Interview with ERIKA JOHANSEN & Giveaway!

July 17, 2014 Civilian Reader Interview Debut 2014, Fantasy, Giveaway, Transworld

Erika Johansen’s The Queen of the Tearling has been getting some great press ever since WFC 2013 (at least, that’s when I heard of it). The novel finally hits shelves in the UK today, and to celebrate its release, not only do I offer the interview that follows (organised by Transworld), but I also have one copy of the novel to give away to a UK reader! Details at the end. But first, the interview…

Can you give us a brief introduction to The Queen of the Tearling?

A 19 year-old girl, Kelsea Glynn, is the heir to the throne of a degenerate kingdom. Having been raised far from the capital city, she’s not prepared to be the Queen, but she will need to learn quickly. Both the neighboring ruler and Kelsea’s own uncle would like to see her dead. Her kingdom is a mess, drowning in corruption and inequality. All Kelsea has are a strong moral compass, a lot of courage, an unwieldy temper and two hereditary sapphires which may or may not be magical in her hands.

Who are the main characters of the book?

The main characters include Kelsea, the Queen; Mace, her Captain of Guard; the Red Queen, who rules the neighboring kingdom; Javel, a guard in the Tear castle; and Father Tyler, a priest in the Tearling’s central church. Please don’t ask me to explain in a nutshell how they intersect.

UK Cover

What is the one thing you hope the reader will take away after reading the novel?

This is fairly presumptuous of me, but ideally, I would hope to instill some sense of civics, of the social contract. I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but there is certainly a large and vocal contingent in my own country that believes it’s perfectly reasonable to grab whatever one can for oneself, and worry about the broader effects on society later, if at all. But I consider America’s subtle moral acceptance of this “I got mine” philosophy to be absolutely toxic to the creation of a healthy society. I’m no philosopher, and I certainly don’t have the intellectual depth to tackle this subject properly. Writing fiction is really the only way I can engage with ideas. At its most basic level, The Queen of the Tearling is about a young woman who has been raised to think about the impact of her actions, not just on herself and her nearest and dearest, but on everyone. Sometimes we simply have to take care of each other: neighbors, strangers, even enemies. This is the only way for a community to succeed. My heroine, Kelsea, is often confused about the “right” thing to do, but when she acts, she consistently tries to choose what’s right for her kingdom as a whole, rather than for herself. If even a tiny fraction of the energy that individuals currently expend on self could be redirected toward the community, I think it would be an extraordinary thing to see.

Kelsea Glynn is the novel’s protagonist – a strong, intelligent character with her own insecurities. Can you tell us a little bit more about the inspiration behind Kelsea, and what sets her aside from other protagonists in the genre?

I have grown extremely tired of reading books in which the female protagonist – even if she’s a strong character – is driven by her love life. I’m also tired of books in which the attractiveness of the heroine is a central plot point, a factor that changes the entire landscape of the novel. Such women can be good entertainment, but to my mind, many of them also make poor role models. I’ve been longing for a book in which a woman can be a strong central character without everything revolving around her looks or her romantic life. Kelsea Glynn is not good-looking, and like many teenage girls, she is tormented by all of the feelings of inadequacy that go with that realization, particularly since it seems to put the man she loves out of her reach. But Kelsea does not let her insecurities control her destiny, or even pay them much mind most of the time. She’s a Queen, and she has more important things to worry about than being pretty. This is not to say that Kelsea is unique; I’m sure there are plenty of similar heroines out there and I’ve simply been reaching for the wrong books. But many of the book’s early reviews have specifically referenced deep pleasure – not to mention surprise – that in a book with a female protagonist “there is no romance!” So I guess I’m not the only one fed up with the formula.

Who are your favourite authors? Were you inspired by them when writing The Queen of the Tearling?

My three favorite authors are Stephen King, William Faulkner and Sara Paretsky. Of the three, I can’t really say that any of them directly inspired this trilogy, except perhaps for Stephen King’s The Eyes of the Dragon, a wonderfully plotted dark fantasy that I have always admired. The Tearling probably drew more inspiration from individual books that I love: Frank Herbert’s Dune; Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon; Richard Adams’s Watership Down; and Terry Brooks’s Heritage of Shannara series all spring to mind. And, of course, anyone who writes any fantasy, ever, should probably toss an amorphous thank-you in the direction of J.R.R. Tolkien, who showed us how it should be done.

US Cover (Harper Collins)

Setting is hugely important in The Queen of the Tearling, what’s most interesting is how the kingdom feels very ‘Medieval’ even though it’s set in the future. Could you talk a little more on why you chose this setting?

This kingdom is essentially medieval; no electricity, little technology, a lot of superstition. But I chose to set it in the distant future for a pretty prosaic reason: because I wanted my kingdom – and my heroine in particular – to have access to earth’s history, to past nations’ mistakes. The age-old wisdom that there’s nothing new under the sun is in heavy play in the Tearling; all of the mistakes my characters make have certainly been made before. I wanted the ability to shed historical perspective, particularly since my fictional Queen was raised by a historian.

You’ve described yourself as a “Horror reader, Fantasy writer” – can you expand a little on this, and why you chose to write Fantasy and not Horror?

I can’t write good horror. I’ve tried for years; horror is by far my favorite genre to read, and I would love to be able to give any reader the kind of joy I’ve received from King and Straub and Matheson and Lovecraft and the rest. I had youthful dreams of writing a great haunted house novel, of creating an utterly damned edifice to rival Hill House or the Overlook Hotel. But all of my attempts at writing horror have been uniformly terrible, and I finally had to admit to myself that I just don’t have any talent for it. But I wasn’t willing to return to writing about the real world, so next I tried fantasy. Interestingly enough, I’m not that much of a fantasy reader, at least in terms of breadth. I like several fantasy authors quite a bit, and The Lord of the Rings is my all-time favorite book, but the vast bulk of my reading material comes from other genres. So in writing this trilogy, I’m often flying blind, not always sure of the parameters of fantasy. There’s a point at which idea becomes trope, and sometimes I fail to recognize it. Thank god I have an attentive editor, though even she can’t always save me from myself.

How much involvement have you had thus far in the film adaptation of The Queen of the Tearling?

Very little, all on the writing end. The book has been given to a screenwriter who is not only talented but – as any reader will quickly see – extremely courageous in the undertaking. This book constantly refuses to answer the reader’s questions, because I wrote it specifically for readers like myself. I love a book that doesn’t tell me everything I want to know, one that gives me sufficient information to follow the plot but still keeps me constantly questioning. But one of my first thoughts when the word “film” came up was that the book would be a nightmare to adapt for screen, precisely because so many questions will not be answered until either the first or second sequel. Readers have far more patience with this sort of multiple-installment ambiguity than viewers do. So my involvement with the film thus far has consisted of trying to help the screenwriter maintain consistency in this incredibly secretive world, while not giving away anything I want to keep secret. It’s a rough balance to strike, and should the film ever come to fruition, the screenwriter will likely deserve a medal of some sort…perhaps for artistic bravery, certainly for saintly patience with the source.

***

You can find an excerpt from The Queen of the Tearling over on Tor.com.

Giveaway Details: As I mentioned at the top, I have one copy of the novel to give away. I’ll leave this open for the weekend, and pick at random one commenter to receive the book. Just to repeat, the giveaway is UK only. (Sorry everyone else!)

Books Received… (June)

June 28, 2014 Civilian Reader Uncategorized Books Received, Corvus, Del Rey, Dystopia, Fantasy, Fiction, Gollancz, Hodder, Orbit, Pyr Books, Sci-Fi, Sphere, Thriller, Transworld, Voyager

Featuring: Megan Abbott, Robert Galbraith, Robert Goddard, Carl Hiaasen, Stephen King, J.F. Lewis, Richard K. Morgan, Warren Murphy, M.C. Planck, Kim Stanley Robinson, Thomas Sweterlitsch, Jon Wallace, Jo Walton

Megan Abbott, Dare Me (Reagan Arthur Books)

Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy’s best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they’re seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls – until the young new coach arrives.

Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach’s golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as “top girl” – both with the team and with Addy herself.

Then a suicide focuses a police investigation on Coach and her squad. After the first wave of shock and grief, Addy tries to uncover the truth behind the death – and learns that the boundary between loyalty and love can be dangerous terrain.

This came out when I was in the States last, and I thought it looked pretty interesting. I’m not sure why I didn’t pick it up at the time, though. Regardless, I picked it up last week, and have been hearing very good things about this and Abbott’s latest novel, The Fever, which I’d also like to read.

Robert Galbraith, The Silkworm (Sphere)

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days – as he has done before – and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine’s disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives – meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before…

Finished The Cuckoo’s Calling over the weekend, and really enjoyed it. I received this for review from Sainsbury’s eBook division (a pleasant surprise), and intend to read it very soon.

