Another very strong week. The tremendous blurbs on the cover of Declare make me want to jump right in, but the arrival of a beautiful proof of the new Brandon Sanderson - not to mention a book that's been nine years in the making, the first volume of a series that I've been dying to try and some hot new SF - mean that I've got some tough (albeit very pleasant) decisions to make as to what to read this week. And that's not counting the whack of great releases which arrived for my attention last week.
Oh my...
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.
Oh my...
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.
***
Declare
by Tim Powers
by Tim Powers
Release Details:
Published in the UK on
01/06/10 by Corvus
Review Priority:
4 (Very High)
Plot Synopsis: "An ultra-secret MI6 codename, a deadly game of deception and intrigue - Dark forces from the depths of history. It is the terrible secret at the heart of the cold war. Operation: Declare London, 1963. A cryptic phone call forces ex-MI6 agent Andrew Hale to confront the nightmare that has haunted his adult life: an ultra-secret wartime operation, codenamed Declare. Operation Declare took Hale from Nazi-occupied Paris to the ruins of post-war Berlin and the trackless wastes of the Arabian desert, culminating in a night of betrayal and mind-shattering terror on the glacial slopes of Mount Ararat. Now, with the Cold War at its height, his superiors want him to return to the mountain and face the dark secret entombed within its icy summit. Hale has no choice but to comply, for Declare is the key to a conflict far deeper, far colder, than the Cold War itself"
Commentary: Ecstatic quotes from the likes of William Gibson and Roger Zelazny mean Tim Powers must be doing something very right. He's another author new to me, I'm afraid to say - going from The BoSS these past few weeks, it seems like they all are, but I do read books, I swear it!
Well, I won't be a Tim Powers virgin for much longer. This one has shot to the top of the TBR stack. What really sells me is China Mieville's assertion that Declare is "a brilliant, strange crossbreed of the spy thriller and the supernatural," and when that gentleman says go read a thing, I'll go read a thing, thank you very much.
Commentary: Ecstatic quotes from the likes of William Gibson and Roger Zelazny mean Tim Powers must be doing something very right. He's another author new to me, I'm afraid to say - going from The BoSS these past few weeks, it seems like they all are, but I do read books, I swear it!
Well, I won't be a Tim Powers virgin for much longer. This one has shot to the top of the TBR stack. What really sells me is China Mieville's assertion that Declare is "a brilliant, strange crossbreed of the spy thriller and the supernatural," and when that gentleman says go read a thing, I'll go read a thing, thank you very much.
Beatrice and Virgil
by Yann Martel
Release Details:
Release Details:
Published in the UK on
03/06/10 by Canongate
Review Priority:
Review Priority:
4 (Very High)
Plot Synopsis: "Fate takes many forms...
"When Henry receives a letter from an elderly taxidermist, it poses a puzzle that he cannot resist. As he is pulling into the world of this strange and calculating man, Henry becomes increasingly involved with the lives of a donkey and a howler monkey - named Beatrice and Virgil - and the epic journey they undertake together. With all the spirit and originality that made Life of Pi so treasured, this brilliant new novel takes the reader on a haunting odyssey. On the way, Martel asks profound questions about life and art, truth and deception, responsibility and complicity."
Commentary: I loved Life of Pi so much. It was one of those precious, revelatory moments in literature for me; a book, wise and wonderful, which opened my eyes to the vast potential of the written word. I'll never forget little Pi Patel and his alpha tiger floating across the ocean...
But it's been nine years since Life of Pi. It's taken nine years for Yann Martel to get another novel together - not the most promising of developments in itself (and the same reason I'm getting nervous about whatever Cormac McCarthy writes next) - and to say the early buzz on Beatrice and Virgil has been divisive would be putting it politely. Some people think it's self-indulgent tripe. I pray that it's otherwise. I don't need it to change my perspective on life all over again; I just need it not to suck. To that end, here's hoping there's more to Beatrice and Virgil than metafictional nonsense.
