Historical

Joining in the A-to-Z Meme: Books & Comics

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A few days back, I agreed to join in a cross-blog “A-to-Z of Comics” series with Abhinav and Bane of Kings. In keeping with the theme and tradition of Civilian Reader, though, I’ve decided to expand the remit to include fiction and other books. Because, you know, I like to do things my way. And I’m difficult. Probably more the latter… A lot of the answers ended up feeling a little repetitive, but there we go. I also dropped a couple of Letters, because I couldn’t come up with anything. Let us begin.

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AUTHOR YOU HAVE READ THE MOST OF…

Fiction: Easy – Terry Pratchett. I think Bernard Cornwell is runner-up?

Comics: Huh. I’m not actually sure about this. Probably Ed Brubaker (because of his run on Captain America) or Bill Willingham (because of Fables).

BEST SERIES EVER…

Fiction: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe, Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Night Lords trilogy… I’m not very good at all at picking single “Best Of” anything.

Comics: DMZ. Easy. (So maybe I can pick them, sometimes…) This series is absolutely superb, and everyone should read it. I’ve reviewed it all on the blog in the past.

CURRENTLY READING…

Fiction: Lavie Tidhar’s The Violent Century.

Comics: Gregg Hurwitz’s second story-arc on Batman: The Dark Knight, featuring the Mad Hatter. [As an aside – his Scarecrow storyline is one of the best Batman plots I’ve ever read.]

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DRINK OF CHOICE WHILE READING…

Oh, this is probably the easiest question on here: coffee during the day, red wine in the late afternoons and evenings. Always.

E-READER / PHYSICAL…

Fiction: I like both, but recently I’ve been moving more towards Kindle – I have very limited shelf-space, and my 3hr-commute wrecks books (seriously – fantasy books are mammoth!), but not my Kindle.

Comics: I find it easiest to use my iPad for comics. Bigger variety, and all I need is an internet connection, and lots of issues I’d like to read are (eventually) discounted.

GLAD YOU GAVE THIS A CHANCE…

Fiction: Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora – I barely read any fantasy before reading this in 2008. Since then, I’ve been (quite obviously) hooked. Also Stacia Kane’s Downside Ghosts series. Dark, gritty, and thought-provoking Urban Fantasy. I still hold that Chess Putnam is a modern analog for Sherlock Holmes…

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Comics: Fables and Sandman. I am very wary of anything that “everyone loves”. So I took a while to get around to these, and loved them both. Going a bit further back, though, I suppose a number of the New 52 titles back in September-October 2011 – got me back into comics.

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IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR READING LIFE…

Fiction: Chronologically? James Clavell’s Tai-Pan, Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat, Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Tiger, the aforementioned The Lies of Locke Lamora, Michael Chabon’s The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Oh, and Terry Pratchett’s Guards, Guards – but I can’t quite remember when I first read it. I must have read it eight times, now?

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Comics: DMZ, Fables, the New 52, and when Myke Cole told me to read Ed Brubaker’s Captain America. Oh, and when I finally bit the bullet and tried Hawkeye – superb.

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JUST FINISHED…

Fiction: Francis Knight’s Before the Fall.

Comics: The first four issues of Constantine and Lucifer Vol.1: Devil at the Gates. Both very good, and the latter will probably become a new addiciton.

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KIND OF BOOK YOU WON’T READ…

Fiction: Romance/Mills & Boon/Supernatural Porn. I’m a prude, when it comes to reading, I guess. I don’t like reading sex scenes. They always read like they were written by a hyperactive, sex-starved teenager who’s never experienced it. I once read a scene in which the protagonist was made to orgasm purely by being touched on their arm. Please. So, if I get the feeling a novel’s plot is just what fills in between ridiculous sex scenes, I’m out.

Comics: Hmm… I wish I could say, “Stuff written by Grant Morrison?” but he’s been involved in so many key Events/storylines that I’ve read a fair bit, now. I don’t like gross-out comics, or sophomoric, but I guess I have to read it to discover if it’s something like that. I’m pretty open-minded, when it comes to comics, actually. Perhaps more so than with fiction. Not sure what that says about me.

LONGEST BOOK/GRAPHIC NOVEL YOU’VE EVER READ…

Ficiton: Either Tai-Pan or Patrick Rothfuss’s Wise Man’s Fear?

