Short Story Review: “Crimson Dawn” by C.Z. Dunn (Black Library)

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DunnCZ-WH40k-CrimsonDawnAn interesting eNovella, chronicling the beginnings of the Crimson Slaughter

In the entire galaxy there is nothing more cursed than a traitor.

Excommunicated, hated and hunted, the Crimson Slaughter turned from the Emperor’s Light and have since carved a bloody trail through the Imperium. But before they betrayed their oaths and turned to the worship of the Dark Gods, they were the Crimson Sabres, stalwart and loyal. This is the story of their fall, as Scout Captain Anzo Riegler, a lone voice of reason amidst Chaos, becomes an unwitting pawn in his Chapter’s demise.

I’m a fan of Dunn’s fiction. His short stories – particularly those focused on the Flesh Tearers chapter – have been great, visceral science fiction stories. Crimson Dawn is another good story, but it doesn’t have quite the punch of some of his previous work. Partly, this is due to the different type of story he’s trying to tell – the main character is a scout captain, so it’s unlikely that his tale will be one of out-and-out “bolter-porn”. Instead, this is a somewhat slower-paced story of the insidious nature of Chaos and the subtle corrupting force it can exert even on those who believe themselves to be pure of heart and mission. I think the story could have benefited from being a bit longer – this would have allowed for a slower reveal and a greater tension. It might also have allowed for more exploration of the Crimson Sabres, too. As an excommunicated chapter, and one that considers itself still loyal to the Golden Throne, it would have been nice to see a bit more exploration of what this meant. True, this is a novella, so there’s only so much soul-searching it can offer before it buries the story. There are hints at the end that this could be the first in a number of short stories detailing the Sabers’ fall. I would certainly welcome more.

There are some interesting elements to the story, but ultimately it didn’t impress as much as Dunn’s work has in the past. In much the same way as his Dark Vengeance novella didn’t really fire my imagination. This is better than that story, though, and I would still recommend it to fans of Warhammer 40,000. I just think he’s done better.

Mini-Review: “The Seventh Miss Hatfield” by Anna Caltabiano (Gollancz)

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Caltabiano-SeventhMissHatfieldUKA Most Anticipated of 2014, sadly fails to live up to expectations…

Rebecca, a 15-year-old American, isn’t entirely happy with her life, comfortable though it is. Still, even she knows that she shouldn’t talk to strangers. So when her mysterious neighbour Miss Hatfield asked her in for a chat and a drink, Rebecca wasn’t entirely sure why she said yes. It was a decision that was to change everything.

For Miss Hatfield is immortal. And now, thanks to a drop of water from the Fountain of Youth, Rebecca is as well. But this gift might be more of a curse, and it comes with a price. Rebecca is beginning to lose her personality, to take on the aspects of her neighbour. She is becoming the next Miss Hatfield.

But before the process goes too far, Rebecca must travel back in time to turn-of-the-century New York and steal a painting, a picture which might provide a clue to the whereabouts of the source of immortality. A clue which must remain hidden from the world. In order to retrieve the painting, Rebecca must infiltrate a wealthy household, learn more about the head of the family, and find an opportunity to escape. Before her journey is through, she will also have – rather reluctantly – fallen in love. But how can she stay with the boy she cares for, when she must return to her own time before her time-travelling has a fatal effect on her body? And would she rather stay and die in love, or leave and live alone?

And who is the mysterious stranger who shadows her from place to place? A hunter for the secret of immortality – or someone who has already found it?

There is nothing more disappointing than high expectations that are so utterly dashed. There is much to recommend in the synopsis for this novel: immortality, time travel, a bit of romance, and what does appear like a pretty interesting and original premise. Sadly, however, it just failed to engage me at all. I really struggled to get through this.

