Review | The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett (Voyager)

Title: The Painted Man

Author: Peter V. Brett

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Format: Paperback
Release Date: April 2009

Reviewed by: Steve Aryan

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

The stunning debut fantasy novel from author Peter V. Brett. The Painted Man, book one of the Demon series, is a captivating and thrilling fantasy adventure, pulling the reader into a world of demons, darkness and heroes. Sometimes there is very good reason to be afraid of the dark! Arlen lives with his parents on their small farmstead, half a day's ride from the isolated hamlet of Tibbet's Brook. As dusk falls each evening, a mist rises from the ground promising death to any foolish enough to brave the coming darkness. For hungry demons materialize from the vapours to feed, and as the shadows lengthen, all of humanity is forced to take shelter behind magical wards and pray that their protection holds until the dawn. But when Arlen's world is shattered by the demon plague, he realizes that it is fear, rather than the monsters, which truly cripples humanity. Only by conquering their own terror can they ever hope to defeat the demons. Now Arlen must risk leaving the safety of his wards to discover a different path, and offer humanity a last, fleeting chance of survival.

The Painted Man is a fantasy novel by newcomer Peter V Brett, which has taken over the world. And by that I mean almost literally, as a world map on Brett’s website shows the dozens of countries it’s now available from. I am always keen to discover new authors, however I’m also very wary of hype. The more insistent someone is that a book is the best thing ever, the more zealous and insistent they are about pushing a copy into my hands, the more nervous I get. I’m also less likely to read it, at first anyway. The Painted Man, and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (which I will review soon) were two that I knew about but felt reluctant to approach. I finally received a copy last Christmas and picked it up from my To Read pile in late January 2010. I finished it a few days later.

On its surface it sounds like a well trodden path because of the theme – a young boy destined for greatness, but like Andrzej Sapkowski, Brett takes the familiar and makes it new. Arlen, the eleven year old, lives in a world where people have good reason to fear the night, because when darkness falls demons rise from the earth, from the Core, to devour humanity. They cannot be fought, cannot really be killed although some do try, and humanity takes refuge every night behind wards, magical symbols carved into buildings or on posts around the property. The wards act as a magical barrier which keeps the demons out but they don’t harm the demons in anyway. A lot of children fear the dark because of what might be out there, lurking in the shadows, and their imagination is often their own worse enemy. In this world fear of the dark is not something that’s limited to children, it’s a cold, hard, immutable fact that affects everyone. This means bravery is not what you might expect in the story and it is a theme that is explored in detail throughout.

In terms of world building and despite the mention of Free Cities, I had the impression that the world in which the story is set is very small. Travel is obviously difficult over long distances, because wards carved in the dirt can be swept away by wind or water demons at night. So whilst there is a map in the front of the book and mention of other cultures, it felt to me as if this was just one small corner of a world and that pockets of humanity might live for generations without ever knowing about other countries a few hundred miles away. This situation of ingrained fear in every human has affected trade and industry and it was at this point that I realised Brett had created something unique and intriguing. The real heroes in this world are the Messengers, people who deliver letters between the so-called Free Cities, as well as between towns and villages. Men who risk their lives to keep trade and communication going, so that no one is cut off and totally isolated. There are no powerful warriors of legend or wizards that fought the good fight and won. The only magic is the type that keeps the demons at bay, but it also keeps humanity in a prison.

This culture of fear come to haunt Arlen, and after suffering a significant loss at the hands of the demons, he embarks on what appears to be, at first, a foolish child’s dream of ridding humanity of its fear and the demons. There is talk and religious mutterings related to the demons, about them being punishment for man’s wickedness. There is talk of a prophecy of a Deliverer who will be sent to save everyone, but no one really believes anymore. Because once you’ve seen friends and relatives torn apart in front of you, it’s kind of hard to believe in much of anything. People don’t really live the kind of exciting lives you might expect to read about in a fantasy story, they survive.

Small communities rely on Messengers for news, but as the story moves out of Arlen’s village to one of the Free Cities, he realises they are not free and enlightened. They hide behind bigger walls and better wards, but still live in fear, whilst trying to give the impression of being cultured and more advanced than the so-called backward villages. But come nightfall, everyone regardless of their status or social standing will hide in their homes, trembling in the dark and waiting for the dawn.

Although the story starts with Arlen, and the two other characters Leesha and Rojer, as children, this is not a ten book epic series charting every moment of their lives to adulthood. We experience segments of their lives, the defining moments, before the story skips ahead a couple of years and we see the repercussion of their choices. Brett also doesn’t make things easy for his characters and he doesn’t shy away from unpleasantness, so although there is nothing too graphic, I wouldn’t say this was a book for younger fantasy readers as a lot is implied if not shown. A number of horrible incidents affect all three characters, and quite a few of them have nothing to do with the demons. The story is unpredictable and the good don’t always win and the righteous don’t always survive.

Brett’s style is clean and fairly simple. He doesn’t get too bogged down in detail and indeed on his website he talks about how he chopped out a lot of content in the editing, rewrote other sections and added new material, to keep the pace moving and most of all to keep it relevant. There are no giant paragraphs that demonstrate his world building ability and that’s a good thing for me. This isn’t a Dean Koontz style thriller where on every page someone is being chased or shot at, but nor is it a Robert Jordan style tome that has a cast of hundreds and (for me) far too much detail. This is a character driven story and there is enough meat so that you know the characters and the world in which they live, but do not have every single aspect described right down to the umpteenth detail. Comparisons to Gemmell are not unfair, as both he and Brett deal with similar themes in their books of bravery, both writers are focused on the people rather than showing you how clever they are, and both are gritty in their style, although Gemmell more so I would say.

So, should you believe the hype? This is definitely a very enjoyable read, it is certainly unique and once I got into it, I cared about the characters and found it difficult to put down. My only slight gripe is, I think I am going to enjoy the next book more in the trilogy. Why? Well, the title itself tells you something about where the story is going, so at times I was tempted to skip to get there, but stopped myself after the first 50 pages. Instead I took time to enjoy the journey rather than the destination, but with so many twists, right up to the end, I don’t know really know what the next book will be about and I can’t wait to find out.

Review | Prophets by S. Andrew Swann (Ace)

Title: Prophets
Author: S. Andrew Swann
Publisher: Ace
Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
Release Date: March 2009

Reviewed by: Daniel Burton

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

It’s been nearly 200 years since the collapse of the Confederacy, the last government to claim humanity’s colonies. So when signals come in revealing lost human colonies that could shift the power balance, the race is on between the Caliphate ships and a small team of scientists and mercenaries. But what awaits them all is a threat far beyond the scope of any human government.

S. Andrew Swann had me hooked before the last page of the prologue to Prophets. Mallory is a priest and former marine living a quiet life teaching at a university. Nicolai is outcast royalty, alone and disgraced on the anarchic world of Bakunin. Flynn is a societal reject because of his choice not to accept his culture’s norms. Tetsami is the ancestor that lives in Flynn’s mind. Parvi is the pilot and mercenary who is increasingly the pawn of events beyond her control. And all of them are about to find themselves at the mercy of a power greater than stars.

Prophets takes place in the twenty-fifth century, a time when man has reached the stars, made contact with alien civilizations, and already survived both an interstellar war with some of those civilizations and civil war with itself. The Confederacy, the one government that held humanity’s far flung planets together, has collapsed and divided into factions, some along secular lines, some aligned with the Vatican, and some a part of the Islamic Caliphate.

