Review | The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (Tor)

Title: The Quantum ThiefAuthor: Hannu Rajaniemi
Publisher: Tor
Format: Hardback
Release Date: May 2011

Reviewed by: Daniel Burton

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

Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist, and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy— from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of Mars. Now he’s confined inside the Dilemma Prison, where every day he has to get up and kill himself before his other self can kill him.

Rescued by the mysterious Mieli and her flirtatious spacecraft, Jean is taken to the Oubliette, the Moving City of Mars, where time is currency, memories are treasures, and a moon-turnedsingularity lights the night. What Mieli offers is the chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self—in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed.

As Jean undertakes a series of capers on behalf of Mieli and her mysterious masters, elsewhere in the Oubliette investigator Isidore Beautrelet is called in to investigate the murder of a chocolatier, and finds himself on the trail of an arch-criminal, a man named le Flambeur….

The Quantum Thief is a crazy joyride through the solar system several centuries hence, a world of marching cities, ubiquitous public-key encryption, people communicating by sharing memories, and a race of hyper-advanced humans who originated as MMORPG guild members. But for all its wonders, it is also a story powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge, and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.

Author Hannu Rajaniemi is smart. As in, he is Mensa smart. With a Ph.D. in string theory and another in mathematics, the founder of a think tank that provides business services using artificial intelligence, he is working with subject matter that just a generation ago was the stuff of science fiction. I almost expect to find him in the pages of Asimov’s Foundation series, using math, statistics, and artificial intelligence to keep civilization alive.

His vision of the future—a place where civilization has filled the solar system, fractured and fought, and still survives—is mind blowing. If you’re looking for loosey goosey Star Wars style space opera, look elsewhere. If you want a story that takes a serious and creative look at the future of our institutions, technology, and cultures, then you’re going to love The Quantum Thief.

Rajaniemi smashes through the world we know and leaps into a universe extrapolated several centuries in the future. We see MMORPG clans developed into highly advanced clans, but still retaining the geeky LARP activities as a throwback to the past (and our present). There are vigilantes that seem to take their inspiration from Jewish lore as they fight crime behind masks. And virtual social networks—similar to Facebook and Myspace—that are even more integral to life than they are today, and perhaps even more pernicious in their tendencies. There is a master behind the machine, a master that may not be worthy of trust. Social networks are just steps towards a Benthamite panopticon, not unlike John Twelve Hawks’ fledgling vision in The Fourth Realm trilogy.

In addition to a radical and visionary view of the future, Rajaniemi’s novel rests on a fantastic story. The Quantum Thief opens on Jean Le Flambeur, an illustrious and infamous thief and conman, undergoing reform in the Dilemma Prison. He is rescued by Mieli, a savior with a hidden agenda. He soon finds himself in the Oubliette, the Moving City of Mars, hunting down his own missing memories, hidden for a purpose he cannot recall. As he follows the clues he has left to his past, others are also on the hunt, and time is running out, literally. In the Oubliette, a “place of forgetting,” time itself is currency, and citizens live forever. But beneath the surface, plots within plots are unfolding, conspiracies waiting to be exposed.

At 330 pages, The Quantum Thief is not long, but is fulfilling. The prose, while occasionally cryptic, is beautiful. I frequently ran into words and concepts that I could not understand without an appeal to Google and Wikipedia, but they never got in the way of the story. In fact, while I could have read The Quantum Thief without reference to outside material, finding the root meaning of the concepts Rajaniemi inserts in his novel brought another level of understanding and hinted at deep and unspoken back stories to the characters, to history, and to the novel itself. Eventually, each reference is explained; however, he never shoves an information dump down the reader’s throat. The story is as important as the concepts, but we discover it gradually, learning just what we need to know, and no more or less.

The Quantum Thief is a brilliant piece of science fiction, as well as a great novel, and it should rank with Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is Harsh Mistress, and Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination as one of the great novels of hard science fiction.

It’s a brilliant debut, and it is only the first of a trilogy. I look forward to reading the rest of the 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 | Heaven's Shadow by David Goyer & Michael Cassutt (Tor)

Title: Heaven's Shadow
Author: David Goyer and Michael Cassutt
Publisher: Tor UK
Format: Hardback
Release Date: July 2011

Reviewed by: Andy VennBuy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

Heaven’s Shadow begins with the discovery of an object of unknown origin headed toward Earth. Speculation as to what it might be runs high, and leads to an international competition to be the first to land on it, to claim both the prestige and whatever other benefits there might be. Thus, two rival teams of astronauts begin a thrilling and dangerous race – but what they find when they reach their goal will turn out to be unlike anything they could have imagined . . .

What they have landed on is no asteroid but a spacecraft from a civilization that has travelled tens of thousands of years to reach earth. While the team try to work out what it is they are needed for, more sinister occurrences cause them to wonder if their involvement with this alien race will lead to anything but harm for humanity.

Now, I know that you will have already seen one review of this book so I will not bore you by giving a précis of the story again, I’ll just go straight into what I thought of this book.

Firstly, I though t that it was a damned good read. Easy to read, flowing story that I was keen to keep reading until the end. And was quite disappointed when it finished. It did give the impression of a screenplay, in the construction of the story and maybe it is the heritage of the authors showing through. I think that the characters lacked a little depth, but if there is a follow up they might develop more, now that they have been thinned out a bit.

