is the One Ring and then skipping ahead to Frodo and Sam exiting the cave on Mount Doom and congratulating themselves on a job well done –and that is all you get.

Added to the, in my opinion, extremely poor story you have a tendency from Le Guin to infodump and overwrite that made it a hard story to get through. I really wanted to skip ahead to the next story before I was halfway through this one. I couldn’t help but feel that the time I spent reading this story was a total waste.

About fifteen years ago I read the four Earthsea books in Norwegian. I don’t remember anything else about them than that I liked one of them and thought one of them was bad. I was actually planning to buy Wizard of Earthsea and see what I thought of it now. But after reading this story I have moved the Earthsea books to the bottom of my to-buy/read list, and I’m even a bit reluctant to start reading The Dispossessed by Le Guin, a book I have already bought because I’ve heard a lot of good things about it.

For me this story couldn’t have failed more than it did, and my suggestion is to skip it if you read this anthology. I don’t think it is worth reading.

MEMORY, SORROW AND THORN: THE BURNING MAN by TAD WILLIAMS

Told in the first person, this is the tale of Breda. It encompasses several different threads without feeling in any way like it tries to do too much.

Breda tells the events of her fifteenth year with the wisdom and hindsight of old age. The story is strengthened by giving us a quick recap of events prior to the story’s beginning, and although it is quite short it manages to build up a good background to what is happening.

The central love story, that binds together a story of exile and Breda’s stepfather’s search for an answer that is very important to him, is made all the much better for the analysis Breda gives as she narrates the story.

Williams’ writing is excellent here. Breda’s voice as a narrator is incredibly natural. He also manages to incorporate a surprising twist into a story that at its heart is very familiar.

It’s been years since I last read the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy, and reading this I realize a re-read is long overdue. The story is a great addition to the world of an excellent fantasy trilogy.

A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE: THE HEDGE KNIGHT – A TALE OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS by GEORGE R. R. MARTIN

This story of a roaming knight without a lord, a hedge knight, is set about one hundred years before the beginning of A Game of Thrones.

With the central stage for the story being a knightly tournament it reminded me very much at times of the two film adaptions I’ve seen of Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, and I wonder if either of these has served as an inspiration. If the tournament had been the only element to the story it wouldn’t have been very interesting as that part in itself is not really very original. But Martin has mixed in another element, and although this is not very original either the mix of the two makes for an interesting and entertaining tale.

Martin’s writing is very good and he manages to convey quite a lot about the life of hedge knights in general, and the main character Dunk in particular, in what is relatively speaking a few pages. This feels very focused and tightly written, something that makes it a very good story in my opinion.

Only having read the first volume in A Song of Ice and Fire, and that some years ago, I can’t really remember if the events told here have any bearing on, or are even mentioned, in the series. It is however a point that is not really relevant as this works perfectly as a standalone story. It also serves as a good introduction both to Martin’s writing style and the world in which it is set.

If you have ever wondered if you should start reading A Song of Ice and Fire this is a great place to start.

PERN: RUNNER OF PERN by ANNE MCCAFFREY

It’s refreshing to read a fantasy story about some of the “invisible” people who are a part of every world. This tale is about runners, messengers who run from place to place like a non-tech Internet, or perhaps more accurately a human Pony Express.

What I liked most about the story is that McCaffrey has chosen to not set it during some momentous event. It would be easy to tell a tale of a runner delivering a world-changing message against all odds. Instead we get the personal story of Penna, a young woman from a family of runners who is just starting out in her career.

There are a lot of details here of the life of a runner, and it is a good glimpse into a closed group of a society. McCaffrey manages to deliver the details without making the reader feel like they are having information dumped on them. It feels like an integral part of the story and adds to the overall feel of it.

I must say that this one of the stories I really enjoyed, perhaps mostly because it was so different from what you usually see in fantasy.

I’ve not read any of McCaffrey’s Pern novels, and don’t know much about the world. But this story did feel like it at least gave me some sense of how the society on Pern is set up. This one glimpse into the Pern series has made me curious about the series, and I now plan to try it out.

THE RIFTWAR SAGA: THE WOOD BOY by RAYMOND E. FEIST

This standalone story is set during the events of the Riftwar Saga trilogy.

Central to this story is the wood boy, Dirk. As the name implies his job is to ensure that there is an adequate supply of firewood.

Actually I think this story would have worked well even if it was just a tale of daily life during enemy occupation, which it basically is. Feist has added an extra twist to the end of the story, however. This twist works very well, and separates the story from the normal “growing up in fantasyland tale” that we already have in McCaffrey’s tale. It is not a very happy tale, and that may make some readers feel let down by it.

I think the story is well written. It is short but it does tell a lot. Dirk is also a realist and quite an interesting person to get to know better. And I don’t think the story suffers from being read as a standalone.

There are some events from the Riftwar Saga mentioned here. And this story is a good indication to what you can expect if you choose to move on to Feist’s series.

THE WHEEL OF TIME: NEW SPRING by ROBERT JORDAN

This is a prequel to The Eye of the World, the first novel in the Wheel of Time series.

Here we get the story of how Moiraine and Lan meet. If you are not familiar with the Wheel of Time series, they are two of the main characters.

The story itself is a bit of a mess, many things are not explained and many of those that are get lost in Jordan’s tendency to over-describe inconsequential details. Trying to get a grip on what is important by looking at how much room they are given in the text will not be very helpful.

There are definitely some good ideas here, but as I said above they get lost in a lot of waffle. This is a shame, because by cutting out the unnecessary description there would have been more room to explore them.

This is what I would define as a true prequel. In the way that I don’t really see how you could make much sense of what is happening without being familiar with what is going to happen later. But it does give a good idea of what I found when I read The Eye of the World, the only Wheel of Time book I have read.

If you have read my The Eye of the World review on my blog you will know that I didn’t like it. So I will suggest this as your starting point with Jordan’s series. It may leave you a bit confused, but at least you don’t have to read that many pages to find out if it is something for you.

I do realise that the Wheel of Time has many fans. And if you are one of them, you may think you have already read this. But this version predates the New Spring novel and is much shorter. So you might want to get hold of this anthology to read this story as it was originally written

OVERALL IMPRESSION

There’s really not much to say here. Although I did not think every story in this anthology was good, this really is essential on the bookshelf of any fan of fantasy. If you have already read and enjoyed any of these series you’ll like the addition that the short stories make to them. And if you have never read an epic fantasy series, and are curious to whether you should, this anthology lets you check out the worlds of eleven authors in one place.

Not the greatest anthology in fantasy publishing, but the most essential.

Guest Blog: Helen Hollick "Tossed Heads and Dropped Eyes"

2011-09-28T09:00:00.001+01:00

Today I am thrilled to welcome Helen Hollick to my blog, with a guest post about how editing can still help the self-published author.

Tossed Heads and Dropped Eyes

I have recently had the mammoth task of re-editing all eight of my novels. It’s a task I don’t particularly want to do again in a hurry – especially as four of them I am having to re-edit twice over, and one I had to cut by 40,000 words.

Don’t get me wrong, I usually enjoy the editing process once that first draft is finally completed. The pleasure of turning the rough lump of rock into a polished diamond is rewarding, but believe me, one novel at a time is a bit more manageable.

The first re-edit was completed for Sourcebooks Inc in America. They scanned my files which then had to be re-checked because scanning tends to corrupt some of the text: rn becomes m for one thing. My big problem was that I had quite severe cataracts, then my elderly Mum was taken ill (she passed away in hospital) and I had somehow managed to tear a muscle in my thigh – which laid me up in bed for over a month in agony. All of which did not aid the editing process.

The originals were published several years ago and had dreadful typos I gave up counting after 360 in one book: words like ‘bread-stubbled chin’ (beard-stubbled) and Anglican Thegn instead of Anglian. I assure you that is not how I wrote the manuscript, they crept in at typesetting stage (in the days before electronic formatting!)

The one I had to dramatically cut was a challenge (A Hollow Crown – which is the UK title, the cut version is the US edition, The Forever Queen .)

At first I panicked. How could I possibly cut so much? But once I got stuck in I enjoyed the experience – deleting whole chapters of what was basically “off stage” story because, well to be honest, they weren’t needed. A paragraph was quite sufficient. I must have managed the job all right, because the novel recently edged into the USA Today best seller list.

So why two edits?

In February of this year, my UK small independent publisher went belly-up, Bust. Out of Print. Again being honest, it wasn’t a very good publishing house anyway – but they had taken my UK backlist after William Heinemann had decided to drop publication. At least I was still with a mainstream imprint. But then, if the books are rarely in print for various reasons, what use is being mainstream? Then the financial crunch came; I terminated the contract and found an assisted publishing company. I figured that to go “self published” I could ensure my books remained in print and I would have control over them. It’s a decision I have not regretted: SilverWood Books have produced some beautiful UK editions for me.

The problem? Said financial belly-up of previous UK publisher meant I could not have any returned files to me. All I had were the PDF US copies or old files. All final versions were either unobtainable or unusable.

So back to the editing process.

I cannot emphasise enough – especially to self published authors – how very important the editing process is. No author can spot their own errors.
Wer you awre that redng is prfctly possble evn whn wrds ar crzly mixd up or wthut vwls? The brain sorts the muddle out, which is why tpyos get missed.
But an editor is not necessary just for punctuation, spelling and grammatical errors. The professional eye can spot the technical bloopers; point out the “tell” not “show” bits. The head hopping between characters, too much author’s voice, the jolt of an anachronism. (It really doesn’t sound right to have “like a rabbit caught in the headlights” in a book set in the 12th century)

And then there are the disembodied limbs. I had no idea there were so many in my older work, written originally about 18 years ago, but going through the files my present editor, has picked them up.

‘Them’ being dropped feet, hands, heads and eyes.

The thing is, to say aloud ‘he fixed his eyes on her face’ is okay, but when reading it in print….? Now that my editor has pointed all this out, I get an immediate picture of a man plucking his eye out and sticking it on his girlfriend’s cheek. Or the eyes ‘ran round the room’ – quick, someone catch them! And a howler in one of my books: “He tossed his head towards the fire.” I’m laughing now, but with a bit of a red face too!

We all know what is meant by “he shrugged and dropped his hands to his side,” Or “put his hand into his pocket” – but once you are aware of how crazy these all sound, they leap out at you. How to get round it? She shrugged, he gazed at her, glanced around the room, stared at her eyes.... although not all are easy to overcome. Dropped his feet to the floor, for instance. Set his feet to the floor is just as bad, put his feet on the floor? Some things you just have to let go and write it - and tell yourself you are not going to get paranoid about disembodied limbs.

She put her hand in her pocket, dropped her feet to the floor and with her head hanging locked her eyes on the door and left.

Thanks so much Helen!

If you want to know more about Helen, then here are some links:

Main Website
Muse and Views Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Guest Article: Adam Christopher on "Books Without Robots"

2011-09-27T13:00:00.000+01:00

I don't think that I could have had two weeks' worth of guest posts without hosting Mr Adam Christopher - friend and debut author with Angry Robot in the very near future. I was one of the privileged beta readers of Empire State, and know how much of it has been influenced by great noir novels, so I invited Adam to talk about five of his favourite non-genre books.

I'm afraid to admit, my friends, that I am something of a genre snob. There, I've said it.

But, actually, it's not intentional. Far from it. It just happens that I like robots and monsters and spaceships and ghosts and superheroes and stuff like that, and there is more stuff like that than I’ll ever be able to read in a lifetime. It’s a hard life.

That’s not to say I’m averse to books without robots, or BWR, as we shall call them. While I’ve not yet read The Count of Monte Cristo, The Catcher in the Rye, or The Grapes of Wrath, they’re all sitting on my shelf, waiting. And, despite my protests, there are a whole bunch of BWR that have been a strong influence on me as a writer, and which I count among my favourite novels ever.

1. THE BIG SLEEP by Raymond Chandler

The Big Sleep was one of those real revelations for me. I have a feeling that I’d always meant to read Chandler, but only got around to it in 2009 when I grabbed a fancy – but cheap – leather-bound edition of The Big Sleep from a sinking bookshop to take with me on a long flight to San Francisco. I was aware that San Francisco was a haunt of another of the noir greats, Dashiell Hammett, so it seemed like an appropriate choice.

And I was flabbergasted. I still am. When I finished the book I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t the kind of novel that was taught in high school… but then remembering my own miserable English education which put me off a number of classics for life, perhaps it’s a good thing that noir isn’t taken as seriously as Shakespeare or Hardy. I still think the opening paragraph is the greatest thing written in English:

It was about eleven o’clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.

Don’t believe me? Read that passage out aloud.

From that book, the seeds of my own novel Empire State were sown… or at least a few noir-ish ideas began percolating through the vague notion of a story that I had already been toying with.

2. FRANK SINATRA IN A BLENDER by Matthew McBride

From the origins of detective noir to the latest modern iteration, McBride’s Frank Sinatra in a Blender is violent, gruesome, black and about as far away from The Big Sleep as you can get, while still clearly being its literary descendent. It’s noir and as hardboiled as you can get – McBride’s prose has the same rhythm and poetry of the originals of the genre, and, as with The Big Sleep, you know you’re in for something special right from the opening lines. Actually, you know you’re in for something special right from the title.

3. DOG ON IT by Spencer Quinn

Canine noir is so a genre – Dog On It is the first of a series of detective novels told from a dog’s point of view. I’m totally serious – Chet is our narrator, and while he may be unreliable (he’s a dog), he’s pretty observant and hugely entertaining. And reasonable forgetful. This book caught my eye thanks to a blurb from Stephen King, and just in time, as the fourth book in the series is out in October.

Seriously, it’s a detective novel, told by a dog. By. A. Dog. It’s also great.

4. The SHERLOCK HOLMES stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sticking with detectives of one sort of another, I’m cheating a little here as the adventures of Sherlock Holmes aren’t novels (even the four longer stories are more like novellas), they’re short stories. But they’re important to me because they were the first “old” things I read, back when I was about ten. My abiding memory of the first reading (and I don’t remember what story it was) is a disbelief that they were written so long ago – to a child, this was a pretty major stuff. While I still love Sherlock Holmes, the character, these days I’m more interested in new interpretations of the character, as in the Robert Downey Jnr movies or anthologies like Shadows Over Baker Street (which pits Holmes against Cthulhu and other Lovecraftian nasties). See? Back to genre I go…

5. FIGHT CLUB by Chuck Palahniuk

Fight Club is one of those books that, as a writer, frustrates me intensely. It’s a great book. It’s a wonderful book. But it’s also a book that makes me green with envy. How did he write it? What makes it work? More importantly, what makes it work in the way it does? I only read this recently, although the film has been one of my favourites for nearly ten years now. But the book… it’s short, and the writing appears to be simple, but after each chapter I’d put it down and shake my head and try to understand what was going on between the lines that made it so damn good.

I can’t really explain it. Fight Club has that X-factor, that indefinable something that is going on underneath and around and over and between the text that just activates something in my brain. It’s that X-factor that makes some books a sensation. It’s also that X-factor that, I think, you’ve either got or you haven’t. Woe is me!

Thank you, Adam!

Readers, how about telling Adam about the non-genre novels that YOU think have the X-factor?

Guest Book Review: Andrew from The Pewter Wolf reviews The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

2011-09-27T09:00:00.001+01:00

Today your guest reviewer is the truly lovely Andrew who runs The Pewter Wolf. In his own words: This blog is, what I like to call, a HappyBlog or a LaughBlog. The idea of this blog was to express book reviews and short stories I wrote, but have fun, random blogs that (I hope) will put a smile on your face.

You can say this is a book blog that doesn't take itself too seriously. Imagine this as a friend who wants to makes you smile, laugh and get excited over books - good or bad.

Andrew genuinely adores books, which is great to see, and so, for his review I decided to set a challenge. I'll let him explain it...

I want to thank Amanda quickly for allowing me to write this guest review for her lovely blog!

Now, when she asked the world of Twitter if anyone wanted to write a guest review, I jumped at the chance. But then, I had a problem: what to review? After a quick Tweet chat where Amanda asked "What don't you like reading or is out of your comfort-zone?", I immediately thought of faeries.

Now, why don't I like faeries, I hear you ask? Because the first thing that jumps into my head is Tinkerbell from Disney's Peter Pan. They're not edgy like vampires, werewolves or fallen angels. They're cute and fluffy and I can't really see them as dark or dangerous.

After a few more tweets with Amanda, I threw out to Twitter a HUGE list of books (ranging from faeries, books I got from the Indigo launch, a time-slip novel to a few eBooks on my Kindle) - the faeries won and I received more votes to read The Iron King by Julie Kagawa than anything else (it was that or a copy of Wicked Lovely I won!)

So, when I went away to Portugal, I took my glittery hardback copy of the book that I own and I read it over four days straight.

Meghan Chase thinks she is a normal teenager - until her little brother is snatched and replaced by a changling. When this happens she is thrown into a world that she didn't know existed. Now, to save her little brother, she must trust her best friend (who happens to be a faery - a pretty famous faery, actually) and follow them into the faery world of Nevernever. This world, surprisingly, seems to be a place where Meghan can fit in.

Now, I read this on holiday so this is a bit of a relaxing holiday read for me - although it did take a few chapters to get over the idea of "Disney" faeries in my head and see human-sized faeries with a definite dark streak to them. Plus, I really enjoyed the ideas Julie Kagawa used from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and found them incredibly interesting.

There was a feeling of déjà vu about this book with some of the ideas presented. The creature, Grimalkin, is very similar to the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland and you sometimes get the feeling that you have read the story before. But the idea of the Iron Fey was cool and I will be intrigued to know more about this. So, in general, The Iron King was a mix of good and bad.

Now, the teams... Like most YA books, there are Teams where readers can root for the couple and their "Happy Ever After" and Iron King is no expectation - I can see from reading this that there is the beginning of Team Ash and Team Puck. I am sure we will be shown more and more as we read the sequels, The Iron Daughter and The Iron Queen.

While I'm still not a great lover of faeries, I am intrigued to see what happens next in The Iron Daughter and I won't be so afraid to read books about faeries anymore. But I still might keep my distance from them. I need another faery book or two before I get over my "phobia" of faeries.

(On my blog, I put song choices to what I was listening to while I was reading so, I hope, Amanda allows the same. I apologise for the random song choices - "Pocketful of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield & "Full Moon" by The Black Ghosts)

I don't usually include songs, Andrew, but for you here they are! Thanks so much for the review!

AND

Enjoy!

Guest Review: Liz from My Favourite Books reviews Fables: 1001 Nights in Snowfall

2011-09-26T13:00:00.001+01:00

This afternoon I'm welcoming one of my bessie blogging and real life mates to Floor to Ceiling Books. Liz of My Favourite Books needs absolutely NO introduction. She is one of the pre-eminent bloggers, Twitterers and future authors - I loves her *grin*

And she is here to review Fables: 1001 Nights in Snowfall by Bill Willingham.

This tale is set in the 19th century, in the early days of Fabletown, when Snow White was sent as an envoy to the lands of the Arabian Fables. But the Arabian Fables are actually offended that a woman would be sent to negotiate. When she catches the eye of the sultan, Snow finds herself filling the unenviable role of Scheherazade, the teller of the original One Thousand and One Arabian Nights tales.

Snow has to amuse the Sultan with tales of wonder and imagination every night - for a thousand and one nights - to keep her head off the chopping block. We see the stories as Snow tells them in a framing sequence similar to the original. Running the gamut from horror to dark intrigue to mercurial coming-of-age, it reveals the secret histories of familiar characters through a series of compelling and visually illustrative tales.

This was my first ever Fables graphic novel. Admittedly it was a brave thing to do, to grab it and buy it and read it, having never read any of the other graphic novels in the past, but this one genuinely appealed to me.

It riffed on the original Arabian Nights but with a fairy tale spin. I was initially concerned that I would not understand who the characters are but I plunged in. A helpful “who is who” page easily lets you in on the game, so you get a brief outline as to who the characters are, this was helpful, without being spoilery.

The story consists of ten smaller stories – an anthology, with each story linking to the next, to the next, to the next. I will briefly mention the stories in sequence:

A Most Troublesome Woman

Illustrated by Charles Vess and pencilled by Michael Wm Kaluta this story is the one that sets up the graphic novel, in which Snow White travels to an Arabic country to ask the sultan for his assistance. Fabletown is facing a dark enemy and needs allies. Sadly, for Snow, she finds herself relegated to the side, ignored because she is a woman. The sultan sees all women as nasty creatures, only good for marrying and bedding for a night, before murdering them. Snow devises a plan to get the Sultan on their side, and save her own skin, by telling him a sequence of stories, fulfilling the role of storyteller.

The Fencing Lessons

This is my favourite of all the stories. We learn how Snow and Prince Charming tried living happily ever after. We learn of the godawful things that were done to Snow by the odious dwarfs. And her stunning revenge. A very dark story and beautifully illustrated by John Bolton, this story is very much for adults only.

The Christmas Pies

Reynard tricks the Adversaries’ armies to bake and deliver pies in a clearing. It’s a clever ruse and a proper trickster tale, allowing the captured animals to escape.