A balance exists between the worlds of the Caliphate and all others. But when shadowy forces start moving on the fringes of civilized space, speaking of lost human colonies and astral anomalies, everyone must race to be the first to arrive, to lay hold of what might tip the balance of power in their direction.

Swann spins a tale that is cinematic in vision and has echoes of Dan Simmons’ Hyperion series. He fills the story—equally mystery, cloak and dagger, political intrigue, and science-fiction—with characters that are mercenaries, scientists, priests, A.I.s, aliens, spies, saboteurs, and mutants. And there are also, of course, lots of space ships with faster-than-light travel drives (what would space opera be without that?). Almost none of the characters are clearly hero or villain, and each is a well drawn composite of traits that are likeable and flawed. Their interactions are unpredictable and gripping, each pulled by the plot in ways neither they, nor the reader, expects. By writing his characters credibly, and not balking at their pain or suffering, Swann creates a story that is both enjoyable and that the reader cares about.

Unlike many scifi and fantasy authors today, Swann is willing to tell the story in under five hundred pages. The length keeps the story alive, stopping on characters just long enough to paint a portrait of their history and relationship to the plot, then moving along again. Chapters cut to the chase, inserting the reader as far into the action as possible, then leaving them right at the point of greatest impact. The result is a page-turner that demands to be finished.

I have a bad habit of parachuting into authors worlds mid-series, and while Prophets is definitely the first in the Apotheosis series, it is the third series that Swann has written in the so-called “Moreau” universe. The first two—the Moreau series and the Hostile Takeover Trilogy—occur hundreds of years earlier than the events in Prophets. I had decided, upon picking up Prophets, that if I liked it I would go back and read the Moreau and Hostile Takeover. The good news is that I enjoyed it immensely, and as soon as I finish the Heretics and Messiah, the next two books in the series (which are both waiting on my bed stand), I’ll go hunting for the previous series.

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About Daniel Burton
Dan Burton lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he practices law by day and practices everything else by night. You can follow him on his blog lawafterthebar.wordpress.com where he muses on the law, current events, books, and ideas. He can be contacted at dan.burton@gmail.com.

Review | Sea of Ghosts by Alan Campbell (Tor)

Title: Sea of Ghosts
Author: Alan Campbell
Publisher: Tor UK
Format: Hardback
Release Date: April 2011

Reviewed by: Steve Aryan

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

When the last of the Gravediggers, an elite imperial infiltration unit, are disbanded and hunted down by the emperor they once served, munitions expert Colonel Thomas Granger takes refuge in the unlikeliest of places. He becomes a jailer in Ethugra – a prison city of poison-flooded streets and gaols in which a million enemies of the empire are held captive. But when Granger takes possession of two new prisoners, he realises that he can’t escape his past so readily.

Ianthe is a young girl with an extraordinary psychic talent. A gift that makes her unique in a world held to ransom by the powerful Haurstaf – the sisterhood of telepaths who are all that stand between the Empire and the threat of the Unmer, the powerful civilization of entropic sorcerers and dragon-mounted warriors. In this war-torn land, she promises to make Granger an extremely wealthy man, if he can only keep her safe from harm.

This is what Granger is best at. But when other factions learn about Ianthe's unique ability, even Granger's skills of warfare are tested to their limits. While, Ianthe struggles to control the powers that are growing in ways no-one thought were possible. Another threat is surfacing: out there, beyond the bitter seas, an old and familiar enemy is rising – one who, if not stopped, will drown the world and all of humanity with it...

This is my first Alan Campbell book so I went in cold with no expectations or prior knowledge. After finishing the book I searched online and realised I was peripherally aware of the author and had heard of God of Clocks and Scar Night.

So, with all of that in mind, I found this to be a very ambitious novel that is packed full of creative ideas. Calling it a fantasy novel is in some ways limiting, as it crosses many genres and has dragons, technology, science, mysticism and lots of other stuff I won’t spoil. The story is quite slow to start and the unusual setting added to this, because at the same time as trying to work out what was happening, I was also trying to put the world together in my head and understand the immediate threat. The story follows Thomas Granger, a man who should know better, but he opens his mouth and drops himself in it. As a result he is forced to run for his life and start over in a new prison city with a new identity. A few years later Granger finds out that he can’t escape his past as quickly as he would like as old enemies find out where he is and they want to see him brought to justice.

The world building and setting in the story is remarkable. It is a grim place that mixes technology and something that borders on magic, where telepaths are a necessary evil that others must suffer or else risk attack from something even worse. Relics and technology from a dangerous race that was eventually beaten litter the world and are bought and sold for huge sums of money. The problem is most people have no idea what most of it does, how it works or what it was originally designed for. Also the sea is a terrible enemy, a place that can transform ordinary people into the Drowned, underwater shark people and every person has adapted their way of living to cope with the poisonous brine. This is perhaps the most compelling and interesting idea in the novel and it is disturbing, terrifying and also fascinating.

Campbell’s characterisation is solid and we really get under the skin of young Ianthe and Granger. Another character that was introduced later, Maskelyne, becomes a more important player as the story progresses and without spoiling it too much, he is a very nasty piece of work. It’s not completely unexpected, given that he is essentially a crime boss, but he sees himself as something completely different and this is where I first had some problems with the book. This may not have been the intention but I believe Maskelyne is a sociopath and possibly a psychopath. He is not driven by lust or power or greed, but a thirst for knowledge and he wants to understand the old technology and uncover its true purpose. I also came up against a barrier that may only be an issue for me, but I didn’t like the character in any way and I couldn’t connect to him, therefore I didn’t care about his fate or what he was doing. I thought he was a despicable creature who was willing to do anything to anyone if it got in the way of his research, hence my belief that he is also a sociopath.

The other issue I had was the character wandered off and started writing about his theories in his journal and as a result the story becomes heavy with exposition in some places. I’m also not sure about the relevance of Maskelyne’s research to the overall story, which is at its core a rescue story, to begin with at least. During these moments it began to feel more like a science fiction novel too. The theories might be relevant further down the line in later books in the series, but they robbed the story of its momentum. I think the start of the book is one story, then it changes into something else, than it changes again, and as a result of all these changes I lost interest and some of my enthusiasm for the story. I can’t go into too much detail without spoiling it, but Ianthe and Granger’s story were the most interesting story threads for me.

There are some great moments, epic scenes and horrific battles, and this is a very unusual fantasy novel, but I’m not sure it’s right for me. Campbell is a very talented writer with a vivid imagination and he does a great job of making the world feel real and lived in. Once you get into the book and used to his style it becomes easier to absorb the new concepts without being overwhelming. He definitely has a unique style and if you like fantasy novels that mash together several genres, with a story that is unpredictable and savage, then this book is for you.

Cover Art | The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught by Jack Campbell, UK Edition (Titan Books)

John G Hemry posted this UK cover for the next Lost Fleet novel, Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught over at his blog. It keeps a similar format to the other UK Lost Fleet books, although the actual art isn't quite as good. The US is getting their edition in April, but in the UK we have to wait until September to pick it up. I'm seriously looking forward to Dreadnaught, especially after reading the first chapter.

Review | The Kings of Eternity by Eric Brown (Solaris)

Title: The Kings of Eternity
Author: Eric Brown
Publisher: Solaris
Format: Paperback
Pages: 319
Release Date: April 2011

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

1999. On the threshold of a new millennium, the novelist Daniel Langham lives a reclusive life on an idyllic Greek island, hiding away from humanity and the events of the past. All that changes, however, when he meets artist Caroline Platt and finds himself falling in love. But what is his secret, and what are the horrors that haunt him?

