The BoSS for 13/03/10

Hello, all.

I'm afraid to say the postman's been playing silly buggers again. Some substantial deliveries made to my humble abode in my absence have vanished, it seems, with nary a trace. Is this what I get for mocking the man each week in the BoSS? Surely the mailman isn't reading TSS these days!

Thankfully, the vast majority of the books and proofs sent for review while I was away have indeed made it through his intricate net of deception. Perhaps he only likes sci-fi; who's to say? The BoSS certainly doesn't care to.

Click through to read Meet the BoSS for an introduction and an explanation as to why you should care about the Bag o' Speculative Swag.

And with that, let's get the ball rolling. Here are some of the books you can expect to see reviewed or otherwise discussed here on The Speculative Scotsman over the coming weeks and months. And what an incredibly exciting lot they are...

***

Mr. Shivers
by Robert Jackson Bennett

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

21/01/10 by Orbit

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "It is the time of the Great Depression. The dustbowl has turned the western skies red and thousands leave their homes seeking a better life. Marcus Connelly seeks not a new life, but a death - a death for the mysterious scarred man who murdered his daughter.

"And soon he learns that he is not alone. Countless others have lost someone to the scarred man. They band together to track him, but as they get closer, Connelly begins to suspect that the man they are hunting is more than human. As the pursuit becomes increasingly desperate, Connelly must decide just how much he is willing to sacrifice to get his revenge."

Commentary: Ah, a Western horror novel. And one that's been scoring plaudits left, right and center. For a number of reasons I'm reminded of Blood Meridian, a very difficult bit of fiction even coming from Cormac McCarthy (what wrote The Road), though the comparison is in all likelihood baseless beyond the books' similar settings. But I digress. Mr. Shivers looks great, and the reviews I've read to date have been more than enough to whet my appetite for it. I've been hungry for another good horror story since I finished Joe Hill's wonderfully wicked Horns and this looks like the ideal candidate to fill that gap.

 

Kelland

by Paul G. Bens Jr.

Release Details:

Published in the US on

01/09/09 by Casperian Books

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "The truth begins with a family evacuated from Saigon during the final days of the Viet Nam War. Or perhaps it begins later, with a devoutly Catholic child with the voice of an angel who is troubled by visions both sacred and profane. Or perhaps later still, with a couple drifting apart following a tragedy.

"Kelland appears to them all in the guise of a small boy, a lover, a priest... Kelland is an enigma, a puzzle, and an almost imperceptible presence. Kelland is violence, sorrow, and joy. Kelland is the common thread tying five disparate strangers together."

Commentary: I'm late to the party with this one, but what the hell - it doesn't seem like too many bloggers have picked up on Kelland, and no surprises there: Paul G. Bens Jr. isn't exactly a household name in genre fiction circles and the intensely dark subject matter doesn't exactly invite casual interest. Nonetheless, the little buzz I've heard of Kelland has been absolutely blinding, not to mention that it won Best Small Press Chill in Dark Scribe magazine's third annual Black Quill awards. So I'm in. I've missed the release date by a large enough margin that it might be a while before you hear any more about this book, but be sure that - just as soon as I've addressed a few more pressing releases - you will.

Under Heaven

by Guy Gavriel Kay



Release Details:

Published in the UK on

29/04/10 by HarperVoyager

Review Priority:

5 (Immediate)

Plot Synopsis: "For two years Shen Tai has mourned his father, living like a hermit beyond the borders of the Kitan Empire, by a mountain lake where terrible battles have long been fought between the Kitai and the neighbouring Tagurans, including one for which his father - a great general - was honoured. But Tai's father never forgot the brutal slaughter involved. The bones of 100,000 soldiers still lie unburied by the lake and their wailing ghosts at night strike terror in the living, leaving the lake and meadow abandoned in its ring of mountains.

"To honour and redress his father's sorrow, Tai has journeyed west to the lake and has laboured, alone, to bury the dead of both empires. His supplies are replenished by his own people from the nearest fort, and also - since peace has been bought with the bartering of an imperial princess - by the Tagurans, for his solitary honouring of their dead. The Tagurans soldiers one day bring an unexpected letter. It is from the bartered Kitan Princess Cheng-wan, and it contains a poisoned chalice: she has gifted Tai with two hundred and fifty Sardian horses, to reward him for his courage. The Sardians are legendary steeds from the far west, famed, highly-prized, long-coveted by the Kitans."

Commentary: Now this is what I'm talking about. Short of the feeling that all my diversionary burbling actually matters to some people, an advance copy of Guy Gavriel Kay's forthcoming Under Heaven must be singularly the best thing to have come from launching this blog. I've already talked at length about my excitement for this single-volume historical fantasy, so let's leave it at that. Read the preview that ran in a month ago, if you please. I'll be reading this book just as soon as I'm humanly able to.

Spellwright
by Blake Charlton

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

27/05/10 by HarperVoyager

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "In a world where words can come to life, an inability to spell can be a dangerous thing. And no one knows this better than apprentice wizard Nicodemus Weal. Nicodemus is a cacographer, unable to reproduce even simple magical texts without 'misspelling' - a mistake which can have deadly consequences. He was supposed to be the Halcyon Nicodemus Weal is a cacographer, unable to reproduce even simple magical texts without 'misspelling' -- a mistake which can have deadly consequences. He was supposed to be the Halcyon, a magic-user of unsurpassed power, destined to save the world; instead he is restricted to menial tasks, and mocked for his failure to live up to the prophecy.