A Frog’s Eye View

This one concerns Flycatcher and how things went from him when he became human. It also ramps up the tension and reveals a bit more about the ruthlessness of the Adversary.

The Runt

Oh. Loved this story – beautifully illustrated by Mark Wheatley it tells the story of Big Bad Wolf’s mother and the North Wind and it also tells us a bit more about BBW’s childhood and his bad ways, before he became Bigby Wolf.

A Mother’s Love

A very poingnant and short story illustrated by Derek Kirk Kim it tells how Colonel Thunderfoot is cursed to live as a human (he is a hare) and how he has to live out his days until the love of a female of the harekind can return him from human to hare.

Diaspora

Forms a lead into the next story, The Witch’s Tale. Diaspora focusses on the two sisters, Snow and Rose and Frau Totenkinder (a witch) and...well, you have to read the story. Illustrated by Tara McPherson.

In The Witch’s Tale we see more about Frau Totenkinder and how she’s linked to various other fables and it’s illustrated by Esao Andrews.

What You Wish For

A young girl who has travelled all over the world, wishes to see the sea. She makes a wish and goes to live with the merfolk under the sea, where the Adversary decides to attack next. Illustrated by Brian Bolland.

Fair Division

This is a firm favourite, not just because of the story, which showcases King Cole being magnanimous and caring, but also because of Jill Thompson’s amazing art. She’s managed to keep the art quite adult yet it is reminiscent of the art we’re used to seeing when we grew up. King Cole allows everyone to feast on his food and later, when he passes out from hunger, all his subjects rush around, working as a team, to help him.

The graphic novel ends with Snow leaving the Sultan’s palace alive, and a young beautiful girl called Scheherazade takes her place. Snow however whispers to her that the Sultan seems quite keen on stories.

The graphic novel is a standalone within the Fables series. What the author manages to do is create something that someone like me who loves fairy tales can pick up and read and understand and enjoy, without having any previous knowledge of the existing Fables world. I think that’s genius. What is also incredible is the enthusiasm and detail visible in each page of the graphic novel – from the artwork to the stories to the overall package.

Vertigo has done an amazing job, keeping this series going and Bill Willingham is easily one of my favourite graphic novelists working today. Because of him my own interests in fairy tales has grown even more and my collection of graphic novels, novels, academic non-fiction and research has exploded significantly.

I heartily recommend the series, but if you’re unsure, get 1001 Nights in Snowfall and try it on for size.

Thanks so much, Liz!

Guest Post: Rhys Jones on YA fiction!

2011-09-26T09:00:00.000+01:00

Another day, another wonderful guest blog!

This time I welcome Rhys Jones, who is the mastermind behind Thirst for Fiction Rhys is one of those rare and mythical beasts - a teenage boy who loves to read, and blogs all about it. I asked him whether he would be prepared to talk about why YA, and here is his articulate reply...

I should probably start by introducing myself: I'm Rhys, and I'm a 15 year old book lover and blogger. Being one of the few male, teenage bloggers puts me in the position of being the target audience of many a YA/middlegrade writer, and through my blog I am able to express my opinions in the hope that someone will find my thoughts interesting and useful- not least authors whose work I critique.

I can't pretend to have read a great deal of "adult" novels- and the few I have are often by writers I know have written YA novels (Dark Matter by Michelle Paver is a good example)- but there is something that puts me off "adult" novels- a certain amount of cynicism that is really quite uninspiring. I'm sure there are many fantastic books for adults out there- but for me, as a teenager, most hold back, almost frightened to pitch radical and risky ideas. Which is why I like the YA genre so much. It's a place where it seems authors are far less restricted and a freedom of ideas can take place. Combine that with the fact that the characters of YA novels are far easier to relate to for someone my age, and you're onto something special.

Recently, I've become scared of the fact that perhaps, one day, I will no longer be interested in young adult novels. For me, that's a scary thought. I don't want to leave this world of fun novels- and though I know plenty of adults love YA books, I'm not sure how that will bode for me in 10, 20, 30 years time. Much like Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, I don't want to grow up, if only for the reason that I find the books I read now so much fun. I'm hoping that my ambition of going into YA publishing will ease that fear.

Unlike most bloggers, I'm not much of a writer, either. My Twitter feed is forever telling me that fellow bloggers and people I follow are writing, and as much as I'd like to be able to write as a hobby, I have neither the stamina nor the time- particularly now, when my blog takes up a lot of my free time. I've been told on numerous occasion that I'm a reasonable writer- and on the one-off event that I do write, what I produce isn't always that bad. YA fiction has affected my writing, if ever so slightly- I now know what works, what has been done, and as a reviewer, I know exactly what I want from a book. Perhaps, one day, that'll all help me craft my own novel- but for now, that knowledge remains largely unused, only on the rarity coming out to critique other people's work.

The fear of losing touch with YA fiction is still with me- but I'm hoping my career path will never shy away too much from reading teenage books. Whether that becomes a reality or not only time will tell- but for now, I'm a happy bunny chomping my way through lots and lots of (often very good) books- books that are daring, radical and a lot of fun.

Thanks *so* much Rhys! Make sure y'all leave him nice comments and definitely check out Thirst for Fiction!

Guest Article: Jonathan Green "On the Stigma of Being a Tie-In Writer"

2011-09-25T13:00:00.000+01:00

Some of my favourite novels have been tie-in works. I *adore* the Black Library output particularly. And yet there still seems to be a stigma in reading tie-in fiction and definitely in writing it. Jonathan Green - a pre-eminent tie-in author - has come on my humble blog today to talk up being a tie-in author. Take it away, Jonathan!

On the Stigma of Being a Tie-In Writer

My name is Jonathan Green… and I’m a tie-in writer.

There, I’ve said it. I’ve come clean. Confessed.

I’ve actually been a tie-in writer for over nineteen years. My very first paid writing gig was an adventure gamebook, entitled Spellbreaker, for the Fighting Fantasy range. That particular book fitted into an already existing milieu and made use of pre-existing rules, created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. It was the brand name that sold my book, not my name.

The same is true of my first novel, The Dead and the Damned, which came out in 2002. It was published as part of Black Library’s Warhammer line, which itself drew upon the game world of Game Workshop’s fantasy range of toy soldiers.

It could be argued that thirty-one of the thirty-seven books I’ve written (or am in the process of writing) are tie-in fiction – and that doesn’t include the various short stories or comic strips I’ve written for the likes of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And yet as far as many are concerned I am yet to write what they consider to be a Proper Book, because my Warhammer 40,000 novels or my Star Wars books make use of characters and setting invented by somebody else and which are then sold as mass market product.

In 2007 I created the steampunk world of Pax Britannia for Abaddon Books and wrote the first novel in the series, Unnatural History. This was an original work of my own creation. At the time nothing existed in the Pax Britannia universe that I hadn’t put there. And yet because it was marketed as a shared world of pulp adventures, I soon realised that it too carried the stigma of tie-in fiction.

In 2008 my first Doctor Who title was published. This was definitely seen as a step up, as far as friends and family were concerned, but it was still tie-in fiction and hence seen by many as not being a Proper Book.

I have sold hundreds of thousands of books, many titles selling better than some so-called Proper Books. Black Library’s Horus Heresy novels regularly appear in the New York Times Bestseller lists. But the great majority of readers still seem to believe that such works could never be as good as a Proper Book. And yet something which many people forget about, or choose to ignore, is how many Proper Books are set within the real world, and is that not a shared world setting all of its own?

I really do not understand the stigma surrounding franchise fiction. It is so often seen as a stepping stone to something else – something better. It has always been burdened by the preconception that tie-in equals poor quality, even though it is often written by authors who are known, and celebrated, for their own non-franchise work.

Take Michael Moorcock, for example. Last year he had his own Doctor Who novel published which, understandably, received a great deal of attention at the time. Now when fans of his Elric books or Jerry Cornelius stories sat down to read The Coming of the Terraphiles do you think they said to themselves, “Of course this won’t be as good as his other books because it’s tie-in fiction?” I sincerely doubt it.

Or look at it this way. When I sit down to write a Warhammer short story am I putting any less effort into it that I am an original piece of fiction for a Solaris anthology? Do I apply a different set of tools to writing a Doctor Who book compared to a Pax Britannia one? Of course not!

I’m a professional writer and I try to do as professional a job as I can with anything and everything I write, whether it’s a new Gamebook Adventure for Tin Man Games or sample chapters for a pitch for a brand new series of children’s book. I wouldn’t be very professional if I didn’t.

And yet here’s the thing. When it comes to writing comics, franchise fiction is seen by many, looking in from the outside, as the be all and end all. You’re nobody if you haven’t written a Batman book, or a Superman title, or chronicled the latest adventures of the X-Men or Spiderman. You set out as a comics writer contributing, for example, original Future Shocks to 2000AD. Given enough time you might get to create your own strip for the comic. And then, some time after that – if you’re lucky enough – the big boys of DC and Marvel come from across the Pond to knock at your door asking if you’d like to be the new lead writer on the Hulk.

Go figure!

Anyway, enough of my ranting. Now that I’ve finished the rewrites on my latest Doctor Who novel Terrible Lizards I’m off to work on my latest Warhammer 40,000 project.

You can keep up to date with news of Jonathan Green’s latest tie-in fiction projects at www.JonathanGreenAuthor.com or via Twitter @jonathangreen

Guest Book Review: Niall Alexander reviews The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

2011-09-25T09:00:00.001+01:00

Today I have a grand little guest review by none other than the beloved Speculative Scotsman, Niall Alexander. I am very grateful to him for taking some time out of his super mega busy schedule and providing a review for your delectation. I can assure you, no one writes a review like Niall (in a good way!) so enjoy this and then head on over to his blog and become a follower!

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Reviewed by Niall Alexander

Another day, another dystopia.

In a village surrounded on all sides by the risen dead and so utterly isolated that the ocean has taken on mythic status, amongst a community of survivors over which the fiercely traditional Sisterhood holds sway, young Mary has lived her entire life with one foot in the grave and her head resolutely in the clouds. "How fragile we are," she muses, "like fish in a glass bowl with darkness pressing in on every side." (p.37) But reality bites, and Mary's bleak reality bites all the harder, for suddenly the time comes to be married off in accordance with the Sisterhood's strictures, and no-one's asked for her hand.

However, such questions - of a loveless marriage, or a life utterly without love, or only the love of a God this misbegotten girl has given up on - such questions as those are soon forgotten when the township that is all Mary has ever known comes under attack, first from within... and then without. Without, where the Unconsecrated roam...

I don't know if it began with The Hunger Games - I doubt it - or if this fascination with the plight of those left behind by the end of the world was only buoyed by the success of Suzanne Collins' game-changing trilogy, but the state of play in YA today is much of a muchness either way: nary a month goes by without the launch of yet another new series with designs on all those readers taken by the Mockingjay's tale.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth, I think, is not that. I mean, yes, it's a trilogy; yes, there's a love story sewn through it, without which seam the whole quilt would come apart in your hands; and yea, verily, the young protagonists - chief amongst them a girl burdened with responsibilities beyond than her years - spend it fighting for their very lives in a world gone to hell in a hand basket. Par for the course, perhaps. Swap out Collins' contestants (themselves ripped from The Running Man) for zombies, or the Unconsecrated as The Forest of Hands and Teeth has it, and you've pretty much got the gist of this one. Or you would, were it not for Carrie Ryan's incredibly powerful prose.

Now it's not always immaculate. Particularly as the going goes, and we approach an all-or-none conclusion so devastating as to put one once more in mind of The Hunger Games and its bittersweet denouement, particularly then Ryan seems to sacrifice the composure she's shown in order to up the ante, and I would really rather she hadn't. Add to that a heroine who seems to see-saw from one emotional extreme to the other in a matter of minutes, and a love triangle which can seem duly contrived, and perhaps you begin to grasp how roundly style trumps substance in The Forest of Hands and Teeth.

But I can forgive a beautiful wordsmith much, and Carrie Ryan is that, at times. To wit, writers with such admirable aspirations often fall afoul of prose so minutely considered as to seem overwrought - some might say I should know! - yet there is a terrific undercurrent of the unspoken to Ryan's dialogue, while the understated comes naturally to her exposition. Her imagery is often haunting; her lexicon evocative, and absolutely appropriate to the tale, which is to say one of solitude and belief, love and trust.

Imagine if you will The Reapers Are the Angels for readers a touch younger than Alden Bell's audience, with - and why not? - a certain helping of The Hunger Games crowbarred in for good measure, and of course added bullet points in the marketing materials. As such, I would recommended The Forest of Hands and Teeth, but only with the aforementioned reservations. If a lesser author had knocked the same story out, I'd have said to steer clear, yet the larger part of Carrie Ryan's debut works a dark charm as a showcase of a formidable talent on an upwards trajectory - if not as a particularly notable narrative in its own right.

Thanks so much, Niall - definitely a book that I need to get to!

Guest Article: Graham McNeill "A Wee Boy fae Glasgow"

2011-09-24T13:00:00.001+01:00

Graham McNeill is one of my very fave authors. This is not just because of his writing, but because Graham is so damn humble in the face of his continuing success. Also, I have nagged him a fair few times over the last two years for blog bits and pieces and the man *always* delivers! Today, he brings us a guest article on the subject of being just a wee boy fae Glasgow...

It’s an ongoing thing with me that I never quite believe my good fortune in doing a job that I love and that I get paid for telling stories of wizards and goblins. Whenever I’m at a signing or convention, I’m always faintly embarrassed (in a good way) that folk want me to scrawl on their brand new book or want to talk to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a bad person to sit next to in the pub, I’ll happily talk your ear off and make you laugh over a pint, but the idea that a person who only knows me through my books wants to talk to me is still really strange. I love it, but still find it odd. Not odd that that these people are coming up to me, but odd in that I know me and I know that I’m just like the person speaking to me!

Because you know what…? I’m a fan of the genre too; I read novels about vampires, zombies, and the hunters of same. I read about starships, space marines, noir-cyber detectives and the like, and am in awe of the folk who write those books. I suppose part of that is the distinctive Scottish character that keeps the gaels of Caledonia from getting too big for their sporrans and makes most of us naturally reticent about shouting about how clever we are from the rooftops :-). I write books, and I’m proud of each and every one of them. I think they’re good stories, with engaging plots and memorable characters, but it’s funny how you always think everyone else is doing a better job than you…

It’s the same with everything else, be it schoolwork, sports, exams, your job, whatever… You always think the other person is doing a better job, and – within reason – that’s probably a good thing for an author, as it’s going to keep you hungry to improve. I see what authors I admire are doing and I want to do things I think are as good. It’s a fine line between the insecurity that drives you to do better and crippling paralysis that stops you from letting another soul see your words. So I think it’s a good thing that the people who come up and speak to me will soon realise I’m a fan like them, and that I enjoy chatting to them and going on long fanboy digressions about the height of a battle titan or how you can strangle an Avatar

Anyone who doesn’t enjoy that is in danger of coming across as arrogant, and it’s never good to believe your own hype. The moment I start behaving like that, I have a close-knit group of friends to drag me back to reality and remind me that I’m just Mrs McNeill’s wee boy fae Glasgow. Thank the Source!

Thank you Graham!

Guest Article: Sam Strong - Why Do Some Books Disappoint?

2011-09-24T09:00:00.000+01:00

When I did a call for contributors, Sam agreed to a guest article. He warned that he might rant. I said that was fine. As it is, there is not a lot of ranting, but a considered analysis of why (for Sam) some books fail while others succeed. If you want to read more from Sam, he has a blog.

Sam, with his fiancee Charlotte, at Eastercon

Quick Summary: I'm a real picky bugger. The following is me attempting to dissect why.

It's not often that I read to be challenged. Sometimes I'll read something that a friend thinks I should read for my own good, but for the most part I read to be entertained. Recently it seems that more and more books are falling flat for me. It's not that they're bad books, but I just don't seem to love them as much as everyone else in the world.

I'm afflicted with a fearful awareness of time. Seconds gush past and before you know it the year is half done. And there are a lot of books out there. I'm not the slowest reader in the world, but I'm certainly not the fastest either. Reading a book is a commitment for me and if the book doesn't deliver I'm going to be disappointed.

1. Expectation

My expectations work in two ways. First, there's the hype. Take Boneshaker or Zoo City as examples. Each was hyped to hell and back and both are good books, but in my opinion not entirely deserving the level of praise shovelled at their feet. Was it the hype that caused this? It certainly didn't help. If you're being hailed as the best thing since chorizo met king prawns then you absolutely need to deliver.

Then there's the way a book is presented. If your cover and blurb promise me a slice of stuffed crust and I bite down to find custard instead of cheese that's just not going to work. No one likes a bait and switch. Of course it's all down to individual interpretation, and UK covers tend to tell you very little about the book unless you have some degree of context in the first place e.g. black cover with girl holding fruit = supernatural romance etc. The presentation is designed for people who are already fans of the genre.

2. Prose

There are so many prose-crimes, from poor editing and broken narratives to sloppy sentence structure and ugly timing. I can live with a lot of these to a degree. I can also live with average action, minimal description and even bloated internal monologues, but if the dialogue sucks then the book tends to take a turn for the dire. Nothing drags me out of a book more than stilted interaction between characters.

3. The ending

Assuming I actually make it to the end of a book (which, to be honest, is way more often than not) then there's the ending. In our chosen genre, this is where series syndrome tends to kick in. Now, I'm more than happy for the author to drop a cliff-hanger so long as they've tied up at least 75% of their sub-plots, but so many books, especially the first in their series tend to just stop mid-flow and assume you'll be happy to wait for the next one. That's just not satisfying. The ideal end to a story for me sees the protagonist move beyond what they want and actually achieve what they need. Much like a bag of Revels, the best books make this a complete surprise.

So why do I read in the first place? The obvious answer for a fan of SF and fantasy (perhaps not so much horror) is escapism. Thinking about that, my immediate response is, "Rubbish! I like my life. Why would I want to escape from it?"

I think it's more complex than that. There's more to escapism than escaping. There are also degrees of escape. Books do allow me a window to different locations, times, situations and, most importantly, different mindsets. So yes, I like my mind, but that doesn't mean I don't need to escape from it in order to experience new things. Despite this, I still think the most powerful form of escapism is that which allows us, for a time, to become someone else. It's a power thing and it comes in many forms; strength, intellect, beauty, friends, family, opportunity, love, hate, contentment, safety. The fantastic worlds just make it easier us to believe it.

The best books are those that wrap themselves around us so completely that we get a hangover when we finish them. A hangover so bad that it actually disrupts the first few chapters of the next book we read. They become such a big part of what we think about that they leave a very real hole in our minds when they leave us. My final judgement of a book is whether it achieves this.

Thanks so much Sam! Why don't you guys drop Sam a comment in appreciation, telling him why some books have disappointed YOU?

Guest Book Review: Kylie Grant reviews Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

2011-09-23T13:00:00.001+01:00

Back in college when I did English Literature I studied The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. As is the case with most study texts such as this we seemed to dissect every word and I ended up disliking the book intensely. Unfortunately that experience has deterred me from picking up any more of Margaret Atwood's work, so I was particularly pleased when Kylie Grant offered me a review of Alias Grace, since I feel my readers are the sort who would like a judgement on whether to read this lady author or not!

Here is Kylie's review:

Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace tells the story of Grace Marks, an Irish Immigrant convicted at the age of sixteen to life imprisonment for murdering her employer, Thomas Kinnear, and Nancy Montgomery, his housekeeper and mistress in the early 1800s. At the time the novel begins, Grace has already served many years in prison and also been sectioned in an asylum, for violent and wild behaviour, and it is now up to Dr. Simon Jenkins, on behest of a community group that believe in her innocence, to finally make a decision about Grace’s guilt. Based on a true story, this captivating and disturbing novel depicts life in the nineteenth century, and explores the boundaries of sanity that lie within us all.

Alias Grace is every bit a Margaret Atwood novel. From the elicit detail to the changing narrative perspectives, it very much feels like you know who is pulling you in and unwilling to let you go until the very end. The first chapter is testament to this; a chapter that opens with a dream and ends with the ambiguous word, story, as if nothing about this novel is true, despite its grounding in a real life case. However, it does more than just direct the reader to whether Grace Marks will speak the truth in the novel, it also allows the reader to breathe, to imagine and to let go. Nothing is true, or nothing can be said to be true, judgements are therefore not wanted here; let your imagination do the work. This is why I have grown to love Margaret Atwood, one of the few novelists writing today who is brave enough to minutely detail a story, but in the end let the reader decide for themselves on how it is to be understood.

The novel, through Grace Marks’ perspective, details of the reported trial, and then Dr. Simon Jenkins’s narrative takes the reader through Grace Marks’ childhood, voyage over to Canada, her first experiences of employment as a maid, her close friendship with Mary Whitney (whose name she would use as her alias), her change of employment and life working for Thomas Kinnear, and her relationship with James McDermott, the man who was hung for the crime they were both convicted of committing. It is not a fast paced novel, the period details are thorough, and at times the shifting perspective slows the story down, however, as a reader you grow to enjoy the meticulousness of the narrative, and the depth you feeling you have towards the main characters, and there are also some shocking moments that rival any thriller.

