On Writing - Researching fairy tales & legends by Graham Joyce

MFB is really proud to have a guest blog from Graham Joyce today.  It coincides with the publication of his new novel: Some Kind of Fairy Tale. 

About the new book:

It is Christmas afternoon and Peter Martin gets an unexpected phonecall from his parents, asking him to come round. It pulls him away from his wife and children and into a bewildering mystery.

He arrives at his parents house and discovers that they have a visitor. His sister Tara. Not so unusual you might think, this is Christmas after all, a time when families get together. But twenty years ago Tara took a walk into the woods and never came back and as the years have gone by with no word from her the family have, unspoken, assumed that she was dead. Now she's back, tired, dirty, dishevelled, but happy and full of stories about twenty years spent travelling the world, an epic odyssey taken on a whim.

But her stories don't quite hang together and once she has cleaned herself up and got some sleep it becomes apparent that the intervening years have been very kind to Tara. She really does look no different from the young women who walked out the door twenty years ago. Peter's parents are just delighted to have their little girl back, but Peter and his best friend Richie, Tara's one time boyfriend, are not so sure. Tara seems happy enough but there is something about her. A haunted, otherworldly quality. Some would say it's as if she's off with the fairies. And as the months go by Peter begins to suspect that the woods around their homes are not finished with Tara and his family...

The first story I researched for Some Kind Of Fairy Tale was that of Thomas the Rhymer who, according to lore, was a Berwickshire poet and a prophet of the thirteenth century.  He is thought to be the prototype of the legendary Tam Lin, also a poet.  The ballads associated with Thomas and Tam tell how they either kissed or slept with the Queen of Elfland and either rode with her or were otherwise transported to Fairyland.

There are many versions, but the abductees always pay a price for this dalliance.  A key moment that confirms their fate is when they drink or eat the food of the fairies.  They are gifted with poetry but also with a terrible kind of insight or power of prophecy that puts them beyond humanity.   

Rip Van Winkle - art by Arthur Rackham

There is a strong tradition in other folk tales that time moves differently in Fairyland, and that this is part of its enchantment.  The inspiration for this was not the  Rip Van Winkle story but many Welsh and Irish folk tales that assert this feature of Fairyland, and when I came to investigate this supernatural lapse of time in Fairyland I also found it upheld in Lapp, Slavonic and German stories.

I did initially think that these traditions were largely Celtic but I was way wrong, as the above shows.   But before I found that out I was immersed in the Irish stories of Tir Na Nog.  It was an otherworld  - not an afterlife – a place of eternal youth and beauty.  Music, heroism and all pleasurable pursuits came together in a single place.  Oisin the hero is taken by invitation – you get there across the sea by horse – but when he wants to go home he is devastated to find that 300 years has gone by.

While all this was swimming around in my head I happened to go to Norway and I was in a cabin with some musicians and a woman stood up to sing an old folk song that made the hairs stand up on the back of my arm.  When I asked her what it was she told me it was the story of LittleKirsty, who went into the forest and was abducted by the Mountain King who appears on a white horse.  Same story, genders reversed.  The fairies give her a drink laced with “bewildering corn”.  I found there to be countless Scandinavian versions – tales and songs – of abduction by the Fair Folk. 

Readers familiar with my writing will know that I’m not going to give the story over to the supernatural – or not all of it, anyway – and that there has to be a swing back to the natural rational objection, and that the tension between credulity and rational scepticism is a condition I like to work with.  So I started to research the most recent cases of claims of Fairy abduction – bearing in mind that this tradition has been usurped in modern times by the claims of UFO abductees.  I only had to go back a century to find an Irish court case in which an extended family were tried with the murder of Bridget Cleary, whom they believed to have spent time with the fairies and to have come under their spell.  The transcripts of the trial are quite shocking and I quote some of them in my book.  But this is comparatively recent – it all happened when my Grandmother was alive.

As you can see, the antecedent forms make a rich and tangled undergrowth.  In the end I only used a fraction of my research.  The use of epigrams at the head of each chapter was a device I used – in the end – to allude to the rich literary and folkloric traditions around this very subject without letting the material overwhelm the novel and steal energy and vitality from my own story. The background is massive.  The research of this subject can pull you in, like Fairyland itself, and consume half your life.  So be warned! 

Wolfsbane & Mistletoe; edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L P Kelner

The holiday season can bring out the beast in anyone - literally! Fifteen werewolf tales from an all-star line up.



Charlaine Harris, Keri Arthur and Patricia Briggs bring you a Christmas present to remember!


We all know the holiday season can bring out the beast in anyone - but it's especially hard if you're a lycanthrope! Gathered here together is a veritable feast of fears and tears: fifteen of the scariest, saddest, funniest werewolf tales, by an outstanding pack of authors, best read by the light of the full moon, and with a silver bullet close at hand.


WOLFSBANE AND MISTLETOE, the perfect antidote to Christmas mawkishness!

Thanks so much to our good friend Jamie "Wordweaver" Ambrose for reading and reviewing Wolfsbane & Mistletoe and for her sterling review.

***

When this book arrived from the kind folks at MFB, I have to admit I was fairly sceptical. I mean, c’mon: a collection of 15 werewolf short stories is one thing, but one with a Christmas theme seemed a bit, well, mismatched, somehow.

Until, that is, I got started on them.

From the first page of the first tale, ‘Gift Wrap’ by Charlaine Harris, whose Southern Vampire Mysteries have been turned into TV’s True Blood, I was hooked – and delighted. Here are stories with comic turns, dark imaginings, new takes on old myths, and genuinely haunting themes, and all of them wonderfully and imaginatively well-written by authors such as Patricia Biggs, Keri Arthur and Kat Richardson. They feature good weres and not-so-nice weres, by-accident weres and on-purpose weres, successfully integrated weres and desperate loner weres, and each has a holiday-related tale to tell (or should that be tail to wag?).

Richardson’s ‘The Werewolf Before Christmas’ is one of the cleverest things I’ve read in years, effortlessly weaving global legends and folklore into a seamless and unexpected twist on ‘a visit from Saint Nicholas’. If nothing else in this book appeals to you, please, please give this one a try.

Harris’s ‘Gift Wrap’, set in the bayous of Louisiana, features her well-known Sookie Stackhouse character, whose matter-of-fact, Southern dialog makes the perfect narrative voice for a story that wanders in and out of magic and ‘real life’ as effortlessly as stepping from one room into another.

Being a rather timid soul, I was a bit apprehensive by the title of Alan Gordon’s ‘Fresh Meat’, not to mention the first line, which mentions newly slaughtered beef carcasses ‘…so fresh they were mooing yesterday’ (ick!). But by the end of it, I was firmly on the side of Sam Lehrmann and his telepathic pack – just as I became a big fan of Patricia Biggs’ ‘The Star of David’ werewolves, whose decency (or agenda) wasn’t immediately apparent.