Comics: One of the Fables Deluxe Editions, I suppose. Not sure, because I don’t pay attention to page-lengths.

MAJOR BOOK HANGOVER BECAUSE OF:

Fiction: Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – I have no idea how I’m going to review this. Not a clue. Loved it. Couldn’t read anything else for over a week after finishing it.

Comics: Irredeemable #12

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NUMBER OF SHELVES I OWN/NEED…

Fiction: Not nearly enough. I actually have five where I’m living at the moment, but I also have seven massive boxes of books (haven’t unpacked from the latest move), and I have a couple shelves and boxes at Alyssa’s. I have books everywhere.

Comics: One long shelf of Hardcovers, special editions and special-to-me trade paperbacks.

ONE BOOK/COMIC YOU HAVE READ MULTIPLE TIMES…

Fiction: Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat and Terry Pratchett’s Men At Arms.

Comics: DMZ volume 1, The Definitive Irredeemable Vol.1 (#12 is the only comic to ever make me cry, and choke up when talking about it afterwards).

So much for “one”…

PREFERRED PLACE TO READ…

In bed, in a coffeeshop, on the sofa… But, really, it’s anywhere with Alyssa. [Gross-out-soppy-moment-alert!]

READING REGRET…

Fiction: Not reading some of the classics – of genre fiction, but also some of the classics of literature in general. Unlike most people, I was always in an “experimental” year for English classes, and I seem to have gone through life without reading many of the defining novels.

Comics: Taking so long to discover that there is one hell of a lot on offer in comics.

SERIES YOU NEED TO FINISH…

Ok. Here’s the thing about finishing series: I am terrible at it. Awful. I could list so many series – and especially trilogies – that I have failed to finish. I don’t know why, but this affliction has only grown worse since I started receiving more ARCs. Partly, I think it may be the fear of a story ending, which I know is ridiculous. It’s certainly not because I disliked the story. So, here are a selection of series I really need to finish…

Jon Sprunk’s Shadow Series

Brent Weeks’s Lightbringer Series (have to read book two before third is released)

Daniel Abraham’s The Dagger & the Coin

N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance trilogy

Joe Abercrombie’s post-First Law novels (they’re kind of a series, right?)

Stacia Kane’s Downside Ghosts (book six is coming out soon, and only read the first two)

Mark Lawrence’s Broken Empire

And so very many more…

Comics: Ongoing series I’m not sure I should count in this, but I do definitely want to catch up on Fables, Batman, The Sixth Gun, and Skullkickers. Already complete series I need to finish include Sandman, Lucifer, and Ed Brubaker’s Captain America.

THREE OF YOUR ALL-TIME FAVOURITE BOOKS/COMICS…

Fiction: Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat/Queen of the Damned (I’ve mentioned before – I consider them one, and they’re always read together), Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora, and Terry Pratchett’s Men at Arms.

Comics: DMZ, Fables, The Sixth Gun

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Next to impossible to truly only pick three… I could maybe pick a hundred.

UNAPOLOGETIC FANBOY FOR…

Fiction: Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s Black Library fiction. He is one of the best writers today. It saddens me that people who hate/don’t like/avoid tie-in fiction, or Warhammer 40,000 fiction will never get around to his novels. Think he’s superbly talented fellow.

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Comics: DMZ – love it, love it, love it. Go! Go buy volume one, and thank me later.

VERY EXCITED FOR THIS RELEASE…

Fiction: Mark Charan Newton’s Drakenfeld

Comics: Fables Deluxe Books 7 & 8.

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WORST BOOKISH HABIT…

Fiction: Buying things for my Kindle, and then forgetting they’re on there. Bloody infuriating. Worst thing about Kindles – you can’t glance at one, like a set of shelves, and be inspired to read something. Mind you, buying more books in general is a weakness of mine. There is only so much time in the year/one’s life, after all…

Comics: Splurging on ComiXology’s sales. So many awesome ones, recently (Sweet Tooth, American Vampire most recently).

Mieville-IronCouncilX MARKS THE SPOT: START AT TOP LEFT AND PICK THE 27TH BOOK ON YOUR SHELF…

China Mieville’s Iron Council – the third in the author’s New Crobuzon series, and one I’ve never got around to reading. I thought Perdido Street Station was bloated and rather dull. The Scar, on the other hand, I have read (inhaled, really) three times, and I love it. The other week, I found this book on a Take-One-Leave-One shelf at the start of my commute. Seemed fortuitous. Hopefully I’ll get to this relatively soon.

