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.

new australian writer honey brown looks into the dark of the human psyche

Australian author Honey Brown burst onto that country's literary scene with the tightly written and terrifyingly plotted Red Queen in 2009.

The book won an Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novel, was short-listed for the Australian Shadows Award and won a Highly Commended from the FAW Awards.
Now Brown has released The Good Daughter, a novel that doesn't fit into her first genre, but is as well-written and beautifully constructed as the first.

Interestingly it was a freak accident on a farm – she broke her back – that set Brown on her literary path, and despite being confined mostly to a wheelchair and caring for two young children and a farm, she has already finished a third book, with a fourth on the way.
Prolific, yes, but Brown's writing is also very good.
In Red Queen two ordinary men, brothers, find themselves isolated on a hidden property – loosely based on Brown’s own land in rural Victoria – after a deadly virus has broken out across the globe.
The tensions of a sibling relationship are heightened when an unknown woman enters their lives; the elder brother, Rohan, is cut from the typical cloth of a working class Australian man. He is taciturn, separated from his feelings and overly protective of Shannon, the younger brother.
Shannon is a dreamer, he still yearns for his dead parents and the carefree university life he had before the "Red Queen" virus arrived. Rohan, on the other hand, quite likes the hardship of proving himself a man in their daily struggle to survive.
The interloper upsets the brothers' uneasy balance; naturally adding sex to the mix – the boys have been in the bush for a long time, after all.
Brown cleverly mixes these three characters, giving away only small pieces of information so the reader is left waiting to know more, totally unconcerned that there are only three characters in the story.
The plot twist in the denouement is surprising, although a little too altruistic. But Red Queen is the sort of book one can happily describe as literary fiction, while at the same time recommend to your friends who only read thrillers.
The Good Daughter, Brown's second book, is similar in its tight plot, limited character pool and outback Australian setting, but entirely different in its perspective.
Rebecca is the daughter of the title, a teenager from the wrong end of town with a slightly unhealthy interest in the richest boy in the district, Zach.
She also has her mother's reputation to live up to – should she choose her dead mum's rather loose ways or the same woman's heroic acceptance of death from cancer?
Zach has his own problems; his family may be rich but his mother is crazy according to his gruff, aggressive farmer father. And Zach's beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, insanity runs in the family.
Added to the mix is a bastard – Zack's father's by-blow. Suave for the small country town, Aden is a charming rogue who's out to get what he can.
Then Zack's mother disappears, and the last person to see her is Rebecca.
The Good Daughter is a portrait of modern, country Australia: The isolation, the small-town nosiness and censure, the lack of work, the drugs and the depression.
But it also shows some of what can be good about the same place and people – acceptance, warmth and family.
Still, for first time readers of Australian fiction, The Good Daughter doesn't paint a particularly rosy picture.
Brown is obviously a writer to watch. She is part of the Australian tradition of strong female authors who centre their work in their daily lives, but manage to turn the ordinary into the sublime with just the placement of a few words and an ability to look into the dark of the human psyche.

Red Queen and The Good Daughter by Honey Brown are published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Books Australia, and are available from good book stores and online.

sunshine state by james miller is a scary eco-thriller of global warming, militant religions & dirty wars

James Miller's latest book, Sunshine State, is a very scary thing to read. If you are one of those people who are concerned about global warming, environmental degradation or holes in the ozone layers, then this book will scare you too.