Possibly because I am of an older generation than Mark or Steve and have read more stories of this type but I can see plenty of influences of Arthur C Clarke here. I can remember reading Rendezvous With Rama for the first time and then the sequels. Seeing the stories develop in strength and depth. I can also see a bit of Greg Bear and The Forge of God here as well. It seems that everytime we meet an alien they either want to fight us or have us fight for them. Wouldn’t it be nice if, just for once, the alien came to planet Earth and said “We come in peace” and actually mean it. Bit of a boring story, though. Alien sits on the sofa with Earthman and they all watch the telly and live happily ever after.

It is always nice to see the paranoia that develops when rival agencies are trying to achieve the same goals, the foundation of many a good science fiction story.

So there you have it. A good story, well written. But could have been better. The sort of thing that I would read next month when I am sat on a Spanish beach.

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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.

Review | Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi (Tor)

Title: Fuzzy Nation
Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor
Format: Hardback
Release Date: May 2011

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

Jack Holloway works alone, for reasons he doesn’t care to talk about. Hundreds of miles from ZaraCorp’s headquarters on planet, 178 light-years from the corporation’s headquarters on Earth, Jack is content as an independent contractor, prospecting and surveying at his own pace. As for his past, that’s not up for discussion.

Then, in the wake of an accidental cliff collapse, Jack discovers a seam of unimaginably valuable jewels, to which he manages to lay legal claim just as ZaraCorp is cancelling their contract with him for his part in causing the collapse. Briefly in the catbird seat, legally speaking, Jack pressures ZaraCorp into recognizing his claim, and cuts them in as partners to help extract the wealth.

But there’s another wrinkle to ZaraCorp’s relationship with the planet Zarathustra. Their entire legal right to exploit the verdant Earth-like planet, the basis of the wealth they derive from extracting its resources, is based on being able to certify to the authorities on Earth that Zarathustra is home to no sentient species.

Then a small furry biped—trusting, appealing, and ridiculously cute—shows up at Jack’s outback home. Followed by its family. As it dawns on Jack that despite their stature, these are people, he begins to suspect that ZaraCorp’s claim to a planet’s worth of wealth is very flimsy indeed…and that ZaraCorp may stop at nothing to eliminate the “fuzzys” before their existence becomes more widely known.

Fuzzy Nation is the new book by John Scalzi, but it's not original, rather a reboot of H. Beam Piper's original Little Fuzzy. I've not read the original (or any of its sequels) and the main reason I ordered Fuzzy Nation is because I hugely enjoy the way John Scalzi tells a story, his Old Man's War books are among my favourites. I started Fuzzy Nation with no expectations and only hoping to find a quick and enjoyable read. Not only did it deliver that, but it was a complete joy - funny, heartwarming and immensely entertaining!

Fuzzy Nation is a fairly straight forward story that focuses on the character of Jack Holloway, an independent contractor that searches out various minerals and fossil fuels for ZaraCorp, and his find of a huge Sunstone deposit on Zarathustra worth trillions to the company and, by extension of his finders fee, billions to him. But then the fuzzies show up at his home, animals that are smarter than anything else native to the planet, but also appearing to be without sentience, at least at first. Fuzzy Nation follows this discovery and the implications it has on ZaraCorp, all told through the eys of Jack Holloway.

Holloway is the main character here and the one that we follow throughout the story. He's not instantly unlikable despite coming across as a little arrogant and self-righteous. But he's got a sense of humour, and that takes his character into the grey area. His virtues are not always in the right place and he thinks of himself more often than not, but I enjoyed reading every sentence of Fuzzy Nation because of Holloway. A disbarred lawyer, Holloway stands his ground with added sarcasm pretty much throughout the story, but it's so entertaining I forgot to question his motives and see what sort of character he really is most of the time. It's when big things happen that you realise just how well Scalzi has portrayed Holloway, and how much you come to care and understand about the man. The other supporting characters add their own little flair to the story and take it from point to point (I can't stand Wheaton Aubrey VII, but wouldn't dare see the story without him!), but Fuzzy Nation is about Jack Holloway first and the fuzzies second.

Some of the scenes in Fuzzy Nation are great, despite the complete lack of action in the novel. You've got the introduction of the fuzzies and all their related antics, Holloway and his dog Carl blowing up terrain (a particularly important aspect of relations between some characters!), and, of course, plenty of courtroom stuff which is the highlight of the novel, without a doubt. I would love to discuss the fuzzies and everything about them, but because they're so central to the plot and their scenes are so enjoyable I don't want to spoil anything. However, Scalzi manages to add emotion, humour and facts into the book in abundance, and it makes Fuzzy Nation an excellent and hugely enjoyable read.

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi is awesome. Go buy it, hire it, borrow it, whatever. This is a book you need to read.

Interview | M.D Lachlan

M. D. Lachlan is the pen name for the fantasy work of author and journalist Mark Barrowcliffe. His first book Wolfsangel was published in May 2010 and is a unique mix of myth, fantasy, horror and history.

I recently interviewed Mark about his approach to writing, the ongoing series and the new novel, Fenrir, which is published later this week from Gollancz.

Wolfsangel contained a mix of fantasy, horror, mythology and several other elements. As a fantasy novel it's very different to the majority in the genre. Are you a fan of the fantasy genre?

