A Little Book Linkage

Because you can never have too many books:

– According to The Independent the most talked about book at this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair was The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens which is described as “Narnia-like”. Stephens’ previous claim to fame was as executive producer of the TV series, Gossip Girl.

– Chris Roberson announces that the new Kim Newman Diogenes Club collection, Mysteries of the Diogenes Club, is available for pre-order from Monkey Brain.

– The excellent J.M. McDermott has apparently found a new publisher after the demise of the Wizards of the Coast publishing arm.

– Larry Nolen has a fascinating review of Karel ÄŒapek’s War with the Newts.

– Jonathan Clements’ new book, A Brief History of the Samurai, is, “everything you always wanted to know about the samurai, but were too afraid of ritual disembowelment to ask.” If you are planning to write about medieval Japan you need this book, because Jonathan is very good.

Soulless

I appear to be getting back into this whole writing about books thing. Gail Carriger’s Soulless [buy isbn=”9780316056632″] inspired me to write what might actually pass as a book review. You can find it here.

Weird Cover Watch

There’s a fair amount of chat around the blogosphere about genre book covers. Mostly I don’t get involved, but when I saw Alex Massie blog about one I sat up and took notice because, well, see for yourselves.

The art is by Hector Garrido and you can find a review with a plot summary here. The book is still available, but with a much more boring cover [buy isbn=”9781587152368″]

The Little People - John Christopher

The Bookman

Kim Newman, Alan Moore, Lavie Tidhar: what do they have in common?

The answer is a superb ability to throw the actual history of the Victorian age up in the air alongside the popular fiction of that era and allow the whole lot to fall down together in new and interesting shapes. Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula put the undead Count on the throne of England. Alan Moore crafted a superhero team from people like Captain Nemo and Allan Quatermain. Lavie Tidhar has written The Bookman [buy isbn=”9780007346585″].

As recounted in Coleridge’s famous play, The Ancient Mariner, the explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, on an English-sponsored voyage to the new World discovered a mysterious island in the Caribbean that was home to a race of technologically advanced lizard people. Before long the lizards had deposed the English royal family and taken control of the country. Now, hundreds of years later, they control a world-spanning empire, run for them by Prime Minister James Moriarty. In the skies above London, the infamous black airships of the secret service, headed by Mycroft Holmes, strike fear into the hearts of the citizens. But not everyone is cowed. From a small book store in Charing Cross Road a group of left-wing revolutionaries plot rebellion. They include the German academic, Karl Marx, and the determined housewife, Isabella Beeton. The biggest threat, however, comes from a secretive anarchist known as The Bookman who delivers bombs disguised as books.

Our hero is named Orphan because he is, surprise, just that. It is obvious from early on that his parentless state must have some bearing on the plot. Why, otherwise, would The Bookman take such an interest in him? Even Inspector Irene Adler of Scotland Yard is keeping an eye on him. For poor Orphan, however, all this attention simply means that his friends are put in mortal danger. Thankfully the joy of reading the book is seeing what Tidhar has done with his material. Being able to work out who Orphan must be does not mar your enjoyment, of which there will be plenty.

Walking the Tree

Kaaron Warren, it appears, can write anything. Her first novel for Angry Robot, Slights [buy isbn=”9780007322428″], was hailed as exceptionally scary horror. I have a copy, but haven’t plucked up the courage to read it yet. Her third novel will apparently be fantasy. But book #2, Walking the Tree [buy isbn=”9780007322442″], is science fiction, of a sort.

The book is set on an isolated island in a vast ocean. It may be the only land in the world for all we know. In the center of the island is a giant tree that takes up most of the land. Small villages are dotted around the coast. Isolated by distance and the difficulty of travel, they have little contact with each other, and have developed distinct local customs.

There is one custom, however, that links the communities together. Young women are sent out round the island in search of husbands (someone, in the deep past, obviously worked out that too much in-breeding is bad for you). They go in a group, taking with them the villages young children, because this is the way the kids learn about the world. The book is the story of one such “school trip”.

Given that the book is the story of a group of women, and the children in their care, the presence of a bizarre and mysterious world probably won’t be enough to allow many male readers to enjoy the book. The fact that the women are sexually liberated, and that one of the purposes of their trip is to allow them to sample different men until they find one that they like, won’t help either. On the other hand, if you are into feminist science fiction you will probably find Walking the Tree fascinating. The nearest thing to it that I have read before is Ursula K. LeGuin’s Always Coming Home [buy isbn=”9780520227354″]. Warren’s world, however, is less idyllic. Indeed if, like me, you find small communities rather scary, you’ll find much of her world quite horrible.