Books like The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley, Down to A Sunless Sea by David Graham and Flood by Stephen Baxter are part of a growing eco-thriller genre that is making inroads into the science fiction world.
Like the books mentioned, Sunshine State is not a non-fiction tome written by a crusty scientist or a crazy environmentalist, it's a novel that combines a couple of issues that are of central concern in this day and age.
One: The terrible impact of the dirty wars occurring repeatedly around the world; and Two: The apparent increase in terrible weather systems that are devastating certain parts of the United States' coast.
Miller's book is a kind of 'mash-up' of these two themes. Mark Burrows is a member of the British secret service. He's trying to get out; his wife is pregnant, his best mate is dead and he feels like he's dying a little every time he goes on another mission.
Mark came to manhood in the heat of various deserts, a part of the UK's dirty wars. He followed orders, and followed them well, but now he is beginning to question whether or not his entire life was wrong.
Out of the screaming blue sky of a London engulfed in a major, long-lasting heatwave, Mark is given his last mission – to head for the "Storm Zone" in the US and track down his best mate; the man who is supposed to be dead.
The reason why Sunshine State is so scary is because it is completely believable. The references to Hurricane Katrina – which has already occurred – are factual spices to the future-present recipe of Miller's book. The Storm Zone is a swathe of destroyed country that's taken out most of Louisiana, southern California and other southern American states. The cities are gone, the people are mad, scared or locked tight behind giant walls and the army uses the whole area as a "training zone".
When reading about the Storm Zone – with its micro-communities of hippies and clubbers; Apocalyptics waiting for the world to end, drug runners and the Queer Liberation Army escaping from zealous born-again Christianity – you can see the ideas have all come from things that are happening now in America and around the world.
Interspersed with Mark's trip into the insanity that is the Storm Zone, are excerpts from interviews he had with a psychologist after his last disastrous mission with his former best friend, Charlie Ashe. These fragments give the reader an insight into what Mark is really all about; how he became the “invisible man” of British intelligence.
There's a defined strand of militant religiosity also running through Sunshine State. First, the Muslim terrorists that Mark and Charlie kill by the thousands in the desert and then the creepy, Pastor as the President of the United States and his white, gun-totting "Witch Hunters".
Miller carefully paints no one religion as being any worse than the other; but they both appear to be mad in his rendering. It is the militancy that stands out; true believers of both faiths are painted more gently.
Sunshine State is a great read; it's intelligently written, it's set not far into the future so non-science fiction lovers will enjoy the action and the themes give you a disconcerting feeling that what it's talking about could really happen. While Sunshine State might not scare everyone, it will certainly make you think a little more seriously about recycling your rubbish.

Sunshine State by James Miller is published by Little, Brown and is available from good book stores and online.

the devil's queen: a novel of catherine de medici, queen of france, by jeanne kalogridis, adds the spice of magic to history

A new novel about the historic personage of Catherine de Medici shows another side to a woman who has been blamed for the St Bartholomew's Day massacre of 1572, when thousands of Protestants were killed throughout France.

Jeanne Kalogridis' The Devil's Queen traces the life of a young girl, orphaned and taken in by relatives only because of her name and bloodlines. As the great granddaughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Catherine was a valuable trading piece in the politics of the 14th century.
Generally unloved and manipulated by everyone from her distant cousin, Giulio di Giuliano de Medici, Pope Clement VII, to her closer relatives like her aunt Clarice Strozzi (nee de Medici), Catherine never really had a chance to be herself.
During a rebellion in 1527, when the family was pushed out of Florence, Catherine was imprisoned twice, treated relatively harshly and threatened with death repeatedly. She was still only a child. After the fall of the rebels, Catherine was taken to Rome where her marriage was arranged to Henry, Duke of Orleans, the second son of King Francis I of France, at the age of fourteen.
From the time she moved to France, Catherine suffered from being ignored, being hated and being scorned as her husband openly took lovers and eventually flouted his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who controlled Henry almost completely.
All of this, and much, much more, is generally known information about Catherine, but what Kalogridis has added is a touch of the supernatural and the macabre.
During Catherine's time there were a number of well-known and influential men who dabbled in the esoteric arts of magic, astrology and alchemy – despite them being banned by the Roman Catholic Church.
In The Devil's Queen, Catherine is befriended by Cosimo Ruggieri an astrologer and magician who eventually followed her to France; and meets Monsieur de Nostredame (Nostradamus) who remains, even now, a powerful figure.
Kalogridis gives Catherine an esoteric bent, a belief in the real power of magic and the ruthlessness to ensure her children are born, live and survive. There's lots of blood and violence involved, and an eventual denouement that may, or may not, be true.
The problem with historical novels of fiction is the existence of facts and general knowledge about these personages; particularly those of great fame.
However, Kalogridis manages to imbue Catherine with a real honesty, a realistic personality and adds enough fiction to ensure the reader is never bored.
If you don't like novels full of politics, long names and plots within plots, The Devil's Queen is not for you. This is a tightly woven story of a historical period seen through the eyes of a lonely, abused and desperate woman; one who had to grab her future with her own hands to ensure she stayed alive.
The book follows her story through the birth of her children and the death of her husband and her heirs, until the reign of Henri of Navarre – Henri IV or Henri the Great, the first Bourbon monarch.
Catherine lived to the age of 69 and was considered to have been the most intelligent person to ever sit the French throne. Still, The Devil's Queen does her justice in many ways.
Kalogridis' research is impeccable, as is her eye for detail and her ability to add personality and warmth to long dead people and times. Despite the historic detail, The Devil's Queen does not drag, it is fast paced and absorbing.
The Devil's Queen is a solid historical novel with just enough fiction to add spice and titillate the reader.