1935. Writers Jonathon Langham and Edward Vaughan are summoned from London by their editor friend Jasper Carnegie to help investigate strange goings-on in Hopton Wood. What they discover there – no less than a strange creature from another world – will change their lives forever.

What they become, and their link to the novelist of the future, is the subject of Eric Brown’s most ambitious novel to date. Almost ten years in the writing, The Kings of Eternity is a novel of vast scope and depth, yet imbued with humanity and characters you’ll come to love.

Last year I read a half dozen books by Eric Brown, and he very quickly became one of my favourite authors. It wasn't like I hadn't read anything by him before, I had all of his Solaris releases up to that point, but after reading the final Bengal Station book, Cosmopath, in late 2009 I knew I had to track down some of his other work. Eric Brown is the kind of author that can write about very human traits, crafting his stories to deliver an emotional and personal experience. The fact that he writes SF is all the better, but he doesn't force the ideas and technology on to you through his stories, and while they are an integral part to the plots they do not dominate them. It's a style that is very successful, and goes to show just how skilled he is at telling a story.

Why, you may ask, am I telling you this. It's quite simple really: The Kings of Eternity is another typical Eric Brown novel, one that uses an SF staple at its core, yet tells the story through its characters. The cover may suggest interplanetary travel, alien worlds and intelligence, and perhaps even that sense of wonder that SF is known for, but what you will find within the pages of The Kings of Eternity is more personal, but thoroughly science fictional.

The Kings of Eternity is split into two very distinct sections, one focusing on writer Daniel Langham and his secluded life on a small Greek island during 1999 and the other on Jonathon Langham, Edward Vaughan and brothers Jasper & Charles Carnegie in London and the English countryside of 1935. Daniel Langham is a writer who enjoys his privacy, always conscious of people trying to get close to him for an exclusive interview or whatever else he suspects them of. And that is the case when Caroline Platt comes into his life, changing his outlook and once again falling in love. In 1935 Jonathon and Vaughan are also writers, and after a summons to the estate of Jasper Carnegie they discover something beyond wonder that will change their lives, forever.

What struck me when I started The Kings of Eternity was very much the non-sf feel of the book, the characters and the writing. With one small exception you could have been fooled that you were reading a non-genre novel up to 60 or so pages in, and then once the science fictional element comes into play it's there, but sometimes you actually forget it is. Eric Brown has crafted characters that you genuinely want to care about, are interested in their lives and how they deal with the everything that is thrown at them. This is not something that happens in many genre novels where characterisation often takes second place to Big Ideas, but Brown has been bucking that trend for a long time now - The Kings of Eternity is a prime example of a writer at the top of his game.

Daniel Langham comes across very much as the lonely writer desperately trying to keep his privacy, but there is a deeper layer to this that is not immediately apparent. From his early encounters with strangers he is obviously paranoid about something, and this aspect of his past is explored more as the novel progresses. When he meets Caroline he is at odds with himself - his paranoia means he must know she isn't just after the usual stuff, but he desperately wants to ignore this and take things as they come. It's an interesting view into his character that also throws up other trust issues he has, and it's dealt with just right. The times we follow Daniel are the shorter sections for the most part, but they add a much to the story and, in the end, it's clear why.

Jonathon Langham, also a writer, lives in 1935 London, able to live decently off his craft. His relationship with Carla, a stage actress in London, is an on and off affair, not quite leading to a full partnership. But Jonathon's jealousy is his downfall and he can't even see her talking to another man without the beast rearing its ugly head. With his father also ill his friendship with Edward Vaughan and Jasper Carnegie that leads him away from London is just what he needs, and the discovery of a portal from another world in Hopton Wood is only the start. While Jonathon's life in London shows much of his character, it's the events in Hopton Wood and Cranley Grange that are the start, and focus, of The Kings of Eternity.

Because both narrators are writers the prose flows very well, the descriptions of their surroundings, the events that they are part of and their story in general are conveyed in such a way that you don't so much as read the novel but simply absorb the story. Sometimes a book can have this readability factor that makes you want to plow through it and get to the end, but the opposite is true for The Kings of Eternity. I didn't want it to end, and even though I was desperate to read more and more in each sitting I rationed myself to the novel, not wanting to come to the final page. However, the end did come and I was left wanting. I did not want The Kings of Eternity to be anything other than what it was, I just wanted more. Perhaps this is selfish of me, but it is rare that a book delivers such a story that I felt deprived when it ended.

I can't say that I highly recommend The Kings of Eternity because that's not true - I believe that this book is a must-read. It's the kind of sci-fi book that is accessible to non-sci-fi readers, but it is equally one that veteran readers of the genre will enjoy. Excellent.

Review | The Heir of Night by Helen Lowe (Orbit)

Title: The Heir of Night
Author: Helen Lowe
Publisher: Orbit
Format: Paperback
Pages: 464
Release Date: March 2011

Reviewed by: Andy Venn

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

The violence of an age-old war casts a long shadow. It falls on a world where mercy is weakness and conflict is a way of life.

Young Malian is being trained to rule. Her people garrison the mountain range known as the Wall of Night against an ancient enemy, keeping a tide of shadow from the rest of their world. Malian is expected to uphold this tradition, yet she’s known little of real danger until the enemy launches a direct attack upon her fortress home.

In the darkest part of the night, the Keep of Winds becomes a bloodbath. Women and children, warriors and priests, are slain by creatures with twisted magic flowing in their veins. And as the castle wakes to chaos, Malian flees deep into the Old Keep, her life at stake. Then when the danger is greatest, her own hidden magic flares into life.

But this untapped potential is a two-edged blade. If she accepts its power, she must prepare to pay the price.

This story centres on Malian, the heir to the family of Night. She is trained to take over the family duty, to protect the world from the ancient enemy that lives beyond the Keep of Winds. But one night everything changes. Two heralds arrive with a message for the Earl and later that night the ancient enemy invades the keep from old and hidden passages. Malian is separated from the family and the guard and driven into the old passages where she hides with the help of a novice priest who has discovered that he has a talent for hiding. Eventually the Dark Swarm are driven back, with the help of a mystical weapon and Malian is recovered. But the attacks continue and Malian finds that she is developing powers that would preclude her from becoming head of the family and ruling at the Keep of Winds. In normal circumstances she would be required to go to the temple and have nothing to do with the Keep. But times have changed, and unbeknown to the Earl a decision is made that Malian must leave the Keep while she comes into her full power. Only then may she be able to defeat this ancient enemy.

She leaves the Keep with the young novice that she has now befriended, and her Steward and head out into the world. But they are followed. Someone has let her secret departure be known. They are pursued into a land with an awakening power. No one is quite sure if the power that is waking is good, bad or mad but they do not want to find out. The pursuers catch up with them and they find that Malians steward has turned against them, possibly because of a madness caused by the power in the land or maybe by the Dark Swarm themselves. They are helped by the arrival of the two heralds who help them get away and the Shaman from the Winter Lands who creates a snow storm to help them escape.

This is a cracking story. It has all the elements that I have come to expect in a fantasy novel. Magic, a prophecy, priests, a dark enemy. It gallops along a rate of knots that almost leaves you gasping for breath, but I still found it very hard to put down.

In theory a fantasy novel should be easy to write, as you are only limited by your own imagination. But there is still a tendency to stick to the same old formulas, nothing wrong with that and I have hundreds of these novels in my study (much to my wife's annoyance!). And to a certain extent this book is the same, but there are some interesting ways of dealing with plot lines. I am looking forward to finding out more about the ancient enemy and where the major players in this book came from originally. Helen also has a very easy writing style which made it very easy to read.

