Author: Civilian Reader

Interview with ANDREW CARTMEL

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CartmelA-AuthorPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is Andrew Cartmel?

A question I often ask myself on my bleaker days. The answer is, I’m a writer. Ever since I could read I’ve wanted to write books. I thought an easy way to support myself while breaking through as a novelist would be to write TV scripts. The word “easy” is not a good choice in that context. But I did end up working as a script editor/show runner on Doctor Who for three seasons.

Your new novel, The Vinyl Detective: Written in Dead Wax, is published by Titan Books. It looks rather interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

The book is called Written in Dead Wax, and the Vinyl Detective is the title of the series. It’s a murder mystery in the classic mould, with our sleuth being a record collector hired by a beautiful mysterious woman and embarking on a quest for a desirable object which people are willing to kill to obtain. In this case (and in the future books) the object is a rare record. Three books in the series have been written so far and are scheduled for publication. Continue reading →

Guest Post: “Stuck in the Middle with Sherlock” by Paul Cornell

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CornellP-AuthorPicIt was the title that first came to me: Who Killed Sherlock Holmes? And from there, the pieces just fell into place. In the London of my Shadow Police novels, ‘ghosts’ are the collective memories of all Londoners, and so include fictional and mythical characters, as well as those who were once alive. Therefore, Sherlock Holmes would very much be present, in 221B Baker Street, as a phantom, visible only to those with ‘the Sight’, like my Metropolitan Police heroes. Perhaps the phantom’s cohesive presence could have been recently amped up, say by three different current versions of Sherlock Holmes all filming in London at the same time, creating ‘Sherlockmania’?

What if that ghost were to be ‘murdered’, found lying face down with a ceremonial dagger in his back? What’s the motive? What does killing a ghost even mean? Continue reading →

Upcoming: THE WARREN by Brian Evenson (Tor.com)

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EvensonB-WarrenI’m in the process of organizing an interview with Brian Evenson (he seems a very nice fellow), and today Tor.com happened to unveil the cover for his upcoming novella, The Warren. It’s pretty cool, and the story sounds very promising, too. Here’s the synopsis:

X doesn’t have a name. He thought he had one — or many — but that might be the result of the failing memories of the personalities imprinted within him. Or maybe he really is called X.

He’s also not as human as he believes himself to be.

But when he discovers the existence of another — above ground, outside the protection of the Warren — X must learn what it means to be human, or face the destruction of their two species.

The Warren is due to be published by Tor.com on September 20th, 2016. For more on Brian’s work, be sure to check out his website, and follow him on Goodreads. Brian is also the author of Immobility, published by Tor Books.

Interview with EDWARD LAZELLARI

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Lazellari-AuthorPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is Ed Lazellari?

Ed Lazellari is a fiction writer who believes he looks like John Lennon, but suspects others think he looks like Ringo. Ed really enjoys speaking of himself in the third person. If Ed was a Seinfeld character, he’d be the guy who makes George look good.

Your Guardians of Aandor is published by Tor Books. The first novel, Awakenings, is out now, with two more on the way. The series looks really interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader?

What if Bran or Arya Stark, in trying to get away from their enemies came to our world and hid out? And what if those enemies from Westeros got wind of it and came over to get them? Throw in some guardians sworn to protect a boy prince, wizards, amnesia, and you have Awakenings. The Guardians of Aandor is a hodgepodge of the literature I love. It’s a portal fantasy, urban fantasy, adventure, and a mystery. It’s Harry Potter meets Game of Thrones. Continue reading →

Guest Review: UPDRAFT by Fran Wilde (Tor)

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WildeF-B1-UpdraftUSPBWelcome to a world of wind and bone, songs and silence, betrayal and courage.

