Simon Appleby
Simon Appleby is a Digital Project Manager for Octopus Publishing Group. He spends as much time as he can reading, mostly on the train, and is very happy to be working for a division of the UK’s largest publishing company. Simon reads mostly SF, fantasy, historical novels, history, and contemporary fiction, but dabbles with all sorts of other books from time to time. Simon is an active user of a number of book-related sites – he can be found on LibraryThing.com and BookMooch, among others. The most unusual book on his shelves is an Estonian first edition of The Colour of Magic, signed by Sir Terry Pratchett.
Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years, by Sue Townsend
Reviewed on March 11, 2010
I wonder if it would perhaps be possible to divide people in to people who were older than Adrian Mole when they first read his secret diary, and those who were younger. The reason for this speculation is that I can’t help feeling it makes a profound difference to how you read and relate to [...]
Sons of Thunder (Raven 2), by Giles Kristian
Reviewed on March 10, 2010
Former popstar turned novelist Giles Kristian really hit the spot with his debut, Raven: Blood Eye, and now the Norseman with the mysterious past is back for another outing – with added guts and gore. In his first book, Kristian out-Cornwelled the master of this kind of writing, but the challenge for any pretender to [...]
Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip, by Peter Hessler
Reviewed on March 4, 2010
We are increasingly being informed that China is a country we can no longer afford to ignore – as an economic powerhouse, as a nuclear power, as a polluter – yet it is very easy to be distracted by the sheer scale of China, to the point where it becomes difficult to relate to the [...]
Shadowrise, by Tad Williams
Reviewed on March 2, 2010
I owe Tad Williams a lot, as the fantasy author who I turned to when I wanted to see what the world beyond Tolkien looked like, and his latest book is quintessential Williams: a complex, multi-stranded narrative, a seriously big book, oh, and the third time he has failed to finish a trilogy inside the [...]
Empire of the Moghul: Raiders from the North, by Alex Rutherford
Reviewed on February 25, 2010
With Conn Iggulden having demonstrated the appetite of the British reading public for thrilling to the exploits of ancient conquerors, first with his Rome series and latterly with his Ghengis Khan books, Alex Rutherford is well positioned to take advantage: this enjoyable tale is the first in a series of novels about the Moghul Empire, [...]
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin
Reviewed on February 23, 2010
Mortals mixing with their gods is not exactly a new idea in fantasy writing, but with her debut novel, the first instalment of the obligatory trilogy, N.K Jemesin shows an ability to make the idea work extremely well – there are genuine echoes of ancient Greek and Norse mythology, with gods and mortals rubbing shoulders, [...]
The Boy Next Door, by Irene Sabatini
Reviewed on February 17, 2010
Amidst the stories of political violence, rampant inflation, AIDS, poverty and general chaos that make up the sum total of what we in the UK hear about Zimbabwe (especially since most British reporters are banned from entering the country), it’s not difficult to overlook the fact that it’s a place where, even now, millions of [...]
Bauchelain and Korbal Broach 1, by Steven Erikson
Reviewed on February 8, 2010
Originally published in the UK as limited edition novellas, Steven Erikson’s tales of the necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach are now finally available to the masses of Steven Erikson fans courtesy of this collected volume from Erikson’s American publishers. Readers of the doorstop-sized volumes that constitute the Malazan Book of the Fallen have long been [...]
The Suicide Run, by William Styron
Reviewed on February 4, 2010
The Suicide Run collects together a number of short stories from the late William Styron, probably most famous for the novel Sophie’s Choice. They are all based on Styron’s experiences in the Marine Corps during and after the Second World War, and although the covers front and back may be suggestive of the bombs and [...]
The Eternal Prison, by Jeff Somers
Reviewed on February 2, 2010
The third book, and clearly not the last, in Jeff Somer’s series of Avery Cates novels, is a serious return to form after the relative disappointment that was The Digital Plague. In that book, Cates was manipulated in to being the vector for a deadly virus, and he has survived the experience only to eventually [...]
Bequest, by A.K. Shevchenko
Reviewed on January 27, 2010
In A.K. Shevchenko’s debut novel, the fate of Europe could be drastically altered by the contents of one document – no, it’s not Stalin’s shopping list or Hitler’s letter to Santa Claus, it’s the will of a Cossack general whose audacious theft of treasure from the Tsar could have repercussions for Russia, Ukraine and the [...]
Hyddenworld: Spring, by William Horwood
Reviewed on January 20, 2010
Williams Horwood’s Duncton novels, starting with Duncton Wood, were an essential part of my teenage years, and of my transition from more simplistic tales to books for adults, complete with sex, violence, religious persecution, frailty and hope – they may have been about a civilisation of moles, but telling people that really doesn’t do justice [...]