Obviously, I enjoyed some of these stories more than others, and although there are a few I found a bit ‘much’ on the gratuitous bloodlust front, each one is well worth reading – not something I can often say about anthologies. And many are certainly worth reading over and over, which, given the season, is something I’m just about to do.

So kudos, Ms Harris and Ms Kelner, and thank you MFB, so much, for introducing us. Wolksbane and Mistletoe is a great collection of imaginative writing, one that’s had the effect of making an overworked and slightly jaded fantasy reader sniff the air, hear a far-off howl – and be thrilled by it again.

A conversation with MD Lachlan

In the wake of Viking Week I managed to catch up with MD Lachlan, author of Wolfsangel and Fenrir, and dragged him away from his current work in progress for a quick chat.

MFB: Hi Mark, and welcome to MFB. So what came to you first – the lore or the story?

MDL: Not sure. I was always interested in Viking mythology from an early age and completely immersed in fantasy through Dungeons and Dragons. I guess it must have been the lore, as I only thought of the story as I was going along.

MFB: You have a series in mind when you started writing Wolfsangel? If not, when did the switch happen, and what was the catalyst?

MDL: Wolfsangel was originally conceived as a stand alone novel, set in WWII and flashing back to the Viking era. Publishers loved the novel but couldn't see how to market it. Simon Spanton at Gollancz suggested turning it into a series. I found this daunting at first but, when I started writing, the story sort of wrote itself.

MFB: Did the story change much from your original idea as you wrote it? Are you a planner or seat-of-the-pants writer?

MDL: Seat of pants by choice but, more and more, a planner by necessity. I'm writing two novels at the moment, one under the MD Lachlan pen name and one under a new pen name - Mark Alder. This means I can't afford blind alleys and false starts. The plan at least points the direction you're going in. The novel still has to evolve organically, though, and I do depart from plans in the writing. But the plan means there's at least a path to come back to. What you can't do in a plan - or at least I can't - is surprise yourself. That moment when you realise something about one of your characters or the real reason X did Y is one of the most rewarding things about writing and, for me, it evolves spontaneously.


MFB: I thought you captured the action sequences very well, and in a way that suggested more than just paper and ink research. Am I right?

MDL: I've done various sorts of martial arts since I was a kid and I've also been a fencer for about 10 years. I think this is why I put a lot of nerves into my fight sequences. I've noticed that the standard of fencing on a club night is much higher than in a competition - at least at my level. People freeze up, they feel self conscious, movement becomes less free. Also, particularly when I did Thai Boxing or Judo, the feeling of going into a competition or full contact grading is one of extreme nerves. And, to a point, when you come together with two lengths of sharp steel, anyone can beat anyone. I've seen the British number one at Epee hit by a relative beginner. OK, 999 times out of 1000, the British number one gets the hit. Once he doesn't. In real sword fighting that could be the day he dies!

MFB: Fenrir has a wonderfully dark and savage feel to it, and an appreciable bodycount. Were there any ideas you had that your publishers thought were too dark, or did you have free reign to go as far as you wanted to?

MDL: No one's ever tried to rein things in. The early middle ages were a savage time. The story reflects that! I do sometimes wonder if I lose some fantasy fans with the darkness of the series but, for every one you lose, I guess you attract one. I've been surprised people call it gory. I really do think I hold back on the gore. That said, it's a werewolf story. I wanted to make it truly scary and disturbing.

MFB: How would you describe Fenrir to someone who’s not familiar with either Norse lore or Wolfsangel?

MDL: A medieval 24 with a bottom-kicking werewolf. A story that begins at the VIking siege of Paris in 885. It's a historical, mythic fantasy where incarnations of Norse gods battle it out on earth, some to survive, some to fulfil a terrible bargain with fate. It also deals with the collision of Christianity and Paganism. It features some very scary gods and the toughest character I've ever written - the crippled monk Jehan.

MFB: Do you write in silence and/or isolation, or to music? If the latter, what sort?

MDL: I can't write or read to music. However, tunes do arise in my head while I'm writing - it's normally a sign things are going well. For Wolfsangel it was Psychic TV's The Full Pack. Fenrir was directly inspired by Kate Bush's Hounds of Love. I wanted that propulsive beat in my story.


MFB: What’s the coolest thing you discovered while doing your research?

MDL: Things that I find cool aren't found cool by everyone! That Vikings had turf saddles? That at a monastery in the Swiss alps they had sung one song for 350 years! I think that the VIkings besieged Paris was fairly cool!

MFB: What can we look forward to in the next instalment, and when is it likely to be out?

MDL: The next one is called Lord of Slaughter and it's out in 2012 - around June. It's set in Constantinople and concerns the beginnings of the Byzantine Emperor's Viking guard - the Varangian guard. The repeating myth cycle of the first two books ends here! It also features my first fairly straightforwardly evil character. A sample line from the beginning: 'Under a dead moon, on a field of the dead, a wolf moved unseen beneath the rain's great shadow'. That's pretty much the tone of it!

MFB: I like it! I think we've kept you long enough - back to work!

Fenrir by MD Lachlan

The Vikings are laying siege to Paris. As the houses on the banks of the Seine burn a debate rages in the Cathedral on the walled island of the city proper. The situation is hopeless. The Vikings want the Count’s sister, in return they will spare the rest of the city.

Can the Count really have ambitions to be Emperor of the Franks if he doesn’t do everything he can to save his people? Can he call himself a man if he doesn’t do everything he can to save his sister? His conscience demands one thing, the demands of state another. The Count and the church are relying on the living saint, the blind and crippled Jehan of St Germain, to enlist the aid of God and resolve the situation for them.

But the Vikings have their own gods. And outside their camp a terrifying brother and sister, priests of Odin, have their own agenda. An agenda of darkness and madness. And in the shadows a wolfman lurks.

I picked up Fenrir with a self inflicted disadvantage, namely that I hadn't read Wolfsangel, which this follows on from. Liz read & reviewed Wolfsangel back in May last year and I remember her raving about it. So from that perspective I was quite keen to see what all the fuss was about, but at the same time I wanted to see how Fenrir fared as a standalone given that it wasn't a 'direct' follow on. Fenrir is set decades after the events of Wolfsangel, and Odin, Loki and the wolf known as Fenrir are about re-fight their battle of wits and wills through the lives of three mortals.

The story opens with Paris under siege by an army of Northmen under the banner of Sigfrid, who's seeking a young woman named by his Odin- priests, a woman who holds the key to the prophesied return of Odin to the world. A pragmatist, he's only interested in the prophecy for what kind of power it can earn him, unlike the priests who know the truth behind it. But neither he nor the priest realise that their prize is under their noses, captured along with the living saint venerated by the Franks. The saint is given to the Odin priests, and something dark is awoken amidst the blood and fear of the ancient and terrifying rites they perform.

The answer to my question is yes, you can read it as a standalone, but it does slow things down, particularly in the first third as you try and get the cast of characters straight in your head. There are references which only someone's who's read Wolfsangel will pick up on, but you can soldier on through it. There's a lot going on, and the point of view switches back and forth between various characters,which really forces you to concentrate on what you're reading.