The Devil's Queen by Jeanne Kalogridis is published by HarperCollins and is available from good book stores and online.

the things that keep us here scares the reader out of complacency with its real life look at bird flu

This is one of the scariest books I've read recently, and there's not a single zombie, vampire, genetically modified creature or mass murderer in sight.

Like Stephen Baxter's Flood, The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley is scary because it could really happen. In Flood, global warming destroyed the world; in Buckley's book, bird flu does.
And like Flood, it's not really the flu that we have to be worried about – sure, it kills lots of people and is terribly contagious – it's the people we know that we have beware of.
The book opens reasonably enough; Ann Brooks is an ordinary mother of two middle-school aged girls, her marriage is dissolving and she has to start work again. Sure, she's a got a bit of a skeleton in the closet but it's nothing particularly terrible.
Her husband, Peter is a research veterinarian, who – surprise, surprise – works with wild bird populations. There's bird flu around, particularly in parts of Asia, but it's not yet reached America. Then, it does.
In a matter of days, hours even, the world that Ann knew comes crashing to a halt, and she has to worry about more than just getting a divorce.
What makes The Things That Keep Us Here so compelling are the small details of how one would survive if the modern world suddenly just stopped.
In Ann's town it's the weather that has the greatest impact as a massive snow storm brings down electricity and phone lines. Then the mobile service disappears and news becomes scarce.
In our world of instantaneous communication and too much information, it's scary to realise just how terrible it would be to have to live as our ancestors did – chopping wood for fires, washing irregularly, seeing and talking only to those who live in our homes.
It is also scary to realise that none of us is really prepared. Do you have canned goods, fresh water, a way to heat things, candles and endless batteries in your house? Not to mention basic medical supplies and the knowledge of how to use them.
As Ann's world becomes more and more circumscribed she has to make difficult choices about who is more important: her own children or their father, the man she never stopped loving and who is now back in her life.
Then, of course, there are the terrible things that people do when pushed to the edge. Quite early in the story Ann comes up against the worst of human nature as two people help themselves to others' shopping in the frenzy started by the closure of the schools.
Later, as life becomes more and more difficult and supplies dwindle, Ann discovers that no only is she tougher than she thought, but that she can be as hard as the worst among us.
The Things That Keep Us Here is a great book. Although a little slow-paced at the outset, it soon heats up and the everyday quandaries of people trying to survive keep you glued to the pages. You want to know who survives, and just as importantly, how they do it.
If you're even slightly paranoid, this book is going to make it hard for you to sleep at night. The recent round of H1N1 should have been warning enough, but sometimes, it's not enough just know about something. The Things That Keep Us Here shows us what could really happen – it might be fiction at the moment, but you just never know.

The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley is published by Orion and is available from good book stores and online.

