The Bloody White Baron, by James Palmer
This new work of popular history covers a really intriguing range of topics: the Russian Civil War, Mongolia, Tibetan Buddhism and the Bloody White Baron of the title: Roman Ungern-Sturnberg, a Baltic aristocrat who essentially conquered Mongolia with an irregular cavalry army in the chaos of the Russian Civil War and briefly became its de facto ruler (and a god in their extensive pantheon).
Ungern-Sturnburg seems to have been one of those men who found his true place only in war. He was a cavalry soldier who fought for the Russian army in the Great War (although he was of German extraction, as most of the upper classes in Estonia were). Prior to the war he had been stationed in the Russian Far East, and he had taken the opportunity to explore Mongolia, which was at the time nominally independent but effectively a Chinese satellite state. He became fascinated with the prevalent religion, an offshoot of Tibetan Buddhism, incorporating it in to his mishmash of theosophical religious beliefs, and of course absorbed much of the landscape and culture that had produced the mighty Ghengis Khan.
A new and disturbing trend?
I’m an aspiring writer – what did you expect? Who isn’t? (Actually Simon’s not, yet).
I have a cool idea. It’s non-fiction. It has even had some publisher interest.
I write a well-researched proposal document detailing the structure and layout of the book, target audiences, pop in a few simple online marketing ideas, provide biographies, thoughts for expanding the concept into a series of titles, and even commission an illustration from a popular freelance illustrator.
I research an agent who I feel is going to be interested in the idea and concept, and who has experience in books of this type, and who knows the publisher that has shown interest.
Their submission guidelines state: NO UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS. Strange, but okay…
Shadowmarch and Shadowplay, by Tad Williams
While Mathew scares himself silly with foul fishy monsters from the depths, I have been enjoying two massive slabs of epic fantasy, in the form of Tad Williams‘ Shadowmarch and Shadowplay, the first two volumes of the Shadowmarch trilogy. I have a massive amount of respect for Williams – I would credit his stunning Memory, Sorrow and Thorn ‘trilogy’ (volume three was too massive to be published as a single volume) with igniting my interest in the world of fantasy beyond Lord of the Rings. The Shadowmarch trilogy marks his return to epic fantasy after a detour via science fiction (the Otherland series) and several standalone novels, and I was very excited when Shadowmarch was published – so excited that it sat on my shelf for several years! Only after Little, Brown kindly gave me a copy of Shadowplay did I feel moved to get stuck in, and I am glad I did. I have now read them both within the space of a couple of months.
Deeper, by James A. Moore
This geek needs horror, lots of it, so does this blog. It especially needs it because yesterday there was a nice, long review of Deeper by James A. Moore in draft form. I was tinkering, adding the cover image. It was all ready to go, and then WordPress took it all away, forever. So I’m back to redo it, because Deeper absolutely deserves a review. Save and continue editing…
Don Koish has got a good thing going down at Necessary Evil Press. A small press with big ambitions releasing absolutely top-quality horror novels and novelettes in editions of 500 (numbered, signed – I’ve got number 13 reserved for the novels and 11 for the novelettes, thank you very much), and 25 (bespoke, lettered, signed and out of my league unfortunately). Save and continue editing… Read more
Green Metropolis – saving the planet, one book at a time
Mathew found second-hand book site Green Metropolis the other week. It’s a site that matches up sellers of second-hand books with buyers, using a simple pricing model. Buyers pay between £3 and £3.75 for most books, with free postage on many paperbacks. I have used it to buy three books so far: Ian Gale’s Four Days in June, Patrick O’Brian’s Clarissa Oakes and Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve. All three have been in splendid condition, well packed and delivered quickly directly from their sellers, and I have been most impressed. The selection is wide, though you can’t automatically expect to find any book that takes your fancy on there. I have looked at the selling terms, and they seem fair and easy to understand, though I have not sold any books yet. Read more
Matter, by Iain M. Banks
It’s been a very long time since we have had a new Culture novel from Mr Banks, and I must say I was thrilled to bits when Mathew was sent an Advanced Reading Copy (thanks George!) – not only would I be able to read it before it hit the shops, but it came in time for the Christmas holidays.
It’s hard to say what I find so compelling about the Culture series – perhaps it’s Banks’ decision to allow it to sprawl both in space and time, to be such a mindblowingly large, diverse and decentralized civilisation. It means that while many elements will be familiar to repeated readers, Banks has given himself a lot of freedom to shape each narrative, to the extent that you could probably read Culture novels in any order without feeling too excluded. I am also a sucker for the sentient ships and AIs, with their sassy attitudes and bizarre, self-selected names (such as Funny, It Worked Last Time, Just Read The Instructions and Lightly Seared On The Reality Grill – there’s a full list on Wikipedia).
A Close Run Thing, by Allan Mallinson
In search of a worthy successor to Sharpe (read them all) and the Aubrey-Maturin novels (read the first 15 so far), I came across this series in a second-hand bookshop. This is the first of the series, starring Matthew Hervey of the 6th Light Dragoons, with the battle of Waterloo at the climax of the first installment.
Written in a style that’s less modern than Bernad Cornwell, but also less period-authentic than Patrick O’Brian, Mallison seems to be attempting to emulate O’Brian to some extent, but the end result is more accessible.
The Bonehunters (Malazan Book of the Fallen), by Steven Erikson
The Malazan Book of the Fallen juggernaut rolls onwards relentlessly, and for the first time Erikson starts to combine elements and characters from all 5 preceding books, suggesting that the remainder of the series will continue in an episodic vein that will require a strong degree of familiarity from the reader (a la George R.R. Martin, perhaps).
In The Bonehunters we enjoy the company of a number of Bridgeburners (Kalam, Quick Ben, Apsalar and Fiddler), Cutter (Crokus) and Ganoes and Tavore Paran; Toblakai and Leoman of the Flails; Herboric Ghost Hands; Trull Sengar; Cotillion and Shadowthrone; Icarium and Mappo Runt; Lostara Yill and Pearl, and many other previous characters. Needless to say, Erikson also introduces many new faces both corporeal and ethereal.
Orcs – The Omnibus Edition, by Stan Nicholls
I bought this from a bookshop on a whim, purely on the strength of the cover, which includes praise from favourite author Tad Williams. I don’t usually buy books without doing my homework first, and once I started reading this I thought I was going to regret that lapse…
The rather gratuitous sexual barbarity of the baddie, Jennesta, only a few pages in to the book, seemed unnecessary and OTT. I’m not squeamish, but there are other ways that her baddie credentials could have been established that wouldn’t have ruled this book out of suitability for slightly younger readers, and which wouldn’t have got me thinking “Oh hell, what kind of tosh have I bought here?”
NewsNow
Literature News 24/7-
The Bookgeeks Interview
Simon Kernick
Simon Kernick is one of Britain’s most exciting new thriller writers. He arrived on the crime writing scene with his highly acclaimed debut novel The Business of Dying, the story of a corrupt cop moonlighting as a hitman. However, Simon’s big breakthrough came with his novel Relentless which was selected by Richard and Judy for [...]
-
Latest Competition
Five copies of John le Carré’s Smiley vs Karla Trilogy to be won
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was one of the big film releases of 2011, and to celebrate its release on DVD we have five copies of John le Carré’s Smiley vs Karla Trilogy to be won – consisting of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People.
Latest Bookbitz reviews