Kirit Densira cannot wait to pass her wingtest and begin flying as a trader by her mother’s side, being in service to her beloved home tower and exploring the skies beyond. When Kirit inadvertently breaks Tower Law, the city’s secretive governing body, the Singers, demand that she become one of them instead. In an attempt to save her family from greater censure, Kirit must give up her dreams to throw herself into the dangerous training at the Spire, the tallest, most forbidding tower, deep at the heart of the City.

As she grows in knowledge and power, she starts to uncover the depths of Spire secrets. Kirit begins to doubt her world and its unassailable Laws, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead to a haunting choice, and may well change the city forever-if it isn’t destroyed outright.

Reviewed by Ryan Frye

Upon its release, Updraft enjoyed a fair amount of positive buzz from SF/F critics and reviewers that I respect, and when it popped up on numerous “Best Books of 2015” lists, I knew I had to give it a read. When a book receives such widespread hype, my anticipation tends to ratchet up. First and foremost, I was very intrigued by the idea of a city made out of living bones, where humans live far above the ground and get around by flying. This set my imagination running, and I was excited to find out what exactly brought the situation into being. Furthermore, I tend to prefer books written in first person perspective, so this seemed like it would be a perfect read. Continue reading →

Guest Post: “Eye of the Spider” by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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TchaikovskyA-AuthorPicWe humans encounter the world through a very limited set of senses, compared to much of the animal kingdom. Our visual acuity is good but our ability to see colours is crippled by nocturnal ancestors. Birds, reptiles and many grounds of invertebrates see far more bands in the rainbow (if there was a mantis shrimp pride march their flags would be incredible). Our hearing and smell are the shame of Mammalia. What to us is a satisfactory baseline would make dogs cringe with embarassment.

This is my first go-to when approaching a non-human character: the window on the world that the senses give. Obviously there’s more than that, but neuroscience and cultural tropes and the like are all going to be strongly influenced by the tools an entity has to perceive its surroundings. Continue reading →

Review(ish): SERIOUSLY FUNNY — THE ENDLESSLY QUOTABLE TERRY PRATCHETT (Doubleday)

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PratchettT-SeriouslyFunnyUKAn indispensable, but by no means exhaustive collection

‘I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.’

The most quotable writer of our time, Terry Pratchett’s unique brand of wit made him both a bestseller and an enduring, endearing source of modern wisdom. This collection is filled with his funniest and most memorable words about life, the universe and snoring.

How does one review a short book of quotations? I’m not going to include my favourites from the book, as that might defeat some of the purpose of other people picking it up. To be sure, the book is both funny and profound; clever and witty. It made me miss Pratchett (even though I never met him, but feel like I was getting to know him through interviews and 20+ years of reading his fiction). It certainly made me laugh. It made me wonder why there weren’t more quotations from Death. It made me want to read all of the Discworld novels again. It reminded me of how much I love his novels.

This is a must-have for all fans of Terry Pratchett. It may also inspire newbies to check out some of his work. (Start with Guards! Guards! — I’ve bought it for five different people, all of whom became avid Pratchett fans.)

Highly recommended. Seriously Funny is out now, published in the UK by Doubleday.

Feel free to share some of your favourite Pratchett quotations in the comments, if you like.

Quick Review: BEFORE THE FALL by Noah Hawley (Grand Central)

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HawleyN-BeforeTheFallUSAn excellent, gripping mystery

On a foggy summer night, eleven people — ten privileged, one down-on-his-luck painter — depart Martha’s Vineyard on a private jet headed for New York. Sixteen minutes later, the unthinkable happens: the plane plunges into the ocean. The only survivors are Scott Burroughs, the painter, and a four-year-old boy, who is now the last remaining member of an immensely wealthy and powerful media mogul’s family.

With chapters weaving between the aftermath of the crash and the backstories of the passengers and crew members — including a Wall Street titan and his wife, a Texan-born party boy just in from London, a young woman questioning her path in life, and a career pilot — the mystery surrounding the tragedy heightens. As the passengers’ intrigues unravel, odd coincidences point to a conspiracy. Was it merely by dumb chance that so many influential people perished? Or was something far more sinister at work? Events soon threaten to spiral out of control in an escalating storm of media outrage and accusations. And while Scott struggles to cope with fame that borders on notoriety, the authorities scramble to salvage the truth from the wreckage.

