A bit more silence

I have to apologize for the prolonged silence, but the business trip went longer with almost a week than expected. As a result of this long trip the amount of work needed to be done grew too and I am afraid that for a week or two I have to extend my silence.

Book trailer - "The Faceless" by Simon Bestwick & on the road again

The list of titles due to be released in 2012 and I wish to read is already growing to an extensive length. One of such titles is Simon Bestwick’s “The Faceless”, his second novel which will be published by Solaris Books on February 2012. I am not very familiar with Simon Bestwick’s works, I read only two of his short stories, but both of them were very much on my liking and therefore I was interested in learning more about “The Faceless” as soon as I heard of its release. All the information found from that point forward fueled my desire to read Simon Bestwick’s novel, which comes with a very interesting premise, a speaking for itself cover artwork and not in the least a recently made teaser for “The Faceless”, discovered through the courtesy of Mark West. I am not much of a fan for book trailers, they tend to leave me cold most of the times, but there are plenty of them which are very good and work their charm, although always in the companionship of more information about the respective title. Such is the case with Simon Bestwick’s “The Faceless” teaser, a trailer that manages to set the mood for the novel in little over 30 seconds.

In the Lanchashire town of Kempforth, people are vanishing. Mist hangs heavy in the streets, and in those mists moved the masked figures the local kids called the Spindly Men. When two-year-old Roseanne Trevor disappears, Detective Chief Inspector Renwick vows to stop at nothing until she finds her. In Manchester, terrifying visions summon TV pyschic Allen Cowell and his sister Vera back to the town they swore they'd left forever. And local historian Anna Mason pieces together a history of cruelty and exploitation almost beyond belief, born out of the horrors of war - while in the decaying corridors and lightless rooms of a long-abandoned hospital above town, something terrible is waiting for them all.

P.S. My work requires my presence on yet another abroad business trip, once again in the hospitable Poland. So, again my blog will be silent for a short while, but I do hope to see you all next week.

A new novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

In the recent years the one writer who had the fastest and most tremendous impact on my reading experience is Carlos Ruiz Zafón. “The Shadow of the Wind” was the best novel I read in a long period at the time I finished it and it still remains unbeaten on that position so far. “The Angel’s Game” didn’t rise at the same level as “The Shadow of the Wind” for me, but it still is a wonderful book. This year I caught up with all of Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s novels, “Marina” a beautiful and touching novel that lies the foundation for the later “The Shadow of the Wind”, and the catching “The Prince of Mist”, “The Midnight Palace” and “The Watcher in the Shadows”, part of “The Mist Trilogy”. Just in time for the new Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s novel, “El Prisionero del Cielo” (The Prisoner of Heaven, I believe this is the proper translation, but it remains to be seen), due to be released on 17th of November by Planeta. Not much information can be found about “El Prisionero del Cielo” yet, except that the novel is set in Barcelona of the 40s and 50s, features the amazing Cemetery of the Forgotten Books and is the third novel in the series of “The Cemetery of the Forgotten Books”, together with “The Shadow of the Wind”, “The Angel’s Game” and a fourth novel that will complete a scheduled tetralogy. I will be back with more information and the cover of “El Prisionero del Cielo”, the novel that became one of my top reading priorities, when they will be available.

Cover art - "Dead Harvest" & "The Wrong Goodbye" by Chris F. Holm

Some of my fondest memories of the school years are about crime and mystery novels (fantasy and horror novels were a very rare species in those particular times in Romania), small paperbacks that were conspiratorially hidden beneath the school books and read while I was supposed to do my homework. Those hard-boiled detectives in search of truth and justice surpassed any mathematical problem that needed its solution or any obligatory reading that had to be made. The reasons for my attraction for those wonderful novels were very simple in the beginning, the covers of those little treasures and the magical Humphrey Bogart in “The Maltese Falcon”. It is an excellent time for nostalgia now, because Angry Robot Books pulled out of its sleeves two amazing covers for the next year releases of Chris F. Holm’s “Dead Harvest” (March 2012) and “The Wrong Goodbye” (November 2012). Two book covers in the classic style that made my school years even better than they were. Actually, as I look more at the Chris F. Holm’s book covers, made by the graphic design studio, Amazing15, more I think that it would be an excellent thing to see more such covers on the market. Not in an excess, but a few more. Thank you, Angry Robot Books, for bringing back some wonderful memories!