the historical romance of the elusive bride by stephanie laurens; a regency romp

Stephanie Laurens is one of Australia's most popular romance fiction authors, in fact, she's been voted the country's favourite romance author at least once.
In The Elusive Bride, Laurens continues the intrigue and romance begun in The Untamed Bride, the first book in her new The Black Cobra Quartet.
Just about all Laurens' books are set in Regency England – lots of dashing heroes, feisty maidens and talk about a 'well-turned leg', highwaymen and inheritances. Exactly the right ingredients for fabulous historical novels.
Now, while the general details of history and dress may be correct in Laurens' books, there is a touch of unreality in the actions of many of the women she describes. It seems that what is generally believed, historically, to have been the social mores and niceties of Regency England, things like no sex before marriage and a complete lack of knowledge about such sex, don't exist in these tales of romance.
While the swashbuckling gentlemen of Laurens' books appear mostly true to historical records, her heroines are much more modern – why, they even seem to go about having affairs and seducing said swashbuckling heroes.
This is great for the story, but perhaps not so historical.If this sort of thing bothers you, then Laurens' romances may not be for you. Still, Laurens' books are fiction and in every good romance there should be a bit of fantasy, right?
So, The Elusive Bride opens with Miss Emily Ensworth racing down a dusty hill in India clasping an important document to her heaving bosom, while blood-thirsty natives chase her. Oh yes, these books tend to be more than a little 'politically incorrect”.
By the way, Emily is in India to find herself a suitable husband. Apparently she's managed to go through all the eligible gentlemen in England and so is reduce to tracking one down in the colonies.
Emily escapes the natives, thanks to the self-sacrifice of a swashbuckling hero, and finds herself meeting up with a group of surly British officers; one of which makes a definite impact on our Emily.
The book proceeds with a feisty Emily deciding that she may have met her 'one' and her attempts to track him down and find out if he's the man she will marry. The poor bloke, of course, knows nothing about this. He's just got to put up with Emily adding herself to his very dangerous mission and trying to defend her from all sorts of other nasty natives – as well as trying not to give in and ravish her on the spot.
The Elusive Bride may not make historical sense, Emily may be a brazen little hussy who needs a good slap and a stiff talking to, but this is an enjoyable read. It isn't serious literature, but nor is it unreadable rubbish.
Laurens has a lovely way with dialogue, her characters are well-fleshed out and the plot mostly makes sense. The fact that no real man of Regency England would allow a woman to interfere with his dangerous mission for the crown, nor would he take her up on a night of hot sex without marrying her or dumping her afterwards, doesn't matter. Who cares about reality when you can just sit back with a nice box of chocolates and indulge yourself in an afternoon of light reading?

The Elusive Bride by Stephanie Laurens is published by Avon Books, an imprint of HarperCollins and is available from good book stores and online.

kisses for jacqueline carey’s newest novel

Like the previous review, I was ecstatic to receive a review copy of Jacqueline Carey’s latest book on my desk; so excited I almost faked an illness so I could go home and start reading it straight away.
Naamah’s Kiss is the first in a new series set in Carey’s unique ‘alternate history’ world of Alba, Terre d’Ange and now Ch’in. The previous series have been populated mainly with characters from Terre d’Ange, but this one features a young girl of mixed heritage from the less civilised land of Alba.
Carey’s books are renowned for their potent sexuality, with her Kushiel’s Legacy series conjuring up images of bondage and other alternate forms of physical love.
While this is titillating and surely led to her immediate popularity – particularly the first three books Kushiel’s Dart, Kushiel’s Chosen and Kushiel’s Avatar – the emotional depth of her characters and the detailed imagery of her world have stood Carey in good stead; cementing her place in the fantasy world’s pantheon.
In particular, the books featuring the D’Angeline prince, Imriel de la Courcel, are deeply moving on a number of levels as the boy grows into a man haunted by his mother’s treachery and his desire for the one person he should avoid. These books also look at the impact of honour on love and of love on honour.
Again, Carey’s works are among a handful of books that I read over and over again, much like those from Robin Hobb. So, the new series has been much anticipated.
And I wasn’t disappointed. Naamah’s Kiss is exquisite; the new character of Moirin is as feisty as the original, iconic Phede no Delaunay and brings with her the added interest of inherited magic. Moirin is sent on a mission of sorts, she doesn’t know where she’s going or why, but she realises that she needs to follow the ‘divine spark’ that she carries; graced to her by her goddess.
Adventures in love, loyalty, magic and acceptance lead Moirin from the safety of her reclusive mother’s side, to the far side of the world; Ch’in.
It is clear that Carey’s world is an alternate to our own, laid over our historical Renaissance period – Terre d’Ange is France, Alba is England, Ch’in is China. But this newly realised version is finer, more glittering and less prosaic.
In Carey’s world, gods and angels walked the land, dragons perch on mountain tops and religions are accepting, encompassing and tolerant – after all, the state religion of Terre d’Ange has a precinct dedicated to love in all its forms; and a companion of their god, Naamah, was the first prostitute in recorded history... and she’s worshiped for it!
It is this clever layering of fantasy over reality that makes Carey’s books such delightful reads – they are not truly alien and therefore more easily understood but those who aren’t used to the fantasy genre. More than that, though, is the fact that they are beautifully written.
Carey’s works are not difficult to read – it’s not all highly structured prose and strands of intellectual thought – but they do flow wonderfully, as good fiction should, and bring the reader into her world as easily as looking in a mirror.
As always, I recommend readers start at the beginning with Carey’s early works, but with Naamah’s Kiss you can feel comfortable in reading it as a stand-alone novel – with the joy of more to come.

