dark matter is a ghost story with a reality twist from michelle paver

Subtitled “A Ghost Story”, Michelle Paver’s Dark Matter is a clever book that takes an historical story and adds a supernatural twist.

Set in 1937, Dark Matter followers a group of young Englishmen who attempt to winter in the arctic circle for purposes of scientific research.
Based on the Oxford University Arctic Expedition of 1935, the book attempts to be as authentic as possible when it comes to describing everything from the type of “chaps” who went on these types of adventures to the technical details of their equipment, and even what they did to entertain themselves.
Paver includes reference material at the end of the book, highlighting that some of the concepts which you may have thought creative licence really occurred.
What she doesn’t know is true or not is the central theme of the haunting – although she does point out in the support material that many of the men who went on the real expedition mentioned an uneasiness about the area of the base camp.
What makes Dark Matter a truly gothic horror story is the creeping sensation of depression, being watched and the possibility of going mad in the long, long night of winter in the Arctic.
Jack is not the same as his companions on the trip; he’s poor despite his education, he’s got a bit of a death wish and hates his life. When the opportunity for this expedition arrives he’s oddly reluctant to take it and escape his horribly boring life.
But agreeing to go, Jack decides he’s going to do his utmost to squeeze every ounce of experience from the trip.
Is it his obsession to survive and succeed over his richer teammates or his innate depression that leads to the terrible things that Jack actually experiences in the ice?
It’s only Paver’s skill that allows the reader to make up their own mind about what really happened up there in the dark.
Dark Matters is an interesting read; while it might not make you scared of the dark, it will certainly make you think.
And should you ever find yourself lost in the snow somewhere and remember reading this book, it will make you shiver.

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver is published by Orion Books and is available from good book stores and online.

will avery cates finally come out on top in jeff somers' the terminal state? well, kind of ...

The undying, nasty, bemused assassin Avery Cates returns in Jeff Somers’ The Terminal State for the fourth time.

Will Avery finally manage to kill himself off – via alcoholism, his death wish, ex-friends now enemies or the general travesty which is his world? Or, is he actually already dead but hasn’t yet worked it out?
These are crucial questions for Avery Cates fans – of which there are many – who have been captivated by Somers’ dystopian and generally bleak view of the future.
Somers’ writes books that are like “an action movie in print” as the The Daily Telegraph described the previous book The Eternal Prison – a description I used previously in my review of that book: Avery Cates returns in Jeff Somers' dystopian world of The Eternal Prison
In The Terminal State the street killer has been scooped up by the army and pumped full of technological augments, but he’s also lost control of his own body via some sort of brain implant.
Still, that’s not going to stop him from trying to kill whoever manages to piss him off, even if that person is supposedly in charge of his body.
On top of that, he discovers that person who’s just bought his body is none other than his oldest enemy Canny Orel; but Avery is willing to play a long, at least until he can take out Canny as well as himself if he has to.
It’s unsure if Somers’ always planned for there to be four Avery Cates books, but in The Terminal State he manages to tie up a number of loose ends from the previous three – The Electric Church,  The Digital Plague and The Eternal Prison – but still leaves an opening for the next installment.
Thank goodness. Somers’ version of the future is one to be wary of, true, but it’s as entertaining as hell and Avery Cates is one of those characters that you just know could go on forever. Here’s hoping.

The Terminal State by Jeff Somers is published by Orbit Books and is available from good book stores and online.

a fine line between flattery and imitation; the heir of night by helen lowe resonates with a song of ice and fire ...

This book is the first in a series, of course, it wouldn’t be in the fantasy genre if it wasn’t, but The Heir of Night by Helen Lowe is actually fit for the praise best-selling author and fantasy Queen Robin Hobb gives it; “a richly told tale.”

Unfortunately however, there are strong similarities to the great classic series A Song of Ice and Fire by American author George R. R. Martin and which is being turned into an HBO TV series called Game of Thrones after the first book of the series.
We have a lordly family living far from the kingdom’s capital, hard up against a “barrier” that many have forgotten protects the population from the “Night” and the “cold” … quite a few similarities already.
Add in a devastating attack at night, the intervention of unknown outsiders, the possibility of magic and the miraculous escape of the only heir and one might think that Lowe was copying rather too obviously.
However, The Heir of Night redeems itself through the intricate – and different – history and culture of this fantasy world; there are other bits and pieces too that make this not an actual copy of the classic series.
But Lowe has walked a very fine line – particularly when it comes to mad fans I would expect.
The central character is Malian, a girl who is not yet a woman but already the heir to her very cold, very distant father’s lordship and responsibility.
An invasion from beyond the wall that the family protects against finds Malian with her back against the wall, quite literally, and forces her to realise her hidden magical potential – something to be feared not only for its power but because it will bar her from rulership.
Lowe’s pacing is good, the action scenes are believable and her characters fully-fleshed out in many ways – although there are a fair few stereotypes filling up the plot’s gaps.
It will be interesting to see if Lowe can move the story forward in such a way as to remove more of the similarities to A Song of Ice and Fire; I hope so.

