The BoSS for 11/09/10

Another week, another twofer!

For me, the highlight of the week has to be Zero History. New fiction from cyberpunk mastermind William Gibson is almost always something to stand up and shout about, and though I'm hardly well-versed in his work, Zero History has me racing through the stack of books to be read (and reviewed) that I might get to it as soon as humanly possible.

For the moment, click through to Meet the BoSS for an introduction and an explanation as to why you should care about the Bag o' Speculative Swag, or 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.

***

Zero History

by William Gibson

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
02/09/10 by Viking

Review Priority:

5 (Immediate)

Plot Synopsis: "Former rock singer Hollis Henry has lost a lot of money in the crash, which means she can't turn down the offer of a job from Hubertus Bigend, sinister Belgian proprietor of mysterious ad agency Blue Ant. Milgrim is working for Bigend too. Bigend admires the ex-addict's linguistic skills and street knowledge so much that he's even paid for his costly rehab. So together Hollis and Milgrim are at the front line of Bigend's attempts to get a slice of the military budget, and they gradually realize he has some very dangerous competitors. Which is not a great thought when you don't much trust your boss either. Gibson's new novel, set largely in London, spookily captures the paranoia and fear of our post-Crash times."

Commentary: Isn't it funny how some authors get to have their names before the titles of their novels? I suppose if anyone deserves that kind of topline treatment, it's got to be William Gibson.

Zero History is the third in a loosely-connected trilogy of naratives featuring the Blue Ant ad agency, after Pattern Recognition and Spook Country, and the early reception to it - unlike the last volume - has been superb. Thus, I'm good and psyched to dig into this modern-day thriller from the erstwhile father of cyberpunk. Count on a review before the month's out.

Halo: The Fall of Reach

by Eric Nylund

Release Details:

Published in the US on
03/08/10 by Tor

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "As the bloody Human-Covenant War rages on Halo, the fate of humankind may rest with one warrior, the lone SPARTAN survivor of another legendary battle. This was the desperate, take-no-prisoners struggle that led humanity to Halo - the fall of the planet Reach. Now, for the first time, here is the full story of that glorious, doomed conflict ...Almost on Earth's doorstep, Reach is the last military fortress to defy the brutal Covenant onslaught. But their highest priority is to prevent the Covenant from discovering Earth. The outnumbered soldiers seem to have little chance, but Reach is the secret training ground for the very first 'super soldiers'. Code-named SPARTANs, these bioengineered and technologically augmented warriors are the best - quiet, professional and deadly. As the ferocious Covenant attack begins, a handful of SPARTANs stand ready to wage ultimate war. And at least one of them - the SPARTAN 'Master Chief' - will live to fight another day on a mysterious and ancient artificial world called Halo..."

Commentary: Now. As you might recall from the review earlier in the week, the Dead Space novel - despite my high hopes for it - disappointed the hell out of me. Will this be any different, I wonder? I'm approaching this re-issue of the Halo prequel from 2005 (to tie in with this week's release of Halo: Reach) with more tempered expecations. Eric Nylund's a name to respect, and I've heard pretty decent things about The Fall of Reach. Nevertheless, tie-in fiction often struggles to transcend its source material, so Nylund's novel is no sure thing. If nothing else, I'm hoping it'll get me good and psyched to play through Bungie's last exploration of the rich universe they've brought into focus over the past decade.

The Newgate Jig

by Ann Featherstone

 

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
02/09/10 by John Murray

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "A hanging always draws a crowd. But not everyone there has come to jeer at the condemned man. George Kevill's young son Barney is in the front row, and he knows his father is innocent. There are others there who know George is innocent, too - and the men who set him up have every reason to want to silence his boy...

"Narrowly escaping the clutches of the sinister Nasty Man, young Barney finds sanctuary at the London Aquarium amongst his father's bohemian friends: Bob Chapman, whose performing dogs Brutus and Nero astonish audiences every night, the exquisite doll-lady, Princess Tiny, and her admirer, the giant Herr Swann. Together with Fortinbras Horatio Trimmer, aspiring novelist and meantime author of penny dreadfuls and popular plays, they will protect Barney and seek to uncover the conspiracy behind a dark secret that lies at the heart of the Victorian establishment."

Commentary: Oddly, perhaps, of all the books to have arrived for my attention this week, The Newgate Jig is the one that grabbed my immediate attention. No strings attached and all that. I read it in an evening, enjoyed its evocation of the Victorian era tremendously (though its core crime narrative didn't come off quite so well), and drafted my review the next day. You'll be seeing said shortly, as part of the Crime Spree I've been working on for the last little while. Keep your RSS readers tuned to TSS for news of that in the not-too-distant...

