"The Crown of the Blood" by Gav Thorpe

"The Crown of the Blood"

by Gav Thorpe

Format: Paperback, 464 pages

Publisher: Angry Robot Books

Review copy received through the courtesy of the publisher, Angry Robot Books

He had brought his master’s Empire to the furthest reaches of the world. All had fallen before him. Now he longs for home.

But home isn’t what it was. Could it be that everything he’s fought for all those years has been a lie?

Gav Thorpe is one of the authors that enrich the vast Warhammer universe with his novels, contributing with more than 15 novels to this setting. “The Crown of the Blood” is his first step outside the Warhammer universe and the first novel in the fantasy series with the same title.

“The Crown of the Blood” is set in a world that resembles with a mix between the Roman and Middle Eastern empires, but with Gav Thorpe’s personal additions to the mixture that make his world captivating and interesting. Greater Askhor is an empire that reached its highest peak after years of war and conquest and it seems that it cannot be challenged by anything. But times are changing and so is the destiny of the empire. But not only the laical parts have a role to play in the story, the spiritual level has a strong word to say too. Myths and supernatural elements embrace each other in this dance for power. Unfortunately, although I did find the theological part one of the most interesting aspects of the novel, it is also one of the most undermined elements of “The Crown of the Blood”. Its presence is felt only occasionally, hasted most of the time, and it left me rather unsatisfied by its sparse appearances.

With scheming, politics and religious interests coming all into play Gav Thorpe sets the premises for the plot of the novel, a story that picks energy and speed with each turned page. For the first half of “The Crown of the Blood” the story will advance slowly, but once all the wheels are set into motion the pace increases to higher speeds. From that half point forward the novel inclines its balance toward the strong military elements, featuring plenty of action scenes, battles, strategies, tactics and logistics making their presence felt. Gav Thorpe shows real strength in his battle scenes, describing them with efficiency and making them very appealing and almost cinematic to me. The end of the novel is a bit rushed in my opinion, but it has an interesting twist that comes as a pleasant surprise.

The main protagonist of the novel is Ullsaard, a seasoned and successful general, who finds the latest imperial politics stagnating and who develops a new personal agenda. Ullsaard is an interesting character, but like every other character of “The Crown of the Blood” I cannot say that I was very fond or attracted by him. Gav Thorpe balances his characters perfectly in terms of individual interests and alignment, every single one having a personal goal to reach, but without making the character clearly good or bad. The fact that Gav Thrope doesn’t name a faction or character as the good or the bad one is the strong point of characterization, but the weakest point is a certain lack of depth, missing elements outside their immediate interest. This and the fact that all are men.

“The Crown of the Blood” makes the song title “It’s a Man’s World” literally accurate. The novel is overwhelmed by male characters and the female characters are just too few, underdeveloped and present only as an accessory for the men of the story. This aspect is disconcerting and I believe that rips an immense hunk from the male characters construction. The women’s presence is for the plot wise purposes solely and nothing more. It is true that patriarchy was the principle at the base of many social organizations, but for the benefit of this story, although the society is clearly a patriarchate, a stronger presence and characterization of female characters would have made “The Crown of the Blood” a more interesting and powerful story.

“The Crown of the Blood” is about intrigue and politics, but it is mostly about military discipline, physical endurance and the strength of the muscles. Gav Thorpe weaved an action driven story for the fans of military fantasy.

Book trailer - "Servant of the Underworld" by Aliette de Bodard

Aliette de Bodard’s debut novel, “Servant of the Underworld”, released earlier this year in the UK by Angry Robot is available from 26th of October in the US too. “Servant of the Underworld” is on my reading desk, close to the top of my reading pile, and soon I will have a review of Aliette de Bodard’s novel. Recently, I found on Aliette de Bodard’s blog a book trailer made by the author herself, an appetizer that gives us a small taste of the novel. Also on the auhtor’s website we can find links for those interested in reading the first three chapters of the novel.

Furthermore, the excellent The World SF Blog opens a series of posts in which they will be publishing one short story every Tuesday and the first one is Aliette de Bodard’s “Mélanie”, originally published in Realms of Fantasy magazine and which is available now on The World SF Blog too.