"When Henry receives a letter from an elderly taxidermist, it poses a puzzle that he cannot resist. As he is pulling into the world of this strange and calculating man, Henry becomes increasingly involved with the lives of a donkey and a howler monkey - named Beatrice and Virgil - and the epic journey they undertake together. With all the spirit and originality that made Life of Pi so treasured, this brilliant new novel takes the reader on a haunting odyssey. On the way, Martel asks profound questions about life and art, truth and deception, responsibility and complicity."
Commentary: I loved Life of Pi so much. It was one of those precious, revelatory moments in literature for me; a book, wise and wonderful, which opened my eyes to the vast potential of the written word. I'll never forget little Pi Patel and his alpha tiger floating across the ocean...
But it's been nine years since Life of Pi. It's taken nine years for Yann Martel to get another novel together - not the most promising of developments in itself (and the same reason I'm getting nervous about whatever Cormac McCarthy writes next) - and to say the early buzz on Beatrice and Virgil has been divisive would be putting it politely. Some people think it's self-indulgent tripe. I pray that it's otherwise. I don't need it to change my perspective on life all over again; I just need it not to suck. To that end, here's hoping there's more to Beatrice and Virgil than metafictional nonsense.
Hater
by David Moody
by David Moody
Release Details:
Published in the UK on
19/02/09 by Gollancz
Review Priority:
Review Priority:
3 (Moderate)
Plot Synopsis: "REMAIN CALM DO NOT PANIC TAKE SHELTER WAIT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS THE SITUATION IS UNDER CONTROL
"Society is rocked by a sudden increase in the number of violent assaults on individuals. Christened 'Haters' by the media, the attackers strike without warning. The assaults are brutal, remorseless and extreme: within seconds, normally rational, self-controlled people are becoming maddened, vicious killers. There are no apparent links as a hundred random attacks become a thousand, and then thousands, right across the country. Everyone, irrespective of gender, age, race, sexuality or any other difference, has the potential to become a victim - or a Hater. People are afraid to go to work, afraid to leave their homes and, increasingly, afraid that at any moment their friends, even their closest family, could turn on them with murderous intent. By the end of today you could be dead. By the end of today you could be a killer. Attack first, ask questions later - but the answer might not be what you expect..."
Commentary: Oh, good stuff. Uncle Simon - as he insists on being called - to the rescue again. Hater is the novel preceding Dog Blood, a 28 Days Later-esque outbreak thriller which featured in The BoSS not a few weeks ago. Well chuffed I won't have to begin this series in the middle. I was this close to giving up all my principles to start in on it, too.
"Society is rocked by a sudden increase in the number of violent assaults on individuals. Christened 'Haters' by the media, the attackers strike without warning. The assaults are brutal, remorseless and extreme: within seconds, normally rational, self-controlled people are becoming maddened, vicious killers. There are no apparent links as a hundred random attacks become a thousand, and then thousands, right across the country. Everyone, irrespective of gender, age, race, sexuality or any other difference, has the potential to become a victim - or a Hater. People are afraid to go to work, afraid to leave their homes and, increasingly, afraid that at any moment their friends, even their closest family, could turn on them with murderous intent. By the end of today you could be dead. By the end of today you could be a killer. Attack first, ask questions later - but the answer might not be what you expect..."
Commentary: Oh, good stuff. Uncle Simon - as he insists on being called - to the rescue again. Hater is the novel preceding Dog Blood, a 28 Days Later-esque outbreak thriller which featured in The BoSS not a few weeks ago. Well chuffed I won't have to begin this series in the middle. I was this close to giving up all my principles to start in on it, too.
Finch
by Jeff Vandermeer
Release Details:
Published in the UK on
01/08/10 by Corvus
Review Priority:
3 (Moderate)
Plot Synopsis: "In a deserted tenement in an occupied city, two dead bodies lie on a dusty floor as if they have fallen out of the air itself. One corpse is cut in half, the other is utterly unmarked. The city of Ambergris is half ruined, rotten; its population controlled by narcotics, internment camps and acts of terror. But its new masters want this case closed, urgently. Detective John Finch has just one week to solve it or be sent to the camps. With no ID for the victims, no clues, no leads and precious little hope, Finch's fate that hangs in the balance.