Lachlan teases the information out as each character's story is told, and weaves these threads into a complex knot that he slowly tightens as the wolf closes in on its prey. The characterisation is good, which is has to be given the cast of characters whose heads we get to look inside, and the action sequences are impressive, eloquently capturing the fear and chaos of combat. Despite it being a story heavily involved with ancient prophesies, gods and werewolves, it all takes place across real locations and maintains a very real, fantasy- free feel to it, a juxtaposition that I feel contributes a lot to the overall atmosphere and feel of the book.

Fenrir is a dark and complex story to get into, but it rewards those who persist with a rich tale seething with myth, deception and ready violence.

Gollancz announces SF Gateway - Press Release

Gollancz, the SF and Fantasy imprint of the Orion Publishing Group, announces the launch of the world’s largest digital SFF library, the SF Gateway, which will make thousands of out-of-print titles by classic genre authors available as eBooks.

Building on the remarkable success of Gollancz’s Masterworks series, the SF Gateway will launch this Autumn with more than a thousand titles by close to a hundred authors.

It will build to 3,000 titles by the end of 2012, and 5,000 or more by 2014. Gollancz’s Digital Publisher Darren Nash, who joined the company in September 2010 to spearhead the project said, “The Masterworks series has been extraordinarily successful in republishing one or two key titles by a wide range of authors, but most of those authors had long careers in which they wrote dozens of novels which had fallen out of print. It seemed to us that eBooks would offer the ideal way to make them available again. This realization was the starting point for the SF Gateway.” Wherever possible, the SF Gateway will offer the complete backlist of the authors included.

The SF Gateway will be closely integrated with the recently announced new online edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, which provides an independent and definitive reference source of information on the authors and books included. Direct links between the Encyclopedia and the Gateway will provide easy access to eBook editions, for sale through all major online retailers.

The Gateway site will also act as a major community hub and social network for SF readers across the world, allowing them to interact with each other and recommend titles and authors. The site is planned to include forums, blogs, regular promotions, and is envisaged to become the natural home on the net for anyone with an interest in classic SFF.

Authors featured in the launch include such names as Marion Zimmer Bradley, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, Alice B. Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr), Robert Silverberg, Kate Wilhelm and Connie Willis. A full list of authors so far under contract is appended to this announcement; negotiations are in an advanced state for many more.

The SF Gateway was conceived by Orion Deputy CEO and Publisher Malcolm Edwards, who commented: “It’s clear that publishers need to show that they can respond to the challenges and opportunities of the digital revolution imaginatively, particularly when it comes to backlist. The SF Gateway is just such a response, creating what we hope will become a destination website which will promote the books and authors it features in an active way. We hope it will not only be a success in its own right, but that it will provide a model for future developments in backlist publishing.”

Built to the latest standards of HTML5 and CSS3, the SF Gateway site will use responsive web design to ensure a rewarding user experience across a range of mobile and desktop platforms and operating systems. Both the SF Gateway and the previously announced Encyclopedia of Science Fiction are being developed by STEEL, a London-based full service digital agency with over 15 years experience, whose clients include AOL, BBC Worldwide, Debenhams, FT.com, Greggs and TalkTalk.

The project has been praised by authors for connecting new generations of readers with classic stories they may not, until now, have been able to enjoy.

British Science Fiction Award-winner Alastair Reynolds said: “When I first started reading SF seriously, as a teenager growing up in Wales, one of the first walls I hit was the realisation that many classic and influential works of the field were either out of print or so hard to obtain that they may as well have been. SF is a forward-looking genre but its past has always been as fascinating as its future, and for that reason the SF Gateway is an exciting and groundbreaking venture, which should prove an enormous asset to the field.”

Double Arthur C. Clarke Award-winner Pat Cadigan added: “This is exactly what I've been hoping for now that the digital book is becoming more widespread. I have always said that the eBook will not be the death of the physical book – the eBook will save so many wonderful books from being lost. We have to remember that what we read is the book – what we read it on, whether ink and paper or pixels on a screen, is just the interface. I'm honestly thrilled about this new project and delighted to be on the list.”

The SF Gateway will be officially launched by Gollancz in September as part of the celebrations to mark the 50anniversary of its SF list.

For more information, please go to http://www.sfgateway.com/, where updates on the project will also appear.

SF Gateway is on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SFGateway and on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/pages/SF-Gateway/171262786268228

SF GATEWAY AUTHORS

as at 20July 2011

Poul Anderson
Barrington J. Bayley
Gregory Benford
Michael Bishop
James P. Blaylock
James Blish
Marion Zimmer Bradley
John Brosnan
Fredric Brown
John Brunner
Algis Budrys
Kenneth Bulmer
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Pat Cadigan
John W. Campbell, Jr
Terry Carr
Arthur C. Clarke
Hal Clement

D.G. Compton
Michael G. Coney
Edmund Cooper
Richard Cowper
John Crowley
L. Sprague de Camp
Samuel R. Delany
Philip K. Dick
Gordon R. Dickson
Christopher Evans
Philip Jose Farmer
John Russell Fearn
Alan Dean Foster
Mary Gentle
Mark S. Geston
Joseph L. Green
Colin Greenland
Nicola Griffith
Joe Haldeman
Harry Harrison
Frank Herbert
Philip E. High
Robert Holdstock
Cecelia Holland
Robert E. Howard
Raymond F. Jones
Leigh Kennedy
Garry Kilworth
Damon Knight
Henry Kuttner
Tanith Lee
Murray Leinster

H.P. Lovecraft
Katherine MacLean
Barry N. Malzberg
Phillip Mann
David I. Masson
C.L. Moore
Ward Moore
Edgar Pangborn
Frederik Pohl
Rachel Pollack
Tim Powers
Mack Reynolds
Keith Roberts
Eric Frank Russell
Josephine Saxton
Bob Shaw
Robert Silverberg
Clifford D. Simak
Dan Simmons
John Sladek
Cordwainer Smith

E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith
Norman Spinrad
Olaf Stapledon
Theodore Sturgeon
William Tenn
Sheri S. Tepper
James Tiptree, Jr
E.C. Tubb
George Turner
Harry Turtledove
Jack Vance
Ian Watson
Ted White
Kate Wilhelm
Connie Willis
Robert Charles Wilson
Gene Wolfe

***

I am genuinely excited about this.  There are so many great authors on this expansive list, all of whom I'd like to try and read, but don't have space for on my shelves, so they make complete sense to be part of the e-book revolution.  Suddenly I love my Kindle even more than before!

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

They say Black Dow's killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the throne of the North up a hill of skulls. The King of the Union, ever a jealous neighbour, is not about to stand smiling by while he claws his way any higher. The orders have been given and the armies are toiling through the northern mud. Thousands of men are converging on a forgotten ring of stones, on a worthless hill, in an unimportant valley, and they've brought a lot of sharpened metal with them..

