The BoSS for 04/07/10

Oh, this is more like it. Last week's haul left me rather underwhelmed, I'm afraid - not for any lack of perceived quality, but because damn near every book that arrived during that period was a sequel to a series I hadn't read before. This week, not so. This week, in fact, quite the opposite.

Saying that, I haven't read a one of these authors before. Here's to new experiences, eh?

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.

Read on for a sneak peek at some of the books - past, present and future - you can expect to see coverage of here on The Speculative Scotsman in the coming weeks and months.

***

Hodd
by Adam Thorpe

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

13/05/10 by Vintage

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "Who was Robin Hood? Romantic legend casts him as outlaw, archer, and hero of the people, living in Sherwood Forest with Friar Tuck, Little John and Maid Marian, stealing from the rich to give to the poor - but there is no historical proof to back this up. The early ballads portray a quite different figure: impulsive, violent, vengeful, with no concern for the needy, no merry band, and no Maid Marian.

"Hodd provides a possible answer to this famous question, in the form of a medieval document rescued from a ruined church on the Somme, and translated from the original Latin. The testimony of an anonymous monk, it describes his time as a boy in the greenwood with a half-crazed bandit called Robert Hodd - who, following the thirteenth-century principles of the "heresy of the Free Spirit," believes himself above God and beyond sin. Hodd and his crimes would have been forgotten without the boy's minstrel skills, and it is the old monk's cruel fate to know that not only has he given himself up to apostasy and shame, but that his ballads were responsible for turning a murderous felon into the most popular outlaw hero and folk legend of England, Robin Hood."

Commentary: Doesn't this sound grand? Robin Hood the maniac bandit. I've always loved re-interpretations of old stories, and the buzz on Hodd says it really is all that. And what a gorgeous cover! No question about it: I'll be reading this one shortly.

Ashes to Dust

by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

22/07/10 by Hodder & Stoughton

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "Bodies are discovered in one of the excavated houses at a volcanic tourist attraction dubbed The Pompeii of the North.

"Markús Magnússon, who was only a teenager when the volcano erupted, falls under suspicion and hires attorney Thóra Gudmundsdottir to defend him - but when his childhood sweetheart is murdered his case starts to look more difficult, and the locals seem oddly reluctant to back him up."

Commentary: I could really go for some good Scandinavian crime fiction; it's been too long, and a little birdie tells me I'm not likely to see another Stieg Larsson book for, well... ever. Sadly, in the sole exception to this week's theme, Ashes to Dust is the third novel to feature Thora, Sigurdardottir's lawyer protagonist, and as has been well and truly established, I don't relish starting series anywhere other than at the start. There's only an outside chance that I'll get to this, then, but we shall see. We shall see.

The Holy Machine
by Chris Beckett

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

10/06/10 by Corvus

Review Priority:

5 (Immediate)

Plot Synopsis: "Illyria is a scientific utopia, an enclave of logic and reason founded off the Greek coast in the mid-twenty first century as a refuge from the Reaction, a wave of religious fundamentalism sweeping the planet. Yet to George Simling, first generation son of a former geneticist who was left emotionally and psychically crippled by the persecution she encountered in her native Chicago, science-dominated Illyria is becoming as closed-minded and stifling as the religion-dominated world outside...

"The Holy Machine is Chris Beckett's first novel. As well as being a story about love, adventure and a young man learning to mature and face the world, it deals with a question that is all too easily forgotten or glibly answered in science fiction: what happens to the soul, to beauty, to morality, in the absence of God?"

Commentary: Seems like only last week we were talking about this one. Here, wait a second: it was! Well, colour me lucky to have received an early proof of one of my most anticipated novels of the year. In Halfway Through 2010: The Best Books, I outed The Holy Machine as having the potential to be this year's The Windup Girl. Here's hoping that notion holds water. I'll be gobbling up Chris Beckett's debut just as soon as I can find the time.