MDL: I don't know if I'd describe myself as a 'fan' in that I don't specifically look for new releases in fantasy or limit my reading to the genre. However, there are plenty of fantasy books that I love and I would describe myself as a fan of good writing. I think I probably was a fan when I was growing up but my tastes broadened a bit as I grew older.

Who are some of your favourite authors?

MDL: I don't read a lot of new stuff - I'm normally 15 to 20 years behind the times in my reading. In fantasy it would be Ursula Le Guin first and foremost followed by Tolkien, Moorcock (I know some people view those as opposite poles), GRR Martin, Robert Holdstock, Alan Garner, Angela Carter and Susanna Clarke off the top of my head. Outside it would be PG Wodehouse, Bulgakov, Conan Doyle, Nabokov, Jane Austen, Martin Amis, John Irving, Brett Easton Ellis and Muriel Spark. I also like a lot of poetry - Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Heaney, Yeats, Macneice and Eliot. If this sounds a bit high minded and pretentious - sorry. I grew up wanting to be a poet and haven't yet quite accepted that I don't have what it takes. I also like Robert Harris, Patricia Cornwell and George Macdonald Fraser.

Did any of these authors influence your writing?

MDL: Yes, I'm sure they did although I wouldn't know how. I try to learn what I can from poets and to use strong, simple and evocative language. I try to create an atmosphere with my writing in the same way that poets do - clearly I'm not writing poetry but I think it's possible to learn something about economy of language. I really admire Ted Hughes for his ability to conjure mythic atmospheres and I try to do the same. I also try to avoid clichés of expression and characterisation. My focus in writing is at the level of the sentence. I tend to let plot take care of itself. The influences for my fantasy writing come more from non-fiction, music and film. I grew up with books like A History of Witchcraft in England, TV such as Children of the Stones, films such as Hammer Horror, The Wicker Man and the music of Kate Bush, Killing Joke and Black Sabbath. Weirdly, one of the writers who has influenced me most is probably Cormac McCarthey - even though I could never say I've enjoyed one of his books.

The fact I trained as a journalist also has a huge influence on my writing.

What was your starting point for the series? Did it begin with the North mythology or somewhere else?

MDL: It began in WWII. I wrote a very long book about an immortal werewolf that flashed back to the Norse period. In the end we decided to turn it into a series, starting in the Viking age and going forward in history from there. With luck it will get to the modern day. The WWII story is written and I'm very pleased with it.

Why Norse mythology in particular?

MDL: I've loved it since I was a kid. I did projects on it at school and read a lot about it. I was a big RPG player and a lot of my D&D characters were Berserkers (they pre-dated The Barbarian class).

What (if anything) did you learn from writing Wolfsangel that you put into Fenrir?

MDL: I wouldn't say I learned much but I did try to make Fenrir a different book. The books tell a repeating story - a cyclical myth being acted out on earth. This means that they could become very repetitive very quickly if I wasn't careful. Hence I decided to make Fenrir much more pacy than Wolfsangel. Now Wolfsangel is pretty pacy but I conceived Fenrir as 24 with Vikings and werewolves. I also wanted to flesh out another of the main female characters in Fenrir. In Wolfsangel the character Adisla is quite sketchy. In Fenrir Aelis - who is basically her reincarnation - is much fuller.

Wolfsangel was set in the time of the Vikings and Fenrir is set in 886 AD. Did you always intend to move foward in time into different eras with the series?

MDL: Yes, once I'd decided to rewrite the original. 885/6 is the Viking siege of Paris. The book after Fenrir begins in 969 at the battle of Abydos between the Byzantine emperor and the rebel Phokas. This is still within the Viking period, which is generally accepted to end at Stamford Bridge in 1066.

I've heard from some writers that working on an existing franchise or character is both a blessing and a curse as they dont have to invent the entire environment, the clothing, the weapons etc. Did you find it easier or more difficult writing within the framework of that period and setting?

MDL: I don't have the mindset to do a lot of world building. I admire people who do but I'd get bored inventing my own cities, races, economies etc and therefore wouldn't be any good at it. When I played D&D I was always much more interested in being a player than a Dungeon Master. I want to get on with the action and leave the planning to others. The great thing about history is that it's all there for you if you do the research. Also, history is very often stranger than invented worlds anyway. If you look at early medieval attitudes they can seem truly alien to modern eyes - can you imagine a world in which people legislated against innovation in industry, for instance, which did happen during the middle ages? Can we understand a society so utterly suffused with myth, religion and storytelling? The bad news is, of course, that you can get things wrong. I take great care to get them right but I'm not a historian. It's straightforward enough in the Norse period but book 3 is set in Constantinople - a society of quite literally Byzantine complexity.

The scope for error there is huge but so is the scope for uncovering the wondrous and the strange. I do spend a lot of time trying to understand the attitudes of the age. I don't want modern people in furry boots, I want my characters to reflect Viking ways of thinking. The risk of that, of course, is that some people might find them hard to identify with or not understand their motivations. For instance, someone seeking trial by combat when they know they are facing someone much stronger and more skilful than they are seems stupid to modern ways of thinking. To a Viking warrior it makes perfect sense - he dies a brave, notable and honourable death. As the Viking poem says: 'Cattle die, Kin die. I know one thing that never dies. The glory of the great deed.' The Vikings were very concerned about how they would be remembered and, to some, this was more important than life.