Michael Haulică's "Povestiri Fantastice" available in electonic format

Another of the my favorites Romanian speculative fiction writers is Michael Haulică, whose recently released collection of stories, “Povestiri Fantastice” (Fantastic Stories), I finished this summer, but which still waits to be reviewed. Like Marian Coman, whose first appearance on the English market I featured recently, Michael Haulică had a couple of presence on the English marker in the form of a few translated stories, but also had stories translated in French, Danish, Hungarian, Croatian, Bulgarian and Czech. One such appearance is “LAPINS”, a story that can be found online, at the World SF blog. “Povestiri Fantastice” (Fantastic Stories) is available now in electronic format on the UK, US and German Amazon, in the original language for the moment, but it still is one step forward. However, I do hope that there would be other steps to be made and one in particular, the translation of “Povestiri Fantastice” in English. It will be a wonderful thing to happen to Michael Haulică and the Romanian speculative fiction. Until then, for a tiny taste of Michael Haulică’s works, here is the table of contents of “Povestiri Fantastice”, the volume available in electronic format and structured in three sections, reflecting the works of Michael Haulică from his debut until present:

Introduction: Radu Pavel Gheo – “O lume bolnavă” (A sick world)

MADIA MANGALENA (1999) – volume also available on Amazon (UK, US, DE & FR), in Romanian too, but in physical format
“Lipstick” (Lipstick)
“SIHADA” (LAPINS – the story available on the World SF blog)
“Noi, cei cu ochii arşi” (We, those with burned eyes)
“O portocala pe masa” (An orange on the table)
“Jocurile Olimpice ale Războiului” (The Olympic Games of War)
“Mireasma tîrzie a morţii” (The late fragrance of death)
“Sinuciderea din strada Mierlei” (The suicide from Blackbird Street)
“Mufişti, gofreni şi noduri” (Jacks, crimpers and nodes)
“Jucător pe viaţă, indexat la Paladini” (Player for life, indexed by Paladins)
“Cornelia cu sînii goi” (Cornelia with the bare breasts)
“Colecționarul” (The collector)
“Paznic de gînd” (Thought guardian)
“Viermele Perfecţiunii” (The worm of perfection)
“Neverly Hills” (Neverly Hills)
“Motocentaurii dorm singuri” (The motocentaurs sleep alone)
“Madia Mangalena” (Madia Mangalena)
“Hanni, femeia lui Mano” (Hanni, Mano’s woman)
“Full Contact” (Full Contact)
“Singurătatea ploii violete” (The loneliness of the purple rain)
“Ucideţi binefăcătorul!” (Kill the benefactor!)
“Căinţa” (The repentance)
“Ultimul mandate” (The last mandate)

DESPRE SINGURĂTATE ŞI ÎNGERI (2001): (About loneliness and angels)
“În hol” (In the hallway)
“Anotimpul de praf” (The season of dust)
“Lebăda” (The swan)
“Gramatica deasupra oraşului” (The grammar above the city)
“Acela care” (That who)
“Copiii liliacului” (The bat’s children)
“Neguţătorul de vise” (The dreams’ merchant)

AŞTEPTÎND-O PE SARA (2005): (Waiting for Sara)
“Full Contact 2. Nabokov” (Full Contact 2. Nabokov)
“Mordelia” (Mordelia)
“Te iubesc pe 32 de biţi sau O noapte cu Brad Pitt” (I love you on 32 bits or A night with Brad Pitt)
“Pasaj de trecere” (Crossing passage)

TRANSFER: (Transfer)
“Vremea zăpuşelii” (The time of stuffiness)
“Microtexte” (Microtexts)

2011 British Fantasy Awards winners

Yesterday, in a ceremony held during Fantasycon, at Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton the winners of the 2011 British Fantasy Awards have been announced:

BEST NOVEL (AUGUST DERLETH FANTASY AWARD): “Demon Dance” by Sam Stone (The House of Murky Depths)

BEST NOVELLA: “Humpty’s Bones” by Simon Clark (Telos)

BEST SHORT STORY: “Fool’s Gold” by Sam Stone (“The Bitten Word” edited by Ian Whates/ NewCon Press)

BEST COLLECTION: “Full Dark, No Stars” by Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton)

BEST ANTHOLOGY: “Back from the Dead: The Legacy of the Pan Book of Horror Stories” edited by Johnny Mains (Noose & Gibbet)

BEST NON-FICTION: “Altered Visions: The Art of Vincent Chong” (Telos)

BEST ARTIST: Vincent Chong

BEST SMALL PRESS: Telos Publishing

BEST MAGAZINE/PERIODICAL: “Black Static” (Andy Cox (ed.)/TTA Press)

BEST COMIC/GRAPHIC NOVEL: “At the Mountains of Madness” by Ian Culbard (Self Made Hero)

BEST FILM: Inception (Christopher Nolan/Syncopy Films)

BEST TELEVISION: Sherlock (Steven Moffat/BBC)

KARL EDWARD WAGNER SPECIAL AWARD: Terry Pratchett

SYDNEY J. BOUNDS AWARD FOR BEST NEWCOMER: Robert Jackson Bennett, for “Mr. Shivers” (Orbit Books)

Well, Sam Stone won both best novel and short story categories, but I am not sure that I have any desire to read her works. Looking over the information of her novels doesn’t stir any desire in me to pick them up soon. Especially since vampires are a very good reason to drive me away from a novel at the moment. Stephen King won the best collection and although I enjoyed a lot Tim Lebbon’s “Last Exit for the Lost” I am happy for the King of Horror too. For old times’ sake! The best non-fiction and best artist have in common the wonderful work of Vincent Chong, the worthy winner for the 5th time in the row of the Best Artist British Fantasy Award. Telos Publishing is the least known small press to me, but this is a good reason for me to check on their activity a bit more thorough. It is a delight to see “Black Static” as the best magazine, since each of their issues is excellent and brings me great joy. I am also 5 issues closer to complete the entire collection of “Black Static”. As for the best newcomer, I really should read my copy of Robert Jackson Bennett’s “Mr Shivers”. It is still on my bookshelves although in the mean time Robert Jackson Bennett released another novel, “The Company Man”, and prepares for the imminent “The Troupe”.