YOUR LATEST BOOK PURCHASE…

Fiction: Holly Black’s White Cat.

Comics: Hellheim #1-6, the first story-arc for Cullen Bunn’s new series published by Oni Press (who also publish The Sixth Gun).

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ZZZ-SNATCHER BOOK…

Anything I’m reading can keep me awake well into the night. The last two books that really kept me up waaaay past bedtime, though, were Peter V. Brett’s The Daylight War and Joe Abercrombie’s Last Argument of Kings. (I think I went to sleep when my neighbour got up to go to work for both of those…)

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Guest Post: “Don’t Build Worlds on Your Doorstep” by Geoff Gudgion

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GudgionG-SaxonsBaneEvery novelist, in every genre, builds worlds. Mine aren’t on a distant galaxy but close to home, perhaps a little too close to home. I like to ground the reader in a world that they’ll recognise, then tilt the board slightly so that as the menace emerges they think, “This could happen to me.” It seems, though, that not everyone is happy with this twisting of rules they hold dear.

In Saxon’s Bane, I started by creating an English village that could trace is foundation to a Saxon warlord, Aegl. Back then, there were deer and boar to hunt in the woods, fresh water in the stream, and the ground would be fertile. It was a place for Aegl to ground his spear and plant his generations. Allingley was founded.

“Where is Allingley?” I’m sometimes asked. Readers seem to finish the book knowing the place, and want to go there. They’re disappointed when I tell them it’s imaginary. World-building comes easier to me, you see, when I take elements that I know and blend them into something fresh. The scent of an otherness, for example, in the depths of an ancient wood. Even the old language is recognisable in the traces of Anglo-Saxon that linger in modern English. Allingley would have been Aegl-ingas-leah in Anglo-Saxon, the clearing of Aegl’s people. I can also borrow from established legend, in this case the warrior Aegl or Egil and his wife Olrun, the Swan Maiden. I brought their story to life in this sleepy village on the banks of the Swanbourne, where, nearly one and a half millennia later, the peat-preserved body of a ritually-slaughtered Saxon warrior is uncovered.

World-building from legend and folklore also allows me to weave threads of reality or literature into the plot, for example the Old Norse epic poem Hávamál, when the God Odin talks of the power of runes:

Ef ek sé a tré uppi váfa virgilná,
Svá ek rist ok i rúnum fák,
At sá gengr gumi ok mælir viđ mik.

If I see a corpse hanging in a tree
I can carve and colour the runes
So that the man can walk and talk with me.

Runes are a rich source material, both as script and faith-laden symbols. I’m not a pagan, but I’ve always been fascinated by the old faiths, when people lived close to their gods, at one with nature rather than being given dominion over nature. I created a character in Saxon’s Bane, a fresh-faced, bright-eyed young pagan woman, who is part of a tradition of healers that has survived in this remote area despite the witch-finding pogroms of King James. I think by the end of the book I was a little in love with her. I researched pagan traditions and crafted a belief system around her that I called the ‘Old Way’. She is a counterbalance to an archaeologist who becomes obsessed with her project, and who doubts her sanity as she struggles to reconcile her academic discipline with her growing, preternatural understanding. Their story unfolds through the eyes of a car crash survivor, a man on his own journey to healing, who does not know whether what he saw at the edge of death was real or a product of his own traumatised mind.

So far, so good. My world-building rang true. I had a location, I had characters, I had the catalyst for a plot. I could start to bring the Dark Ages to life in present-day England, but always keeping to my principle of plausibility; a car that crashes as it swerves to avoid a stag, for example, and the discovery of a stag tattoo on the peat-preserved forehead of the Saxon warrior.

I find there’s a risk in making worlds too plausible. If you write on the principle of letting the reader think ‘that could be me’, it’s a short step to the reader thinking ‘that is me’. There’s a character in the book who finds the ‘Old Way’ too mild, and who experiments with some seriously nasty ideas of his own. As the past begins to echo in the present, he comes to believe in his own power and slides from reprobate to psychopath. All too plausible, apparently, for one practicing Wiccan. There’s an emotional rant on Goodreads from someone who is “nauseated” at the suggestion that any follower of the Horned God could be anything other than sweetness and light.