For anyone who likes mystery the novel has plenty of it, the narrative will keep you guessing and Atwood leads you down lots of avenues of thought. In the end though, this book is all about belief. If you believe in the characters enough you will feel intimately connected with them, and willing to journey to the ends of sanity and back to understand them. It is also about Grace’s belief in Simon, can this eager psychiatrist really hold the key to her freedom? And then Simon’s belief in Grace, does he truly believe she is innocent, is he willing to forgo his scientific rationality, or his own belief in sanity? Do we as readers believe Grace Marks’ story, and if not, how far are we willing to be pulled along; just as Atwood is constructing a tale, how much is Grace guilty of it too? All of these questions Atwood carefully constructs and flirts with, as if we are all on trial and must ascertain what really constitutes our own understanding of truth. It is this, if nothing else, that will keep you reading up until that very last page.

Thanks so much, Kylie!

Guest Article: E M Edwards - Shipwrecked!

2011-09-23T09:00:00.000+01:00

Today's guest post is brought to you by the inimitable @E_M_Edwards of Twitter fame. He also has a blog - Tales from the Invisible City - which details his progress on the novel he is working on. Enjoy!

Shipwrecked!

Literary castaways, desert island books - novels to cling to when the flood comes and the wave breaks, what books would you choose to be marooned with upon a watery exile?

Each holiday season, it is the tiresome task of book reviewers and regular columnists to ask this question in our national newspapers. All the same, the idea of islands and books have always seemed an intriguing combination. The fact that we treasure the written word to the degree that we would consider books a key to our survival appeals.

Like Prospero, I’ve always valued my library of books (almost) as highly as I do my children. Unless your ebook reader is salt, sand, and fathom proof, I’ve also felt that the real thing was preferable, despite the advantages that a disgraced Duke of Milan might have found in a portable library able to fit in the pocket of his robes.

With a large enough cargo, you might rebuild the foundations of your lost city, erect a tower from which to signal passing freighters, construct a raft to cross the straits, or a sea-wall of literature to hold back the tempest. Tear out precious pages on which to scribe your messages for help. Apply to the legs of albatrosses, seal in old port-bottles, or exchange with merfolk for silver fish-forks.

But what books? Books of islands, books of ships, books of spells and summonings, books of sumptuous excess, herbals, and folios of mouth-watering recipes to remind the beef-and-bread-and-beer starved senses of what has been lost?

And what island? What reef, real or metaphorical, do we consider? Why islands at all? A nice lake nestled in a comfortable valley surely has its virtues. But then Islands are interesting places, exposed on all sides to invasive approach and yet isolated by the very elements which guard their shores. More than any continent, islands can not be generally reached by simply walking there, by following familiar and well-laid out paths. So too the best books. There is an element of chance, of risk, of uncertainty in any journey to these places, on or off the map. Even if we get there, we might might never return. And certainly not unchanged.

Despite their proscribed space, they hold the promise of the exotic and the atavistic. Small enough, and everything exists in a liminal state. Utopias - literally “not-places” - roc’s eggs, cyclops, sirens, dangerous human-animal hybrids, and sorceresses - the island as a literary setting has been a febrile home for imaginative speculation since tales began.

Hardly surprising that we would choose to take our stories back to them, to these mythological nests from where so many have sprung. Unlike novels of the tranquil lido or safe, continental beach, they generally are not of the disposable sort. Books to reread by oil lamps made from the secretions of shell-fish and whose covers are salt-bleached and stained by our tears. They after all, must sustain us when everything else has been lost.

For myself then, I’d choose books about islands, books about people (the former to greet, like meeting like, and the latter to remind me of what I most keenly lack in my new environment), books about clouds, and books about sand. I’d like a large tome detailing all the peculiarities of tropical corals, mostly now extinct, and one about birds and their meaning as auguries as recorded by Cicero in his two volumes of De Divinatione. I’d like a book that could transform reflections into thoughts, and thoughts into dreams, so that at night or during noon-time siestas in the lee of a thousand-year-old wind-bent juniper, I could bathe in cool starlight while regarding the earth from the sky.

A book about constructing wooden boats might be eminently useful, but less so without a good adze, timber and a reader more handy and adept with such construction than myself. I might pack a large photo album entirely of pictures of modern cities, with their titles in Braille, which I could caress with my fingers when my sight began to fail from staring into the bright emptiness of the surf. Though it would instill in me a superstitious dread of the civilizations which raised them, causing me to hide crab-like in the rocks whenever a plane buzzed by overhead or a sail broke the horizon.

I might, having brought them by the trunk-load, construct a maze out of their stacks. Invent a fantastic name for my City of Books, spelled out in pearls and bits of broken shell on the beach to be re-arranged tidally into new and ever mutating permutations. Cut out paper dolls to inhabit it, from pages too waterlogged now to read, pen up silverfish or sand-fleas as cattle behind fences of braided leather ripped from damp spines. Give sunset performances to my imaginary subjects detailing their daily lives and struggles, and declare myself Tyrant. As time passed, I’d occasionally gather up my paper citizens with tender hands, only to savagely tear them to pieces and toss them into the sea suspecting them of fomenting rebellion.

With a conch set to my blistered lips, I’d straddle their small universe, a vengeful colossus. I their creator, and Io! their unmaker as well. I’d sound the horn as the tide drew them towards the breakers and start rebuilding my invisible City out of the sand.

E. M. Edwards is a writer of odd things, who loves books to excess and has brought far too many of them to the not deserted isle of Gavdos

Among the titles he has traveled there with are The Tempest by William Shakespeare, The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz, The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco, The Birds and Other Plays by Aristophanes, The Dark Labyrinth by Lawrence Durrell, The Magus by John Fowles, and Caracol Beach by Eliseo Alberto.

Other suggestions for island reading as gleaned from Twitter:

@MarkCN
The Alexandria Quartet (Lawrence Durrell); also (Tom) DeLillo's Underworld... The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco)…

@mkincaidspeller
Moby Dick (Herman Melville), (Seamus) Heaney's Collected Poems, (William) Least-Heat Moon's Prairyerth, the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism…

@Paul_C_Smith
The Fall (Albert Camus), The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoyevsky), Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy) Gormenghast (Mervyn Peake), (Franz) Kafka’s short stories, (Jorge Luis) Borges’ Collected Fiction, (William Butler) Yeats collected poems, (William) Shakespeare…

@Locksley_uk
Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman), Small Gods (Terry Pratchett) and Jingo (also Pratchett) - all Pratchett would have to be there…

@ian_sales
Alexandria Quartet (Lawrence Durrell), Aegypt Sequence (John Crowley), Coelestis (Paul Park), Master Mariner (Nicholas Monsarrat) & Dhalgren (Samuel R. Delany)…

@gailcarriger
The Forgotten Beast of Eld by Patricia McKillip, By the Sword by Mercedes Lackey, and Taming the Forest King by Claudia J. Edwards…

@sennydreadful
The whole ASOIAF (George R. R. Martin) series for a start, American Gods (Neil Gaiman), Only Forward (Michael Marshall Smith), Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)…

@Leannarenee
The Harry Potter (and Lord of the Rings sagas, the collected works of the Brontes and Dickens. And the Oxford English Dictionary, to study. :) …

@MEStaton
I, Claudius (Robert Graves). The Dispossessed (Ursula K. Le Guin). Gateway. High Rise (Frederik Pohl). The Illustrated Man (Ray Bradbury). Farenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)…

Many thanks, Eric! Commenters - please give Eric love for his article by suggesting YOUR Shipwrecked titles!

Guest Post: Mike Shevdon suggests some new Sub Genres!

2011-09-22T13:00:00.000+01:00

This afternoon brings you the delightful Mike Shevdon, author extraordinaire with Angry Robot! He has produced a bunch of giggle-worthy new sub-genres to appear soon on shelves near you - and we invite you to come up with your best efforts in the comments!

With the rise of Urban Fantasy, can we expect to see new sub-genres emerge over the next five years? A tongue-in-cheek look at what could be on your bookshelf by 2015: ~

Urbane Fantasy: The vampires wear smoking jackets and dazzle you with their wit before sinking in their fangs, while the werewolves are depressed poets and have a terribly bad cough. Pass the laudanum.

Space Fantasy: Powerful mages in dark cloaks wander around the galaxy battling a powerful empire armed with glowing swords and... Oh, hang on, that's been done.

Polynomial Romance: She's a gun-toting, werewolf-slaying, vampire-hunting girl with a vulnerable side, and he's a mathematician who's only expressions are of finite length with variables and constants using multiple operands. Will they EVER get it together?

Regency Fantasy: Well mannered and well-to-do ladies vie for the attention of young gentlemen with a future in turbines powered by super-heated water vapour in a Regency Spa we know so well. Yes, it's SteamBath.

Cyber-dine With Me: A seven foot tall mechanical replica of Delia cooks you the meal of your dreams and then pursues you in a three hour chase ending in a flambée. Just when you think it's all over, there's coffee and petit fours.

Punkpunk: Bands are no longer formed, they're created in vats and grown from the spliced DNA of their predecessors, matured in soup made from the spittle of their fans and thrown on to the global stage. It's Never Mind The Sex Pistols all over again.

Suburban Fantasy: Set in a small town near you, a quirky melange of characters undermine each other by cursing, bonking, marrying, killing and then re-animating one another. This series wouldn't die if you drove a stake through its heart. Not to be confused with The Archers.

These are just a sample of the new sub-genres just around the corner - please feel free to come up with your own suggestions in the comments.

Thanks Mike! Everyone, please show your love to Mike by plentiful comments!

Guest Article: Jenny Barber on "Alice in Zombieland"

2011-09-22T09:00:00.000+01:00

My guest today is Jenny Barber - someone who has written several pieces, fiction and non-fiction, for as esteemed publications as Dark Horizons, the BFS Journal and Graveyard Rendezvous. She has been involved with Fantasycon for many years now, and you can usually find her at the registration desk!

Alice in Zombieland

I can forgive a story a lot if there’s a kick-ass female character somewhere in it, and for all the cheesy dialogue and occasionally contrived plot-necessary stupidity, the Resident Evil films and their accompanying novelizations by Keith R. A. DeCandido score a permanent place in my heart due to the awesomeness that is Alice Abernathy. Not that there aren’t other excellent characters in the films – Resident Evil #1 (subtitled Genesis in the DeCandido novelizations) has Rain Melendez, there’s Jill Valentine in Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Claire Redfield in both Resident Evil: Extinction and Afterlife; but Alice is the hero of the stories, and it’s her evolution through the growing zombie apocalypse that sets the pace for the plot related shenanigans.

Resident Evil: Genesis gives us, quite naturally, the beginning of both Alice and the apocalypse. Here she starts out as the evening-dress clad amnesiac head of security of the evil corporation that is very soon going to destroy the world. She knows about the atrocities Umbrella were engineering in their labs, and was working to help expose them; and even when she loses all memory of both this and the vast array of useful combat skills she’s packing, she rises to the occasion. On instinct she takes up the leadership role with the remaining survivors, rediscovering neat tricks like how to run up a wall and drop kick a zombie-dog’s head. (Always a useful skill to have!)

In Resident Evil: Apocalypse, she becomes the soldier returning to battle. After being experimented on by Umbrella, she’s loaded with a few extra powers that let her heal faster, hit harder and generally do slightly deranged things like running down skyscrapers and killing Lickers with her poor innocent motorcycle.

Again, she’s immediately thrust into the leadership role, though given Jill Valentine’s unrepentant alpha female-ness, it’s a close run thing. As comrades in arms, leading their ever diminishing troop of survivors through the zombie-torn wreck of a city, they both kick serious ass, but it’s Alice who makes the deal to get them out of the city and Alice who has to act as exposition fairy for the rest and explain the technicalities of the T-Virus infection. It’s also Alice who is of most interest to the evil scientists who use the disaster to test the extent of her new powers against Nemesis and later tag her and release her back into the wild.

Resident Evil: Extinction turns Alice into a lone gunslinger travelling the dusty roads of the post-apocalyptic US, with powers so immense that she can fry the chips in satellites and incinerate a sky full of infected crows. Not a bad set of powers to have, although Umbrella’s attempts at hacking into her brain and controlling her are somewhat problematical.

While the details of their control over her is passed over quickly in the film, focussing on a temporary loss of motor control during the Vegas battle and hijacking her vision with Alice-cam, DeCandido’s novelization gives the deeper reveal of the unfortunate deaths Umbrella ordered Alice to commit and both the limitations of the programming and her early attempts to bypass it.

This gives her an extra air of tragedy as there she is with the perfect set of skills to protect her friends and she doesn’t dare go near them in case she loses control and kills them.

In Extinction, it’s Alice who finds the hope of a sanctuary and brings it to the roaming survivors and, by virtue of her being Umbrella’s favourite target, it’s Alice who provides the means for the rag-tag bunch to get there. But she’s also the cause of the heightened danger. It’s a serum produced from her blood that produces the new faster nastier style of zombies that Umbrella throws into the arena, and, thusly, the extreme mutations experienced by Dr Isaacs when he becomes the end-of-film monster Alice is tasked with killing. That her blood is apparently the key to a cure for the T-virus as well can hardly come as a surprise at this point.

And then there’s the clones. Because, why not. What girl doesn’t want an army of clones at her back. Originally created to provide experimental fodder for the evil scientists, it takes two Alices to put down the Isaacs monster in Extinction, but it’s going to take a whole army of them to hit Umbrella where it hurts.

With the potential cure storyline seemingly dropped, Resident Evil: Afterlife brings us several iterations of Alice. She’s the leader of the clone army who attack Umbrella’s Tokyo facility – events which provide the plot-handy extermination of all the clones and the neutralisation of the superpowers. And yet, an Alice without crazy genetic superpowers is still a formidable woman, walking away from plane crashes with minimal damage, jumping off rooftops with hoards of zombies chasing her and generally doing serious damage to anyone who tries to threaten her and those in her charge.

She takes on something of an Amelia Earhart vibe as she flies around looking for life, picking up an amnesiac Claire Redfield and pulling a near-suicidal landing on the top of the L.A. prison where the next clutch of potential zombie-fodder and survivors await. And, yet again, she falls into the leadership role, taking charge of the escape plans, leading the fights and the exploration of the Arcadia and setting up the reworked broadcast in hope of helping more survivors.

Like the T-virus she was once infected with, Alice adapts herself to each new environment without hesitation. She’s resourceful, insanely courageous, capable of surviving on her own but still able to accept the help of other survivors and trusting them to back her up when necessary. She’s a force of a nature that will not be stopped despite the continuous attempts by Umbrella and their creations and even at her weakest, Alice is still a completely kick-ass character who makes you want to see just how she’s going to get out of the latest trouble and what they can possibly find to throw at her next.

Thanks for an ace post, Jenny!

Guest Post: Kate Harrison on "The Writer’s Dilemma: 140 characters or 100,000 words?"

2011-09-21T13:00:00.002+01:00

I'm not afraid to say that I have a massive girl crush on the author of this guest article! Kate Harrison is one of those authors that I read and loved long before I ever considered starting a blog, and the idea that I would be able to meet her (at the Indigo launch earlier this year) made me squee more than a little. The fact that she is an incredibly sweet and lovely lady who was willing to stand for AGES as I jabbered away at her just makes her more awesome *grins*

So, Kate is releasing the YA novel Soul Beach in September as one of the opening titles in the new Indigo imprint line-up and has kindly consented to provide a guest blog. She is here to discuss The Writer's Dilemma: 140 characters or 100,000 words?

I’ve always said that if it weren’t for Facebook, I’d write twice as many novels.

So it makes me feel slightly less guilty that social networking inspired my first YA novel... well, an author’s got to do her research, right?

Ah, research. The number one excuse for writers to spend time online. One minute you’re breaking off mid-sentence to check one tiny detail about procedures for a coroner’s court hearing, the next it’s 6pm, the dinner’s not cooked, and the day has disappeared without you noticing.

And you still didn’t find out that vital detail about the coroner’s court.

Yes, there are a million more justifications I can use. Networking – yep, I’ve made loads of friends on the net. How many of them buy my books, or have the inside track on getting onto the TV Book Club shortlist? Um...

Then there’s publicity. Certainly, if you don’t have some kind of online presence, your publisher will want to have words. But I haven’t yet seen any absolute proof that tweeting merrily turns your book into a bestseller.

And it definitely won’t if it stops you writing the bloody thing.

On the plus side, all my ‘research’ has certainly made me wise to the downsides: the paranoia, the effect of one careless comment or perceived slight. The way the world outside can shrink as online takes over.

That’s not a feeling that’s limited to writers – and in Soul Beach, I explore the attraction of that other world, where you think you can control how everyone sees you ... until you realise that what you say and do lives on forever. The younger you are, the worst that can be – I feel for teenagers who can no longer escape the pressures of school or to look good when Facebook and social networking dominates their time ‘off.’

OK, so in my fictional online world, the fears and consequences are darker than wasting a day online, but anyone who has experienced that dislocation will know that the seductiveness of the web can be dangerous to your productivity, your concentration span, and your sense of reality.

All this makes me sound anti-web. Which would be highly amusing for my boyfriend who knows I struggle to answer the question ‘what’s the weather like’ without checking online.

The internet is fantastic, democratic, sociable and a force, mainly for good. It’s helping me reach and talk to readers and other writers about our mutual passions for books and writing.

I just think we all – me included – need to remember where the off switch is on the router. And remember that just because 140 characters is easier to write than 100,000 words, sometimes it’s good to choose the tricky option.

Thanks so much, Kate! Soul Beach is out now from all good book retailers *smiles* And do check out the trailer below!

Guest Film Review: Mieneke reviews Alice in Wonderland

2011-09-21T09:00:00.000+01:00

Today I'm welcoming to my blog one of my best blogging buddies, the wonderful Mieneke of A Fantastical Librarian. She bravely struggled through horrendous morning sickness (or "suckness", as I said to her, in an inadvertent but glorious typo) to pull together the following film review of Alice in Wonderland. Not the cute Disney version, but the Tim Burton release.

Take it away, Mieneke!

Tumble down the rabbit hole with Alice for a fantastical new adventure from Walt Disney Pictures and Tim Burton. Inviting and magical, Alice In Wonderland is an imaginative new twist on one of the most beloved stories of all time. Alice (Mia Wasikowska), now 19 years old, returns to the whimsical world she first entered as a child and embarks on a journey to discover her true destiny. This Wonderland is a world beyond your imagination and unlike anything you’ve seen before. The extraordinary characters you’ve loved come to life richer and more colorful than ever. There’s the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) and more. A triumphant cinematic experience – Alice In Wonderland is an incredible feast for your eyes, ears and heart that will captivate audiences of all sizes.

Up until a few months ago, all I knew about Alice in Wonderland was what I'd learned watching the Disney version of the story when I was little. Since then, in preparation for my "Alice in Wonderland" theme week on my blog – of which this guest post is part – I've read both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, as well as a biography of Lewis Carroll and a collection of his letters from the time the Alice books were written, reviews of which will appear on my blog all this week. To be complete I thought I should include a review of Tim Burton's interpretation of Alice in Wonderland. Since I only review books on my blog, I'm glad that Amanda would let me do it as a guest post on her blog! So thank you Amanda and if you run into Alice at Disneyworld say hi for me!

Burton's Alice in Wonderland is far more creepy than the books are. Perhaps this is partially due to the fact that my reading of the books was coloured by my recollections of the Disney film and thus seemed rosier than they were meant to be, but I think it's mostly due to Burton's interpretation. Of course in Michael Bakewell's biography mention is made of Carroll's mean streak – he could be quite cruel, even to children – so perhaps that's were Burton picked up the darker tones. But despite the film's darker nature, the sense of whimsy that pervades the original texts, the whimsy that makes them so special, isn't lost. Indeed, it's the irreverent, whimsical tone combined with the more serious underlying themes of growing up and finding one's place in the world and fighting for that place once discovered, that make this film special.

While the film contains literal lines from the text and anyone familiar with Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass will recognise the inspirations for much of the elements of the film, Burton moved beyond the source text into new and unexplored territory. To my great joy this was mainly reflected in the fact that the film actually had a plot! The lack of which is my main complaint with the books, which meander from beginning to end, with nary a logical connection between the various episodes in Wonderland and only a slightly more linear narrative in Looking-Glass. The plot mainly consists of Alice returning to Wonderland, or rather being lured there by the White Rabbit, so she can help rescue Wonderland and put the White Queen back on the throne. Along the way, Alice learns to trust in herself, grows up and discovers the answer to the question she was asked before she fell down the rabbit hole.

All of the most well known characters are there, from the White Rabbit, to the Cheshire Cat – voiced by the ever brilliant Stephen Fry – the Dormouse, the March Hare and the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen and the Blue Caterpillar. While I adored Fry's Cheshire Cat and Alan Rickman's Blue Caterpillar, my favourite character would have to be Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter. I really loved him, he stole the film for me, as there's a depth to him that isn't present in the books or the Disney animation. In Burton's Alice he's a tragic and traumatised figure, who hides in insanity to keep himself safe, from memories and the tyranny of the Red Queen. Towards the end of the film, especially once the White Queen enters the picture, we see his former self shine through and it's glorious. Depp is brilliant in his role, playing kooky and weird as only he is able to do.

