Read a new Seth Hunter short story, exclusive to Bookgeeks
We’re very excited to be able to bring you ‘The Captain and Courtesans’, by Seth Hunter – starring Hunter’s naval hero Captain Nathan Peake, it tells of the Captain’s experiences in transporting a very unusual group of passengers. We’re bringing it to you to celebrate the publication of the third Nathan Peake novel, The Price of Glory (Headline) – we hope you enjoy it!
Download ‘The Captain and Courtesans’, by Seth Hunter (PDF)
You can also read Jon’s review of the second book in the series, The Tide of War.
Simon P’s Books Of The Year 2009
The It’s Good To Have You Back Guys Award
Thomas Pynchon and James Ellroy both did stirling work in shaking off the cobwebs with Inherent Vice and Blood’s A Rover respectively, but the award must go to Iain Pears for Stone’s Fall. Ten years after his fantastic An Instance Of The Fingerpost (probably the book I have given as a present more than any other) Pears revisited his favourite time-shifting, viewpoint changing structure to tell an epic story of the life and death of a turn of the century industrial baron. It builds brilliantly to a devastating climax.
The Mummy I’m Scared, Do I Have To? Award
I bow to few in my love of The Baroque Cycle, a 1,200 page epic about codebreaking, piracy and the rise of money across 17th century Europe. I was therefore excited about Neal Stephenson’s new one. That it turned out to be a seemingly longer book about a future society controlled by secular monks means I am now the proud owner of £25 door stop. My fault for being a wimp for sure, but life really is too short for 928 – that’s nine hundred and twenty eight – pages worth of secular monks isn’t it? Isn’t it?
The Answer, My Friend, Is Blowing In The Mind Award
Well of course this could have been Richard Dawkins’ latest meisterwerk The Greatest Show On Earth, but is instead a much smaller book – at least in size. Lewis Wolpert’s Why We Live And How We Die is an incredible journey through the structure of cells and is a story that is at once hugely complex and beautifully simple. Slip one in the stocking of someone who still thinks there is such a thing as chi.
The Actually It Was Like This Award
Mark Thompson’s The White War was the incredible story of a long forgotten front in the First World War. Voodoo Histories nailed the idiocy of widely held conspiracy theories that perpetually plague and corrode current political debate. But the award goes to Peter Preston’s We Saw Spain Die, an account of the lives and experiences of reporters and novelists during The Spanish Civil War.
2009 was the 70th anniversary of the fall of the Republic and still its story resonates in our murky blurred world as a story of easily identifiable political good vs evil. Certainly liberals of many stripes still fantasise over whether they would have had the moral cojones to join the International Brigade or file copy from a bombed out hotel in Madrid. This is an incredible story of the people who really did.
The Who Would’ve Thunk It Award
Who could’ve predicted that young adult horror fans would have titles as good as The Forest Of Hands And Teeth and The Enemy to get their zombified teeth into? But my biggest surprise was Luke Haines’ Bad Vibes, a scabrous account of a never quite made it pop groop doing battle during the Brit Pop Wars of the early 1990s. Haines is a clever, self-absorbed bloke but is also very aware of the chips he carries on both shoulders and how despite himself, he is in love with the thing he most despises. The results will be chastening for anyone wanting a career as a minor pop star but hilarious for everyone else.
The Old Reliables Award
Alan Furst’s The Spies Of Warsaw was another beautiful variation of the same faberge egg he has been polishing for twenty years. The same yet different to all his others, it is a wonderfully atmospheric pre War story of wrestling conscience. Robert Wilson wrapped up his terrific series about Sevillano detective Javier Falcon in dramatic fashion in The Ignorance of Blood and Jo Nesbo cruised to the top of the Scandi Crime League with The Redeemer.
But once more it is Boris Akunin who takes the biscuit. Not this time with either of his two excellent Erast Fandorin books, The Coronation or She Lover of Death, but with the last part of his frankly weird Sister Pelagia trilogy. This is because Pelagia and the Red Rooster is marvellously strange and quite the oddest and most unsettling crime book I have read all year. Akunin really is quite unlike any other author at work today.
Book Of The Year: The Day Of The Locust by Nathanael West
Yes I know the year in question is 1940 but West’s tragi satire, set among a motley crew of lost souls just about clinging on to their own Hollywood dream, gets right to the essence of our times more than any contemporary book I can think of. It nails our morbid obsession with empty celebrity as driven by boredom, self-loathing and a desparate need for sensation in a way that is equal parts horrific and hilarious. If that’s not enough, The Day Of The Locust gave the world a lead character called Homer Simpson. Much as I love The Simpsons I’ll take this one as saying something profoundly funny about 2009.
