Quick Review: DOWNFALL OF THE GODS by K.J. Parker (Subterranean Press)

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ParkerKJ-DownfallOfTheGodsAn entertaining tale of gods behaving badly

If you visit the Temple and ask nicely for forgiveness, you might get it — assuming you aren’t Lord Archias and you haven’t killed the Goddess’s favorite musician, Lysippus. But even goddesses are expected to follow certain rules, and as much as she wants to punish Lord Archias it seems her troublesome, all-powerful father forbids it. So the Goddess will just have to get around that by forgiving Lord Archias if he can manage some simple — or, rather, seemingly impossible — tasks. A Goddess has to do what a goddess has to do.

And in World Fantasy Award winner K.J. Parker’s sharply inventive new novella Downfall of the Gods that means everything from soothing supernatural egos to accompanying the argumentative Lord Archias on an epic quest to save his soul… and get her own way. As the Goddess and her mortal charge make their way across the world to the Land of the Dead, a host of divine surprises await them. Could what they find at the end be the downfall of the gods themselves? Only time will tell.

“The generally accepted form of communication in my family is melodrama,” says the divine narrator of Downfall of the Gods. Fans of Greek and Roman mythology will certainly be familiar with this notion. In this novella, K.J. Parker turns his playful pen to dissecting humanity’s relationship with its gods, and how pernicious and frustrating the gods can be. A quickly-paced, well-written and amusing novella. I really enjoyed this. Continue reading →

Books on Film: THE SNOWMAN by Jo Nesbø

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I haven’t read any of Jo Nesbø’s novels, yet — I did pick up Blood on Snow and Midnight Sun not so long ago, and I think I bought the first Harry Hole novel (The Bat) when it was a Kindle Daily Deal quite some time ago. Anyway, I saw the trailer for this movie, based on the seventh Harry Hole novel, and thought it looked excellent.

NesboJ-HH07-Snowman

Here’s the official book synopsis:

Soon the first snow will come

A young boy wakes to find his mother missing. Outside, he sees her favourite scarf – wrapped around the neck of a snowman.

And then he will appear again

Detective Harry Hole soon discovers that an alarming number of wives and mothers have gone missing over the years.

And when the snow is gone…

When a second woman disappears, Harry’s worst suspicion is confirmed: a serial killer is operating on his home turf.

… he will have taken someone else

Jo Nesbø’s The Snowman is published by Vintage in the UK and US.

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Upcoming: TIME WAS by Ian McDonald (Tor.com)

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McDonald-TimeWasYesterday, Tor.com unveiled the cover for Ian McDonald‘s upcoming novella, Time Was. I think it sounds really interesting. Here’s the synopsis:

A love story stitched across time and war, shaped by the power of books, and ultimately destroyed by it.

In the heart of World War II, Tom and Ben became lovers. Brought together by a secret project designed to hide British targets from German radar, the two founded a love that could not be revealed. When the project went wrong, Tom and Ben vanished into nothingness, presumed dead. Their bodies were never found.

Now the two are lost in time, hunting each other across decades, leaving clues in books of poetry and trying to make their desperate timelines overlap.

Time Was is due to be published by Tor.com in April 2018, in North America and in the UK. McDonald’s latest series is the Luna series: New Moon and Wolf Moon (published by Tor Books in the US, and Gollancz in the UK).

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Upcoming: THE BARROW WILL SEND WHAT IT MAY by Margaret Killjoy (Tor.com)

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KilljoyM-DC2-BarrowWillSendWhatItMaySo, yesterday I published my review of Margaret Killjoy’s first Danielle Cain novella, The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion. I ended that review by saying that I “am very much looking forward to the author’s next book”. Well, as it happens, Tor.com are due to publish the author’s next novella in April 2018: The Barrow Will Send What it May. Here’s the synopsis:

Now a nascent demon-hunting crew on the lam, Danielle and her friends arrive in a small town that contains a secret occult library run by anarchists and residents who claim to have come back from the dead. When Danielle and her crew investigate, they are put directly in the crosshairs of a necromancer’s wrath — whose actions threaten to trigger the apocalypse itself.

I’m really looking forward to this.

Also on CR: Interview with Margaret Killjoy

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Quick Review: MEPHISTON — BLOOD OF SANGUINIUS by Darius Hinks (Black Library)

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An interesting, action-packed WH40k novel

The shrine world of Divinatus Prime has become lost to the light of the Astronomican and no ship can piece its veil. Only the Lord of Death himself, Blood Angels Chief Librarian Mephiston, has any hope of discerning the fate of this once pious world. After enacting a powerful blood ritual, Mephiston and an honour guard of his fellow Blood Angels reach the stricken shrine world to find it seized by religious civil war. Each faction fights for dominance of a potent artefact, the Blade Petrific, said to be wrought by the Emperor Himself. Yet there is more at work here than a mere ideological schism, for Mephiston believes Divinatus Prime could offer answers to how he became the Lord of Death, he who resisted the Black Rage, and possibly even a way to end the curse of ‘the Flaw’ in all Blood Angels.