Were there any particular challenges you encountered while writing it?

MDL: Not Fenrir - it flew onto the keyboard and the characters seemed to invent themselves. The third book in the series - which is called Lord of Slaughter - has been much more difficult. A lot of characters appeared in it and the plot is very complex. I will need to simplify it before it's published.

Can you tell us a little about what we can expect to see in Fenrir? And how does it connect to Wolfsangel?

MDL: Yes, it begins at the Viking siege of Paris in 885/6. A noblewoman has taken refuge in a church, fearing a wolf from her dreams - very likely a demon, she feels - is coming to kill her. A crippled priest - the living saint Jehan - is sent to persuade her to come out of the church. Her actions are bad for the city's morale. A wolfman shaman is on a mission to abduct her, although his motives go far deeper than that. He sneaks into the besieged city to rescue her - just as another character who is seeking to kill her comes to the church. This is a half mad mystic who follows Odin - his name is Hrafn or Raven. He is accompanied by a band of Vikings who may or may not share his aims. The noblewoman flees him, aided by the wolfman. But why are so many people after her and what is the significance of her dreams? And what will happen to the priest who is abducted during the raid? I think it's the best book I've written in my career so far and I'm immensely proud of it! It contains the same idea of magic that was in Wolfsangel - that it's accessed through terrible suffering and self denial. It's also acting out the same myth as Wolfsangel only this time some of the characters are aware of that.

How many novels are there planned in the series?

MDL: I don't know! It goes to the modern day.

Where are you planning on taking the series next?

MDL: To Constantinople where the Vikings went as members of the Varangian guard - the emperor's elite bodyguard.

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Fenrir is published on 21st July and for more information about the author and forthcoming signings and appearances you can visit his website and follow his blog or visit the Gollancz website. There is also a trailer for Fenrir, which you can watch online here.

Review | Side Jobs by Jim Butcher (Orbit)

Title: Side Jobs
Author: Jim Butcher
Publisher: Orbit
Format: Paperback
Release Date: 14 April 2011

Reviewed by: Steve Aryan

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

Harry is the best and technically the 'only' at what he does, being the lone professional wizard PI in the Chicago phonebook. So when the Chicago PD has cases that transcend mortal capabilities, they come to him for answers. For the 'everyday' world is actually full of strange and magical things - and most of them don't play well with humans. Yet despite his precautions, Harry tends to stumble from crisis to drama in his dealings with the supernatural world - call it an occupational hazard. Here, he unfailingly manages to get on the wrong side of werewolf, fae and vampires alike. And that's where his own rather special powers come into play ...These bite-sized stories are tremendously entertaining and will leave you itching to explore more of Harry Dresden's world. And as well as eight short stories, this collection will include an all-new Dresden Files novella.

Side Jobs is a collection of short stories that not only chronicle moments of Harry Dresden’s life in between the novels, they also show the growth of Jim Butcher as a writer. Before each story there is a brief note from the author outlining where it sits chronologically, but also how the project came about and what he thinks about each story, looking back with hindsight. The first story is a bit rough, which Butcher admits, but you can see the core of the story follows a similar pattern to future instalments, and while it needs a bit of a polish it is still an interesting early adventure of Harry Dresden.

Even back then it seems to me that Butcher had a very clear idea of who Harry was and what he would and wouldn’t do. I’m going to assume that Harry Dresden didn’t appear fully formed in Butcher’s head from the first sentence, and over the last fifteen years or so the character has crystallised in his mind, but from the first story you know that Harry is someone you can trust. Also we’re now in an age where urban fantasy stories are very popular and growing in number every year, but I like that Butcher has sustained the approach that only a few people know about magic in the novels. It would be far too easy to make magic a thing that everyone knows about and takes as mundane, because it isn’t and shouldn’t ever be treated as such. By making real magic a hidden and mysterious force, characters reactions are more believable when they learn the truth, and therefore more relatable.

The girl that Dresden meets in the first story typifies the approach which we see quite often in other novels and lots of people react in different ways. There are a lot of building blocks in that first story that Butcher has developed over time, so it was fascinating to go back to the beginning and see where it all began.

A bit of an aside but, I’ve seen a few comments about Harry Dresden being unrealistic because he is so optimistic, even in the face of horrible tragedy and loss. It’s true that he is a lot more positive than most people and keeps going when others would probably just give up. However, it would be easy and incredible boring to make Harry fall into the now very worn rut of a rundown PI who drinks to numb the pain and ease his misery. We’ve seen that a hundred times, and the thing is, I know some people who are like Harry Dresden. They’re always positive, glass half full types, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.
Some of the stories in Side Jobs are taken from anthologies based on a theme and some of are lighter in tone than others, exposing us to some of the goofier magic stuff we’ve previously seen from time to time. All of the stories were entertaining but the ones that stuck with me the longest afterwards were Backup, The Warrior and Aftermath.

Backup was unusual because it wasn’t written from Harry’s point of view but from Thomas Raith’s. It was fascinating to see someone else describe Harry, not only what he can do but how he looks, how he moves and some of his facial expressions, which we never see as he doesn’t know he’s doing them most of the time. Seeing Harry in action and how dangerous he is further demonstrated me why so many people are scared of him. It also reminded me of why they used to be terrified that he would go off the rails and turn into an evil Warlock, because his potential is remarkable.

