The digital convert

I am currently suffering from an escalating problem. On bowing shelves, under the bed, beside the bed, at the foot of the bed, in my wardrobe, under my shoes, above my clothes, beneath my clothes, in my drawers, between my DVDs, my book collection is growing. It has gotten to the point where when I finish a book I chuck it over my shoulder into to cascading pile of my latest reads that lines the back of my bed like an abandoned game of dominos. As a hoarder by nature I live in genuine fear that I am one day going to be one of those old ladies who builds secondary corridors out of old reading material. I will be forced to spend a large portion of my day navigating the expanding maze of epic fantasy just to reach my settee in time to shout at Noel Edmond’s Deal or No Deal (somebody has to).

In my darkest moments, I think of the multiplying collection of cats I’ll have lost amongst the stacks who have given up all hope of rescue and have taken to building their homes out of my collection of ‘90s James Herberts, which they’re slowly but surely teaching themselves to read. It’ll be like The Rats, but with cats. The Cats. I’m going to be found with my arm gnawed off, buried beneath a pile of Robin Hobbs, my only legacy the army of felines that have evolved enough to survive nuclear apocalypse.

The real issue is that I can’t throw books away. It would be like throwing your first child away, just because you’ve had another. It just isn’t done.

My other problem is that I know the solution, and it isn’t one I am particularly happy with. I should convert to digital. Buy an eReader. Get over the printed word.

If I put so much value in the physical copy, if I really class myself as a lover of beautiful covers, clever designs, the tactile reading experience, the smell of a page, then why is my ever-growing collection living rough in its haphazard piles?

I’m either going to have to give up and buy a cat now so I can practice losing it, or suck it up and become a digital convert. It's me or the books.

book review: Robin Hobb's The Dragon Keeper

See this review in a much more exciting place - the Voyager Blog. Go on, you know you want to. Or stick around, read the rest of my stuff, whatever.

Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings series of books so far include The Farseer, Liveship Traders and The Tawny Man trilogies, and continues with The Rain Wild Chronicles, which are also set in this alternative European Medieval world.

Published in 2009, The Dragon Keeper is the first title in the Chronicles and follows almost immediately on from the events that occurred in the first three trilogies. Set in a time of fragile peace the story mostly takes place in the Rain Wilds where the residents bear physical afflictions from life there and the towns and cities are built high in the trees that line the riverbank.

The dragon Tintaglia has fulfilled the agreement she signed with the Trader cities and protected them against the invading Chalcedeans, so it’s now time for the Traders to complete their end of the deal. They are to help the ailing serpents migrate up the Rain Wild River in order for them to hatch from their cocoons into dragons. But the serpents were too old and emerged from their cases too soon, and the few that have survived are stunted dragons, unable to fend for themselves and costing the Trading cities a fortune to take care of.

When Tintaglia herself abandons the weak creatures after finding a surviving male dragon, the people of the Rain Wilds are left wondering whether to break their agreement. They are only too eager to comply when the dragons manipulate them into planning a trip up river to the legendary Elderling City of Kelsinger, which exists in their hazy ancestral memories.

As usual, Hobb expertly builds the narrative from varying points of view. Thymara, a sixteen-year-old girl who has black claws and scaling on her skin, is one of the dragon keepers that the ruthless Rain Wild Council enlists to travel the unchartered waters of the Rain Wild River. Alise Finbok is escaping from Bingtown and a loveless marriage in the hopes of using her knowledge of dragons to become an established scholar. Captain Leftrin owns the liveship Tarman that will transport them all through the shallow, acidic waters of the Rain Wild River to the dragons’ homeland.

For fans of the previous books it will feel like coming home; a home populated by liveships and dragons, obviously. Any newcomers (although it’s highly recommended that you start with the phenomenal Farseer trilogy) will be treated to a fully-fledged world with its own rules, people, politics and magic.

What makes The Dragon Keeper unique is that it doesn’t build to your typical climatic final scene; it doesn’t need to. Its power lies in the way Hobb deftly and gently manipulates her readers into making assumptions of her characters, before just as deftly shattering that preconception. One such character is Sedric, Alise’s aid on her journey to the Wilds and close friend of her cruel husband, Hest. His hidden agenda overshadows the events in the book, and yet he obviously cares for Alise and the reader can’t help but emphasise with him. There’s no good or bad in the Hobb-iverse. Each of her characters, human and dragon alike, go on a journey of self-discovery – in this case quite literally – which is filled with hardship, heartbreak and love, and emerge changed, whether for better or good.

