An exclusive extract from Simon Scarrow’s new Roman adventure
We are very excited to be able to bring Bookgeeks readers the first chapter of Simon Scarrow’s forthcoming Macro and Cato adventure, The Legion. Published on the 11th of November, The Legion is the tenth of Scarrow’s Roman novels:
Trouble is brewing in Egypt. Rebel gladiator Ajax and his men have been posing as Roman soldiers and attacking naval bases, merchant vessels and villages. Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro have been charged with the task of tracking down the renegade warrior before the problem gets out of control. Joining forces with Legion III, they hope to destroy their enemy on the battlefield. But the cunning gladiator has other ideas…
We hope you enjoy the extract – we will have a review of the book soon, and a Q&A with Simon too.
The Price of Glory, by Seth Hunter
The third addition to the Nathan Peake series has the advantage over its predecessor The Tide of War, insomuch as the reviewer has at least this time already read part of the series previously. While in the preceding title it was evident that the novel stood well alone, in this case I am glad for having read the second book as in a series of such widely encompassing plots, The Price of Glory could have been a stretch too far.
Which is certainly not to say Hunter does not retain the series’ momentum. This novel continues the adventures of Peake as Captain of the frigate Unicorn, though that does not do justice to the land-based twists and turns within its pages. Once again Hunter succeeds in drawing the reader into his character’s chaotic life, compounded by Peake’s wonderfully constructed character flaws. A more believable hero than most, it is difficult not to be intrigued as to what foolish judgement call will this time put him at odds with his superiors or, periodically, his men.
Return of the Crimson Guard, by Ian Cameron Esslemont
The second novel by Ian Cameron Esslemont, co-creator with Steven Erikson of the world chronicled in the Malazan Book of the Fallen, gives considerably more of an idea of what Esslemont is capable of than his first novel, Night of Knives. Where that book was relatively short and simple, describing events over the course of one notorious night, Return of the Crimson Guard has much more in common with Erikson’s work and is the kind of thing that fans of all things Malazan have learned to expect. This is, by and large, a Good Thing.
The author recommends reading this prior to Erikson’s Toll The Hounds, so I was reading it considerably out of order (I now await only the final instalment of Erikson’s ten book epic) – but that did not spoil my enjoyment – to read a novel set in this world is to be confused and befuddled half the time anyway, and there is plenty here to get the gears grinding in your brain. Return of the Crimson Guard is the first novel to be set primarily in the Malazan Empire’s home continent of Quon Tali – previous volumes have been set in various other continents, mostly where the Malazans are invaders or occupiers – and like many empires, it’s ripe for rebellion, with Imperial forces stretched incredibly thin, unable to defend from rebels or outside threats. The main such threat is the Crimson Guard, a mercenary force that has been briefly encountered in previous books. They swore a vow to rid Quon Tali of the Empire, and the power of this vow has made the soldiers who took it has made them virtually immortal and very difficult to kill – so the decision of the Guard to come back to Quon Tali after years in exile is very significant.
Teenage Revolution, by Alan Davies
Originally published as My Favourite People and Me 1978-1988 and now repackaged to accompany the recent Channel 4 documentary series of the same name, Teenage Revolution is Alan Davies’ attempt at merging a biography with an account of popular culture during his youth. It is in essence the literary equivalent of your typical ‘I love the (insert by-gone decade)’ television programme from the perspective of a rebellious teenager and his forays into politics, theatre and stand-up comedy.
Early Chapters focuse on popular figures in the late seventies and early eighties and how Davies came to know of them, followed by what is essentially an overview of why they were popular and who was talking about them. These are well-written enough to prove to be interesting regardless of how familiar you are with the subject matter – I myself was born in the latter period of Davies’ 1978-1988 time span and was still able to read of Debbie Harry’s appearance on Top of The Pops as if it was a memory of my own.
A Capital Crime, by Laura Wilson
This terrific book feels like it could be a closing point for Laura Wilson’s 40s and 50s set crime series, featuring my favourite honest copper, Inspector Ted Stratton of West End Central. Hope not, but if it is, it’s a good way to go.
Wilson’s two previous Stratton books – Stratton’s War and A Little Death – were close cousins to John Lawton’s London in the blitz Inspector Troy books, with London, the war and detecting taking roughly equal billing. Less obviously Wilson also took inspiration from Fitzrovian dimestore Dostoevskies such as Patrick Hamilton and Julian McLaren-Ross, throwing in a late night demi-monde of pubs, brasses and numerous down at heel denizens of bedsitland. To be sure Wilson retains the comforting greyness of a familiar war time terrain of terraces, craters, tube stations and dig for victory allotments, but what really shines through is a real place with real people. Foyle’s War it ain’t. Read more
Human Chain, by Seamus Heaney
The title poem of this collection is written in the 4-stanza 12-line form that Heaney perfected in his 1991 book, Seeing Things. It is a form which recurs throughout Human Chain, making up almost half the pieces. The human chain of the poem refers to the passing of bags of grain by aid-workers from hand to hand. It is classic Heaney territory: the close examination of physical work combined with a faultless sense for the weight and feel of things, delivered in the earthy language that he has so much made his own: ‘wads’, ‘lugs’, ‘stoop’, and ‘drag’ to pick just a few.