Robert Goddard, The Corners of the Globe (Bantam Press)

Spring, 1919. James ‘Max’ Maxted, former Great War flying ace, returns to the trail of murder, treachery and half-buried secrets he set out on in The Ways of the World. He left Paris after avenging the murder of his father, Sir Henry Maxted, a senior member of the British delegation to the post-war peace conference. But he was convinced there was more – much more – to be discovered about what Sir Henry had been trying to accomplish. And he suspected elusive German spymaster Fritz Lemmer knew the truth of it.

Now, enlisted under false colours in Lemmer’s service but with his loyalty pledged to the British Secret Service, Max sets out on his first – and possibly last – mission for Lemmer. It takes him to the far north of Scotland – to the Orkney Isles, where the German High Seas Fleet has been impounded in Scapa Flow, its fate to be decided at the conference-table in Paris. Max has been sent to recover a document held aboard one of the German ships. What that document contains forces him to break cover sooner than he would have wished and to embark on a desperate race south, towards London, with information that could destroy Lemmer – if Max, as seems unlikely, lives to deliver it

The sequel to The Ways of the World, this is a series I really want to read. But have been slow about getting around to. Hopefully I’ll address this very soon.

Carl Hiaasen, Bad Monkey (Sphere)

When a severed arm is discovered by a couple on honeymoon in the Florida Keys, former police detective – now reluctant restaurant inspector – Andrew Yancy senses that something doesn’t add up. Determined to get his badge back, he undertakes an unofficial investigation of his own.

Andrew’s search for the truth takes him to the Bahamas, where a local man, with the help of a very bad monkey (who allegedly worked on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies) is doing everything in his power to prevent a developer from building a new tourist resort on the island, with deadly consequences…

Outrageous, hilarious and addictive, this is the unique Carl Hiaasen at his absolute best. Bad Monkey will have you on the edge of your seat and laughing out loud.

It’s been a long time since I last read a novel by Carl Hiaasen. His novels are uniformly strange and amusing, although they haven’t always hit the mark for me. It’ll be interesting to return to his zany approach to crime stories after so long, and this could make a nice change from the more-serious-in-tone thrillers I usually read.

Stephen King, Mr. Mercedes (Hodder)

A cat-and-mouse suspense thriller featuring a retired homicide detective who’s haunted by the few cases he left open, and by one in particular – the pre-dawn slaughter of eight people among hundreds gathered in line for the opening of a jobs fair when the economy was guttering out. Without warning, a lone driver ploughed through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes. The plot is kicked into gear when Bill Hodges receives a letter in the mail, from a man claiming to be the perpetrator. He taunts Hodges with the notion that he will strike again.

Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing that from happening.

Brady Hartsfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. And he’s preparing to kill again.

Only Hodges, with a couple of misfit friends, can apprehend the killer in this high-stakes race against time. Because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim hundreds, even thousands.

I bought the eBook from Sainsbury’s after creating an account with them and getting a 20% off voucher. Last year was the first time I read one of King’s novels all the way through (The Shining), and this one sounds really interesting.

J.F. Lewis, Grudgebearer (Pyr)

Kholster is the first born of the practically immortal Aern, a race created by the Eldrennai as warrior-slaves to defend them from the magic-resistant reptilian Zaur. Unable to break an oath without breaking their connection with each other, the Aern served the Eldrennai faithfully for thousands of years until the Sundering. Now, the Aern, Vael, and Eldrennai meet every hundred years for a Grand Conjunction to renew their tenuous peace.

While the tortures of slavery remain fresh in Kholster’s mind, most of the rest of the world has moved on. Almost six hundred years after the Sundering, an Eldrennai prince carelessly breaks the truce by setting up a surprise museum exhibit containing sentient suits of Aernese armor left behind, never to be touched, lest Kholster kill every last Eldrennai. Through their still-existing connection with their ancient armor, the Aern know instantly, and Kholster must find a way to keep his oaths, even those made in haste and anger. While Kholster travels to the Grand Conjunction with his Freeborn daughter and chosen successor Rae’en, his troops travel by sea, heading for war.

I’d never heard of this novel before it dropped through the mailbox. Sounds interesting, but also a little familiar. Not sure when I’ll get to this.

Richard K. Morgan, The Dark Defiles (Del Rey)

Ringil Eskiath, a reluctant hero viewed as a corrupt degenerate by the very people who demand his help, has traveled far in search of the Illwrack Changeling, a deathless human sorcerer-warrior raised by the bloodthirsty Aldrain, former rulers of the world. Separated from his companions – Egar the Dragonbane and Archeth – Ringil risks his soul to master a deadly magic that alone can challenge the might of the Changeling. While Archeth and the Dragonbane embark on a trail of blood and tears that ends up exposing long-buried secrets, Ringil finds himself tested as never before, with his life and all existence hanging in the balance.

It feels like an absolute age since I read The Steel Remains. And even longer since I read Altered Carbon, which blew me away. This series has been met with a very wide array of criticism and praise. I’ve heard people say it’s ruined fantasy, or taken grimdark too far. Others sing its praises for breaking the boundaries of the (sub-)genre, being daring and forging a new path. I enjoyed The Steel Remains, and bought The Cold Commands (but haven’t read it yet – that may suggest something about how much I enjoyed the first novel, compared to other series I’ll buy and read each new installment as soon as possible). I hope to get caught up with this series pretty soon, given that this is the final volume. The series is published in the UK by Gollancz.

Warren Murphy, Created the Destroyer (Orbit)

When you’re on death row, minutes from the electric chair, and a hook-handed monk offers to save your life if you’ll just swallow a simple little pill… what’ve you got to lose? You take the pill. Then you wake up, officially “dead,” in the back of an ambulance, headed for an undisclosed location. Welcome to your new life, working for CURE, the most secret, most deniable, most extra-judicial government agency ever to exist. Only the President knows about it, and even he doesn’t control it.

That’s what happened to Remo Williams, a New Jersey cop framed for a murder he didn’t commit. Framed by the very people who saved him, in fact. And now, trained in esoteric martial arts by Chiun, master of Sinanju, he’s going to become the ultimate killing machine. Remo will be America’s last line of defense against mad scientists, organized crime, ancient undead gods, and anything else that threatens the Constitution. Remo Williams is the Destroyer.

The first in a long-running thriller series, Orbit will be bringing it to the UK in the very near future. It sounds fun. So I’ll be reading this very soon.

M.C. Planck, Sword of the Bright Lady (Pyr)

Christopher Sinclair goes out for a walk on a mild Arizona evening and never comes back. He stumbles into a freezing winter under an impossible night sky, where magic is real-but bought at a terrible price.

A misplaced act of decency lands him in a brawl with an arrogant nobleman and puts him under a death sentence. In desperation he agrees to be drafted into an eternal war, serving as a priest of the Bright Lady, Goddess of Healing. But when Marcius, god of war, offers the only hope of a way home to his wife, Christopher pledges to him instead, plunging the church into turmoil and setting him on a path of violence and notoriety.

To win enough power to open a path home, this mild-mannered mechanical engineer must survive duelists, assassins, and the never-ending threat of monsters, with only his makeshift technology to compete with swords and magic.

But the gods and demons have other plans. Christopher’s fate will save the world… or destroy it.

First heard about this novel via Staffer’s Book Review, as Justin was taking a look at the cover art. It sounds intriguing.

Robin Sloan, Ajax Penumbra, 1969 (Atlantic Books)

It is August 1969. The Summer of Love is a fading memory. The streets of San Francisco pulse to the sounds of Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye. And of jackhammers: A futuristic pyramid of a skyscraper is rising a few blocks from City Lights bookstore and an unprecedented subway tunnel is being built under the bay. Meanwhile, south of the city, orchards are quickly giving way to a brand-new industry built on silicon.

But young Ajax Penumbra has not arrived in San Francisco looking for free love or a glimpse of the technological future. He is seeking a book – the single surviving copy of the Techne Tycheon, a mysterious volume that has brought and lost great fortune for anyone who has owned it. The last record of the book locates it in the San Francisco of more than a century earlier, and on that scant bit of evidence, Penumbra’s university has dispatched him west to acquire it for their library. After a few weeks of rigorous hunting, Penumbra feels no closer to his goal than when he started. But late one night, after another day of dispiriting dead ends, he stumbles across a 24-hour bookstore, and the possibilities before him expand exponentially…

I really enjoyed Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, and so when I saw that Sloan had written this novella-length prequel, I knew I wanted to read it ASAP. It just took a little longer than normal for me to buy it. May read it as soon as I finish my current read.

Kim Stanley Robinson, Fifty Degrees Below and Sixty Days & Counting (Voyager)

FDB: After years of denial and non-action, a near-future Earth faces a crossroad when it is threatened with the dire implications of global warming, an environmental crisis that ironically could unleash a devastating Ice Age on the planet.

SD&C: By the time Phil Chase is elected president, the world’s climate is far on its way to irreversible change. Food scarcity, housing shortages, diminishing medical care, and vanishing species are just some of the consequences. The erratic winter the Washington, D.C., area is experiencing is another grim reminder of a global weather pattern gone haywire: bone-chilling cold one day, balmy weather the next.

But the president-elect remains optimistic and doesn’t intend to give up without a fight. A maverick in every sense of the word, Chase starts organizing the most ambitious plan to save the world from disaster since FDR – and assembling a team of top scientists and advisers to implement it.