I’ve been struggling with how best to write the review. I don’t want to just lay into it, as that is completely unconstructive. Too long a review will look like hedging or dissembling. Too short a review will look too dismissive. So, here are three(-ish) paragraphs of my thoughts…

There really wasn’t much in The Seventh Miss Hatfield that I particularly liked. The writing is mostly fine, but rather lacking in flair, and few phrases stood out as noteworthy – and those that did in the moment faded almost immediately. The characters, which should have been pretty interesting and complex, were simplistic and shallow. I did not buy first that the protagonist was from the 1950s, and then none of them felt like they were of the early 1900s (and Caltabiano’s momentary joke of having Rebecca go too far with her vocal affectation was of extremely fleeting amusement). The emotional reactions of the characters are bland or cliché. A lot of the novel seemed to draw heavily on a number of influences, and therefore felt like an amorphous chunk of déjà vu.

The way in which Rebecca is turned immortal by the sixth Miss Hatfield is clunky and all-too-easily accepted by the character. The main thrust of the plot is buried in a rather dull, all-too-familiar unrequited (for no reason that I could tell) romance. Henley’s acceptance of Rebecca’s appearance in his home, claiming to be his cousin, was stunningly easy and implausible. He sees through her ruse immediately, and yet still welcomes her with open arms and no questions asked. The real identity of one off-screen character was transparent from the start – the eventual reveal at the end left me muttering, “Do catch up, won’t you?” (Sorry to be so vague, there.)

I did like this bit, though, as I think it was the only bit in the book that came close to resonating:

“I used to love stories of adventure and books about regular people like me waking up one day and deciding to seek treasure, find their fortune.” Henley’s eyes crinkled in a smile. “I suppose I was like every boy in that way. I wanted adventure.”

“What happened?” I asked.

Henley looked confused.

“You said you used to love stories of adventure. What happened?”

“I grew up.” Henley’s words were hard, but he still had a smile on his face. “I put away the copy of Treasure Island I’d kept on my dresser for years. I knew I had to put my childhood away and become an adult.”

I’m sure there are plenty of people who believe the same. People reading this blog, though, are probably not among them. Holding on to a taste in adventure or fantasy fiction (and TV, movies, comics) is a healthy thing, I believe.

At first glance, this novel held a lot of promise. And yet, reading it, one gets the sense that it is unfinished. Despite its slim length, it wasn’t particularly focused. It was predictable, and lacked any particular depth. Maybe it could have been 50-100 pages longer, with more attention paid to making the characters more three-dimensional?

I don’t think I could recommend The Seventh Miss Hatfield without also heaping on plenty of caveats. The time-travel and immortality aspects of the story held huge potential – for excitement, adventure, and surprises. Sadly, none of this potential was realised.

Music Saturday: HEARTIST and ASKING ALEXANDRIA (a bit of a rambling piece…)

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As I’ve mentioned in the past on here, one of my other passions is music (in fact, this is a passion that has dominated far more of my life than books and reading). I used to spend hours each day investigating new bands, albums, songs – subscribing to multiple magazines (even importing them from the US). I even ran a little fanzine, “MWRI” – a Terry Pratchett reference, “Music With Rocks In” (even then, I was a SFF fan). Recently, however, I’ve been listening to less new music.

Partly, this grew from an impression that things were starting to stagnate a little in the rock and metal communities. “Heavier and Louder” were the order of the decade, it seemed. I like plenty of groove and melody, though, so when ever some of my favourite bands started to conform to the “bludgeon thy listener unto death” gospel of rock, I lost ever-more interest, narrowing the number of bands I followed religiously. True, this is just a personal impression resulting from exposure to what felt like endless hardcore clones. Nevertheless, I felt slightly disillusioned with the scene I had called home since I bought Guns ‘n’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I and Iron Maiden’s Fear of the Dark as a kid (I should thank Chris Green, a school friend, for lending me his discman and these two albums when I was ill – eternal gratitude). Although, I think Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA was the first album I loved (not as “hard” rock, but still part of the same larger community, I’ve always thought).

