Holiday Reads

A lucky quirk of fate has resulted in my having five days off in a row this week - hurray for unexpected holidays! I've read two books - Emma Newman's 'Any Other Name' and Catherynne Valente's 'The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There'. 

Angry Robot, £8.99

   'Any Other Name' is the follow-up to this Spring's release in the Split Worlds series - 'Between Two Thorns' (you can find my review here). It's due for release on June 6th. 'Any Other Name' picks up directly where the first novel leaves off, as Cathy prepares for the very advantageous match which has been made for her by her family and their Patron. It doesn't matter in Fae high society that this marriage is the last thing that Cathy wants - her parents and family elders have total control of her fate. 'Any Other Name' continues some of the plotlines introduced in the first novel, as well as presenting new locations, characters, and phenomena - Max the arbiter continues his investigation into the strange events concerning his colleagues, Sam the mundane (person untouched by Fae magic) tries to help some of the 'innocents' captured by Fae in the first book, and we discover London society and its brightest stars, and the mysterious members of the Elemental Court.
   The strange conventions of Fae society continue to bear more resemblance to the Edwardian era than to the modern day, which makes it particularly hard for Cathy - who has lived for a time in the modern world - to accept once again her place in her family and next to her husband. She is expected to attend to interior decorating, hiring of servants, embroidery, and the perpetuation of her husband's family name. It makes interesting reading from this perspective alone, as we see how Cathy struggles to figure out how exactly she is going to bring about wholesale change in this backward social group.
   This seems like a classic 'middle book' in a series, with the accompanying issues. How to develop characters and plotlines, achieve perhaps minor but no major resolution, while maintaining the interest of readers. This novel does manage the feat quite well, but I didn't feel that it also forms a novel which could satisfyingly be read as a standalone, which is disappointing. I have to say that, while so many of them are amazing (and this one is very good), I'm very bored at the moment with the obsession of publishers for making any science-fiction or fantasy novel into a series. I'm dying to read a couple of good new standalone novels! (Suggestions in a comment, if you have any!) Having said all of that, this series is well worth the read, and Cathy is a fantastically sympathetic creation - I rooted for her as I haven't for a character in a while.
   As you may know if you've come across my blog before, Catherynne Valente is one of my

Constable and Robinson, £9.99

absolute favourite authors (my review of 'Deathless' is here). 'The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There' is the sequel to the much-lauded 'The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making', which was released last year (my review is here).
   I really want to avoid any spoilers of either book here, as I love them both so much and really want everyone to read them. Suffice it to say that September is a little older and wiser in this instalment - she returns to the magical world of Fairyland and discovers that all is not well there. In the course of her adventures she meets a host of new characters - the Duke of Teatime and his wife the Vicereine of Coffee, Aubergine the Night-Dodo who is a student of Quiet Physics, gets a Watchful dress, and takes a ride on an Electric Eel. The illustrations are once again by Ana Juan, and are simply beautiful. These are marvelous adventures, written with a clarity and fluidity which is just miraculous.

Illustration from The Girl Who Fell Beneath.., Ana Juan

  

The Shining Girls

   Harper Curtis, a violent and mentally disturbed drifter, stumbles into a rundown property in Chicago. The year is 1931. Inside he comes across a case full of money - US dollars in a wide variety of designs and denominations. He finds himself a change of clothes, pockets a handful of the strange notes, opens the front door, and 'steps into sometime else'.

Harper Collins

   Lauren Beukes new novel 'The Shining Girls' is already being touted as the big it-read for this summer. It's a move into new literary territory for Beukes, whose two previous novels - Moxyland and Zoo City - were both resolutely on the urban fantasy shelf. 'The Shining Girls' is a gripping and terrifying crime thriller, featuring one of the creepiest antagonists I've ever read - the above-mentioned Harper Curtis. 

