‘The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy’ – Ellen Datlow (Editor)

This is one that I’ve been dipping in and out of over the last few weeks. Short story collections are great for that aren’t they? You can just pick and choose what you read, none of this ‘start at the beginning and work through to the end’ nonsense… :o)
Because of their very nature, I always find anthologies to be a bit hit and miss in terms of what I get out of them. ‘The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy’ is no exception with stories where my interest either gradually faded or never got started in the first place (I’m looking at you ‘AKA St. Mark’s Place’…)
There were a couple of real standout efforts though and it’s these that I want to draw your attention to…

‘The Goosle’ – Margo Lanagan

This one has stirred up a little controversy on the net with a perceived image of child abuse running throughout the tale. Having read it all I can really say is that if people are intent on looking for trouble then they’ll make sure they’ll find it. This is a dark fantasy tale of plague, abuse and a possible outcome to the tale of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ but it’s also a tale of survival against the odds and the strength needed to come through some really nasty stuff. It’s a coming of age tale as well with bleakness evident both in the scenery and the thoughts going through the main character’s head. ‘The Goosle’ would probably have been my favourite tale if it wasn’t for…

‘Daltharee’ – Jeffrey Ford

A city in a bottle, within a city in a bottle, within a city in a bottle… ad infintium… This tale really messed with my head with it’s talk of shrinking rays being reflected off mirrors and the lengths that people will go to in order to cover up their mistakes. ‘Daltharee’ is part science fiction, part horror and the horror element really comes to the fore in the final paragraphs. Scary as hell but compelling at the same time, ‘Daltharee’ has stayed in my head, ever since I finished reading it, and I don’t see it leaving anytime soon…

Honourable mentions go to Pat Cadigan’s ‘Jimmy’ (an intriguing build up but the payoff felt tacked on) and Nathan Ballingrud’s ‘North American Lake Monsters’ (spooky with a chilling ending, it just didn’t get me in the same way that ‘The Goosle’ and ‘Daltharee’ did).
I’m not giving this one a mark, right now, as I haven’t read the whole book. I may come back at a later date and award a mark then…

‘Deadstock’ – Jeffrey Thomas (Solaris Books)

When I’m not reading sci-fi, fantasy etc (which, to be fair, isn’t all that often) I like to read detective novels, in particular the works of Raymond Chandler. I love that slightly hard-boiled, pulp noir thing he has going on and I enjoy reading about Philip Marlowe and the cases he takes on that always end up being more than they seemed…
Bearing this in mind I love it when sci-fi adopts the same kind of approach with books like Richard Morgan’s ‘Altered Carbon’ and William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer’, two of my favourite genres in one book!
Looking at the blurb on the back of Jeffrey Thomas’ ‘Deadstock’ I thought I was in for more of the same, I was but it didn’t quite go the way I’d been expecting…

Punktown is a colony town on the planet of Oasis. It’s also a crime ridden melting pot of human and alien life, just the right kind of place for a private investigator to make a decent living. Jeremy Stake is one such private eye, former war veteran and owner of chameleon-like abilities he does not want and cannot control. There’s nothing less threatening than a missing doll (even a genetically engineered ‘living’ doll) but the client wants it found and Stake has bills to pay. Soon enough though, the case takes on a life of its own and Stake is up against more than he bargained for…

If you’re after some sci-fi that features a ‘low tech’, grimy cityscape with danger around every corner then you won’t go too far wrong with ‘Deadstock’. Punktown is a truly nasty place to live, especially the poorer area of SubTown where the law is just another dirty word. Anything can happen in Punktown up to and including insect invasions from another dimension, not so fun to be stuck in the middle of but definitely fun to read!

I mentioned that this scenario is the ideal place for a private eye to do his thing and Jeremy Stake blends into the picture really well. Stake is your archetypal private eye with a dodgy past and an ex-lover that he cannot forget. What sets him apart from the rest of the pack is his ability to take on the face of anyone he looks at for too long. This makes for some innovative ways of getting information but Thomas also takes time to examine what this ability actually means for Stake’s day to day life. Here is a man who cannot look at anyone for too long, lest he end up looking like them, so spends his time looking at the floor instead. Stake’s love life is also complicated as a result of his ‘gift’, especially when his current lover prefers him to take on the faces of popular celebrities. Questions of identity, coupled with the typical ‘gumshoe’ persona, definitely make Stake an interesting character to read about.

It’s a shame then that the story doesn’t quite match up to the work that Thomas has done on the world building and characterisation. On its own the plot works very well with clues and revelations gradually added to the mix to keep up the interest. There is also a couple of gunfights which are handled very smoothly and everything ties together right at the end to form one of those pictures which leave you thinking, “So that’s what was going on…”
The problem though is that I felt the world building aspect crowded out the story itself. This led to a lack of urgency in proceedings, certainly in Stake at various points, with only the sub-plot of the gangsters trapped by the ‘blank men’ lending a sense of adrenalin to what was going on. There was also a lot of talk between characters which sometimes made it difficult to spot the pivotal events which would sway the story…

If you can get past some of the more heavy going elements then I think there’s a lot to recommend ‘Deadstock’ to anyone who’s into ‘sci-fi noir’. There was certainly enough there to get me to check out the sequel…

Seven out of Ten

‘The Age of the Conglomerates’ – Thomas Nevins (Del Rey)

The themes of Utopia and Dystopia are staples in speculative fiction and appear under many guises, perhaps the two most famous examples are Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’. The line between the two states is a blurry one at best, depending on where you fit in. One man’s Utopia is another man’s… you get the idea.
I sometimes wonder just how much control we have over our future and whether the resulting insecurity manifests itself in visions of a nightmarish future under some totalitarian jackboot. Then I get myself another beer and turn the Playstation on :o)

Thomas Nevins has taken his musings one step further and gives us his vision of a world (forty years in the future) where a breakdown in the American economy has led to the rise of the Conglomerates, a party whose Chairman has transformed national law. Do you have a problem child or just a child that you don’t want any more? The State will remove it from your home and you will then be eligible (subject to status) to have another child bred to order to become an efficient and productive member of society. Are you eighty or over? Bad news I’m afraid, the Family Relief Act means that all your property reverts to your children and you will be shipped off to a government run community in Arizona. All laws are liable to be enforced at gunpoint and cameras record everything. Life will find a way though and four relatives from very different backgrounds will struggle to make their way in this world of the future…

As a vision of the future; Nevins’ ‘Age of the Conglomerates’ is backed up by enough things (happening right now) to make it plausible enough to give the reader more than a slight chill. The ongoing ‘credit crunch’, for starters, foreshadows possible events to come while ongoing research into genetics has raised debate over the kind of abuses that we see in the book. As far as the treatment of the elderly goes; we’re sticking them in homes and retirement villages now (out of sight…) is it that much of a leap to see this kind of approach on a much larger scale in the near future?
It’s all speculation, of course, but there’s just enough plausibility in it to make the reader stop and think for a bit. Well that’s what it made me do.