Of course the film isn't all perfection. Alice, played by Mia Wasikowska, seems much younger than the nineteen she's supposed to portray. Which is fitting considering the fact that Carroll had a predilection for befriending young pre-pubescent girls, having them pass out of his life once they turned from little girls into young women, but it was something that kept jarring me every time I remembered she was supposed to be nineteen instead of sixteen or younger. My other problem was the White Queen, portrayed by Anne Hathaway, who is just as creepy as the Red one. As she was supposed to be the beneficent one, who should replace the tyrannical Red Queen on the throne, she confused me whenever she entered the screen. She might have been going for an fairylike grace and an empty-headed airiness to keep her sister from suspecting her of trying to get back the throne, but to me she just seemed creepy.

But other than those two points of criticism, I was completely entertained by Tim Burton's interpretation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Time flew by and when the film ended, it made me sigh both in disappointment and in satisfaction. Disappointment that the film was over, the story done, but satisfaction at a story well told, perhaps even better than the stories that inspired it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I feel the need for a bit of Futterwacken coming up. I guess, I'll need to go find my DVD again.

Thanks SO much, Mieneke! This is definitely a film that I have to watch!

Guest Article: Sarah Gibson on YA Books Forthcoming

2011-09-20T13:00:00.000+01:00

Sarah Gibson is an awesome blogger friend - you can see her blog over at Feeling Fictional. We went to Hogwarts together and keep catching up at various blogger events. Sarah is the gal with the camera (and we all nick her great pictures - with her permission of course!) and she has been absolutely inspirational with her recent weight loss. Today I asked her to bring you some of the YA novels she is looking forward to for the rest of 2011.

*****

First I’d like to say a massive thank you to Amanda for inviting me to visit today, hopefully as you’re reading this she is having a wonderful time in Florida (yes I am just a tiny bit jealous lol). Amanda asked me to write a post about some of the YA books I’m most looking forward to throughout the rest of 2011. Now anyone that reads my blog will probably already know that I love a good paranormal story so I’m afraid you won’t find any contemporary YA on my list. I’m sure there are a lot of good contemps coming out but they aren’t the kind of thing that usually catch my attention.

What I tend to look for is something with a paranormal slant to it, paranormal romance, fantasy, urban fantasy and occasionally a dystopian or something historical for a change. I love to escape from reality when I’m reading, to explore new worlds and forget about real life for a bit.

So here are the books I’m most looking forward to in the coming months:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per¬formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Since I was a child I’ve loved the circus - the sights, sounds and smells all bring back wonderful memories of exciting family outings. I’ve not really read anything set in a circus though so I’m intrigued by this one. Add in magic and a hint of romance and I’m sold!

The Night Circus is being published by Harvill Secker on the 15th of September.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

There once was a young artist called Karou who drew tales of monsters and demons that delighted and enthralled those around her.

But she has a secret, a secret that ties her to a dusty subterranean chamber, where her beloved guardian brokers dark deals in a place that is not here. A place that is Elsewhere.

Living with one foot in each world, Karou has never really known which one is her true home.

Now the doors to Elsewhere closing . . .

The buzz has been building for Daughter of Smoke and Bone for months now and I don’t think I’ve read a negative review yet. We’ve seen a lot of angels and demons this year but I have a feeling that this one will be completely different and I can’t wait to get started.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is being published by Hodder & Stoughton on the 29th of September.

Angel Fire by L.A. Weatherly

This is the thrilling second chapter in the electrifying "Angel Trilogy". Angels will never be seen in the same way again. Gorgeous, charismatic Alex has the courage and skill of a trained Angel Killer. Unique, dazzling Willow has the beauty and power that comes with being half-angel. As the power of the malevolent Church of Angels grows, now it's up to Alex and Willow to train a new team of Angel Killers. Willow soon finds her half-angel identity met with hostility by some of the other AKs, while privately, she must wrestle with the knowledge that her father, Raziel, is a depraved, evil angel. However, while life in the AK training camp is tough, at least Alex and Willow are together. But when Alex discovers that the death of his brother and fellow Angel-Killer, Jake, was linked to a secret CIA mission to defeat the angels, he is forced to leave the camp to complete his brother's work... without Willow. Alex promised Willow he would never leave her, but with the fate of the human race at stake, destiny has ruled that Alex and Willow must be parted once more...

Angel Fire is the second book in L.A. Weatherly’s Angel trilogy and the first book Angel was one of my favourite YA reads of 2010 so I’ve been desperate to get my hands on this one for a long time now. The angels in this series are like none you will have come across before, not your usual benign beings in this series they are deadly. The first book was full of action and I loved the romance between Willow and Alex, I’m very excited to see where the twists and turns will take us in this instalment.

Angel Fire is being published by Usborne on the 1st of October.

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

Have you ever had the feeling that you've lived another life? Been somewhere that has felt totally familiar, even though you've never been there before, or felt that you know someone well, even though you are meeting them for the first time? It happens. In 2073 on the remote and secretive island of Blessed, where rumour has it that no one ages and no children are born, a visiting journalist, Eric Seven, and a young local woman known as Merle are ritually slain. Their deaths echo a moment ten centuries before, when, in the dark of the moon, a king was slain, tragically torn from his queen. Their souls search to be reunited, and as mother and son, artist and child, forbidden lovers, victims of a vampire they come close to finding what they've lost. In a novel comprising seven parts, each influenced by a moon - the flower moon, the harvest moon, the hunter's moon, the blood moon - this is the story of Eric and Merle whose souls have been searching for each other since their untimely parting. Beautifully imagined, intricately and cleverly structured, this is a heart-wrenching and breathtaking love story with the hallmark Sedgwick gothic touches of atmosphere, blood-spilling and sacrifice.

I was lucky enough to hear Marcus Sedgwick doing a reading from Midwinterblood at an event I attended and I think this is going to be a fantastic book. It’s a love story that spans centuries and I’m intrigued by the idea of soul mates who keep meeting again in different situations throughout the ages. The fact that the story starts in the future and then works backwards through time just makes it sound even more interesting!

Midwinterblood is being published by Orion on the 6th of October.

Darker Still by Leanna Reene Hieber

The Picture of Dorian Gray meets Pride and Prejudice, with a dash of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

New York City, 1882. Seventeen-year-old Natalie Stewart's latest obsession is a painting of the handsome British Lord Denbury. Something in his striking blue eyes calls to her. As his incredibly life-like gaze seems to follow her, Natalie gets the uneasy feeling that details of the painting keep changing...

Jonathan Denbury's soul is trapped in the gilded painting by dark magic while his possessed body commits unspeakable crimes in the city slums. He must lure Natalie into the painting, for only together can they reverse the curse and free his damaged soul.

This is the first book in Leanna Renee Hieber’s new Magic Most Foul series and has been described as a dark and gothic tale. I love stories set in the Victorian era and this one has a paranormal twist so it’s definitely my kind of read!

Darker Still is being published by Sourcebooks in November.

So that’s the books I’m most looking forward to for the rest of the year. Are any of them on your wish list? Which books are you pining for that I’ve forgotten about? I’m always happy to add more to my wish list lol.

Thanks for this, Sarah! I know that a few of these are on my wishlist already, but I hadn't even heard of Darker Still and now want to read it!

Guest Book Review: Andrew Reid reviews The First and the Last, by Adolf Galland

2011-09-20T09:00:00.001+01:00

Andrew Reid, who runs the blog My God It's Raining and is an active presence on Twitter (also, a founder member of Duckcon!) was kind enough to offer me a rather interesting book review as his guest slot during my absence in Florida. He is here today to review The First and the Last, by Adolf Galland.

The First and the Last is the war memoir of Adolf Galland, a German flying ace who served with the Luftwaffe prior to and during World War II. During his service in the War, he was promoted to General of the Fighter Arm (subordinate only to Göring and Hitler in the operation of the fighter wing of the Luftwaffe) and subsequently demoted back to the level of lieutenant and flight captain at the very end of the conflict. His memoir, translated from the German in 1954, covers exactly the period of his service from the invasion of Poland to the final, frantic actions in the Defence of the Reich.

The very first point to note in reading Galland’s memoir is that it is not a full accounting of the War. Most notably, there is absolutely no mention of the Holocaust, and its absence rings throughout the entire text, especially when Galland praises the tenacity and spirit of the German people in the face of adversity. There is a hint of contrition, perhaps, when he delivers second hand Göring’s sentiment regarding the 500,000 tons of bombs dropped on German cities in the second half of 1944, “The German people are bearing these raids like a chastisement by God”, but generally there is little room in Galland’s writing for apologies.

Whether due to the translation or the natural writing tone of a man more used to drafting military reports, Galland’s memoir makes for an unusual but absorbing read. His youngest brother’s death is given two simple sentences – the first describing him shot down in action, the second recording the number of confirmed kills he had achieved as a pilot – and after that simple aside, we find ourselves back in an in-depth discussion of Luftwaffe tactics and the slow degeneration of the German war machine.

Only the author’s growing frustration with his inability to achieve tactical command of the fighter arm throughout the conflict brings the writing to life, and as the situation worsens for the Luftwaffe, Galland’s anger on behalf of the pilots under his command becomes palpable.

Galland affords enormous respect for the RAF, and it is evident that he spent some time after the War ended researching the battles from the other side. The technical achievements of the RAF engineers and the skill and tenacity of their pilots come up again and again, a neat foil to the difficulties that he continuously faces in his attempts to direct Luftwaffe policy. How much of the memoir is hindsight is debatable, but nevertheless it makes for an excellent counterpoint to a purely Allied perspective.

By far the most interesting thing about the book, the part that makes it (for me, at least) an essential read, is Galland’s attitude to the life of a fighter pilot. Despite the matter-of-fact tone and the dry delivery, Galland comes across as a brave, spirited man whose insane recklessness is only matched by his incredible skill in the air.

April 15 was Osterkamp’s birthday...As a present I packed a huge basket of lobsters with the necessary bottles of champagne into my ME109-F and took off...Again it was too tempting not to make a little detour on the way and pay a visit to England. Soon I spotted a single Spitfire. After a wild chase fate decided in my favour. My tough opponent crashed in flames in a little village west of Dover.

Galland’s beliefs are a carry-over from the days of chivalry. In the theatre of a modern war, the fighter remains to him the sole feat-of-arms. He repeatedly stresses the importance of technical development and overall support from the perspective of a General seeking to maintain air superiority, but when it comes to the fighter pilot, he has only one opinion.

“The soldier of today is impelled more and more to become a mechanic, an engineer, subordinated to the technics and mechanisation of modern warfare. One day the fighter pilot guided from the ground will chase, at supersonic speed, the atom-bomb carrier for scores of miles high up in the stratosphere. But science must not become an aim in itself. Only the spirit of attack borne in a brave heart will bring a success to any fighter aircraft, no matter how highly developed it may be.”

In The First and the Last, Galland’s words evoke an odd feeling of sympathy for the pilots of the Luftwaffe. Overextended and misappropriated, the litany of failures that High Command forced onto them with a series of increasingly delayed and contradictory orders should be celebrated, as it gave the Allies enough breathing space to set about their own offensive and establish air superiority over the German forces. It’s a strange feeling of sadness, then, when the beleaguered Galland, seeing the planes circling overhead ready to commandeer the jets of Jagdverband 44, sets fire to his own ME-262 in the closing moments of the War.

Guest Blog: Sarah Cawkwell, author of THE GILDAR RIFT

2011-09-19T13:00:00.001+01:00

I am very excited to bring you this afternoon as my guest blogger Sarah Cawkwell, author of The Gildar Rift (published by Black Library in December 2011). I think I will always remember when I first met Sarah - and scared her silly by knowing who she was and what her book was about! I am therefore thrilled to bits to present you with her words about being a female Black Library author.

A guest blog article! My heavens! Let me just shift around until I’m comfortable and then we can begin. Is anybody looking? No? Excellent. I’ll just pop my feet up on the desk and play 80’s Hair Rock Band music whilst nobody’s here…

Hang on…

Right. Scratch that, reverse it. Let’s start again.

For those of you who don’t know who the hell this particular interloper might be, my name is Sarah Cawkwell. I am a part-time freelance genre fiction writer, a full-time NHS minion and an all-time mother. There are two parts of that paragraph that will give rise to the bulk of this article:-

‘Genre fiction writer’ and ‘mother’.

Not so strange, I hear you cry (or at least whisper amongst yourselves). After all, there are plenty of female authors in genre fiction. However, there are considerably less of us out there who are writing military science fiction. I’m one of them. I am waving my hand over here, do you see? Hello! I feel like I’m admitting something shameful. “My name is Sarah and I like to write visceral sci-fi military fiction.”

Amanda asked me if I could make the focus of my guest article about the challenges I face being a female writer for the Black Library and how I get around them. For some people this might come across as a ‘change the record’ kind of thing; because any of you who follow my own blog (http://pyroriffic.wordpress.com) will know that I periodically mention the subject. This time, though, I’m putting a different slant on it. This time, I’m going to consider the positives of the situation and talk about how I got into writing about Space Marines.

First of all (after checking I’m right about this with the Marketing guys at the Black Library), it is sort of staggering to say that I am the first female writer for them who has published a full length novel. That’s quite an achievement, particularly given that some of the other 40K gals are of the ilk of Nik Vincent and Juliet McKenna. Proud isn’t the word. I have moments when I feel a little bit like a trailblazer for those of the fairer sex who have a hankering to write about supersoldiers in power armour.

I shan’t pretend that it never worried me, because it did. Back in the early days, when I was first shyly dipping my toes in the grimdark waters of the 40K Ocean, I contacted some of the existing BL authors to ask for their guidance. ‘My worry,’ I bleated, ‘is that people will dismiss me out of hand for having the temerity to be born with the wrong pairing of chromosomes’.

In summary, the combined response was ‘yes… it will probably put you unfairly in the spotlight, but on the other hand, could be a very positive thing. Don’t let it stop you. And don’t necessarily believe that Graham McNeill isn’t actually a lingerie model called Susan.’

I may have paraphrased the last bit. It was from Graham’s email though, so I think that’s OK.

So I grit my teeth, rolled up my metaphorical sleeves and carried on working away at my Space Marines story. In time, the opportunity to submit this to the Black Library presented itself and I was contacted by THE NICEST EDITOR IN THE WORLD, Christian Dunn. (I take cash only).

‘It’s good,’ he said in best Roy Walker style, ‘but it’s not right.’ He gave me a few pointers and invited me to re-submit it. When I did, he was really pleased and thus, Primary Instinct, my first W40K short story was on its journey. Invitations to pitch for other short stories followed and then an innocuous conversation about a paragraph in the Space Marines codex lead to me writing a novel submission.

Then came the next girl-related crisis. Did I publish as myself, or did I adopt some sort of nom de plume? Use my initials? Use a generic Christian name? Once again I turned to other writers, my editor and friends for advice and what they said was… well, right, actually.

‘You wrote it, didn’t you? Be proud of it.’

And oh, I’m proud.

I wrote The Gildar Rift in the space of four and a half months. I will honestly state that it was the hardest – and yet one of the most rewarding – things I’ve ever done. Watching the word count going upwards was satisfying beyond belief, and handing it well ahead of its deadline was even more so

I’m back to square one in many ways now. The evidence is that I have what it takes to write in the Warhammer universe, regardless of my gender. What I have to deal with now is waiting to see how it’s received. I’ve had three short stories published so far and the feedback has mostly been positive. That’s encouraging.

But I am a minor commodity attempting to make my mark in a male-dominated environment. It’s only in the past year or so that the natives in my local GW store have been able to stop panicking when I walk in. But the message to any amongst you who may be a Doubting Thomas (or Thomasina, let’s be fair) is this. I love Space Marines. I love the way they’re written about. Why would I want to change that? Don’t worry. Enjoy the story for what it is.

Stay calm. Speak softly - and carry a chainsword.

Michelle Franklin - Short Story - Alasdair's Music

2011-09-19T09:00:00.001+01:00

Michelle Franklin, in her own words, is: a small woman of moderate consequence. I write many, many books about giants, romance, and chocolate. I am the author of many published fantasy stories and the Haanta series.

For my two week hiatus, as you know I did a call for people to offer up guest articles and reviews etc. Michelle asked me if I would like a short story set in the Haanta series. Michelle has written many, many stories in this world and I was grateful for the chance to host one on Floor to Ceiling Books.

Without further ado...

Alasdair's Music

With what dejection and oppression did the commander observe Alasdair escorting the Duchess back to her apartment in the guest quarter. He walked before them through the main hall with a sinking heart and downcast eyes, listening to his guest but hardly attending her. She could not but be aware of his change in countenance but said nothing beyond the continuance of general pleasantries. She spoke of the moderacy of the concert, praised the pieces and the singers, lauded the traditional Frewyn dress. He responded with a few halfhearted smiles but said nothing beyond a few hums in recognition of her accolades; his mind was elsewhere, and though the Duchess perceived his inattention she did her utmost to draw him from his disparaging considerations until she was handed into her room at the end of the hall. Her attendant followed, holding her train as she passed the threshold into the main room of the apartment. She wished his majesty a good evening, and Alasdair answers with all the manners his good breeding could allow.

The mechanical necessities of the night were done and Alasdair was at liberty to be as openly disheartened as he liked. He thought to indulge himself in one of Martje’s pies but was too miserable to eat; his stomach churned in anxiety and he resigned himself to the consolations of silence his private quarters provided. He did not even close the door when he entered and immediately began to undress. He had only unfastened the high collar of his jerkin when his eyes wandered over to his bed. He pondered sleep but the sight of a something hidden, a something he had thought was secreted away, drew his unmitigated attention. He walked toward his bed and stopped beside the post, canting his head to spy the case beneath. He sighed and closed his eyes: he should not touch it, for to take the case into his hand would follow the desire to open it. This would have been of little consequence excepting the promise he had made himself. He had wished his grandfather’s memory restored in his kingdom before the legacy was to be renewed in his music, but the power of knowing it was ever there, the work of a dusty old fiddle ever drawing him down, begging to for its pearlescent strings to be plucked and the taut bow to be taken into his hand. The force of the remorse he felt in only just beginning to reconcile his grandfather’s legacy compelled him to stoop, and before he could stop himself, he was taking the case from beneath the bed, he was opening the lid, and he was caressing the scroll of the instrument. He ought not remove it but he must; his fingers curled around the bridge, filling him with a warm sense of familiarity. His eyes closed with the consciousness of it being replaced in his hand, the sensibility of which soothed him and agitated him all at once. He must play it; his fingertips ached to again stroll the strings of an implement that had held much meaning for him, but he must harden himself to his promise. He placed it back into its case and before he could conceal it from view, he turned to the door and noticed the commander standing at the threshold with a cup of lemon tea in each hand.

“He would want you to play,” she said with a half smile, remaining in the doorway.

Alasdair coloured for being caught with it in his hands, and with a deep sigh said in a low voice, “I know he would.” He remarked his grandfather’s instrument one last time and resolved to put it under the bed, but in his inviting the commander into his quarters and taking the tea she offered, he subconsciously placed it onto the vanity instead.

The commander acknowledged now what had troubled him: the performance was too well done and had perhaps reminded him of an earlier time, one in which his grandfather were alive and one in which his musical capabilities were encouraged and glorified. Now between the throws of court and the sufferances of stately visits, he had little time to himself. Her intrusions, she suspected, was not unwelcome: it gave him a moment to reconsider what he had best do with regard to his music, whether to take it up once more as an passage for his daily frustrations as he had done before his time in the armed forces or to leave it buried with its mentor. It was true that Alasdair had more than one counselor when living in the castle during his youth, but the guidance and sagacity of Good King Dorrin could not be replaced.

“Do you remember,” she began, spying the instrument with a knowing look and seating herself beside Alasdair at the vanity, “when we were at Church and we were told there was an afamed singer from Gallei coming to sing for us?

Alasdair nodded and sipped his tea.“I was so excited that day.”

“As was I, but only because we didn't have to sit through another fatuous lesson. You were pleased because you thought we were meeting one of vast musical accomplishment.”

“She sang well.”

“Well enough, but her lyrical prowess was abominable.” The commander drank her tea, regarding Alasdair’s renewed happiness from the corner of her eye. “It was all very well until I realized that she was someone the Church had promoted to be their representative. She was promoted if only to prove to us that one may be religious, creative and wealthy. You were so disappointed when you discovered she was a Sister.”

“I was, I admit.”

“Your compositions could have vanquished hers even then. You always had superior taste in music.”

Alasdair looked into the remainder of the tea in his cup. “My grandfather saw to that,” he said quietly, his lips curling momentarily.

There was a slender pause and the two exchanged a glance.

“To allow such a gift to go to ruin especially when one has the courage to play and compose as well as you do is a horrid shame, Alasdair,” she said in a delicate accent. “I'm certain you would agree.”

He would, but to own such a sentiment to her would mean he would be impelled to play again.