One of the most difficult Dresden novels to read was Small Favour because of what happened to one of the main characters who was a favourite of mine. The Warrior was a nice bookend to this story as it showed us a little of what happened next and the repercussions from Small Favour. There is a lot more to explore and I hope at some point Butcher delves more into this area which he has touched on several times, even in Changes, so I think it will have to come up soon in a future novel.

The final story, Aftermath is an original novella which has not appeared anywhere else before and it is told from Karrin Murphy’s point of view. Chronologically it takes place a few hours after the events in Changes, so this is a must read for Butcher fans who need to know what happens next. It fills in a bit of a gap and gives the fans something completely new to read before Ghost Story comes out later this month. One of the interesting things about the story is seeing the impact Harry Dresden has had on other people, sometimes without his knowing and sometimes directly. We all leave an impression on those around us and affect people close to us and those we meet in passing, and in Aftermath we see how far reaching Harry’s effect was on other people.

Overall Side Jobs was a fantastic read, a brilliant stop gap for slavering Dresden fans like myself who can’t wait for the next instalment, Ghost Story, and need something to read in the meantime. I hadn’t read any of the other stories before that have appeared in various anthologies so it was all new content to me and a great addition to the series.

Review | The Straight Razor Cure by Daniel Polansky (Hodder & Stoughton)

Title: The Straight Razor Cure
Author: Daniel Polansky
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Format: Hardback
Release Date: 18th August 2011

Reviewed by: Steve Aryan

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

Welcome to Low Town. Here, the criminal is king. The streets are filled with the screeching of fish hags, the cries of swindled merchants, the inviting murmurs of working girls. Here, people can disappear, and the lacklustre efforts of the guard ensure they are never found.

Warden is an ex-soldier who has seen the worst men have to offer; now a narcotics dealer with a rich, bloody past and a way of inviting danger. You’d struggle to find someone with a soul as dark and troubled as his.

But then a missing child, murdered and horribly mutilated, is discovered in an alley.

And then another.

With a mind as sharp as a blade and an old but powerful friend in the city, he’s the only man with a hope of finding the killer.

If the killer doesn’t find him first.

The Straight Razor Cure is an unusual book for a number of reasons. From the cover, with a hooded figure and the above description, you might think it’s just another fantasy novel focusing on the criminal underworld. The cover is actually slightly misleading because it suggests the main character is someone who wields magic, whereas he’s a former soldier turned criminal kingpin and drug dealer with no magical ability. Also, although magic is featured in the novel, it’s actually a small part of the overall picture and the story is firmly a street level tale about crime. It deals with murder, revenge, drug dealing, prostitution, and a whole range of other seedy stuff not mentioned, or only referred to in passing in other fantasy novels. If reading about any of that bothers you, or you don’t like the idea of the main character being a drug dealer, then I would seek out a different novel.

This is the darkest, most disturbing and unflinching fantasy novel focusing on the criminal underworld that I’ve read. In Scott Lynch’s GB books the main character, Locke, is a con man, but there is a lot of humour, fun and amusing moments to balance out the darker aspects of the story. In tone the easiest way to describe Lynch’s books would be like Buffy, a good drama with light and shade. There is humour in The Straight Razor Cure, but it is also on the dark side, and very in keeping with the grim setting and tone, making it feel more like an Elmore Leonard novel. I have few complaints about this novel, but the first would be that because it is such a brutal story, dealing with a series of fairly unpleasant murders, I would have preferred a little more light to combat the shade. After finishing it I had to go and read something more upbeat that hinted at the idea of hope and that not all people were selfish and unpleasant. Even though there was a resolution, I didn’t feel elated or happy by the ending, so even though I enjoyed the story, it did not leave me in a good place.

As mentioned earlier, the main character, Warden, is not a nice guy. He’s an ugly man, a disgraced soldier and intelligence agent who fell from grace and then made his mark on the city by becoming a drug dealer and crime lord of a city district. The other unusual element to the novel is that it’s told in the first person. At times it was difficult to read because of how Warden saw the world and riding along with him was not a pleasant experience. Given what’s happened to him it’s not surprising he doesn’t think much of humanity and has a very bleak outlook, but it does make for quite a depressing read.

The other problem I had with the novel was the language which was very over the top at times. I understand the need to create a certain level of realism, and in such a dangerous and unpleasant world, people will talk in a particular way. Also in life threatening situations, saying ‘oh fudge’ instead of using an expletive is unrealistic. I generally don’t have an issue with swearing, but there were moments where extremely strong swear words and phrases were used for no real reason that I could see and they were scattered with a blunderbuss approach. Sometimes the swearing was not there to highlight a tense scene, or underline a strong emotion, it was just there. The problem was the next time that swear word showed up it had lost its shock value and impact, which would have tied me into the scene and make me feel as shocked as the character.

The story was enjoyable as the mystery surrounding the murders was intriguing with Warden being pulled into investigating, mostly against his will. It’s difficult to talk about the investigation and mystery itself without giving anything away, but it is full of a lot of twists and turns and you will not see some of them coming.