Being an old, and somewhat grumpy man according to my wife, I remember the days when fantasy was written only by men, Robert E Howard etc. In fact the first fantasy novel I bought was Almuric, by REH, closely followed by all the Conan stories. The influx of female writers of this genre has mainly passed me by until recent years when I discovered Robin Hobb and Carol Berg, and others. The female writers seem to bring a certain delicacy to their work while at the same time managing the hack and slash, that the likes of Howerd and Gemmell write, very well. You can safely surmise that I did enjoy this book immensely and I am now desperate for the next instalment.

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About Andy Venn
I'm Andy Venn, aka Giant68 due to being 6'8" tall. I have been reading science fiction for 35 years since picking up the Lensman series. And fantasy since I pinched "Lost Worlds" by Clarke Ashton Smith from my uncle. I read both in, pretty much, equal measures. I write a blog occasionally, containing the whimsical, or bad tempered, meanderings of my mind at http://giant68.blogspot.com. Go and have a look, you'll find out all about me, and Lord knows I need the followers! Or email me at andy.venn@gmail.com.

Cover Art | Hilldiggers & Line War by Neal Asher (Tor)

As has been the case with the rest of Neal Asher's work, Jon Sullivan has been let loose on the remaining two novels of Neal's backlist that hadn't been re-covered in his wonderful, and very suitable, style. And here they are, Hilldiggers and Line War:

During a war between two planets in the same solar system – each occupied by adapted humans – what is thought to be a cosmic superstring is discovered. After being cut, this object collapses into four cylindrical pieces, each about the size of a tube train. Each is densely packed with either alien technology or some kind of life. They are placed for safety in three ozark cylinders of a massively secure space station. There a female research scientist subsequently falls pregnant, and gives birth to quads. Then she commits suicide – but why?

By the end of the war one of the contesting planets has been devastated by the hilldiggers – giant space dreadnoughts employing weapons capable of creating mountain ranges. The quads have meanwhile grown up and are assuming positions of power in the post-war society. One of them will eventually gain control of the awesome hilldiggers . . .

While this is very striking, it's not as good as the other Sullivan covers. It's very reminiscent of the original Hilldiggers cover with a little added flair. Nice, but nothing out of the ordinary.

The Polity is under attack from a ‘melded’ AI entity with control of the lethal Jain technology, yet the attack seems to have no coherence. When one of Erebus’s wormships kills millions on the world of Klurhammon, a high-tech agricultural world of no real tactical significance, agent Ian Cormac is sent to investigate, though he is secretly struggling to control a new ability no human being should possess . . . and beginning to question the motives of his AI masters.

Further attacks and seemingly indiscriminate slaughter ensue, but only serve to bring some of the most dangerous individuals in the Polity into the war. Mr Crane, the indefatigable brass killing machine sets out for vengeance, while Orlandine, a vastly-augmented haiman who herself controls Jain technology, seeks a weapon of appalling power and finds allies from an ancient war.

Meanwhile Mika, scientist and Dragon expert, is again kidnapped by that unfathomable alien entity and dragged into the heart of things: to wake the makers of Jain technology from their five-million-year slumber.

But Erebus’s attacks are not so indiscriminate, after all, and could very well herald the end of the Polity itself . . .

Now this, THIS is what it's all about. It captures the book perfectly, is as accurate as cover art can get and lets you know exactly what's in store here. Again, you can see the original cover here, but this is so much better.

I'm going to buy these books again, just to have the whole series with these covers on my shelf. Awesome.

Review | The Scarab Path by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor)

Title: The Scarab Path
Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Publisher: Tor UK
Format: Paperback
Release Date: August 2010

Reviewed by: Steve Aryan

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

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..

The Scarab Path is the fifth in the Shadows of the Apt series and is the first book in a new chapter of the story. It is also very much the story of one character, who up to now, has been fairly adrift, pulled this way and that by events and was someone without any real purpose or goals. Perhaps that’s why until this book, Cheerwell (Che) Maker, has been my least favourite character. In some ways she is very much the everyman in this strange new world. Someone who at first is swept along by events she cannot avoid and once this realisation sinks in, she does try to help in her own unique way. Unfortunately, as is pointed out a couple of times in The Scarab Path, Che’s attempts to make things better often end with her being captured by the enemy and imprisoned, because she is a fairly ordinary person.

Despite all of the fantasy elements in the story, the solid core of Tchaikovsky’s books is his characters. Che was a college student when the war started, and although she was being coached by her uncle, she was by no means a master at anything. There are no fantasy tropes or character archetypes in the series and no shortcuts to greatness. All of the characters are just ordinary people living through extraordinary times who are forced into impossible situations. Sometimes they rise to the challenge and sometimes they fail, making their responses more realistic than the hero always winning at the most critical moment. Also Che does not become a master at anything overnight, but she is fundamentally changed by her experiences during the war, as any person would be in her shoes. There are expert fighters in the series, but these are people whose very core is that of a warrior and they have dedicated their life to becoming that, forgoing many other things and making sacrifices along to achieve that one goal. These are determined people who relish a fight and yet they are not a master of all weapons, magic, languages, history etc, because that is wholly unrealistic. Time and again when reading this book I was reminded of that level of realism because the story was very grounded despite the fantastic, which made it a much more enjoyable experience for me.

The story begins where the war with the Wasp Empire is temporarily over. By no means have their goals of conquest evaporated, rather they are put on hold while other more pressing internal matters are dealt with. The Empire is fractured, in dissent, and being led by a dangerous new Empress who many underestimate, including the jaded Wasp spymaster, Thalric. There is something rotten and terrifying at the heart of the Empire, and despite everything that has happened to him and how much his own kind have hurt him, Thalric returns to the bosom of his homeland hoping to find comfort among his own people. Instead he finds a place he doesn’t like and cannot tolerate. A nation ruled by a person he barely recognises and suddenly he is desperate to escape it again.

Forever seeking allies, and conscious that the war will resume at some point, Stenwold persuades his niece, Che, to travel to distant Khanaphes, a city only recently discovered by the Lowlands even though it has stood there for centuries on the edge of maps and has been hinted at in stories. Here, Che, is very much a stranger in a strange land, desperately trying to not only understand the local culture and customs, but also come to terms with recent events and tragedies that have caused some fundamental changes to her personality and abilities.

Khanaphes is a fascinating city, peopled by a race of terrified Beetles who live in the shadow of something unspeakable. Their silent Masters, absent Gods or long dead Kings and Queens, no one is really sure, but there eternal presence is felt on every street as fear of the Masters and their unspeakable wrath is palpable. This is just one element of what is a unique and multi-faceted society which, although was probably inspired by ancient Egypt, has become something else as Tchaikovsky has taken a few core concepts and build on them to make something completely his own. The city is one of intrigue and it rests upon many mysteries that Che tries to unravel because the Lowlands needs new allies in its war against the Empire.

This is a murder mystery story in some ways, as Che is not only trying to unravel the Khanaphir as a people, and the weird stories that fly around the city, but also uncover what happened to a colleague who disappeared. There are a number of layers to this book and I suspect on repeat reads I will get something new from it. There are a number of further complications and plot twists, and all of this intrigue is in stark contrast to the approach of the Scorpion-kinden who also have designs on the city of Khanaphes. They are brutal, driven barbarians, but not without an interesting culture of their own, and while the physical differences make it easy to tell the races apart, Tchaikovsky does not leave it there and take the lazy approach. Every part of their culture is built on a logical foundation and The Scarab Path gives us a unique insight into a race that has been on the periphery up to now.