Many reviewers have pointed out the subtext that the poem’s title and theme provide for the whole collection: that of genetic inheritance and the bonds of family. This is certainly the case. However, there is also a very strong awareness of mortality running through many of the poems. It has been present in Heaney from the start, but is now more pressing than ever, partly as a result of his age, and perhaps more importantly the stroke he suffered a few years ago. It is possible therefore to view the human chain as the body itself, with ‘chain’ becoming not a symbol of linking but of shackling. Read more
Immortal Remains, by Rook Hastings
The second novel from the improbably named Rook Hastings sets itself out as a marriage between gritty youth Skins style drama and a dark fantastical world, straight out of Pullman’s Dark Materials. Immortal Remains is the story of a gang of friends Bethan, Hashim, Jay and Kelly, all of whom are bound together by their fascination and psychic gifts as they try to solve help out a girl from a rival high school who has a curse upon her. The girl, Charlotte Raimi (come on, try a bit harder please, we can all work out where your inspiration comes from) has been dabbling with Ouija boards and seems to have let in some unpleasant guests from the beneath.
Although slighter than 250 pages, things take time to whir in Immortal Remains with pages and pages of chat amongst the kids are book-ended by short, sharp fantastical sequences. Read more
Room by Emma Donoghue
Room is a novel about freedom. It asks the reader: What constitutes freedom? Are we actually free to do as we choose? As Room demonstrates, social conditioning plays a huge part in who we are. Jack who at five years old, has never left Room, believes that everything he sees on TV isn’t real. For Jack the world is made up of one room and everything else is outer space. Inanimate objects which he has grown up with take on a huge significance, to Jack there is only one Bed and one Table in the world and they are his friends. His Ma, who’s ‘real’ name is never revealed, has protected Jack by creating a world filled with activities created from their limited resources, and their bleak existence is transformed into a hive of activity, as Ma struggles to bring up her son and keep her own sanity, whilst under strict confinement. Read more
Ludbrooke & Others, by Alan Brownjohn
For the past few years, in a number of newspapers and poetry magazines, Alan Brownjohn has been publishing 13-line poems whose titles all begin with the word ‘His’. The possessive pronoun refers to Ludbrooke, a roguish anti-hero of a particularly British kind: a deluded underdog, often drunk, often unsuccessful, yet always regarding himself as a cut above the rest.
The collection provides a snapshot of a number of events in Ludbrooke’s life, in a loosely connected series of poems which constitute if not a story, then certainly enough anecdotal evidence to form a good picture of the eponymous protagonist. He is enjoyable, if not entirely likeable. He amuses, but only through his misfortune. He aspires, but rarely achieves. Read more
The Reapers Are The Angels, by Alden Bell
The Reapers Are The Angels opens with a character marvelling a shoal of fish in moonlight. Pages later the same character discovers a grotesquely disfigured corpse half buried on a beach. The corpse is a zombie, and the character is Temple, the capable teenage protagonist in a post-apocalyptic world. Its an arresting start, and a sign of things still to come.
Calmly alerted by the arrival of the disfigured zombie to her island sanctuary Temple decides to return to the equally disfigured American mainland. The zombie, by the way, is offhandedly despatched, like its primal brothers and sisters throughout the book. For Temple, the evergreen presence of zombies is the least of her concerns. As fans of the post-apocalyptic sub-genre of horror know, other people are just as dangerous as any ambling zombie. Read more
The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects, by Mike Mignola
Mike Mignola’s The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects begins, as many great things have, with Abraham Lincoln. The nefarious Emperor Zombie, undead occultist and former groundskeeper at Hyde Park, is up to his evil tricks again and so Honest Abe calls upon his top secret agent – the eponymous Screw-On Head – to save the day. Together with vampire concubine Madam and scientist Dr Snap, Emperor Zombie has stolen an ancient manuscript from the Museum of Dangerous Books and Papers that will guide him to the fabled Temple of Gung. [Gung being a warlord who very nearly managed to conquer the whole world over ten thousand years ago thanks to the supernatural powers he gained through ownership of “a fabulous melon-sized jewel.”] If he acquires the powers of Gung, no force on Earth will be able to stop Emperor Zombie. Fortunately, Screw-On Head, along with his manservant Mr Groin and his dog Mr Dog, is on the case. Read more
The Rebel Prince, by Celine Kiernan
In The Rebel Prince, Wynter Moorehawke has come into her own. Protector Lady, beloved sister and friend, she has grown from the girl who desperately wanted to return home in Celine Kiernan’s first novel in the Moorehawke trilogy to someone who can make a place for herself, who refuses to let the demands of others force her into a role she cannot stand, and who is more aware of the struggles found throughout the kingdom, the complexities behind the actions of others, and the power she has to change the world around her.