In the news

After publishing “Apartment 16” this year Pan Macmillan will release another novel by Adam Nevill on May 2011, “The Ritual”:

When four old university friends set off into the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle, they aim to briefly escape the problems of their lives and reconnect with one another. But Luke – still single and living a precarious existence – cannot identify with his companions any more. Lost, hungry, and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, Luke figures things couldn’t possibly get any worse.

But then they stumble across an old habitation. Ancient artefacts decorate the walls; bones are scattered upon the dry floors. The residue of old rites and pagan sacrifice for something that still exists in the forest. Something responsible for the bestial presence that follows their every step. Death doesn’t come easy among these ancient trees . . .

Until then, we can enjoy a short story by Adam Nevill published exclusively on Pan Macmillan’s website.

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This month Solaris Books published Jonathan Oliver’s anthology, “The End of the Line”, which I featured here on my blog and I hope to read soon. In October 2011 Solaris Books will release another anthology edited by Jonathan Oliver, “House of Fear”, this time centered around a haunted house. The list of authors featured on this anthology includes Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Lebbon, Sarah Pinborough, Christopher Priest, Christopher Fowler, Adam L.G. Nevill (mentioned above), Paul Meloy, Lisa Tuttle, Eric Brown, Jonathan Green, Nicholas Royle, Nina Allan, Chaz Benchley, Stephen Volk, Garry Kilworth, Weston Ochse and Rebecca Levene.

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In September 2011 Solaris Books will also release Nicholas Royle’s novel, “The Regicide”, and it sounds that this will be an interesting reading:

In September next year, I'm delighted to be able to tell you that we will be publishing the brilliant Regicide, by Nicholas Royle. I've been a fan of Nicholas for many years now, devouring books like Director's Cut and Counterparts. Royle is a fiercely intelligent writer and Regicide is a terrifying journey through a landscape of grief and loss. Those not aware of Royle's work are in for a treat. If you like China Mieville and Neil Gaiman then you're going to love this.

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Tor UK announces that Col Buchanan’s sequel of his debut fantasy novel, “Farlander”, was delivered:

We just had the delivery of the second book in Col Buchanan’s Heart of the World series, carrying on the tale of the solitary Rōshun warrior, Ash. The book is full of action, pace, new characters and some wonderfully exciting plot twists. We’ll be publishing this second novel in August next year with the paperback of Farlander publishing in March 2011.

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For this debut fantasy, Gaie Sebold’s “Babylon Steel” will have to wait a bit longer since Solaris Books plans to release it on January 2012. But “Babylon Steel” does sound intriguing:

Babylon Steel, ex-sword-for-hire, ex…other things, runs the best brothel in Scalentine; city of many portals, two moons, and a wide variety of races, were-creatures, and religions, not to mention the occasional insane warlock.

She’s not having a good week. The Vessels of Purity are protesting against brothels, women in the trade are being attacked, it’s tax time, and there’s not enough money to pay the bill. So when the mysterious Darask Fain offers her a job finding a missing girl, Babylon decides to take it. But the missing girl is not what she seems, and neither is Darask Fain. In the meantime twomoon is approaching, and more than just a few night’s takings are at risk when Babylon’s hidden past reaches out to grab her by the throat.

Dark Fiction Magazine launches on Halloween

This Halloween a new magazine will be launched, Dark Fiction Magazine, with a monthly issue of audio short stories. But here is the team that founded Dark Fiction Magazine introducing themselves:

Dark Fiction Magazine (www.darkfictionmagazine.co.uk) is pleased to announce the launch of a new service for fans of genre fiction. Beginning Oct 31st (Halloween), Dark Fiction Magazine will be launching a monthly magazine of audio short stories. This is a free service designed to promote genre short fiction to an audience of podcast and radio listeners. A cross between an audio book, an anthology and a podcast, Dark Fiction Magazine is designed to take the enjoyment of short genre fiction in a new and exciting direction.

Dark Fiction Magazine publishes at least four short stories a month: a mix of award-winning shorts and brand new stories from both established genre authors and emerging writers. Each episode will have a monthly theme and feature complementary tales from the three main genres – science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Co-founder Del Lakin-Smith said: "I love reading short stories, and with the increased uptake of mobile and portable devices this really is a growth area. But like many I find I don't have as much time as I would like to read, so I tend to listen to many podcasts on the go. The idea of replacing my podcasts with high quality, well performed audio short stories is something I find highly appealing, so Sharon and I set about making that a reality."