They left their conversation there with the commander offering to take the cup back to the kitchen while Alasdair undressed for the night. They bid their good evenings to one another, but where the commander had planned on sleep, Alasdair could not be so decided; the fiddle was yet on the vanity, and when he lifted the case to return it to its space beneath the bed, his finger somehow unhinged the fastener, his hand was suddenly around the neck of the instrument, his fingertips were upon the strings, the rest was beneath his chin, and the weighted bow was in his opposing hand. He spent a moment assessing the tuning knobs and testing the tautness of the strings with a few hoarse thrums, but soon the memory of what he should play rushed on him. The beginning notes of his grandfather’s favourite Frewyn air screeched from the touching strings. He grimaced and endured the awkwardness of not having played in longer than was good for him, but after playing through the piece once, he was able to continue with tolerable talent and comfort. Presently, trills and skips leapt from the strings, extended reverberating notes resonated throughout the royal quarter, and all at once the mellifluous reminiscence of his powers at music returned to him: the morning lessons with King Dorrin, the evening concerts they made for one another in the privacy of their room, reading together, composing together, and doing everything inspired the notes that were created by his hands. He played any melody he could recollect, stringing them together, making reels into jigs and jigs into airs; his fingers would not rest until he exhumed every note he had suppressed over the last few years.

Servants within the keep ceased their exertion and nobles halted their card playing to hear the barren hallways of the keep fill with sound some of them had not heard in several years. Those who had been used to hear Dorrin and Alasdair play together gave reverential sighs when listening to the familiar songs echo through the castle, and whether the sound was faint or firm from their standing, all were disposed to pause and attend. Their king was playing: this was an unconscionable conception, but it was one when believed made those who had missed his music delighted.

The commander, too, was pleased, and standing where she was on the opposing side of Alasdair’s door and hearing Alasdair’s heart alight with the bygone melodies of their keep gave her immense satisfaction. She smiled to herself and went to the kitchen where she found Martje heaving fat sighs of joy over a folded napkin in one hand and a generous slice of cake in the other

“Aye,” she sniffed, “you’ve done a good thing, kin.”

The commander gave the cook a warm smile. “I did nothing for him that he would not have done himself.” She simpered as Martje stuffed herself with cake to ease her emotions and took a secretive enjoyment in knowing that Alasdair was slowly reclaiming his most deserved happiness.

Michelle Franklin can be found on her blog The Haanta Series and the first novel in the Haanta series (The Commander and Den Asaan Rautu) is available from Amazon on Kindle. Many thanks to Michelle for stopping by!

Guest Article: Jaine Fenn on "Living with the Reader/Writer Paradox"

2011-09-18T13:00:00.000+01:00

Today it is the turn of the very charming Jaine Fenn (cocktail companion without compare) to take her turn on my blog, and she offers a perspective on "Living with the Reader/Writer Paradox".

If I had to chose an epitaph I think it might just be So many books, So little time. Ah, you say, you need to find that time. I agree. Perhaps I should build a cloning machine. Or give up on sleep.

However, I've got an excuse: I spend a lot of my potential reading time writing; in fact I'm lucky enough to get paid to write.

In an ideal world I'd also get paid to read, because the income from writing one book per year ain't enough to keep a girl in merlot and chocolate once the basic living expenses have been covered. Sometimes I entertain the fantasy that rather than supplementing my writing income by coding html, writing promotional copy, dealing with members of the public and trying to second-guess my genius but eccentric boss at the day-job, instead I would read a selection of the best new SF novels then write cogent reviews for a major newspaper in return for a generous monthly salary.

Until that happens, or until I get the hang of cloning technology/life without sleep, I have to be selective in my reading. For this reason, I'm leery of books in series. I do read them, due to having a husband with similar tastes and more time to read (I'm currently enjoying Neal Asher's Agent Cormac books, though they've rather put me off seafood) but I don't pick up books from series on spec, for fear that in order to enjoy the book in my hand, I'll need to buy the other two/four/however many more in the series. If I know the time and money that entails will be worth it, then fine. But often I don't know, so I don't risk it.

That's me as a reader. As a writer, I like to write the sort of thing I'd want to read and, fortunately, my publisher appears happy to indulge me. However, I'm currently five novels into writing a series which will (I hope) run to at least nine books. It's a story I want to tell, but it's going to take a while to unfold.

Can you see the conflict here?

In order to keep my personality intact, I decided from the start that the books in the Hidden Empire series would function as stand-alones which added up to create an overall big story arc. That's what I like to read, so that was what I would try and write.

Easy to decide, far harder to implement.

The first two books, Principles of Angels and Consorts of Heaven, weren't too much of a problem as they took place at the same time in two different places and featured different sets of characters. There is a causal link, but it's not necessary to spot it to enjoy the books. When I reached the third book, Guardians of Paradise, everyone met up and started interacting, and I ran up against the inevitable problem.

I was, in essence, writing for two audiences simultaneously. One set had followed the series (thank you, oh loyal readers!) and consequently wanted the story to move on without wasting time retelling stuff they already knew. The other set had picked this book up knowing nothing of my ongoing personal power-trip; putting myself in their place, I wanted to give them the information they needed to enjoy the book in their hand, regardless of whether they felt inclined to read any other books in the series.

There is no easy answer; my only conscious resolve was to avoid the kind of contrived infodumps where character A asks character B why they are about to do something/go somewhere when both characters know the answer already. Then again, if I didn't know enough to avoid that kind of mistake, I shouldn’t have been getting my stories published at all.

To judge by reviews, I did moderately well in this tricky balancing act. However, two books further on, and I know I could have so much done better. I believe I'm doing better now, and that I can continue to improve, to give (almost) everyone what they want. Ultimately, of course, it's for the readers to judge, whether they've been with me from the start, or whether they just picked the book up, and wonder what the story is.

Thanks loads, Jaine!

Guest Review: Chris Farnell reviews Horns by Joe Hill

2011-09-18T09:00:00.000+01:00

I met Chris Farnell on a trip to the British Library for a tweet up and jaunt around the "Out of this World" exhibition. He is the author of Mark II and can be followed on Twitter.

He agreed to do a review of Horns by Joe Hill (and saved me late in the game, so that I could have all 32 guest slots filled! Thanks Chris!)

Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with one hell of a hangover, a raging headache . . . and a pair of horns growing from his temples. Once, Ig lived the life of the blessed: born into privilege, the second son of a renowned American musician, and the younger brother of a rising late-night TV star, Ig had security and wealth and a place in his community. Ig had it all, and more - he had the love of Merrin Williams, a love founded on shared daydreams, mutual daring, and unlikely midsummer magic. Then beautiful, vivacious Merrin was gone - raped and murdered, under inexplicable circumstances - with Ig the only suspect. He was never tried for the crime, but in the court of public opinion, Ig was and always would be guilty. Now Ig is possessed with a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look, and he means to use it to find the man who killed Merrin and destroyed his life. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. It's time for a little revenge; it's time the devil had his due.

Okay, before starting this review properly, I need to address the elephant in the room. Joe Hill is the son of a popular horror novelist who we will call ******* ****. To review this book purely in terms of how it compares to ******* **** would be a disservice to both writers, and this reviewer is above such obvious comparisons. That the book shares similar attitudes to horror, religious themes, family and the darker side of human nature is completely by the by. And so this review will not, for instance, say that this book bears comparison to ******* ****’s earlier classics, and that if you liked those you’ll really enjoy this. Whether or not it’s true (it is) I’m not going to say it, because that would be plain lazy.

We all clear on that? Good. Then I’ll begin.

Horns is a lot of things, it’s a story about grief, a religious parable, and weird sort of superhero story. The religious aspects of the story address the old problem, “If God exists and he loves us, why do horrible, horrible things keep happening to nice people who don’t deserve it?” It’s a question that’s asked a bunch of different ways throughout the book, and God never turns up in person to answer it. Even Satan never really shows his hand here- there’s just Ignatius, with horns and his awesome name.

But the horns aren’t just a barrier to well-fitting hats and a decent haircut. Whenever Ignatius is in the presence of another person, that person is overwhelmed by the need to confess all their sins- both the ones they’ve committed, and the ones they want to commit. What’s more, on confessing a sin they want to commit, people seek Ignatius’s approval, and if he grants them permission, they’ll go right ahead to do it. Like the best monsters/superheroes, the horns’ powers have strict limitations- mainly, that Ig can’t command people to do anything that they do not want to do.

This is where the superhero aspects of the story come in. Ig is a character who has had terrible things happen to him, and his given powers that allow him to do a huge amount of evil, but he resists that and turns the powers to a better purpose.
It’s a book that lives up to its horror label. There are some genuinely scary and disgusting descriptions- including one scene that caused me to stop reading for a while because I didn’t want to throw up on the coach.

It’s not a book without flaws, it has the Christopher Nolan-esque quality of being a story about men motivated by the rape and murder of a woman. That said, Ig’s girlfriend Merrin is a character who still manages to have a life of her own, and the writer is all too happy to show us the parallels between Ig’s idealised view of the woman he loves and the delusional stories Merrin’s rapist tells himself about her.

The thing that most surprised me about this book is that it’s actually incredibly optimistic about people. In the first chapter of the book Ig comes across as Alcoholic, Despondent 90’s Anti-Hero version 3, but as his story, and his back story unfold, you discover this is a character driven by a powerful need to be and do good. Likewise, his power is custom built to show you the very ugliest sides of human nature (How confident are you that you want to hear with complete honesty what your parents, or your best friend or your lover thinks of you?) but the story shows that there is so much more to us than our darkest fears and desires.

Thanks Chris!

Guest Article: Darren Goldsmith "A Map of the Floating City"

2011-09-17T13:00:00.000+01:00

Darren is one of those awesome people I have managed to connect with via Twitter. He is always chatty and positive, and has asked for my help with beta reading his writing - ever an honour. When I asked for blog contributors during my two week's away, Darren offered something that I found extremely intriguing - I hope you do too!

A Map of the Floating City

Hello! Guest blogger Darren here. While Amanda is sunning herself on a beach or by the pool, with a glass of something suitably alcoholic and a decent book (jealous, moi?), I thought I’d write about my involvement with Thomas Dolby’s ‘A Map of the Floating City’ online game, specifically the creation of some game art.

If you’re not familiar with Thomas’s work… er, why the hell not? Seriously, go on, search for ‘The Golden Age of Wireless’ and ‘The Flat Earth’ and give them both a spin. Or if those aren’t to your taste (you’d be mad, but OK), try ‘Aliens Ate My Buick’ or ‘Astronauts and Heretics’ instead. If none of this moves you in any way, you are dead on the inside.

Thomas was a late ‘70s/early ‘80s synth-pop pioneer, probably most famous for his singles ‘She Blinded me with Science’ and ‘Hyperactive’ (very popular but not the best examples of his work), who later went on to produce music for the likes of Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and Prefab Sprout, to name but a few. During his time in California in the late ‘90s, he started a company, out of Silicon Valley, that developed the software which drives the ringtones in 3 billion+ mobiles. And for the last 10 years or so, he’s been the musical director of TED Global. One hell of a bio. You can find out more about the man and his work here.

And now he’s back, with a new album, using the game as a vehicle to promote it.

A Map of the Floating City is set against a dystopian vision of the 1940s that might have existed had WWII turned out a lot differently. Survivors explore a fictional Google map, forming tribes and trading relics amidst a bizarre sea-going barter society.

The game itself has just finished but ran for about three months (good job we didn’t have a summer to speak of), was completely free (worked in a browser - no ads/pop-ups or irritating email/spam) and offered players the chance to win music downloads and the ultimate prize of a private gig for the winning tribe.

I’ve known Thomas for a few years now and have had the pleasure of playing bass and bass synth in his band. He was aware of my work as an artist and writer and asked me if I’d like to be involved in The Floating City. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance.

Below, I’ve provided an insight into the creation of one of the game images: Dr. Argleton’s blimp. I’ve kept it brief… hopefully the explanation won’t induce too many comas.

I typically work with a combination of 3D and 2D applications, blending the processes to achieve the final result. My main 3D weapon of choice is Modo but I also use Vue and occasionally Lightwave. And then I’ll always throw final renders into Photoshop and/or After Effects for tweaking and colourisation/grading.

Step one is the 3D modelling. We wanted a steampunk look and feel for the blimp, in keeping with the game. Thomas had a photo of a 19th century submersible (on display at the Barcelona Maritime Museum) that fit the bill nicely so I used that as a reference to build the elements in Modo.

The modelling took around 25 hours, all told. I tried to keep as close to the real thing as possible but there are always going to be discrepancies when you only have one reference image. I couldn’t see the rudder and prop that well, for example, so had to give it my best guess. The real sub is actually a squashed cylinder, a bit like a fish, but I wanted a fuller shape. And for the final image we wanted the sub to be a blimp, so it needed balloons!

Here’s a clay render (sans textures/maps) of the finished model.

Step two is texturing/mapping. Essentially the addition of images that dress the model. As you can see, the clay render shows the main blimp body to be smooth, like an eggshell. A weird eggshell, sure, but… oh, you get the idea. Textures or images maps can be photos and/or graphics… often composed in Photoshop or a similar editor. These maps are then applied to the model objects. There’s a whole bunch of mapping methods and most, if not all, 3D applications use a standard set… but the most useful, especially for complex shapes, is UV mapping. I could explain it but I’d be a lot less coherent than this.

Working in layers is a good idea because it’s easier to make changes… I create a base texture map (in this case the wood) and then I’ll add other layers on top, such as weathering and so on. I didn’t want the final model to look as beaten-up as the real thing but it did need to look a little used, as if it was a working blimp. It’s worth bearing in mind how the proposed image and final render will look since that will dictate the resolution and level of detail you need for the maps. There’s usually a lot of tweaking at this point, to ensure the maps not only fit but look the part.

Voila! Here’s our finished, textured model.

OK, with that bit done, the next step is to create some scenery, to sit the blimp in. The Floating City game is set almost directly after a world-changing event. A cataclysm called the Penumbra has devastated the lands. Poisonous clouds and boiling heat have forced survivors to take to the oceans, in the rusting wrecks of ships and other vessels, and head north to cooler zones.

In the game there was a maiden voyage of the blimp (owned and built by a character called Dr. Argleton) for all players who could afford to buy a ticket. I wanted to illustrate that journey.

We thought it’d be cool if everyone could see an image or two (or three), the plan being to offer the pics as free wallpapers once the game was finished.

Although it’s possible to model landscapes and the like in Modo, I used Vue to do this instead. Vue is essentially a world-building application… although it’s much more than that. Once you can get around the mad interface, it’s an excellent bit of kit, allowing for the creation of clouds and sunsets and water and terrains, with almost infinite control over how these elements appear.

After much experimentation and tweaking (I wanted a painterly feel), this was the result.

At step four, we go back into Modo, to composite the blimp model and background scene together. You can do this by adding the scene image to a camera set to ‘front’, which fixes it in place as a background plate, and then adjusting the angle, scale and rotation (and lighting) of the blimp model, to suit. Lots of test renders here!

The resulting render from this part of the process looks good… but it needs that little extra zing, so I fire up Photoshop (I can choose to save the final comp as layers/alpha channels from Modo) for colour correction and grading. With this image I also needed to add a reflection of the blimp in the water.

Colour correction normally involves getting a closer match between all elements. There are a variety of techniques, tricks and options but a good place to start, in Photoshop at least, is with Levels, by tweaking the individual RGB channels. From there you can play with Selective Colour settings and Hue/Saturation or Colour Balance.

Here’s the final image:

And here are a couple of others, created using the same techniques.

Right, that’s me done!

Enjoy! I have higher res version if anyone wants them… or if you have any questions, just email or Tweet.

darren AT cosmicmail DOT co DOT uk
@DarrenGoldsmith

Ta,

Darren.

No - thank YOU, Darren!

Guest Review: Jason Baki reviews Nowhere Hall by Cate Gardner

2011-09-17T09:00:00.000+01:00

Jason Baki has been a great friend of mine since I first started blogging and we attended Eastercon 2010 together. He has had a little break from blogging and now returns refreshed - including a lovely little review for me!

We Want To Live...

In the bathroom, wallflower mannequins stretch their fingers towards Ron. He can't ask them to dance. He's already waltzing with the other ghosts.

Someone stole the world while Ron contemplated death. They packed it in a briefcase and dumped him in the halls of the ruined hotel--The Vestibule. A nowhere place."

There have always been great female horror writers but in recent times there a number of new and very strong voices making themselves heard in the field of dark fantastical literature: Caitlin R Kiernan, Sarah Monette, Ekaterina Sedia, and Kaaron Warren are just a few examples, and I think we can definitely add Cate Gardner to that list too. I had not read Gardner before this, but I'll certainly not be forgetting her in a hurry now that I've read Nowhere Hall. From the outset this short chapbook highlights an extraordinary ability on the part of Gardner to instil a sense of dream like lugubriousness.

Ron Spence has had enough with life, feeling overlooked by the world, and fed up with his lot, he decides to end it all. Poised to step out in to oncoming traffic he backs out only at the last minute, or so it seems. What follows from this opening section of the story, is a marvellously written piece of dark surrealism.

After apparently failing to take his own life, Ron finds himself drawn towards a seemingly abandoned hotel - the Vestibule. He also finds an elephant handled umbrella with a tag which says "we want to live" on it. Taking the umbrella he enters the hotel, and discovers that far from being unoccupied, it is filled with the presence of ghosts and alive with a kind of shifting consciousness of its own. In this strange place, inanimate objects come to life and dance with the painful memories of Ron's own past. How much of it is real? And what it means for Ron's current state of being is largely up for conjecture. At the end I had my own suspicions about what had occurred, but I imagine others reading may draw different conclusions. Gardner has written this story in a deliberately obscure manner, but not, I should stress, in a way that is difficult to read or which leaves the reader dissatisfied. Rather, the obscure nature, and unsettling melancholic tone is part of its appeal.

I really enjoyed this chapbook and I continue to be impressed with the standard of releases from Spectral Press. If you like darkly surreal stories underpinned by strong emotion and visceral prose, then you absolutely have to check out this wonderful piece of writing by Cate Gardner. I'll certainly be eagerly awaiting her future work.

Nowhere Hall
By Cate Garder
Published in the UK by Spectral Press

For more on Cate Gardner visit her webpage here.

Thanks so much, Jason!

Guest Article: Lou Morgan "Snakes in the Grass"

2011-09-16T13:00:00.000+01:00

My guest today is the wonderful Lou Morgan, finally fledged author (novel coming out next year from Solaris, put it in your calenders!) and partner in crime from the madness that was Genre for Japan earlier this year. Lou and I ended up discussing the nature of Slytherin on Twitter, and I was delighted when Lou agreed to frame those ramblings into an article for me.

There are spoilers within for those who haven't read to the end of the Harry Potter series - be warned!

Snakes in the Grass (or: what's Slytherin's problem, anyway?)

'"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin,' said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin."' (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)

That, right there, is our introduction to Slytherin: the most infamous of the four Hogwarts houses. More importantly, it's also the first thing Harry Potter hears about Slytherin… the house which at some point has nurtured every one of the enemies he will encounter as he grows up, from Draco Malfoy to Voldemort himself.

Who can blame Harry when he begs the Sorting Hat not to put him into Slytherin - despite the Hat's suggestion that he would do well there?

It's not hard to see that Slytherin is meant to be the Big Bad of the Hogwarts houses. By giving Slytherin a snake as its emblem, Rowling taps straight into a long vein of serpent mythology from the Bible to Disney's Aladdin; from Medusa and the Gorgons of Greek Mythology to Conan Doyle's The Speckled Band, the snake has long been a symbol of… well, let's just say it's not good.

Slytherin doesn't exactly attract a friendly crowd, either. Again, Harry's early impressions (and ours as readers) formed by watching them at the Sorting ceremony are that they "looked like an unpleasant lot." They embody a creeping cold; a chill you can't quite shake - it's no coincidence that the teacher most associated with Slytherin (of whom more later) is described as having eyes which were "cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels." Their common room is a dungeon, and worst of all… they cheat at Quidditch.

They're a bad bunch, made up in our experience of bullies (Millicent Bulstrode), mean girls (Pansy Parkinson) and thugs (Crabbe & Goyle). There's more than a hint of an unsavoury belief system there too: of corruption and prejudice and sheer malice in Slytherin's collective obsession with "pure" blood.

And then there's Draco. A snob, indulged since birth and convinced of his own superiority, Draco is Harry's nemesis at Hogwarts… or is he? Draco may cast himself in that role, but we know better. Harry's true nemesis is a much more frightening figure. As the series progresses, Draco manages to become less threatening, not more. His induction into the Death Eaters and subsequent mission to kill Dumbledore marks him not as a fully-fledged Dark wizard… but as an inexperienced child who has bitten off more than he can chew - something we see Dumbledore comment on to Snape in The Deathly Hallows: "A frightened teenage boy is a danger to others as well as to himself. Offer him help and guidance."

…Which brings us back to Snape himself. The Slytherin house-master, he seems to embody its essence perfectly with his greasy hair, sallow skin and hooked nose - not to mention his hatred of Harry. We aren't surprised to learn that he was once a Death Eater - nor are we shocked by his apparent treachery. That's what Slytherin stands for, after all. Time and time again we are warned not to trust members of this particular house, from the Sorting Hat's song: "Those cunning folk use any means / To achieve their ends", to the portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black, who tells Harry: "when given the choice, we will always choose to save our own necks." So why should Snape's behaviour be any different?