For Charlie Quibler, this means reentering the political fray full-time and giving up full-time care of his young son, Joe. For Frank Vanderwal, hampered by a brain injury, it means trying to protect the woman he loves from a vengeful ex and a rogue “black ops” agency not even the president can control – a task for which neither Frank’s work at the National Science Foundation nor his study of Tibetan Buddhism can prepare him.

In a world where time is running out as quickly as its natural resources, where surveillance is almost total and freedom nearly nonexistent, the forecast for the Chase administration looks darker each passing day. For as the last – and most terrible – of natural disasters looms on the horizon, it will take a miracle to stop the clock… the kind of miracle that only dedicated men and women can bring about.

The second and third novels in Robinson’s Science in the Capitol series (for some reason, Forty Days of Rain is not available as an eBook). They’ve been on my Kindle Wish List for ages, and when I checked this morning they had dropped to just 99p. So, naturally, I bought them. Hope to read them soon. I also picked up Red Mars, which was also knocked down to 99p, but these two are higher on my priority list.

Thomas Sweterlitsch, Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Putnam)

A decade has passed since the city of Pittsburgh was reduced to ash.

While the rest of the world has moved on, losing itself in the noise of a media-glutted future, survivor John Dominic Blaxton remains obsessed with the past. Grieving for his wife and unborn child who perished in the blast, Dominic relives his lost life by immersing in the Archive – a fully interactive digital reconstruction of Pittsburgh, accessible to anyone who wants to visit the places they remember and the people they loved.

Dominic investigates deaths recorded in the Archive to help close cases long since grown cold, but when he discovers glitches in the code surrounding a crime scene – the body of a beautiful woman abandoned in a muddy park that he’s convinced someone tried to delete from the Archive – his cycle of grief is shattered.

With nothing left to lose, Dominic tracks the murder through a web of deceit that takes him from the darkest corners of the Archive to the ruins of the city itself, leading him into the heart of a nightmare more horrific than anything he could have imagined.

This has been described as a follower in the footsteps of William Gibson’s cyberpunk, which certainly caught my eye. Pretty intrigued by this.

Jon Wallace, Barricade (Gollancz)

Kenstibec was genetically engineered to build a new world, but the apocalypse forced a career change. These days he drives a taxi instead.

A fast-paced, droll and disturbing novel, BARRICADE is a savage road trip across the dystopian landscape of post-apocalypse Britain; narrated by the cold-blooded yet magnetic antihero, Kenstibec.

Kenstibec is a member of the “Ficial” race, a breed of merciless super-humans. Their war on humanity has left Britain a wasteland, where Ficials hide in barricaded cities, besieged by tribes of human survivors. Originally optimised for construction, Kenstibec earns his keep as a taxi driver, running any Ficial who will pay from one surrounded city to another.

The trips are always eventful, but this will be his toughest yet. His fare is a narcissistic journalist who’s touchy about her luggage. His human guide is constantly plotting to kill him. And that’s just the start of his troubles.

On his journey he encounters ten-foot killer rats, a mutant king with a TV fixation, a drug-crazed army, and even the creator of the Ficial race. He also finds time to uncover a terrible plot to destroy his species for good – and humanity too.

One of Gollancz’s 2014 debuts, I picked this up on the eBook promotion. His recent guest post for CR has caused a bit of a stir, too, and I really want to see what all the fuss is about (if, indeed, there’s something to cause a fuss about – I think his guest post has suffered from poor structuring and wording, which has led to some of the criticism he’s receiving. Can’t be sure until I read the novel, though). Will read this soon.

Jo Walton, My Real Children (Corsair)

What if you could remember two versions of your life? My Real Children is an alternate history, in which a woman with dementia struggles to remember her two contradictory lives. It’s a book about life and love and choices and moonbases. The day Mark called, Patricia Cowan’s world split in two.

The phone call.

His question.

Her answer.

A single word.

“Yes.”

“No.”

It is 2015 and Patricia Cowan is very old. “Confused today” read the notes clipped to the end of her bed. Her childhood, her years at Oxford during the Second World War – those things are solid in her memory. Then that phone call and… her memory splits in two.

She was Trish, a housewife and mother of four.

She was Pat, a successful travel writer and mother of three.

She remembers living her life as both women, so very clearly. Which memory is real – or are both just tricks of time and light?

My Real Children is the story of both of Patricia Cowan’s lives – each with its loves and losses, sorrows and triumphs, its possible consequences. It is a novel about how every life means the entire world.

Another new book in the UK from Walton (she’s been enjoying a string of re-issues over here), and it sounds really interesting. I still haven’t got around to reading anything by her. Hope to do so soon.

Books Received…

June 8, 2014 Civilian Reader Comics Books Received, Fantasy, Gollancz, Jo Fletcher Books, Sci-Fi, Transworld

Featuring: Rachel Aaron, Tanya Huff, Charlie Human, John Hornor Jacobs, Matthew K. Manning, Rachel Pollack, Robert Rotstein, Kieran Shea, Taylor Stevens, Daniel Wallace

Rachel Aaron, Nice Dragons Finish Last

As the smallest dragon in the Heartstriker clan, Julius survives by a simple code: stay quiet, don’t cause trouble, and keep out of the way of bigger dragons. But this meek behavior doesn’t cut it in a family of ambitious predators, and his mother, Bethesda the Heartstriker, has finally reached the end of her patience.

Now, sealed in human form and banished to the DFZ – a vertical metropolis built on the ruins of Old Detroit – Julius has one month to prove to his mother that he can be a ruthless dragon or lose his true shape forever. But in a city of modern mages and vengeful spirits where dragons are seen as monsters to be exterminated, he’s going to need some serious help to survive this test.

He only hopes that humans are more trustworthy than dragons.

I am a big fan of Aaron’s writing – her Eli Monpress fantasy series and her new sci-fi trilogy, written under the pseudonym “Rachel Bach” were great, light-hearted examples of the genre. I do have some catching up to do, though. This novel, the first in a new urban fantasy series, will be self-published by the author. It sounds interesting, too. An interesting twist on some popular UF tropes. I’ll hopefully be reading this pretty soon.

Tanya Huff, The Truth of Valour (Titan)

Having left the Marine Corps, former Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is attempting to build a new life with salvage operator Craig Ryder. Turns out, civilian life is a lot rougher than she’d imagined. Torin is left for dead when pirates attack their spaceship and take Craig prisoner. But “left for dead” has never stopped Torin. Determined to rescue Craig, she calls in her Marines. And that’s when her mission expands from stopping the pirates to changing the balance of power in known space.

The fifth book in the Confederation series! Review soon.

Also on CR: Reviews of Valour’s Choice, The Better Part of Valour, The Heart of Valour, and Valour’s Trial

Charlie Human, Kill Baxter (Century)

AND HE THOUGHT THE HARD PART WAS OVER…

The world has been massively unappreciative of sixteen-year-old Baxter Zevcenko. His bloodline may be a combination of ancient Boer mystic and giant shape-shifting crow, and he may have won an inter-dimensional battle and saved the world, but does anyone care? No.

Instead he’s packed off to Hexpoort, a magical training school that’s part reformatory, part military school, and just like Hogwarts (except with sex, drugs, and better internet access). The problem is that Baxter sucks at magic. He’s also desperately attempting to control his new ability to dreamwalk, all the while being singled out by the school’s resident bully, who just so happens to be the Chosen One.

But when the school comes under attack, Baxter needs to forget all that and step into action. The only way is joining forces with his favourite recovering alcoholic of a supernatural bounty hunter, Ronin, to try and save the world from the apocalypse. Again.

The anticipated follow-up to Apocalypse Now Now, I’ve been eagerly awaiting this. I think I’ll probably read it next, or next-but-one. Sounds fun.

John Hornor Jacobs, The Incorruptibles (Gollancz)

In the contested and unexplored territories at the edge of the Empire, a boat is making its laborious way upstream. Riding along the banks are the mercenaries hired to protect it – from raiders, bandits and, most of all, the stretchers, elf-like natives who kill any intruders into their territory. The mercenaries know this is dangerous, deadly work. But it is what they do.

In the boat the drunk governor of the territories and his sons and daughters make merry. They believe that their status makes them untouchable. They are wrong. And with them is a mysterious, beautiful young woman, who is the key to peace between warring nations and survival for the Empire. When a callow mercenary saves the life of the Governor on an ill-fated hunting party, the two groups are thrown together.

For Fisk and Shoe – two tough, honourable mercenaries surrounded by corruption, who know they can always and only rely on each other – their young companion appears to be playing with fire. The nobles have the power, and crossing them is always risky. And although love is a wonderful thing, sometimes the best decision is to walk away. Because no matter how untouchable or deadly you may be, the stretchers have other plans.

I’ve actually already finished this. It was very good. Review either tomorrow or Tuesday.