Writing under the Hobb pseudonym allows contemporary fantasy author Megan Lindholm to indulge in descriptive passages and linger on the fine details, which for the newcomer may seem daunting. But these tomes are an indulgence worth taking time over. The varying narratives and viewpoints allow for the reader to see something from all angles. The tree city of Cassarick is heart-wrenchingly beautiful, as described by Thymara, dizzyingly alien to Alise and disdained as barren by Sintara and the rest of the stunted dragons. The fine detail is never wasted and you know every line, every word spoken adds meaning to the story as a whole. Hobb is a masterful character author, and she painstakingly creates complex characters so believable they could walk off the page, complete with Rain Wild scaling.

The Dragon Keeper is Hobb on form. There are several jumps forward in time but this stops early on and the book settles into a smooth, well-oiled narrative. An amazing read in its own right, it also sets the course for the following title, Dragon Haven, in which the hidden agendas, conflicting motives and forbidden love interests established in this title must come to a head.

bite me: the week in bite-sized chunks

Angry Robot Books: I feel like I’ve been living and breathing Angry Robot for the past few months, as I’ve just carried out a research project on their digital activities for my MA. Just when I thought I was ready to hand it in, they do something new. I could hardly keep up, which is, of course, exactly why I chose them. They’ve just introduced their ‘Ask the Robot’ feature (by my deadline too, thanks guys), which they’ve set up on a site called Formspring that I’ve only just learned about, but which now knows more about me than my closest friends (‘Can Formspring access all your personal details? Formspring LOVES birthdays, when’s yours and don't you think your Diet Coke dependency is getting out of hand?). Basically you can ask Angry Robot anything and they’ll answer it. All answers will also get copied to their Twitter feed, which cunningly means you’ll want to follow them there too. OK, so you get the odd ‘If a woodchuck could (and would) chuck wood, how much wood would a woodchuck chuck?’ question (‘2’, in case you were wondering). But also this offers the chance for readers to get under their robotic exterior and see how they’re wired. I have 4,500 garbled words and a pie chart that say quite, quite well. Incidentally, that's 4,500 words that would have benefited staggeringly from this feature. First post from user Disgruntled MA Student: 'Dear Angry Robot, why wasn't this feature in place a couple of months back when I needed it the most?'

Lauren Beukes: author of the amazing Moxyland and Zoo City, the Angry Robot writer has just been told by the Hugo Awards committee that she’s eligible for the 2011 Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Voting closes on March 26th and you can vote if you’re a Renovation member, or by joining. If you can afford the membership fee, or you’re already a proud card-carrying member, what are you waiting for? The awards will be presented at the Hugo Ceremony, at the annual World Science Fiction Convention (run by the World Science Fiction Society, who also sponsor the Hugos) on 17th – 21st August, in Reno, Nevada. There are 15 categories in total, not including the Campbell. Also, the award is shaped like a delightful rocket.

Orbit: I was quite distressed earlier as I couldn’t access their site. Am I addicted? *Drinks caffeine to calm nerves* Anyway, Orbit UK have just announced their acquisition of three new titles of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files (mentioned two posts in a row, it must be a record). The series' crazy-amazing mix of Urban Fantasy and crime noir (as Orbit dubs them) make for genuinely unique books, whilst still managing to contain the usual UF tropes. I’m not sure any cover artist’s work excites me quite as much as Chris McGrath’s designs for this series. Maybe it’s his addition of a stylish hat for the character of Harry Dresden (one he notoriously never dons in the text itself), but Orbit UK’s covers have always been a poorer comparison. Until now. As if they’ve noted my anguish, Orbit UK have melded McGrath’s designs for Penguin/Roc USA, with Little, Brown designer Peter Cotton’s and created these absolute beauties. The latest File, Ghost Story is due out July 26th, a whole four months later than normal. Still, the wait is always worth it. Side note: I am absolutely gutted that I missed their competition to win all of the new covers (and the books too, obviously). And I call myself a rabid fan.

hardcopy romantics: cover art

Richard Ford’s Occult Steampunk novel (author’s own genrefication) Kultus from Solaris has had its cover art revealed this week, and the author is clearly pleased. By talented artist Frazer Irving, best known for his comic artwork, the graphic-novel influence can be clearly seen. I love this cover, it’s unique and it’s a world away from other photorealistic genre covers out there, which are even used for fellow Steampunk titles like Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series from Orbit (which are beautiful, striking covers). It also makes a nice change to have the lead, particularly one that is happily described as a ‘bastard’ in the blurb, look like the thuggish fellow he is, instead of Paul Bettany.