How far would you be willing to go to save your home or your city? What would you be willing to do to protect it? Would you be willing to kill someone? And what laws or customs would you break to protect your fellow man? How much would you be willing to personally sacrifice for the greater good? These and other key questions form the crux of the story when several characters are pushed to their limit until their true nature is laid bare. In the comfort of your own home it is easy to make proclamations about what you would do in a tough situation, but only when the moment is upon you can a person know the truth. Without spoiling it, there is a host of interesting characters in The Scarab Path, both old and new, and each is pushed beyond all reasonable measures by events and what emerges out the other side is surprising and sometimes disturbing.

In some ways this book is a standalone novel as it is almost completely focused on one location which Tchaikovsky has not done before in the series. There are several interconnected points of view which keep the story moving along at a good pace and I devoured this pretty hefty tome in under a week. On the whole though this is Che’s story and my opinion of her has changed significantly, because by the end of the book I wanted to see more of her not less. The story was also unpredictable because going in I knew it marked the beginning of a new chapter in the story, but I had no idea of where it was going. By the end there are some clues as to where the series might go next, but I am not already mapping out events that must happen because they have been so heavily foreshadowed.

This is epic fantasy at its best. Gripping, original and multi-layered storytelling from a writer bursting with lots of fascinating ideas. The concept of insect-kinden makes the series unique, but it is Tchaikovsky’s ability to create realistic characters that you really care about that keeps me coming back for more. Other long running series can drag, and sometimes I have felt as if nothing happened in some books until the last hundred pages, but that is not the case here. Every book in the series is an important chapter in the story and I can’t wait to see what happens next, but also where in the world we next visit.

Review | The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card (Tor)

Title: The Lost GateAuthor: Orson Scott Card
Publisher: Tor
Format: Hardback
Pages: 384
Release Date: January 2011

Reviewed by: Daniel Burton

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

Danny North knew from early childhood that his family was different, and that he was different from them. While his cousins were learning how to create the things that commoners called fairies, ghosts, golems, trolls, werewolves, and other such miracles that were the heritage of the North family, Danny worried that he would never show a talent, never form an outself.

He grew up in the rambling old house, filled with dozens of cousins, and aunts and uncles, all ruled by his father. Their home was isolated in the mountains of western Virginia, far from town, far from schools, far from other people.

There are many secrets in the House, and many rules that Danny must follow. There is a secret library with only a few dozen books, and none of them in English — but Danny and his cousins are expected to become fluent in the language of the books. While Danny’s cousins are free to create magic whenever they like, they must never do it where outsiders might see.

Unfortunately, there are some secrets kept from Danny as well. And that will lead to disaster for the North family.

Danny is an almost orphaned child raised in a family of magical adepts, while he himself lacks the skills and talents that set his family apart from humanity. Instead, he focuses on his academic studies, absorbing history, languages, and learning at a voracious rate. One day, almost by accident, that all changes when he realizes he unexpectedly inherits magical powers long thought to be lost from the world. This discovery is a death sentence in his family, and he does the only logical thing—he runs, narrowly escaping certain death.

On his journey, he explores his new and strange magical powers, as well as the non-magical world he has been hidden from his whole life. He is a mage, descendent of the gods and goddesses man worshiped in ancient times, but he travels among normal people, finding his way among the beggars and thieves in the underworld of Washington, D.C.

Even as he does, he is hiding from his family, the descendents of gods. You see, the ancient pantheons in the Greek, Nordic, Roman, or Hindu world are really visitors to Earth, mages whose powers were amplified by their journey through magical gates between their world and Earth. Those gates were lost many centuries ago, stranding them here and weakening their powers. Now, Danny is about to find himself at the center of an ancient struggle to get back to their world, renew their powers, and regain control of the Earth as gods and goddesses. His very existence will reignite a power struggle between the modern descendents of the pantheons for the control of the gates, and he will be at the center of it.

While not an entirely original story, it is clever and creative. A young boy finds out he is not actually as normal as he thought, but is really a being of unique magical powers (like Harry Potter), the son of gods (like Percy Jackson), and those powers make him among the most powerful people in the world. Orson Scott Card brings his own flavor to the story, but it is a story that has been done better before.

Even so, The Lost Gate is full of interesting ideas. Some of the best sections are during jumps from Danny’s perspective on Earth to that of another mage on the gods own world. While most of Danny’s story is focused on his learning about his magic, by interweaving the alternate perspective, we catch glimpses of the greater conflict, one that began thousands of years before Danny’s birth. However, the story feels rushed, and in the rush, Card’s best ideas falter. Rather than flesh out the characters and plot, the story leaps from point to point, never really building on the ideas.

In short, Card’s newest novel is too many good ideas and not enough time. The result is an average story by an above average author. Card’s intermingling of the two perspectives and their genre blending works well, setting the stage for a war between worlds. Even as the novel closes, we have only seen glimpses of the real fight, and we know that before the tale is through (this is only the first in the series), Danny will be at the center of that conflict.

Even with those glimpses, I often felt disappointed by the story-telling itself. The plot felt jumpy and lacked tension. Even on the run for his life, Danny feels more like he is meandering than fleeing. Card lets his character out of any kind of scrape that might actually threaten him, with little or no cost. At the end of the day, we all want the hero to win, but we want the win to feel like a victory, not a foregone conclusion.

Another concern I had with The Lost Gate was Card’s heavy use of info dumps. With the creation of any system of magic, an author has to explain things and fill in the reader on how things work. But Card’s info dumps were constant, going so far as to feel more like a Wikipedia entry than a piece of the story. Rather than supporting the story, the story sometimes seemed to play second fiddle to the info dumps or sudden character introductions. To be sure, the world and ideas are very interesting and very creative, but the alacrity with which Card makes stuff up to fit the situation, rather than providing all the rules upfront, makes the internal logic of the story feel contrived and inconsistent. As a result, the story hurts, even while the ideas flourish.

If that was my only complaint, the story might still have been an enjoyable experience. But problems arose when Card lets his characters talk to each other. I know, right? The audacity. But rather than move the story forward, though, the characters’ dialogue seems to get in the way. They argue and complain, bicker and whine...constantly. In one “memorable” scene, the characters seem to flip-flop between decisions they had already agreed upon just so that the dialogue can continue (and by “continue” I mean “argue”) for another page. It makes them look inconsistent and unlikeable, not to mention irritating, and it rarely does anything to affect what we can already see is going to happen next in the plot. As a result, I could not decide whether I thought a character was unlikable, or had just been poorly scripted. In the end, I rarely felt any connection with the characters, including the protagonist, Danny.

While The Lost Gate is full of ideas and potential, for me it fell flat. I found myself frustrated that I was too far into the book to put it down, but not far enough to be done.

Last comment: at the end of the novel, Card inserts an Afterword where he explains the roots of his inspiration for The Lost Gate. After thirty years, he figured out how to work the ideas together. My concern is that while it may have had its genesis 30 years ago, the book feels like it was rushed to be finished in the last month before it went to print. While Card is not G.R.R. Martin (and nobody wants to wait as long as we already do for Martin’s sequels), I do wish he would take a page out of George’s book. Slow down to redraft, rewrite, and edit. With great ideas, it’s worth the time, and I think it would make all the difference.

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About Daniel Burton
Dan Burton lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he practices law by day and practices everything else by night. You can follow him on his blog lawafterthebar.wordpress.com where he muses on the law, current events, books, and ideas. He can be contacted at dan.burton@gmail.com.