Matthew K. Manning, The World According to Wolverine (Bantam)

In The World According to Wolverine, Marvel Comics’ favorite stoic loner finally opens up on a range of topics that are close to his mutant heart. With helpful tips on everything from clawed combat to outdoor survival and dealing with the agony of adamantium implantation, this book will delight fans who want to learn how to be just like the headstrong hero. Also featuring Logan’s ruminations on an extremely long and checkered life, his global travels, and the art of picking the perfect partner, The World According to Wolverine will offer unparalleled insight into one of the most fascinating and mysterious characters in the Marvel Comics universe. The book will also come with a number of removable items, including a postcard from Madripoor, snapshots of Wolverine’s lost loves, a wanted poster for Dog Logan, an exclusive Wolverine poster, and much, much more.

I hadn’t been aware of this title (nor the Spider-Man one, below) before they arrived in the mail. I’ve had a flick through them both already, and I must say they’re rather fun. I’ll have them reviewed in the coming week.

Rachel Pollack, The Child Eater (Jo Fletcher Books)

On Earth, the Wisdom family has always striven to be more normal than normal. But Simon Wisdom, the youngest child, is far from normal: he can see the souls of the dead. And now the ghosts of children are begging him to help them, as they face something worse than death. The only problem is, he doesn’t know how.

In a far-away land of magic and legends, Matyas has dragged himself up from the gutter and inveigled his way into the Wizards’ college. In time, he will become more powerful than all of them – but will his quest blind him to the needs of others? For Matyas can also hear the children crying.

But neither can save the children alone, for the child eater is preying on two worlds…

This sounds pretty interesting. Another Wizards’ College novel, but I have always had something of a weakness for such novels. I’ll hopefully be getting to this soon.

Robert Rotstein, Reckless Disregard (Seventh Street)

Parker Stern’s last case was highly publicized, so it’s no surprise when he is asked to defend a video game designer in a libel suit brought by a Hollywood media mogul, who may also be a murderer.

Former topnotch attorney Parker Stern, still crippled by courtroom stage fright, takes on a dicey case for an elusive video game designer known to the world only by the name of “Poniard.” In Poniard’s blockbuster online video game, Abduction!, a real-life movie mogul is charged with kidnapping and murdering a beautiful actress who disappeared in the 1980s. Predictably, the mogul – William “the Conqueror” Bishop – has responded with a libel lawsuit. Now it’s up to Parker to defend the game designer in the suit.

In defending Poinard, Parker discovers that people aren’t who they claim to be and that nothing is as it seems. At one point, his client resorts to blackmail, threatening to expose a dark secret about Parker. Then, many of the potential witnesses who could have helped the case die prematurely, and the survivors are too frightened to talk. Parker begins to feel as if he’s merely a character in a video game, fighting malevolent Level Bosses who appear out of nowhere and threaten to destroy him.

Reckless Disregard explores the lure of celebrity, the limits of the legal system to get to the truth, and the elusive assumptions that we make about the people and the reality around us.

I haven’t read Rotstein’s first novel, but this sounds pretty interesting. I shall endeavour to get to it before I move to Canada (a point at which I am going to have to bid farewell to too many of my books, and begin the slow, laborious and expensive process of replacing ARCs with eBooks). It does sound really good, mind…

Kieran Shea, Koko Takes a Holiday (Titan)

Five hundred years from now, ex-corporate mercenary Koko Martstellar is swaggering through an easy early retirement as a brothel owner on The Sixty Islands, a manufactured tropical resort archipelago known for its sex and simulated violence. Surrounded by slang-drooling boywhores and synthetic komodo dragons, Koko finds the most challenging part of her day might be deciding on her next drink.

That is, until her old comrade Portia Delacompte sends a squad of security personnel to murder her.

I’ve dipped into this already, and I think it sounds pretty interesting and bonkers. It feels like ages ago, though, that I first heard about the novel. The book and one-sheet are covered in praise from other authors, many of whom I am already familiar with. I have high hopes for this.

Taylor Stevens, The Innocent (Arrow)

Eight years ago, a man walked five-year-old Hannah out the front doors of her school and spirited her over the Mexican border, taking her into the world of a cult known as The Chosen.

Now, after years of searching, childhood survivors of the group have found the girl in Argentina. But getting her out is a whole new challenge.

For the rescue they need someone who is brilliant, fearless and utterly ruthless.

They need Vanessa Michael Munroe.

Because the only way to get Hannah out is for Munroe to go in

This series has been described as being perfect “for fans of Lisbeth Salander, Jack Reacher and Jason Bourne”. That’s a pretty interesting selection, so I’m hoping to get to this soon. I’ve heard very good things, but have been oh-so-slow about getting around to reading anything by Stevens.

Also on CR: Interview with Taylor Stevens

Daniel Wallace, The World According to Spider-Man (Bantam)

It’s not easy being a Super Hero when you’ve got a steady job to hold down and girlfriend problems to deal with. Somehow, Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) manages to do it while regularly saving New York City from a rogues’ gallery of super villains. In The World According to Spider-Man, the wisecracking hero spills the beans on how he balances his two lives and manages to keep his trademark sense of humor, even while he’s tangling with Doc Ock or the Green Goblin. The book comes with a wealth of incredible inserts, including clippings from the Daily Bugle, snapshots taken by Spidey on his adventures, a letter from Oscorp, a note from Mary Jane Watson, a page from Uncle Ben’s diary, schematics showing how the web-shooters work, and much, much more.

See my earlier comments, above, about The World According to Wolverine. Both of these Marvel characters are among my favourite from that publisher, so I’ve enjoyed the quick reads of them both already.

Interview with GRAEME SHIMMIN

June 4, 2014 Civilian Reader Interview Alternate History, Thriller, Transworld

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Graeme Shimmin?

I’m spy thriller novelist, and the author of the award-winning novel A Kill in the Morning. I also run a website where I review spy thrillers and advise aspiring authors about writing and getting published.

Your debut novel, A Kill in the Morning, is due to be published in June by Transworld. How would you introduce the novel to a new reader?

A Kill in the Morning is an action-packed, fun spy thriller that has been compared to Robert Harris’s Fatherland and Ian Fleming’s Thunderball – if you like classic spy thrillers, you’ll love it.

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

Specifically, I’d had an image in my head for years of hanger doors grinding open to reveal an amazing super-weapon that I could never quite see. Generally, all the classic spy novels I’d read inspired me. When I started writing A Kill in the Morning, all those ideas just seemed to flood out. About halfway through, I suddenly realised how the story had to end and that it was really going to work. I sat back and just thought, “This is the story I was born to write.” It was an amazing moment. I felt like a sculptor, chipping away and finding the sculpture was already there inside the marble.

How were you introduced to reading and genre fiction?

I was brought up reading classic spy thrillers like From Russia With Love, Ice Station Zebra, and The Ipcress File: fast-paced, action-packed and fun. My mum used to take me to the library every Thursday and I worked my way through practically every thriller and sci-fi novel they had, reading two or three a week.

How do you enjoy being a writer? Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?

Being a writer gives me the opportunity to write exactly the sort of thing I like to read, and that’s massively enjoyable – almost like a choose-your-own-adventure!

I try to write first thing in the morning. Get up, have a cup of tea and write for a couple of hours. Writing first thing in the morning whilst still half asleep is good for imagining things. I write at home, mostly, although I have done some good work on long train journeys.

My strategy for research is to have ‘research days’ and ‘writing days’. That avoids getting sidetracked. On a ‘writing day’, if I’m unsure of a fact I just make a note to check it later.

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 worked in IT for fifteen years. It was very lucrative, but practically everything I ever worked on was cancelled. I realised I wanted to create something lasting. I’d always written a bit, but I resigned in order to write full time. The first page I wrote is still in the novel, but it has been edited a lot.

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

I’m aware that “Nazi victory” had been used as a setting for several novels, notably Fatherland and that some people feel it “has been done before”, but I think there’s plenty of room for more stories in what is becoming a sub-genre. After all, every story has been done before, and no one criticises a new crime novel because it’s not the first story with a detective in it!

In A Kill in the Morning, the Nazis haven’t achieved “victory”, anyway. Britain and the Soviet Union are still opposing them, but not in open warfare – instead there’s a three-way Cold War. That gave me a lot of scope to write the kind of classic spy story that was written during the Cold War, but with the Nazis as antagonists, and after all the Nazis are the ultimate bad guys!

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

I’m editing a novel called Angel in Amber at the moment, and hoping to bring that out next year. Angel in Amber is a thriller set in the near future, with Britain trapped between a feuding USA and Europe. It’s written in the same all-action style as A Kill in the Morning.

After that, there will be sequels to A Kill in the Morning. I’ve worked out how the series will continue and I’ve already written the first chapter of the next book.

Also, every month I write a free short story for my friends and the people who like my writing. You can sign up for it on my website.

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

The novel I’m reading is Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene. I’m rereading all his spy-related novels to review them on my website. A non-fiction book I’ve been reading is Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer, as part of my research for the sequel to A Kill in the Morning.

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

I have never been a spy! People ask me this all the time, which I think has to be a compliment to the amount of research I’ve done.

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

Seeing A Kill in the Morning on the shelves in bookshops, and talking to people who have read it.