She begins where she was left, wandering the forest with Razi, Christopher, and the Merron, desperate to find Prince Alberon, to end the conflict that is tearing the kingdom apart, to find justice for the wrongs done to friends, family, and the people around her, to walk the thin line between what must be destroyed and what can be saved. War and danger surround them; the terror from Christopher’s past, the Loup-Garous, stalk their path, and Wynter has begun wondering, terrified, what machines her father was responsible for creating and what terrible events from the past still shadow the future of those she loves. Read more
Crescendo, by Becca Fitzpatrick
Becca Fitzpatrick’s debut novel, Hush, Hush, managed to walk a fine line between the trend of the supernatural in young adult literature and a suspenseful plot and original backstory. If you haven’t read Hush, Hush yet, it’s certainly worth picking up, and it sets up the world, and the story of Nora Grey, without feeling as if it sacrificed plot or action for description. In the sequel, Crescendo, we return to the world of Nephilim and hosts, to the world of angels and their fallen brethren, and to the story of Nora Grey and Patch, her guardian angel. As always, one of Fitzpatrick’s greatest strengths is her ability to evoke a sense of dreamy possibility, of a world that exists behind a gauzy veil, carefully hidden, of a place where dreams have power, and where the actions of those in the distant past create more danger than even a fallen angel can guess:
The dream came in three colors: black, white, and wan gray.
It was a cold night. I stood barefoot on the dirt road, sludge and rain quickly filling the potholes pockmarking it. Rocks and skeletal weeds sprang up intermittently. Darkness consumed the countryside, except for one bright spot: A few hundred yards off the road sat a stone-and-wood tavern. Candles guttered in the windows, and I was just about to head toward the tavern for shelter when I heard the distant jangle of bells.
We are still following Nora Grey, and she still struggles with her Nephilim heritage. She has Patch to protect her, but she has begun to question the story behind her father’s death, and Scott Parnell, both an old friend and the new boy in town, intrigues and frightens her as it becomes clear that he is far more mysterious than his boy-next-door demeanor would suggest. Read more
The Dead by Charlie Higson & Beyond Exile by JL Bourne
Two zombie horror adventure stories, both the second entry into an ongoing series, one a guilty pleasure the other an unadulterated pleasure pure and simple.
JL Bourne’s Day By Day Armageddon books shouldn’t work and in many ways they don’t. Beyond Exile, the second in the series, has few in the way of believable characters, no memorable dialogue to speak of, little emotional depth and hardly a sentence that couldn’t do with a rewrite. Yet I rattled through it and was sorry when it ended.
This is because the conceit of a daily post apocalyptic diary is effective and immediate. Also Bourne’s version of a disintegrated America is singular and total, the technical manual stuff is set to overload and turns into a post-apocalyptic geek’s dream and best of all the book runs along at an insane heavy metal pace from start to finish. Characters, depth? Who needs em. This has got guns, sharp instruments, blunt instruments, weapons manuals and last man standing survival techniques. That other stuff is for wimps and pinkos. Read more
Last Exit for the Lost, by Tim Lebbon
Tim Lebbon is that rare writer, an author possessing a deceptively spare way with words yet painting images, themes and atmospheres of infinite detail, colour and nuance, stories that dig themselves beneath the skin and burrow into the bones. These are deeply-felt and envisioned stories, drawn out from the deepest of the pits of human experience. The horrors he assails us with are viscerally raw, the pain and fears screamingly primal, the regrets and losses his characters feel are empathised with completely, and the burden of sins perpetrated weigh heavily on our shoulders in concert.
Before anything else, however, mention should be made of the solidity and size of this volume – it’s a reassuringly massive tome indeed, 557 pages and 150,000 words, and wrapped in a gorgeously atmospheric cover by Les Edwards. That solidity, that substantiality, however, merely reflects the quality and depth of the sixteen stories and two novellas contained herein. Beyond that is the physical quality of the book itself, an aspect that is rarely noted in reviews – kudos to the folks at Cemetery Dance for the care they’ve taken over this, and especial mention should be made here of the attention to details, like the paper quality, the clean clear printing of the text and the general layout.