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

joyful return to the rain wilds world of dragons and more from robin hobb

You cannot imagine my joy when The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb turned up on my desk. Finally my favourite fantasy author had published a new book, but not only was it from my best-ever author, she'd also returned to my favourite of her imagined worlds.
Robin Hobb is one of the pseudonyms of author Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, who is best known for her series of epic classical fantasy novels that are set in the world of the Six Duchies and the Rain Wilds. She has also written the series The Soldier Son set in entirely different world.
The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders and The Tawny Man series are all set in the same world as The Dragon Keeper, the first in a new series, The Rain Wild Chronicles. Hobb's world is peopled with humans and dragons, sailing ships that are sentient, and mediaeval machinations. The technology level is relatively low, but the depth of emotion her characters display is what makes her work so wonderful.
In The Dragon Keeper, Hobb returns readers to the Rain Wilds, an area of impenetrable forest with trees so enormous people have built cities in them, with river water so poisonous it rots your boots and with a miasma in the air that touches its human denizens with odd growths and seemingly genetic mutations. The Rain Wilds are also home to magical products and items created by the long-gone Elderlings and a source of the region's trading wealth.
In previous series the true origin of the marvellous 'wizard wood' that was used to build the Liveships – sailing ships that became sentient and had figureheads that speak – has been discovered. The 'wood' was, in fact, the casings of hibernating dragons, containing their memories and sentience. The Liveships are the bastard offspring of murdered dragons and human ingenuity.
But dragons have returned to the world, at least one of them, and the Rain Wilders (the citizens of the Rain Wilds) have been forced by that dragon to help protect then next generation. It turned out that the massive sea serpents that dogged the Liveships were the dragons in larval form. But an ancient disaster – most likely a volcano eruption – had destroyed the dragons' homeland and stopped the serpents from going into hibernation. Hundreds of generations later only a few of the serpents can be coaxed up the poisonous Rain Wild River and into their cocoons.
This is where The Dragon Keeper opens; the first new dragons have broken out of their cocoons but the transformations have not been entirely successful. The dragons are deformed, they're hungry and they don't care for humans. Something needs to be done with them before they destroy the fragile peace in the Rain Wilds.
Like the dragons, Thymara is also unwelcome. Born deformed with the telltale scales and claws of the Rain Wild 'affliction', she should have been exposed at birth, but her sentimental father chose to keep her alive. Now she's an adult and is becoming more and more isolated in her home; she's ostracised and needs to find a new path. The city council's decision to send the dragons off to search for their vaguely remembered city of Kelsingra is the chance Thymara needs.
Now, along with a motley bunch of other misfits, Thymara is a 'dragon keeper', charged with helping to feed, guide and care for her particular dragon. The dragons remember having 'special humans' to assist them in the past and use all their wiles to ensure their new carers dote on their every whim. But not all of the outcast Rain Wilders are unhappy to have been sent away, some are pleased to finally be away from the restrictions of their society and are hell bent on building their own new world, the dragons are just a means to an end.
Along for the ride is a Bingtown matron, newlywed Alise Finbok, who has convinced her society husband to allow her to visit the dragons. Once she discovers that they're about to set off on their own adventure, Alise tags along, much to the disgust of her chaperone, her husband's personal secretary. Alise's story is in strong contrast to Thymara’s; she comes from a privileged background and although unhappy in her marriage, is strung around with her own set of rules.
Once again Hobb has created a series of characters that capture the reader's emotions from the outset. One feels Alise's frustration at society's rules, feels Thymara's regret at leaving her father and her covert excitement at working with the dragons. One rails against the machinations of Sedric, the secretary's, devious notions and one is dying to find out if the dragons' city of Kalsingra truly exists.
Like all her work, The Dragon Keeper is a substantial work. There are numerous storylines and plots that are offered to tantalise the reader, the author knowing that the best way to keep people buying her books is to keep the reader guessing.
Hobb has a deft skill with description, explaining something in the context of her imagined world, while the reader is able to 'read through the lines' so to speak and make their own conclusions. The catastrophe that destroyed the dragons' world is, most likely, a volcano – but the word, unknown to the Rain Wilders, is never mentioned. Likewise, the changes the Rain Wilders undergo are, most likely, related to environmental poisons polluting their genetic makeup – but that's a 'real world' interpretation. Maybe it's magic?
Who cares? The completely engrossing world that Hobb has created is enough for any reader. The finely wrought detail of social mores, tree-bound living, dragon memories and legendary stories is all one needs to enjoy these books. Hobb is a classic fantasy author of stature – she is certain to go into the annals as a champion of the genre.
While, as always in fantasy, it is best if people have read the earlier books – star with The Farseer Trilogy and work outwards – The Dragon Keeper can be read as a stand-alone book. There is enough explanation to assist first-time readers. Readers who love fantasy will surely have experienced Robin Hobb before, but if you haven't, I can't recommend these books highly enough.
I was so engrossed and excited to have this book in my hands that I sat down and read it in one sitting – all through the night! And so, am equally excited to hear that the next book, Dragon Haven, is about to be released; I can't wait.