The Heir of Night by Helen Lowe is published by Orbit Books and is available at all good book stores and online. The next book in the series is The Gathering of The Lost.

quirky new idea in classic fantasy novel

Every so often a fantasy novel comes along that offers lovers of the genre something new and exciting; an idea or series of ideas that don’t seem to have been thought of before.

Anna Kendall’s Crossing Over is one of these books. The central premise – a boy is able to crossover into the afterlife through the application of pain – is different enough to stand out.
Roger lives a truly wretched life, forced to use this “gift”, which he sees as being more of a curse, by supposed relatives who inflict pain on him nightly in order to get money from those missing their dead.
Finally after seemingly endless passages of despair and depression – almost enough to make one give up reading, but not quite – Roger finds himself first free of the horrible relatives and then “saved” by mysterious woman.
Eventually, of course, Roger gets himself into trouble by telling the wrong people about his skill and before he realises it he’s the pivotal point for politics in his land.
Kendall has a great turn of phrase, her pacing is a little slow at first but gets better as Roger makes his way through his world. And her descriptive passages are very good.
Roger is the sort of character that most people can related to, he’s not perfect – despite, or because of his terrible upbringing – he’s quite weak and easily manipulated.
But throughout the story you feel that he’s at least trying to do the right thing, even if he gets caught up in his own power at times.
Crossing Over is a tightly written piece of dark fantasy – it would make a great present for anyone interested in the genre but looking for something a little different.

Crossing Over by Anna Kendall is published by Orion Books and is available from good book stores and online.

Young Adult Fiction with more depth than most

Like most urban fantasy for young readers, By Midnight from Mia James has the requisite young girl who’s clueless about her creepy new school, the mysterious good-looking boy, parents who are somehow out of the picture and things that go bump in the night.
So far, so boring.

Luckily By Midnight is saved by some actual reality in the form of a murder or two, a mother who can’t cope and a bemused but genuine cop.
James’ writing is also a step above the usual pap that these sorts of books are usually dowsed in. The prose is tight, the action relatively realistic and the characters fairly believable.
The central character April is a pretty normal teen who has been shifted to London by a family move and dumped at a posh school supposedly the only place available.
Her mother and father are busy working, and despite being relatively smart April feels like an outsider compared to her much more glamorous and brilliant school mates.
After a couple of mysterious happenings and a death, April realises that not only is something weird going on at her school, there’s something weird about her family as well.
There will, of course, be a sequel. There probably already is.
This is a good alternative to the other rubbish that’s out there; if only because it’s set in England and not America for a change.

By Midnight by Mia James is published by Orion Books and is available from good book stores and online.

The fundamentals of fashion

Imagine my delight when I received a copy of Christian Dior’s classic tome, The Little Dictionary of Fashion. This wee book – it’s only 126, small pages long – would finally be able to shed some light on the thoughts of one of fashion’s greatest individuals.

 

Like Coco Chanel, Christian Dior has shaped the way women, and men, dress today whether we are aware of it or not. First published in 1954 and republished in 2008, the rise of the “lady-like” style has seen a renewed interest in this period and the designers who influenced it.

Dior is perhaps best-known for creating the “New Look” after World War II, when despite the need to continue rationing “luxuries” like fabric, he produced a distinctive skirt that was so huge and used so much material that it seemed to fly in the face of societal norms of the time.

He reportedly used 20 yards – that’s over 18 metres – of luxe fabric in the bell-shaped skirts of his Spring Summer 1947 collection; Dior’s first public ready-to-wear show.

Although the lines were called “Corolle” and “Huit”, it was Harper's Bazaar's editor-in-chief Carmel Snow’s exclamation “It's such a New Look!” that actually named Dior’s seminal creation.


To read the complete review, go to my blog on herworld.com, The fundamentals of fashion

* This review was first published on herworld.com  

another delicious dark dexter story from jeff lindsay

Dexter is Delicious is the fifth book in the Dexter series from Jeff Lindsay, and yes, these are the books the award-winning TV show Dexter is based on.