Oops. It seems I’ve blundered across someone else’s world. Perhaps I’d better start building a little further away. Gallifrey, for example. It might be safer. Meanwhile, I’ll send this off to Civilian Reader before I’m turned into a frog.

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Geoff Gudgion is the author of SAXON’S BANE, published by Solaris Books. Here’s the synopsis, to whet your appetite further…

Fergus’ world changes forever the day his car crashes near the remote village of Allingley. Traumatised by his near-death experience, he stays to work at the local stables as he recovers from his injuries. He will discover a gentler pace of life, fall in love – and be targeted for human sacrifice.

Clare Harvey’s life will never be the same either. The young archaeologist’s dream find – the peat-preserved body of a Saxon warrior – is giving her nightmares. She can tell that the warrior was ritually murdered, and that the partial skeleton lying nearby is that of a young woman. and their tragic story is unfolding in her head every time she goes to sleep. Fergus discovers that his crash is linked to the excavation, and that the countryside harbours some dark secrets. as Clare’s investigation reveals the full horror of a Dark age war crime, Fergus and Clare seem destined to share the Saxon couple’s bloody fate.

Gore Vidal’s “Narratives of Empire” Series

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Has anyone read these? The series, Narratives of Empire is also sometimes known as The Chronicles of America. I’m really interested in reading them (American history and fiction = bound to attract my attention). Most of all, I’m interested in reading WASHINGTON, D.C. (mentioned in Mark Leibovich’s This Town, which I finished last night). Here’s the synopsis:

“History is gossip,” says a protagonist in Washington, D.C., “but the trick is determining which gossip is history.”

It is a trick that Gore Vidal has mastered in his ongoing chronicle of that circus of opportunism and hypocrisy called American politics and which he plays with renewed vigour in this expose of the nation’s capital.

Young Clay Overbury, Senator Burden Day’s assistant, has both a modest background and immense ambitions. Extremely handsome, oozing charm and seemingly dedicated to the Senator’s cause, he is also duplicitous, conniving, and disloyal. But Enid Canford doesn’t think so: she marries him, so providing the Sanford newspaper dynasty with a direct line to the Senator. Her father Blaise, at first loathing his son-in-law, later learns to love him – for all the wrong reasons.

So begins this tale of lust and ambition set in the Republic’s high noon. From the late 1930s to Jo McCarthy’s reign of terror, Gore Vidal charts the seamy, sleazy side of Washington. Mixing sober history with nakedly Gothic melodrama, he provides an intoxicating cocktail of blackmail, betrayal, sexual ambivalence, lunacy and conspiracy – or, in a word, politics.

The novels are apparently all connected, but I’m not sure how essential it is to read them all, or to read them in order. The seventh book, THE GOLDEN AGE, does feature characters from WASHINGTON D.C. and HOLLYWOOD, though.

Upcoming: “The Tournament” by Matthew Reilly (Orion)

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ReillyM-TheTournamentJust spotted this on Amazon UK (was trawling for interesting upcoming titles in “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” ribbons…). I’m a big fan of Matthew Reilly’s action-adventure thrillers – especially the Jack West, Jr. series (Seven Ancient Wonders, Six Sacred Stones, and Five Greatest Warriors). Reilly is firmly in the same sub-genre as James Rollins and Dan Brown (leaning more towards the former than latter). With his next novel, however, he seems to be taking a different path. The novel, The Tournament, look like a historical thriller (with a bit of playing about with real events and historical figures)…

England, 1546. A young Princess Elizabeth is surrounded by uncertainty. She is not currently in line for the throne, but remains a threat to her older sister and brother.

In the midst of this fevered atmosphere comes an unprecedented invitation from the Sultan in Constantinople. He seeks to assemble the finest chess players from the whole civilised world and pit them against each other.

Roger Ascham, Elizabeth’s teacher and mentor in the art of power and politics, is determined to keep her out of harm’s way and resolves to take Elizabeth with him when he travels to the glittering Ottoman capital for the tournament.

But once there, the two find more danger than they left behind. There’s a killer on the loose and a Catholic cardinal has already been found mutilated. Ascham is asked by the Sultan to investigate the crime. But as he and Elizabeth delve deeper, they find dark secrets, horrible crimes and unheard-of depravity. Things that mark the young princess for life and define the queen she will become.