The book is very slow, and it is not at all clear what point, if any, Warren is trying to make with it. An appendix titled “Threads” that sets out some of the main themes of the book helps a lot, but ultimately the reader is left to make of it what she may. If you like books that make you think then you will probably like this too.

The Painting and the City

I hope that Robert Freeman Wexler won’t mind me describing his writing as an acquired taste. After all, Jeff Ford says as much in his introduction to The Painting and the City [buy isbn=”9781906301538″]. Thank heavens, therefore, for PS Publishing, because they are willing to take a chance on experimental fiction.

The book involves the use of art to create magic, which I suspect is almost a genre in its own way. Wexler makes it work, and along the way tells the reader quite a lot about the history of New York. Being set in New York also allows the book to have a fairly cosmopolitan cast. Gay and lesbian couples are dropped into the story in a very natural way. They are there not to make a point, but because any image of the art community of New York would seem wrong without them.

If you enjoyed Brian Francis Slattery’s novels you will probably enjoy this one as well, although Slattery, being an economist, makes rather more sense to me. Wexler’s book has a bit too much of the “commercial = evil” for my taste, though again I’m sure that’s fairly typical of artistic communities. If you prefer to read prose that is simple and straightforward then give this one a miss.

Servant of the Underworld

Somewhere in the world there are doubtless descendants of the Aztecs who will be furious about the cultural appropriation in Aliette de Bodard’s debut novel. Most of us, however, will be intrigued by a setting that isn’t familiar to us. De Bodard has clearly done a lot of research into Aztec history. Whether the book is genuinely Aztec or not is another matter. What it felt most like to me was Cadfael with added blood magic and Aztec gods.

Acatl, the Servant of the title, is the high priest of the death god in Tenochtitlan (the place we now call Mexico City). Being concerned with the dead, he is often asked to investigate potential murders. Like Mike Carey’s hero, Felix Castor, he is sometimes able to interrogate the shades of the departed. In this particular case he’s trying to find out what happened to Eleuia, a priestess whose body vanished from her room leaving only large quantities of blood. It soon turns out that, as a priestess of the goddess of lust, Eleuia had quite a collection of admirers. One of them is doubtless responsible for her disappearance and possible death. Unfortunately the man caught with bloody hands in the otherwise empty room is a senior member of the Jaguar Knights: Actal’s brother, Neutemoc.

From there the plot quickly gets more complicated. Saying any more would be spoilery, but I will note that various mythological creatures and a handful of actual gods make an appearance as things progress. I’d list them, but the few names you have are quite tongue-twistery enough, and de Bodard does not provide a pronunciation guide (for all I know we may not even know how these words sounded).

As a murder mystery / fantasy adventure it works fairly well. The story may have gone a little too far over the top to leave room for an endless series of High Priest Acatl Mysteries. That’s the trouble with invoking too many gods too quickly. Then again, Liz Williams has managed to avoid this problem with Inspector Chen and De Bodard’s book is labeled Volume 1 of the Obsidian and Bone series, so we’ll get to see how well she does. I’d certainly read the next one. But this book isn’t the in depth study of Aztec society that I was hoping for.

The Windup Girl

Given that lots of people are hailing this book as one of the standout science fiction novels of 2009, I shouldn’t need to tell you how good it is. I had been nervous about it, because I think Bacigalupi’s short fiction is overrated. The novel, however, while set in the same world as many of his successful stories, allows much more room for nuance and for exploring the issues. I was very impressed.

So basically The Windup Girl [buy isbn=”9781597801577″] is a great book and one that I think ought to be on the Hugo ballot. As there is not a lot more to say, I’m going to pick a few small nits. Because they are spoilery, I’m putting them behind a cut.
Continue reading

Dragon in Chains

First the disclaimer: Daniel Fox and Chaz Brenchley are one and the same person. I knew this when I bought the book, and am telling you folks before I say anything else about it. You don’t want to know why I felt it necessary to say that.

As long-time readers will know, I have been a big fan of Chaz’s writing for some time. He’s also a good friend. I am biased. But I have always felt that he was searching for something. Chaz’s prose can be very beautiful, but it can also come across as prose that has “style”, and there are a whole lot of readers out there who don’t want their reading to have “style”. (There are also lots of people out there who don’t want their cheese or their beer to have flavor. They are not right either, but that’s another story.) Dragon in Chains [buy isbn=”9780345503053″] is the first Brenchley novel where I think he has it spot on. The prose is still beautiful, but you don’t notice the style unless you are looking for it. And that’s the mark of a really clever writer.

As for the plot, it is fairly standard fantasy stuff. In a not-quite-China a young emperor is fleeing for his life from a military coup. He ends up on a remote island and allies with the local people against his enemies, against his domineering mother, and against traitors in his own camp. The good news is that the island happens to be the major center for jade mining, and in this universe jade has magical power. The bad news is that there is a dragon. No, correct that, there is a DRAGON. In the hands of someone else it could be dull. Chaz manages to make it feel fresh and new.