The first thing that struck me about the hardback copy was how good it felt in the hand with its lovely matt dust cover. It's chunky book, which has become a bit of a hallmark for young Mr Abercrombie, and weighs in at a respectable 498 pages.

The Heroes tracks the build up, execution and aftermath over the 3 days that a vicious battle rages in the North as the punitive force of the Union seeks to bring the army of the amoral and ruthless Black Dow to battle in an attempt to curtail his rising influence. The story is told from the viewpoints of 3 of the principal characters, the narratives weaving around each other to create a very convincing and visceral overview of the battle.

The first is the careworn Curden Craw, veteran of almost as many battles as Black Dow himself, but burdened with a streak of honesty and a notion of honour that few of his peers share. He's finding that his regrets at the hard life he chose all those years ago are growing by the day, eroding the beliefs that have kept him alive and sane so long.

The second is Calder, a self obsessed prince of the North whose desire to grab power is almost as strong as his disdain for the idea of having to work for it. He'll lie, cheat, steal and kill to get what he wants, and not necessarily in that order.

The third, and my favourite, is Bremer dan Gorst, the disgraced former champion.A master swordsman and lethally efficient killer, Bremer is tortured by the ignominy of his dismissal and is seeking redemption or death in the maelstrom of battle - and not even he is sure which he would prefer. Socially awkward and scorned by his peers, he seethes with bitterness and his narrative is littered with his caustic, unspoken thoughts.

There's precious little for the characters to sing about in the world Abercrombie has made for them- it's a brutal, unforgiving place, bleak and scarred by the wars of men and the legacy of the ancient feud of an order of wizards that's barely hinted at in this book- the resident archmage and one of his principal opponents do feature, but magic gets about as much screentime here as it did in Peter Jackson's siege of Helm's Deep.

What we get instead is political scheming, betrayal, axes smashing into faces with lethal effect, infected wounds, and the wounded screaming and pissing themselves. Death doesn't come easily, but when it does it's brutal and messy. And that's precisely half of what makes The Heroes so cool. The other half is the way Abercrombie brings his characters to life, rounding them out layer by later against the backdrop of a well crafted and immersive setting, making The Heroes stand out as much more than just a gorefest. Admittedly, the fact that he does lavish attention on secondary characters does threaten to clutter things up now and then, particularly when it comes to talking about the warriors of the north and their pedigrees, but it's a sporadic thing rather than a constant, and as such doesn't hinder the otherwise fast pace of the story.

If you like your fantasy hardboiled and gritty, then The Heroes is a wargasm waiting to happen. If you're looking for unicorns and Tom Bombadil, move along.

And no, I don't care for unicorns.

White Cat by Holly Black - A Mini Review

UK Cover 

Cassel is cursed. Cursed by the memory of the fourteen year old girl he murdered. Life at school is a constant trial. Life at home even worse. No-one at home is ever going to forget that Cassel is a killer. No-one at home is ever going to forget that he isn't a magic worker.
Cassel's family are one of the big five crime families in America. Ever since magic was prohibited in 1929 magic workers have been driven underground and into crime. And while people still need their touch, their curses, their magical killings, their transformations, times have been hard. His granddad has been driven to drink, his mother is in prison and his brothers detest him as the only one of their family who can't do magic.
But there is a secret at the centre of Cassel's family and he's about to inherit it. It's terrifying and that's the truth.
The White Cat is a stunning novel of a world changed by magic. In this world only 1% of the population can work magic but they have the power of nightmares.

The extraordinary new adult fantasy of magic in our world and the price we pay for it by the author of THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES.

I just quickly had to share some thoughts about White Cat by Holly Black with you.

When the proof first came in last year, I dropped everything and motored through the first hundred pages, reading at top speed and not really taking in what I was reading.  I realised I was being really dumb, doing this.  Spoiling the book for myself by reading too fast, being to greedy, instead of enjoying myself.

I set it aside and subsequently read it over several sittings in mass paperback form, which was so great, a few weeks ago.

Cassel is a great character - far more innocent than he would like to think and portray to the world.  He thinks he knows what the score is all the time and that he doesn't get to be conned by any cons.  In the end it is those closest to him who has been working him.

As realisation dawns, Cassel really grows rapidly as a character and he tries to do the best he can in a  crappy situation.  He comes through on the other side, a bit battered and scarred but knowing better and probably a bit more world-wise than before.

Holly Black is such a great writer - like thousands of others really enjoyed her Tithe novels and subsequently adored the Spiderwick books. (Mine are all signed and I even have a glow in the dark Spiderwick poster!)  In White Cat you can tell how much Ms. Black has matured as she comes across as at ease in her craft as both a writer and storyteller - because one does not necessarily mean you are the other.

There is just enough information about the world-building in White Cat to make readers realise that this is not quite our world, yet there are obvious similarities.  Again, this is something I liked.  Each bit of information she gave us about the laws and how workers are exploited / portrayed in the media, the lore and stories about them, gets added to this scrap book in your mind and slowly you build up this image of the world Cassel lives in.  It's maybe not the nicest place in the world and I can't help but feel it has this Depression Era feel to it, in my mind at least.  With colours in sepia and shadows darker than dark.  I am very keen to see what happens in The Curse Workers Book 2: Red Gloves out later this year.

White Cat is being marketed as an adult book (with a release later this year from Orion's YA imprint Indigo) with a teen protagonist.

US Cover 

The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries (Omnibus 1) by Charlaine Harris

Synopsis


Aurora Teagarden loves reading about famous murderers - until she finds herself investigating a real-life killing spree!

The first four novels in the Aurora Teagarden mysteries series. Lawrenceton, Georgia, may be a growing suburb of Atlanta, but it's still a small town at heart. Librarian Aurora Teagarden - Roe - grew up there, and she reckons she knows everything about her fellow townsfolk, including which ones share her interest in the darker side of human nature.

This is omnibus edition contains four novels: Real Murders (book 1); A Bone to Pick (book 2); Three Bedrooms, One Corpse (book 3 ); The Julius House (book 4)

While on my Christmas break I looked around my shelves for something I'd be dying to read but hadn't found the time. This massive omnibus has been on my shelves, staring at me, for ages so I thought I'd give it a try. I'm a big fan of Charlaine Harris and of course the Sookie Stackhouse series. A couple of years ago I also read the Lily Bard books which I not only enjoyed but thought tackled a difficult subject with sensitivity. I'd tried to get hold of the Teagarden books but with no luck so was pleased to see the release of the omnibus. With the second one on the way I thought I should get on and review the first. These books were originally published in the early to mid-nineties so are a little tricky to find in there original form.

Aurora Teagarden is a librarian in Lawrenceton, unmarried and living alone. Although she tries not to let this get her down she's reminded by everyone she knows in the town she's lived in her whole life. In Real Murders she discovers a dead body in the toilet of a club she attends. The club get together each month and discuss real-life murders which makes Aurora (or Roe as she's known) a bit of an expert in police investigations and clues. She finds herself thrown out of her comfy rut into a world of danger and suspicion. What I love about Roe is that she doesn't pretend to take everything in her stride. She's horrified by the things that are happening and often runs back to her house to recover. It's this very, "realness," that makes the author's main characters so appealing.