The answer, we learn is simple. Told in flashback through Snape's memories in the closing chapters of the saga, we finally understand that there's a greater power at work in his actions. Love.

"'But this is touching, Severus," said Dumbledore seriously. 'Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?'

'For him?' shouted Snape. 'Expecto Patronum!'

From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe; she landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.

'After all this time?'

'Always,' said Snape."

Just like that, along with Harry, we learn that throughout Snape's life, he has loved Harry's mother, Lily. It this love which redeems him, just as it was Lily's love which saved Harry. Love is the driving force for good in the Harry Potter universe - and for all his faults, even Severus Snape is not immune.

That's the real secret of Slytherin. That all of the scheming, all of the corruption and cynicism and downright evil can be undone. Not easily - it takes huge sacrifice and courage, but the darkness can be overcome. Slytherin's role is to represent not just the greater evils in the world but the lesser ones: every bully we faced at school, every teacher who humiliated us, every tell-tale and tittle-tattle, every petty-minded boss. Slytherin exists to show us that even in the darkest, dankest places we can find hope - hope in Snape's final moments, hope in Dumbledore's determination to save Draco: "'That boy's soul is not yet so damaged,' said Dumbledore, smiling. 'I would not have it ripped apart on my account.'"

Perhaps, if Slytherin had been a different house -more like Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, the story would have been very different. What if Slytherin was more like Gryffindor? What if they had turned on Umbridge during her tenure at the school? What if, shamed that one of their number suggested handing Harry over to Voldemort, the Slytherins had refused to abandon Hogwarts before the final battle - as so many of the other students did? What if, instead of following Voldemort, they had turned against him? Perhaps if things had gone differently, such great sacrifices would not have been necessary - but conversely, we would not be left with the sense of victory, the sense of hope that the series ends with… hope tinged with loss, undoubtedly, but hope nonetheless.

Thanks so much, Lou! Brilliant article :-)

Guest Book Review: Sakura reviews Fire by Kristin Cashore

2011-09-16T09:00:00.002+01:00

Sakura (from the fantastic blog chasing bawa - one of my great favourites in the blogosphere) has kindly stopped by, in my absence, to provide a book review. Please enjoy!

Fire by Kristin Cashore

I gushed about Kristin Cashore's debut, Graceling, when I read it last year. It was a surprisingly refreshing reading experience for me with likeable characters and interesting ideas. What was most welcoming was how the main female protagonist had a sense of self that defied the usual stereotypes you get in fantasy fiction. I liked it very much. So you can imagine how I was really looking forward to Cashore's second book.

Fire is set in the Dells, a neighbouring land to Monsea in which Graceling is set, where instead of gracelings (the gifted and cursed with mismatched eyes), there are monsters, both human and animal, distinguished only by their vibrant and brilliant colours with extraordinary powers and a hunger for their own flesh. 17 year old Fire is a monstrous beauty with flaming hair, daughter of the monster Cansrel who was once the brilliant and cruel companion to an insane king. Brought up in a secluded estate with Lord Brocker and his son Archer as neighbours, Fire is unlike her father and lives a lonely but loved life, always on the lookout from other monsters who crave her. Because that is what she is, something to be craved. When she is accidentally shot by a trespasser, she is flung into the path of an oncoming war where the prize is King's City and Fire herself. And when she is called up to help King Nash and his cold and closed-up brother Briggan dissipate a power struggle that threatens the Kingdom, her life changes as she must use her mind-controlling powers to help her friends survive. A power which she had sworn she would never use after the suicide of her father, Casrel.

In another part of the Dells, a fugitive graceling with a liking for control and a little pain is swiftly growing into an unforeseen power. Will they meet? And if so, will Fire, and the Dells, survive?

Somehow I was expecting the titular character to be an adult so was a little surprised that she is a teenager. Nothing wrong with it, of course, just an error in my expectation. After reading Steven Erikson's Malazan books, any fantasy not featuring the brutal and adult voice I've grown used to will feel a little soft for me. But that's not really fair as Fire is an accomplished novel, written very well, quickly grabbing your interest as you begin your journey to see how Fire will survive. Don't get me wrong, Fire does deal with a lot of adult themes about identity and the consequences of sex and rape but it was dealt a little too simply. The darkness of the issues and the simplicity of the characters felt a little dissonant. Consequently the character of Fire seemed a little too naïve and her relationships with the people around her didn't have enough depth for me to feel that we were really getting under her skin.

As a YA novel, I think it works well. I had no issues with the plot although I would have liked to know a little more about the monstrous graceling Immiker/Leck. However, there were a few things that bothered me, such as, if Fire was so strong, why couldn't she just overpower everyone more easily? And why did the ending feel rushed? I know, grumble grumble. I loved Graceling so much I wanted to love Fire too. But the issues about the simplicity of the novel with some of the darker themes that could have been explored more fully did not, unfortunately, leave me. Even at the end.

BUT, I really like Kristin Cashore's writing style and the world she has created and will be keeping an eager eye out for her next novel in the series, Bitterblue.

I won this book courtesy of a competition by Orion Books.

Thank you SO much, Sakura!

Guest Article: Jonathan L Howard "The Lord of the Daleks"

2011-09-15T13:00:00.000+01:00

I've made no secret in the past for my love of Jonathan L Howard's two novels (Johannes Cabal the Necromancer and Johannes Cabal the Detective - the third novel The Fear Institute is out now!) so I was utterly thrilled when he said that he would write a guest post for my vacation. I'm just as delighted that he has turned his attention to the Daleks of Dr Who fame, since, ordinarily, this site is rather Dr Who-free thanks to my not watching it (yes, we all have our faults...).

I give you Jonathan L Howard - the Lord of the Daleks...

Steven Moffat is doing a decent enough job as the Doctor Who showrunner, I suppose. I’m certainly enjoying the plotting better than I did under his predecessor, a man who wrote himself into corners with regularity, trusting to any number of flabby deus ex machinae to get him out of trouble. I approved of his casting of Matt Smith before he’d even made it, based on Smith’s appearances in the two Sally Lockhart films he did for the BBC, wherein he stole every scene in which he appeared.

A good showing for our man Moffat then, in most respects. In one, however, he has made a silly, silly schoolboy error.

He has not hired me as a consultant on a very important aspect of the programme. He has not made me the Tsar of Skaro.

He has not made me the Lord of the Daleks.

The fool.

As must be obvious to anyone who has ever met me and wished to leave the room alive or, at least, ungnawed, I understand the Daleks better than anyone alive or, indeed, dead. Terry Nation didn’t understand them. Why all that stuff and nonsense in Destiny of the Daleks about them lacking the freewill and originality to be unpredictable foes for the Movellans, a race of robots? That’s suggesting that the
Daleks are no more than robots themselves. Heresy!

Ben Aaronovitch did better with The Remembrance of the Daleks, once again making them the cunning, duplicitous creatures they are at their best. Still, they were still incapable of unpredictable strategies and so were dependant on a human mind to act as their battle computer. Feh.

Do you want to know what the true secret of satisfying Dalek stories is? Come closer, then. Closer. Closer, that I may whisper it into your ignorant ear.

The Daleks are individuals.

It’s true. Turning them into a great horde of faceless killers is very effective when they are in a great horde, but single faceless killers are boring. If you hearken back to the days of Dalekmania in the ‘sixties, the old Dalek comic scripted by David Whittaker and illustrated by Ron Turner, each and every Dalek has its own name. Admittedly, they were all called things like “Insli” and “Zeg,” but it was the ‘sixties. Everybody was called “Insli” and “Zeg.”

Anyway, think of the Dalek city in their very first television story; the Doctor and his companions look for something heavy to drop down a lift shaft onto the pursuing Daleks. What do they use?

A piece of sculpture.

In the Dalek city, populated only by Daleks, there are artworks, created by Daleks, for Daleks. Think on it.

As an aside, I would also point out that among their other advanced technologies, the Daleks make use of lava lamps (Doctor Who and the Daleks AARU Productions, 1965) and plasma globes (Remembrance of the Daleks), because genocide is stressful and sometimes you just need to chill out a bit, yeah?

Are the Daleks as individualistic as humans? No, but that’s largely due to conditioning. They are terrifyingly loyal to the Emperor – if they have one that week – and to the concept of their own innate superiority. Death is meaningless to them except in as far as it prevents them continuing to prosecute their great Kulturkampf against the rest of the universe.

So, they have no fear of death. I remember reading an “Abslom Daak – Dalek Killer” comic a good few years ago and being appalled – appalled, damn it – at a scene where Daak intimidates a Dalek into betraying its race.

WHAT?

Daak’s smug, he doesn’t shave very often, and he has a pony tail, but it would take a sight more than that to terrify a Dalek, I assure you.

Oh, and apparently he calls women “broads,” because it’s the future, you see.

I had assumed that this Dalek timidity was just a bit of silliness until along came the Doctor Who episode “The Big Bang” in which, confronted by River Song armed with her trusty fez-blaster, a Dalek begs for mercy.

WHAT?

This is an absolute outrage. Don’t these people understand anything? First they homogenise the Daleks, then they render them a bit thick, and now they castrate them. Well, at least they have now achieved their nadir.

Now everything has to be an improvement.

Pardon me a moment. I’m not sure what’s going on. I appear to be laughing and crying simultaneously.

Okay. Okay, I’m good.

Right.

It’s interesting that there are actually very few views of the “New Paradigm” Daleks sideways on; I’ve had to fall back on a picture of a toy to get anything close to their most unflattering side. A lot has been said on just how wrong these Daleks are, and I shall be adding to that opprobrium but with what I believe to be a new observation.

Firstly, I do not mind the colours. Indeed, I applaud the colours. I am a child of the ‘sixties and, between the Dalek comic and the two films with Peter Cushing, I have always been very disappointed that the television series has lacked more colour variations. Why wouldn’t they have them, after all? It’s a fast, easy differentiation between unit types and what does it matter if they show up easily on the battlefield? They’re well shielded and armoured and they are not afraid of death. I even did a colour guide for the “Doctor Who – Adventures in Time and Space” RPG forum back in February of 2010 in which I included olive green and sunflower yellow Daleks a couple of months before they turned up on TV (admittedly, my yellow Daleks handled logistics within the Empire, and weren’t “Eternals,” whatever the drokking frell that means). That’s how much I approve of interestingly coloured Daleks…

…within reason.

The poor thing, it looks so sad.

No, the “New Paradigm” problem is with the styling. Not all of it, I hasten to add; I do like the “maintenance panel” at the back of the skirt.

It took me a while to realise what it was that I didn’t like primarily. It wasn’t the overly cluttered eyestalk, although it is loathsome. It wasn’t the silly removal of the neck columns, although it does make the neck seem insubstantial, as if the head is going to wilt over at any moment. It wasn’t the ridiculously massive shoulders, though it makes the Dalek look as if it’s wearing a lifesaver. It isn’t even the ludicrous hump at the back, though it makes the Dalek look hunched over and uncomfortable.

Some people have called these new Daleks “iDaleks,” and I think that’s where the problem truly lies. If you see a piece of military equipment, something big and complex like a tank, you will note that it is covered with all sorts of clutter. Odd handles and covers, flaps, louvres, and all manner of curious gadgets whose function is not immediately apparent to the layperson. All these things shriek “Function!” however.

They say, “This is a war machine, not a sports car.”

Function!

This was the triumph of the original Raymond Cusick Dalek designs. Everything on them, from the skirt bumps to the shoulder slats (a slightly later feature) to the “spark-arrestor” discs on the eyestalk, suggested function. You might not know what these features were for exactly, but a Dalek looked like a machine put together for war. The “New Paradigm” Daleks, in contrast, look like an exercise in designing a consumer durable. They do not look like engines of destruction. They look like something designed to make the folk in marketing excited.

Indeed, the persistent rumour is that this is exactly what they were designed for; new meat for the toy range. Even that isn’t such a bad thing; the iconic classic Star Trek phaser 1, 2, and 3 units were designed with the possibility of toys in mind.

Simplifying a design that works best with a little clutter, however… dear me. Dearie, dearie me.

Why didn’t they ask me? Why? It beggars belief. They need a Lord of the Daleks, they do. Although I’m warming to Dalek Tsar now. Maybe Dalek Tzar. That looks a bit more “Zeg.” Anyway, I’m waiting for the call, Moffat. Waiting.

Still waiting.

That was brilliant, Jonathan, thank you!

The Three-Act Business Card

2011-09-15T09:00:00.000+01:00

Today I welcome Alasdair Stuart to my humble blog. Please give him a very warm welcome, and leave comments to show appreciation for his article!

Hello, I'm Alasdair and I'm a writer. I love being a writer because it allows me to tell stories, to entertain in a way which is simultaneously massively personal and completely distant. That dichotomy fascinates me; the fact that a text is a neutral space that the writer creates and the reader interacts with and interrogates and shares in that dialogue, making it something their own, something so unique it'll change when they read it again. I can wax lyrical about that for hours, or about narrative theory, or about how The Fast and Furious movies are really cyberpunk films, or how Kimball Cho on The Mentalist is so calm because he's omnipotent and already knows how it'll end.

I'm a writer, and so are millions of other people.

Writing is incredibly hard, and getting your writing noticed is even harder. As a result, if you want to get noticed you can't just be great, you have to be tenacious and creative and most of all, brave. The good news is, there's a way to get your creativity noticed, get your work out in the world, maybe even make some money and all you have to do is be just a little bit brave. Even better, other people have done it before you so it works. Even better than that? It weaponises the short story into something genuinely unique, something people will remember you for; what I like to call the Three-Act business card.

Take a short story. Chances are you've got one that is ready and written, but sitting in a drawer or on your computer. Take a look at it, polish it up and get it ready. Do what you have to do, beta readers, rewrites, a writer's circle - whatever works. Act 1.

Upload the work to Smashwords.com. It's a free e-publishing site that allows you to sell your work for, at minimum, 99 cents. You can choose what format it's published in, design a cover, tag it so it can be found and upload the file. You retain the rights to it as well and are free to put it up anywhere else. Do it. Upload the file. Act 2.

Tell people. If you don't have a Facebook or Twitter account, get them and use them. If you already do? Tell people that you've got a piece up on Smashwords.com for 99 cents or however much you've decided to ask for it. Tell them more than once if you can. If you get the chance, see which other authors you know use the site. Talk to them. Talk about their work and chances are they'll do the same. If they're friends of yours then talk about collaborating, put the collaboration out, sell it and talk about it. Act 3.

That last one is the most important, because no one will notice you if you don't tell them where you are. No one gets discovered unless they make themselves available, no one gets a thing without either asking for it or sticking their hand up and going 'Me! ME!' when someone asks for something. Do not be a wallflower, do not be shy, show up, because interesting things happen when you do. Authors like Jake Bible, Paul Cooley and Scott Roche are using Smashwords.com to get their work out into the world and are building names for themselves by doing so with Jake's work in particular attracting a lot of attention on Smashwords.com and Kindle. Each of them has a unique voice, each of them has a bunch of work up on Smashwords.com and each of them has used the Three-Act Business Card to get themselves out in the world, to get noticed. It WORKS!

So, get your stories on Kindle, get it on Smashwords.com, or on any of the other sites because then it's out there in the world where it and you deserve to be. If you decide to do that, or if you already have, put a link in the comments. You never know who might end up reading your work.

Ria Bridges on Escaping Reality

2011-09-14T13:00:00.000+01:00

Ria is the lovely lady behind the Bibliotropic blog, bringing us endless quality book reviews and encouraging the whole world to read Mercedes Lackey. I welcome her today, as she brings us an article called "Escaping Reality".

One of the things that speculative fiction -- especially fantasy -- tends to get a lot of in accusations that the fans are only using it to escape reality. That it`s escapist fiction. And to the accusers, it thus naturally follows that escapist fiction is a bad thing.

But why? Even ignoring the fact that not all speculative fiction is fantasy ('fantasy' as a genre, I mean) and that not all fantasy is be necessity escapist, why exactly is it that escapist fiction is bad?

I've asked this question of naysayers. Usually the answer I get is, "Because it is." If I'm really lucky, I might get the answer of, "Because you're making yourself live in a fantasy world so you don't have to deal with your real problems."

Whoa, back up a second. Since when did fantasy fiction become conflated with fantasy role-playing, anyway?

That's what I think is at the heart of it. Let's face it, as popular as geek culture has gotten, there are some parts of it that will just never go mainstream, and role-playing (outside of a few video games) is one of those parts. And what's one of the biggest tabletop RPGs, the one that even today has to endure morons accusing it of being the gateway to Satanism? If you said "Dungeons & Dragons," you're right.

I think that a lot of people will reverse-engineer the connection. Fantasy fiction has many of the same elements of the only other fantasy thing they've encountered outside of the "Lord of the Rings" movies, and D&D has a dark cloud of baseless rumour surrounding it. But it's fantasy, so that's enough of a connection. And everybody knows that people play fantasy RPGs because they're too inept to handle the real world and thus would rather just slay some orcs than get a job.

Okay, so maybe that is where it comes from. The connections, and the assumptions. But what I really want to know is why people think a little escapist fiction is a bad thing. Because here's a little secret that these people don't want to let you in on: EVERYBODY DOES IT!

Seriously. Maybe not everybody will mentally visit a fantasy world, but there are dozens of ways to escape reality, and we all do it every day, for reasons ranging from boredom to *gasp* escaping our problems for a little while. When we go to the theatre and watch a movie, that's just as escapist as reading a fantasy novel. When we sit and daydream about finding a way to become a billionaire, that's escapist too. And let's not forget about that all-too-common adult pastime: drinking until you pass out.

We all engage in escapism from time to time. It's normal, it's healthy, and there's no form of escapism that's more or less valid than the other. The trick is knowing how to leave the fantasy behind at the end of the day. When I finish reading one of Mercedes Lackey's "Valdemar" novels, I don't close the book and get genuinely confused as to why local law enforcement officials aren't riding around on telepathic white horses. No matter how good a book is, and no matter how crappy my life may be, I know how to leave the fantasy as a fantasy. But some people seem genuinely confused as to how I'm capable of doing that, wondering why I would even like the fantasy genre if not to try and hide from my own mundane woes.

I think the worst part of it is that these people sling around the very stones and arrows that they themselves are riddled with, because they don't actually know what escapism is, or to what degree is actually healthy and normal. Sure, maybe there are days when slaying orcs on paper seems like a better idea than reading job ads again, but that's why role-playing is a hobby. Because I enjoy doing it. But I"m better adjusted, thank you very much, than to start shrieking because I think an orc will jump out of the shadows at me. As are nearly all other role-players. As are nearly all people who enjoy speculative fiction and the fantasy genre.

Besides, if these people don't start thinking about their assumptions and changing their minds, I'm going to send my telepathic white horse after them. It knows a Level 3 Fireball spell.

Thank you so much, Ria!

Guest Article: Dan Abnett on "Changing Hats"

2011-09-14T09:00:00.000+01:00

My guest this morning needs very little introduction - Dan Abnett is absolutely beloved by geeks across the board. He's written numerous novels, been involved in comics and is a popular face at conventions. He is here to tell you a little more about the projects that have been on his mind over the last few months!

Books are like buses sometimes. You spend all year (or more) labouring over them, and then they all turn up at once.

Autumn and spring are the big seasons for publication, so projects that were entirely separate entities during the working year end up appearing in the shops side-by-side. Because self-generated promotion is absolutely expected by all publishers of their authors in this day and age, writers can find themselves having to blog, and chat, and answer interview questions, about different things all at once.

This is not a complaint, it’s just an odd place to find oneself. I have two new novels out this autumn. One is Salvation’s Reach, the latest (thirteenth!) volume of my long-running military SF series for Black Library, Gaunt’s Ghosts. The other is The Silent Stars Go By, the Christmas Doctor Who novel.

In my head, these are entirely separate things. Entirely separate. I’d go as far as to say, in fact, that the author-me wore different heads, Worzel Gummidge style, during their respective creations. The books are out now, so I find I’m talking about them both. I have to rummage around in a hypothetical attic to grab the right head: I have to wear the Warhammer 40K head when I’m talking about Gaunt, and the TARDIS head when I’m talking about Doctor Who.

In some key respects, the novels are actually very similar. They’re both licensed projects. They’re both (dare I speak the dread words) tie-in novels. Though I have written original fiction (such as the SF novel Embedded, out from Angry Robot earlier this year - you see what I did there?), and a considerable quantity of comic-books besides, I am particularly known as a tie-in writer. Publishing owes it to readers and writers alike to find a better, less pejorative term for this strand of fiction: there is always an inference that tie-in is dirty, cheap and commercial, that it’s somehow not ‘proper‘ books.

Don’t get me started. That’s a rant for another day. The audiences for Warhammer 40K and Doctor Who (and any other franchise - another unfortunate word! - that you’d care to mention) are huge, active and enthusiastic. It’s a pleasure and an honour to write for them, and I try to do the best damn job I can. I never think, “Oh, it’s just another commercial gig, I can tear this out in no time.” A novel is a novel, as far as I’m concerned: if you’re going to pay money to read it, I’m going to put the full measure of effort into writing it.