The Tournament is published by Orion in the UK in January 2014. As someone who has long been interested in the history of Constantinople/Istanbul (not to mention lived there for a few years), I am very much looking forward to reading this. The author’s website offers a slightly more sensational synopsis, just in case you need further convincing:

The year is 1546.

Suleiman the Magnificent, the powerful and feared Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, issues an invitation to every king in Europe:

YOU ARE INVITED TO SEND YOUR FINEST PLAYER TO COMPETE IN A CHESS TOURNAMENT TO DETERMINE THE CHAMPION OF THE KNOWN WORLD.

The English delegation – led by esteemed scholar Roger Ascham – journeys to the glittering city of Constantinople. Accompanying Ascham is his pupil, Bess, who is about to bear witness to events she never thought possible.

For on the first night of the tournament, a powerful guest of the Sultan is murdered, and against the backdrop of the historic event, Ascham is tasked with finding the killer.

Barbaric deaths, unimaginable depravity and diplomatic treachery unfold before Bess’ eyes, indelibly shaping her character and determining how she will perform her future roll… as Queen Elizabeth I.

EVEN A PAWN CAN BECOME A QUEEN

I really must remember to get around to reading Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves, Reilly’s previous novel. I have been very lax, recently, with my thriller reading.

Quick Q&A with SNORRI KRISTJANSSON

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Here’s a quick interview with Snorri Kristjansson, author of Viking-tastic Swords of Good Men, which was published at the beginning of August, by Jo Fletcher Books…

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Snorri Kristjansson?

Teacher, writer, lover of cake, mild-mannered Viking and all-round enthusiast.

Your latest novel, Swords of Good Men, was recently published by Jo Fletcher Books. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader?

As a subversive, gritty, Grimdark-with-a-heart genre-buster, straddling the realms of Historical Fiction and Fantasy like a mythical God – or an action book with Vikings. Depends, really.

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Is it part of a series?

It is indeed! Book 2 is currently finished and at the being-beaten-with-sticks-until-it-behaves stage. Work starts on Book 3 at the end of the month.

What inspired you to write the novel?

An abundance of time, a lack of employment and a couple of ridiculous coincidences.

And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

All around. An awful lot goes in, gets mixed somewhere about an inch behind the right ear and comes back out in idea form. Some of them aren’t very good at all.

Why are Vikings so cool?

Big question. Short answer: A combination of beliefs, actions, ingenuity, style and individuality. Shorter answer: ’coz they are. Wanna fight?

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

We are all children of Tolkien, I suppose. Stacks of Raymond Feist and David Gemmell followed.

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How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry?

It’s great. My publisher and her army of Book Ninjas are a terrifying joy to behold. 

Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

I write well in cafés, but I haven’t had the luxury of establishing rituals yet. The time will come, though.

KristjanssonS-AuthorPicWhen did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing?

I’ve been writing for a long, long time, but never really viewed it as my Main Thing until relatively recently, when I totaled up the years and brain-miles spent doing text work of one sort or another.

Do you still look back on it fondly?

I’m not big on looking back, truth be told. I’m a forward kinda guy.

What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

The genre’s main problem is that there are way too many clever storytellers out there pumping out great and glorious work, and I don’t have the time to read it all. This is serious, so I would like fellow authors to be less awesome, thank you kindly.

What other projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

The conclusion to the Valhalla Saga, an outline of another thing that I can’t speak about, a couple of film things with cool kids that I can also not speak about and various other things. This list might have been more interesting in mime.

Sykes-TomeOfTheUndergatesWhat are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

Tome of the Undrgates by Sam Sykes, which is great fun.

I completely agree! What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

I have done a full 50 minute standup show on a warship.

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

Oh, that list is LONG, but right at this moment I’d say, “Not being in the state of moving house”, which will happen very soon. Oh, and cake.

Guest Post: “Caught in a Storm, Weather & Ancient Warfare” by William Napier

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Napier-BloodRedSeaJust back from a week sailing round Corsica and Sardinia. Gorgeous weather first four days, swimming, snorkelling, and a lot of cheap rosé. I read Alison Weir’s book on the Wars of the Roses. Highly recommended. Then, on Thursday afternoon, the sky turned black and a huge wind got up. We headed fast for what should have been safe anchorage in a north-east-facing inlet at Spalmatore, having been told the usual stormy August westerly was on its way… Big mistake. The storm came straight out of the north east, and the boat started to buck around like a wild mustang with behavioural issues.