It’s a shame then that the execution of the story itself doesn’t do the scenario justice. My main issue with the book was the over-abundance of info-dumping in a book that’s only two hundred and ninety four pages long. I can understand it as a scene setting device in the prologue but for it to continue throughout the book is surely unnecessary as there are many other ways to show the reader (notice I said ‘show’ and not ‘tell’…) what is going on. The bit that really bugged me was when Nevins used his characters as ‘info-dump receptacles’ to cram even more information into the book. To have the guy who delivered the water, in the retirement village’, suddenly wax lyrical about the state of the ‘State’ just didn’t feel right to me and really jarred.

The story itself felt stifled under the weight of everything Nevins was trying to get across which resulted in what felt to me like a disjointed tale that left me bemused and frustrated in places. Certain characters would do things and I had no idea why, they certainly hadn’t given much indication that this was how they were going to behave. This was particularly true of Christine Salter, the geneticist, who seemed quite happy to go along under Conglomerate rule but then all of a sudden found herself fighting the good fight on the strength of a man who she wasn’t even sure how she felt about…
It’s a real shame as there were moments when I really got a feel for the landscape this was all happening in and wanted to know more about the characters who lived in it.

‘The Rise of the Conglomerates’ is a novel with a great concept that unfortunately fails in its execution. Maybe it would have benefited from being a little longer and having more room to explore everything it needed to instead of the uneven distribution that it presents.

Five and a Half out of Ten.

‘FutureWorld’ – Professor Mark L. Brake & Reverend Neil Hook (Boxtree)

These days most (if not all) of my reading is purely for entertainment and escapism. There’s still a lot to be learned from such books but I’ll quite happily admit to steering well clear of anything that’s more factual and likely to make me ‘learn’ something, nothing wrong with these books but that’s just not what I’m about at the moment.
I felt a little strange then to see a copy of ‘FutureWorld’ come through the door, a book that sets out to tell its reader how much of Science Fiction is now ‘Science Fact’ (as well as all the little sci-fi snippets that will become possible in the near future). Dammit; I want my sci-fi reading to help me escape from the real world, not tie me into it even more!
Having read it though my mind has been changed to an extent. Although I feel like the book has crept into my head and killed tiny parts of my imagination it does make for a fascinating and entertaining read…

‘FutureWorld’ is divided up into four themes (space, time, machine and monster) which examine various sci-fi staples and tell the reader how close these are to becoming reality, if they haven’t already. Do you want to know when you will be able to buy a real functioning light-saber? It’s not going to happen anytime soon I’m afraid. How about an instantaneous translator? There’s one in development but it doesn’t look anything like C3-P0… ‘FutureWorld’ is crammed full of things like this and I found it fun to get into because of the way that everything was tied back to things like ‘Star Wars’, ‘Doctor Who’ etc as well as the light-hearted manner in which the authors speak about their subject. For example the entry for ‘The End of the World’ ends with the sentence “Still, if we do mess up this planet we can always travel into space, find another one and start again.’ Any reference book where the entry for ‘entropy’ ends with the phrase ‘Happy Days…’ isn’t taking it’s presentation too seriously and, as a result, becomes just that little bit more accessible to the casual reader.

It’s not just the subject matter that’s interesting but also the little asides that show the work that has gone into the book as well as showing the reader that science-fiction, as a genre, has been around for a lot longer than we think.
For example, ‘FutureWorld’ tells us that it was H.G. Wells that first came up with the concept of the Atomic Bomb in his novel ‘The World Set Free’ (although different entries in ‘FutureWorld’ give different publication dates for this work). If you didn’t know it already (some of which I didn’t) it’s also interesting to see that Mary Shelley was writing science-fiction in the nineteenth century and that legend speaks of the first ‘laser weapon’ being used by Archimedes to attack a Roman fleet invading Syracuse…

As I’ve said, I felt that a little bit of the magic has gone out of my sci-fi reading now I’ve had it reinforced that a lot of the concepts are now becoming reality. Despite this, ‘FutureWorld’ is one of those books where you can have great fun flicking to random pages and finding out just how far the human race has come in terms of things like time travel, optical camouflage and space tourism…

Nine out of Ten

‘The Broken World’ – Tim Etchells (William Heinemann)

This is a weird one to write about. A book with a great premise that is executed well, a book that I think deserves to do really well in fact but a book that I just couldn’t finish. I’ll try and explain…

‘The Broken World’ is the story of one man’s attempts to write a ‘walk through guide’ to a complex computer game. When I say ‘complex’ that’s exactly what I mean for this is a game that can take months to play and can be completed in any number of ways. Writing a ‘walk through’ would be hard enough on it’s own but our narrator is also having to cope with the demands of a full time job and a full time relationship (both of which are being neglected). Something’s got to give and our hero is going to have to ‘win’ in the game and the real world too…

I’m always after trying new stuff and ‘The Broken World’ looked like a good one. In a lot of ways it was. As a tale of obsession it was great and the journey away from reality (into ‘The Broken World’) went at just the right speed whilst being strangely poignant. I was really getting into the narrator’s character as well, a guy with a clear sense of self in that you can really tell where his priorities lay.

All sounds good so far, so where was the problem? I didn’t have a problem with the book but I did have a problem with what the book was about, i.e. a ‘free roaming’ computer game. I love playing video games but I always end up losing patience with the ones where you can pretty much do whatever you like. This stems from early experiences with PC flight simulators (where I kept crashing just to see what would happen) as well as the time when I found the cheat for infinite lives, on ‘The Phantom Menace’, and promptly went off and butchered the inhabitants of Mos Espa (just to see what would happen, I was called a murderer by Anakin Skywalker and this was the last thing he ever said to anyone…)

You can now see that I’m not very good with certain types of computer game and this made ‘The Broken Man’ really difficult for me to get into as far as the ‘game world’ parts went. Playing the game can be infuriating enough without having to read about how to complete it, especially when all you want to do is try out weird stuff… just to see what would happen.