"But there is more to this case than first meets the eye. Enough to put Finch in the cross-hairs of every spy, rebel, informer and traitor in town. Under the shadow of the eldritch tower the occupiers are raising above the city, Finch is about to come face to face with a series of mysteries that will change him and Ambergris forever. Why does one of the victims most resemble a man thought dead for 100 years, what is the murders' connection to an attempted genocide nearly 600 years ago, and just what the secret purpose of the occupier's tower?"
Commentary: Longtime readers of The Speculative Scotsman might recall me burbling about Finch in January. Seems like an age ago already, doesn't it? And I was late to Finch even then. In any event, this noirish fantasy masterpiece has been out in the States for the better part of a year, now, and finally - thanks to Corvus - the latest Jeff Vandermeer is coming out in the UK. I've had my differences with Jeff in the past: some of his work hasn't quite worked from me, shall we say, and a run-in here on TSS a few months ago had me eating humble pie over a post on his blog, Ecstatic Days. But I wouldn't dare to differ with him over Finch. It's a hell of book, full stop. With a hell of a hell of a cover, here and in America both. Look out for a review good and soon.
"But there is more to this case than first meets the eye. Enough to put Finch in the cross-hairs of every spy, rebel, informer and traitor in town. Under the shadow of the eldritch tower the occupiers are raising above the city, Finch is about to come face to face with a series of mysteries that will change him and Ambergris forever. Why does one of the victims most resemble a man thought dead for 100 years, what is the murders' connection to an attempted genocide nearly 600 years ago, and just what the secret purpose of the occupier's tower?"
Commentary: Longtime readers of The Speculative Scotsman might recall me burbling about Finch in January. Seems like an age ago already, doesn't it? And I was late to Finch even then. In any event, this noirish fantasy masterpiece has been out in the States for the better part of a year, now, and finally - thanks to Corvus - the latest Jeff Vandermeer is coming out in the UK. I've had my differences with Jeff in the past: some of his work hasn't quite worked from me, shall we say, and a run-in here on TSS a few months ago had me eating humble pie over a post on his blog, Ecstatic Days. But I wouldn't dare to differ with him over Finch. It's a hell of book, full stop. With a hell of a hell of a cover, here and in America both. Look out for a review good and soon.
The Enemy
by Charlie Higson
Release Details:
Published in the UK on
03/09/09 by Puffin
Review Priority:
03/09/09 by Puffin
Review Priority:
3 (Moderate)
Plot Synopsis: "They'll chase you. They'll rip you open. They'll feed on you...When the sickness came, every parent, policeman, politician - every adult - fell ill. The lucky ones died. The others are crazed, confused and hungry. Only children under fourteen remain, and they're fighting to survive. Now there are rumours of a safe place to hide. And so a gang of children begin their quest across London, where all through the city - down alleyways, in deserted houses, underground - the grown-ups lie in wait. But can they make it there - alive?"
Commentary: From the co-creator of 90s comedy highlight The Fast Show and latterly the author of the Young Bond books comes... a zombie apocalypse for young adult readers? The Enemy seems to be of the same oeuvre as Hater, Feed and a host of other such fiction, a veritable undead uprising. What I'm most curious about, however, is how successfully its author has managed the jump from comedy to espionage to horror. Incidentally, this is prepwork for the sequel's release in October: The Dead, don't you know. Should be fun, at the very least.