The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb is published by Harper Voyager and is available from good bookstores and online.

science-fiction with the human touch in alastair reynolds' terminal world

Alastair Reynolds is by far one of my favourite science-fiction authors writing today. There's a lot of great sci-fi out there, but unfortunately the bulk of it tends to make my head ache. Ben Bova comes to mind – all that technical science stuff is just too much.

What Reynolds does is make the technology understandable to those of us without a degree in physics, and at the same time create characters that we can still relate to. I want my heros of space to have at least some connection to humanity so that I can identify with them – I can't, no matter how hard I try, identify with a green blog of a sillicon-based alien.
So, that's why I was actually excited to get my hands on Reynold's latest – Terminal World. Set on what is possibly still Earth, or an Earth like planet, populated by generally human humanoids – with a few minor exceptions – this novel follows the story of Doctor Quillon. It is, in many ways, a road movie; complete with odd travelling companions, crazy petrol heads, an urgent reason to keep moving and vignettes of human warmth. There are also man-eating robots, mysterious civilisations, genetic wizards and an 'end of the world apocalypse'.
In Quillon's world, practically everyone is living on a space-scraping needle of a mountain named Spearpoint. It's clearly man-made but everyone has forgotten the reason why, if they ever knew it in the first place. There's a quasi-religion that believes in a sort of God in the centre of the thing, but generally people just ignore the complexity of their world and work hard on surviving.
Which is oddly hard considering people have been on the thing for around 5,000 years or so, one would have thought they could have solved most of their daily living problems by now. The thing is, only certain technologies work in certain 'zones' on Spearpoint.
So, you've got the 'Angels' who live at the very top in Circuit City, have the highest level technology and are genetically modified to have wings that enable them to fly. A bit further down you've got Neon Heights with electronics and electricity but no genetic, nano tech, followed by Steam Town – everything powered by steam, of course – and at the very bottom of Spearpoint, Horse Town – yep, animals only.
The reason for these differences in technological levels is to do with the 'zones' which are generally stable but can flux a bit around the edges. In order to travel from zone to zone you need to take 'anti-zonals' but not many people bother to move anyway.
Into Quillon's well-ordered world – he's a coroner – comes a special package; an Angel's body which had landed on Neon City's edge. However the Angel is not completely dead and imparts some unwelcome knowledge to Quillon, leaving him panicked and desperate to flee.
Which starts the whole road journey as the doctor leaves Spearpoint in fear of his life and in search of something that may help fix the problem of the zones; only he doesn't realise that this is a problem for him to fix until later in the story.
Like all Reynolds' books, Terminal World is a substantial read but unlike books in the fantasy genre that generally come in trilogies, the novel is complete in itself. Sure, there's an opportunity for a sequel build into the end, but readers won't be left wanting too much.
The prose is tight, friendly and not tech-speak dense. Explanations for the zones, the planet and Spearpoint gentle inserted into the dialogue and interactions between the characters. Quillon isn't a particularly loveable hero, nor is he swashbuckling in any real way; but he is warmly human.
The action, as with much of Reynolds' work, is fantastically written. It's well-paced, believable and makes you breathless just reading it. There are additional supporting characters that are well fleshed-out; a really great sidekick in the hard-arsed, foul-mouth, soft-hearted Meroka and a touching portrait of a young girl handed an unwelcome genetic heritage.
All in all, Terminal World is a great book. It's right up there with the work of classic sci-fi legends like Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov and well-worth reading.
As with all quality sci-fi, Reynolds' work asks us to ask questions of ourselves about where our society is heading. Will we find ourselves stuck on an anachronistic pillar to forgotten technology surrounded by a hostile and dying world in 5,000 years time? One would hope not; which is why we should all be reading more sci-fi in general and Terminal World in particular.


Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds is published by Gollancz and is available at good book stores and online.

gossip girl with vampires

Niki Bruce reviews a couple of new young adult vampire novels and discovers they're not too bad.

You knew it had to happen eventually; what with the influx of non-violent, glittering vampires of the Twilight genre, it was bound to happen.
Surprisingly though, Melissa de la Cruz' New York-based series featuring socialites as vampires – Blue Bloods (of course) – isn't that bad. The first in the series, eponymously entitled Blue Bloods and the second, Masquerade, are aimed at young adult readers, as are most vampire themed novels at the moment.
The first book introduces readers to Schuyler Van Alen, who is 15 years old, lives in a rundown, rambling old mansion and goes to a posh prep school, where she doesn't fit in as she's not blonde, busty, rich or out doing things girls her ages shouldn't really be doing. Schuyler has one real friend, a boy called Oliver, a mother in a coma, a dead father and frosty grandmother.
Naturally she's also got a crush on the hottest boy in school – who doesn't give her the time of day – and whose queen bee twin sister goes out of her way to may
ke life hard for Schuyler.
The first half of the book sets up the premise of this exclusive lifestyle with lots of references to fashion labels, bad behaviour and teenage angst – actually kind of boring unless you're a fifteen year old girl, I suppose. The second half, however, is were the supernatural steps in and the vampire motiff takes off.
Like most to the vampires being written about (and turned into film) these days, de la Cruz' vamp lack most of the drawbacks of the traditional form – this lot can endure sunlight (they head to the Caribbean for holidays), eat garlic, wear silver, drink, have sex and procreate. Although the do need blood – unlike the emasculated Twilight version – and enjoy having a number of human 'familiars' who donate. The Blue Bloods also run the local Blood Bank charity which is quietly ironic.
Schuyler discovers she's one of these 'blue bloods' but while coming to terms with that also discovers that this doesn't make her part of the cool group either – she's actually a 'half-blood'; her father was human. So, still looked down upon by her arch-enemy, Mimi Force, Schuyler can't really see any benefit to her new state. And on top of that, someone is going around killing the scions of the Blue Bloods.
There is a lot more background and explanation in Blue Bloods, explaining how these vampires came to be and why they are in America; Masquerade expands upon the mythology with details about the group's history and why they are seemingly both 'young' and yet centuries old. It's a bit complicated but de la Cruz makes it relatively believeable.
Blue Bloods and Masquerade are the first two novels of the series – de la Cruz has already got two more planned and advertised on the inside-front covers of the books; Revelations and The Van Alen Legacy. Assuming the tween set enjoys them as much as I did, the series is sure to take off.
The books are certainly not heavy reading; nor would they be defined as literature. They are, however, well-written for their genre and the character of Schuyler is feisty, punky and vulnerable. She's a much better role model for young girls than the insipid, vapid, boy-obsessed Bella (have you worked out yet that I can't stand the Twilight series?).

Blue Bloods and Masquerade are written by Melissa de la Cruz and published by Atom. These two books are available from good book stores in Singapore and the next three in the series are available online from Amazon US.

a woman's capacity to love

Niki Bruce reviews Tuscan Rose, historical fiction with a touch of magic realism.  