What I love about Charlaine Harris's writing is that you instantly feel as if you're talking to an old friend. With Lily, Sookie and now Aurora I instantly slip in beside them when I open the page and watch events unfold. The way that incidental, everyday happenings are present alongside the main events make me love her books even more. I want to know what's she's having for lunch, who she meets while running errands and her thoughts on co-workers. This, alongside Aurora's troubled love life, are as important to me as the murder solving. A word of caution though - If you're looking for a taut who-dunnit with thrills and spills then these are not the books for you. However, if you like an insight into a Southern, gossipy small town with murders aplenty then give it a go. By the time we get to The Julius House, Roe's life has changed substantially but I still found myself willing her along to succeed. I'll definitely be getting the second omnibus and am extremely grateful that these can finally be purchased.

Horns by Joe Hill

Ignatius Martin Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with one hell of a hangover, a raging headache... and a pair of horns growing from his temples.

Horns begins as Ig surfaces after one hell of a bender and, bleary eyed, sees the titular horns as he staggers into the toilet. He’s still struggling to decide whether they’re as real as they feel or if it’s a ghost from the night’s excesses when he unwittingly discovers another aspect of whatever it is happened to him – anyone who sees them feels compelled to spill their darkest fears, sins, or desires to him, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. It’s a reaction that soon drives him away from people, even his family out of the fear of what darkness lies beneath their smiles.

I found Ig to be immediately and immensely likeable, and nothing in the subsequent 400 odd pages changed that first impression, quite the opposite. At the point we meet him, there isn’t much to write home about in Ig’s life. Haunted by the accusations of the brutal murder of his girlfriend, Ig’s been going through the motions, building a tenuous normalcy into his life and not really succeeding. It’s a house of cards though, and swiftly smashed aside by the insidious effect of the horns. As dark secrets and even more unpleasant truths are uncovered Joe takes us back into Ig’s life, teasing the pieces of the puzzle together before taking us back onto the home straight and delivering an ending that’s as poignant and satisfying as it is horrific and bloody.

Horns is populated by well drawn characters, especially Ig and Lee – the insight into the latter’s mind in the build up to the day their fates were sealed is brilliantly done. I was tempted to describe Horns as eccentric, but it’s far too well plotted and realised for that.

It’s a greedy, miss-your-stop kind of read, a journey that takes in the intensity of a first love, the fallibility of God, bitter betrayal, murder, lust and revenge.. and is my favourite book of the year by a country mile. Utterly lovely. Read it.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Synopsis:

In a world where people born with an exceptional skill, known as a Grace, are feared and exploited, Katsa carries the burden of a skill even she despises: the Grace of killing. She lives under the command of her Uncle Randa, King of the Middluns, and is expected to carry out his dirty work, punnishing and torturing anyone who displeases him. Breaking arms and cutting off fingers are her stock-in-trade. Finding life under his rule increasingly unbearable Katsa forms an underground Council, whose purpose is to combat the destructive behaviour of the seven kings - after all, the Middluns is only one of the Seven Kingdoms, each of them ruled by their own king and his personal agenda for power. When the Council hears that the King of Liend's father has been kidnapped Katsa investigates . . . and stumbles across a mystery. Who would want to kidnap him, and why? And who was the extraordinary Graced fighter who challenged her fighting skills, for the first time, as she and the Council rushed the old man to saftey? Something dark and deadly is rising in the north and creeping across the continent, and behind it all lurks the shadowy figure of a one-eyed king . . .

My review is: buy the book, read it, love it.

Didn't think I'd get away with it.  Dammit.

I'm late to the party, as usual.  Practically the whole world has read and reviewed Graceling by Kristin Cashore and it is for that reason that I was so wary of it.  I was scared of the fuss and the buzz. 

And it's died down a bit now and perhaps I get to perhaps kick it off again?

I didn't think I would like Graceling as much as I did Fire, the companion novel which I read first.  Call me crazy.  And I don't like it as much as I did Fire.  Fire was an excercise of awesome.  Graceling was the practice run towards awesome. It is a pretty damn good book and I utterly loved Katsa and her Graced fighter, Po.  I loved the story line, the mystery at its heart and the overall feel of the story.  There is nothing wrong with the story or the writing, I just think that Fire is the superior one of the two novels and I suspect that the third novel, Bitterblue will again be the better one of all three.  Because I think that Ms. Cashore will just keep getting better and better with each book.  

The thing is, you can see how the author has progressed as writer.  First came Graceling, then came Fire.  This girl (Ms. Cashore) has talent, heaps and heaps of it.  Graceling is a strong graceful debut novel with memorable characters, interesting concepts and very good world building. Fire, more so.

But this review is about Graceling.  Actually, the review is about Katsa who is the Graceling and who is the main character of the novel.  She is pretty much the scariest heroine conceived, what with her Killing grace.  But she is also tremendously conflicted about it and spends a lot of time making sure she is careful with her grace.  I loved how her grace became less of an issue once she meets the mysterious Po and discovers that he is a graced fighter.  I would love to see a physical fight in real time between them.  I suspect it may be something out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Enter the Dragon and a John Woo movie. 

There are various fight scenes and various forms of martial combat in the novel but what the author does, instead of writing page after page after page of tedious sequences, she gives these amazing little snippets and bursts of imagery that completely satisfies.  It is one of the many things I appreciate about her writing skill.

I'd say that if you are an aspiring writer, to read both Graceling and Fire to see what the author does with voice and characterisation.  When you sit in "how to get published" seminars and an agent and publisher can't quanitfy what exactly they mean by "voice" and "I'll know it when I see it", they are talking about the talent Ms. Cashore has in abundance.  It sucks you into the narrative so that you reluctantly have to tear yourself away from it back to the real world on occasion.

Some sections of Graceling does however require some suspension of disbelief, more than others.  But you know, just go with it because at the end of the day, you are reading about a character who has tremendous innate skill and is basically one of the X-Men of her world.

I'm not sorry I've waited this long to read Graceling.  It was a pure treat, written by an author who has great skill and you can just tell she had a great time writing it too.  The narrative flows well, the characters and minor characters are fun to hang around with and at the end of the novel, I think a bit of Katsa's gutsiness may have rubbed off on me.  *swings her axe*

Graceling is published here in the UK by Gollancz.

Tome of the Undergates : Sam Sykes

Adventurer.

The name never uttered without scorn, they are long loathed for their knowledge of nothing beyond violence and greed and their utter disregard for human life, least of all their own.

And Lenk, a young man with a sword in his hand and a voice in his head, counts them as his closest company.

Charged with retrieving the Tome of the Undergates, a written key to a world long forgotten by mankind and home to creatures determined to return, Lenk is sent after ancient evangelical demons, psychotic warrior women and abominations lost to myth. Against them, he has but two weapons: a piece of steel and five companions as eager to kill each other as they are to help him.