It’s also worth noting that Warden is not a reluctant hero, or even someone doing this because he’s seeking a form a redemption. He’s essentially strong-armed by several people into solving the murders, because if he doesn’t they will nag him, or in one case, his life will be forfeit. There’s also the issue that the murders are bad for business and if everyone is focused and worried about their children, his dealing will suffer. Every character wants something, whether its fame or fortune or glory, or is motivated by something, but as far as I could see Warden doesn’t want anything. He gets up, sells his merchandise, defends his territory from time to time, comes home, eats and goes to sleep, usually in a drug-induced haze. He is just living in a rut and has fallen quite far from where he used to be as an intelligence agent. I wish there had been something underneath the routine that spurred him on, a goal that he aspired to rather than just existing.

The story takes place very firmly on the streets of Rigus, a city in the Thirteen Lands, but we never leave its dirty streets and seedy establishments. There might be a wild and wonderful world out there filled with fantastical creatures and other strange beings, but I doubt it fits in with the world Polansky has created. This is a crime novel with an icing of fantasy, where the fantastical elements are almost incidental to the world and the people living in it. Magic is a dangerous and unpredictable weapon, used by a few, and most avoid it because of the risks involved.

Overall this was an intentionally bleak and unpredictable crime novel, set in a fantasy world, where the intriguing story and the mystery kept me going, more than my interest in the main character, who was not very likeable by design. This was definitely a unique fantasy read, and I would recommend this novel to people who like fantasy novels without alien races, and those who prefer a more adult story, or a crime fan who wants to foray into fantasy for the first time but is afraid it’s all going to be elves and dragons.

Review | The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught by Jack Campbell (ACE)

Title: The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught
Author: Jack Campbell
Publisher: Ace
Format: Hardcover
Release Date: April 2011

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

The Alliance woke Captain John "Black Jack" Geary from cryogenic sleep to take command of the fleet in the century-long conflict against the Syndicate Worlds. Now Fleet Admiral Geary's victory has earned him the adoration of the people-and the enmity of politicians convinced that a living hero can be a very inconvenient thing.

Geary knows that members of the military high command and the government question his loyalty to the Alliance and fear his staging a coup-so he can't help but wonder if the newly christened First Fleet is being deliberately sent to the far side of space on a suicide mission.

The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught (or simply Dreadnaught as I will refer to it from now on!) is the new book in Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet setting, although this book kicks off a new trilogy set after the events of the original six book series. To say that this book was a highly anticipated release would be a gross understatement, I imported it as soon as I could and cracked it open and plowed through it in barely a few days. I'm a huge fan of the series and I thoroughly enjoyed Dreadnaught, despite the few little problems I had with it.

The events of Victorious are just behind us, and Geary and Desjani are now married and have spent a whirlwind honeymoon on Desjani's home planet, despite the constant attempts of the government to get Geary back to answer their questions and accept new orders. But in the end they have to return for Geary to face his superiors and find out just what his new orders are, and it's not quite what he expected. With his promotion to Admiral he is given command of the fleet, plus some extra ships, and tasked with finding out more about the alien race on the other side of Syndic space, how far their borders extend and whether they can hold peaceful negotiations. Of course, things don't go as smoothly as hoped for Geary and his fleet...

Dreadnaught picks up about a month after Victorious and continues the events from that book pretty much uninterrupted. Some of the fleet are still eager to overthrow the government and put Geary in charge of everything, even with Geary not wanting this. It throws up the political in-fighting straight away and lets you see the different factions and just what their aims are and how they believe things should be done, all the while with Geary treading the fine line between following orders from his superiors while keeping the fleet in check by allowing them to believe he is in charge. This aspect is definitely a follow on from Relentless and Victorious, showing just how the government are totally incapable of dealing with a potentially dangerous situation.

Geary is much the same man as he's always been - a good commander able to think outside the box but very loyal to the Alliance and the government. There are new factors coming into play with Geary given the fleet and told to go off to alien space to find out more, and it's through various information channels that he finds out the government are hiding things. With his status he could easily do as he wishes, but he once again does things within the confines of his orders, although edging into that grey area a few times. It's all a good way to show that ultimately a legendary hero is not always the best thing for the ruling government to have in full view, even with said hero wanting the best for the Alliance.

Moving on from all this political wrangling Dreadnaught does start to pick up pace when the fleet enters Syndic space. The aftermath of their dash home is still present, the Syndics now taking the alien threat seriously and using the fail-safe devices on their own hypernet gates, limiting the potential threat the aliens pose. This fallout from the Syndic government failing is also a major aspect of the story, and how Geary deals with these things can be interesting, but it ultimately starts to detract from the action, Campbell spending a little too much time on all the ins and outs of a galactic society in the throws of change. Don't get me wrong, it adds much to the story, but the promise of exploration in alien space makes the pace feel a little slow.

Once we do get into alien space the action and interest really steps up a gear. The enigma race are truly that, and other than the glimpses we caught of them during Victorious nothing is known. It's actually a good idea and Campbell manages to create the alien society from scratch, but it's all done through the observations the characters make - we see nothing from their side at all. This is both good and bad. On the plus side it allows Campbell to draw out some interesting conversations and ideas from Geary and the crew, but all it ever can be is guess work on their part. It does very much feel like Geary, Desjani, Rionne and company believe that what they've come up with is the truth of the race - at least in general - but there is always that niggle that they may be wrong, that feeling that their judgements may come back to bite them at a later date.

Other than that aspect I thought the time spent in alien space was the highlight of the novel, finally getting to the juicy bits I was hoping for when I opened the book. There are some interesting set pieces along the way too and the finale certainly gives more questions than answers - you can be sure I'll be reading the second book as soon as I can!