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Over the past couple of years, though, melody and groove seem to be making a massive come-back, as bands and fans remember that it’s rock and roll, and that there’s nothing wrong with writing hooks. One of my favourite bands, Five Finger Death Punch, have been releasing consistently excellent (and progressively better) albums each year. Trivium rediscovered their love of classic, Metallica-esque metal, and released a stunning album. And so on. Recently, I finally discovered to new (for me) bands that write in the bounds of my tastes: HEARTIST and ASKING ALEXANDRIA.

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HEARTIST is actually a new band – their debut EP, Nothing You Don’t Deserve was released last year by Roadrunner Records (to whom I used to be a staunch, buy-everything devotee). I have a great many fond memories of interviewing RR bands, getting into their gigs for free (I was, quite literally, “On the guest list” – which made me feel oh-so-special). Nothing You Don’t Deserve is a pretty solid EP, too – a perfect introduction to their music, if you haven’t come across their music videos on YouTube – as, I’m sure, most people now do when discovering new bands (remember MySpace? Yeah…). The band mixes a lot of influences into a very modern-sounding punk-rock-metal melange. “Heart of Gold”, for example, has elements of Linkin Park and Funeral For A Friends more radio-friendly sounds, but still sounds different enough to not be a rip-off. Probably the best two songs on the disc, which meld a number of their influences and tempos, are “Where Did I Go Wrong?”…

… and “The Answer”.

If you get the chance, I’d recommend them very highly.

*

AskingAlexandria

ASKING ALEXANDRIA are a pretty well-established metalcore band, but I only sat up and took notice when I stumbled across their video for “The Death of Me”, from their latest album From Death To Destiny (Sumerian Records):

As it turned out, this is actually the Rock Version of the song – the main album version is a fair bit heavy, with melodies that are more understated, but by no means absent.

These guys have added a hell of a lot more groove-elements and melody than in their previous albums. And it works really well. They’re still firmly in the metalcore camp, but damn they can pen some catchy songs. Some songs on From Death To Destiny are far more commercial and less aggro – such as “Poison”, “Moving On” (reminiscent of Bon Jovi, this one), “White Line Fever” and “The Road”. But the aforementioned “The Death of Me” and “Run Free” are sufficiently heavy to please metalheads of yore. Here’s the video for “Run Free”, which highlights perfectly their heavy groove and soaring melodies…

Review: FIELD OF PREY by John Sandford (Putnam/Simon & Schuster)

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Sandford-24-FieldOfPreyUS24 books in, series still firing on all cylinders…

The night after the fourth of July, Layton Carlson Jr., of Red Wing, Minnesota, finally got lucky. And unlucky.

He’d picked the perfect spot to lose his virginity to his girlfriend, an abandoned farmyard in the middle of cornfields: nice, private, and quiet. The only problem was… something smelled bad – like, really bad. He mentioned it to a county deputy he knew, and when the cop took a look, he found a body stuffed down a cistern. And then another, and another.

By the time Lucas Davenport was called in, the police were up to fifteen bodies and counting. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, when Lucas began to investigate, he made some disturbing discoveries of his own. The victims had been killed over a great many years, one every summer, regular as clockwork. How could this have happened without anybody noticing?

Because one thing was for sure: the killer had to live close by. He was probably even someone they saw every day…

It really is quite impressive, the fact that this is the 24th book featuring Lucas Davenport (also known as the Prey Series) and it is so very good. Add to that the fact that Sandford is also writing the Virgil Flowers spin-off series as well (each gets a new book each year, for the past seven or eight years), and you start to realise just how talented and disciplined Sandford is as an author. I have read all of the Prey novels, and each one has been at the very least great and gripping. Field of Prey is no exception, but this time you can also add harrowing and intense. A great addition to the series. Continue reading →

This Urban Fantasy Hero is Not Impressed…

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SinghN-ShieldOfWinterUSI received the UK edition of Nalini Singh’s Shield of Winter from Gollancz, today. While looking up information and getting cover images for my next “Books Received” post, I found the US cover (right). I thought the fella’s pose just looked so… unimpressed with the situation, that I had to share it here.