Book blurb: Thaddeus Blaklok – mercenary, demonist, bastard and thug-for-hire – is pressed into retrieving a mysterious key for his clandestine benefactors. Little does he know that other parties seek to secure this artefact for their own nefarious ends and soon he is pursued by brutal cultists, bloodthirsty gangsters, deadly mercenaries and hell spawned monsters, all bent on stopping him by any means necessary.

In a lightning-paced quest that takes him across the length and breadth of the steam-fuelled city of Manufactory, Blaklok must use his wits and his own demonic powers to keep the key from those who would use it for ill, and open the gates to Hell itself.

bite me: the week in bite-sized chunks

Atom: This is the sister imprint of Orbit and it’s mostly known for buying the UK rights to Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series (it was only a matter of time before that made an appearance here, opinion notwithstanding). But that’s not all they do! No, they also have the foresight to invite bloggers to their offices, feed them buns and give them a presentation on their upcoming titles. Now that is tasty and savvy marketing. But they missed out on a treat (aha) by not having Edward and Jacob faces on each bun and making people choose between them (because this is what people like to do), and have a bun-off. Because visual aids are useful, and I had too much time on my hands, I’ve mocked these up for you. The original photo was from blogger Amanda Rutter, whose Floor to Ceiling books blog is always a good place to while away some quality browsing time. She also talks about the new initiative Atom are starting called the Atomics that involves teenage bloggers – ah to be young. Read more here.

NaNoWriMo: It’s National Writing Month where every kind of (mad) writer sets aside a whole month to write – what, a short story? A poem? A soliloquy? – a novel, of course. It’s an exercise in sheer determination, bloody-mindedness and willpower, and it doesn’t matter what you write as long as it’s 50,000 words long. Even if you’re not participating, you can hop on over to the forum and peruse topics like ‘NaNoWriMo Ate My Soul’, which sounds promising. For SFF, head over to the genre section where you can read threads like ‘Raise someone from the dead, how?’ and, my personal favourite, ‘If you were an abusive umbrella, what you would yell?’

Top 2010 SFF titles announced: Three of the top 5 are Orbit’s - The Bone Place by Amanda Downum about the sex industry and vampires, Feed by Mira Grant (a pseudonym for Seanan McGuire) about zombies and Republicans in the Midwest and The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms/The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, two novels about ordinary people being manipulated by gods in a changing world. There’s also Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death by Penguin USA’s DAW imprint (the first ever publishers dedicated to SFF) about a post-apocalyptic Saharan Africa and Pegasus’ A Special Place: The Heart of a Dark Matter by Peter Straub, which is actually only a short story/excerpt from A Dark Matter. The full list can be found here in Publishers Weekly.

Solaris book launch: if you’re lucky enough to live in/around London, rather than the publishing-barren Manchester, then you can go to the FREE Solaris’ book launch event at Foyle’s on the 16th November. More information can be found on the Solaris editors’ blog. It’s The End of the Line edited by Jonathan Oliver, a book of Horror short stories set on the underground. This is exactly the kind of book I love – set in the hidden parts of a city and taking the otherworldly element of the underground literally - and I can’t wait to read it. Just check out the blood-smeared cover. Lovely.

review: Robert Jackson Bennett's Mr Shivers

I chose to review Orbit’s Mr Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett because Orbit were doing their usual persuasive hype for this title, putting their all into marketing it at every stage, including a ‘create your own hobo signs’ competition, and with Creative Director Lauren Panepinto’s ability to get excited about a huge spectrum of Orbit’s titles and subgenres, it was hard not to get caught up by it all.

Way back when in September 2008, then-new Editor Dongwon Song flagged up Mr Shivers as his first requisition, calling it ‘chock full of hobos and murder and blood’.