Geeks in Print…*
We hope you won’t mind normal service being interrupted for a day so that we can give ourselves a little plug.
As you may know if you’ve read our biographies, Simon A and Mathew have day jobs working in the new media industry. We work with several publishers and we’re proud to announce we’ve just completed the new Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook website for A & C Black.
We’re also very, very proud to be contributors in the real-life, non-virtual lovely paper book version of the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook 2010. We’ve written an article for authors all about making some noise and promoting yourself online. And it’s introduced by Richard and Judy, (the book, not our article). And it has articles by the likes of J.K. Rowling, Julie Myerson, Mark Billingham, Joanna Trollope, Neil Gaiman, Simon Winchester and many other authors, agents, journalists.
So if you’re in a bookshop, please check it out. Or at least visit the new website which has tons of useful information for aspiring writers, illustrators, journalists and all other wordsmiths, as well as a burgeoning community.
* To the tune of Pigs in Space…
Bookgeeks Reading Group Highlights: The Bird Room, by Chris Killen
The Bookgeeks Virtual Reading Group got together (virtually, of course), to talk about Chris Killen’s bijou debut The Bird Room; here are some of the best bits of the discussion, including what we talked about when Chris dropped in to answer some questions…
SA: So, let’s get the discussion kicked off with some talking points:
Do you think the author’s focus on trivial and mundane aspects of his characters’ lives is significant?
Is the life that William ends up with solely a consequence of his own choices? Do others (Alice, Will) have some responsibility?
Do you think The Bird Room is a book about mental illness?
At what point did you work out that the man paying Helen was William (the narrator), rather than Will (the artist)?
Does William inadvertently redeem Helen by offering to pay her for sex?
By telling William that she was once in an amateur porno, does Anna sow the seeds of his subsequent obsession?
How much of what’s in the book actually happened, and how much is in William and Helen’s minds?
Did you get confused between William and Will? Do you think the confusion over the names was necessary to make the story work?
Would you recommend this book to people and what would you say to recommend it?
Simon A’s Books of the Year 2008
Here’s my selection of the books I have enjoyed most in 2008 (not necessarily books published in 2008).
The Pavarotti-Bot Award for Best Space Opera
Loads of candidates for this cherished award – the first new Culture novel of Iain M Banks for seven years, Matter, was pretty fine, and Peter F. Hamilton’s The Dreaming Void reminded me just how much I enjoy his forest-busting tomes. But for sheer enjoyment, I would have to pick Alastair Reynolds, both for the breadth of vision of House of Suns and the taut plotting of The Prefect. I can’t wait for his next offering.
Best Use of a Shrew in a Humorous Context
This coveted prize can only go to Nick Harkaway’s sublime The Gone-Away World, which offers a futuristic romp that I described as ‘Mad Max meets Catch-22 meets Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘ (actually, I didn’t, but I should have). I don’t think any other book has made me laugh as much this year, and the author continues to amuse me in his blogging and his other writing (look out for our interview with him in the New Year). The fact that Harkaway is John Le Carre’s son is genuinely incidental – his is a very different talent.
Simon P’s Books Of The Year 2008
It’s time for a bit of self indulgent nonsense and my nominations for Books of the Year 2008 – or at least those books that for one reason or another have struck a chord over the last twelve months.
Surprise of the Year
Things To Teach Your Grandchildren by Mark Oliver Everett
A moving and amusingly wry coming of age account featuring suicide, death, cancer, teenage awkwardness, more death, pop stardom and quantum physics. I don’t love books about makers of music but this not only had me reaching for the CD shelves but actually had me look at life in a different light for a week or two. I will be giving a few copies of this as presents this Christmas.
The Timing Is Everything-Uncanny Prescience of the Year
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable – by Nassem Nicholas Taleb
In which the myriad false premises beloved of otherwise super clever people in the field of economics are laid bare as the pseudo science they are. Or how the cleverest people in our society are also the most dangerously stupid. In any other year this would be a very funny book.
The lost art of Discworld
Simon A explains his involvement in the creation of some obscure Discworld art, and showcases the resulting drawings for your delectation and delight.
In 1993, after finishing my GCSEs, I spent part of the summer working for my stepfather Robin Drury’s graphic design firm, and I was lucky enough to be involved in the creation and commissioning of official illustrations of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld which have probably not been seen by anyone (outside my house, where a set of prints graces the walls) for many many years. I thought it would be interesting to shine a light on the drawings and the work that went in to them.