Zendegi
by Greg Egan
Release Details:
Published in the UK on
17/06/10 by Gollancz
Review Priority:
17/06/10 by Gollancz
Review Priority:
4 (Very High)
Plot Synopsis: "Nasim is a young computer scientist, hoping to work on the Human Connectome Project: a plan to map every neural connection in the human brain. But funding for the project is cancelled, and Nasim ends up devoting her career to Zendegi, a computerised virtual world used by millions of people. Fifteen years later, a revived Connectome Project has published a map of the brain. Zendegi is facing fierce competition from its rivals, and Nasim decides to exploit the map to fill the virtual world with better Proxies: the bit-players that bring its crowd scenes to life. As controversy rages over the nature and rights of the Proxies, a friend with terminal cancer begs Nasim to make a Proxy of him, so some part of him will survive to help raise his orphaned son. But Zendegi is about to become a battlefield..."
Commentary: Yep, it's another author I've never read. Stand in awe of my gross inadequacy! But seriously, 2010 has been wall to wall with new experiences for me, and you know what? I don't regret a one of them. Greg Egan I've been hearing about for years, now, and Zendegi looks by all accounts to be one of his very best. What better place to start than here, eh? What better time than now?
Commentary: Yep, it's another author I've never read. Stand in awe of my gross inadequacy! But seriously, 2010 has been wall to wall with new experiences for me, and you know what? I don't regret a one of them. Greg Egan I've been hearing about for years, now, and Zendegi looks by all accounts to be one of his very best. What better place to start than here, eh? What better time than now?
The Way of Kings
by Brandon Sanderson
Release Details:
Published in the US on
31/08/10 by Tor
Review Priority:
31/08/10 by Tor
Review Priority:
5 (Immediate)
Plot Synopsis: "According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms. And the Voidbringers followed... They came against man ten thousand times. To help them cope, the Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical weapons, known as Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of knights known as Radiants, mankind finally won.
"Or so the legends say. Today, the only remnants of those supposed battles are the Shardblades, the possession of which makes a man nearly invincible on the battlefield. The entire world is at war with itself - and has been for centuries since the Radiants turned against mankind. Kings strive to win more Shardblades, each secretly wishing to be the one who will finally unite all of mankind under a single throne. On a world scoured down to the rock by terrifying hurricanes that blow through every few day a young spearman forced into the army of a Shardbearer, led to war against an enemy he doesn't understand and doesn't really want to fight. What happened deep in mankind's past? Why did the Radiants turn against mankind, and what happened to the magic they used to wield?"
"Or so the legends say. Today, the only remnants of those supposed battles are the Shardblades, the possession of which makes a man nearly invincible on the battlefield. The entire world is at war with itself - and has been for centuries since the Radiants turned against mankind. Kings strive to win more Shardblades, each secretly wishing to be the one who will finally unite all of mankind under a single throne. On a world scoured down to the rock by terrifying hurricanes that blow through every few day a young spearman forced into the army of a Shardbearer, led to war against an enemy he doesn't understand and doesn't really want to fight. What happened deep in mankind's past? Why did the Radiants turn against mankind, and what happened to the magic they used to wield?"
Commentary: And lo, mere weeks after it started on its grand adventure across the Atlantic, miraculously unfondled by the evils of the mailman, it has arrived. My proof of The Way of Kings is a beautiful thing indeed: vast and lavishly illustrated. And to think I thought The Passage was a big book...
You can read about my experience with the first 50 pages of the new and much ballyhooed-about Brandon Sanderson here. I won't suffer to repeat my thoughts on it without reading a little more, but for the moment, let it suffice to say I'm rearing to get started on The Way of Kings - again. Could it be our generation's Wheel of Time? Give me however long it takes to get through the remaining 1000 pages and I'll let you know.
Be right back! :)
You can read about my experience with the first 50 pages of the new and much ballyhooed-about Brandon Sanderson here. I won't suffer to repeat my thoughts on it without reading a little more, but for the moment, let it suffice to say I'm rearing to get started on The Way of Kings - again. Could it be our generation's Wheel of Time? Give me however long it takes to get through the remaining 1000 pages and I'll let you know.
Be right back! :)
That's quite another full sack you have there!