And it is. This thriller/alt-history Horror is set in Depression-era America, but not as we know it. All across America people are travelling in droves, leaving their homes and belongings behind them to seek out a better life. Marcus Connelly is also blazing a trail through America’s dustbowl, but not to seek his fortune. He only wants revenge; to kill the mysterious scarred man, the stranger, Mr Shivers, who murdered his little girl. Connelly has left his wife behind and family home to become one of the new generation hobos. Risking the perils of riding the trains, of hunger and thirst, of the strange company he keeps, Connelly relentlessly hunts the shiver-man through the sightings and folktales of the people he encounters along the way. Like his companions, Pike, Roosevelt and Hammond, who have also lost loved ones to the mythical killer, as he gets closer to the legend, he must also come to terms with his mission, and whether he can commit the murder he desires more than life itself.

Mr Shivers has a simple but effective plot. Although at times it felt frustrating that the characters continued their relentless pursuit at the expense of all else, including plot intricacies and character development, this is a feeling that the book is supposed to evoke. The characters don’t have much in the way of background or personalities, and Connelly is barely there at all. But this is because they are victims of their own grief, their twisted journey across a barren land a metaphor for how they’ve sacrificed their own lives to this all-encompassing emotion.

I love the world that Bennett has created. You can practically feel the heat from this red-tinged, dust-ridden, dry desert landscape rising up from the pages. The land has a personality, and a cruel and pitiless one at that. It reflects the despondent age of the Great Depression, and the desolate shells of human beings navigating across its pitted surface.

Like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods-lite, Mr Shivers deals with mythology and the creation of folklore through oral tradition. This slight book doesn’t have the scope of American Gods however, merely hinting at a deeper mythology beyond the basic goings-on, and it would have been fulfilling to have seen more done with this theme throughout the narrative, as opposed to it cropping up in odd, but effectual, places.

This is a thriller/Horror but there are times when you want it to be more horrific than thrilling. There are key moments throughout the narrative where the writing pulls away from the ‘big reveal’, missing out on the pay-off at the end of a gripping, tension-inducing set-up, leaving the average Horror reader no doubt feeling slightly cheated. This is also, however, another mark of debut-author Bennett’s writing prowess, as he deftly manipulates and builds his readers’ frustrations, so that they mirror his characters’ own lack of fulfilment.

Unfortunately, there is a turning point towards the end in Mr Shivers where reader sympathy with the lead protagonist, Connelly, shifts. The way the book is going to end from then on seems like forgone conclusion and, ultimately, this is where the book lost me.

You can read an extract of it on Orbit’s site. It is well worth a look as overall I really enjoyed this book; I just prefer my protagonists to retain my sympathy until the last possible sentence.

The next tile by Bennett is The Company Man, again set in an alternative history of America, but is not a sequel to Mr Shivers. It's a detective noir in the Horror genre. I’m genuinely excited to read this author again (plus I’m an old romantic when it comes to alternative detective noir, like Malcolm Pryce’s underrated Aberystwyth series).

7/10

bite me: the week in bite-sized chunks

SF Signal: I’ve been enjoying this week’s Mind Meld. They’ve been discussing what fantasy books or series are better than LOTR. Personally I find Tolkien to be more sprawling and languorous than an Ent family reunion, so for me it’s a bit of a balm to see other authors being recommended. Mine would be most things, but primarily Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, George R. R. Martin’s The Song of Ice and Fire series and Robin Hobb’s (getting on for) 12-title-epic, starting with The Farseer Trilogy. Based on one recommendation, I’ve picked up a copy of T. H. White’s compilation The Once and Future King, which I suspect will provide more of a thorough telling of the tale than the BBC’s thoughtful and compelling take on Arthurian legend, Merlin (tragically, I actually love this series).

Angry Robot Books: I’m really excited about this publisher and if you’re a blogger you can join their Robot Army for free eBooks or hardcopies. Launched in 2009, Angry Robot Books state that they are a ‘global imprint dedicated to the best in modern adult science fiction, fantasy and everything in-between.’ So far I’m a failed recruit but my next book to review is going to be the new UK Science Fiction release Amortals by Matt Forbeck (who has 8-year-old quadruplets, Fact Fans). Apart from Douglas Adams I haven’t read any SF, and this seems a pretty good (free) place to start.

Neil Gaiman: It was the House on the Rock weekend over Halloween, so above is a lovely picture of Gaiman on the World’s Largest Carousel. For a slideshow of photos from the weekend, go to the Huffington Post and indulge in full geek-out session of wishing you had been there. I would have ridden the zebra. Hopefully he’ll blog about it this week.