One of my stepfather’s clients was Clarecraft, responsible for producing official Discworld figurines. Bernard Pearson, who has gone on to enjoy a long association with Pratchett under the sobriquet of The Cunning Artificer, was the creative force behind these models, and he worked closely with Pratchett to get them right. Our main job was to create a catalogue of the models, and Robin decided we should commission an artist called Dan Pearce to create a set of illustrations in support of the main product photography. My job was to work out which scenes or settings matched up with the main groups of characters, and then to brief Dan on what to show in the drawings. Mainly, this meant I was being paid to read Discworld books all day and write bits down for Dan! I was in Discworld heaven…
The Bookgeeks and the Curious Case of the Copy-Cat Catcher
The review in question (click to enlarge)
Five months since we launched Bookgeeks, Simon A describes our first experience of being on the wrong end of plagiarism.
Something happened this week that has made me start thinking about some of the unintended consequences that may attend the growth of User Generated Content around the publishing industry, especially where there is a link between status and rewards. The event in question was plagiarism – an Amazon Vine programme member, Kinkazzo, posted a review on Amazon that was substantially based on my own review of The Gone-Away World, by Nick Harkaway. When I say substantially, it was probably about half of what I wrote, making up about two thirds of what he uploaded. Who knows whether he wrote the other bits himself or not, but he certainly seems to be a serial offender on Amazon (and who knows where else), adapting reviews from sites a great deal more august and established than your humble Bookgeeks.
Starstruckgeek
Last night Mathew and I attended the launch for Nick Harkaway’s The Gone-Away World, a book that I greatly enjoyed and that has received a lot of attention here in the UK: from Radio 4, Newsnight Review, The Guardian, The Scotsman, and most importantly of all (I would humbly submit), from your friendly neighborhood Bookgeeks!
It’s the first time I have been to a book launch, and it was a very pleasant way to spend a bit of time.
Plus points
- Friendly chat with the author himself
- Short but enjoyable speeches
- Free booze
- Delicious canapés
- Free flapjacks (read the book and you’ll understand)
- Oh, and I met John Le Carré, who happens to be Nick Harkaway’s dad
Minus points
- I forgot to take my copy of the book to get Nick to sign it (only got myself to blame there)
- In the excitement of pursuing Mr Le Carré, I forgot to take a free flapjack (don’t ever say I don’t know how to make tough choices)
So on the whole, I think you would say the pluses vastly outweighed the minuses and call it a very cool experience indeed. And did I mention that I met John Le Carré?
Geeky (note)books
After reading Jame’s Bridle’s recent post over at booktwo.org about making custom notebooks using Lulu.com and scanned classic book covers, I was inspired to make my own and it arrived this week. I have already got some funny looks on the train for appearing to write in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four!
The copy that I scanned belonged to my mum, was printed in 1955 and apparently cost 15p! It has some stains on the cover and a small hole in the back cover, just to the right of Orwell’s eye. All of these bits of character are faithfully reproduced in the notebook version, albeit somewhat glossier (in the photos, original is on the left, notebook on the right).
I think this demonstrates the value that publishers with a long design heritage, such as Faber and Penguin, can extract from their artwork archives – after all, if Penguin can merchandise classic covers on to deckchairs and mugs (through Art Meets Matter), why not notebooks?
If you fancy trying this for yourself, James has instructions and a PDF for the notebook interior that you can download.
Simon A
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…
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The Bookgeeks Interview
Kat Falls
Kat Falls grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland and now teaches at NU, where she is continually inspired by her students’ creativity. She started writing Dark Life as a writing exercise. Knowing that her 12-year-old son loved reading about the ocean, Wild West pioneers and, of course, the X-Men, she combined his interests and created the premise for a story that kept her up nights plotting and world-building.
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The Book That...
Robert Lloyd Parry: The Book I Would Like To Be Buried With…
This special twentieth Bury Me… features grand panjandrum and actor Robert Lloyd Parry, the man behind the Nunkie Theatre Company, responsible for many an uneasy evening with the master of English supernatural stories…
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The Bookgeeks Competition
The Richard T. Kelly Column
Richard T. Kelly
Richard T. Kelly’s exclusive monthly column, in which he addresses various matters literary, writers and their books, the publishing business and his own experiences as a writer. Richard is a novelist, screenwriter, biographer and journalist, and you can read his column exclusively on our sister site, Bookhugger.co.uk.Connect with Bookgeeks
Bookgeek Chic