Review | Salute the Dark by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tor)

Title: Salute the Dark
Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Publisher: Tor UK
Format: Paperback
Release Date: February 2010

Reviewed by: Steve Aryan

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

The vampiric sorcerer Uctebri has at last got his hands on the Shadow Box and can finally begin his dark ritual - a ritual that the Wasp-kinden Emperor believes will grant him immortality - but Uctebri has his own plans both for the Emperor and the Empire. The massed Wasp armies are on the march, and the spymaster Stenwold must see which of his allies will stand now that the war has finally arrived. This time the Empire will not stop until a black and gold flag waves over Stenwold's own home city of Collegium. Tisamon the Weaponsmaster is faced with a terrible choice: a path that could lead him to abandon his friends and his daughter, to face degradation and loss, but that might possibly bring him before the Wasp Emperor with a blade in his hand - but is he being driven by Mantis-kinden honour, or manipulated by something more sinister?

This book marks the end of a significant chapter of the larger story, tying off a number of threads in a satisfying manner. There are still many to explore, and the cast of characters continues to grow as we continue to range further afield in the world with each new book.

In many ways this is a tragic book as a number of characters reach critical moments in their lives and, without giving away any spoilers, some characters rise to the challenge and others do not with varying consequences. In that regard the book is very realistic, as all of the characters are flawed and ultimately human. For example, for every act of bravery committed by a coward, the mask of heroism can only last for so long and eventually the truth will come out. So it is with the characters in this book as events have been put into motion and no amount of bravery or sacrifice can change them. In the hands of another author, a situation where a hero is faced a hundred enemies would be handled very differently, with a hero cutting a swathe and emerging without a scratch. Tchaikovsky is not as lenient with his characters and for all of the fantastical elements of the story, there is an underlying level of realism. When there are acts of bravery and heroism, they stand out and are feats to be remembered. There is a particular scene in the latter part of the book that I will remember for a long time, because it was a tipping point in the story, but more so because it was very poignant moment for two of the main characters.

Throughout the series there isn't a single character who is impossibly virtuous and without flaws. All of them have moments of weakness and temptation, and it makes it easier to relate to them, even those I would loosely term villains, who are often more complex in their motivations than the main protagonists. Characterisation is a big thing for me, and to really enjoy a book I need a fair balance between characters, plot and world building, which Tchaikovsky has achieved in this book as he has throughout the series.

Certain events come to a head in Salute the Dark with a lot of unexpected consequences. There was never a moment when reading this book that I could predict how certain scenes were going to play out because any character could die at any moment. The Shadowbox is finally in the hands of Uctebri the Sarcad, the mysterious and very deadly magician who seeks to change not only the course of the Wasp Empire, but also the fate of his people. Meanwhile the Wasps are mustering for war on several fronts and we see how all of these battles play out, sometimes with horrifying results. Tisamon, Archaos, Salma and Totho have all reached crossroads in their lives and in Salute the Dark they all have large parts to play, shaping the course of the future for themselves and many others. As some characters prepare for war others seek to reclaim what was taken from them. Taki works hard to build a new alliance to take back her homeland while Stenwold embarks on an important journey to bring old friends into the conflict.

There are quite a few story threads but at no time did I feel the need to refer back to previous books to work out who the characters were or what was going on. They are all distinct enough that I could easily recall them, even if they did not appear in the previous book.

As mentioned this book ends one major chapter in the series, and in some ways it comes full circle. We revisit old friends and old places and by the end I thought Stenwold looked very old. Only a few years have passed since the Wasp Empire first struck the Lowlands and the rest of the Kinden finally woke up to the real danger, but Stenwold has been talking about this for a long time. Now he is a middle aged chubby man who has very few friends left alive that were there with him at the beginning. In that regard I felt as if Salute the Dark was the ending of an era, and that the fate of the Lowlands would rest more heavily on the shoulders of some of the younger characters. I am sure he will still be a major part of the story and a key player, but the landscape has changed. It's no longer about warning people about the Wasp Empire and trying to build alliances to repel them. That was always Stenwold's primary goal and he has achieved it more or less. By the end of the book the status quo has completely changed again, so I wonder if he can rise up to meet the new challenge and cope with a different set of demands that are placed on him. I see a lot of similarities between Stenwold and Winston Churchill, and I wonder if the parallels will continue in this series after Salute the Dark. Churchill was very popular during WWII as he was the right man to lead the country, but afterwards it did not go as well for him. Stenwold was given the title of War Master, but who will he become when the conflict ends and will the people still need him? And if not, can he find a new role for himself and continue to serve his people. Perhaps I am looking too deeply into the similarities, but these are just some of the questions I have about his fate and that of the other characters.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is not afraid to take risks and he makes some bold choices in this book. With spoiling it this book marks the end of some characters and while I don't disagree with any of his decisions, I suspect there will be some who will lament the passing of favourites. However, in each case the death was important, significant, necessary or poignant because it changed nothing in some cases. Keeping a character alive because you like them or because they are popular with readers is a sin I have seen other authors commit in novels, and in particular on television. There is none of that here so prepare yourself for a few shocks.

Overall I found this a thoroughly enjoyable and gripping read where all of the different plot threads held my interest equally. Sometimes when an author is juggling a number of story threads you can develop favourites, but I didn't have one this time. All of them are critical on the local and global scale and although the next book marks a new chapter and a new direction in the story, I am very curious to see some of the fallout from events in Salute the Dark.

Cover Art & Synopsis | Hell Ship by Philip Palmer (Orbit)

A starship travels through space carrying thousands of slaves. Each slave saw their homes, their families, and their entire world crushed by the awesome power of their new masters. And each and every one of them hungers for revenge.

Now, another planet burns and their greatest hero is defeated, captured, and enslaved. Sharrok swears he will have his vengeance. No matter the cost to himself. No matter he threatens the fragile peace between the war-like slaves. No matter that his captors are possessed of technological powers so advanced, they seem like magic.

There is another hope. One man, once a peaceful Trader, pursues the ship for its crimes. Battle after battle has left Jak scarred and broken and bit by bit he has surrendered his humanity to his pursuit. Now, Jack is no more than a mind in the body of a starship.

Together, one working from within, the other from without, there is, just possibly, a way to end this long, interstellar nightmare.

I'm not too sure how I missed this back in November, seeing as I've really enjoyed seeing the covers for Philip Palmer's novels. I like the style of them and despite only having read Red Claw, I think they really suit his work. Orbit have also re-done the cover for his debut novel, Debatable Space. I like it!

Review | The Technician by Neal Asher (Tor)

Title: The Technician
Author: Neal Asher
Publisher: Tor UK
Format: Hardback
Pages: 512
Release Date: August 2010

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

The new standalone novel by Neal Asher featuring two of his favourite polity creations - the hooder and the gabbleduck...

The Theocracy has been dead for twenty years, and the Polity rules on Masada. But the Tidy Squad consists of rebels who cannot accept the new order. Their hate for surviving theocrats is undiminished, and the iconic Jeremiah Tombs is at the top of their hitlist.

Escaping his sanatorium Tombs is pushed into painful confrontation with reality he has avoided since the rebellion. His insanity has been left uncured, because the near mythical hooder called the Technician that attacked him all those years ago, did something to his mind even the AIs fail to understand. Tombs might possess information about the suicide of an entire alien race.

The war drone Amistad, whose job it is to bring this information to light, recruits Lief Grant, an ex-rebel Commander, to protect Tombs, along with the black AI Penny Royal, who everyone thought was dead. The amphidapt Chanter, who has studied the bone sculptures the Technician makes with the remains of its prey, might be useful too.