***

A Kill in the Morning will be published in the UK on June 19th, 2014.

(MORE) Books Received…

May 25, 2014 Civilian Reader Uncategorized Angry Robot, Books Received, Del Rey UK, Gollancz, Macmillan, Orbit, Tor UK, Transworld

In what is fast becoming the Book Flood of Summer 2014, even more exciting books have been turning up in the post and as eARCs…

Featuring: Anna Caltabiano, Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston, Richard A. Clarke, James S.A. Corey, Ellen Datlow (ed.), Emma Donohue, Daryl Gregory, Elliott Hall, Doug Hulick, Kameron Hurley, Kendra Leighton, D.J. Molles, Edward St. Aubyns, Liesel Schwarz, Graeme Shimmin, Nalini Singh, James Thornton

Anna Caltabiano, The Seventh Miss Hatfield (Gollancz)

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?

One of Gollancz’s 2014 debuts, I was very much looking forward to reading this. I’m reading it at the moment and, while interesting and pretty well done, it isn’t really grabbing me… Hopefully it will pick up as I near the end…

Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston, Earth Awakens (Orbit)

Nearly 100 years before the events of Orson Scott Card’s bestselling novel Ender’s Game, humans were just beginning to step off Earth and out into the Solar System. A thin web of ships in both asteroid belts; a few stations; a corporate settlement on Luna. No one had seen any sign of other space-faring races; everyone expected that First Contact, if it came, would happen in the future, in the empty reaches between the stars. Then a young navigator on a distant mining ship saw something moving too fast, heading directly for our sun.

When the alien ship screamed through the solar system, it disrupted communications between the far-flung human mining ships and supply stations, and between them and Earth. So Earth and Luna were unaware that they had been invaded until the ship pulled into Earth orbit, and began landing terra-forming crews in China. Politics and pride slowed the response on Earth, and on Luna, corporate power struggles seemed more urgent than distant deaths. But there are a few men and women who see that if Earth doesn’t wake up and pull together, the planet could be lost.

This is the third volume in Card & Johnston’s The First Formic War series. Sadly, I haven’t read any of the Ender’s Game-related novels, so I’m not sure I’ll get to this in the immediate future. I will, however, be reading Ender’s Game pretty soon.

Richard A. Clarke, Sting of a Drone (Thomas Dunne)

In Washington, the Kill Committee gathers in the White House’s Situation Room to pick the next targets for the United States drone program. At an airbase just outside Las Vegas, a team of pilots, military personnel and intelligence officers follow through on the committee’s orders, finding the men who have been deemed a threat to national security and sentenced to death. On the other side of the world, in the mountains where the drones hunt their prey, someone has decided to fight back. And not just against the unmanned planes that circle their skies, but against the Americans at home who control them.

I’ve read a fair bit of Clarke’s non-fiction, so I’m curious to see what his fiction is like. Hot topic, drones.

James S.A. Corey, Cibola Burn (Orbit)

The gates have opened the way to thousands of habitable planets, and the land rush has begun. Settlers stream out from humanity’s home planets in a vast, poorly controlled flood, landing on a new world. Among them, the Rocinante, haunted by the vast, posthuman network of the protomolecule as they investigate what destroyed the great intergalactic society that built the gates and the protomolecule.

But Holden and his crew must also contend with the growing tensions between the settlers and the company which owns the official claim to the planet. Both sides will stop at nothing to defend what’s theirs, but soon a terrible disease strikes and only Holden – with help from the ghostly Detective Miller – can find the cure.

I’m so behind on this series… This is the fourth novel in The Expanse series, yet I’ve only managed to read the first one, Leviathan Wakes. It was recently announced that the TV rights for the series have been bought and (possibly) started development. I’d like to catch up, and I’ll do my best to do so.

Ellen Datlow (ed.), Lovecraft’s Monsters (Tachyon)

This deliciously creepy and loving tribute to the master of modern horror features riveting illustrated stories of his wicked progeny.

In the century since the master of horror, H. P. Lovecraft, published his first story, the monstrosities that crawled out of his brain have become legend: the massive, tentacled Cthulhu, who lurks beneath the sea waiting for his moment to rise; the demon Sultan Azathoth, who lies babbling at the center of the universe, mad beyond imagining; the Deep Ones, who come to shore to breed with mortal men; and the unspeakably-evil Hastur, whose very name brings death. These creatures have been the nightmarish fuel for generations of horror writers, and the inspiration for some of their greatest works.

This impressive anthology celebrates Lovecraft’s most famous beasts in all their grotesque glory, with each story a gripping new take on a classic mythos creature and affectionately accompanied by an illuminating illustration. Within these accursed pages something unnatural slouches from the sea into an all-night diner to meet the foolish young woman waiting for him, while the Hounds of Tindalos struggle to survive trapped in human bodies, haunting pool halls for men they can lure into the dark. Strange, haunting, and undeniably monstrous, this is Lovecraft as you have never seen him before.

Sounds like an interesting anthology.

Emma Donohue, Frog Music (Picador)

Summer of 1876: San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. Through the window of a railroad saloon, a young woman called Jenny Bonnet is shot dead. The survivor, her friend Blanche Beunon, is a French burlesque dancer. Over the next three days, she will risk everything to bring Jenny’s murderer to justice – if he doesn’t track her down first. The story Blanche struggles to piece together is one of free-love bohemians, desperate paupers and arrogant millionaires; of jealous men, icy women and damaged children. It’s the secret life of Jenny herself, a notorious character who breaks the law every morning by getting dressed: a charmer as slippery as the frogs she hunts.

In thrilling, cinematic style, FROG MUSIC digs up a long-forgotten, never-solved crime. Full of songs that migrated across the world, Emma Donoghue’s lyrical tale of love and bloodshed among lowlifes captures the pulse of a boom town like no other.

Some of my own research touched upon Chinese immigration into San Francisco during this period, so I thought the novel sounded quite interesting.

Daryl Gregory, We Are All Completely Fine (Tachyon)

Harrison was the Monster Detective, a storybook hero. Now he’s in his mid-thirties, and spends most of his time popping pills and not sleeping. Stan became a minor celebrity after being partially eaten by cannibals. Barbara is haunted by unreadable messages carved upon her bones. Greta may or may not be a mass-murdering arsonist. Martin never takes off his sunglasses. Never.

No one believes the extent of their horrific tales, not until they are sought out by psychotherapist Dr. Jan Sayer. What happens when these seemingly-insane outcasts form a support group? Together they must discover which monsters they face are within – and which are lurking in plain sight.

I’m a big fan of Gregory’s writing – especially his latest novel, Afterparty (Tor in the US, Titan in the UK). This is very high on my TBR list.

Elliott Hall, The First Stone (John Murray)

Private eye Felix Strange doesn’t work homicide cases. He saw enough dead bodies fighting in Iran, a war that left him with a crippling disease that has no name and no cure. So when Strange is summoned to a Manhattan hotel room to investigate the dead body of America’s most-loved preacher, he’d rather not get involved.

Strange has a week to find the killer, and even less time to get the black-market medicine he needs to stay alive. In an America where biblical prophecy is foreign policy, Strange knows that his hiring is no accident. He can’t see all the angles, and he knows he’s being watched. In a race against time Strange must face religious police, organized crime and a dame with very particular ideas, while uncovering a conspiracy that reaches the very heart of his newly fundamentalist nation.

This is the June title for the Hodderscape Review Project, for which I am shamefully behind on my reading. Shamefully! In fact, there may not be a Cone of Shame large enough to encompass my lackadaisical approach… This is by no means do to a lack of interest in the titles I’ve received (indeed, this one sounds really interesting, and definitely up my street). I’ll be getting to this hopefully very soon, after I get my review of Speed of Dark ready. The First Stone is the first in a trilogy, so hopefully I’ll like this one and have more to read! The rest of the series includes The Fall (a prequel short story), The Rapture and The Children’s Crusade. I just bought the prequel, so I’ll slot that in before starting this.

Doug Hulick, Sworn in Steel (Tor)

It’s been three months since Drothe killed a legend, burned down a portion of the imperial capital, and unexpectedly elevated himself into the ranks of the criminal elite. Now, as the newest Gray Prince in the underworld, he’s learning just how good he used to have it.

With barely the beginnings of an organization to his name, Drothe is already being called out by other Gray Princes. And to make matters worse, when one dies, all signs point to Drothe as wielding the knife. As members of the Kin begin choosing sides – mostly against him – for what looks to be another impending war, Drothe is approached by a man who not only has the solution to Drothe’s most pressing problem, but an offer of redemption. The only problem is the offer isn’t for him.

Now Drothe finds himself on the way to the Despotate of Djan, the empire’s long-standing enemy, with an offer to make and a price on his head. And the grains of sand in the hour glass are running out, fast…

Loved the first book, very glad this one has finally arrived!

Also on CR: Interview with Doug Hulick

Kameron Hurley, The Mirror Empire (Angry Robot)

On the eve of a recurring catastrophic event known to extinguish nations and reshape continents, a troubled orphan evades death and slavery to uncover her own bloody past… while a world goes to war with itself.