Get Me Out of Here, by Henry Sutton
Reviewed on January 18, 2010
Canary Wharf in wintertime can be a fairly bleak and forbidding place, never more so that in the midst of a global banking collapse – perhaps enough to make anyone a bit depressed. For Matt Freeman, protagonist of Henry Sutton’s latest novel, the place seems to have made him more than a bit down in [...]
All That I Have, by Castle Freeman
Reviewed on January 7, 2010
Some books are an unexpected delight, and Castle Freeman’s new novel is one such – a short and simple tale of country people. Set in the backwoods of Vermont, All That I Have is narrated by Sheriff Lucian Wing, the last word in low-key lawmen. Wing instinctively understands that the approach needed to police the [...]
Claudius, by Douglas Jackson
Reviewed on December 29, 2009
Following on from his debut, Caligula, Douglas Jackson once again follows the story of Imperial Rome through the eyes of a slave: Rufus, keeper of the Emperor’s elephant. In the first volume, Rufus was intimately involved in the death of the tyrannical Caligula, and now he is mixed up in the schemes of Caligula’s apparently [...]
The Scar, by China Mieville
Reviewed on December 28, 2009
China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station was a prodigious feat of imagination – a steampunk, noirish fantasy set in the teeming metropolis of New Crobuzon, a mecca for numerous humanoid races and a perfect setting for Mieville’s twisted take on vampires, monsters and artificial intelligence. In The Scar, he pulls back from his great creation, though [...]
The Blooding of Jack Absolute, by C.C. Humphreys
Reviewed on December 24, 2009
Ever since I made the acquaintance of a certain Richard Sharpe, I have become unable to live without the adventures of 18th and 19th century military men. In an age when serving in the British Army could see you make landfall in India, the Caribbean, Europe, North America or Africa, the possibilities are extensive, and [...]
The Cardinal’s Blades, by Piere Pevel
Reviewed on December 9, 2009
Everybody loves dragons, or so it sometimes seems – the last few years have brought us Christopher Paolini’s mamoth-selling Inheritance Cycle, whose third volume was a publishing event almost on the scale of Harry Potter; Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series (the Napoleonic wars with added dragons), and the start of a new fantasy series in Stephen [...]
We Need to Talk About Kelvin, by Marcus Chown
Reviewed on December 7, 2009
Wow, what can you say apart from “great title!”. Move beyond that, though, and this is a fantastic piece of popular science writing. Marcus Chown has a real talent for explaining complex scientific ideas to the layperson, and his latest offering employs the premise of using everyday observations of the world around us to explain [...]
Retromancer, by Robert Rankin
Reviewed on December 2, 2009
Along with Terry Pratchett, Robert Rankin was one of the staples of my teenaged reading life – my younger self could regularly be found chortling at the adventures of Pooley, O’Malley, Professor Slocombe, Hugo Rune, Cornelius Murphy and Tuppe. Rankin’s idiosyncratic idiom, pun-laden prose, eye-catching titles and surreal plotlines were a joy to me, especially [...]
The Rats and the Ruling Sea, by Robert V.S. Redick
Reviewed on November 27, 2009
All hands on deck for Robert Redick’s excellent follow-up to his debut, The Red Wolf Conspiracy. The setting remains the IMS Chathrand, a truly mammoth sailing ship whose purported mission, to delivery the Treaty Bride to her wedding and thus cement the peace between two rival empires, is merely a cover for the machinations of [...]
The Boer War, by Thomas Pakenham
Reviewed on November 23, 2009
Granted, this is not exactly a new release (it’s almost as old as I am), but being a Bookgeek sometimes means grabbing that book you have been meaning to read for ages and then telling the world about it. Thomas Pakenham made his name writing about the Europeans in Africa, firstly with this volume and [...]
The Burning Land, by Bernard Cornwell
Reviewed on November 4, 2009
With The Burning Land, Bernard Cornwell’s tale of the forging of England by King Alfred of Wessex enters its fifth volume, and readers of the series will have a good idea of what to expect. There are few deviations from Cornwell’s traditional approach here: no-nonsense Viking-raised Saxon warrior Uhtred is still caught between two camps [...]
The Private Sector, by Joseph Hone
Reviewed on October 30, 2009
Anyone curious enough to consult Wikipedia about the author Joseph Hone would be sagely informed that all of his work is out of print – but thanks to the magic of print-on-demand, this is no longer the case. Hone is one of many previously critically acclaimed and / or bestselling authors whose long-unavailable works have [...]