Fatal Lies, by Frank Tallis
Why the world embraced the stolid dreck of Jed Rubenfeld’s Interpretation of Murder over Frank Tallis’ infinitely superior Viennese whirls for its Freudian criminal kicks, is way beyond me.
In Fatal Lies, the third of Tallis’ series “The Liebermann Papers”, professional psychaiatrist and amateur sleuth Dr Max Liebermann, is once more assisting the Viennese police, this time to investigate a death at a prestigious military academy. A story of power, corruption and lies unfolds, as a world of bullying and humiliation partially visible just beneath the surface, comes to light. Also visible is a growing sense of the erotic and the sexually perverse – we are after all in Freudian territory – as well as a beautiful belle dame sans merci, some gunplay and a nightitime chase or two to jolly things along.
Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales
There is a distinct lack of fairies in Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales. There are a fair amount of talking beasts, supernatural beings and things that do not conform to the laws of physics, but no actual fairies. Ditto beautiful princesses in peril. The term ‘fairy tale’ is used loosely here to describe “the great mass of infinitely various narrative that was, once upon a time and still is, sometimes, passed on and disseminated through the world by word of mouth”. These are tales from the oral tradition that serve to preserve and perpetuate the history and culture of communities with little or no written language. Angela Carter was a firm believer that, just because a country or culture lacked written volumes, there was no reason to suppose that country or culture lacked a rich literary tradition.
Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales collects together two volumes of fairy tales that Angela Carter edited, which were originally published as The Virago Book of Fairy Tales (1990) and The Second Virago Book of Fairy Tales (1992). The fairy tales collected here are too numerous to list but some flavour of the contents can found from the thirteen categories into which the stories are grouped:
A Not So Perfect Crime, by Teresa Solana
Ever since the death of my beloved Manuel Vazquez Montalban, I’ve been awaiting the arrival of a really convincing Spanish crime series to get my teeth stuck in to. Richard Wilson’s books featuring Sevillano detective Javier Falcon came close, but there remained a little expat distance. Disappointingly while my crime shelves groan under the weight of Scandinavian novels, Spain with its dizzying 35 year spiral into modernity remains under-represented in my house.
Teresa Solana’s A Not So Perfect Crime is on first sight a slight book in every sense. But as the story progresses it soon becomes clear some of the many things I love about Montalban are present and correct. An ancient city in the throes of hyper-rapid change. A Big Story butted up to the smallness of everyday routine. The mess of a life lived with family, friends and sundry obligations. Complete immersion in a specific place and time. The pleasures of food and drink elevated to samurai levels of knowledge and ritual. And above all, of course, a good story told with wit and brio featuring interesting characters to care about.
Five copies of Crescendo to be won [closed]
As part of her blog tour, and courtesy of publishers Simon & Schuster Children’s Books, we are very pleased to offer readers a chance to win one of five copies of Becca Fitzpatrick’s new novel, Crescendo, the sequel to Hush, Hush.
Nora should know better than to think her life can return to normal after falling in love with a fallen angel. And Nora’s life isn’t normal – her dad was murdered, and the facts about his death just don’t add up. Now Nora’s own life is in imminent danger. Are she and Patch strong enough for the battle ahead?
We’ll have a review soon, but in the meantime, to win one of the five copies, answer this question:
Q: In which country is the beginning of the first novel in this series, Hush, Hush, set?
Surface Detail, by Iain M. Banks
Surface Detail is the eighth of Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels – Banks likes to make his readers wait, as its predecessor, Matter, was the subject of my first Bookgeeks review (indeed, the first review on Bookgeeks), back at the start of 2008. There has never really been such a thing as a ‘typical’ Culture novel – from the lo-tech Inversions, through Excession, a book based heavily on the interactions between the Culture’s sentient space-ships, through to galaxy-spanning adventures like The Player of Games and Consider Phlebas. Surface Detail is firmly in the latter category, and takes in a considerable range of races, settings, ships and worlds. At stake is no less than the future of the Afterlife.
Heaven and Hell are real in the Culture universe – that is to say, given the well-established technology that means people can be preserved independently of their physical bodies, many people, after long and enjoyable lives, go to artificial Heavens when they no longer desire a corporeal existence. But there are also Hells, existing either to fit in with the theologies of certain races, as voluntary destinations for those that way inclined, or as places of involuntary punishment. The Culture, needless to say, has no particular truck with Hells, and is all in favour of the fact that a virtual war is being waged, in virtual universes designed specifically for the purpose, to determine the very future of the Hells. When the anti-Hell side finds itself losing, and resorts to action in the Real to bring about the end of Hells forever, the Culture finds itself in the invidious position of disapproving of their actions but secretly approving of their aims.
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