As good as ‘The Broken World’ was looking to be, it turned out to be a read that I just couldn’t stick with. Game over for me and onto the next book…

‘Principles of Angels’ – Jaine Fenn (Gollancz)

The other day someone mentioned to me that the blog was showing a bit of a bias towards fantasy (and some horror), where were the science fiction reviews? Looking back at the last time I read some science fiction, about a month ago, I had to admit that he was right (as much as it galled me) and I have been neglecting my reading in that area. The thing is that it’s not often that I seem to be able to find science fiction that doesn’t scare me off with overly technical talk of faster than light travel, la grange points etc. I much prefer my science fiction to be of the space opera variety with dark lords, galactic heroes and big laser guns!
I didn’t get any of this with Jaine Fenn’s debut novel but I didn’t mind too much as the story was great just the way it was…

Chesh City is a city of two halves; topside is the last word in extravagance and opulence but downside is dark, twisted and dangerous with not much at all between you and a lethal drop. It’s also a democracy of sorts where voting can result in a person’s assassination, these are carried out by the ‘Angels’ who answer only to the enigmatic Minister. Taro lived with his Angel aunt until the day she was murdered; now he’s on the downside streets looking for revenge but also just trying to stay alive. A timely intervention from the Minister gives Taro a sense of purpose and a job spying on the reclusive Angel Nual. However this job is about to lead Taro into a tricky spot where he will be caught between being marked for death and being the potential saviour of Chesh City…

‘Principles of Angels’ is a fast moving tale packed with incident and intrigue, I had to keep reading as not only did I want to know what was really going on (this seemed to change quite a lot!) but I also had to know how it all ended. This is the first in a series so as far as closure goes you do get some but a lot is left open for the next instalment.
Like I said, there is a lot going on in ‘Principles of Angels’ but it never feels like the book is getting overcrowded, everything happens for a very good reason that ties in with the plot. The emphasis isn’t so much on spectacle but more on the intensity of any given situation which means everything is very up close and in your face. As far as I was concerned this just made it easier for me to keep turning the pages!

‘Principles of Angels’ is a very character driven novel and I have to say that this made the book very hit and miss in places. The focus on characters really helped me get a feel for what was making people tick, the ‘up close’ approach also put me in a ringside seat for all the action that was taking place and this is the best place to sit as far as I’m concerned! However, for me this kind of approach can mean that if I’m not really that interested in a certain character then I find myself with large chunks of book that I’m not that bothered by. While the characters of Taro and Nual worked for me I found myself glossing over large chunks of the book that were about Elarn Reen, she may be a character that you want to know more about but she never really engaged me…
The other problem I had with the novel being character driven was that it seemed to come at the expense of me finding out more about the city of Chesh itself. I knew that ‘topside’ was lavish and ‘downside’ was slum ridden (it says so in the blurb) but there was nothing in the book itself that made me feel this stuff I’d been told. It almost felt like an amazing play was being acted out against a half finished set…

Despite these issues though, I found myself really enjoying this slice of ‘low-tech’ sci-fi and its hints of further developments in the future have got me looking forward to what Jaine Fenn comes up with next. Maybe I should be reading more sci-fi after all…

Seven and a Half out of Ten

‘Sly Mongoose’ - Tobias S. Buckell (Tor Books)

Tobias Buckell’s ‘Ragamuffin’ was one of my surprise finds of last year. Science Fiction isn’t really my thing but what I do love is space opera that’s full of heroes, strange alien races and cool looking spacecraft that can do impossible things when piloted by their roguish captains, ‘Crystal Rain’ and ‘Ragamuffin’ did all of this with an Afro-Caribbean twist that really freshened things up for me. Coming off the back of these two great reads I’d earmarked ‘Sly Mongoose’ as one to look out for in 2008, I’ve just finished it and can safely say that I wasn’t disappointed. (It's got 'space zombies' in it and that's just the start)
‘Sly Mongoose’ is set in the same universe as it’s predecessors but a number of years on. Because of this the book stands on its own fairly well but there are elements where you’ll enjoy it more if you’ve read the other two books as well. The action takes place on the planet Chilo; a world of corrosive rain, crushing pressure and deadly heat (kinda like Venus in our solar system). This isn’t so bad if you live in one of the floating cities, at a safe height, but if you’re one of the young men who has to make a living scavenging on the surface of the planet then things can be very dangerous indeed. Timas is one of these men until the day his routine is shattered by the arrival of a stranger in his city. War is coming and none of the floating cities are safe. The only answer to this problem lies within the perpetual storm that Timas’ city orbits…
Before I say anything else, any book that kicks off with a man strapping himself to a heat shield in order to enter a planet’s atmosphere (he really doesn’t have a lot of choice in the matter) is seriously cool as far as I’m concerned! This opening scene is also a real statement of intent about how far Buckell is prepared to push things for his readers and he proceeds to do this with aplomb. While ‘Ragamuffin’ was action packed, it has nothing on the buzz I got reading this. The second things start to happen; they just don’t stop until the final page, expect some mighty battles and action scenes involving characters who are constantly moving. I loved the final scenes where a floating city was used to ram and invade another floating city but even that was eclipsed by how Tima made his final journey to the surface… Having said that though, I did have an issue with the resolution of a couple of cliff-hangers where pages would be spent in the build up and then everything was explained in one sentence tucked away in a paragraph somewhere… One of these in particular had me going backwards and forwards between pages trying to find the bit I’d obviously missed because, well… Tima was an inch away from death… wasn’t he?
I also found the characterisation to be spot on, especially with Pepper (back and as tough as ever) who bridges the gap between ‘Ragamuffin’ and ‘Sly Mongoose’. It’s very interesting to see the development Pepper goes through (and the decisions he has to make) as he can no longer just shoot his way through a problem, he has to interact with the people around him and be a little bit sly... Pepper’s still a tough character though with a real no-nonsense approach that constantly causes friction and this makes for some fun reading at times.
You wouldn’t have thought that you could do much with an uninhabitable planet but Buckell still manages to suffuse it with life with his signature airships and strange Strandbeest (self replicating craft) amongst other. There’s also a real sense of Chilo’s atmosphere as an entity in its own right (something extremely dangerous to the settlers) and this contributes to a vivid picture of life as a colonist of a dangerous world.
An old enemy rears its head but it’s the promise of new danger on the frontiers that makes things really exciting and has got me looking forward to whatever Tobias writes next. Things are left open ended but I think we’ll be seeing more of Pepper in the future and I for one am really glad. The first chapter has drawn to a close but there is the promise of more good things to come.

Nine out of Ten


PS Reviews of Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin are on the blog if you fancy a look.