The serial killer as hero premise seems old hat now, but when the first book, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, was released, the concept was constantly being debated by everyone from high-brow critics to bible-bashing mid-westerners. How dare Lindsay make the hero a psychopathic serial killer? Shocking!
With an award-winning TV show and a heart-throb actor in the central role, the Dexter franchise has become practically mainstream.
Luckily the books are still as well-written as they always were; the structure of the internal monologue continues to work, and the reader still wonders just how Lindsay knows so much about how a serial killer thinks.
In the TV series, Dexter is a father, and in Dexter is Delicious his daughter Lily Anne is also the one thing that’s keeping him on the straight and narrow and out of the electric chair.
At least until he realises that someone from his past, someone who knows rather too much about what really makes Dexter tick, reappears in his life.
If Dexter is threatened, then Lily Anne is threatened; and that is not something you want an accomplished murderer like Dexter thinking about.
To complicate matters, Dexter’s job as a blood spatter analyst gets him involved in the disappearance of an 18-year-old girl who may have been abducted by vampires – who could also be cannibals.
Lindsay’s books are so much more detailed than the TV show, although the voice-over used in the show mirrors somewhat the internal monologue of the character in the novels.
Still, you can read the books and watch the show without too many discrepancies cropping up, which isn’t always true.
For lovers of crime thrillers and murder mysteries or lovers of novels about psychopaths, you can’t go past the Dexter novels; they are a unique twist on a great genre.

Dexter is Delicious by Jeff Lindsay is published by Orion Books and is available at all good book stores and online.

historical romance brings classic tale to modern life

Anne Fortier’s Juliet is a mixture of romance, whodunit, coming-of-age and historical fiction.

When Julie’s aunt Rose dies, she is left not with half an inheritance, but with a wooden box containing a secret.

Julie’s much more successful, and much nastier, sister Janice gets Rose’s house – and all it’s debts – much to Julie’s delight.
The secret in the box turns out to be a bunch of documents and letters that lead Julie to randomly decide to return to Sienna, Italy, where her parents died and where her personal history may be unravelled.
It’s in Sienna that Julie discovers that she, and her sister, are scions of an ancient Italian family – which may have been the source of Romeo and Juliet’s tragic tale.
Titillated by the possible connection, Julie ignores the warning signals of mysterious men following her, mysterious policemen being overly interested in her whereabouts and mysteriously friendly “long lost relatives”.
Obviously the secret of the box, the secret of her parents deaths and even the possible secret connection to the fabled Juliet, could lead to a lucrative payday for someone.
Eventually Janice – the more organised and practical sister – discovers what Julie is up to and turns up in Sienna ready to sort it all out. Once again, Julie is “saved” by her sister.
After a few historical twists and turns, with some very obvious fudging of historical facts, the secret is revealed, the romantic hero turns out to be a cad and the sisters rediscover their love for each other ... of course.
Still, Juliet is nicely written; the pacing is tight, the characters mostly realistic if a little stereotypical, and Fortier has a nice turn of descriptive phrasing especially when describing the streets of Sienna.
There is plenty of action, lots of romance, burning gazes and heaving chests, as well as a bit of magic; Juliet is a fun read, perfect for the Christmas holidays.

Juliet by Anne Fortier is published by HarperCollins and is available from good book stores and online.

another piece of reality tv masquerading as a novel from lauren conrad

This is the third book in Lauren Conrad’s LA Candy series based, rather obviously, on her own experiences in the reality TV show, The Hills.

While it’s plastered with the bold “#1 New York Times Bestselling Author” blurb, you just know that Conrad has sold so many books simply because of her pseudo-celebrity.
The story is boring, conventional and teenaged; there’s the nasty girl who get’s her comeuppence, the apparently genuine boy who only wants to be on TV, the clueless but kind bimbo who is easily led astray and the “ordinary-girl-caught-up-in-things-beyond-her-control”, who is obviously Conrad herself.
While I’m sure Conrad, and her publishers, have never claimed that these books are literature, it offends my educated sensibilities that rubbish like Sugar and Spice – not even the title is original – manages to sell so many copies. 

It’s like the horrible success of the terribly written pap that is Twilight; there are so many better books out there that get left on the shelves because their authors haven’t been on TV / are Mormon moms with great publicists.
Sorry ... this rant has little to do with the actual book I’m supposed to be reviewing, but I just had to have a say.
Back to Sugar and Spice. The “plot” follows the continuing “adventures” of Jane (Conrad’s alter-ego), Scarlett, various boyfriends, Madison, Gaby, the PR company they work for (I know, I know, even the job is borrowed) and new addition Sophia.
Madison manages to get a job at Jane’s company ensuring the TV crew have lots of shots of simmering hatred between the two, and the machinations and bitch-fights ensue.
And that’s about it. Eventually Madison gets her comeuppence and Jane and BFF Scarlett escape the clutches of big bad LA TV-land.
While nothing new happens, Sugar and Spice is not totally horrible. It’s written slightly better than the Twilight series for example, and it clearly shows that being on a reality TV show isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Not that, that stopped most of the cast of The Hills moving to The City in New York and doing it all over again.
Oh well ... there’s got to be some sort of TV show for all those hopeful country kids who don’t get picked for America’s Next Top Model, So You Think You Can Dance, X-Factor or American Idol.
After all, on shows like The Hills and The City, you don’t have to have any sort of talent at all to become famous – just look at Jersey Shore.