We’d tied up to two buoys for extra stability but now the waves were broadside on, the boat rolling terribly, and we had to stagger out in the big swell and loose off one of the buoys so the boat could at least swing round and pitch into the coming sea.

Around 1am the storm broke and it was spectacular. Lightning over the mountains of Corsica that went on for a good two hours, truly retina-scorching, then hailstones the size of marbles. A full Mediterranean summer storm, astonishingly violent. The next day, the sky was blue again, the seas still pretty big but a fine wind and a whole day of brilliant sailing, the deck at 45° all the way.

At times during the night it had been genuinely frightening, as well as exhilarating. Danger survived always makes you feel more alive. But it also made me think how the old mariners, those who sailed the Mediterranean in Homer’s time, or the time of Lepanto, must have coped. No wonder they believed in monsters, prayed so fervently to their gods. We might have been badly chucked around for a while, but we had lifejackets, SatNav, radio. There was never any real danger. If you’re a writer, then all experiences, even the hard ones, are good material, and this was a powerful reminder of just how tough and courageous our sailing forefathers were.

During the Battle of Lepanto, in October, the weather was also pretty rough. Hard to imagine how the Christians and the Turks managed not only to control their galleys in those big seas, but handle the guns with relative accuracy as well. No wonder they had to come so close and fire at such close range. The result was the most terrible carnage, with a casualty rate on that single day, 7th October 1571, of some 40,000: a figure never again equaled until the First World War. And as for historical significance, I would argue that Lepanto’s was greater than either Hastings or Waterloo. The future of much of Europe, not just the Balkans, might have been far more Ottoman and Muslim had it swung the other way. It should be better known. 

And there are many reasons why we might remember the desperate bravery of the men who fought on both sides, from the dashing aristocrats like Don John of Austria, to the hard bitten captains like Uluch Ali, to those indomitable warrior-monks, the Knights of St. John, to the poor emaciated bastards chained to the oars down below. And our mild little summer storm last week was another reminder of that.

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The Last Crusaders: Blood Red Sea is part of Napier’s Clash of Empires series. It is out now, published by Orion in the UK. Here’s the synopsis:

1571. Chained to a slave galley in the heart of the Mediterranean, it seems that English adventurers Ingoldsby and Hodge might have finally run out of luck. But as former Knights of St John, they’ve survived worse, and while the men around them drop dead at their oars, they’re determined to escape.

By a miracle of fate, they find their way back to dry land and freedom – but unable to return home. With the Ottoman Empire set on strangling the crusading Christian power before it can take root, hostilities between East and West – Muslim and Christian – are vicious and deadly.

And as the sun rises on one day in October, five hours of bloodshed will change the course of history. Once again, the two Englishmen find themselves living on borrowed time…

An Interview with MICHAEL MARTINEZ

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Michael Martinez is the author of the highly anticipated (in my opinion) The Daedalus Incident. I actually also already have a copy of the book, but have been dreadfully negligent about getting around to actually reading it. I will endeavour to rectify this as soon as possible. In the meantime, I thought it would be nice to interview Michael, as I’ve chatted a fair bit with him via Twitter and he seems like a great fellow. So, read on!

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Michael J. Martinez?

Well, I’m the new guy on the block, I suppose. I’ve been a professional writer for more than two decades, primarily as a journalist. A few years back, I got it in my head that I could try writing a novel. It seemed healthier and less expensive than your typical mid-life crisis hobbies. To my surprise, it worked out quite nicely

I thought we’d start with your fiction: Your new novel, The Daedalus Incident, was recently published by Night Shade Books. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

The Daedalus Incident combines my love of science fiction with my appreciation for that great tradition of British naval fiction – Horatio Hornblower, Jack Aubrey and the like. It’s about two settings: a future mining colony on Mars, and a historical fantasy in the late 18th century in which sailing ships ply the Void between the planets of our Solar System. Thanks to the machinations of an evil alchemist and an alien warlord, the two worlds are colliding – and may be ripped apart in the process.

Honestly, I just tell people I’m crashing a Royal Navy frigate into Mars. That tends to be enough to capture interest.

Ideally, this will be the first of a series. Both C.S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian both produced strong series based on the Napoleonic era, and I hope to do a little of that as well.