‘The Mirrored Heavens’ – David J. Williams (Bantam Spectra)

I don’t normally pick up thrillers so a sci-fi story about infighting between terrorists and various political ‘black ops’ teams didn’t initially fill me with confidence. I thought I’d give it a go though and have to say that I’m very glad that I did. It’s a bit early to be picking my favourite sci-fi novel of the year but I can say that ‘The Mirrored Heavens’ is definitely on my shortlist.
It’s the 22nd century and a mixture of Cold War, environmental damage and an Arab-Israeli nuclear exchange has prompted the various power blocs to draw up the Treaty of Zurich in an attempt to stop world affairs spiralling completely out of control. The symbol of this new found unity is the construction of the Phoenix space elevator but its destruction by the terrorist group ‘Autumn Rain’ causes chaos to break out again. Counterintelligence agents Claire Haskell and Jason Marlowe are best placed to get to the bottom of this but what chance of success do they have when they don’t even know if their feelings for each other are the truth or not?
This world of the future is a dangerous place to live, especially if you’re an agent tasked with either keeping the peace or advancing the goals of your shadowy masters. This makes for a story with a good mix of futuristic warfare and espionage. The espionage is particularly convoluted as people change sides regularly and information is doled out sparingly by characters who want to remain in control. As a result you really have to keep an eye on what’s going on or you will miss something important. I paid close attention and still managed to miss a couple of things that made a difference to the plot. Maybe the plot is a little too convoluted and this gets in the way (too many different groups all with conflicting agendas)? I don’t know but luckily ‘The Mirrored Heavens’ is a book that I am looking forward to re-reading (soon) anyway so I’ll have a better idea then. Another thing that bugged me slightly were cryptic conversations between characters who didn’t want to give too much away. They succeeded in this but it was to the extent where I was often left wondering just exactly what had been said! In a strange kind of way though this actually made reading the book more enjoyable when conclusions were finally drawn and payoffs made. Despite this, the plot kept me hooked right until the end and that’s all that really matters right?
Now what I’ve said so far makes ‘The Mirrored Heavens’ sound anything like ‘favourite sci-fi book’ material but there is a lot more to it which I got a lot out of. Williams writes a pretty mean action scene which gets the blood pumping. Whether it’s two operatives fighting underneath the Moon or an agent going up against a ship full of combat drones, the writing surges with adrenaline and some of the moves/countermeasures that Williams comes up with shows just how much thought he has put into his world building. Plot is important but I love world building, for me it’s the thing that can make or break a book that I want to get lost in. ‘The Mirrored Heavens’ is a winner in this case, Williams has chosen a direction for Earth to head in and paints a vivid picture of the results. His cityscapes are gorgeously drawn (If menacing) with a real cyberpunk feel. Talking of cyberpunk; Williams takes computer/net hacking to a level only dreamed of with the introduction of the ‘Razors’, hackers who can manipulate technology like never before.
‘The Mirrored Heavens’ is a difficult book to get into but I found it almost impossible to put down once I started (and that was only because I had to go to work). The finale is left open ended enough for a sequel (at least) and I’m looking forward to reading more by David Williams.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

Edited to add: I forgot to mention that David has a pretty cool looking website over Here. Check it out...

‘The Host’ – Stephenie Meyer (Sphere Books)

I always wondered what life on Earth would have been like after the Bodysnatchers had taken over completely (you’ve seen the films haven’t you?) I’m not sure if this was her intention but Stephenie Meyer gives her readers a pretty good idea… and tells a love story at the same time.
Earth has been taken over by an alien race that takes over the minds of humanity whilst leaving the bodies intact. Wanderer is a ‘soul’, an alien freshly implanted into a human host and looking forward to experiencing life on Earth. The only problem is that Melanie (the original owner of Wanderer’s body) refuses to let Wanderer take over completely. Melanie has unfinished business in the real world and Wanderer cannot help but go along with it. Wanderer/Melanie find Jared (Melanie’s boyfriend) with a group of other survivors, not only must Wanderer fight to gain the trust of the refugees but she must also work out whether Melanie’s feelings are coming through or if she is in love with Jared herself…
Stephenie Meyer has already made a name for herself, as the author of the best selling ‘Twilight’ series for young adults and ‘The Host’ is her first foray into adult fiction. At least that’s what the press release says, I personally couldn’t tell much of a difference. I’m not saying this is a bad thing just that maybe young adult readers will get just as much out of this book as they have done with previous books.
‘The Host’ is a long and meandering read, weighing in at a hefty six hundred and seventeen pages. Meyer seems to be of the school of thought where using one word clearly won’t do if you can use a hundred instead! The result is a sometimes stifling read where the temptation to skim read could sometimes mean that something important is missed. At the same time though there is something compelling about the writing that made me want to keep at it instead of putting it to one side. Meyer does a great (if long winded) job of portraying the pressure humanity would probably face in an alien invasion. The simplest task takes on a different dimension and I kept reading to see what would happen next. The tension is palpable and every word of dialogue is heavy with meaning. This makes the romance element interesting, especially when the ‘love triangle’ grows another side… Any romance is handled really delicately and this reflects the impossible situation that the main players have found themselves in. My pet hate, right now, in ‘romantic literature’ is the endless soul searching that each character must do and there is no exception here for ‘The Host’. While it may be a great way to give the reader insight into the characters, it sometimes doesn’t sit well when placed in context against the urgency of the situation.
Meyer also has a habit of pulling tricks out of thin air to resolve her plots. While I can understand that Wanderer has a lot of other stuff on her mind, to suddenly ‘remember what to do to solve hers and Melanie’s problem’ out of thin air looked like a big fat get out of jail free card from where I was sitting. Likewise the ending, although a happy one, came across that the author didn’t want to take a risk and gave the reader what she thought would make them happy. I think a sad ending would have made the romance all the more poignant.
Despite all this though I enjoyed reading ‘The Host’, while I don’t think I would read anymore of her stuff I’d recommend it to anyone who’s already a fan.

Seven out of Ten

‘The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction (Volume Two)’ – Edited by George Mann (Solaris Books)

There’s no question about it, short story collections are great. For a start, by its very definition you get more fiction for your money and every tale is different. There’s also the fact that you don’t have to finish a short story collection all at once, you can dip in and out as you choose and this can make a really nice break from reading a longer novel. This is what I’ve been doing, for the last week or so, with this latest collection from Solaris and (for the most part) I’ve had a great time in the process.
George Mann’s second collection of science fiction makes for some enthralling reading of other worlds and the people who inhabit them. We also get to see that science fiction isn’t just about what’s happening up there in space, it’s also very much about what the future may hold for us here on Earth. As with any anthology though not all of the stories are going to be to everyone’s taste. It’s not a case of there being anything wrong with the writers or their vision, more of a law of averages thing where no-one will like every story they read. This was certainly the case with me although there was only one story that I did not finish.
While there’s nothing wrong with going through each individual story, and saying a few words I really don’t have the time, not only are there fifteen stories but I’m also writing this at work and there are other things I should be doing (they’re not as interesting but it’s what I’m being paid for!) I figured that if I told you what my highlights were (the bad as well as the good) that should give you a good idea what you can expect to find. My favourite stories were Dan Abnett’s ‘Point of Contact’ and David Louis Edelman’s ‘Mathralon’, two tales that leave the reader in no doubt as to how cold and lonely our universe can be. ‘Point of Contact’ just edges ‘Mathralon’ with it’s blunt and realistic approach to the matter of first contact with an alien race, how arrogant is it of us to assume that alien life is interested in us and what we have to offer?
Honourable mentions go to Kay Kenyon’s ‘The Space Crawl Blues’ and Neal Asher’s two ‘Mason’s Rats’ stories. I’ve enjoyed Kenyon’s ‘The Bright of the Sky’ and her tale of technological progress and human ‘upgrading’ has made me resolve to read ‘A World too Near’ sooner rather than later. It’s a feel good tale that makes you think as well. Asher’s tales of a farmer who adopts innovative methods of dealing with a rat infestation made me chuckle and gives me a little hope for the common man in this world of bureaucracy.
As I said earlier I found the anthology to be hit and miss. Karl Schroeder’s ‘Book, Theatre and Wheel’ was a tale very well told but I was left wondering whether it should be in a sci-fi anthology, a re-read may be in order. Likewise, Michael Moorcock’s ‘Jerry Cornelius’ tale was also well written but came across as a tale that would be better appreciated by real fans of that particular character. Maybe I should have given Eric Brown’s ‘Sunworld’ more of a chance but the first couple of pages (young man heading off to seek his fortune) failed to hook me and this was the one that I gave up on.
For there to only be three stories (out of fifteen) that really failed to hit the mark is a measure of how good all the other tales are and I think there is something in this anthology for everyone. I’d recommend it to any sci-fi fan who’s after bite size chunks of genre goodness, very much looking forward to seeing where this anthology series goes next.