Sugar and Spice by Lauren Conrad is published by HarperCollins and is available from good book stores and online. 

jacqueline carey's carefully crafted world returns in naamah's curse

God I love Jacqueline Carey’s books. Her complex fantasy series Kushiel's Legacy was made up of six books, each as good or better than the previous one. When that series seemingly ended I was devastated.

So imagine my joy when the new series, Naamah Trilogy, was announced with the first book Naamah’s Kiss. 

Now the next in the series Naamah’s Curse has been released and the epic emotional, human yet different, world that Carey created in Kushiel’s Legacy has returned to her dedicated readers.

Carey’s world is almost an alternate history world, created not so much by positing that certain people didn’t die or different countries won historical wars – the usual structure for such genre novels – but rather by repositioning a religious movement away from a denial of sex and sexuality to one of acceptance and love.

Love, and sex, in all its forms is Carey’s central tenant in her fantasy world – the “real” countries and cultures of Europe, Russia and the United Kingdom are the basis for her new world, with a mythical France – Terra d’Ange, the land of the angels – being the source of her characters’ mystical connection with a god of love and compassion.

Although the central character of the Naamah books, Moirin, is half d’Angeline, she is also half Alban – a Celtic version of England with remnants of natural magic still in the blood of its people.

Read my review of Naamah’s Kiss: Kisses for Jacqueline Carey’s newest novel

Journeying halfway round the world to Ch’in – yes, China, but the mystical China of dragons and emperors and magic – Moirin finds herself falling in love, falling into danger and becoming first the mistress of a dragon-possessed princess before realising she still has to follow the wishes of her Alban goddess.

This bare telling of Moirin’s complex journey cannot begin to describe the sheer joy it is to read Carey’s books.
Her instinctual understanding of human nature and her ability to give form to psychological impulses in our psyches are what have made her books New York Times Bestsellers.
The novel is full of raunchy sex, loving and healing sex, action, dragons, magic, religious zealots, betrayal and luxurious indulgence set right next to terrible deprivation. A rich tapestry of borrowed cultures and countries add new characters at every turn.
But it is Carey’s complete non-judgement of sex, sexuality, emotional attachment and the bare essence of basic human feelings that makes her so compelling to read.
Although Khusiel’s Legacy and the Naamah Trilogy are set in a fantastic past, this lack of moral judgement is quintessentially modern; it offers a possible way for people to be; without imposed moralities, yet still with a binding requirement to not harm nor hurt other.
I can’t wait for the final instalment in the trilogy, Naamah’s Blessing, but I’m also dreading it; I don’t ever want to leave Carey’s carefully crafted, fascinating world.

Naamah’s Curse by Jacqueline Carey is published by Gollancz and is available from good book stores and online.

the way of kings is classic epic fantasy from brandon sanderson

Brandon Sanderson continues to show exactly why he was chosen to help finish Robert Jordan’s epic series The Wheel of Time with his first book in his second series, The Way of Kings: The Stormlight Archive Book One.

The Mistborn Trilogy, Sanderson’s first series has concluded to much critical and box office acclaim and now The Stormlight Archive series has launched with the thumpingly good The Way of Kings.

Read my review of The Mistborn Trilogy: Final instalment of Brandon Sanderson's The Mistborn Trilogy; The Hero of Ages

Sanderson is a fantasy writer of the traditional swords ‘n’ magic sort, but with an ability to add human emotion to inhuman characters, readers are never alienated.