Roc (Penguin USA): Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files short story collection Side Jobs is out now in the USA , which includes two novellas from Thomas' and Murphey's POV. I wish I knew how to order a new copy of this title from Roc because I lust after Chris McGrath's artwork. See Butcher talk about his short stories (which he describes as ‘trying to have a knife fight in a phone booth’) and his short hair at the NYCC here.

Urban Fantasy: a definition

If you Google Urban Fantasy you will find a hectic range of definitions. One quote by SFF author Elizabeth Bear is a favourite of mine (I found it just now): “In urban fantasy you don’t leave the chip shop and go to another world to find the unicorn. Rather, the unicorn shows up at the chip shop and orders the cod.”

But what is Urban Fantasy, and what makes it so different to Paranormal Romance?

Once an all-encompassing term for nitty gritty Fantasy with a distinct urban setting, associated with authors like China Miélville and Charles de Lint, it’s becoming a much-narrowed term, as other SFF subgenres enter the mix.

Defined as thus in J. Clute’s Encyclopaedia of Fantasy (1997):

Urban fantasy … A city may be seen from afar, and is generally seen clear; the UF is told from within and from the perspective of characters acting out their roles, it may be difficult to determine the extent and nature of the surrounding reality. UFs are normally texts where fantasy and the mundane world interact intersect and interweave throughout a tale which is significantly about a real city.

To me, to class a book as being of this Fantasy subgenre, it needs to contain the following ingredients: contemporary setting, set in the real-world and with a real sense of place, city-based, with a male or female lead who has supernatural powers and uses them to kick ass and help people, detective/crime plot, humour, and set in a slightly alternative ‘now’ as humans are usually aware or becoming aware of the existence of certain supernatural beings. These beings include, but are not limited to: vampires (new and old mythology), were-creatures (from wolves to coyotes), wizards/witches, and the fae.

This definition is subject to change, but authors whose series/titles currently fall in this category include: Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files), Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson), Chloe Neill (Chicagoland Vampires), Kim Harrison (The Hollows/ Rachel Morgan), Kelley Armstrong (Women of the Otherworld etc), Ilona Andrews (Kate Daniels), Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere), Karen Chance (Cassandra Palmer) and Rachel Caine (Weather Warden). Here’s a great place for more information.

As for comparisons with Paranormal Romance, I mean, it like totally has girls in it, right? And don’t most of them fall in hopeless, soul-entangled love with the most inappropriate of brooding rogues?

Well, yes. And, to further confuse matters, some authors crossover into both subgenres, sometimes in the course of one series (ah, ‘crossover fiction’, a blog topic for another time, you lucky folks). Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series (1993 – present) started off as Urban Fantasy. Kick ass lead with mystical power: TICK. City-based: TICK. Crime-solving: TICK. Supernaturals: TICK. Sexy: tick. And then about halfway through, the themes shifted. Kick ass lead with come-f*ck-me boots: TICK. Sexy: TICK. Bedroom-based: TICK. Crime-solving: who has the time? Supernaturals: yes please!

The eponymous lead went from celibate to, quite literally, gagging for it *blush*. This proved too much for my naive sentiment at the time and I stopped at Narcissus in Chains, book 11. It takes a lot for me to stop reading a series that many books in. Group sex ought to do it though. Inappropriate. I wanted my heroine to kick ass, not kiss it.

But what about other sensitive readers, I hear you cry? Calm yourselves, Headline took over from Orbit (presumably as scandalised as I was) and solved the problem by reissuing the whole series with new covers. Going from the typical photo-realism of Urban Fantasy:



To coming over all Gothic with black and reds, in these quite frankly beautiful covers:



Now readers know a bit more about what to expect. And my moral outrage will have to find another outlet.

To sum: Urban Fantasy made like the universe and expanded, only to contract again, becoming more specialised. If it’s a city filled with supernaturals and policed by a vigilante with burdening powers, and a enjoying a little bit of sex, why not, it’s probably safe to dub it Urban Fantasy. But if the plot is merely a mechanism to make with the happy, it’s probably Paranormal Romance. And if it’s city-based but set in an alternate time and place, it’s probably too confusing to go in to. Let’s just call it ‘Alt-reality Urban Fantasy’, and leave it at that.