At its heart, the premise of Tome is the classic quest novel- a group of heroes banding together to seek out a lost treasure, danger at every turn and failure spelling the rise of an unstoppable evil which will destroy them and doom the world.

And then Sam got hold of it and pulled, stretched and twisted it like some sort of literary playdough, squeezing out characters that aren’t at first people you’d really like to know. They’re adventurers, and in the world of Tome, that makes them one step below something that a hobo’s scraped off his shoe.

It opens with pirates having boarded the ship that the characters employer has chartered, and while it’s always good to have a bit of action upfront, you really are dropped into the middle of things. It felt a bit like I’d missed the first 10 minutes of a movie I’d been waiting to see. The characters are launched into play with little ado and it takes a bit of wrangling keep track of who’s who and who’s doing what as the battle rages on. All of which isn’t helped by the main character having some kind of schizophrenic episode and the pirates’ grandiose manner of speaking.

But here’s the thing. Keep at it, and by the time the nigh invulnerable sea-demons replace the pirates, things are inching into place.

It’s an ongoing process all the way, but the characters endless griping and in-fighting does evolve into something less distracting as the group dynamic becomes more recognisable. Initial wobbles aside, Sam’s characterisation is good, and while the teasing glimpses of the characters respective pasts that he drops in amidst the bickering and battles never explain how such a disparate group got together, there’s a sense of each having come from a dark, desperate time in their life.

It took me until about halfway through to start getting along with Tome as well as I’d hoped I would, but I’m glad I stuck with it. There are niggles that remain, sure – there’s still some fat that could have been trimmed from the manuscript, the combat could have been tightened up, along with some of the more over the top language, but Sam’s vision holds it together. That he was having buckets of fun putting his characters through the wringer of his world comes through clearly, and that spark is notoriously infectious.

Loud, brash and crazier than sack of weasels on angel dust, Tome is a shot across the bows of the fantasy genre and I think we have lots to look forward to from Mr Sykes in the coming years.

The Thief-Taker's Apprentice - Stephen Deas

Berren has lived in the city all his life. He has made his way as a thief, paying a little of what he earns to the Fagin like master of their band. But there is a twist to this tale of a thief.
One day Berren goes to watch an execution of three thieves. He watches as the thief-taker takes his reward and decides to try and steal the prize. He fails. The young thief is taken. But the thief-taker spots something in Berren. And the boy reminds him of someone as well. Berren becomes his apprentice.. and is introduced to a world of shadows, deceit and corruption behind the streets he thought he knew.

We meet the young Berren as he worms his way through the crowd of spectators who have gathered to watch an execution, helping himself to a few purses en route. It’s there that he spies the man who brought the prisoners to justice, and sees the fat purse given to him, a purse containing a veritable fortune.

Berren finds his attention flitting between the spectacle of the executions and the bulging purse, and somehow he finds himself following the thief-taker.. It’s the start to sometimes rocky relationship, one that ranges across the tangled streets, knifeblade alleys and teeming squares of Deephaven as Master Sy begins to reveal hitherto unknown facets of the city Berren's known all his life.

Berren’s a genuinely interesting character; he’s a thieving, skittish boy, his cynicism the product of a life on the streets. It’s what he’s grown up with, and siding with the thieftaker doesn’t mean he’s going to change his ways overnight. It’s no easy transition either; conspiracies aside, some of the members of the gang Berren has to walk away from aren’t all too happy with his new found apprenticeship, and find very pointy ways of making their displeasure known. It's a thread that insinuates itself into various aspects of the story and Berren's development, and is deftly handled.

His character develops organically as the story unfolds, shaped by the events he finds himself caught up in and the grim realities that are an integral part of his new role. It’s subtly done, and the moment when he passes beyond the threshold of his childhood is both poignant and bittersweet.

What I liked about the storyline, aside from the bumpy relationship between Sy and Berren, is that it didn’t stray too far into the realms of the fantastic. Yes, a magical heritage is alluded to, but the meat and gravy of the story is the investigation into a smuggling ring, carried out in a gritty, stab-you-in-the-kidneys environment that makes the scattered allusions of something fantastical glitter that much brighter; I get the feeling Stephen is laying of the groundworks for more of a spectacle in the next instalment, but this subtlety is well suited to the story at this point.

Taken with Stephen’s sharp dialogue and the rich setting, this is a cracking fantasy that deserves to be widely read and enjoyed.

By Midnight by Mia James

Synopsis


April Dunne is not impressed.


She's had to move from Edinburgh to Highgate, London, with her parents. She's left her friends - and her entire life - behind. She has to start at a new school and, worst of all, now she's stuck in a creepy old dump of a house which doesn't even have proper mobile phone reception. Ravenwood, her new school, is a prestigious academy for gifted (financially or academically) students - and the only place her parents could find her a place, in the middle of term, in the middle of London, on incredibly short notice. So she's stuck with the super-rich, and the super-smart . . . and trying to fit in is when the rest of the students seem to be more glamorous, smarter, or more talented than she is, is more than tough. It's intimidating and isolating, even when she finds a friend in the conspiracy-theorist Caro Jackson - and perhaps finds something more than friendship in the gorgeous, mysterious Gabriel Swift.

But there's more going on at Ravenwood than meets the eye. Practical jokes on new students are normal, but when Gabriel saves her from . . . something . . . . in the Highgate Cemetery, and then she discovers that a murder took place, just yards away from where she had been standing, April has to wonder if something more sinister is going on.

. . . and whether or not she's going to live through it . . .


When I initially heard about By Midnight I was a little cynical. I mean, is there really anything left that hasn't already been written about teenagers and vampires? Well, as it happens, yes there is. Not only that but I found I was pleased to be found wrong, ecstatic in fact. Much like Liz's review of Dark Goddess I also had to take a few days out before writing this so I didn't gush too much.

April Dunne has been relocated to London and is hating it, her new school is elitist and unfriendly. Alongside this her parents are arguing constantly and April can barely get a reception on her phone. A murder of a famous rock star just around the corner from April's house means she has to be home straight from school which is a disaster for her social life. Fortunately April ignores good advice and soon finds herself exploring the cemetery at night. She discovers a dead fox and blood - too much blood to belong to one fox - only to be saved by the uncommunicative but gorgeous Gabriel from school.


Things improve for April as she befriends conspiracy nut Caro who fills her in on her theories behind Ravenwood. Students have been disappearing but no-one seems too worried about finding out about it. April's dad, a journalist, is also investigating something weird - vampires. When April takes some photos at a party she discovers that some of the most popular kids in school don't show up on film. Then, another murder takes place and April finds herself being questioned by police and more involved than she wants.