Hawkmoon: The Sword of the Dawn

by Michael Moorcock

Release Details:

Published in the US on

02/09/10 by Tor

Review Priority:

2 (Fair)

Plot Synopsis: "In Michael Moorcock’s vast and imaginative multiverse, Law and Chaos wage war in a never-ending struggling over the fundamental rules of existence. Here in this universe, Dorian Hawkmoon traverses a world of antique cities, scientific sorcery, and crystalline machines as he pulled unwillingly into a war that pits him against the ruthless and dominating armies of Granbretan.

"In The Sword of the Dawn, Dorian Hawkmoon’s quest to destroy the Dark Empire of Granbretan leads him onto the path of a man who possess a rare ring that allows men to travel through time. Hawkmoon uses this ring to travel to a far future New Orleans, where he must battle the Pirate Lords who possess the Great Sword of the Dawn, which can end the Dark Empire once and for all."

Commentary: You know, I would quite like to read some Michael Moorcock - he's another of the dizzying myriad of authors I've never quite found the time to indulge in before - but this, I think, simply isn't the place for me to start. The Sword of the Dawn is a reissue of the third volume of Moorcock's classic Hawkmoon saga... a damn shame, in other words. Were it the first, it'd have pride of place on ye olde stack.

The Scarab Path

by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

06/08/10 by Tor

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "The war with the Wasp Empire has ended in a bitter stalemate, and Collegium has nothing to show for it but wounded veterans. Cheerwell Maker finds herself crippled in ways no doctor can mend, haunted by ghosts of the past that she cannot appease, seeking for meaning in a city that no longer seems like home.

"The Empress Seda is regaining control over those imperial cities who refused to bow the knee to her, but she draws her power from something more sinister than mere armies and war machines. Only her consort, the former spymaster Thalric, knows the truth, and now the assassins are coming and he finds his life and his loyalties under threat yet again.

"Out past the desert of the Nem the ancient city of Khanaphes awaits them both, with a terrible secret entombed beneath its stones..."

Commentary: Aaaaah! Another one! This man writes like a machine!

Which isn't to say, by any stretch, that he writes badly at all. In fact, given the pace these books have been coming out, Adrian Tchaikovsky's talents can hardly be understated. Slowly but surely I've been catching up on the Shadows of the Apt series. I'm two down and - as of The Scarab Path's release - three to go, and the series has been consistently good, verging on truly great throughout. I don't doubt The Scarab Path will continue that trend.

The Bird of the River

by Kage Baker

Release Details:

Published in the US

on 20/07/09 by Tor

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "In this new story set in the world of The Anvil of the World and The House of the Stag, two teenagers join the crew of a huge river barge after their addict mother is drowned. The girl and her half-breed younger brother try to make the barge their new home. As the great boat proceeds up the long river, we see a panorama of cities and cultures, and begin to perceive patterns in the pirate attacks that happen so frequently in the river cities. Eliss, the girl, becomes a sharp-eyed spotter of obstacles in the river for the barge, and more than that, one who perceives deeply.

A young boy her age, Krelan, trained as a professional assassin, has come aboard, seeking the head of a dead nobleman, so that there might be a proper burial. But the head proves as elusive as the real explanation behind the looting of cities, so he needs Eliss’s help. And then there is the massive Captain of the barge, who can perform supernatural tricks, but prefers to stay in his cabin and drink."

Commentary: From the late, great Kage Baker, The Bird of the River is the sort of book - given its shared world - I'd usually, not to mention regrettably, put to the side until I found the time to begin the series from the beginning. But as ever, if I'm to be frank, time is hardly on my side, and when Baker passed on I made a promise to give the girl a shot. So I'm going to read this, and soon, its ties to The Anvil of the World and The House of the Stag be damned. Doesn't hurt that it's about a ship. And me? I really like ships, don't you know.

Century of the Soldier

by Paul Kearney

Release Details:

Published in the UK
on 07/09/09 by Solaris

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "By the mid sixth century of Ramusian reckoning the great struggle is approaching its climax. For the victor there will be supremacy; for the vanquished, cultural annihilation. Fighting that war, Corfe of Torunna will find that court intrigue can be as murderous as any martial foe. The monks Albrec and Avila will explode a bombshell of secret knowledge which will change the continent irrevocably. And Richard Hawkwood will return with the discovery of a New World. The sixth century is the crucible of history. The century of the soldier."

Commentary: Steven Erikson has hailed The Monarchies of God as a prime inspiration for his novels of The Malazan Empire, if I recall correctly. Certainly he asserts it's "simply the best fantasy series I've read in years and years," and that's praise enough for me. Yagiz and Werthead love it too. So. I'm in. Sucks that Century of the Soldier is the second of two omnibus editions, after Hawkwood and the Kings (which I don't have), but hey, I can work Amazon as well as anyone.