Assassin. Soldier. Arrow. That is who Vasic is, who he will always be. His soul drenched in blood, his conscience heavy with the weight of all he’s done, he exists in the shadows, far from the hope his people can almost touch – if only they do not first drown in the murderous insanity of a lethal contagion. To stop the wave of death, Vasic must complete the simplest and most difficult mission of his life.

For if the Psy race is to survive, the empaths must wake…

Having rebuilt her life after medical ‘treatment’ that violated her mind and sought to stifle her abilities, Ivy should have run from the black-clad Arrow with eyes of winter frost. But Ivy Jane has never done what she should. Now, she’ll fight for her people, and for this Arrow who stands as her living shield, yet believes he is beyond redemption.

But as the world turns to screaming crimson, even Ivy’s fierce will may not be enough to save Vasic from the cold darkness…

Shield of Winter will be published in the UK by Gollancz and Berkley in the US, at the beginning of June 2014. Here’s the UK cover…

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“Bossypants” by Tina Fey (Reagan Arthur Books)

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Fey-BossypantsA brilliant, hilarious memoir

Before Liz Lemon, before Weekend Update, before Sarah Palin, Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.

She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey’s story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon – from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we’ve all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.

(Includes Special, Never-Before-Solicited Opinions on Breastfeeding, Princesses, Photoshop, the Electoral Process, and Italian Rum Cake!)

I don’t think any book has made me laugh so often and out loud during the opening pages as did Bossypants. In fact, I rarely laugh out loud when I read.

This memoir is self-deprecating, honest, very well-written, and above all hilarious. I’m still not entirely sure how to review memoirs, yet, having not done many of them. In the case of Bossypants, to offer too many examples of Fey’s witty observations and reminiscences would be to kind of spoil the point of reading this in the first place. And there are a lot of very funny moments in this book…

Fey takes us quickly through her childhood and teenage/college years, sprinkling these chapters with her observations about growing up and being a woman (in comedy, college, and society in general).

While my parents talked to the teacher, I was sent to a table to do coloring. I was introduced to a Greek boy named Alex whose mom was next in line to meet with the teacher. We colored together in silence. I was so used to being praised and encouraged that when I finished my drawing I held it up to show Alex, who immediately ripped it in half. I didn’t have the language to express my feelings then, but my thoughts were something like “Oh, it’s like that, motherfucker? Got it.” Mrs. Fey’s change-of-life baby had entered the real world.

I think the only weak chapter in the book was about Fey’s honeymoon on a cruise (this dragged, didn’t really say much, and wasn’t particularly funny – naturally, this meant I thought it didn’t belong…). Every other chapter and topic was fascinating – Fey’s move to join Second City and her adventures there, meeting Amy Poehler, her tenure at Saturday Night Live, the creation and success of 30 Rock. I think I was mainly surprised that there was very little mention of Mean Girls (except in passing). It would have been interesting to read a little more about that movie. As someone who first became properly familiar with Fey’s work during the 2008 presidential election, it was also interesting to read her thoughts about how her impressions of Sarah Palin brought her back to SNL and right into the national conversation (but, damn was she brilliant in that role…).

Alongside the memories, Fey sprinkles some great observations and critiques of various topics and entertainment industry “norms”. These include the difficulties she and others have had in promoting greater diversity in TV and comedy; the stagnant TV executives’ impression of what kind of show can be successful…

“For years the networks have tried to re-create the success of Friends by making pilot after pilot about beautiful twenty-somethings living together in New York. Beautiful twenty-somethings living in Los Angeles. Beautiful twenty-somethings investigating sexy child murders in Miami. This template never works, because executives refuse to realize that Friends was the exception, not the rule.”