The Red Wolf Conspiracy, by Robert V.S. Redick
Reviewed on October 28, 2009
Shame on me, for taking so long to read a book that I always expected to like yet somehow never quite got round to starting until recently. Robert V.S. Redick’s fantasy debut is an enjoyable, fast-paced and engaging book that left me wanting more (and fortunately, the second volume in the trilogy, The Rats and [...]
Wireless, by Charles Stross
Reviewed on October 21, 2009
Charles Stross is nothing if not versatile – and for a reader who might be unsure whether they want to read the space opera of Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise, or the much more human-scale horror of The Atrocity Archives and techno-thriller high-jinks in Halting State, this is an ideal way to sample some of [...]
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz
Reviewed on October 16, 2009
There are lots of reasons why this novel shouldn’t work: the liberal use of colloquial Spanish throughout the text; the extensive footnotes going in to intricate detail about the history of the Dominican Republic; the constant geeky references to Lord of the Rings, Watchmen, Dungeons & Dragons, Dune and other touchstones of nerdiness. Yet work [...]
Orcs: Weapons of Magical Destruction (Bad Blood 1), by Stan Nicholls
Reviewed on October 14, 2009
Ho for the orc, staple of fantasy fiction: invariably green, ugly and violent, with dubious personal hygiene and a serious image problem. Where would traditional high fantasy be without them? They seldom have names or personalities, dwarves always hate them and muscle-bound heroes carve through their ranks like they are rows of standing corn. Tolkien’s [...]
Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett
Reviewed on October 12, 2009
It’s been a long time, by his standards, since we last had a Discworld book for grown-ups from Sir Terry Pratchett (although fans lap up his young adult books with equal fervour, not least the splendid Nation). Sir Terry has built up such a broad canvas on which to work since he started (this is [...]
Newton and the Counterfeiter, by Thomas Levenson
Reviewed on October 6, 2009
Isaac Newton is quite rightly known as being one of the greatest and most important scientific thinkers in history – but given that he lived to the ripe old age of 84, and that he did the majority of his most innovative science in his youth, there are clearly large swathes of his life that [...]
The Wire: Truth Be Told, by Rafael Alvarez
Reviewed on October 1, 2009
If you’re a fan of the televisual novel that is The Wire then the chances are you are going to want to get this lovely book. From the lengthy introduction by series creator David Simon, to the episode guides, profusion of fantastic photographs, selection of articles and other in-depth information, everything here will make you [...]
Pandora in the Congo, by Albert Sanchez Pinol
Reviewed on September 11, 2009
It’s often very tempting when reading books for review to try and describe them to the reader as ‘a cross between Writer A and Writer Z’, or ‘the bastard offspring or Writer B and Writer X’, especially when it’s a new author or the title is hard to categorise – but normally (I hope), I [...]
Hell’s Angels, by Hunter S. Thompson
Reviewed on September 9, 2009
For me, the memory of a book that I could not finish lives long in the mind, usually with the firm intention that I will go back one day and do it justice. My younger self failed miserably to get on with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, so when the opportunity to read and [...]
River of Gods, by Ian McDonald
Reviewed on September 1, 2009
So much science fiction in intrinsically bound up with the achievements of Americans and Europeans - inspired by the US / USSR space race, and the Americans landing the first man on the moon – that’s it’s a huge breath of fresh air to find a piece of SF so wholly unfocused on those nations [...]
Knockemstiff, by Donald Ray Pollock
Reviewed on August 26, 2009
With this collection of short stories, featuring a shared cast of characters and set in the nowhere town of Knockemstiff, Southern Ohio, Donald Ray Pollock has made a significant contribution to the American literature of dispossession, small town despair and death. Functioning as a complete antidote to Garrison Keiler’s fictional Lake Wobegone, Knockemstiff is a [...]
The Blue Moment, by Richard Williams
Reviewed on August 20, 2009
There’s a reason why I don’t write music reviews. It’s not that I don’t like music – quite the contrary, I love it, in almost all its forms – but unlike the task of using words to describe other words that is writing a book review, writing music reviews requires both mastery of musical technicalities [...]
Scar Night, by Alan Campbell
Reviewed on August 18, 2009
It took the arrival of the third volume of Alan Campbell’s Deepgate Codex, God of Clocks, on my doormat to prompt me to pick up the first volume, Scar Night – and now I have read it, I only wish I had not waited so long. It’s an evocative blend of grimy fantasy, with shades [...]