In The Way of Kings, Sanderson introduces us to a world of storm and stone, where wild energy and magic of sorts comes from the devastating storms that lash the world.
A thousand years ago mythical knights protected the land from the depredations of a vicious enemy relying on “Shardblades” and “Shardplate” – armour and swords that give the wearing unending strength and magical powers of healing – to help them.
The knights have disappeared under clouded circumstances and although some Shardblades and Shardplate remain in the hands of a few warlords, it is little enough protection should the ancient enemy return.
As the past is lost in time the current batch of politicians, lords, kings and mercenaries occupy their time fighting seemingly pointless and endless battles. A new enemy has arisen, a race of generally subservient creatures used as slaves, has suddenly acquired a warlike offshoot and must be put down at all cost.
The battlefield is populated by soldiers and slaves, lords and ladies and a young king who has no idea what he is doing fighting this war, or why the enemy continues to hold off his supposedly invincible army led by Shard bearing warriors.
Slave to a lord, a young man who should have been a doctor finds himself becoming a defacto leader, attempting to do the impossible and protect his men; persecuted he begins to realise that he might not be just the simple soldier he always assumed he was.
On the other side of this world a young woman is attempting to ingratiate herself into the retinue of a renowned scholar to both learn but, more importantly, gain access to a coveted item that may, or may not, be able to help her family.
Sanderson deftly weaves these three main strands together with added detail from a plethora of minor characters; there is something moving in the storms, heading towards the heedless army battling for shiny rocks in a devastated landscape.
As with most fantasy novels, The Way of Kings is only the first in Sanderson’s new series that looks set to blow away readers and critics alike.
Sanderson is indeed a worthy heir to Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy crown; can’t wait for the next instalment. 

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson is published by Gollancz and is available from good book stores and online.

genetic manipulation & corporate greed gone awry ... again

Yet another in the burgeoning genre of genetic manipulation and corporate greed gone awry, The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry isn’t the worst of the lot, but it’s certainly not the best either.

The Dragon Factory has the obligatory mad scientists – this lot appear to be leftovers from Nazi times – with designs on world domination and creating the “perfect” human being.
There are also “speak softly and carry a big stick” type government agents – this time it’s an ex-cop special ops shooter called Joe Ledger, an ongoing character for Maberry – and some shifty government types who are probably playing both sides.
The dragon factory of the title is a lab that manipulates animal genetics to create fictional creatures so rich, nasty people can hunt them or rich, manipulative people can use them to create cults to take over countries.
Ho hum. The whole plot of The Dragon Factory reads like a B-Grade film that went straight to DVD and stared actors who were in the first few minutes of a slasher movie as their only claim to fame.

But the book isn't pretending to be literature in any way, shape or form – just check out it's schlock-horror cover picture – so enjoy it for what it is.
Still, the plotting is tight, there are a few twists, the action scenes are relatively well-written and the baddies get their comeuppance. The Dragon Factory is another good airport read or a Christmas present for the non-reading man in your life. 

The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry is published by Gollancz and is available from good book stores and online.

good, but not great: blonde bombshell by tom holt

“A comedy of intergalactic proportions” reads the blurb on the front cover of Tom Holt’s latest book, Blonde Bombshell, but while there’s the odd chuckle among the pages this is no Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Holt has been hailed as the heir to Douglas Adams any number of times, despite the fact that his work is as often about magic as it is about science.

But the sheer surrealism of a universe run by mice is missing from Blonde Bombshell – even though Holt has the audacity to nick the concept and substitute another Earth animal as the protagonist.
In fact there are more than a few nods to other seminal works in this novel, not the least being a “bomb” that becomes self-aware.
While there are some humourous passages as aliens attempt to interpret seemingly bizarre human rituals like using money, fast food and airports, Blonde Bombshell generally falls rather flat.
There are no new ideas, no really engaging characters and the pat platitudes of “make peace not war” – even coming from the mouth of a creature created to destroy – doesn’t really grab the reader.
Blonde Bombshell isn’t a bad book; it’s easy to read, light and not too taxing. Basically if you’re stuck in an airport somewhere wondering why two men dressed in bad suits are trying to board with a decaying octopus in their carry-on luggage but can’t really be bothered paying attention, then Blonde Bombshell will certainly help pass the time. 

Blonde Bombshell by Tom Holt is published by Orbit Books and is available from good book stores and online.

an uncannily prescient look at the future of war

Hailed by genre critics and those of the more traditional literary sort, Adam Roberts’ New Model Army is a fascinating read about a world that’s not really that far away.