Eight out of Ten

‘The Martian General’s Daughter’ – Theodore Judson (Pyr Books)

I’ve always done alright by Pyr books when looking for something to read. This time I was after something fairly short that would last me a couple of commutes and see me through to the weekend. Weighing in at a slender two hundred and fifty pages, ‘The Martian General’s Daughter’ was clearly a good choice. Not only that, it was a good read as well…
‘The Martian General’s Daughter’ is the story of a dying empire (very much like that of Ancient Rome) in an Earth two hundred years from now, it is also the story of an army sergeant who has risen to great prominence and (along with his illegitimate daughter) must run a gauntlet of murderous politics and insane emperors. Our former sergeant, now a general, is burdened by a sense of honour and obligation that marks him out as unique and perhaps the last of his kind in these troubled times.

'After I have killed the emperor', said Cleander, 'I will cut you open so we find the obligation in you. Once we have it, I promise you, old man, I will put it atop the broadcast tower in the Field of Diversions so that the curious may come from across the Empire to see what Pan-Polarian obligation used to look like.'

His daughter, Justa, is a little wiser in the ways of the world and guides her father to the story’s ultimate conclusion. It is also her voice that tells the tale.
I’m pretty good at suspending all belief, with speculative fiction, but for some reason I had real trouble getting my head around the fact that the events of the book take place only two hundred years from now. I could accept the nano-machine plague but not the shape that society would adopt in such a (relatively) short time from now. Can society change so much in that period of time? I’m not sure. While I could see the need for this in the story (basically a science fiction hybrid of ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Quo Vadis’) I wonder if the story would have benefited from a two thousand year gap instead of just two hundred…
Once I’d got round this though, I found myself really enjoying the story itself. The ‘ancient Roman’ influence is there for all to see (the culture and certain historical parallels) but Judson doesn’t let that stop him from embellishing the world with his own little touches that brought a smile to my face but didn’t detract from the tale itself. I’m thinking particularly of the worshippers of Elbis, ‘The Singer of Songs’. What is more engrossing though is the portrayal of General Peter Black, a character that’s not particularly likeable but who is so ‘out of place’ and naïve that you cannot help but feel sorry for him. His loyalty to the Empire is absolute, to the point where he will support an insane emperor out of the love he had for the Emperor’s father,

'We owe the dead as much as the living', said Father. 'Perhaps more. We are everything they have left.'

As a character study, ‘The Martian General’s Daughter’ is a compelling read that is slightly spoilt (funnily enough) by the voice of the narrator, Justa. Hers is a very dispassionate tone, possibly as a result of her upbringing, that doesn’t infuse the story with the kind of raw emotion that would hook a reader.
It’s a good job then that the ideas behind ‘The Martian General’s Daughter’ are plenty enough to maintain interest all by themselves. This isn’t just a tale of loyalty in a dying empire; it’s also full of the spectacle of gladiatorial games and pitched battle across continents, plenty enough to keep me going.
A tough book to get into but worth sticking with for the long run as it’s ultimately rewarding.


Seven and a Half out of Ten

‘The Digital Plague’ – Jeff Somers (Orbit Books)

Last year I was lucky enough to get hold of a copy of Jeff Somers’ debut ‘The Electric Church’, a gritty ‘dystopian future’ thriller that (while by no means perfect) I had a lot of fun with and left me eagerly waiting for the sequel. Well, it’s ‘sequel time’! :o) Actually, it isn’t ‘sequel time’, it’s ‘great sequel time’…
Since the events of ‘The Electric Church’ life has been kind to gunner Avery Cates. He’s not just another contract killer anymore; his criminal record has been wiped clean and he’s heading up his own organization, Avery Cates is the criminal king of New York. All this is about to change in the worst possible way when Cates is kidnapped and injected with nanotech that kills anyone that comes near him. With faces from the past dogging his every footstep, Cates must save the people that he cares about (himself mainly) as well as a whole bunch that he would like to see die if he didn’t need their help. It’s time for some tough decisions and a steady trigger finger…
If you enjoyed ‘The Electric Church’ then you’ll be pleased to know that you’re in line for more of the same with ‘The Digital Plague’. If you haven’t read ‘The Electric Church’ then you should pick it up first as the two books tie very closely together (despite a five year gap between events). To be fair, Somers gives the reader a whole load of ‘what has gone before’ in ‘The Digital Plague’ but if you’re after the full effect then read both books!
Somers seems to have decided that his readers must know enough about the world of ‘The System’ and ‘Joint Council’ as he lends more emphasis to the story this time (although some of the depictions of abject poverty, burnt out buildings etc are crushing in their bluntness)). And what a story it is! Once Cates get moving he doesn’t stop. There’s no time to stop as there is far too much happening and Cates’ hit list grows ever longer with each passing chapter. The revelation about who is behind everything comes straight out of the ‘Big Book of Sci-Fi Cliché’ but because things are moving so fast you don’t see it coming until it’s right on top of you. The ‘revenge plotline’ was first rate stuff but where things fell down (slightly) for me was the explanation around what was going to happen after the ‘revenge bit’. While I could see the reasoning behind it I was left wondering if this needed to be included, a matter of personal taste I guess but I thought the story worked better focused solely on one theme.
Like David Gunn’s ‘Death’s Head’ books, ‘The Digital Plague’ is another example of sci-fi that’s there purely to entertain you. It’s very much ‘Altered Carbon’ in style and tone but benefits (at least as far as I’m concerned) from less of the ‘political undercurrents’ that you find in Morgan’s work but more explosions and action instead. I like Morgan’s books but Somers has got the mix just right as I’m concerned! The fact that ‘The Digital Plague’ has a body count that rivals Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ is another plus point :o)
I’m now left twiddling my thumbs and waiting for the next instalment, ‘The Eternal Prison’, to reach the shelves. Looks like I’m in for a long wait…
Highly recommended to anyone who likes their sci-fi mean, streetwise and drenched in bullets!