As franchise fiction goes, Warhammer 40K and Doctor Who are pretty different experiences. Yes, they both require me to understand a pre-existing “universe” and a set of characters, and then create appropriate new adventures for them. But the processes are different, and the enjoyment comes in different ways.

I was invited to write the Doctor Who book. I’ve written some before, along with Doctor Who comics, original audios, Big Finish dramas... I’m an unashamed Doctor Who fan, and my association with the various incarnations of the Doctor, as a writer, goes back twenty years. I was unable - due to deadline clashes - to write one of the first Matt Smith novels when the gig was offered to me, so when the BBC came back and offered me the “Christmas Special” (a tradition of big hardback releases in the winter, begun last year when the incomparable Michael Moorcock wrote one), I could not refuse. It’s a big deal. I get the current TARDIS crew of Matt Smith, with Karen and Arthur, and I also get to invent my own (in continuity) story.

I wanted to do something Christmas-y without it literally being a Christmas story. I wanted to write something that would be spooky and exciting and cosy to read at the fireside over Christmas, but still enjoyable all year round. So I created a story that was full of Christmas elements, except it wasn’t actually set at Christmas. Then I picked the Ice Warriors to be my monsters. Ice.. Christmas... geddit? Now, the Ice Warriors are classic monsters, right up there with Cybermen and Sontarans, but they haven’t yet been seen in the revamped show. BBC approvals went very quiet. It turned out, the powers in Cardiff were deciding if THEY wanted to use Ice Warriors, and whether I would be stepping on the TV show’s toes at all.

In the end, they let me do it. My pitch, with one minor plot tweak, was approved, and I went to it.

There are lots of things you can do, creatively, inside a tie-in project, but you MUST NOT CROSS THE STREAMS. With Doctor Who, I had to remain perfectly inside the remit of what the TV incarnation of the characters would allow. I couldn’t suddenly reveal that Amy had a secret tail, or have the Doctor marry Rory...

It was enormous fun. The BBC loves it (they tell me) and I hope readers enjoy it. I’ve tried to make the Ice Warriors exactly embody the deliciously lumbering big-men-in-rubber-suits from the TV (it was Bernard Bresslaw, no less, chasing Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines back in the sixties), while depicting them as realistically alien creatures; strong, capable, martial beings. There are also a couple of decent laughs along the way: once you get into the mindsets of the Doctor, Amy and Rory, it’s hard not to unleash your inner wisecracker.

I wrote Salvation’s Reach immediately before the Doctor Who book. It’s based on the Warhammer 40,000 Universe, where I’ve spent a lot of time working this last decade or so. It’s military SF, set in the ‘grim darkness of the far future, where there is only war’. Like Doctor Who, you’ve got to know the material. Unlike Doctor Who, I’m not being asked to focus on three well-known characters from TV.

The Gaunt’s Ghosts series is my invention. The setting is the Games Workshop Universe, but the characters and situations are mine. I’ve written almost a million and a half words in the Gaunt series so far, and the (very large) cast of characters is becoming quite complex and requires a lot of supervision. Each book is another ‘shooty death kill in space’ mission, featuring the Ghost regiment, and fave characters are killed off with alarming regularity. But there is also a sense of it being an ongoing saga, almost like a soap opera. In the latest few books, some of the most important things that have happened have been character-defining moments, not big explosions. I think the fact that I have written thirteen novels in the series shows that I am entirely involved with the fates of these characters: the interplay, the friendships and rivalries. Hand-on-heart, I don’t think I could have written thirteen of these books if each one was just another hundred thousand words of explosions and shooting, featuring interchangeable grunts with guns. I think that’s why so many people keep reading the books: they love the adventure, but it’s the human drama that keeps them coming back. After all, what’s more interesting: a spectacular planet-shredding explosion, or a spectacular, planet-shredding explosion that effects the lives of characters you really care about?

I learned that the hard way. I killed off a beloved character early in the series and then was actually physically threatened by an upset reader. I STILL get asked about some of those early character deaths. I figure if people care that much, I must be doing something right.

So, two books, two vastly popular franchises, two creative experiences. I loved doing both, and I’m pretty confident that both books are worth reading. And, yes, they’re both tie-in fiction, and both required use of largely the same set of ‘writing muscles’. But they could not have been more different to write.

Which is why, when people ask me what I’ve been up to recently, I have to remember which head I’m wearing before I answer.

Dan Abnett
Maidstone, September 2011

Thanks so much for taking the time, Dan!

Which of these two novels are you readers looking forward to the most? Do you have a favourite Abnett property?

Guest Blog: Colin Falconer, author of SILK ROAD

2011-09-13T13:00:00.001+01:00

Today I would like to welcome to Floor to Ceiling Books one Colin Falconer, whose novel SILK ROAD will be published on 1st October by Corvus Books.

Here is some information about Mr Falconer!

Colin Falconer was born in North London. He drove cabs and played guitar in dark bars before joining an advertising agency. He went on to work for many years as a television and radio scriptwriter, and as a freelance journalist before becoming a full time novelist. His work has been published around the world and translated into seventeen languages. He lived for many years in WA, where he raised two daughters with his late wife, Helen. When writing, he also volunteered with the local ambulance service, describing the experience as "I'd be at my desk typing, then thirty minutes later I’d be crawling into an overturned car.”

He travels extensively to research his novels and his quest for authenticity led him to run with the bulls in Pamplona, pursue tornadoes across Oklahoma, go cage shark diving in South Africa and get tear gassed in a riot in La Paz. To research SILK ROAD he traveled through China along the real Silk Road, a trip that involved Chinese dog smugglers, projectile vomit and faulty steering rods while negotiating U-bends on sheer cliffs. He currently lives in Australia. Find out more about Colin on his website http://www.colinfalconer.net/

And this is the blurb about SILK ROAD:

1260 AD: Josseran is a Christian Knight Templar haunted by a shameful past. Hoping to find redemption in a dangerous crusade from Palestine to Xanadu, he sets out to form a crucial allegiance against the Saracens at the legendary court of Kubilai Khan – the seat of the Mongol Empire.

Instead he finds solace in a warrior-princess from a heathen tribe. Beautiful and ferocious, Khutelun is a Tartar, a nomadic rider of the Mongolian steppe. Although their union is impossible, she finds in him what she cannot find in her own. Parched by desert winds, pursued by Saracen hordes, and tormented by passion,
Josseran must abandon Khutelun if he is to complete his journey, arriving in
Xanadu just as the greatest empire in history plunges into civil war. Winding through the plains of Palestine and over the high mountains of the Hindu Kush, from the empty wastes of the desert to the golden palaces of China, Silk Road weaves a spellbinding story of desire, conflict and human frailty onto a
tapestry of the medieval orient.

Finally, I am pleased to bring you Colin Falconer's guest blog:

I think it was Steve Martin who said, after finishing a screenplay: “I think I did it pretty well, seeing as I only started out with a bunch of blank paper.”
I started out with the picture of a camel silhouetted against a desert sunset.
I have always had a fascination for the Silk Road, the spirit of romance and adventure that it conjures. It inspires visions of caravanserais, camel trains, and ancient Cathay.

But a great setting does not make a story; though it does help to set it up. All fiction is about conflict and what was immediately obvious to me was that if I put two western Christians on the Silk Road in the thirteenth century I would be putting two worlds into collision. For a Dominican friar and a French warrior knight to travel to China in 1260 would be the equivalent today of you or I going to Alpha Centauri and meeting alien life for the first time.

Both my western protagonists were defined by the superstitions of their age – they actually thought they would meet ants as big as horses on the way – and also by their religion. The Inquisition had been established just thirty years before and western Europe was about to enter an age when free philosophical thought would be violently and ruthlessly suppressed. And now here were my two protagonists meeting Buddhists, Tibetan lamas, Mongol shamans and Confucians, face to face.

It would only do, of course, that my two protagonists cannot stand each other; one is a terrifyingly orthodox Dominican friar, the other a young French nobleman who has been a very, very bad boy in the past.

Now, I thought; we’re getting somewhere. The story was taking shape in my mind. As a novelist I search out conflict; not just people fighting each other in battles, which is exciting sometimes, but not always that interesting; I also look for conflict of thought and ideas and even better, people tormented by their own conflicts.

By now it was time to add two more characters. Researching the Tatar Mongols was enlightening in many ways. I discovered that they themselves were also in conflict at the time; my priest and my knight arrived in the middle of a civil war between Khubilai Khan and the elected khan in Qaraqorum. This was a war not just about power, but about the very philosophy of what it meant to be a Mongol. This race of horseback warriors had conquered Asia and Arabia and significant parts of western Europe. The empire they had built was staggering. What would they do with all that power?

Then I looked at the conflicts taking place on a tribal level; in doing so, I found that I could invest a female character with conflicts and opportunities few western women at the time would face. When I was at school, I was led to believe the Mongols were savages. But they enjoyed a rich nomadic culture and thought themselves enlightened. They believed westerners to be barbaric and weak, and despised them.

I found their shamanistic beliefs intriguing. They shared many spiritual values with the indigenous peoples of North and South America.

The women had far more personal freedoms than their western counterparts. They were expected to ride and to hunt, would even be accepted as shamans to the tribe. More, they had a voice in who they would marry. (I have described in the book how one of their customs allowed the woman to exercise that choice – very painfully for the man!)

Khutelun remains for me a fascinating character; the question I asked of her and Josseran is still relevant today: do we all have a soul mate? And what if we find them and they are a totally impossible choice?

But this was still not enough. Khutelun fascinated me so much that I wanted to see what she might have become if she had her choices taken away from her. So I researched Khubilai Khan, and discovered that this legendary Tatar khan had allowed his own daughters to be raised in the Chinese tradition. While Khutelun rode a horse before she could stand, Khubilai’s daughters had their feet bound and in fact could barely walk. Instead of hunting wild boar, they was primped and painted and cosseted away in his golden pagodas.

This is how Miao-yen was born in my mind; in her heart she wanted to be a Tatar, not a Chin. More conflict.

By this stage I reckoned I had a good novel in the works; everyone was faced with stark and impossible choices, and I found ways to raise the stakes and make it even worse for them. These dramas would be played out against a magnificent changing backdrop of Asian mountains and deserts.

I even discovered that Coleridge’s legendary Xanadu was not just opium-inspired fantasy. There was such a place, Shang-tu, just north of modern-day Beijing; it was once Khubilai’ Khan’s summer capital, and contemporary descriptions exist.
So now I had enough to start planning my novel. What I wanted to ask my reader was: what do you think? Is all religion and philosophy a result of intellectual conviction or just an accident of birth? And why do we choose the people we love - would you have made the same choices Josseran and Khutelun made?

And what is the nature of good and evil? (with some help from my Dominican friar.)

I experienced a real sense of achievement when it was done. Like Steve Martin said: I like to think I did all right, seeing as I only started out with a camel silhouetted against a sunset!

Thanks so much, Colin, for stopping at Floor to Ceiling Books!

We're All Going On A Summer Holiday!

2011-09-13T09:00:00.002+01:00

Well, I'm off on my summer hols this morning...

It is my intention to not switch on a computer for the entire time being away, and I have lined up a large number of guest posts for you to enjoy (as showcased yesterday!)

My first guest post is a wonderful cartoon from the very lovely Anne Lyle whose debut novel is being released by Angry Robot in April 2012. Honestly, nothing represents me so perfectly!

But I did manage to choose the books to pack and, as you read this, I am currently flying over the Atlantic. Be safe and have fun while I'm away!

And thanks, Anne, for such a wonderful start to my two weeks of guest articles and reviews.

Florida - Here I Come!

2011-09-11T20:56:00.000+01:00

Guys, I am not sure that any of you know. I have tried to keep this under wraps. But I am leaving you. Leaving you for two whole weeks. I am going here:

I will be heading here:

I will be going on this:

BUT - never fear! I have lined up 32 guest posts during my absence. That's right, baby! THIRTY TWO! You'll be so impressed by these contributors and their guest posts that you'll wish I wasn't coming back *grins*.

There are going to be two posts every day from 13th September to 28th September, one going out at 9am in the morning and the other going out at 1pm - so, please, check back at least twice every day because there will be something new to see. And I would love you to give my contributors lots of love, since they've given up loads of time to help me out with content.

Here is the schedule:

13th September

9am - Anne Lyle - We're All Going On A Summer Holiday!

1pm - Colin Falconer - Silk Road

14th September

9am - Dan Abnett - Changing Hats

1pm - Ria Bridges (Bibliotropic) - Escaping Reality

15th September

9am - Alasdair Stuart - The Three-Act Business Card

1pm - Jonathan L Howard - The Lord of the Daleks

16th September

9am - Sakura (Chasing Bawa) - Fire by Kristin Cashore

1pm - Lou Morgan - Snakes in the Grass

17th September

9am - Jason Baki - Nowhere Hall by Cate Gardner

1pm - Darren Goldsmith - A Map of the Floating City

18th September

9am - Chris Farnell - Horns by Joe Hill

1pm - Jaine Fenn - Living With the Reader/Writer Paradox

19th September

9am - Michelle Franklin - Alasdair's Music (short story)

1pm - Sarah Cawkwell - A Woman Writing for the Black Library

20th September

9am - Andrew Reid - The First and the Last by Adolf Galland

1pm - Sarah Gibson - YA Books to Look Forward To

21st September

9am - Mieneke (A Fantastical Librarian) - Alice in Wonderland (film review)

1pm - Kate Harrison - The Writer's Dilemma: 140 characters or 100,000 words?

22nd September

9am - Jenny Barber - Alice in Zombieland

1pm - Mike Shevdon - New Sub-Genres?

23rd September

9am - E M Edwards - Shipwrecked!

1pm - Kylie Grant - Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

24th September

9am - Sam Strong - Why do Some Books Disappoint?

1pm - Graham McNeill - A Wee Boy Fae Glasgow

25th September

9am - Niall Alexander (The Speculative Scotsman) - Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

1pm - Jonathan Green - On the Stigma of Being a Tie-In Novellist

26th September

9am - Rhys Jones (Thirst for Fiction) - Why YA Fiction?

1pm - Liz de Jager (My Favourite Books) - Fables: 1001 Nights in Snowfall by Bill Willingham

27th September

9am - Andrew (The Pewter Wolf) - The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

1pm - Adam Christopher - Books Without Robots

28th September

9am - Helen Hollick - Tossed Heads and Dropped Eyes

1pm - Ole (Weirdmage's Reviews) - Legends anthology

I sincerely hope you enjoy - and I will see you in a few weeks. Catch some of you at Fantasycon!

Cyber Circus and Black Sunday by Kim Lakin-Smith

2011-09-09T19:21:00.000+01:00

Hellequin, last of the HawkEye military elite, is desperate to escape the legacy of Soul Food, the miraculous plant food that leeched the soil, destroyed his family, and instigated a bloody civil war. For a man awaiting the inevitable madness brought on by his enforced biomorph implant, there’s only one choice. Run away with the circus…

Drifting above a poisoned landscape, Cyber Circus and her exotic acrobats and bioengineered freaks bring a welcome splash of colour into folk’s drab lives. None more so than escaped courtesan turned-dancer Desirous Nim. When Nim’s freedom and her very life are threatened, Hellequin is forced to fight again. But, even united, will the weird troupe and their strange skills be enough to save Nim and keep their home aloft? That’s assuming, of course, that Zan City’s Blood Worms, mute stowaways, or the swarms don’t manage to bring them down first…

Welcome to the greatest show on Sore Earth!

The book also features: “Black Sunday” – a free-standing but associated novelette.
A tale of desperation, incorporating drought, science, giant burrowing machines, rural magic, racial tension and sensuality in the 1930s Kansas dustbowl.

Cyber Circus is a little hard to invest in during the first few hectic pages, but, believe me, it is well worth the effort. You will sink into this weirdly-imagined steampunk world, of strange hybrid creatures and people who have been "upgraded". It is, at its core, both a love story and an examination of how the broken respond to life.

The characterisation is absolutely top-notch. Despite the strangeness of these people - from the lady-boy Lulu to the wolf girl Rust - you deeply care about their plight and how they are to survive.

The world-building is sparse, but details are dropped nicely into the story as required - dark cities, blood worms, dust storms, and locust swarms. This is a dangerous world, with dangerous men within in. I felt, as I was reading, as though this was some curious mix of Firefly (the barren outer planets) and Hellboy (the odd, but delightful characters). For me, this is a massive compliment, as I adored both.

Lakin-Smith's writing is deliciously punk, all spiky attitude, but there is a softness to it in key scenes that shows a sense of yearning towards love and hope. It is extremely well-written, drawing the reader in.

Cyber Circus and Black Sunday are both all too brief, but exquisite throughout. Definitely recommended.

I Have Never... Conformed to Peer Pressure!

2011-09-07T13:39:00.000+01:00

When I was at university, we used to play a daft combination of truth or dare and drinking game called 'I Have Never' - at university, it involved making "risque" statements like "I have never... had a threesome!" Everyone who had, or at least was willing to confess would have to stand and take a drink. I'm bringing it to my blog in an irregular series, with less alcohol, but asking the questions that can be considered a little risque in the book blogging world and listing the answers here. This is a massive just for fun exercise and do join in with comments and tales of your own. I'll even accept drunken university tales in lieu of actual replies to the questions.

So... I have never conformed to peer pressure. By this, I mean that I have never toed the party line when it comes to books *everyone* seems to love or blogs *everyone* seems to love. I have never said that I loved or hated something just because everyone else did! Hell, when I was fourteen and every girl in my school loved Take That, I was listening to Iron Maiden instead *grins*

I did not say that I loved Embassytown when everyone else was heaping praise on it - in fact, I'm still yet to finish it. I did not say that I loved The Lord of the Rings, even when it seems as though most other people do. I did not say that I hated The Left Hand of God just because I thought the rest of the blogosphere would say the same.

I have come close. I have mentioned my disdain for Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series when, in fact, I haven't read them in many years and so might actually like them!

In most cases, I tend to go my own way. My two favourite SFF authors are Charles de Lint and Michael Marshall Smith, and I'm not sure many in the blogosphere would say the same.

Now, your turn! 'Fess up! Did you say you loved The Hunger Games trilogy just because everyone else geeked out about it? Or are you the lone voice crying out against a popular novel (as I was with There is No Dog)?

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

2011-09-06T21:23:00.000+01:00

It's the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place. We're out of oil. We've wrecked the climate. Famine, poverty and disease are widespread.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes this depressing reality by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia where you can be anything you want to be, where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. And like most of humanity, Wade is obsessed by the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this alternate reality: OASIS founder James Halliday, who dies with no heir, has promised that control of the OASIS - and his massive fortune - will go to the person who can solve the riddles he had left scattered throughout his creation.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that the riddles are based on Halliday's obsession with 1980s pop culture. And then Wade stumbles onto the key to the first puzzle. Suddenly, he finds himself pitted against thousands of competitors in a desperate race to claim the ultimate prize, a chase that soon takes on terrifying real-world dimensions - and that will leave both Wade and his world profoundly changed.

I love Ready Player One. I adore it. As I declared rabidly on Twitter, I would marry this book if I could. A little over the top? Possibly. But it's been a long time since I've read a book that leaves me with a complete ear-to-ear grin as I'm reading it, and then makes me want to immediately open the first page again on finishing it. I LOVED it. I suppose I'd better try and sum up why this is for you readers, since just me LOVING it (yes, the caps lock is justified) won't encourage you to part with the readies.

Okay, put yourself in my shoes. You were born in 1980. You lived many of your first experiences during the decade that gave us stone-washed jeans and made Wham! famous. You gloried over the Atari ST that your dad brought and played some of the very first pixelated computer games. You and your brother spent one whole summer ensconsed in front of a computer trying to complete Commander Keen IV - first bickering over whose turn it was, and then teaming up in an effort to get through the final level. You spent hours puzzling over riddles in various computer games. You ADORE Ladyhawke, every damn minute of it, including the score - and you're prepared to beat up any naysayers. Picturing all of that?

If you can well, basically, Ready Player One was written for you. Add in an enduring love of Rush (seriously, I own all their albums and have been to see them live three times) and the fact one of my cats is called Kira and I honestly felt as though Ready Player One was speaking straight into my soul. Sappy, huh?

And still not a good enough reason for you to pick it up. How about this? Behind the geeky charm and the unadulterated fun is a very sharp look at what the future might hold for us - from true immersion into a higher form of Internet, to indentured slaves who owe too much money on credit cards; from trailer "stacks" due to lack of space to varied solutions to the end of fossil fuels. This is killer stuff, because it feels so much as though it could happen, as though we're only one step away from these events.

There is also rather fierce social commentary going on within the pages of Ready Player One. We have people hiding out in the OASIS because their online avatar is the person they would rather be. There are people who consider themselves brothers because they spend so much time together as "gunters" (Easter Egg Hunters) in the OASIS and yet have never met in real life. Again, it is an easy step forward from the online communities we're all inevitably part of now.