The Radleys

by Matt Haig

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

01/07/10 by Canongate

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "Meet the Radleys: Peter, Helen and their teenage kids Clara and Rowan. An everyday family who live in a pretty English village and juggle dysfunctional lives. So far, so normal. Except, as Peter and Helen know (but the kids have yet to find out), the Radleys happen to be a family of abstaining vampires. When one night Clara finds herself driven to commit a bloodthirsty act of violence, her parents need to explain a few things: why is their skin is so sensitive to light, why do they all find garlic so repulsive, and why has Clara's recent decision to go vegan had quite such an effect on her behaviour? But when mysterious Uncle Will swoops into the village, he unleashes a host of shadowy truths and dark secrets that threaten to destroy the Radleys and the world around them."

Commentary: This light-hearted vampire farce has the potential to be a great deal of fun. Wicked and witty. As a matter of fact, the comparison I keep hearing is between Matt Haig and Roald Dahl. Could there be a higher recommendation than that? The Radleys should be a perfect fit for the vampire weekend I have in the works. I know, I know... a week of this, a weekend of that, but it's getting hard not to see themes wherever I look.

The Restoration Game

by Ken MacLeod

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
01/07/10 by Orbit

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "There is no such place as Krassnia. Lucy Stone should know - she was born there. In that tiny, troubled region of the former Soviet Union, revolution is brewing. Its organisers need a safe place to meet, and where better than the virtual spaces of an online game? Lucy, who works for a start-up games company in Edinburgh, has a project that almost seems made for the job: a game inspired by The Krassniad, an epic folk tale concocted by Lucy's mother Amanda, who studied there in the 1980s. Lucy knows Amanda is a spook. She knows her great-grandmother Eugenie also visited the country in the '30s, and met the man who originally collected Krassnian folklore, and who perished in Stalin's terror. As Lucy digs up details about her birthplace to slot into the game, she finds the open secrets of her family's past, the darker secrets of Krassnia's past - and hints about the crucial role she is destined to play in The Restoration Game..."

Commentary: Oooh, my first Ken MacLeod, and I'm gagging to get started. The Restoration Game has already been on the receiving end of critical raves left and right. Add to that MacLeod's sterling reputation, the Edinburgh connection and the subject matter: an MMORPG to rival World of Warcraft. Sold. Shame that it's arrived amidst a rush of potentially brilliant books. I'm going to be a busy bee this week, that's for sure.

Pretty Monsters
by Kelly Link

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
01/07/10 by Canongate

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "Weird, wicked, spooky and delicious, Pretty Monsters is a book of tall tales to keep you up all night. Kelly Link creates a world like no other, where ghosts of girlfriends past rub up against Scrabble-loving grandmothers with terrifying magic handbags, wizards sit alongside morbid babysitters, and we encounter a people-eating monster with a sick sense of humour."

Commentary: Doesn't take more than a blurb from Neil Gaiman to get me to read a book. Not forgetting ecstatic quotes from Audrey Niffenegger, Alice Sebold and Sarah Waters. This Kelly Link seems like quite the crowd-pleaser. And once again, I'm in the dark. What better thing to shed some light on her talents than a short story collection, though? As with every other book in The BoSS this week, I'm very much looking forward to Pretty Monsters.

Fevre Dream

by George R. R. Martin

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
28/08/08 by Gollancz

Review Priority:

5 (Immediate)

Plot Synopsis: "Abner Marsh has had his dearest wish come true - he has built the Fevre Dream, the finest steamship ever to sail the Mississippi. Abner hopes to race the boat some day, but his partner is making it hard for him to realise his ambition. Joshua York put up the money for the Fevre Dream, but now rumours have started about the company he keeps, his odd eating habits and strange hours. As the Dream sails the great river, it leaves in its wake one too many dark tales, until Abner is forced to face down the man who helped to make his dreams become reality."

Commentary: So my first George R. R. Martin isn't going to be A Game of Thrones after all. How about that? I'm reading this for a project myself and a ragtag gang of other bloggers have cooking. The SFF Masterworks Reading Project - bit of a mouthful, I suppose, but it does exactly what it says on the tin. We launched on the first of the month, and my first contribution - a review of Fevre Dream - should be up over there in a matter of days. I'll be reposting here eventually, I suspect, but please, do pop on over to see whether I've fallen for GRRM along with the rest of the world.