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

PS Do you want to know what I thought of 'The Electric Church'? Have a look over Here.

‘Death’s Head: Maximum Offense’ – David Gunn (Del Rey Books)

Last year saw me pick up ‘Death’s Head’ (David Gunn’s debut) as something to read on a flight home. By the time the plane touched down I had almost finished it and was left trying frantically to finish the book before I had to leave the plane! My review is over Here. It was a nice surprise then to see the sequel come through the letter box a couple of weeks ago. I’d had a couple of issues with ‘Death’s Head’ but, on the whole, this was a series that I was looking forward to seeing more of…
Some well deserved time off comes to a swift end when Sven Tveskoeg and the Aux (his crew of militia) are called upon to rescue a United Free observer from a deserted habitat deep in Uplift (think the Borg) space. At least that’s what Sven has been told, upon arrival at the Hekati habitat, the mission takes a very different turn to what little briefing Sven received. Sven has no idea what’s going on and that’s enough to put him in a very bad mood indeed. When Sven’s in this kind of mood no-one is safe, not even his own side…
I can’t remember where I read this, may have been on Amazon, but someone said that David Gunn is actually a pseudonym for Richard Morgan for when he wants to write something uber-violent but not as cerebral as his regular stuff. While I don’t think for a minute that this is the case, you can certainly see why people might think so. No expense is spared in bringing the reader the most visceral hand to hand combat, that I’ve seen, along with lots of heavy machinery exploding in a variety of ways. There’s elements of ‘MacGyver’ here as Sven seems able to make use of pretty much anything to get himself out of a tight spot and bring down the enemy. While I had to admire the author’s ingenuity, the relentless violence got a bit tedious after a while and felt like it had nothing behind it to back it up. To be fair, this cartoon like approach does work but only if the reader knows exactly what they are getting into. This isn’t a ‘hard concept’ sci-fi novel that will make you think, it’s space opera at it’s most visual. Entertaining on the surface but not a lot underneath.
When I reviewed ‘Death’s Head’, I mentioned that I wondered if Gunn would be able to maintain reader interest in Sven as the character seemed able to beat anything he’s up against. Gunn works his way round this issue by varying the threats that Sven must face but there’s not a lot of suspense as the reader will quickly guess the outcome. Again, it’s good entertainment that won’t work if you’re expecting more.
The plot itself is pretty good as the ‘thriller element’ kept me guessing and trying to work out what was going on, certainly enough to make me keep reading past all the explosions and gunfire! Sven’s talking gun makes for some essential reading as well, I don’t think I’ve met a more sarcastic character in sci-fi! However, due to the fact that Sven doesn’t know what is going on (and has nothing to base anything on) so of the plot twists can seem a little unlikely. To be fair to Gunn, everything seems to tie together in the end.
‘Maximum Offense’ makes no apologies for what it is, a hefty slice of violent space opera that will entertain. It doesn’t do a lot more than that though so make sure you’re in the right mood to enjoy it before you pick it up (unless you’re a fan already in which case you’ll love it).

Six and Three Quarters out of Ten

‘Killswitch’ – Joel Shepherd (Pyr Books)

This year it already feels like I’ve read more sci-fi than I did in the whole of last year and this is mostly down to my having had the good fortune of getting stuck into Joel Shepherd’s ‘Cassandra Kresnov’ books. The bottom line is that I think they’re brilliant and incredibly easy to get sucked into, the most fun I’ve had with sci-fi in a long time. All of this leads me nicely onto the topic of ‘Killswitch’, the final instalment in the trilogy and a book that insomnia led me to finish very early this morning. ‘Crossover’ was brilliant, ‘Breakaway’ was less so but still a cut above the rest. How did ‘Killswitch’ fare? Pretty well…
It’s been two years since the events of ‘Crossover’/’Breakaway’ and the planet of Callay moves towards taking its place as the centre of Federation politics. This does not sit well with the ruling body on Earth who have dispatched a fleet of warships that are threatening a blockade (and worse). The fledging Callayan Defence Force has an advantage in that synthetic human Cassandra Kresnov leads them but Cassandra finds herself at a distinct disadvantage when she discovers that her old masters implanted a ‘killswitch’ in her brainstem. The person holding the codes for the ‘killswitch’ is perhaps the last person that Cassandra wants to meet…
Before I go on I just want to get one thing out of the way. Unless I missed it in ‘Breakaway’, two years have passed and a plot-line looks like it has been forgotten and I don’t think it was ever resolved in the first place. Nothing major but I hate loose ends… That’s the grump out of the way, let’s get on with talking about how great ‘Killswitch’ was (because it is rather good)! Everything that I loved about the last two books was present here and what is really special is how Shepherd manages to ramp up the action and keep it plausible at the same time. The enemy is stronger and more challenging but ‘Killswitch’ never descends into comic book violence. The ‘set piece’ battles just keep getting bigger and bigger and this time we get to see Cassandra take on a battle cruiser by herself. It sounds a little over the top, reading it here, but you’ll be surprised at how easily you accept what Cassandra is able to do. She is a beautifully realised character and I have really enjoyed getting to know her as well as agonising with her over the dilemmas involved in being a synthetic human.
Placing all three books together shows how well the author has done at plotting a story that goes on for longer than one book. There’s a real sense of progression throughout the trilogy and, for the most part, everything is wrapped up neatly in the closing chapters. There’s scope for more adventures here and I’d certainly pick up more ‘Kresnov’ books if they were ever written.
Sure there are loose ends and you may have to go back and read certain passages again (if you blink then you’re bound to miss something!) but ‘Killswitch’ is an intelligent and engaging read that will appeal to anyone who likes their sci-fi thoughtful and action packed at the same time. Highly recommended by me!