So, what's so good about By Midnight? First off, the setting of Highgate in London. I love Highgate cemetery, have been on the tour and often mull over if I can afford to be buried there (I can't - bah). The real-life mystery of the Highgate vampire is explained and this forms the basis of the story. As a result the whole book is dripping in Gothic horror; from the architecture to the parties. Even the autumnal weather gives the By Midnight a kind of shadowy, murky glamour. I also loved the characters who were all "real" teenagers. Parties have alcohol and people have sex - there's none of this skirting around the issues pretending that they don't happen. The most perfect part of it for me was that it encapsulates the whole confusion of being a teenager. April remembers when she got on with her parents and when they got on with each other. Now they hiss at each other in corners whilst April's life is a closed book to most of the adults who surround her. She feels alone and confused but unable to turn to anyone except her friends to find the answers.

The pace of By Midnight is perfect too, just the right amount of action and reflection and April is instantly likeable and relateable. I found myself whizzing my way through, desperate to find out what it was that made April different and why she was being held in suspicion by her peers at Ravenwood. There's some wonderful dialogue and one-liners throughout. This little quote gives you an idea of where April and By Midnight differs from other vampire stories.


'You're certainly different, April Dunne.' He chuckled, holding his side.


'What's so funny?' said April, still annoyed.

'Well, most people confronted by a vampire for the first time scream or beg for their lives. You, on the other hand, stab the vampire and then start telling him off.'

Now I've finished I'm left drumming my fingers wondering when I can get more from April and Ravenwood.

Dead In The Family by Charlaine Harris

*** Review Contains Slight Spoilers ***

Synopsis

If you think your family relationships are complicated, think again: you haven't seen anything like the ones in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie Stackhouse is dealing with a whole host of family problems, ranging from her own kin (a non-human fairy and a telepathic second cousin) demanding a place in her life, to her lover Eric's vampire sire, an ancient being, who arrives with Eric's 'brother' in tow at a most inopportune moment. And Sookie's tracking down a distant relation of her ailing neighbour (and ex), Vampire Bill Compton.

In addition to the multitude of family issues complicating her life, the werewolf pack of Shreveport has asked Sookie for a special favour, and since Sookie is an obliging young woman, she agrees. But this favour for the wolves has dire results for Sookie, who is still recovering from the trauma of her abduction during the Fairy War.

It's all about family . . .

I love Charlaine Harris - there, I've said it. I'm only missing the Aurora Teagarden stories before I have the full set. To say I was excited about reading Dead In The Family is a massive understatement. After wrenching it from Liz's hands I started reading on the train on the way home. The book opens finding Sookie dealing with the awful aftermath of the fae war. I'm glad that the reader gets to make this journey with Sookie rather than joining her months afterwards. It becomes apparent from the first few chapters that things are changing in Bon Temps. Amelia returns home leaving Sookie alone in her house. Well, almost alone as Eric is firmly by her side helping her recover. Four weeks later and Sookie is sunbathing again and has regained some of her sparkle.

Sookie, as generous as ever, makes the slightly unwise decision to let the Shreveport pack use her land. True to her character she is happy to help but finds that sometimes this can end up causing more trouble than it's worth. This opens a fascinating storyline that touches on the politics that Sookie has got herself tied up in over the years.

I felt that Dead in the Family is almost a return to a more traditional Sookie Stackhouse novel. With the closure of the gate between Bon Temps and the fae world and Amelia's absence the plot is able to concentrate on the actions of shifters, weres and vampires with greater effect. Yes, there are still some fae present but it reads like a natural progression. After all, fans wouldn't expect Claude to just disappear and with Sookie's heritage this part of the storyline flows. I loved the reintroduction of the importance of Vampire Bill's database and the way that, despite her misgivings, Sookie just can't stop getting involved in his (after)life.

I only have one slight misgiving which is the new creation of Eric's maker Ocella. I'm not going to say who this new vampire is as I don't want to spoil it. The character is brilliantly deadly and twisted but I'm not sure about the historical basis for him. It works for Elvis/Buba as this character is harmless but I'm not sure how Ocella's "child" will be received. I felt a little uncomfortable but then maybe that's just me. I'm interested to see how other readers feel. Sookie shares the readers discomfort I think, so from that point of view I think that Charlaine Harris is showing that not everyone should be brought back from the brink of death.

However, there's far more to celebrate than worry about in this latest offering. Apart from everything I've already mentioned I was happy to see the FBI back again and some interesting Bill back-story and extra trouble for Sookie in the form of a body on her land. I enjoyed Dead In The Family enormously, it had everything I could ask for from Sookie and a few tied-up loose ends that I wasn't expecting.

One more thing - as lovely as the UK cover is I adore the illustrations on the US covers so I'm adding it here in all its glory!

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Synopsis

Set in a world of stunningly beautiful, exceptionally dangerous monsters, Fire is one of the most dangerous monsters of all - a human one. Marked out by her vivid red hair, she's more than attractive. Fire is mesmerising.

But with this extraordinary beauty comes influence and power. People who are susceptible to her appeal will do anything for her attention, and for her affection. They will turn away from their families, their work, and their duties for her. They will forget their responsibilities to please her . . . and worse, crush nations, neglect kingdoms and abuse their power.

Aware of her power, and afraid of it, Fire lives in a corner of the world away from people, and away from temptation. Until the day comes when she is needed - a day when, for her king, she has to stand against not only his enemies, but also against herself . . .

I completely missed the Graceling phenomena. I knew of it, I knew of Ms. Cashore and thought that I'd take my own time to catch up on her writing.

And I'm glad I did. As much as I love and enjoy part of a trend, helping grow an author's reputation for her / his work, I like not being rushed, not running blindly with the crowd.

I got two copies of Fire given to me - one by Gollancz UK and one by my friend Sarwat Chadda (Devil's Kiss author) upon his return from BEA in the US. I loved the UK copy so much that it's sitting pristinely on my shelf, next to Graceling (equally pristine) whereas the US copy of Fire has been read and re-read.

Author Kristen Cashore has an incredible talent for characterisation and world creation. Rich in detail and political intrigue, Fire's world feels real very quickly. We learn that the young King Nash hangs precariously onto his throne whilst rebel lords plot to unseat him. War is coming and the royal family are keen to do anything it takes to get the upper hand to ensure that the throne remains stable.

Fire (our main character) is breathtakingly beautiful. She's a freak, a monster. Something so wildly exotic and beautiful that men (and women) lose themselves around her if they don't protect themselves against her mentally and physically. She evokes tempestuous emotions in people unprepared to meet her face to face. Some fall in love immediately, others want to kill and destroy her on the spot. Her monstrous nature acts as a mirror, reflecting hatred, violence and malice that others feel towards her when they see her.

It's a compliment to the author's skill where she manages to pull off Fire as a believable and likeable character. We could so easily not have felt any kind of empathy with a creature so almost unbelievable. And yet we do - her humanity is shown in her compassion to others, her deep care for her friends and even for those who mean to harm her. She strives to be better than her father, who had almost destroyed the kingdom. She fights to be herself and not her father's child but unfortunately for her, these things are linked.

Fire is the only human monster left. Her father, also a monster, had been killed years ago when he walked into the cage of one of his favourite caged feline monsters who promptly tore him apart. He had held a position in the previous king's court as advisor and together with the king drove the kingdom to the edge of ruin. it was now up to the King's current heir and family to protect the kingdom against invaders and war. Fire feels that she should somehow help and she does so by aligning herself with the new King Nash and his family.