Sharon Ring, co-founder of Dark Fiction Magazine, said: “From technophobe to technophile in less than two years; I spend a great deal of time working online. To while away those hours, I like to listen to podcasts and drink copious amounts of strong coffee. Now, while I don’t recommend you drink as much coffee as I, I do recommend you check out what Del and I have created. We love podcasts; we love genre fiction; we built a site to bring the two together.”

The theme of Dark Fiction Magazine’s first episode is The Darkness Descends and will feature four fantastical stories:

‘Maybe Then I’ll Fade Away’ by Joseph D’Lacey (exclusive to Dark Fiction Magazine)
‘Pumpkin Night’ by Gary McMahon
‘Do You See?’ by Sarah Pinborough (awarded the 2009 British Fantasy Society Short Story Award)
‘Perhaps The Last’ by Conrad Williams

Lined up for future episodes are Pat Cadigan, Cory Doctorow, Jon Courtenay, Grimwood, Ramsey Campbell, Rob Shearman, Kim Lakin-Smith, Ian Whates, Lauren Beukes, Mark Morris, Adam Nevill, Gareth L Powell, Jeremy C Shipp, Adam Christopher, and Jennifer Williams, among others.

With a team of dedicated and passionate narrators, a central recording facility and a love of genre, Dark Fiction Magazine delivers a truly outstanding aural experience.

Dark Fiction Magazine will also be producing special editions with seasonal stories and topical issues, competitions, flash fiction episodes and novel excerpts. Each episode aims to shock and delight, to horrify and confound as Dark Fiction Magazine takes its listeners on an aural tour through the world of genre fiction.

Dark Fiction Magazine is a collaborative project, created and developed by Del Lakin-Smith and Sharon Ring. For further information, contact Del or Sharon at editorial@darkfictionmagazine.co.uk

The first episode looks truly great, Joseph D’Lacey with an original story, the excellent story of Gary McMahon, “Pumpkin Night”, which I enjoyed in the fullest in his collection “How to Make Monsters”, Sarah Pinborough who tends to become one of my favorite writers and Conrad Williams who recently won the British Fantasy Award for the best novel, with the haunting “One”. I am looking forward to listen this first episode and the ones to follow it.

Title spotlight - "The Shadow of the Soul" by Sarah Pinborough

I loved Sarah Pinborough’s “A Matter of Blood”, the first novel in her “Dog-Faced Gods” trilogy, and DI Cass Jones is one of the best characters, if not the best, I encountered in this year readings. Therefore one of my most anticipated releases of 2011 is the second novel in the “Dog-Faced Gods” series, “The Shadow of the Soul”, due to be released by Gollancz on April. Sarah Pinborough’s novel is even more appealing now, with another simple, but very efficient cover artwork, and with a synopsis that tickles my fingers in anticipation of this release.

DI Cass Jones is still dealing with the fallout of uncovering a major conspiracy within his own police station when a terrorist attack rocks London and he finds himself called on to help with the investigation. At the same time he has his own investigation to worry about: young people are dying, apparently committing suicide - and they're all linked by the phrase Chaos in the Darkness, scrawled or sent as their last message to the world.

Then he's given a note from his dead brother Christian, written before his murder: the three words - 'They took Luke' - opens up a whole new can of worms, because Cass knows immediately who They are: Mr Bright and the shadowy Network. His dead brother has set him a task from beyond the grave - to find the baby, his nephew, stolen at birth.

And as Cass tries to divide his time between all three investigations, it's not long before he discovers links, where there should not be. The mysterious Mr Bright is once again pulling his strings, and there's nothing DI Cass Jones hate more . . .

Cover art - "The Crippled God" by Steven Erikson

“Malazan Book of the Fallen” series comes to an end next year and thanks to Adam (The Wertzone) and Aidan (A Dribble of Ink) we can have a look at the cover artwork of the Bantam Press edition of Steven Erikson’s “The Crippled God”. The artist is Steve Stone and the artwork is truly fitting for the finale of this appreciated series.