In the frozen kingdom of Saiduan, invaders from another realm are decimating whole cities, leaving behind nothing but ash and ruin.

As the dark star of the cataclysm rises, an illegitimate ruler is tasked with holding together a country fractured by civil war, a precocious young fighter is asked to betray his family and a half-Dhai general must choose between the eradication of her father’s people or loyalty to her alien Empress.

Through tense alliances and devastating betrayal, the Dhai and their allies attempt to hold against a seemingly unstoppable force as enemy nations prepare for a coming together of worlds as old as the universe itself.

In the end, one world will rise – and many will perish.

I’ve mentioned this before on the blog. Will get to it pretty soon.

Also on CR: Guest Post by Kameron Hurley

Kendra Leighton, Glimpse (Much-In-Little)

I’ve mentioned this novel a few times on the blog, recently. It sounds really interesting. The publicity material makes a big deal out of the fact that the novel is inspired by Alfred Noyes’s The Highwayman. Before reading the synopsis for this novel, I had never heard of that story, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to comment on that aspect, when I get around to reviewing this. I recently sent interview questions to Kendra, so expect that to go up mid-June. [Full disclosure: Kendra and I are friends from undergrad.]

D.J. Molles, The Remaining (Orbit)

In a steel-and-lead encased bunker a Special Forces soldier wait on his final orders.

On the surface a bacterium has turned 90% of the population into hyper-aggressive predators.

Now Captain Lee Harden must leave the bunker and venture into the wasteland to rekindle a shattered America.

I do like post-apocalyptic novels. This was a self-published success before Orbit picked up the series. Hopeful it’ll be entertaining, and better than the Ex-Heroes series, which was another move-to-big-publisher zombie series that I… did not like much. This printed edition also includes the novella, “An Empty Soul” (not, as the back cover copy suggests, “Faith”).

Edward St. Aubyns, Lost For Words (Picador)

The judges on the panel of the Elysian Prize for Literature must get through hundreds of submissions to find the best book of the year. Meanwhile, a host of writers are desperate for Elysian attention: the brilliant writer and serial heartbreaker Katherine Burns; the lovelorn debut novelist Sam Black; and Bunjee, convinced that his magnum opus,The Mulberry Elephant, will take the literary world by storm. Things go terribly wrong when Katherine’s publisher accidentally submits a cookery book in place of her novel; one of the judges finds himself in the middle of a scandal; and Bunjee, aghast to learn his book isn’t on the short list, seeks revenge.

Lost for Words is a witty, fabulously entertaining satire that cuts to the quick of some of the deepest questions about the place of art in our celebrity-obsessed culture, and asks how we can ever hope to recognize real talent when everyone has an agenda.

I’m almost finished, actually. It’s pretty good, too. Imagine everything you don’t like about publishing, literary society, and the most annoying denizens that inhabit it. Then make fun of them in a clever, wry manner. Short review coming soon (it doesn’t need a long one).

Liesel Schwartz, A Clockwork Heart & Sky Pirates (Del Rey UK)

FOR BETTER OR CURSE. That might as well have been the wedding vow of Elle Chance and her new husband, the ex-Warlock Hugh Marsh in the second book of this edgy new series that transforms elements of urban fantasy, historical adventure, and paranormal romance into storytelling magic.

As Elle devotes herself to her duties as the Oracle – who alone has the power to keep the dark designs of Shadow at bay – Marsh finds himself missing the excitement of his former life as a Warlock. So when Commissioner Willoughby of the London Metropolitan police seeks his help in solving a magical mystery, Marsh is only too happy to oblige. But in doing so, Marsh loses his heart… literally.

In place of the flesh-and-blood organ is a clockwork device – a device that makes Marsh a kind of zombie. Nor is he the only one. A plague of clockwork zombies is afflicting London, sowing panic and whispers of revolution. Now Elle must join forces with her husband’s old friend, the Nightwalker Loisa Beladodia, to track down Marsh’s heart and restore it to his chest before time runs out.

I met Liesel Schwartz at a signing for her debut novel (the first in this series). Sadly, I haven’t got around to reading that novel, yet… Sigh. So many books, so very little time to get through them all…

Also on CR: Interview with Liesel Schwarz

Graeme Shimmin, A Kill In The Morning (Bantam Press)

“I don’t like killing, but I’m good at it. Murder isn’t so bad from a distance, just shapes in my scope. Close up work though, the garrotte around the neck, the knife in the heart, it’s not for me. Too much empathy, that’s my problem. Usually. But not today. Today is different…”

The year is 1955 and something is very wrong with the world: Churchill is dead and WW2 didn’t happen. Europe is in thrall to a nuclear-armed Nazi Germany. Only Britain and its Empire holds out, bound by an uneasy truce and all the while German scientists are experimenting with terrifying forces beyond their understanding – forces that are driving them to the brink of insanity and beyond.

Berlin is a hotbed of suspicion and betrayal – a lone British assassin is fighting a private war with the Nazis; the Gestapo are on the trail of a beautiful young resistance fighter and the head of the SS plots to dispose of an increasingly decrepit Adolf Hitler and become Fuhrer. While in London, a sinister and treacherous cabal will stop at nothing to conceal the conspiracy of the century.

Four desperate scenarios that are destined to collide with catastrophic effect. And it all hinges on a single kill in the morning…

Never heard of this before it arrived in the mail. Sounds kind of interesting, too.

Nalini Singh, Shield of Winter (Gollancz)

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…

I’ve never read anything by Nalini Singh, although I’ve only heard very good things. One thing I’m not sure about, though, is if this novel can be read without prior knowledge? If not, then I’ll hopefully give it a try pretty soon. If yes, then…

James Thornton, Sphinx: The Second Coming (Barbican Press)

SPHINX: THE SECOND COMING delves into the powers of the Ancient Gods of Egypt, and conjures them into a thrilling science fiction adventure. The Sphinx waits. Methane bubbles beneath the ocean’s beds. Catastrophe is coming. A team of westerners is set to unlock a code found deep in the fabric of the Great Pyramid. The puzzle goes beyond time – for secrets of Ancient Egypt are alive beneath modern Cairo. The puzzle stretches into the universe, where the ruling powers on distant galaxies stay alert for the future of planet Earth. This is visionary storytelling of the highest order that takes you deep into the mysteries of Egypt, and the wildest reaches of the imagination.

Thornton seems to be a pretty accomplished fellow – especially in the realms of environmental protection and policy. Whether or not that will translate into a skill at penning gripping adventure stories…? We’ll just have to see. It sounds interesting – a bit like Lovegrove’s Pantheon series, perhaps? Maybe less action and war than that, though. Age of Ra meets Da Vinci Code…?

Yet More Books Received…

May 4, 2014 Civilian Reader Uncategorized Black Library, David Annandale, Gollancz, Image Comics, Josh Reynolds, Recent Acquisitions, Steven Erikson, Titan Books, Transworld

I appear to have published the previous post a little prematurely, as yet more awesome books have recently come in the mail.

Featuring: David Annandale, Monica Byrnes, C. Robert Cargill, Steven Erikson, Ari Marmell, Josh Reynolds, Rob Sanders, & graphic novels

David Annandale, Yarrick: Imperial Creed (Black Library)

Yarrick: the very name carries the weight of legend, of great deeds and of wars won for the Imperium. But Sebastian Yarrick, who fought on Armageddon, who Space Marine Chapter Masters show their fealty to on bended knee, was not always Lord Commissar. He was once just a man, a newly minted officer from the ranks of the schola progenium.

His first mission under the tutelage of Lord Commissar Rasp was on Mistral. Here, an uprising of barons had upset the delicate balance of power. But, as Yarrick was soon forced to learn, Mistral and Imperial politics are often murky, the truth seldom clear cut. As war engulfs the world, a plot unravels that pits old friends against one another and fashions unusual alliances. Chaos cults, the fanatical Adepta Sororitas and clandestine inquisitors all stand between Yarrick and his mission. Here is where the legend began. In this crucible was Lord Commissar Sebastian Yarrick forged in blood.

I’ve mentioned before on the blog how much I enjoy Annandale’s writing. Having especially enjoyed his two previous Yarrick works (a novella and a short story), I’m itching to get started with this.

Monica Byrne, The Woman in the Road (Crown)

When Meena, a young woman living in a futuristic India, gets out of bed with mysterious snake bites on her chest, she decides India has become too dangerous. As she plots her exit, she hears of The Trail and knows this is her salvation. The Trail is a bridge that spans the Arabian Sea, connecting India to Africa like a silver ribbon extending to the horizon. Its purpose is to harness the power of the ocean – “blue energy” – but it also offers a sub-culture of travelers a chance for escape and adventure. Meena gathers supplies – a pozit GPS system, a scroll reader, a sealable water-proof pod – and embarks on a journey to Ethiopia, the place of her birth.

Mariama, a girl from a different time, is on a quest of her own. Forced to flee her home, she joins up with a caravan of strangers heading across Saharan Africa. She meets Yemaya, a beautiful and enigmatic woman who becomes her protector and confidante. Yemaya tells Mariama of Ethiopia, where revolution is brewing.