This is a fantastic novel. I have very high hopes before reading Before the Fall, and I’m very happy to report that it exceeded my expectations. The story is told from a number of perspectives, each a passenger on the fateful flight. This is an excellent read, and certainly in my top five of the year (so far). Continue reading →

Excerpt: BASQUIAT — A QUICK KILLING IN ART by Phoebe Hoban (Open Road Media)

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HobanP-BasquiatToday, we have a short excerpt from Phoebe Hoban‘s Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art. Published by Open Road Media as an eBook on May 17th, here’s the synopsis:

A vivid biography of the meteoric rise and tragic death of art star Jean-Michel Basquiat

Painter Jean-Michel Basquiat was the Jimi Hendrix of the art world. In less than a decade, he went from being a teenage graffiti artist to an international art star; he was dead of a drug overdose at age twenty-seven. Basquiat’s brief career spanned the giddy 1980s art boom and epitomized its outrageous excess. A legend in his own lifetime, Basquiat was a fixture of the downtown scene, a wild nexus of music, fashion, art, and drugs. Along the way, the artist got involved with many of the period’s most celebrated personalities, from his friendships with Keith Haring and Andy Warhol to his brief romantic fling with Madonna.

Nearly thirty years after his death, Basquiat’s story — and his art — continue to resonate and inspire. Posthumously, Basquiat is more successful than ever, with international retrospectives, critical acclaim, and multimillion dollar sales. Widely considered to be a major twentieth-century artist, Basquiat’s work has permeated the culture, from hip-hop shout-outs to a plethora of products. A definitive biography of this charismatic figure, Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art is as much a portrait of the era as a portrait of the artist; an incisive exposé of the eighties art market that paints a vivid picture of the rise and fall of the graffiti movement, the East Village art scene, and the art galleries and auction houses that fueled his meteoric career. Basquiat resurrects both the painter and his time.

Continue reading →

Upcoming: GOOD MORNING, MIDNIGHT by Lily Brooks-Dalton (Random House)

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BrooksDaltonL-GoodMorningMidnightUSOnly recently discovered this novel. Sounds like it might be interesting. Lily Brooks-Dalton‘s Good Morning, Midnight is due to be published in August 2016, by Random House in the US and W&N in the UK.

The unforgettable story of two outsiders — a lonely scientist in the Arctic and an astronaut trying to return to Earth — as they grapple with love, regret, and survival in a world transformed.

Augustine, a brilliant, aging astronomer, is consumed by the stars. For years he has lived in remote outposts, studying the sky for evidence of how the universe began. At his latest posting, in a research center in the Arctic, news of a catastrophic event arrives. The scientists are forced to evacuate, but Augustine stubbornly refuses to abandon his work. Shortly after the others have gone, Augustine discovers a mysterious child, Iris, and realizes that the airwaves have gone silent. They are alone.

At the same time, Mission Specialist Sullivan is aboard the Aether on its return flight from Jupiter. The astronauts are the first human beings to delve this deep into space, and Sully has made peace with the sacrifices required of her: a daughter left behind, a marriage ended. So far the journey has been a success. But when Mission Control falls inexplicably silent, Sully and her crewmates are forced to wonder if they will ever get home.

As Augustine and Sully each face an uncertain future against forbidding yet beautiful landscapes, their stories gradually intertwine in a profound and unexpected conclusion. In crystalline prose, Good Morning, Midnight poses the most important questions: What endures at the end of the world? How do we make sense of our lives? Lily Brooks-Dalton’s captivating debut is a meditation on the power of love and the bravery of the human heart.

Lily Brooks-Dalton is also the author of Motorcycles I’ve Loved (also published by Random House).