"But not everyone interprets prophecy in the same way. There are some factions who believe a cacographer such as Nicodemus could hold great power -- power that might be used as easily for evil as for good. And when two of the wizards closest to Nicodemus are found dead, it becomes clear that some of those factions will stop at nothing to find the apprentice and bend him to their will!"

Commentary: I just love the cover quote on this one: "a letter-perfect story," says Robin Hobb, which is funny... because it's true! Well, maybe it is. I don't know that I can speak to the quality of debut author Blake Charlton's storytelling with any authority quite yet, but you see, Spellwright is a book about words - and thus letters - given physical form as spells, and I do enjoy a clever bit of wordplay. A fascinating interview with the man himself on The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy (reviewed in Castmonger here) got me good and psyched to read Spellwright a few weeks ago, and courtesy of a link on Aidan Moher's blog, I've already listened to a throughly excellent audio teaser for Blake's book. I'll be digging into this very soon, I think. Blake seems like a lovely fellow, intelligent, articulate and original; I've high hopes that I can say the same for his first novel in a few weeks.

Dead in the Family

by Charlaine Harris

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
10/06/10 by Gollancz

Review Priority:

2 (Fair)

Plot Synopsis: "If you think your family relationships are complicated, think again: you haven't seen anything like the ones in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie Stackhouse is dealing with a whole host of family problems, ranging from her own kin (a non-human fairy and a telepathic second cousin) demanding a place in her life, to her lover Eric's vampire sire, an ancient being, who arrives with Eric's 'brother' in tow at a most inopportune moment. And Sookie's tracking down a distant relation of her ailing neighbour (and ex), Vampire Bill Compton. In addition to the multitude of family issues complicating her life, the werewolf pack of Shreveport has asked Sookie for a special favour, and since Sookie is an obliging young woman, she agrees. But this favour for the wolves has dire results for Sookie, who is still recovering from the trauma of her abduction during the Fairy War."

Commentary: Hmm. I'm not a fan of Sookie Stackhouse. The books themselves - what little I've admittedly read of them - strike me as tedious and pandering, and though as a fan of Six Feet Under I was anxiously anticipation its creator Alan Ball's take on the novels in True Blood, by the second season all Sookie and company's soap-opera antics had left me exhausted and largely uninterested. That said, there's a massive fanbase out there - you don't have to look far - and they can't all be wrong. I mean, after Twilight, surely it can't happen twice... so perhaps it's time to give Charlaine Harris another shot. Though jumping into a series I've only read a few early chapters of in the ninth or tenth installment (depending on whether or not you count the short story collection) mightn't be the best idea I've had in a while. We shall see.

The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart

by Jesse Bullington

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
05/11/09 by Orbit

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "In the plague-wracked and devil-haunted darkness of Medieval Europe, an elite few enjoy opulent lives while the majority eke out a miserable existence in abject poverty. Hungry creatures stalk the deep woods and desolate mountains, and both sea and sky teem with unspeakable horrors. For those ill-fated masses not born into wealth, life is but a vicious trial to be endured before the end of days.

"Hegel and Manfried Grossbart could give a toss. Being of low birth means little, after all, when the riches of the mighty wait just inside the next crypt. The grave-robbing twins know enough about crusading to realise that if one is to make a living from the dead, what better destination than the fabled tomb-cities of Egypt? But the Brothers Grossbart are about to discover that all legends have their truths, and worse fates than death await those who would take the red road of villainy..."

Commentary: Reportedly filthy, violent and disgusting, even those readers without strong enough stomachs for Jesse Bullington's debut have observed, between dry heaves, that it's a cracking read. And the blurb from Ambergris mastermind Jeff Vandermeer, who Bullington apparently assaulted on the street with an early manuscript, only ups the anticipation ante. If The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart is half as "darkly funny, profane, erudite, bawdy, and wickedly original" as Vandermeer suggests, I can hardly wait to get reading.

Solar

by Ian McEwan

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
18/03/10 by Jonathan Cape

Review Priority:

5 (Immediate)

Plot Synopsis: "Michael Beard is a Nobel prize-winning physicist whose best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormous fees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientific institutions and half-heartedly heads a government-backed initiative tackling global warming. A compulsive womaniser, Beard finds his fifth marriage floundering. But this time it is different: she is having the affair, and he is still in love with her.

"When Beard's professional and personal worlds collide in a freak accident, an opportunity presents itself for Beard to extricate himself from his marital mess, reinvigorate his career and save the world from environmental disaster. Ranging from the Arctic Circle to the deserts of New Mexico, Solar is a serious and darkly satirical novel, showing human frailty struggling with the most pressing and complex problem of our time. A story of one man's greed and self-deception, it is a profound and stylish new work from one of the world's great writers."

Commentary: What a week it's been! As if Under Heaven and all the other treats the postie delivered in my absence - not to speak, this once, of those that vanished along the way - as if that lot wasn't enough to ensure I'll be spending every free moment I have with my nose buried in books this week, along comes Solar, the first full-length novel from British literary deity Ian McEwan since Saturday in 2005. I'm not sure how well known McEwan is outside of the UK, but here, he's pretty much the man. What a lucky sod I am to have gotten an early copy of this. This, or the new Guy Gavriel Kay; the new Guy Gavriel Kay, or this... I honestly don't know what to read first. Not a bad problem to be having, I'll say. Expect a review before the month's out. Here's hoping for great things.