"The Reapers are the Angels" by Alden Bell

"The Reapers are the Angels"

by Alden Bell

Format: Hardback, 304 pages

Publisher: Tor UK

Review copy received through the courtesy of the publisher, Tor UK

God is a slick god. Temple knows. She knows because of all the crackerjack miracles still to be seen on this ruined globe...

Older than her years and completely alone, Temple is just trying to live one day at a time in a post-apocalyptic world, where the undead roam endlessly, and the remnant of mankind who have survived, at times, seem to retain little humanity themselves.

This is the world she was born into. Temple has known nothing else. Her journey takes her to far-flung places, to people struggling to maintain some semblance of civilization – and to those who have created a new world order for themselves.

When she comes across the helpless Maury, she attempts to set one thing right, if she can just get him back to his family in Texas then maybe it will bring redemption for some of the terrible things she's done in her past. Because Temple has had to fight to survive, has done things that she's not proud of and, along the road, she’s made enemies.

Now one vengeful man is determined that, in a world gone mad, killing her is the one thing that makes sense…

There are themes in literature that tend to become a trend, but after an initial impact they start to be used in excess and follow a rather stereotypical path. Zombies are such a trend and lately I feel that I had quite enough of this theme, but when Alden Bell’s debut novel, “The Reapers are the Angels”, came into my attention I was intrigued by the synopsis of the book.

Before I knew it I went from the synopsis to the first pages of the novel and from there I set myself comfortably because I was sucked into the story almost instantly. “The Reapers are the Angels” is set sometimes into the future, a couple of decades after an apocalyptic event that turned the world into a barren place roamed by zombies. The respective event remains a mystery, but as the Alden Bell’s novel will show it has no relevance whatsoever, especially since the young Temple, the main character, is born in this world and has any notion of the world that existed before the catastrophe that ended it.

The fact that Alden Bell doesn’t focus his story on the zombie populated world and that Temple knows only this world in which she was born works perfectly for “The Reapers are the Angels”. And because Temple is a child of this new world she is perfectly adapted for surviving in it, the zombies only a constant but not much of an inconvenience for the young woman. This aspect of the novel is accentuated by the encounters that Temple has with people that survived the change suffered by the world, they remember and regret the past society and the things they enjoyed the most in it while Temple finds beauty in this bleak and deserted world.

More so, although Temple is fifteen years old nothing in her demeanor will betray that she is a teenager. The setting hardly permitted her to enjoy the innocence of childhood and the interests of teenagers are limited by the perspectives she faces. Her personal history contributes fully on Temple’s early maturation, events from her past turning her into a haunted but very complex character. The reader will encounter recollections of two very important events in Temple’s development almost constantly, but both of them are revealed late within the story by Alden Bell, giving them power from their mystery and delivering the small pieces of information needed to keep the reader interested in them.

The presence of the supporting cast is scarce, the majority of them throwing a new light on the main character and giving her new dimensions in which to develop. Emerging from the minor characters are Maury, a man who Temple helps and through whom she sees a way to find personal peace and redemption, and Moses Todd, the antagonist who will prove to have many similitudes with Temple. These characters make a journey through the devastated world, but more than that a journey through the humanity. Because “The Reapers are the Angels” is a story about humanity, the way that humans do not necessarily change because of an apocalyptic event, they continue to represent the greatest danger and predator, but as Temple does they will continue to find beauty and a reason for surviving in any circumstances.

The synopsis worked caught me, but it can be deceiving too. “The Reapers are the Angels” doesn’t have much of a plot or action, not that I was in particular search for them. It is a journey, a story of a remarkable character battling personal demons and seeking restitution. It is the story of changes in the world, with every human aspect taken into account. The novel is a study of character on a powerful setting, matched by a wonderful and flowing prose that takes the reader into a pleasant reading.

Lately, I run away from zombie fiction, but “The Reapers are the Angels” didn’t prove to be a reason to keep running away. The zombie element is hardly the central part, just another cause for the world turning into a bleak setting. Instead, Alden Bell’s “The Reapers are the Angels” is a story of life, tragic in places, but engaging and beautifully written. It is a confirmation of the beauty of literature.