Nine out of Ten

‘Breakaway’ – Joel Shepherd (Pyr Books)

I woke up at four o’clock this morning and just knew that there was no way I was going to be able to get back to sleep. Don’t you just hate it when that happens? This morning wasn’t so bad though as I was able to use the time to get back into Joel Shepherd’s ‘Breakaway’, I’d been reading it on the train yesterday and now I had a good excuse to finish the book off. It’s not as good as ‘Crossover’ but is still great stuff and well worth a look if you’re into sci-fi and cyberpunk…
It’s only been a matter of days since the climatic events of ‘Crossover’ and Cassandra Kresnov (synthetic human and deadliest person on Callay) is still struggling against the prejudices and suspicion that she is held under by everyone else. At the same time, the political parties of Callay move towards a critical vote that will determine the planet’s future relationship with the Federation. There is a lot to be gained from this vote and Cassandra is about to find herself at the centre of every plot and connivance…
‘Breakaway’ is the middle book in a trilogy and, unfortunately, this shows in that the book tends to come across as only setting up events for the final instalment. A fairly major plot strand isn’t resolved and, seeing as there’s meant to be a two year gap in the story (from what I’ve read), it will be interesting to see how this is tackled in ‘Killswitch’. Cassandra’s ‘introspective episodes’ (where she dwells on the nature of being ‘human’) are again well detailed, at least as well as in ‘Crossover’. The scene where she is given a baby to hold really caught me out as Shepherd takes things in a different direction and provides more food for thought. This theme makes for some very interesting reading but (unlike the first book) Cassandra fails to reach any conclusions. This could just be ‘build up’ for Book Three but the sense of ‘unfinished business’ really rankled. Cassandra is pretty much a pawn of others throughout the book and has to piece together a lot of things for herself. Now, I know that Cassandra is hyper-intelligent but there are a lot of occasions where “all of a sudden, everything became clear”; it doesn’t feel as if she is able to work things out for herself, things just occur to her or she is able to use some computer trickery to get the information that she needs. It would have been good if we could have seen more evidence of reasoning and intuition as this would have added more weight to Cassandra’s ‘humanity’…
This may all seem that I had nothing but issues with ‘Breakaway’ but the fact is that everything that made ‘Crossover’ such a good read can be found here as well. There’s enough action and intrigue here to fill three or four lesser books and, despite my reservations, I was completely hooked by the direction that the story led me in. Characterisation was spot on as well; Cassandra and Rice were two characters that I completely empathised with and I even found myself keeping an eye out for other ‘lesser’ characters to see how they were getting on.
‘Breakaway’ feels like a bit of a disappointment, compared to ‘Crossover’, but still manages to do an admirable job and I think it would be better judged once I have finished reading ‘Killswitch’ and the series is complete. I’m sure that exciting times lie ahead for Cassandra Kresnov and I intend to be there to see how it all ends.

Seven and Three Quarters out of Ten

‘Vampire Apocalypse, A World Torn Asunder’ – Derek Gunn (Black Death Books)

I thought I’d pretty much seen it all as far as vampires are concerned. In a nutshell there’s Dracula, ‘Laurell K. Hamilton style vampires (more interested in sex than drinking blood) and the ‘Buffy’/’Blade’ clones that all look just a little too good to be true. Let me know if I’ve missed anything out…
I was quite pleased then to receive Derek Gunn’s book along with a press release saying not only is the book being developed into a film (have a look at imdb.com) but that it also “takes the sexy posturing out of vampires and turns them back to what they are: bloodsucking animals that feed on humans...” That sounds like just what I’m after, I thought to myself but having finished the book I’m not so sure…
‘Vampire Apocalypse’ is a tale of the aftermath of the vampire conquest of Earth, a planet so drained of natural resources that humanity had nothing to fight back with (there’s a lesson for you all to learn!) The vampires keep humankind drugged and obedient but some people have escaped this and are looking to take back what was originally theirs. The fight is on…
‘Vampire Apocalypse’ is actually ‘Vampire Apocalypse, A World Torn Asunder’ and I have to say this was bugging me before I’d even opened the book. For me what was quite a snappy two-word title got stretched into something that ended up repeating itself and losing its impact. The story itself was a lot easier on the eye but strangely one-dimensional. No shades of grey here, everything is either pure good or disgustingly evil. In this respect I could see the story working well as a film but in book form I was looking for a little bit more depth in the characters. To be fair though, there is other stuff going on to make up for it, if you pick this book up then you can expect loads of action, cunning traps and cliffhangers! ‘Vampire Apocalypse’ is certainly entertaining in that respect.
I think the main problem that ‘Vampire Apocalypse’ has is that it’s a very short book, weighing in at a mere two hundred and fifteen pages. This is all well and good if you’re just looking for a quick read but, for me, it seemed that there wasn’t enough room to go into greater detail and sometimes it felt like this was needed. For example, the reason for one character’s defection is glossed over, in a small paragraph, and I think that such a pivotal moment perhaps needed more explanation. Also, what appears (at first glance) to be ingenious ‘vampire fighting tricks’ come across as contrived because they’re not explained properly. Without giving the game away, the method of avoiding serum dosage works but how did the humans manage to pull it off in a world where all available resources were in the control of the enemy?
I think that ‘Vampire Apocalypse’ would work really well as a film/TV show where the emphasis is on spectacle rather than story, in book form however it didn’t quite work for me…

Five out of Ten

‘Crossover’ – Joel Shepherd (Pyr Books)

Joel Shepherd’s 2006 debut garnered a lot of positive reviews (Chris the Book Swede loved it and Pat managed to get a quote from his review on the back of ‘Breakaway’, the sequel). From what I’d heard of the novel I just knew that I’d be reading it sooner or later, it turned out to be a lot later with other stuff that has been going on! I finally got around to reading it a few days ago and I’m officially adding my voice to the list of people who enjoyed this book. There are a couple of exceptions but, on the whole, I think the hype has been totally justified.
Cassandra Kresnov is a synthetic person and the pinnacle of League technology in its fight against the Federation. She has been created to lead ‘lesser’ synthetics in battle but her enhanced intelligence, and intuition, lead her to question her orders and ultimately desert her creators. The only place left for her to go is the Federation planet of Callay where her very existence is anathema to Federation doctrine. However, Callayan politics aren’t as clear cut as they seem and there will be plenty of opportunities for Cassandra to make herself useful in her new home…
‘Crossover’ is a pretty hefty 457 pages long but (for the most part) it didn’t feel like it as the story was fast paced enough to keep the pages turning nicely. The plot is a good blend of action, politics and musings on being an artificial human trying to make its way in a human world. The text is split fairly evenly between these three topics and the ‘action’ and ‘musing’ sequences work really well. We get a real taste for what Cassandra is capable of in several fight scenes that are explosive to say the least! No expense is spared with blowing the scenery up but the fights never once become cartoonish. All I’m going to say is that if I’m ever in that kind of fight then I want Cassandra on my side, someone who is capable of jumping off a tall building and breaking the road (instead of her legs) is well worth knowing! Cassandra’s internal conflict (reconciling who she is with what she wants to be) also makes for some poignant and emotional reading. Her developing relationship with SWAT officer Vanessa Rice got me all teary eyed and it’s this kind of switching back and forth between themes (action and introspection) that kept things fresh and engaging for me.
Callayan politics forms the foundation of ‘Crossover’ with an intricate plot involving planetary secession and manipulation, by shadowy agencies, amongst other things. On the whole this works well with a storyline that kept me hooked with its many twists and turns. At times however, the emphasis on politics turned into ‘info-dumps’ that were made more annoying by the fact that some questions were left unanswered. Unless I missed it, I never found out what ‘GI’ actually stood for. ‘Genetic Infantry’, ‘Great Invention’? Who knows… I was also bemused by the decision to have the final confrontation shown through the eyes of the ‘villain’. The fact that he never hears Cassandra say anything just felt like an opportunity was missed for a showdown with some real impact.
Despite these (small) flaws, I loved ‘Crossover’ and haven’t had as much fun with a sci-fi book in a long time. I’m hoping for more of the same from ‘Breakaway’ and it won’t be too long before I find out.