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What inspired you to write the novel? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?

The specific inspiration for the book came from a poster advertising Treasure Planet more than a decade ago. The movie, of course, was deeply flawed, but it gave me the idea of sailing ships in space. I just decided to make it more adult and more realistic, but also an homage to those historical novels as well.

Generally, I find myself inspired by non-fiction, anything from news stories to Wikipedia. Something will just strike me as interesting or cool, and I’ll write it down so I can use it later.

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

StarWars-4-ANewHopeStar Wars and Dungeons & Dragons were pretty much my childhood, so it was easy to go from that to reading great genre fiction. It’s been a constant in my life.

How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

Being a writer and working with the publishing industry are two very different things. I’ve been a professional writer my whole adult life, so my writing practices are pretty well established. I outline in a good amount of detail, and I chunk out the writing into sections that I can clear in a reasonable day’s effort. It’s the journalist in me. I need that sense of accomplishment before I walk away from the keyboard. And I’m an inveterate researcher, again likely due to the journalism background.

Working within the publishing industry is a different beast altogether. The artist in me writes books. My dealings with the industry are pretty much business-focused. I see my publisher as a business partner, with each of us having a vested interest in putting out a great product and treating each other fairly. Thankfully, I have a fantastic agent, Sara Megibow, who pretty much takes care of that aspect of it, and I’m fairly well versed in marketing. So it works out well.

When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?

I never really thought I had the chops to be a novelist. I’d written thousands of newspaper articles, dozens of magazine pieces and a couple of non-fiction business books. But I had the idea that became Daedalus for a long time, and it ended up being my first foray into fiction. When I started writing it up, the switch went on. I mean, that first draft was crap, but it was a completed first draft. Getting over that first-draft hump was big for me.

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What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?

This is a great time to be writing SF/F. The genre is growing in popularity and becoming more mainstream. There’s genre fiction that is just so amazing and beautiful and well-crafted that it blows my mind. It’s more akin to literary fiction than anything else. And yet you still have that really fun, adventure-driven fiction as well, and Daedalus definitely fits into that latter category. That doesn’t mean you can’t have nuance and craft in adventure stories, but I definitely like a good ride, and that’s what I write.

What other projects are you working on, and what do you have currently in the pipeline?

I’m currently serializing a novella, The Gravity of the Affair, on my website. While Daedalus was delayed, I wanted to give folks a taste of the setting and the style, so I decided to put that story out there. I have a couple other things in the works that…well, there are things afoot, so I don’t want to jinx it. Suffice it to say, the reception Daedalus has garnered is lovely, and has been noticed. ‘Nuff said for now.

What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?

Scalzi-HumanDivisionI’m one of those terrible authors who actually doesn’t read a book a week. Or even a book a month. I’m woefully behind on my fiction reading, but only because I’ve been spending my free time fiction writing. I have a family and a career outside all this, so there’s only so much time in the day! Plus, I’m big on re-reading; it’s like comfort food. In terms of non-fiction, I’ve been doing research on a few different projects. Telling you the exact books would be a bit of a cheat, really. That said, I cleared John Scalzi’s The Human Division in pretty much one sitting, on the trip back from the Nebulas. It’s a very quick read for the length, and I learned some writerly things along the way.

What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?

Most of my day-job writing is about business and finance. I could probably go for an MBA if the thought of taking math classes and writing a master’s thesis didn’t put me off. I also brew my own beer and I’m weak around barbecue.

What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?

I’m looking forward to attending my first WorldCon in San Antonio in August. And I’ll be very interested to see if I can sell another book, so that I can claim that this whole fiction thing is a repeatable phenomena and not simply a fluke.

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The Daedalus Incident is available now as an eBook, and will be published in physical editions in August 2013.

Upcoming: “The Age of Ice” by J.M. Sidorova (Scribner)

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Sidorova-TheAgeOfIceUKThis looks like an interesting novel. It has already been described as “boldly original and genrebending”, and it will apparently take readers “from the grisly fields of the Napoleonic Wars to the blazing heat of Afghanistan, from the outer reaches of Siberia to the cacophonous streets of nineteenth-century Paris”. Colour me very much intrigued…

The Empress Anna Ioannovna has issued her latest eccentric order: construct a palace out of ice blocks. Inside its walls her slaves build a wedding chamber, a canopy bed on a dais, heavy drapes cascading to the floor — all made of ice. Sealed inside are a disgraced nobleman and a deformed female jester. On the empress’s command — for her entertainment — these two are to be married, the relationship consummated inside this frozen prison. In the morning, guards enter to find them half-dead. Nine months later, two boys are born.