One thing I was expecting plenty of from past experience with Campbell's writing was of real-time space battles, but there weren't anywhere near as many as I expected. I found the battles to go by quicker than in the first series, not as much time spent dealing with events during the heat of battle, and I missed it. Whether this was done to be more accessible to readers or simply because Campbell felt there was no need to go to the same lengths I don't know.

Regardless of all the little issues I had with Dreadnaught, I loved every minute of it. I've been with these characters through six novels and it felt like returning to an old group of friends.

This does bring me to one last comment, and it's only my personal opinion: this series is much better suited to those that have read the previous Lost Fleet books. I think a newcomer may feel a little out of place with such a large amount of world-building, character development and story taken place over six previous novels, and believe me, all past developments make this a stonking read.

Review | Something Borrowed by Paul Magrs (Headline)

Title: Something Borrowed
Author: Paul Magrs
Publisher: Headline
Format: Paperback
Release Date: March 2008

Reviewed by: Steve Aryan

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

Brenda must face her demons, but first she needs to get to the bottom of the sinister goings-on that threaten to overcome an all-too-quiet seaside town.

When poison pen letters start flying around the quiet lanes of Whitby, trouble is in store for Brenda and Effie. And with Jessie the Zombie Womanzee, trips down memory lane and amorous ghoul hunting, literary minded and strangely youthful professors of Icelandic history, as well as a terrifying encounter with bamboo wickerwork gods from the dawn of time, even Brenda’s ample cup is running over. But her most challenging battle is the one she must fight with herself – or, at least, parts of herself…

This is the second fabulous outing for Brenda and Effie in Whitby, England’s answer to Sunnydale. Whitby sits on top of the Bitch’s Maw, which sounds much worse than the Hellmouth of Buffy fame, but is more or less the same. Whitby, like the bubbly blonde Slayer’s town of Sunnydale, is full of all manner of ghostly, ghastly and creepy things that come out to play at night. But instead of the Slayer, the monsters must face a dangerous duo of old biddies who regularly battle the supernatural.

Something Borrowed continues the deliciously funny, evil, and twisted stories that mash together a slew of different genres to create something utterly unique and compelling. The stories are a blend of folklore, inspiration taken from 20th century fiction, movies and TV shows, as well as lots of original material. The end result is something that is full of many Easter eggs for those in the know, but even if you don’t pick up on all of them, it’s just an incredibly rich playground. All of the Brenda and Effie books are very tightly written and yet I am always drawn into them quickly and can easily picture the characters and setting.

This novel digs a bit more into Brenda’s past and we get to see one of her previous adventures from before she came to Whitby that comes full circle, linking it to an event in the present. It’s difficult to do a review without a bit of a spoiler about one of the main characters so look away now if you don’t want to know. You were warned.

So, given that Brenda is the Bride of Frankenstein, and has lived for almost two hundred years, the scope for stories about her past is huge and incredibly intriguing. She’s lived dozens of different lives over the years, from highborn lady to working class servant, and when an old friend from her past turns up, who should rightfully be dead, you know there’s a story there. Her longevity is a result of her creation, making her very unique, so it’s rare for her to see other people from previous lives. As Brenda and Effie try to make sense of the weirdness in the present with help from her old friend, Henry, the story about how he is still alive is bubbling along under the surface and eventually revealed. As ever its fascinating, clever and very funny. I don’t want to keep referring to it, but Buffy is a very good touchstone because as well as being a drama, it could seamlessly move into a comedy and then into a harrowing scene, and it’s exactly the same here. Some of the supernatural crimes Brenda and Effie investigate are pretty nasty, but the deaths and the violence is never graphic. You’re also very likely to find the next scene could be something hilarious which stops the book from becoming a depressing read. Always entertaining, always moving forward, neat and tidy, much like Brenda’s Bed and Breakfast.

The whole book, and indeed the series for me, is such a pleasure to read and Something Borrowed ended on such a cliff-hanger, it paved the way for the third in the series which I am now desperate to read. Overall it’s a fabulous addition to the series and I would highly recommend it if you enjoy a book with a good mix of drama and comedy, with plenty of supernatural elements too.

Review | The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz)

Title: The Quantum Thief
Author: Hannu Rajaniemi
Publisher: Gollancz
Format: Paperback
Release Date: September 2010

Reviewed by: Andy Venn

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

Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy - from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars.

Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons - the Dilemma Prison - against countless copies of himself.

Jean's routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self - in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed . . .

The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future - a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.

The blurb and the press release for this novel tells the potential reader what this book is about. It is about two men. Jean De Flambeur, a thief who made a mistake and ended up in a prison that was set to educate him about himself, cooperation, and compromise. Before he can learn all the lessons he is helped to escape by Mieli and her sentient ship.

And then there is Isidore, a student and detective. He seems to look at life as a mystery that needs an answer.

And if you want to know more then read the full blurb for yourself, or read the book. Because I have read the book and I am not sure that I found an answer.

This is a quite fantastic story, in all senses of the word. It draws a world, or even worlds, that are so colourful and rich in their imagery that I was almost staggered. The characters are deep and complex. And the science went way over my head.