Black Flies, by Shannon Burke
Reviewed on August 11, 2009
In Black Flies, his second novel, former paramedic Shannon Burke adheres to the old dictum of writing what he knows, and lays bare the virtually battlefront conditions facing ambulance crews who serve American ghettoes, in this case Harlem. Ollie Cross missed out on getting in to med school, so goes to work for the Paramedic [...]
The Dwarves, by Markus Heitz
Reviewed on August 7, 2009
We all know that the races and creatures created and popularised by JRR Tolkien have, over a period of many years, dominated the landscape of epic fantasy: although they sometimes go by other names, orcs, elves, goblins, trolls and of course dwarves have been re-cycled, re-used and re-invented by numerous authors. Stan Nicholls set out [...]
The World on Fire: 1919 and the Battle with Bolshevism, by Anthony Read
Reviewed on August 4, 2009
It’s easy to think of events after the end of the Great War as a kind of footnote to four years of unprecedented carnage – but as Anthony Read convincingly demonstrates in The World on Fire, it took a considerable amount of time to get from the Armistice in November 1918 to the Treaty of [...]
The Isle of Dogs, by Daniel Davies
Reviewed on July 28, 2009
The Isle of Dogs ticks all the boxes for a British debut novel: short, dark, intelligent, shot through with irony and obsessed with sex. Daniel Davies takes as his subject the practice of dogging, that peculiarly British idea of gathering in car-parks and picnic sites to engage in group sex and voyeurism; and he also [...]
War on the Margins, by Libby Cone
Reviewed on July 20, 2009
Libby Cone’s debut novel is notable for a number of reasons: firstly because, unusually for a work of fiction, its genesis was as a thesis for a Masters Degree in Jewish Studies, which should tell you all you need to know about the factual accuracy of the core material, the extracts of correspondence and orders [...]
Missy, by Chris Hannan
Reviewed on July 15, 2009
There are very few instances where to compare a book to a television series is flattering to the book – but there have been a handful of truly wonderful pieces of television made in the last 15 years that any author would aspire to have his work compared with: The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet [...]
Death or Glory: The Last Commando, by Michael Asher
Reviewed on July 13, 2009
It is, of course, a myth in this day and age that you can’t judge a book by its cover. One look at Death or Glory will probably tell you everything you need to know: with a total lack of irony, Michael Asher has turned his hand to fiction to offer up a Commando Comics-style [...]
The Corner, by David Simon and Ed Burns
Reviewed on July 8, 2009
Sometimes you read a book that is so powerful, so compelling, that it just knocks you back on your heels. The Corner is one such book. Having already documented the parlous state of inner-city Baltimore through the eyes of the police department in Homicide: Life on the Street, David Simon teamed up with former cop [...]
Ox-Tales: Fire, by Mark Haddon, Lionel Shriver, Sebastian Faulks and others
Reviewed on July 6, 2009
For the Fire volume of Oxfam’s elementally themed fundraising quartet, we have a mixture of short stories and extracts from forthcoming novels to get our teeth in to, (very) loosely connected by the ideas of fire, violence and suffering – and the extracts are in many cases the more satisfying and intriguing reading.
John Le Carré’s [...]
Fall of Thanes, by Brian Ruckley
Reviewed on June 27, 2009
Brian Ruckley’s unremittingly bleak Godless World trilogy finds its conclusion with Fall of Thanes, and it’s increasingly obvious that this trilogy was well-named indeed. The descent of a recognisable if basic human civilisation in to barbarity and madness, when higher functions are stripped away by the increasing power of Aeglyss, the half-human, half-kyrinin hybrid, is [...]
Turbulence, by Giles Foden
Reviewed on June 23, 2009
Giles Foden’s latest novel, released to co-incide with the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings, is a good example of how a writer can take one small aspect of something momentous, in this case weather forecasting for an invasion, and develop it to form the backbone of an impressive story. Turbulence centres around the Allies’ [...]
Bones of the Hills (Conqueror 3), by Conn Iggulden
Reviewed on June 20, 2009
As we reach the third volume of Iggulden’s unstoppable historical series, it has become more than just a book about Ghengis Khan: for much of Bones of the Hills, Ghengis is a pervading presence as much as a character, guiding the lives and actions of other central characters: his sons, Jochi and Chagatai, his generals, [...]
The Forgotten Legion, by Ben Kane
Reviewed on June 17, 2009
Judging by the volume of historical fiction devoted to the Romans, there’s something endlessly fascinating to us about their blend of sophistication and savage cruelty. With the likes of Conn Iggulden and Simon Scarrow firmly entrenched in the history of Rome space, not to mention a number of new entrants, it is important for such [...]
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