It’s been quite some time since I last read something by Darius Hinks. I enjoyed what little of his work I have read (of particular note: Razumov’s Tomb and Sigvald). I’ve also recently been reading and enjoying a fair number of BL’s Space Marine Heroes/Legends novels. The Blood Angels have always been of interest, but never as much as the mysterious Dark Angels, or Norse/viking-inspired Space Wolves. This changed after I read Guy Haley’s Dante and James Swallow’s Fear to Tread. And so, when I learned that Hinks was writing his own Blood Angels novel, Blood of Sanguinius, my interest was piqued.

Continue reading →

Review: PRINCE LESTAT AND THE REALMS OF ATLANTIS by Anne Rice (Knopf/Arrow)

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RiceA-VC12-PrinceLestat&RealmsOfAtlanticUSPBThe twelfth Vampire Chronicle novel upends, once again, the origin story

“In my dreams, I saw a city fall into the sea. I heard the cries of thousands. I saw flames that outshone the lamps of heaven. And all the world was shaken…”

Lestat de Lioncourt is no longer alone.

A strange, otherworldly spirit has resurfaced, taking possession of his body and soul. All-seeing, all-knowing, its voice whispers in his ear, telling the hypnotic tale of Atlantis, the great sea power of ancient times…

Prince Lestat is seduced by the power of this ancient spirit, but is he right to trust it? Why has Lestat, leader of the vampires, been chosen as its bodily host?

And what of Atlantis, the mysterious heaven on earth? Why must the vampires reckon so many millennia later with the terrifying force of this ageless, all-powerful Atalantaya spirit?

It falls to Lestat to discover the truth.

I do love this series. As I have written (so very many times) on the site, I consider Rice’s The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned to be one of my favourite books — I always read them together, so I think of them as one. With each novel, Rice has built on the impressive vampire mythos she’s created. In Prince Lestat, the author took a pretty bold step in developing the mythology: in fact, she pretty much upended everything we’ve come to learn so far. I was surprised, and a little nervous, when I realized that, in Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, the author was going to do it again… Continue reading →

Quick Review: THE LAMB WILL SLAUGHTER THE LION by Margaret Killjoy (Tor.com)

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KilljoyM-DC1-LambWillSlaughterTheLionAn excellent novella, and excellent intro to the author’s work

Searching for clues about her best friend’s mysterious suicide, Danielle ventures to the squatter, utopian town of Freedom, Iowa, and witnesses a protector spirit — in the form of a blood-red, three-antlered deer — begin to turn on its summoners. She and her new friends have to act fast if they’re going to save the town — or get out alive.

This is the first thing by Killjoy that I’ve read, and it will not be the last. A slim, perfectly formed novella, Killjoy’s prose is excellent. It’s been quite some time since an author’s writing jumped out from the get-go. If you’re looking for a quick, excellent read with a supernatural twist, then I would definitely recommend The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion. Continue reading →

Interview with JANE O’REILLY

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OReillyJ-AuthorPicLet’s start with an introduction: Who is Jane O’Reilly?

I used to describe myself as a housewife with a laptop, but I suppose at this point that doesn’t cut it anymore! I’m a novelist living near London, though I’m originally from much further north. I’m a parent, a redhead, and a frequenter of museums. I have endometriosis. I like Captain America and biscuits.

Your new novel, Blue Shift, will be published by Piatkus. It looks rather interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

Blue Shift is the first in a trilogy. It’s space opera, heavy on the adventure and light on the hardcore science, so it’s for readers looking for something fun and entertaining. It will also work for anyone who avoids science fiction because they find it heavy going – you won’t feel like you need a degree in physics to follow the plot. It’s about a genetically modified woman who uncovers an intergalactic conspiracy and has to work with a man who has plenty of secrets of his own in order to survive the aftermath. There are space pirates and aliens and explosions. Deep Blue, the second book in the series, will be released in June next year and I am already so excited about it. Continue reading →

Upcoming: WRATH OF EMPIRE by Brian McClellan (Orbit)

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McClellanB-GoB&P2-WrathOfEmpireUSThis week, Brian McClellan unveiled the cover for his next novel: Wrath of Empire. The second novel in his Gods of Blood & Powder fantasy series, and follow-up to Sins of Empire, I’m really looking forward to reading it. (I’ll need to get caught up, first, of course — I’ve still got to read The Autumn Republic and Sins of Empire before diving into this one.) Due to be published by Orbit Books in March 2018 in the US and UK, here’s the synopsis:

The country is in turmoil. With the capital city occupied, half a million refugees are on the march, looking for safety on the frontier, accompanied by Lady Flint’s soldiers. But escaping war is never easy, and soon the battle may find them, whether they are prepared or not.

Back in the capital, Michel Bravis smuggles even more refugees out of the city. But internal forces are working against him. With enemies on all sides, Michael may be forced to find help with the very occupiers he’s trying to undermine.

Meanwhile, Ben Styke is building his own army. He and his mad lancers are gathering every able body they can find and searching for an ancient artifact that may have the power to turn the tides of war in their favor. But what they find may not be what they’re looking for.

Also on CR: Interview with Brian McClellan (2013); Guest Posts on “My Favourite Novel” and “Protagonist Ages in Epic Fantasy”; Excerpt from The Autumn Republic; Reviews of Promise of Blood and The Crimson Campaign

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