Although this is technically science fiction, the premise of Roberts’ story – that a mercenary army can be run without a hierarcy of officers via the internet – is an almost realised prediction in the modern age of terrorist cells created from web pages, weapons sourced via Facebook and untraceable communications via throwaway mobile phones and iPhone texting apps.
New Model Army traces the experiences of one member of Pantegral, a “new model” army made up of disparate groups who communicate via the web, only occasionally meeting up with other soldiers in the “real” world to physically fight.
Set in the UK, the story also echoes the rise of corporate mercenary teams like those that appear to be running the US war in Iraq; members of the new army are mostly ex-traditional army soldiers either AWOL or cashiered out for disciplinary reasons. They all have guerilla warfare training that they put to good use.
While the country’s government attempts to react to an enemy that won’t stay in one place, is better equipped – if soldiers are supplying themselves they buy the best they can afford – Pantegral marches on London at the behest of their client, Scotland.
Pantegral is run via consensus, every soldier has a vote on deciding which way the fight will go, right down to whether or not to take prisoners, what to do with them and details of negotiations with the opposition; all via the internet.
As the story continues the central character – who is never really identified – muses on the origin of the New Model Army, the vicissitudes of war and the eventual outcome of a world run via a community versus top-down or “feudal” government structures as it is now.
However what the soldiers don’t realise, but some traditional military boffins do, is that Pantegral – and similar organisations around the world – are becoming aware.
The complex net of communication, ideas, even emotions create an almost organic “mentality” that slowly becomes an identity. As the blurb on the book says: “His is called Pantegral. And he is you and me.”
Roberts’ format – writing purely from a first person perspective and with little to no indication of time – can be somewhat hard to get into at first. If you’re looking for a traditional shoot ‘em up, New Model Army is not for you.
If, however, you are either fascinated by the constant change of modern technology and concerned by how this will affect our societies, then New Model Army is a must read. It is uncannily prescient in so many ways.
After all, a full-blown war run by web-savvy youth may be only a small step from the current world of global online gaming.

New Model Army by Adam Roberts is published by Gollancz and is available from good book stores and online.

want to win every orbit book released next year? then enter the orbit quest

One of the biggest publishers of science fiction and fantasy novels, Orbit, has just announced an amazing competition for lovers of this genre.

The Australian branch is offering a competition which will see the winner receiving “every new release title from Orbit books for 2011 – around 70 books.

To enter the competition, readers have complete 12 tasks, each one of which gets a point. The person with the most points at the end of the event becomes the “Orbit Champion” for 2011. The more tasks you complete, the more points you get.

So far, 11 tasks have been announced:

• Task 1: Register your interest
• Task 2: Discuss your favourite moment
• Task 3: Post a fan picture of your bookshelf
• Task 4: Favourite Old Tongue word
• Task 5: Design a cover
• Task 6: Trivia Challenge
• Task 7: Review
• Task 8: Cool Crossovers
• Task 9: Suggest an alternative title
• Task 10: Confess your nerdiest moment
• Task 11: Dress up as your favourite character / post a picture
• Task 12: To be announced on the morning of October 30, 2010

The competition closes on November 30 at midnight, EST. For more details go to the Orbit Australia Facebook page or email: orbit@hachette.com.au

mix of celtic folklore & australia in new urban fantasy secret ones by nicole murphy

Finally, finally, an urban fantasy novel with something new to say. Secret Ones by Nicole Murphy is an interesting mix of Celtic folklore and imagination; and set in Australia, it has a different background to add to to it. 

Murphy is an Australian author who's worked as a teacher and journalist, as well as being instrumental in a number of “fandom” projects; she's also been a speculative fiction editor.
So one would assume she would know something about writing a good piece of urban, or speculative, fiction. Thankfully she does.
The “Secret Ones” of the title are the “gadda”, a people who while they look human; aren't. They can wield magic by borrowing energy from nature and using various spells.
Murphy's “gadda” are somewhat akin to the Celtic traditions of elves, there's an Irish connection – that seems to be where they come from – and general references to Celtic cultural practice as well.
Still, the concept is relatively fresh – although Laurell K Hamilton did it first with the Sidhe – elves or fey – living in modern America in her Merry Gentry series of books.
The addition of Australia is nice; better than yet another urban fantasy set in America. And the characters that Murphy has created are well-rounded and believable.
Maggie Shaunessy is an Australian-born gadda who has a history of protecting humans and working with humans – something that is looked down upon by another group of gadda who would prefer to stay “Pure” and have nothing to do with humans at all.
Maggie's family – at least her mother and grandfather – live in Australia and interact daily with humans, running a university and a medical clinic and trying to help them. Maggie's father is in Ireland, he's more traditional and possibly one of the Purists.
Added to the mix is a newcomer – and a love interest for Maggie, of course – Lucas Valeroso, a physicist who's from the wrong side of the tracks entirely, and totally unaware that he might not be entirely human.
Murphy mixes up black magic, stolen books, political machinations, historical feuds and romance with a vaguely recognisable Celtic mythology, to create an urban fantasy story that is relatively fresh for the reader.
Some of the descriptions and Maggie's musings are a bit clunky, but the dialogue is good, as is the pacing. There's not much of a twist to the plot, the reader is fairly certain where it's all leading by about halfway through, but it's a fun read nonetheless.
Secret Ones is the first book in what's shaping up to be at least a trilogy, if not a series; it will be interesting to see how it develops.