And that was the problem. I have read science fiction and fantasy novels for the better part of 40 years, and in that time I have read some really complex books. There are, generally, names and words that are pretty unpronounceable. I get over this by just recognising them, not by trying to mentally pronounce them. But this book made me reach for the dictionary, and then Google. There were a lot of words that were central to the story and I needed to know what they meant. I don’t consider myself an idiot but I felt like one at times as I ploughed through the encyclopedias just to find out what a word was just in case I was vital to the story.

I am sure that I will have to read this book again because I know that some of the story went right over my head. It took me back some years to one of the first science fiction books I ever read, Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles. It almost put me off of the genre for good. If this book had been my first I might have turned to reading crime fiction.

But the imagery drew me in. It painted vivid images in my head that were better than any movie. I will read this book again, I need to understand it.

If you are going to buy it sit with it in the shop and read at least 10 pages before you do. If I had I might not have bought it as sometimes the challenges are just too great. It is weird, deep, complex and very intelligent, just maybe a little too intelligent for me.

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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.

Review | Heaven's Shadow by David Goyer & Michael Cassutt (Tor)

Title: Heaven's Shadow
Author: David Goyer and Michael Cassutt
Publisher: Tor UK
Format: Hardback
Release Date: July 2011

Reviewed by: Steve Aryan
Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

Heaven’s Shadow begins with the discovery of an object of unknown origin headed toward Earth. Speculation as to what it might be runs high, and leads to an international competition to be the first to land on it, to claim both the prestige and whatever other benefits there might be. Thus, two rival teams of astronauts begin a thrilling and dangerous race – but what they find when they reach their goal will turn out to be unlike anything they could have imagined . . .

What they have landed on is no asteroid but a spacecraft from a civilization that has travelled tens of thousands of years to reach earth. While the team try to work out what it is they are needed for, more sinister occurrences cause them to wonder if their involvement with this alien race will lead to anything but harm for humanity.

It’s difficult to talk about this book without spoiling it a little so I will try to keep them to a minimum and not reveal some of the bigger twists that come later in the book. The synopsis gives away one of the main twists, but it comes not too far into the story so it's not too bad. Heaven’s Shadow is written by David Goyer and Michael Cassutt who are both well respected TV and screenplay writers. Goyer worked on all three Blade movies and the TV series, both Nolan Batman movies and he’s also a well known comic book fan who has written for DC. I’m less familiar with Cassutt, but from looking at a list of his work I have probably watched episodes of Eerie, Indiana and The Outer Limits that he penned. So the calibre of the writers is not in question and the idea is the sort of high concept that gets Hollywood folk excited. In fact, the movie rights for this trilogy have already been snapped up and optioned already. With all of that in the back of my mind I was expecting something quite remarkable and for the most part I was let down, not by the ideas, but the execution.

I read an advanced reading copy and this version of the book clocks in at a little over 560 pages, so the final version might change a little. However, I think you could cut 200 or more pages from this book and it would not have affected the story at all. In my opinion it would have made it much better, cleaner and sharper. Most of the time the story reads like a screenplay anyway. The chapters are short and punchy. The dialogue is fragmented and is exactly how people speak in real life. The description is light which helps the plot move along at a good pace. Unfortunately wedged into this exciting and tense plot is a lot of exposition, heavy SF detail and minor plot points and characters that will probably be culled from the screenplay for space and timing. I wish someone had done the same for the novel.

A vast Near Earth Object, or NEO, is on a trajectory that means it will pass through our solar system and it will come close enough for NASA, and a competing international space agency, to each send up a team. These two teams will land on the object, take samples, poke around a bit and then fly back, just as they would do as if they were going to the moon. As you might expect there is a lot of political wrangling and economic issues tied into the cost of sending up a team and what, if any, benefits there would be to such a mission. The really interesting part of the story comes when the object changes direction. This is not something that just appeared at the edge of the solar system one afternoon. It’s been on its current trajectory for hundreds of years and suddenly, for no apparent reason when it gets close to Earth, it changes course. This suggests some kind of intelligence at work and I can’t really say much more without spoiling it. Dodging around it I can say that the NEO has come to Earth for a reason and some thing has guided it there. The repercussions of that alone are astonishing, frightening and very troubling for some people as its solid proof of alien intelligence of some kind.

At this point I had a lot of questions and I was very keen to keep reading and find out what was going on. Then I hit a few barriers as the story lost momentum and the pace ground to a halt. If you like what some would describe as traditional science fiction, if you enjoy the technical side of ‘realistic’ SF movies like Apollo 13 and you like NASA documentaries, then you will enjoy this. For me there were far too many technical details and I struggled to get through it and find my way back to the story. I was bogged down and bored at times and I found myself skipping whole sections filled with acronyms and unnecessary detail.

The fantastical twists come thick and fast soon after and I did enjoy that part of the story, but it’s only about half of the book. The rest builds characters by awkwardly jamming in information, about their relationships and history, and by adding new characters to what was already a fairly large cast. There again, minor spoiler, but by doing so you practically know that some of them are red shirts and it’s just not going to end well for them.

I think the movie of this novel will be a really good science fiction blockbuster which will end on one heck of a cliffhanger if it stops at the same place. As a novel it lurches from the exciting and fantastical end of science fiction to, what was for me, less interesting technical information. I’m totally willing to admit other people may not notice or care, and will whip through the whole book in a few hours. Below are links to a couple of other reviews for comparison.