   Harper uses the miraculous, and never-explained, time-travelling powers of 'the House' to help him follow and eventually kill his 'shining girls': girls in whom he sees particular potential, creativity, or genius. He gives each girl a trinket when they are young, and leaves another beside the body when he returns to finish his job many years later. The difficulty for any law enforcement agency investigating any of his crimes between 1929 and 1993 is how to trace a timeline of events when, chronologically speaking, there simply isn't one. Hypothetically (this doesn't feature in the novel), how could a team of profilers trace the evolution of a murderer's modus operandi when he has committed his first murder in 1981 and escalated towards a final and most elaborate murder in 1974. Throughout the novel, I puzzled over how this killer could ever possibly be caught. 
   Harper Curtis' adversary comes in the form of one of his victims. Kirby Mazrachi was the victim of a horrific assault in her late teens, which she only narrowly survived. Fast forward a few years and she talks her way into an internship at the Chicago Sun-Times, assisting Dan Velasquez - the journalist who originally covered her story, now working in the Sports department. They make an offbeat and attractive investigative team as Kirby starts trying to track assaults similar to hers in the greater Chicago area. 
   The novel does have its faults - we never learn anything about Harper's background or motivations, and leaving the reader with nothing to pin it on does a disservice to the full characterisation of Kirby. I really enjoyed reading it, but it's certainly not the best novel I've read this month, let alone this year. But it is a story well worth reading - especially for the many well-researched titbits. In 1931 Chicago, Harper ends up in a hospital bed in the same room as a woman who is slowly dying because of her occupation - she is a dancer, and her show is special because she performs covered in irradiated paint. Harper visits the construction site of the Sears tower in 1972, then returns a day later to 1973 to take the elevator to the top. 
   I look forward to the word of mouth increasing for this one. So far, I've heard about it mostly from the Sci-Fi/Fantasy community and Beukes' previous readership, but it would be a real shame if the words 'time travel' on the cover put the general crime fiction fans off reading 'The Shining Girls'. 



 

Reviver

   Back in March I arrived into work in the bookshop one day to discover that a rep had dropped in a great batch of Advance Reading Copies for the staff. I grabbed this one, which as you can

Pan Macmillan, £12.99

see has a really eye-catching cover. 'Reviver' will be released on June 20th by Pan Macmillan, and it's the debut novel from Seth Patrick, who is originally from Northern Ireland. 

   Jonah Miller is a reviver. He has the ability to wake the recently-dead and communicate with them. The discovery of this skill is relatively new, and already it's become an essential part of modern life. People take out revival insurance so that they can have one last chance to pass a message on to their loved ones after they die. The most exciting aspect of the phenomenon, however, is the potential for the identification of a murderer by his/her victim. Forensic revival has become a routine part of police investigation, and it's what Jonah does for a living. 
   Jonah is a particularly skilled reviver, and lately he's had some strange experiences during what should have been routine revivals. He's hearing strange whispers, and feeling terror in his revival subjects. When the pioneering journalist who first brought revival to public attention is murdered, Jonah finds himself getting dragged into the search for answers. 
   'Reviver' is a gripping thriller, but what really makes it fun is the addition of elements of horror and crime fiction into the mix. I found myself puzzling over which aspect would come to the fore in the eventual solution to the mystery. Patrick has prioritised plot over style or characterisation in this first outing, but it's exciting enough to absolutely pull this off. It's a great night-off kind of read, not too taxing on the grey cells, but lots of fun.

Bloomsbury Kids, £7.99

   The other book I read this week was 'The Last Elf' by Silvana De Mari, translated from the original Italian by Shaun Whiteside. I'd bought this one second-hand a while ago. The cover design is just gorgeous - thank the gods for people who don't hoard books but sell them on after reading for penniless folks to discover! 
   Yorshkrunsquarkljolnerstrink (or Yorsh for short) is a young elf who finds himself all alone in the world. He's starving, wet through, and very cold. This world is a harsh one for an elf. Humans generally hate elves, blaming them for the horrible state of things, and Yorsh is too young to know how to use his power to get along. He struggles to get along with people he meets because he can't remember whether the polite form of address is 'Excellency' or 'Fool'. 
   Yorsh is a very endearing character - so innocent and yet wise, vulnerable and yet powerful beyond knowing. His human companions provide the comic relief in their desperation at his quirky ways, and their journey takes them to lots of dangerous, beautiful, and strange places.    
   This is a beautiful classic fairytale, improved with a little tragedy and a lot of humour - perfect for fans of 'The Princess Bride' or 'Shrek'. And yes, I do realise how high that praise is - 'The Last Elf' is absolutely worth it. 

Reading Choices

   This has been a really good week for reading. The three books I've read this week have all been exciting, well-written, and thought-provoking - two Advance Reading Copies: 'Nexus' by Ramez Naam (Angry Robot, Jan 2013) and 'Pantomime' by Laura Lam (Strange Chemistry, Feb 2013), and one from the 'To Be Read' pile: 'Mortal Engines' by Philip Reeve (Scholastic UK, 2001).