These are only a few personal thoughts on this year’s British Fantasy Awards, but hopefully next year I will be able to be more prepared and go through a more detailed review of the winners’ list.

Congratulations to all the winners!

"The Edinburgh Dead" by Brian Ruckley

"The Edinburgh Dead"

by Brian Ruckley

Publisher: Orbit Books

Review copy received through the courtesy of the publisher, Orbit Books

Edinburgh 1828: In the starkly-lit operating theatres of the city, grisly experiments are being carried out on corpses in the name of medical science. But elsewhere, there are those experimenting with more sinister forces.

Amongst the crowded, sprawling tenements of the labyrinthine Old Town, a body is found, its neck torn to pieces. Charged with investigating the murder is Adam Quire, Officer of the Edinburgh Police. The trail will lead him into the deepest reaches of the city’s criminal underclass, and to the highest echelons of the filthy rich.

Soon Quire will discover that a darkness is crawling through this city of enlightenment – and no one is safe from its corruption.

There are occasional times when I am not very willing to look upon the bookshelves of my library. Those are the times when the time seems so short and the number of titles I wish to read so overwhelming. Authors who I love and I wish to catch up with all their works, series started which need to be finished, new writers awaiting patiently to be discovered are all reasons for a mild personal depression on those passing moments. Brian Ruckley’s “Godless World” is not a part of any of these particular points of pressure on my reading habit. He was one of the new writers who got a chance for a reading early after his first debut, his series is long since finished and he is one of the authors I love and know almost all his works. More so, Brian Ruckley’s newest novel, “The Edinburgh Dead”, stepped over the queue of waiting books and reached my reading table after a little over a month since its publication.

“The Edinburgh Dead” was born, as we can find out from the interview at the end of the novel, from Brian Ruckley’s attraction for the Edinburgh’s history and in particular from the events of the Burke and Hare murders. Brian Ruckley takes some of the events of 1828, keeps some of the historical facts alive, shifts others into fantasy to suit the needs of his plot and crafts a story that is part historiography part pseudohistory, part fact part fiction, but captivating in its entire form. Almost everything there is to know about Edinburgh of 1828 can be found in the pages of “The Edinburgh Dead”. Brian Ruckley treats, more or less, each aspect of the changing period in the life of Edinburgh within his story. The geographical, military, cultural, diplomatic, economic and environmental components are used to breathe life into Edinburgh of 1828, every detail, small or big, put in its proper place to make the setting as vivid as possible. I believe that the amount of documentation made by Brian Ruckley must be extensive, but to say that will sound overly technical. And it would not be fair, since the author softens the cold, harsh facts of history with his words and descriptions.

The core of the story is a murder investigation, but which in time turns into surprising paths and transforms itself step by step. The road taken by the investigation moves naturally and logically, there are no moments when the plot missteps or overreaches its course. And although those responsible are revealed early on the march towards the final conflict offers plenty of twists, a couple of action scenes and nothing to be taken for granted. Leading the investigation is Adam Quire, a determined sergeant in the Edinburgh Police with a tumultuous past. Brian Ruckley puts an equal effort in building the main character as in bringing the Edinburgh of 19th century to life and these efforts make Adam Quire a very strong character. Approaching Adam Quire from both his physical and mental angles Brian Ruckley makes him an entirely human character, with as much faults as qualities and a personal way of tackling life. What sets Adam Quire apart from other character will be the natural emotion of fear, felt by Adam but not as often as it should by other characters in fiction.

“The Edinburgh Dead” is not entirely without fault. We move within the confines of a time and of a profession, but we stumble upon an overly used cliché. As a matter of fact, Hollywood used the stereotype of the suspended police officer trying to solve a crime so much that it stings my eye at its faintest appearance. In Brian Ruckley’s novel, at a certain point, it would have been understandable, but it is not sustained sufficiently by the story and crumbles on itself. Also, Adam Quire is a powerful character and Brian Ruckley takes a look into his past, an interesting and excellent executed look. But it is the only one and in my opinion it would have worked if it had been included within the story instead of taking an actual journey into the past too. I did enjoy this journey into Adam’s past though, solitary as it is, and I will set this issue aside. However, Adam Quire also overshadows every other character of the cast and this is a bit unfortunate. There are a few minor characters that show promise, but their development is unfulfilled. As for the negative characters, I am certain that they would have benefited more from a grander growth of their personality. But overall, these issues have a small impact on the entire structure of “The Edinburgh Dead” and they do not make it shake or break at any moment.

It is always nice to see authors stepping over the boundaries of genres, changing theme and gear. Brian Ruckley steps on a different path with “The Edinburgh Dead”, but he does it with remarkable and magnetic style and before it I’ll take my hat off and bow to.