The royal family held a bit surprise for me. Here was a group of people utterly dedicated to one another and the kingdom. They pulled together as a team, working hard to make Nash the king he could and should be. I was surprised by this. Too often you read the political machinations of brothers and sisters behind the backs of their siblings and it becomes a bit dull, because it's expected. By giving us a family focussed on fixing what their father and Fire's father had almost destroyed we have a formidable force to be reckoned with. And it works really well within the context of the story.

Fire has to find a way to use her powers without betraying herself, by becoming her father and manipulating others around her against their will. She has to find an inner strength and realise that her battles don't necessarily have to be fought alone single handedly. She has strong friends to stand by her side and at the end of day she has to learn that she can't do everything herself and that she has to rely on their skills and friendship as much as they need to rely on hers.

It's a beautifully written novel by a very talented author. Fire is fresh and exciting, something utterly different that will surprise you no matter what your preconceived ideas. I just wish I had more time at my disposal as I'd like to read it again. Very soon. For a third time.

Gollancz Party

Dear readers and fellow bloggers from the sphere, Mark and I got to attend the very swanky Gollancz party this year. We were joined by Ana from The Booksmugglers and Gav from Nextread. Needless to say there was a lot of squealing and "ohmygodwhatamIgoingtowear" before the time because you know, the nearer we got to the date of the party, realisation dawned: a truckload of authors are going to be there whom we are all slavish fans of. (And we all had to look purty). Then we realised they will be joined by editors, reviewers, publicity people, journalists, other publishers and their media teams. It was going to be HUGE.

And it was - there were hundreds of people. The venue was the Oktober Galleries in Bloomsbury which were a series of rooms and a lovely outdoors garden. We mingled our way around and to be honest, the amount of people I recognised by name alone was staggering. The worst part was being unable to talk to all of them.

A definite highlight for me was catching up with James Lovegrove whose novel, Age of Ra, taught me not to turn my nose up at military sci fi! I owe James a long email and he in turn owes us a blogpost (hurrah!).

Further along we got to meet up with the luscious Alex Bell who seems set on outshining everyone because not only is she tall, very pretty and sexy, she has the dress-sense of fashionista. Check out this amazing shirt! Isn't it gorgeous? And angel wings, as we all know are very topical right now.

We got to hang around with one of my favourite people of all time - Saxon Bullock - who looked extremely suave in a velvet jacket and goatee. Saxon has this infectious air and a personality that hinges on the hysterical that has everyone falling around laughing. I think I may need eyecream for all the laughing wrinkles I got on Thursday night.

It would be bad of me not to mention the talented Ms. Suzanne McLeod who looked rock 'n roll. We didn't get a chance to chat loads, but I got to whisper some confidences to her very briefly before she shot off home. When we saw the tiny group of authors arrive I also spotted this tall chap in a purple shirt who looked a bit out, a little bit like Leonardo Di Caprio if Leonardo was actually six foot tall and had broad shoulders. I asked Alex who he was and it turns out he's a new author signed by Gollancz, called Sam Sykes. I've failed to find a website for Sykes. We did however corner him at the party - yes, me, Mark, Ana and Gav - to have him tell us about his upcoming book and people, all I can say is...2010 is going to be an awesome year.

Ana and I are particularly excited about the upcoming books from Gollancz - we are going to see authors like Nailini Singh and Caitlin Kittredge come to the UK as part of their urban fantasy / paranormal romance lines they are establishing. This, needless to say, had us fanning ourselves in utter joy.

We got to spend some time with the girls from Orbit: Sam, Rose, Coreen and Ana - who, all by the way, can take Paris by storm with their fashion sense! We were enticed about Blue Blood by Melissa de la Cruz and I for one cannot WAIT to read this series. Rose and I also discovered a shared passion for Kelley Armstrong, Dean from Supernatural and a variety of other things I'm not allowed to mention on here because it could be held against us in a court of law.

I got to chat to John Berlyne who runs the Zeno Agency - I also review for John over at http://www.sfrevu.com/ where he is the UK editor. They've had some amazing authors sign with them lately and sold books most recently to both Gollancz and Angry Robot. *sparkly eyes* More pretty books to read!

I also - yay! - got to chat with another legendary John - John Jarrold of the John Jarrold Literary Agency. It was brief only but after chatting to John on and off for about 2 years now, it was fantastic to actually get to meet him in person.

Ana and Gav met the amazing Robert Holdstock for the first time. A nicer, kinder and gentlemanly man is hard to find. I still do fan-girl squealing about him though - my autograph I got from him at the Gemmell Award is still a favourite treasure.

We got to meet some of the girls over at Voyager too - we've all been twittering incessantly for ages now so it was good to be able to put faces to Twitter names. Also a shoutout to the tallest guy at the party, 6ft 6inches Niall Harrison who is not only a cool guy but also a new friend.

Mark managed to get hold of Joe Abercrombie for part of the evening at the after party and coerced him into posing for a picture or two. I think Mark and Joe are a very dangerous combination and I'm a bit relieved that they managed to break away from one another. I had visions of some kind of creative collaboration in which more bloodshed and zombies would abound than you could shake your boomstick at.

My one regret of the evening is not being able to talk to MD Lachlan, a new author signed by Gollancz. His book is called Wolfsangel and we've met up and chatted on Twitter a few times. I really wanted to congratulate him in person but sadly, not this time around.

There is loads more to say about the party but to be honest, I'm still recovering. It was an amazing evening and we all had a tremendous time. Thank you to Jon and everyone at Gollancz for inviting us around. We all had a fantastic time!

The First Law trilogy: The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged & Last Argument Of Kings - Joe Abercrombie

My original idea was to do three separate reviews for the trilogy, looking at each book separately.

However, I found myself unable to stop after The Blade Itself; I had kind of suspected that this would be the case by the end of Chapter 1, to be honest. I had opened TBI without any expectations or pre-conceived ideas about what to expect and man, Joe’s gritty and hopelessly addictive style was a revelation, as was the seemingly effortless way that he deals with the various threads and points of view, keeping them tight and lean.

The story evolves as it progresses, building a cast of characters that are sympathetic, likeable and complex, without ever threatening to bog things down with excruciating lumps of exposition. The trilogy covers little over a year in the life of the characters, and crams in two different wars, a (almost) heroic quest to the Edge of the World, murder, intrigue, betrayal, ungainly sex, cannibals, feuding mages from the dawn of civilisation and the occasional exploding henchman.

Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie, say he can write!

Some people might feel the trilogy is a bit light on the world building side of things, but any perceived shortcomings in this respect are more than compensated for by the fluid storytelling and irresistible pace. It’s a thoroughly entertaining body of work and deserves a prominent place on anyone’s bookshelf.

As this is one of our Summer Reads List books I have to give it 9 / 10 stars as it is just that blindingy good a read.