Omnibus ed: Angry Robot, £12.99

   I've been meaning to write about Angry Robot for a while. Since I started researching new science fiction titles to order in to the shop, they've become one of my favourite publishers. So many of the most exciting and innovative new titles are coming from there. Lavie Tidhar (who a few weeks ago won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel for his newest novel 'Osama') first published his amazing Bookman stories ('The Bookman', 'Camera Obscura', and 'The Great Game') with Angry Robot beginning in 2010. The cover design has consistently been excellent (check out images online for 'Empire State' by Adam Christopher, 'Zoo City' by Lauren Beukes, and 'The Damned Busters' by Matthew Hughes). Strange Chemistry is Angry Robot's new Young Adult imprint, so the success of this week's reading is really a double whammy for them. 

Angry Robot, £8.99

  'Nexus' is a thrilling near-future science fiction tale of human modification and enhancement. Kaden Lane is a young scientist working illegally on the next generation of a mind-linking nano-drug called Nexus. The possible uses of his alterations to the drug are not lost on US military agencies, and he soon gets caught up in a storm of espionage and real physical danger. I was struck very early on in this story by how detailed and well-researched it was, so it came as no surprise for me to discover that the author, Ramez Naam, is a professional technologist who has previously written a non-fiction book on the subject - 'More Than Human: Embracing the promise of biological enhancement'. What was a surprise, then, was how well-written the action scenes were, and how believable and moving the emotional ones. I did find some of the technological exposition a little clunky as the novel went on, but this really is a minor quibble, and I think this book definitely has broad appeal. 

Angry Robot, £7.99

   In contrast to the hard  and technologically-advanced science fiction world of 'Nexus', the world of 'Pantomime' is a colourful world rebuilding after the near-destruction of previous civilisations. Nobles of the present day collect items known as 'Vestiges' - remnants of these previous civilisations which mystify with their strange powers. Micah Grey is a young man who has just run away from home, and manages to join a circus due to his preternatural climbing skills. But his real name is not Micah, and indeed he is not really a young man at all. I flew through this fascinating story last night and this morning, completely captivated by the mystery of this main character as he struggles with issues of gender, identity, and sexuality. This would be an interesting enough story with just these elements, but the backdrop of the new world of Ellada, of strange personal interactions with apparently technological Vestiges, of the myths of Kedi - wonderful beings worshipped by past civilisations, and of allies and enemies in the circus, make it a much more complete creation, and seem to be evidence of a writer with many wonderful ideas.  

New ed: Scholastic, £6.99

   I've been meaning to read Philip Reeve's 'Mortal Engines' for a long time, having read and adored two parts of his prequel trilogy to this series 'Fever Crumb' and 'Web of Air'. In the future, centuries after an apocalypse of some sort, cities and towns are mechanised to allow them to roam the devastated landscape scavenging for parts, fuel, and food for their citizens. Tom Natsworthy is an apprentice Historian, training in the recovery of old Tech (seedees and other computer parts) and artifacts. When he foils an attempt on the life of the Head Historian and is thrown from the moving city of London by the same Head Historian in thanks for his efforts, he is forced to reassess everything he thinks he knows about this man and about his city. He teams up with the would-be assassin, a hideously scarred girl called Hester Shaw, and together they make their way on the ground, investigating the reasons for London's sudden foray into the Great Hunting Ground, and the consequences of that for their world and for their new friends. I was reminded while reading this book of China Miéville's second Bas-Lag novel 'The Scar'. 'The Scar' features a ship/raft conglomeration in the same way that 'Mortal Engines' has moving cities as its main locations, and the people of both novels are diverse, confusing, and multicultural, forming a similar tone and background to both stories. I can't wait to continue with Reeve's series!

   This consistency of this week's choices immediately makes me think of how often I've got books wrong. I've picked a book based on the cover, author, blurb, reviews, adaptations, and it has often gone horribly wrong. I didn't enjoy J.K. Rowling's recent blockbuster 'The Casual Vacancy' - too much gritty real-life for me. I unfortunately hated Charlaine Harris' wildly popular Sookie Stackhouse series (the basis for the 'True Blood' TV series, which I did like) - I couldn't stand the style of writing, and can't understand how so many readers can endure the writing to find out what happens to the characters. When I read Stephen Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant years ago, I disliked his language and style. Although, it's such a long time since I read those that I should give them another chance, but I'm sure I'll never have time for that, when there's so much else to read.

   When I remind myself of those books, I'm glad that my 'To Be Read' pile is looking so good at the moment, with lots of interesting older paperbacks, and some lovely ARCs - Cassandra Rose Clarke's 'The Mad Scientist's Daughter', Anne Lyle's 'The Merchant of Dreams', and Lisa Graff's 'A Tangle of Knots'.