Nine out of Ten

‘ReBody’ – Clive Warner (Citiria Press)

I can’t see myself ever opting for cryogenic storage, for someone who reads a fair bit of science fiction I wouldn’t actually want to find myself living in the future… Humans being cryogenically frozen is a fairly popular theme in science fiction, Clive Warner takes a look at the process (in ‘ReBody’) and wonders if it’s something that we should be considering at all…
Hugh Toffle wins cryogenic insurance on a night out but finds himself needing that policy sooner than he thought when a vengeful father finds Hugh sleeping with his daughter. Three hundred years later… Hugh is revived but finds that only his head survived the experience. He also finds himself seriously out of pocket with no way to pay for the robot that his head has been grafted to. Cue a new life as a domestic cleaner and a strange trip (involving sentient animals) into a very strange world of the future…
‘ReBody’ is a confusing but ultimately entertaining and thought provoking story. The introduction to Hugh felt like it dragged on a bit considering the book is only just over two hundred and fifty pages long. I was wondering if anything was actually going to happen but, all of a sudden, I found myself in the middle of a weird dream sequence, the first of many, that was very evocative but (again) didn’t seem to have an awful lot to do with the story or it’s main premise. This may be something to do with Warner’s love of all things Phillip K. Dick, I don’t know. Things picked up though when I got onto the main plot involving Hugh’s journey through the world of the future. Warner certainly asks a lot of questions that will make people think twice before getting their head frozen! There’s also a lot going on in this brave new world where nothing is as it seems and there were plenty of cliffhangers that kept me reading. I enjoyed reading of the full on warfare between sentient cats and dogs and the little touches of humour made me chuckle. There were things that I felt could perhaps have done with a bit more explanation (Xor for example) but I’m guessing that there is a line that needs to be drawn if you want to effectively draw a character with a very limited perception of his world.
‘ReBody’ was a nice quick read for the daily commute. A little confusing to begin but, once I got into it, very entertaining.

Seven out of Ten

‘Maelstrom’ – Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (Bantam Press)

Anne and Todd McCaffrey’s ‘Dragonharper’ was an enjoyable (but undemanding) read so when ‘Maelstrom’ and ‘Deluge’ (the continuation of McCaffrey and Scarborough’s ‘Twins of Petaybee’ series) came through the door I thought I’d give ‘Maelstrom’ a go.
I gave it a go, I really did. I struggled through just over a hundred pages and when I realised that I was skimming pages I thought, “Time to put the book down Graeme…”
The first thing that bugged me is that the blurb on the back of the book pretty much tells you the story. No hook to draw you in, just an outline of the plot. I’m left thinking that now I know the story what’s the point of my continuing to read… But I thought I’d give it a go and what I got was a story about two children who live on a sentient planet and can transform into seals. They’re not just children though; they’re ‘perfect’ children who learn to fly a spaceship just because they’re bored and want something to do. These little dears didn’t put a foot wrong during my attempt to read ‘Maelstrom’ (apart from really annoying me) and, as such, they didn’t come across like children at all. They were more like adults (apart from a slightly cringe worthy moment where the girl starts to realise she is becoming a woman) and this just made things feel like the authors couldn’t decide whether to write a Sci-Fi novel or a Young Adult version…
I did like the way that the children were able to communicate, telepathically, with the animals they met but eventually it just felt like a watered down version of the Dragons in the Pern books. It got to a point, in the book, where a race of telepathic turtles were relating their history and it was at precisely this moment I realised that I did not care at all what happened next. I put the book down and I don’t think I’ll be picking it up again. There’s no score here as I didn’t finish the book.
Like I usually say in these situations, if you’re a fan then you’ll probably get a lot out of ‘Maelstrom’, look out for the release of the next book ‘Deluge’ in early March, but it just wasn’t one for me. Having said that though, the picture of the seal flying through the air (on the front cover) had me laughing out loud…

‘Jumper: Griffin’s Story’ – Steven Gould (Tor Books)

So, you’re an author who’s written a pretty cool novel about teleportation and it’s been given the Hollywood treatment. The thing is though, the film is nothing like the book you wrote and now you’ve been approached to write a ‘prequel’ novel dealing with one of the characters from the film. It has to tie in with the plot of the film and, because that plot is vastly different from the original book, you are looking at one hell of a continuity issue. Steven Gould does the only thing that he can possibly do in this situation, he adds a note at the beginning of the book which basically says that this novel was written to be consistent with the movie so certain things are going to be different. Things are different (and sometimes not for the better) but as Kendall said in his comment next to my review of ‘Jumper’, “think of the prequel book and the movie as being an alternate universe version of Jumper” and you won’t go too far wrong ;o)
I still haven’t seen the movie but apparently there’s a character called Griffin who’s waging war against the people trying to kill Jumpers. ‘Griffin’s Story’, funnily enough, is the tale of Griffin’s life as a Jumper and why he is the way you see him in the film.
Having just read ‘Jumper’ it was immediately apparent that ‘Griffin’s Story’ is basically a carbon copy of the first book; a boy discovers teleportation powers and has to stay one step ahead of his pursuers while trying to live a normal life. While it’s an entertaining read I couldn’t really escape from the feeling that I’d seen this all before and it had been done better the first time round. While we’re introduced to Griffin’s character we don’t get the same sense of development as we did with David’s character in ‘Jumper’. It’s almost as if it’s assumed that we’ll get all the character development we need in the film and the only purpose of the book is to fill in the gaps. What we get then is a main character who comes across as somewhat one dimensional, maybe this is a result of things that happen to him but it still makes for a frustrating read. The rules of teleportation still apply but Gould still occasionally makes the mistake of using teleportation as a ‘get out of jail free’ card to get Griffin whatever he needs. Some of the situations Griffin gets into a bit far-fetched as well. I can imagine an eleven year old coming up with the idea of living underground to escape pursuit. I can even imagine him stealing explosives to block off any entrances but what I cannot imagine is an eleven year old having the knowledge and skills to set these explosives off properly. Of course, Griffin was ‘home schooled’ so that’s ok…
‘Griffin’s Story’ was a fun read but one that was ultimately flawed for me. I think it could work for you if you’d seen the film, and wanted to know more about the character, but if you haven’t then I’d suggest just sticking with the original book.

Five out of Ten