As one heads east and the other west, Meena and Mariama’s fates will entwine in ways that are profoundly moving and ultimately shocking.

Spotted this on NetGalley. Looked interesting and something a little different. So I was very glad when my request was approved.

C. Robert Cargill, Queen of the Dark Things (Gollancz)

Six months have passed since the wizard Colby lost his best friend to an army of fairies from the Limestone Kingdom, a realm of mystery and darkness beyond our own. But in vanquishing these creatures and banning them from Austin, Colby sacrificed the anonymity that protected him. Now, word of his deeds has spread, and powerful enemies from the past-including one Colby considered a friend-have resurfaced to exact their revenge.

As darkness gathers around the city, Colby sifts through his memories desperate to find answers that might save him. With time running out, and few of his old allies and enemies willing to help, he is forced to turn for aid to forces even darker than those he once battled.

This is the sequel to Dreams of Shadows, which I shamefully have not got around to reading, yet. Now that this has arrived, though, I think there’s no time like the present.

Steven Erikson, The Devil Delivered and Other Tales (Bantam)

The Devil Delivered: In the breakaway Lakota Nation, in the heart of a land blistered beneath an ozone hole the size of the Great Plains of North America, a lone anthropologist wanders the deadlands, recording observations that threaten to bring the world’s powers to their knees.

Revolvo: In the fictitious country of Canada, the arts scene is ruled by technocrats who thrive in a secret, nepotistic society of granting agencies, bursaries, and peer review boards, all designed to permit self-proclaimed artists to survive without an audience.

Fishing with Grandma Matchie: A children’s story of a boy tasked with a writing assignment becomes a stunning fantastical journey with his tale-spinning grandmother.

The paperback release – still have the hardcover, sadly yet-unread. I’ve never read anything by Erikson, but a lot of people have been telling me in the last couple of months that his Malazan series is superb. It’s also a considerable reading commitment, to I will read this collection as a more-manageable introduction to his writing.

Ari Marmell, Hot Lead, Cold Iron (Titan)

Chicago, 1932. Mick Oberon may look like just another private detective, but beneath the fedora and the overcoat, he’s got pointy ears and he’s packing a wand.

Oberon’s used to solving supernatural crimes, but the latest one’s extra weird. A mobster’s daughter was kidnapped sixteen years ago, replaced with a changeling, and Mick’s been hired to find the real child. The trail’s gone cold, but what there is leads Sideways, to the world of the Fae, where the Seelie Court rules. And Mick’s not really welcome in the Seelie Court any more. He’ll have to wade through Fae politics and mob power struggles to find the kidnapper – and of course it’s the last person he expected.

I actually read a very early version of this novel, a couple of years back, when I was reading some submissions (at a work experience placement). I really liked it then, and I’m hoping I really like this final version. Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of fae-related stories. I find them pretty limited in scope. Nevertheless, having read a number of Marmell’s previous novels, I have high hopes that this won’t disappoint as others in the sub-genre have. The 1930s time-setting is a nice alternative touch, too.

Josh Reynolds, Gotrek & Felix: The Serpent Queen (Black Library)

Gotrek and Felix: unsung heroes of the Empire, or nothing more than common thieves and murderers? The truth perhaps lies somewhere in between, and depends entirely upon whom you ask…

Travelling to the mysterious south in search of a mighty death, the Slayer Gotrek Gurnisson and his human companion, Felix Jaeger, find themselves caught up in a battle between warring kingdoms. Captured by the sinister Queen Khalida and forced to do her bidding, the adventurers must brave the horrors of the sun-soaked Land of the Dead… And the dead do not rest easy.

The fan-favourite characters return, in the last stand-alone novel (as far as I can tell) before BL returns to the chronology started by Will King and continued by Nathan Long. Fans have been clamouring for a direct follow-up to Zombieslayer for years, and we will finally be getting it! I used to eagerly buy each new G&F novel on the day of release and devour it immediately. However, for the last few years I haven’t been doing that. I have somehow failed to read any of the three stand-alone novels (Road of Skulls and City of the Damned being the other two). I think this is just because they’ve come out right in the middle of one of my recently-all-too-frequent fantasy apathy patches. Other reviewers have said this novel and the others have been fantastic, so I shall try to get caught up with plenty of time before David Guymer’s Kinslayer arrives, later this year.

Rob Sanders, Archaon: Everchosen (Black Library)

In the north of the world the forces of Chaos gather, awaiting their moment to strike. At their head is the Everchosen, the warrior who will lead the final, cataclysmic assault that will usher in the End Times and the reign of the Ruinous Powers. But he was not always thus – he was once a man, a devout servant of the warrior-god Sigmar. What could cause such a soul to fall to the worship of the Dark Gods? What dark events could have put a knight of the Empire on the path to becoming the harbinger of the world’s end? And just who was the man who will become known to all as Archaon?

The digital edition of Archaon: Everchosen also includes the short story Archaon: The Fall and the Rise.

I’ve had a mixed experience with Sanders’s full length Black Library fiction. I thought Redemption Corps was brilliant, but found Atlas Infernal a little disappointing (it’s a novel I intend to go back and re-read at some point in the not-too-distant future, as I think my mood at the time reduced my interest and enjoyment in it). I have, however, really liked his short fiction. Here, he tackles the backstory of one of my favourite Warhammer Chaos characters, and so I’m really hoping he pulls it off. I’m sure he will.

This also reminds me that I have Ben Counter’s Van Horstmann still to read…

Graphic Novels

Extinction Parade, Vol.1 (Avatar)

Max Brooks, the best selling Zombie writer in history, unleashes an all-new horror epic!

As humans wage their losing fight versus the hoards of the subdead, a frightening realization sets in with the secretive vampire race: our food is dying off.

This is the story of the vampire’s decent into all-out war with the mindless, hungry hordes of the zombie outbreak as humanity tries to survive them all!

This collected edition contains the entire first chapter of Extinction Parade (issues #1-5) and a massive undead cover gallery!

Max Brooks’ best-selling novel, World War Z, has been adapted into one of 2013’s biggest blockbuster movie releases, bringing increased media attention to this acclaimed author. Legendary Pictures announced they have optioned Extinction Parade for a TV series.

Somewhat confusingly, this is an “intentionally incomplete manuscript” (missing, I think, the final issue and a bit). So it doesn’t contain the whole story. This is slightly annoying, but I’ll give it a read anyway. As someone who hasn’t read World War Z, I didn’t find the movie as objectionable as some. It’ll be interesting to see what this is like. If I like it, I’m sure I’ll buy the published version, so I can finish off the first story arc.

Manifest Destiny, Vol.1 (Image)

In 1804, Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark set out from St. Louis, Missouri with the intent of blazing a trail to the western coast of North America – a trip that would set the foundation for the future of the United States of America.

But what the history books don’t tell you is the true purpose of Lewis and Clark’s journey to the west…

In this imaginative retelling of their famous trek, Lewis and Clark embark on a secret mission under direct orders from President Thomas Jefferson.

They are going to do more than explore the wild frontier: they’re going to catalog exotic life and eliminate the monsters that stand in the way of the safe and rapid expansion of the United States.

Collects: Manifest Destiny #1-6

I’m fascinated by American history, and particularly early history. I do like comics very much. And I like weird, supernatural retellings of history. So this sounds pretty much cater-made for one of my genre tastes. Hopefully get it reviewed very soon.

Mini-Review: “The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar” by Martin Windrow (Bantam Press)

April 2, 2014 Civilian Reader Review Bantam Press, Martin Windrow, Memoir, Mumble, Non-Fiction, Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar, Owls, Transworld

An endearing memoir of one man and his owl

When author Martin Windrow met the tawny owlet that he christened Mumble, it was love at first sight. Raising her from a fledgling, through adolescence and into her prime years, Windrow recorded every detail of their time living together (secretly) in a south London tower block, and later in a Sussex village. This is the touching, intriguing and eccentric story of their 15-year relationship, complete with photographs and illustrations of the beautiful Mumble. Along the way, we are given fascinating insight into the ornithology of owls – from their evolution and biology to their breeding habits and hunting tactics. The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar is a witty, quirky and utterly charming account of the companionship between one man and his owl.

This is a book that doesn’t require much of a review. It is an endearing, amusing, and also moving account of an editor’s life and experiences as the owner of an owl. An interesting, short book.

“Perched on the back of a sunlit chair was something about 9 inches tall and shaped rather like a plump toy penguin with a nose-job. It appeared to be wearing a one-piece knitted jumpsuit of pale grey fluff with brown stitching, complete with an attached balaclava helmet. From the face-hole of the fuzzy balaclava, two big, shiny black eyes gazed up at me trustfully. Kweep, it said quietly.”

Windrow recounts his various experiences with Mumble (and the short tenure of his first owl), and there are so many moments that bring a smile or even laugh, as he recounts the rather cat-like affections and mannerisms of his pet owl. (Indeed, Windrow says owls are basically cats with wings). To avoid cute-overload, the author alternates some chapters of his experiences with more informational chapters – for example, one on the biology of owls, one (really interesting) chapter on their place in folklore and mythology, and so forth.