… the excessive use of Photo Shop these days…

“Just like how everyone learned to spot fake boobs – look for the upper-arm meat. If there’s no upper-arm meat, the breasts are fake. Unlike breast implants, which can mess up your health, digital retouching is relatively harmless. As long as we all know it’s fake, it’s no more dangerous to society than a radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. Photoshop is just like makeup. When it’s done well it looks great, and when it’s overdone you look like a crazy asshole. Unfortunately, most people don’t do it well. I find, the fancier the fashion magazine is, the worse the Photoshop. It’s as if they are already so disgusted that a human has to be in the clothes, they can’t stop erasing human features.”

… and many others.

I don’t think I’ve done a very good job at ‘reviewing’ this book. Regardless, and to sum up in a clear, succinct manner: You need to read this book. It’s hilarious, welcoming, intelligent, and very endearing. Very highly recommended.

Gail Simone Brings TOMB RAIDER to the UK

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I spotted this cover on Dark Horse Comics’ website, while looking for more info on Kim Newman & Maura McHugh’s upcoming Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland series. It caught my eye because a) it’s an eye-catching cover, b) it has Big Ben in it, and c) I was a big fan of the first couple of computer games in the Tomb Raider series, but I’ve not read any comics (or, for that matter, played any of the games for a decade).

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Tomb Raider #4 goes on sale on May 28th, 2014. Here are the issue’s details and synopsis…

Writer: Gail Simon | Pencils: Nicolás Daniel Selma | Inks: Juan Gedeon | Colors: Michael Atiyeh

Lara Croft is chased through the streets of London as she gets dangerously close to the truth! But it’s not her own safety that concerns her, but that of her friends, the surviving crew of the Endurance!

Upcoming: THE WITCHFINDER – THE MYSTERIES OF UNLAND (Dark Horse Comics)

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Here’s a brief preview of Witchfinder: The Mysteries of Unland #1, written by Kim Newman & Maura McHugh, and to be published by Dark Horse Comics. Art duties will be handled by Tyler Crook and Dave Stewart.

The eponymous Witchfinder, Sir Edward Grey, was created by Mike Mignola as part of his Hellboy mythology (he first appeared in Hellboy: Wake the Devil). Since then, he has had a couple of mini-series.

Here’s the synopsis for the first issue of this new series…

Edward Grey is sent to Hallam to investigate a mysterious death. Once there, he hears rumors about the mysterious Unland, the wetlands around the town, and the creatures that inhabit it. Grey’s skepticism vanishes when he encounters the monsters of Unland, and he realizes that Hallam is a place of secrets.

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Above is the artwork that will grace the second issue. And here is a preview of the first issue…

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Quick Thoughts on VENOM by Rick Remender & Cullen Bunn (Marvel)

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I’ve been reading through the latest run on Venom, by Rick Remender and Cullen Bunn and, while I haven’t been moved to write a full review, I did want to just flag it up as a series that is well worth reading. The covers above are for the latest two collections that I’ve read. There are six Venom-only books in the series, which a couple of cross-overs (Spider Island and Minimum Carnage).

Remender kicked off the series, and does a great job of making it stand out among the Spider-Man related series. For one thing, it’s not nearly as quippy as other Spidey series, which means it didn’t quickly become irritating, and I was able to read through three collections without wanting to confine the protagonist to the trash heap of comicdom (as can so easily happen with the uneven Amazing Spider-Man). It is a darker series, overall, and works very well. What I like best about the series is that it largely avoids the Marvel glibness, which (in my humble opinion) has ruined too many series (e.g., Captain Marvel). Instead, and despite the supernatural/Hell-related storylines, this is somewhat more on the horror side of things. Very welcome indeed.

I much prefer the non-super-heroing storylines in this series. The plethora of other symbiotes were less interesting to me, to be honest, but they do on occasion add another element of tension and emotional angst for Flash.