Surrounded by servants and animals, Prince Alexander Velitzyn and his twin brother, Andrei, have an idyllic childhood on the family’s large country estate. But as they approach manhood, stark differences coalesce. Andrei is daring and ambitious; Alexander is tentative and adrift. One frigid winter night on the road between St. Petersburg and Moscow, as he flees his army post, Alexander comes to a horrifying revelation: his body is immune to cold.

The Age of Ice is published by Scribner in the UK, and will be out near the end of July 2013.

Upcoming: “Gallow” Trilogy by Nathan Hawke (Gollancz)

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HawkeN-Gallow1-CrimsonShieldI caught a tweet the other day from Gollancz’s publicist that copies of the first book in Nathan Hawke’s Gallow series had arrived in their office (oh, how they tease us bibliophiles…). Naturally, this made me seek out some more information about the series. It sounds pretty cool, too. The series is comprised of THE CRIMSON SHIELD, COLD REDEMPTION, and LAST BASTION, and will be published in July, August, and September (respectively). I do like it when publishers release series in quick succession…

Here’s the first synopsis…

I have been Truesword to my friends, Griefbringer to my enemies. To most of you I am just another Northlander bastard here to take your women and drink your mead, but to those who know me, my name is Gallow. I fought for my king for seven long years. I have served lords and held my shield beside common men. I have fled in defeat and I have tasted victory and I will tell you which is sweeter. Despise me then, for I have slain more of your kin than I can count, though I remember every single face.

For my king I will travel to the end of the world. I will find the fabled Crimson Shield so that his legions may carry it to battle, and when Sword and Shield must finally clash, there you will find me. I will not make pacts with devils or bargains with demons for I do not believe in such things, and yet I will see them all around me, in men and in their deeds. Remember me then, for I will not suffer such monsters to live.

Even if they are the ones I serve.

The one thing I’m not sure about is whether or not this is fantasy or historical, or a blend of the two… Nevertheless, this sounds pretty interesting. I’ll try to get my hands on the books to review on the site. Between these and Snorri Kristjansson’s Swords of Good Men, I may come over all Viking this summer…

Here are the other two covers (all three were done by Alejandro Colucci):

Hawke-Gallow2&3

Here’s the synopsis for book two, as well (still waiting for the third synopsis to surface on the internets…):

I fought against your people, and I have fought for them. I have killed, and I have murdered. I betrayed my kin and crippled my king. I led countless warriors to their deaths and fought to save one worthless life. I have stood against monsters and men and I cannot always tell the difference.

Fate carried me away from your lands, from the woman and the family I love. Three hellish years but now, finally, I may return. I hope I will find them waiting for me. I hope they will remember me while all others forget. Let my own people believe me dead, lest they hunt me down. Let me return in the dark and in the shadows so no one will know.

But hope is rare and fate is cruel. And if I have to, I will fight.

Review: THE SHINING GIRLS by Lauren Beukes (Harper/Mulholland)

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BeukesL-ShiningGirlsUKHCA superb, unusual thriller.

The girl who wouldn’t die, hunting a killer who shouldn’t exist…

A terrifying and original serial-killer thriller from award-winning author, Lauren Beukes.

1930’s America: Lee Curtis Harper is a delusional, violent drifter who stumbles on a house that opens onto other times.

Driven by visions, he begins a killing spree over the next 60 years, using an undetectable MO and leaving anachronistic clues on his victims’ bodies.

But when one of his intended ‘shining girls’, Kirby Mazrachi, survives a brutal stabbing, she becomes determined to unravel the mystery behind her would-be killer. While the authorities are trying to discredit her, Kirby is getting closer to the truth, as Harper returns again and again…

This has been one of the most anticipated novels of 2013. There are ads in many publications, and plenty of posters in the London Underground. I’m very happy to report, then, that it absolutely deserves the hype it has enjoyed. The Shining Girls is a superb novel, and one of the most interesting thrillers I’ve read in a long while. Easily one of the best reads of the year so far. Continue reading →