A quick read, that will make you smile and also tug on your heartstrings, The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar is an enjoyable book. It perhaps could have done with being a bit shorter: the anecdotes have a slightly repetitive quality about them, without ever losing the obvious sense of affection Windrow felt for his pet and companion. A different book to what I normally read, it was nevertheless a quick and endearing diversion.

An Interview with SIMON BECKETT

January 29, 2014 Civilian Reader Interview Bantam, Chemistry of Death, Simon Beckett, Stone Bruises, Thriller, Transworld

Simon Beckett’s Stone Bruises is one of my most-anticipated thriller novels of 2014. I was very happy, therefore, to get the chance to interview the author. Read on, fair reader, for Beckett’s thoughts on writing, his latest novel, and more.

Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Simon Beckett?

I’m the author of four crime thrillers featuring David Hunter, a British forensic anthropologist. I’ve worked as a freelance journalist for most national newspapers and colour supplements, and the idea for the Hunter series came after I was commissioned to write a piece on the Body Farm in Tennessee, where real human cadavers are used to research decomposition. It was a gruesome but fascinating experience, and provided the basis for the first David Hunter novel, The Chemistry of Death. My aim was to draw on some of the forensic techniques I’d seen used in the US but with a British main character and a British setting. And to make it scary, as well.

I thought we’d start with your fiction: Your latest novel, Stone Bruises, will be published by Transworld in January 2013. How would you introduce the novel to a potential reader? Is it part of a series?

Stone Bruises is a standalone novel rather than part of a series. It’s a psychological thriller that opens with a young British man, Sean, abandoning a bloodstained car in rural France. He’s obviously traumatised and on the run, although we don’t know what he’s trying to escape from. When he’s badly injured in what might be described as “suspicious circumstances”, he regains consciousness to find he’s being cared for by two young women on a dilapidated farm. He’s not sure if he’s a patient or a prisoner, but despite falling foul of the women’s violent father, he begins to regard the farm as a perfect hiding place. Except that he’s not the only one with secrets, and as his own story emerges we come to realise this might not be the idyllic retreat that Sean imagines.

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

I don’t think I could say anything inspired me, as my ideas tend to come from a variety of different sources. But when I was younger I hitchhiked in France myself, so I know how remote some parts are – and how difficult it can be to hitch a lift. So I came up with what I thought was a strong opening scene, and then built the story and character from there.

How were you introduced to genre fiction?

I read a lot of horror and science fiction as a kid, and then started reading crime after someone recommended Raymond Chandler. That was quite an eye-opener, as until then I’d thought crime was all fusty, murder-in-the-drawing room-type-stories. It made me realise that what’s loosely categorised as “crime fiction” can cover a huge range of different styles and stories.

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

I’m lucky being able to make a living doing this, although it isn’t something I take for granted. I always try to make each book better than the last, which can make life difficult sometimes but stops you becoming complacent. I try to work more or less office hours, but that often goes out of the window. The main thing is to be disciplined, and keep going.

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’ve always enjoyed writing, and took an English degree that had a creative writing element. But after I graduated I found I’d nothing to write about and stopped altogether for a few years. I wound up doing various jobs, from playing in bands to property repairs, but at the back of my mind I still had an urge to write. Then I got a job teaching English as a foreign language in Spain, and since I only worked evenings I had a lot of free time. So I started writing again, but even then it still took me several years to actually get anything published.

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

I think crime fiction seems very healthy at the moment. It’s hugely popular and I think maybe there’s less literary snobbery towards it now than there used to be. Which is only right: some crime fiction is good and some isn’t, just like anything else. As for where I fit in, I don’t really think of it in those terms: I just write the best stories I can, and try to make them as believable and unpredictable as possible.

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

At the moment I’m working on the next David Hunter novel.

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

I’m reading Solo, the new James Bond thriller by William Boyd. I’m a long-time fan of Ian Fleming’s original Bond novels and Boyd is a very good writer, so I have high hopes.

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

Hard to say. I play percussion – congas and bongos – though not as much as I used to. I suppose that might surprise a few people.

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

I try not to think too far ahead. But I’m looking forward to Stone Bruises being published in January.

***

Stone Bruises is published tomorrow in the UK, by Bantam/Transworld Books.

Guest Post: “My Favourite Novel” by Robert Goddard

July 5, 2013 Civilian Reader Guest Post John Fowles, Magus, My Favourite Novel, Robert Goddard, Transworld, Triad Panther Books, Ways of the World

I’m very pleased to share with you this quick guest post by author Robert Goddard, whose latest novel – The Ways of the World – was published yesterday, by Transworld (details at end).

My Favourite Novel: THE MAGUS by John Fowles

I first read The Magus shortly after it appeared in its revised 1977 edition, following original publication in 1966. Part of the appeal of the book then was probably to do with me being just the right age to be intoxicated and enthralled by its hallucinogenic mixture of psychological thriller and searing memoir. Beyond that, though, there’s the energetic lyricism of the writing. That’s what I relish most when I look back at it now.

The book works on the reader rather as the shimmering Aegean setting, the twin femmes fatales of June and Julie and the tormenting figure of the magus of the title, Conchis, work on the narrator of the story, Nicholas Urfe. First there is seduction, then there is mystery, then there is torture and finally an enigmatic resolution. No one part of the structure convinces as fiction without the others.

It is a brilliantly sustained piece of work.

Would that I could say the same of John Fowles’ writing career. After The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969), there was a slow and disappointing decline into virtual unreadability. I went to a talk by the great man once, in Exeter, some time in the mid-1980s. Alas, all that met me at the venue was a sign reading ‘John Fowles is unwell.’

‘John Fowles is depressed’ might have been more accurate, as I discovered when I read his diaries, published a few years ago, following his death in 2005. It’s probably best to know as little as possible about a writer you admire. Their personalities are apt to disappoint.

So, forget the writer. But enjoy his work. Anyone who hasn’t read The Magus has something to look forward to. I envy them.

By Robert Goddard

***

Robert Goddard’s latest novel, The Ways of the World is out now. It is, I believe, the first in a new series. It is very close to the top of my TBR mountain, so hopefully you’ll be seeing more of it on the blog in the near future.

Here’s the synopsis…

1919. The eyes of the world are on Paris, where statesmen, diplomats and politicians have gathered to discuss the fate of half the world’s nations in the aftermath of the cataclysm that was the Great War. A horde of journalists, spies and opportunists have also gathered in the city and the last thing the British diplomatic community needs at such a time is the mysterious death of a senior member of their delegation. So, when Sir Henry Maxted falls from the roof of his mistress’s apartment building in unexplained circumstances, their first instinct is to suppress all suspicious aspects of the event.

But Sir Henry’s son, ex-Royal Flying Corps ace James ‘Max’ Maxted, has other ideas. He resolves to find out how and why his father died – even if this means disturbing the impression of harmonious calm which the negotiating teams have worked so hard to maintain. In a city where countries are jostling for position at the crossroads of history and the stakes could hardly be higher, it is difficult to tell who is a friend and who a foe. And Max will soon discover just how much he needs friends, as his search for the truth sucks him into the dark heart of a seemingly impenetrable mystery.

Upcoming: “Inferno” by Dan Brown (Transworld & Doubleday)

February 23, 2013 Civilian Reader Uncategorized 2013, Dan Brown, Dangerous Gifts, Dante's Inferno, Doubleday, Inferno, Robert Langdon, Thriller, Transworld, Upcoming

So. The Da Vinci Code. A lot of people read that book. An awful lot of vocal people despised it. The Vatican said it was blasphemy (thereby guaranteeing excellent sales worldwide).* Lots more people complained about it, and also its prequel, Angels & Demons, and follow-up, The Lost Symbol, saying it was terrible or poorly written, and any number of criticisms. They’re not high-literature, nor are they the best historical-crypto-thrillers out there. They are quick and engaging reads. And, as always, any book that sells a bajillion copies (probably the real number) is good for the publishing industry as a whole. Be it Brown’s novels, Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight or E.L. James’s 50 Shades of Grey (all sneered at by people from all walks of life, most by those who haven’t read them), they all go some way to supporting other novels that will appeal more to CR readers and general SFF fans who don’t, to their detriment, read CR…

I will probably read Inferno. There’s something comfortable and reassuring about a novel that you know will give you exactly what you’re expecting. Suspend your disbelief and pathological need for realism, and I’m sure this will be a fun read. Regardless of what you may think of the author, Transworld have commissioned a pretty nice cover (above, right). The American cover, from Doubleday, isn’t too bad (left) either, but is basically a good example of the sub-genre’s standard style.

Here is the (US) synopsis:

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology, Robert Langdon, is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces… Dante’s Inferno.

Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust… before the world is irrevocably altered.

Inferno will be published in both the UK (Transworld) and the US (Doubleday) in May 2013.

* When I write my novel, and if anyone is kind enough to publish it, I will do everything I can to get the Vatican to publicly black-list it. I can’t think of a better publicity strategy…