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Remender shows us how Eugene “Flash” Thompson is not your typical hero. For one thing, unlike many other Marvel heroes, he started out as a bully: Peter Parker’s tormentor at school. Rather than just telling us that he is a bully who has come good, Remender instead builds Flash’s background brilliantly and gradually. Present day scenes are interspersed with flashback to his childhood, abused by his alcoholic father and emotionally betrayed by his beaten-down mother, and the emotional damage this has done. Coupled with his double-amputee existence, made bearable by the Venom symbiote, he is constantly struggling to become the hero he always wished he could be. He is confronted by the lasting damage of his childhood; the damage he caused as an angry jock, and then as an alcoholic and also as Venom. Bunn picks up this character development expertly, and doesn’t miss a beat, building on what Remender started really well.

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I know I’ve focused on the two writers, but it should also go without saying that the artwork is excellent – from the controlled action and off-mission scenes to the Venom’s-Taken-Over-And-Gone-Crazy moments (which are far less frequent than you might think, especially in the latter-half of the series), it is an eye-catching, visually impressive and brooding series.

Definitely recommended.

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“The Fry Chronicles” by Stephen Fry (Audible / Penguin)

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FryS-FryChroniclesAUDA superb memoir and audiobook, from one of Britain’s greatest comics

Thirteen years ago, Moab Is My Washpot, Stephen Fry’s autobiography of his early years, was published to rave reviews and was a huge best seller. In the years since, Stephen Fry has moved into a completely new stratosphere, both as a public figure, and a private man. Now he is not just a multi-award-winning comedian and actor, but also an author, director, and presenter.

In January 2010 he was awarded the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards. Much loved by the public and his peers, Stephen Fry is one of the most influential cultural forces in the country. This dazzling memoir promises to be a courageously frank, honest and poignant read. It will detail some of the most turbulent and least-well-known years of his life, with writing that will excite you, make you laugh uproariously, move you, inform you, and, above all, surprise you.

I am a big fan of Stephen Fry. Ever since I watched Jeeves & Wooster and Blackadder when I was younger (both get frequent re-watches), and right up to my current bingeing on past and recent episodes of QI, I have enjoyed pretty much everything of his that I’ve seen or read. I am, however, pretty new to audiobooks. After a couple of interesting experiments with memoirs and fiction in audio, I decided to try some comedy memoirs. Picking this as my first was really a no-brainer. And I’m very glad I did – this is a brilliant memoir and audiobook.

This really is a superb book, and the production is excellent. Fry’s narration is superb, invested with his mannerisms, self-deprecation, amusement, and humour throughout. It’s a very welcoming audiobook, peppered with Fry’s observations, anecdotes, and plenty of asides. He covers his life up to the mid-2000s, discussing his time in prison in his youth, to his reformatory period (teaching at a school, being accepted into Cambridge) and then going on to become a successful writer and actor. Fry is quite self-deprecating and self-critical, but in his hands the subject, emotion and tone never descends into mawkishness or teenage-angst – it’s an honest, funny account.

FryS-FryChroniclesI’ve been trying to figure out which were my favourite chapters and subjects, and yet I can’t select any single one without then thinking of another equally good bit. Really, The Fry Chronicles was never dull – not for a single moment, pretty much. I had intended to listen to this only when I was at the gym (where I can’t stand the radio, nor just plodding along with nothing but the depressing clicking-over of distance, calories burned, and timer to read…). But, about two hours into this audiobook, I found myself listening to it when walking anywhere. Indeed, the fact that I enjoyed this so much has got me listening to a number of comic memoirs (currently, Jennifer Saunders’s Bonkers).

If, like me, you were brought up on Jeeves & Wooster, Blackadder, A Bit of Fry & Laurie, then this is a must-read. The appearances and comments about other beloved British comics and actors are great – including Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Ben Elton and many, many more.

Very highly recommended indeed.