Secret Ones by Nicole Murphy is published by Harper Voyager and is available from good book stores and online.

firespell by chloe neill; another clichéd young adult urban fantasy novel

The latest Young Adult supernatural series to take off is The Dark Elite by Chloe Neill, with Firespell the first book to be published. 

Set in Chicago, the story follows teenager Lily Parker as she's sent off to boarding school while her parents head to Italy for a research posting of some sort. 

Lily is bemused but resigned to her new life until she discovers that her new BFF (Best Friend Forever), a girl called Scout who's been at the school her whole life, is sneaking out of their dorm and staying out all night.
Naturally Lily decides to follow her, only to discover that Scout isn't just her new friend, she's also part of a magic wielding group of teens who chase down and destroy monsters in the tunnels under the city.
So far, so typical. And unfortunately, that's about all that can be said for Firespell.
It's not terribly written, the characters are solid, believable teenagers – although the 'in' crowd of girls seem plucked from any angsty movie – there's something going on with the headmistress – who may or may not know what the kids are up to – and the plot's premise – you can only use your magic until you're 25, otherwise you begin to suck the life from others and become evil – isn't too clichéd.
However, the assumption of Lily accepting magic without a nervous breakdown, the seeming unconcern of adults about kids risking their lives every day, the placing of the story in a boarding school and the automatic success of these kids in getting the baddies, is all a bit trite. It reads like an American version of Harry Potter – and not in a good way.
Basically Firespell is yet another in a long line of recent series for Young Adults spiced with a bit of the supernatural. There's nothing really new going on – at least not yet. Perhaps the series will mature; but with such weak underpinnings, I doubt it.

Firespell by Chloe Neill is published by Gollancz and is available from good book stores and online.

ann aguirre continues the corine solomon story in hell fire; action, thrills & the supernatural

Hell Fire returns readers to Ann Aguirre's Corine Solomon series begun in Blue Diablo. Corine helped her ex, Chance, find his mother with her ability to 'handle' objects or read information and emotions from things left behind. 

Read my review of Blue Diablo by Ann Aguirre: Ann Aguirre's Blue Diablo brings new dimension to overcrowded urban fantasy genre 

So now Chance has to return with Corine to the town she was born in, Kilmer, and discover the reason behind her mother's terrible death. 

Aguirre's world is peopled by characters who can use magic, who are born with various sorts of powers, like Corine's 'handling', Chance's incredible good luck and others' abilities as empaths and mediums.
But her world is also our world; there are bills to pay, papers to sign, businesses to run and emotional relationships to deal with. 

Unlike many recent books in the urban fantasy genre, Aguirre doesn't dwell on the sex and romance too much. For her characters and storylines the love and romance is simply a part of being human.
Corine is an ordinary woman with an extraordinary gift, but she's troubled by the same insecurities we are. Is her arse too big? Does Chance really love her or he just after her talents? Was her mother really murdered?
OK, maybe not the same issues as all of us. Still, it's refreshing to read an urban fantasy novel without having to deal with too much unreality.
When Corine and Chance finally get to Kilmer they discover a town that's been forgotten; literally. No one else can find it on the map, it's not on the GPS nor has anything been added to it since Corine left when she was a teen.
Obviously there's something going on, even without Corine's memories of her mother being burned to death by people in dark hooded cloaks.
The pair also discover that over the years people have been going missing, and no body, not even the police, can be bothered going into the forest to look for them. 

Obviously that's where Corine is headed, but first she needs to find somewhere to stay where the landlady won't try to hex her, get Chance out of jail from being in the wrong place when an old lady died and try to solve the issue of whether or not she's going to sleep with her new magical friend Jesse.
Aguirre's storylines mix up action, thrills and esoteric magic in a clever way that enables the reader to easily slip into her world. It will be interesting to see how the series develops; book three is already on its way.

Hell Fire by Ann Aguirre is published by Gollancz and is available from good book stores and online.

more psy-changeling action & romance from nalini singh in caressed by ice

New Zealand-based author Nalini Singh returns to her world of Psy – humans who have psychic powers and no emotions – and Changelings – were-animals.
In the first two books of the series, Slave to Sensation and Visions of Heat, two Psy women who were fighting to remain sane and a part of their emotionally barren world, fall in love with two were-animals – a werewolf and a werejaguar – while fighting to both stay alive and hunt down someone who's killing Changeling girls.

Read my review of Nalini Singh's Slave to Sensation and Visions of Heat: Nalani Singh's Slave to Sensation and Visions of Heat from her Psy-Changeling series offer romantic urban fiction with a little bit of bite 

In the latest book, Caressed by Ice, readers meet one of those girls. Brenna Shane Kincaid was abducted by an insane Psy who raped her mind and damaged her terribly before she was rescued by a combined group of Changelings and renegade Psy. 