Meanwhile, in deep space, the mechanism the Atheter used to reduce themselves to animals, stirs from slumber and begins to power-up its weapons.

The Technician is Neal Asher's latest novel and marks the completion of my resolution to get up to date on all of his releases. I've not done too badly, this being the fifth book of his I've got through since January, each being just as enjoyable as the previous one. I'm actually quite glad I've done it this way, especially as much of what happens in The Technician relates to the Cormac series, mainly the events in The Line of Polity which is set on the same planet. I thoroughly enjoyed completing the Cormac series and was eager to once again see what was happening in the Polity, but Neal didn't meet my expectations. He exceeded them.

The Technician is set on Masada, a planet recently freed from a theocratic rule that kept the powerful in their orbital habitats away from the dangers on the surface while the workers were forced to live day to day in squaller, risking their lives so the higher echelons could benefit from their work. The Polity is now in control after the events in The Line of Polity brought about intervention, granting amnesty to those in the Theocracy and raising the living conditions of all on the planet. With Masada being under quarantine for many years after the Jain threat that caused the intervention, it has been a slow and steady climb for the population adjusting to the Polity. But there are still some who feel amnesty is unacceptable - the Tidy Squad. This group conducts its covert operations with the sole aim of bringing ultimate justice to former Theocracy members. And Jeremiah Tombs, the only man ever to survive a Hooder attack, has been in their sights for a long, long time.

Tombs is a mess, living in isolation under the eyes of the Polity AI's, supervised by Sanders and still believing the Theocracy is ruling strong after so many years in captivity. The truth he will not believe - the Theocracy is dead and the Polity rules, while the legendary Hooder know as the Technician did something to his brain that not even the great AI's can understand. But time is now short, for an ancient Atheter machine is waking in the depths of space and is heading for Masada, once the homeworld of its creators, with its mission still intact: destroy any signs of Atheter intelligence. Tombs is released and Amistad, the de facto expert on the Atheter, must help Tombs unravel the mystery that the Technician planted in his head.

When I came to read The Technician I had a couple of concerns. Firstly, the story is set on Masada, the setting of events from The Line of Polity. Now, I think Masada is a great setting, it has all sorts of dangerous wildlife, a history that has been uncovered throughout Neal's works, and holds the potential to deliver a stunning novel. But The Line of Polity is my least favourite of Neal's novels. It's good, but because of the Theocracy and the in-your-face religion bashing I just found it left a sour aftertaste. Returning to the planet that had all of this history was both exciting and daunting. Secondly, after reading the final volumes in the Cormac sequence (Polity Agent and Line War) I was unsure whether I could enjoy a novel that was once again restricted to one lonely planet in a galaxy that had so much to offer.

Now, regarding my first concern about religion. Asher has certainly grown as a writer in the seven years between The Line of Polity and The Technician. While religion is still an aspect in this novel - it has to be with Tombs as a former member of the Theocracy - it's more subtle, more relevant to the story without being dragged up every other page. Tombs is a disturbed man and his fixation on the fact that the Theocracy survived is a key element to the story, and Asher manages to convey this through his words and behaviour very effectively. As the whole planetary situation has changed these moments with Tombs are a stark contrast to the beliefs of many of the other residents. The Tidy Squad is another aspect to this religious theme, but they are against the amnesty the Theocracy members are offered, living to exact revenge on those that treated them so badly in the past. While this thread could have easily turned into a dig at religion, Asher keeps it relevant to the plot and to those characters it affects.

As to my second concern and limiting the story to one planet. This is Masada, why was I worried? There are Hooders, Gabbleducks, Dracomen, and a whole host of other dangerous and equally interesting creatures wandering its plains. And this time around we're getting a full-on story that has a Hooder at its centre, not to mention the Atheter AI and the Gabbleducks that play a role throughout. While the building blocks of Masada were laid during The Line of Polity, it really does get centre stage here. We find out why Masada is the way it is, and just what caused it to become that way.

Suffice to say, the worldbuilding going on in The Technician is second to none. Asher covers all the bases and manages to add the history from previous books in without it being noticeably repetitive for those that have read them, but equally important for those that have not. Asher's writing is very much a fast paced action orientated style, and when he flexes those muscles in the story it's a joy to read, but experience has also given him some very good story-telling skills that apply to those sections that aren't balls-to-the-wall action. With the combination of world-building, story-telling and all-out action, The Technician has a little bit of everything that adds up to a very satisfactory whole.

The Technician does start slowly though, with sections jumping back and forth through periods of over 20 years, and this can be a little confusing. More than once I had to double check just which period the point of view was from and slipping it into the right place in my mind. Fortunately these are only present for the first part of the story, and once we're brought up to date with events it's full steam ahead. Story and character progression go very much hand in hand throughout the novel, one leading to the other, and vice versa. Tombs is one of the main contributing forces to forward movement for the overall plot and, along with the imminent threat of the ancient Atheter device, we learn plenty of things that have only been hinted at or suggested in past novels. It all comes together surprisingly well, and the revelations kept those pages turning and turning late into the night.

There is so much to enjoy in The Technician it's hard to stop blurting it all out here and let you go out and experience it for yourselves. The titular legendary Hooder, the history and fate of the Atheter, the changes to Tombs and his journey and discovery of these, the advancement of Amistad, the deadly environment of Masada. It's all good, and it all makes for a gripping and extraordinary story. I thought Line War was excellent, but The Technician tops that and is far and away the best thing I've read by Neal Asher.

As I finished The Technician I became frustrated - I've had the pleasure to catch up on the events in the Polity over five novels, to enjoy the settings that Asher has created, and to do so with the knowledge I had another waiting on the shelf. Now, however, I don't. Yes, I've got a couple of his older books to re-read, but with Neal's departure (no pun intended) to a different setting, the wait for something new set in the Polity is going to be a long and painful few years.

But what a way to start a hiatus: The Technician was awesome.

Interview | John G Hemry (Jack Campbell)

Jim Black, one of the contributors here at Walker of Worlds, conducted an interview with author John G Hemry (author of the Lost Fleet series under the pen name of Jack Campbell) back in 2008 after the release of Courageous, the third Lost Fleet book, on his blog Science Fiction Times. He saw that I was looking forward to the UK releases of the series and asked if I wanted to post this interview - I jumped at the chance! It's always great to read an interview with an author whose work I enjoy, and a big thanks to Jim for allowing me to re-post this along with his thoughts.

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Jim Black: I picked up the three "Lost Fleet" novels. Why are you writing them under a pen name?

John Hemry: The pen name was required because of the way the publishing industry works these days. The major bookstore chains use software to order books, and the software bases orders on earlier sales. If the software decides an author's sales aren't good enough, then it orders fewer copies of their next book to be displayed on the bookstore shelves, which means fewer copies sell, which means it orders even less next time, which means even less sell then, and so on. Like many other authors, I'd been caught in that death spiral, but using a pen name immediately resets the situation since the software sees you as a new writer and orders enough copies for the stores to give the next book a chance of taking off. Happily, this is what happened with the Lost Fleet series.

Jim Black: I can see the influence of Battlestar Galactica and Gene Roddenbery's Andromeda. Were they part of what inspired the "Lost Fleet"?