The sequel, Jade Man’s Skin [buy isbn=”9780345503046″], is now in the shops. I’ll be buying it.

Back With Books

One of the few benefits of having spent an awful long time traveling of late has been that I have got quite a bit of reading done. I’m therefore in a position to write a bunch of book comments. As usual, these generally won’t be proper reviews, just a few personal observations. I don’t have the time to get serious about reviews right now.

Mostly, however, these will have been books that I have enjoyed reading and want to recommend to you. Those of you who were asking about sending money (which I don’t really need except in very large quantities) might note that I do get commission on books sold though The Book Depository.

P-Con, Briefly

The travel went fine, as you may have seen on Twitter. Juliet McKenna was apparently much less fortunate, but I think she has made it. I shall get the story out of her tomorrow, but she is OK.

In the absence of Jules I managed to snag an invite to dinner with Bob Nielson, Colin Harvey and Mike Shevdon. Bob took us to a favorite Italian restaurant of his. I had Pizza Diavolo, primarily because the menu promised “spacy Italian salami”. Sadly I am not tripping out as a result, but it did taste good.

I had a nice chat with Nick Harkaway in the bar, but have not got to meet the famous Mrs. H. yet as civil rights campaigners don’t get holidays and she was on the phone doing something very important that I don’t know whether I can blog about.

The big problem is the hotel Internet, which doesn’t like Windows 7 very much and doesn’t like my email at all. (Very annoying as it worked last year.) I can get a web browser to work, but I don’t yet know if I can get Skype to work. More testing is required. If I can get Skype running I’ll be calling in a report to Star Ship Sofa on Sunday afternoon.

On the way over I finished reading Kaaron Warren’s Walking the Tree, which is a fascinating book that I need to write about. I have just started N.K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and a few chapters in I am very impressed. I can’t remember being this excited about a book for a long time.

Lamda Literary Goes Live

The Lambda Literary Foundation has been busy re-vamping their web site and today they launched the shiny new, community-based version. Lamda is a mainstream literary organization, but it is friendly to genre writers (Nicola Griffith is on the Board). Consequently we get a fair slice of the launch content. Malinda Lo talks to other writers about what LGBTQ teenagers want from their reading. There’s an interview with Elizabeth Bear. And there’s me, talking about “Trans Lit” (and whether there is such a thing).

I must say that I’m very honored to be in such excellent company. I also very much enjoyed writing the article because it meant I got to have phone calls with Kate Bronstein and Jenny Boylan (squee!). If I can sell them on an article that gives me an excuse to interview Jan Morris I shall bounce with glee.

Given the past record of Lambda with trans issues I was a bit apprehensive. The editor, Antonio Gonzalez, like many gay men, knew little about trans people when we first started talking. However, unlike certain other people (hello, Bil Browning – still in the bunker refusing to admit to any mistakes, are we?), he was very willing to learn. If there are any trans people out there who are nervous about getting involved, I can say that thus far my experience of their attitude has been very positive.

Lazy Sunday Linkage

Because I’d much rather be watching the Sharks take on Team USA in the Olympic final.

– A.S. Byatt has some long thoughts about Alice that seem to me to prove that everyone brings their own biases to reading a book.

– The Finnish government continues to subsidize important cultural activities such as science fiction fanzines.

– This year the UK will be celebrating the 50th birthday of Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Report in The Guardian here, and official web site here.

– Some folks at NASA think a new propulsion system could mean a trip to Mars would take just 39 days.

Books: An Apology

Some of you may have noticed that I have not talked about books much of late (aside from the Amazon – Macmillan war). Also the “currently reading” section in the sidebar has not seen any turnover in two months. This is not a mistake, I really haven’t been reading very much of late.

Part of this is due to the Wii. I’m devoting an hour or two each day to trying to get a bit fitter. It is a slow and painful process, but in the long run it will eat much less of my time than long walks, fun though the latter are.

Part of it is also due to the iPhone. It is just too easy to do my blog reading in bed rather than read a book.

But none of that is any excuse for the fact that I have three novels sat on my desk awaiting review, or at least comment. They are all really good books as well. Yes, I’m totally swamped with other things, but I’m having trouble getting motivated to write about books. I suspect that’s partly because I’m so fed up of the endless blog discussions about what makes a “good” review. It has got to the stage where book reviewing is more difficult than picking up the social etiquette for an ancient imperial court. No matter what you say, someone is going to tut tut about how you are doing it wrong.

I guess I’ll get over it eventually, but I need to be less tired first. Or I need a break. I’ll be in London for a couple of days next week. Maybe that will help.