All of this is wrapped up in a plot that could be deemed a little familiar - but, I would argue, only in the same way that an 80s movie is predictable and warm. I mean, we all knew that ET would get home, as would Marty McFly, right? We knew that Luke Skywalker would defeat the bad guy. We knew that Indiana Jones would solve the puzzle ahead of the Nazis. So, for me, Ready Player One is only paying homage to these classic films.

I'm not sure what else I can say to make you buy this book. If you're an 80s child, you'll love the references. If you're a geek, you'll love the references and dig the plot. If you're a sci fi afficionado, you'll love the references, dig the plot, and admire the subtle discussion on what our future has to hold. If you just love a damn good story where you can probably guess the outcome but appreciate the journey anyhow, then Ready Player One is for you. This book rocks HARD!

YouTube Interview with Maria Dahvana Headley - author of Queen of Kings

2011-09-06T11:50:00.000+01:00

A little while ago I was contacted by Ben Willis, one of the fabulously hardworking peeps over at Transworld, and he asked if I wanted to submit some questions to Maria Dahvana Headley to be used for an interview. Did I! I am utterly desperate to get to Queen of Kings - it is hovering near the top of my 'must-be-reviewed' pile. I've seen some stunning reviews of this book, including this one, and that only makes me more keen. So I said yes. And today Ben directed my gaze to this here YouTube clip of the questions I asked, beautifully presented within shots from the book trailer that has been favourably looked upon. Maria Dahvana Headley is very beautiful, clearly very talented, and answers my questions with grace and humour. Enjoy!

Queen of Kings by Maria Dahvana Headley is available from all good bookshops right now!

Shelter by Harlan Coben

2011-09-05T14:00:00.002+01:00

After tragic events tear him away from his parents, fifteen-year-old Mickey Bolitar is sent to live with his estranged uncle, Myron Bolitar. For a while, it seems his train wreck of a life is finally improving - until his girlfriend, Ashley, goes missing without a trace. Unwilling to let another person he cares about walk out of his life, Mickey follows Ashley's trail into a seedy underworld, revealing a conspiracy so shocking it will leave him questioning everything about the life he thought he knew.

Wow. Seriously, wow. I picked up Shelter at just after four on a Sunday afternoon. I closed the last page just over two hours later, having DEVOURED it. This story of Mickey kept me utterly gripped throughout.

For a start, the chapters are short and snappy, with sleek prose that keeps those pages turning. You feel absolutely compelled to keep on reading - at the cost of missing meals, not taking phonecalls, not packing for an important business trip, things like that.

Shelter wouldn't work half as well if the characters weren't so vivid. The way in which Mickey interacts with Ema and Spoon, the two misfits of the new high school that he starts attending after he moves to live with his uncle, is absolutely bang on. He is bitter and hurting about the death of his father, and doesn't think he is ever able to become close to someone again. And yet Ema, particularly, worms her way into his life. Their conversations - especially Ema's black humour - are a highlight of Shelter.

In addition to this, Shelter works because it *feels* very adult. I mean, it deals with teenagers and yet circumstances lead them into an incredibly adult situation. It's like the Famous Five coming up against proper slave dealers who don't shy away from torture and killing. I love this dark element to the story, the sense of very real danger.

You know something? I honestly can't think of anything I didn't like about Shelter. From the dialogue to the emotions expressed by Mickey, from the investigation to the hint of a massive conspiracy - it was all superb. And man! That cliffhanger! It feels a long, long time to the next novel in the series.

This is sharp, dangerous, funny and, above all, vital reading. It is a masterpiece of a thriller story for Young Adults. Buy Shelter immediately, you won't regret it.

Shelter is released by the Indigo imprint of Orion Books on 15th September

Dangerous Waters by Juliet E McKenna

2011-09-04T16:20:00.000+01:00

The Archmage rules the island of wizards and has banned the use of magecraft in warfare, but there are corsairs raiding the Caladhrian Coast, enslaving villagers and devastating trade. Barons and merchants beg for magical aid, but all help has been refused so far.

Lady Zurenne's husband has been murdered by the corsairs. Now a man she doesn't even know stands as guardian over her and her daughters. Corrain, former captain and now slave, knows that the man is a rogue wizard, illegally selling his skills to the corsairs. If Corrain can escape, he'll see justice done. Unless the Archmage's magewoman, Jilseth, can catch the renegade first, before his disobedience is revealed and the scandal shatters the ruler's hold on power...

It's been a while since I read a Juliet E McKenna novel, but I thoroughly enjoyed the quintet of novels that made up The Tales of Einarinn, and felt it was long overdue picking up a new one. When I saw that Dangerous Waters was the start in a new series by McKenna, I thought this was a great chance to try this talented lady author again.

Dangerous Waters is a great example of traditional fantasy, from the faux Medieval setting and the corsairs and the mage powers. McKenna easily handles the various strands of story, as we follow Jilseth, Corrain and Lady Zurenne in their respective plotlines.

I particularly enjoyed the way that McKenna worked within the constricts of the societies she created. I've seen panels that McKenna has sat on during UK conventions and she is always very determined to see a good representation of women in speculative fiction. In this novel, we have the enjoyment of one women who is granted easily as much power as the men, in the form of magewoman Jilseth - in fact, Jilseth is particularly talented and has a fairly prominent position in her society. We also have Lady Zurenne, who is bound by her role in a male-dominated society - she has to work by devious means to attempt to wrest power from men after her husband is killed.

All the characters are deftly written, and, as ever, are a strength of McKenna's work.

Dangerous Waters is not dominated by battles, although there are some badass mage fights. Rather, it is political by nature - different realms clashing and presenting different ideas, some innovative and forward thinking, while some are deeply conservative. I particularly liked all of the scenes featuring the backbiting and division in the mage realm of Hadrumal - the heated discussions of whether the mages should involve themselves in events beyond the boundaries of their island.

I have to confess that, although this is the start of a new series, I felt a little lost while hearing about some of the realms and people involved since I suspect they feature heavily in McKenna's previous series for Solaris. Dangerous Waters can be read as an entry point to McKenna's work, but I do think that the reader will take more from this novel if they've tackled the Chronicles of the Lescarii Revolution.

In addition to this, Dangerous Waters sometimes felt a little... well, long for the plot contained therein. The novel is just under six hundred pages, and not all of it felt completely essential - but then, it is the first book in a series, so some of what I was reading might well be set-up for future instalments.

Altogether, Dangerous Waters is an entertaining slice of traditional fantasy. If you like your mages accompanied by a dose of political intrigue, then it would be well worth you picking up this book.

Spec Fic Reading Challenge: September Review Link Up!

2011-09-04T15:18:00.000+01:00

Welcome to everyone who signed up for the Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge!

This is the post where you can link up your reviews posted on your blogs in September 2011 to be in with a chance of winning the prize pack.

The prize pack this month consists of: A book of your choice from The Book Depository!

All of the reviews you post to Mr Linky below will equate to an entry into the prize draw.

Below is the link widget. Please make sure that your link goes directly to your review and not to your main homepage. Thanks! (This is not the post to use to sign up for the challenge. If you want to do that, please go HERE!)

Good luck to you all, and I look forward to seeing your reviews for September!

August Wrap Up!

2011-09-04T15:11:00.001+01:00

Happy to see the support of all those still participating. Word up to Daniel Franklin who has done a superb amount of reading this month - puts the rest of us to shame, I reckon *grins* Also, I just want to note for those who have joined later to the Challenge, we're actually dealing with fantasy, science fiction and horror - Christian thriller/suspense probably doesn't fit under that banner.

This month's prize pack is a book of your choice from The Book Depository and I'm pleased to say that the winner is:

The Bluestocking Blog for the review of Old Man's War by John Scalzi.

Ms. Bluestocking, please contact me at magemanda AT gmail DOT com with your postal address and the book of your choice so that I can send out your prize *smiles*

As I say, thanks for all your continued support in the challenge and for the links on your blogs through to mine.

Although it is only September, I am starting to think about 2012 - would you like the same challenge to be hosted by me next year? With the same rules and formats? Any changes?

The Inheritance by Megan Lindholm/Robin Hobb

2011-09-02T22:32:00.000+01:00

Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm are one and the same person but they are very different writers. The Inheritance is a collection of short novels, novellas and stories, some of which are based in Hobb’s popular universe of the Six Duchies. Before each of the stories, Lindholm/Hobb gives a small snippet of history as to how she came to write the piece and I loved this insight into her working process. I have read all of the novels written so far by Robin Hobb and thoroughly enjoyed them but this was my first experience at reading anything by Megan Lindholm. I would say that I’d be tentatively willing to pick up a Lindholm novel in the future but I do prefer her work as Hobb.

The three stories by Robin Hobb – strictly, one short story and two novellas – were the strongest part of this collection. In particular, I adored ‘Homecoming’, a tale about some of the first settlers into the Rain Wilds. Lady Carillion, a noblewoman betrayed by her husband, was strong and capable, a joy to read about. The tale of the misfit group becoming the seeds of a new civilisation was just long enough to allow me to truly immerse and gave me a strong desire to re-read the Liveship Trader trilogy.

The shorter tales from the pen of Lindholm were more of a mixed bag (as is the case, I generally find, with anthologies). ‘A Touch of Lavender’ was a quirky and very enjoyable story of aliens – beneath the surface there is a darker discussion on the nature of drug addiction and motherhood that gave this short a very powerful edge. ‘Strays’ was also fantastically written; the punky Lonnie is a great character and one I would welcome a longer piece about. I spent the whole story wondering about how Lonnie came to be the kind of person she is and why she takes such care over stray cats.

I did not, however, like ‘Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man’ a great deal. This story, Lindholm confesses, was written for her husband and I feel it should have remained a private matter between them. I’m sure that if I was privy to the couple’s in jokes, then this tale would have been more fun. As it was, it was whimsical but incredibly lightweight and didn’t leave much of an impression. I had the same feeling of dissatisfaction after finishing ‘The Fifth Squashed Cat’ and ‘Drum Machine’. Both of these stories felt as though Lindholm only had the grain of an idea that she hadn’t developed effectively into a complete tale.

The Inheritance is not the strongest anthology I have read and didn’t leave me desperate to pick up novels by Lindholm. However, fans of the Six Duchies work by Robin Hobb will find this chance to read more about the world extremely satisfying, while newcomers can pick it up very successfully as well. Cautiously recommended.

Justin Thyme Competition and Giveaway!

2011-09-01T09:00:00.000+01:00

Today I am really pleased to bring you my blog entry in the Justin Thyme competition.

Full details can be found in this blog post but here, for your reading pleasure, is what this is all about!

To celebrate the publication of "Justin Thyme" in paperback, there will be a special competition open to ALL blog-readers. The competition will open on September 1st (publication day), running for one week - and many regular book-bloggers will be participating by hosting clues (LETTERS and NUMBERS). To win, simply find all the letters by visiting each of the participating blogs in turn (links will be posted at the Tartan of Thyme blog) and then rearrange them in numerical order!

First prize will be special hardback copies of both "Justin Thyme" and forthcoming sequel "Thyme Running Out". Each book will include original colour artwork added to the title page, along with a hand-written quote from the book and, of course, the customary author's signature.

Further prizes (of signed limited edition JT bookmarks) will also be available at this blog and at other participating book-blogs throughout the week.

NOW, I have my grubby paws on two of these limited edition bookmarks (one for me to keep and, excitingly, one to give away to my blog readers). Can I just say that they are GORGEOUS! In all honesty, I'm wishing that I could keep both of them and boo ya to the rest of you!

Here is my picture of the two bookmarks, with letters and numbers showing clearly so that you can note them down for the main competition:

Aren't they glorious?

To get your hands on one of these, just drop an email to magemanda AT gmail DOT com with the subject line "THYME". Give me your postal address so that I can ship out the prize as soon as the competition closes. This will be on 7th September. I am happy to open this internationally!

Good luck! And happy hunting with all the numbers and letters for the main Justin Thyme prize!

Waterstones Ends the 3 For 2 promotion

2011-08-31T18:25:00.000+01:00

After more than a decade, Waterstones is bringing an end to its famous 3 for 2 promotion.

Apparently the new managing director James Daunt believes that a 3 for 2 promotion goes against the grain of what bookselling is all about, and that price should never be the dominating factor.

I have mixed emotions about the end to this promotion. On the one hand, it means I'm less likely to pick up random authors. I'm less likely to buy the whole of the Booker/Orange Prize shortlist. I'm less likely to buy a whole bundle of books at once.

On the other hand, I won't be stuck with all those 'No 3' books that you spent almost an hour trying to find in the store, and didn't *really* want but felt like you should get your money's worth. I might see more parity in the publishers that are able to sell books and less of a focus on those who can afford the 3 for 2 table displays.

I will be interested in seeing what new pricing structures/promotional displays will be pursued by Waterstones in the future. I would love to see an end to the £7.99 or £8.99 pricing on novels. I'm not a stupid consumer. I'm not fooled by the 99p into thinking I'm paying less than £8 or £9! Just put a nice round number on the pricing. I would be interested to see novels selling for £5 - I would feel like that was a relatively disposable amount and might take a chance on new authors at that pricing level.

I would really like to see themed promotions all around the stores - such as the display that Den Patrick is doing in Blackwells in London. I think that one type of promotion that Waterstones should push forward is the 'If you like X author, then you'll like Y..." For me, this fits into the new ethos that is being highlighted by James Daunt. It allows new authors to be spotlighted, it allows Waterstones employees to demonstrate knowledge and champion books that they have enjoyed. And it means that people buying books can be guided towards novels that they might enjoy, rather than running the gauntlet of the 3 for 2's and hoping for the best!

What are your thoughts on the end of this promotion? Positive or negative? Were there any authors you discovered thanks to the 3 for 2 promotion?

August Retrospective

2011-08-31T15:44:00.000+01:00

A Look Back on August

I'm managed a fair amount of reading in August - mostly thanks to the horribly changeable weather that has kept me in the house the majority of the time. Where has our summer gone this year? Thankfully I have a two week holiday coming soon in Florida, and I cannot wait to feel that sun and heat... I have been trying hard to schedule blog posts for my two week absence, so that there is *plenty* to entertain you, and I have some fantastic articles and reviews lined up. This month I also managed to complete my Angry Robot reading, which has been a long process - started way back in March. I was so pleased to see some very good quality manuscripts submitted and here's hoping they get taken on by Angry Robot. In terms of other stuff - I now have a date for my dance exam. This will take place on Sunday 6th November, and I am both excited and nervous. Lots of practice between now and then. Plus the new football season has started and I was absolutely astonished to watch Manchester United crush Arsenal by 8 goals to 2. Amazing times...

Reading

I have not only replicated the mammoth reading effort of July - I have surpassed it! Fifteen books completed! Of course, some of them were only little books but every book counts, right?

Here's the list:

58) A Game of Thrones by G R R Martin
59) Earwig and the Witch by Diana Wynne Jones
60) Far From Home by Na'ima B Robert
61) Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings
62) Sea Witch by Helen Hollick (self-published)
63) Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
64) The Silver Brumby by Elyne Mitchell
65) Numbers by Rachel Ward
66) Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce
67) What the Nanny Saw by Fiona Neill
68) There is no Dog by Meg Rosoff
69) Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
70) The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore by Benjamin Hale
71) Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
72) Bricks by Leon Jenner

- It's been mostly about the women this month! 10 books read by women and 5 by men.
- So...4 YA novels, 2 novels for the kids, 3 fantasy, 1 chick lit, 1 family saga style, 1 historical fantasy, 1 urban fantasy, and 2 that are generally unclassifiable...Another nicely mixed-up month!
- 6 were books from my own shelves and 9 were review copies.

Best Book of August

This one features as my best book because of nostalgia, because it still stands up to reading and because it's a very good coming of age children's book:

Pages Covered

And as well as being up on books read, I'm up on number of pages read this month as well! 5,993 this month compared with 5,516 last month. My ongoing total for the year is 33,078 :-). Longest book this month was A Game of Thrones (yes, epic fantasy is loooong), while the shortest was Earwig and the Witch (short but very sweet!)

Places Visited

From the Australian outback to Zimbabwe, from Chicago to Dublin - I have flitted around the world. But I have also gone to the Seven Kingdoms, Arendia and Tortall. I think of them all I would like most to spend time in Tortall. I mean, lady knights, mythical creatures and people I would love to be friends with - just so glorious...

Plans for September

I have 60-odd emails in my inbox that currently relate to reviews that I owe. That needs reducing bigtime, so I shall be trying to use September to get these down. Having said that, my reading depends so much on mood that I might start resenting these books for being novels I *have* to tackle. We'll see how I go. Oh, and have I mentioned my holiday? *grins*

Over to You

How did your August go? What did you read? What did you get up to? Spill!

Bricks by Leon Jenner

2011-08-28T20:33:00.000+01:00

This is the story of a bricklayer, a practitioner of the red art of masonry, a member of an ancient line of apprentices who work with their hands to form monuments to humanity from the elements of nature.

But this is no ordinary bricklayer, and neither is his skill in the shaping and moulding of stone. This bricklayer's proficiency and dexterity in his craft was forged by his past life as a Druid priest.

Like the bricklayer in our time, the ancient Druid was also a builder of worlds. However, his building blocks were much bigger, he is a higher being who can travel through worlds and time. As our bricklayer regresses to his life as a Druid he remembers his part in thwarting the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar and the lasting effect this chain of events had on the history of Western civilization.

I need to talk about the main positive of Bricks by Leon Jenner. It is presented beautifully. It is a lush hardback, with lovely black and white illustrations within. The paper is thick and feels delicious to turn the pages.

It is just such a shame that the interior words cannot match up to the exterior. In all honesty, I found the prose to be dry and with little flow or passion. At times it was overly pretentious - showcasing what seemed to be 101 philosophy with little relation to the overall story.

And the poetry! In a very slim novel, some of the poetry stretched to four pages worth of text, which is hard to take in what is supposed to be a story - particularly when said poetry isn't of a great quality.

I found myself both bored and confused by the plot, which is not a good mix. I struggled to the end, to be sure that there was nothing that I was missing, but I can say that this was wasted effort.

Dull, dull, dull - and definitely not worth the rather hefty price tag for the hardback.

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

2011-08-27T23:31:00.000+01:00

Before the thorns taught me their sharp lessons and bled weakness from me I had but one brother, and I loved him well. But those days are gone. Now I have many brothers, quick with knife and sword. We ride this broken empire and loot its corpse. They say these are violent times, the end of days when the dead roam and monsters haunt the night. All that's true enough, but there's something worse out there in the dark. Much worse.

There has been much made of the fact that Prince of Thorns features a rapist as the main character, that it is far too dark and bloodthirsty, that it bears great similarity to Joe Abercrombie, that it objectifies women. I would dispute every one of these points. Every single one.

Prince of Thorns features a young boy as the protagonist, someone who offers his band of brothers "a different sort of treasure" to keep them sweet, someone who has raped women but only ever off screen. I've seen far, far worse occurrences of rape in novels - for heavens' sake, Steven Erikson has women raping the bodies of dead soldiers in Memories of Ice. Yes, there is rape - but nothing worse than presented in historical novels that I have read. When you have a marauding band of criminals, there will be raping and pillaging.

It is a dark and bloodthirsty novel, I would agree - but, once again, nothing that hasn't been done far worse before. It is grim at times for sure. However, I would argue that grimy fantasy is still flavour of the month, so Prince of Thorns should prove popular on this point.

Prince of Thorns bears very little similarity to Joe Abercrombie and absolutely none to George R R Martin - I'm surprised it was marketed in the slipstream of A Dance With Dragons. For me, Prince of Thorns shares more with Wolfsangel by M D Lachlan. It is basically the novel that Paul Hoffman of "The Left Hand of God" fame wishes that he had written. There are dreamlike sequences of necromancers (rather than witches, as with Wolfsangel), and there is a relativity with our world (as with The Left Hand of God).

And the woman thing. There ARE female characters in this novel. And they act independently of men. Men do not drive their story. In this respect, it was perfectly satisfactory. You cannot write a novel about a marauding band of brothers and try to include strong women who are the equal of the men; it doesn't fit the tone or the passage of the novel. I can't actually see why people have complained about this fact.

Now that I have refuted these claims, what did I think of the book? Prince of Thorns is readable, but, at the moment, not much more. I would be interested to read a sequel to see whether my personal issue can be addressed.

This issue is that I felt as though I was reading the outline of a novel. There were events in Prince of Thorns, but they felt slight and as though there should have been more involved. I was left dissatisfied by my reading experience because I felt as though Lawrence was fully capable of producing better, but hadn't fleshed out Prince of Thorns enough to achieve this.

With regards to the post-apocalyptic world - well, yay for not being yet another faux Medieval world. But DO MORE WITH IT! The world surrounding Jorg could have been interesting and unique. It could have been like nothing in any other fantasy world so far created. Instead, it felt stale and very, very underdeveloped.

Like I say, Prince of Thorns was readable. I liked certain characters very much, I enjoyed the structure and I would want to see more from Lawrence - but I do want to see a significant improvement on Prince of Thorns. A very tentative yes from me.