John Hemry: The inspirations were actually far older. I'd been wondering for some time if it was possible to do a plausible space-based version of Xenophon's March of the Ten Thousand. Part of the Lost Fleet derives directly from that ancient scenario. The other inspiration lay in old legends about heroes, which often claimed the hero wasn't really dead, but only sleeping and would awaken to save the day when the need was greatest. King Arthur is perhaps the most familiar example of that story. But such heroes were probably just people who saw themselves as not special, and would be amazed and shocked to learn about the legends which had grown around them. So I imagined such a hero, one who had no choice but to try to live up to the legend because otherwise the people looking to him for hope would be truly lost. Another historical aspect of that was considering how a trained Roman military officer appearing in the Dark Ages would have been able to apply forgotten lessons on how to fight smart as well as bravely, if the knights could be convinced to listen to him.


Jim Black: How many "Lost Fleet" novels are you planning?

John Hemry: Three more novels are already done or contracted. The fourth (Valiant) comes out in June, 2008, and I'm working on Relentless and Victorious.

Spoiler:

The fleet actually gets home at the end of Relentless, but there's a great deal left for the hero and the fleet to do so the story arc started in Dauntless ends in Victorious.

Jim Black: "The Bookseller of Bastet" was an excellent short story. Did a particular incident in your life lead you to writing it?

John Hemry: Thank you. Some time ago I read an appreciation about an Iraqi bookseller in Baghdad who had been killed in a car bombing. I felt a need to somehow acknowledge people like that, the ones who lived for books and kept selling books no matter what, but it took a while for the right story to develop. I'm glad it seems to have worked, because I do think those who treasure books are special.

Jim Black: Did any of the classic science fiction authors influence you? Based on the stories I have seen, I would think Gordon R. Dickson and Poul Anderson.

John Hemry: Poul Anderson was always a favorite, and a bit depressing once I started writing, because whenever I thought I was getting the hang of things I'd read something of his and think "I'll never be as good as that." I also read Dickson, Heinlein, and H. Beam Piper, and a lot of Andre Norton. Zelazny is another favorite, as is Leigh Brackett. I'm certain they all influenced me a great deal. My novelette "Lady Be Good" was very much a tribute to Brackett.


Jim Black: Do you have any future stories(short stories or novels) that you can tell us about?

John Hemry: I never know when a solid short story is going to come together. I have three partially completed right now, but don't know if they'll work out. I do want to write more of my time travel stories featuring my temporal interventionists (the latest being "These Are the Times" in the November 2007 Analog). My novel work is focused on the last two Lost Fleet books right now. After those, I'll probably do related books in the same universe if the demand exists. I also want to try to continue the JAG in Space series which preceded the Lost Fleet but didn't find a big enough audience then even though the books were well-reviewed. I have a Young Adult SF series (suitable for adults) which my agent is trying to sell right now, and I'm also considering trying to get approval to do a sequel to Piper's Space Viking and Cosmic Computer novels.

Jim Black: What do you hope to be writing 10-15 years from now?

John Hemry: Stories that people like to read, and perhaps help them think about things they might not otherwise have considered. I like writing SF and to a lesser extent fantasy, but I can also see doing some historical novels and alternate histories.

Jim Black: What are your thoughts on the future of science fiction?

John Hemry: I think SF has a good future as long as it doesn't take itself too seriously. By that I mean it has to remain focused on telling the story, rather than trying to be Literary. I think SF lost a lot of ground to fantasy because fantasy remained focused on stories of wonder and possibilities. One of the early reviews of Dauntless suggested it was the sort of story that could have been serialized in John Campbell's Astounding, which was meant as a put-down, but I've heard from many people who said that motivated them to buy the book because they missed those kinds of stories. Homer's Odyssey was about people exploring new worlds, facing amazing challenges and meeting a variety of strange beings (which also describes the original Star Trek). That sort of tale has been around as long as humanity, and when told well it still captivates. A good story will endure. Writing one is the hard part.


My favorite line from the interview was "One of the early reviews of Dauntless suggested it was the sort of story that could have been serialized in John Campbell's Astounding, which was meant as a put-down, but I've heard from many people who said that motivated them to buy the book because they missed those kinds of stories." This is enough to get me to buy his books. John Campbell's Astounding was one of the highlights of the Golden Age. Many of the classic science fiction stories appeared there. I don't know where science fiction would be today without the influence of Campbell on authors such as Asimov and Heinlein. We need to remember and build upon the legacy left by the classic authors.

I hope he gets the rights to do sequels to H. Beam Piper's books. I read Space Viking and Cosmic Computer many years ago and enjoyed both of them.

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About Jim Black
Jim Black's interest in science fiction began in the early 70s when he read a copy of Lester Del Rey’s “The Runaway Robot”. Little did he know that it would be the start of a life time of reading science fiction and fantasy. Hundreds of books later he still enjoys reading everything from the classic through the modern authors. You can follow what he's reading on Goodreads, can be emailed on jimsftimes@gmail.com and blogs at Science Fiction Times.

Review | The Lost Fleet: Courageous by Jack Campbell (Titan Books)

Title: The Lost Fleet: Courageous
Author: Jack Campbell
Publisher: Titan Books
Format: Paperback
Pages: 400
Release Date: 28 January 2011

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

The Lost Fleet continues its perilous journey home.
Badly damaged and low on supplies, the Alliance Fleet is raiding Syndic mines for raw materials and Captain "Black Jack" Geary hopes they can continue to remain one step ahead of their enemies. But the Syndics are the least of Geary's worries when he learns of the existence of aliens with the power to annihilate the human race.

Courageous is the third book in the Lost Fleet series, preceded by Dauntless and Fearless, and as such you're not going to be getting a stand alone here - this series is one big story. I've really enjoyed the first two books and was very much looking forward to get stuck into Courageous to see where it took the story and just what else could be thrown up for Geary and the fleet to deal with. While Jack Campbell sticks to a formula that has proven successful in the previous instalments, he does introduce some new aspects that help increase the tension and raise plenty of questions about the bigger picture.

As the Alliance fleet travel from system to system through Syndic space on their way home they are constantly overcoming the odds and surviving battle after battle, inflicting heavy losses on the Syndics each time. While this is the more traditional battlefield that Geary is used to, another is always present - the political and argumentative fleet conferences that take place with all Alliance fleet ship commanders. These conferences are the bane of Geary's command and it is during these that those who oppose him manipulate others to raise issues. On top of this Geary's relationship with Rionne is not what it used to be, she appears cold and distant, and rumours are spreading about the fleet of improper conduct between him and Desjani, the captain of his flagship. And then there is the discovery that humanity may not be alone in this section of the galaxy after all as evidence of mysterious foes builds and builds.

Other than the unravelling mystery of non-human intelligences that Geary and his close confidants are slowly discovering, there is a distinct feeling that Geary is playing things a little too well when it comes to avoiding the Syndic forces. He's managed to guess their actions with enough accuracy to date that the Alliance fleet has not been in too much danger, but his decisions are slowly pushing the fleet into a corner where they will have to face a significant Syndic force before too long. I liked the way this came about, and when the action finally hits it's done extremely well, but I've come to expect that from Campbell - he can write some pretty epic space battles with all sorts of twists and turns.

Once again I find myself totally drawn into the setting that Jack Campbell has created. I find the premise a good one for a military SF story, the characters are still enjoyable to read and the precision of the space battles are terrific. In short, Courageous delivers just what I wanted, but it doesn't deliver too much more than Dauntless and Fearless. Because of this it's difficult to review this book without going into too much detail or without repeating myself with what I've said in my previous reviews. If you've read and enjoyed the books to date then this should certainly be on your reading pile, and if not I strongly suggest picking them up and starting the story from scratch.

Courageous ends in such a way that Valiant, the fourth book, is going to be an immediate read. Saying that there is a cliffhanger of sorts is not giving anything away, but it also makes you realise once again that Campbell is in this series for the long haul. Highly recommended.