ReplyDeleteI've not read any of these particular books yet, but I do highly recommend Greg Egan (my favourite is Diaspora although not to everyone's taste: this is hard-as-nails SF!) and Tim Powers. My book group (The Edinburgh SF Book Group) read Anubis Gates last year. Most of us hated it but I thought it was great fun and have been meaning to read another of his ever since. Looking forward to your review!
On another note, here's something I was wondering. Like yourself, I write a blog that mostly specializes in one thing: in my case music-streaming service Spotify. But I also sometimes feel the urge to post about other things: Android phones, synthpop, and science fiction. I see that you also include posts on gaming and films - I appreciate these can be tied with the "speculative" tag but do you think this "dilution" might put off your core readers who come here primarily for a book blog? Personally I love everything here as I also game and watch a lot of movies. My own dilemma is whether to spin off a second blog or keep everything in the same place. Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated!
It's a question I've asked myself, mate. I seem to be getting a whole lot of crime fiction in the mailbag these days, and no matter how I stretch the definition of speculative fiction, I just can't find a way to rationalise putting such reviews up here. I mean, I like crime fiction - I certainly read some of what's sent - and I'd review it too, had I an appropriate forum to do so in. I just don't think TSS readers would much care for crime mixed in amongst their genres of choice, and with film and video games (not to mention comics, television, a bunch of other media I haven't yet touched on but theoretically could) already in the melting pot, it's exactly as you say - I worry that I'd be dilluting things one measure too far.
ReplyDeleteSo what I have to do - and this'd be my advice to you, too - is either start another blog, change the stated aims of TSS so as to encompass the new thing I want to talk about, or let it go. I've kept a few blogs in the past, none of which took off, and I believe they failed largely because they were unfoccussed. Talk a little about everything and nobody will come back, because they're not assured there will be something interesting for them. You have your focus already, with Spotify: I'd be afraid of spreading it too thin.
That's quite a lot of thoughts, really. Sorry for going on! Long story short: if I were you, I'd start a new, more general blog and pimp the hell out of it on the one you have to make the most of any crossover.
Also: the Edinburgh SF Book Group, eh? Why, that's but a few miles up the road from here... ;)
ReplyDeleteGreat group of interesting books. Declare and Zendegi look particularly good. I already have Beatrice and Virgil. Look forward to hearing what you think about them. I'll play devil's advocate here. I don't see why you can't post about the crime fiction. My blog has changed as my interests change over the years. Folks follow you because they find what you have to say interesting. You don't have to limit yourself. Just my 2 cents worth.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice Niall. I think I'd kinda came to the same conclusion: as you say, focus is everything in blogland and meeting expectations is key to holding on to readers. Posting several updates a week can sometimes be a struggle for me though and the thought of maintaining a second blog is a bit daunting.
ReplyDeleteOne SF blogger moved to reviewing more general books a few months ago and I must admit I did lose interest there. However something like a "TSS Crime Week" could frame the reviews as a special feature and shouldn't scare away readers.
Oh you should come along to the Edinburgh SF Book Group! There are about a dozen of us, 50/50 male/female, and we meet for an hour once a month to discuss a chosen book. It's run by Joe Gordon (who writes the Forbidden Planet International blog) and has a great bunch of guys from all walks of life (not just technogeeks like myself!). We meet in Hendersons on Hanover Street on the last Tuesday of the month. This month we're reading Gibson's Neuromancer.
I think I know the SF blogger you mean - didn't go so well, huh? Well, that's precisely what worries me. I don't want to take the readership here for granted for a second; I know they come for a reason, and if can I expect them to keep on coming to TSS, I have to keep serving up the sort of content that grabbed them in the first place.
ReplyDeleteBut a crime week. Huh. That sounds uncannily like a plan, my man... :)
Maybe next time I'm near Hendersons in Edinburgh and it so happens to be the last Tuesday of the month, I'll pop in and introduce myself. Would be a real pleasure, I don't doubt.