Now trying to recover both physically and mentally, Brenna is trapped by the solicitousness of her family and friends. The only person she feels comfortable with, oddly enough, is one of the renegade Psy, Judd Lauren.
Unfortunately for Brenna, although Judd has removed himself from the Psy-Net – the link that keeps the Psy in touch no matter where they are – he did so only for his family. He's continued to use and rely on the "conditioning" that has controlled his emotions all his life.
Because Judd has a secret; not only is he renegade Psy, he's also a a former 'Arrow', a psy-assassin.
Like Singh's previous books, the Psy-Changeling world is more a decoration for what is essentially a romance novel. The fiery Brenna will eventually melt the ice-cold assassin.
However Singh's addition of political manoeuvring among the Psy Council, the continued concerns about insane Psy running around hurting people and the attempts by Judd's contacts to try to sabotage the Psy-Net, all add a bit of action and intrigue to what could have been a boring concept.
Singh proved in her other series, Guild Hunter, that she's capable of more than just romance. Angel's Blood and Archangel's Kiss are both good, solid urban fantasy stories where the romance doesn't take over too much.
It's to be hoped that she'll continue to develop the Psy-Changeling series into something a little more substantial. Otherwise she'll end up tagged with the supernatural sex label and will go unnoticed for her other abilities.

Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh is published by Gollancz and is available from good book stores and online.

anita blake returns in laurel k hamilton's bullet; the original & the best urban fantasy

Finally, another book in my favourite urban fantasy series, Anita Blake Vampire Hunter by Laurell K Hamilton. 

Bullet is the nineteenth in the series and continues the complicated, twisted story of a girl who started out raising zombies, became the lover of a Master Vampire, then the lover of a werewolf, has numerous strands of were-blood in her veins and now, as the first true necromancer in centuries, has inherited the powers of both the vampires and the were-folk.
When Hamilton began the series in 1993, no one could have predicted its success and longevity. Unfortunately, despite being so much better written, more creative, more adult, darker and sexier, it's tripe like the Twilight series that's become a world phenomenon.
Even the Sookie Stackhouse books of Charlaine Harris have been turned into a TV show and Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles have become movies.
While I'll give Harris and Rice props for their quality work, as a connoisseur of urban fantasy I'm endlessly frustrated that pap like Twilight has invaded the brains of a generation, while Hamilton's work remains, partly, a cult phenomenon.
Still, the good thing about this is that no big studio attempting to make Miley Cyrus interesting has bought up the rights and totally destroyed the best urban fantasy series ever written – so I must be grateful for small mercies.
The Anita Blake series began with Anita working as an Animator – raising zombies for families and lawyers after missing information – and side-lining in Vampire Hunting.
The early books – especially Guilty Pleasures (1993), The Laughing Corpse (1994), Circus of the Damned (1995), The Lunatic Cafe (1996), Bloody Bones (1996), The Killing Dance (1997) and Burnt Offerings (1998) – focused mainly on Anita's work, with the action coming from her various jobs.
Later books, generally starting from Narcissus in Chains (2001) and including the novella Micah (2006), put the focus clearly on Anita's romantic entanglements and particularly her multiple sexual partners as she become overwhelmed by her powers as an incubus. Although Anita is still, mostly, human, her animating powers combined with the various magics of vampires and were-animals have seen her changing into something not quite human.
During this period Hamilton came under some criticism for her over-emphasis on the sexual side of things – sure there was still a fair bit of action and gore, but Anita began to solve her problems via sex rather than pulling out the big guns (literally) and blasting away. Not something that appealed to all of her fans.
But the author must have been listening to her fans, for with Bullet and the previous book Flirt, Hamilton has returned to form. Anita is still dealing with having to choose a 'mate' among the werelions, but at least she's also back at work.
And while the sex is still there, the manipulation of emotions and anger continues, Anita and her brood of vampires and were-animals have to deal with a deadly enemy, one they thought had been destroyed.
The Mother of All Darkness is still around, she's not been completely destroyed, and even Anita's nemesis and Jean-Claude's former Mistress, Belle Morte (Beautiful Death) is scared.
As with all the Anita Blake books, Hamilton's ability to add humanity to the non-human, emotions and petty human foibles to the supernatural and the exasperation of a frustrated woman in a man's world, endears Bullet, and Anita, to the reader.
Anita Blake is a modern, urban fantasy heroine; someone we'd all like to think we'd be if faced with supernatural powers, the roaming dead, preternaturally beautiful men and a nasty, evil bitch who wants to take over our body – we'd strap on the knives and jump feet first, all guns blazing.

Bullet by Laurell K Hamilton is published by Headline, an Hachette company, and is available from good book stores and online.