BELINDA Alexandra is an Australian author who has garnered wide acclaim for her novels Silver Wattle and White Gardenia, both of which have strong female protagonists, who battle the vagaries of life before triumphantly overcoming all obstacles.
 
Like her previous novels, Tuscan Rose, also features a feisty young female heroine – in this case an Italian orphan, deposited at a nunnery – who must overcome not only her lack of family, but later, the vicissitudes of World War II.

Rosa is blessed with a talent for music, nurtured by the nuns of Santo Spirito in Florence, and manages to parlay her skills into a position as a governess at the home of a local aristocrat.

At the same time, Fascism is growing in Italy and war is being whispered about in Europe. A naive young girl, Rosa, manages to get herself caught up in another person's scandal and ends up accused of something quite horrible. Packed off to jail, she is once again accosted by the nastiness of human nature.

Tuscan Rose is a mix of historical fiction, romance and coming-of-age tale. A thin thread of magic realism winds its way through the story, however, offering the story a bit more depth and imagination.

Rosa has another talent – somehow she can tell where things originated. She uses this skill throughout the story to both add mystery to her background and to move the plot along. The search for her heritage is an additional storyline, which unfortunately is rather easy to spot early on in the book. But don't worry, there's a neat twist to even it out in the conclusion.

The plot of Tuscan Rose can be read as quite simplistic, there are the accepted tropes of orphan girl thrust into the world, all unknowing, and overcoming trials and tribulations – even the language used to describe it is cliched – but the book has a saving grace (sorry, couldn't resist).

Alexandra has a lovely turn of phrase and a competent understanding of women and the way they think. There is an acceptance of Rosa's weaknesses – her tendency to be too trusting, her innocence and her fickleness in love – but there is also a celebration of her strengths. Rosa loves passionately and ruthlessly protects those she loves; she endures physical and emotion hardship without complaint and, finally, she takes her revenge coldly but not viscously.

Like women the world over and throughout history, Rosa typifies all that is honourable in a woman's capacity to love. Alexandra manages to endow Rosa with all these attributes without becoming saccharine however, which is to her credit. Rosa's story could easily have fallen into the sappy, love-story genre without the author's deft skill.

True, Tuscan Rose is no great piece of literature, but it is a good read. The historical scholarship is detailed enough to satisfy lovers of historical fiction and the romance and personalities of the characters will entertain readers looking for a gentle read.

Tuscan Rose by Belinda Alexandra is published by HarperCollins and is available from good book stores and online.

First published on The Straits Times blogs on March 02, 2010

a guilty pleasure

Niki Bruce reviews the latest novel from PS, I Love You author, Cecelia Ahern.


I HAVE to admit I'm not generally a lover of romance novels, or 'chick lit', or popular reads and, as such, tend to shy away from anything that's been talked about on Oprah or given a Woman's Weekly stamp of approval.

However, there is one author who I will forgive these tendencies – Cecelia Ahern, irish author of classic tear-jerkers like PS, I Love You (yes, the one that's been made into a film) and Where Rainbows End.

Even more annoyingly, Ms Ahern is also a former pop singer, rather pretty, has a sister married to a member of Westlife and is the daughter of a politician. So, in addition to being a writer of chick lit, I should despise her for her celeb status and refuse to read her books.

Problem is, Ahern's work is ridiculously good, particularly for her age. Her first novel, the aforementioned PS, I Love You, was number one in Ireland for 19 weeks, number one in the UK, US, Germany and even Holland. And she was only 21 when she wrote it!

Ahern manages to be romantic without being soppy; she has a modern – and obviously young – perspective of love and relationships, which has just as obviously managed to grab the zeitgeist and people's hard-earned cash.

In The Book of Tomorrow, Ahern's latest work, the central character is a young woman, Tamara Goodwin, who has been taken away from all she knows and dropped into rural Ireland with an odd aunt, a tumble-down castle and an annoyingly cheerful nun while her mother vegetates and appears to need some serious medication.

So far; so tear-jerker, right?

Not so. Tamara is horrible. She's a selfish, self-absorbed, arrogant rich-bitch girl-child who sees nothing wrong in spending the average person's weekly wage on a handbag. So, she's not a particularly sympathetic character, despite the fact that her father's just died and left Tamara and her mother destitute.

After all, it's not like they're out on the streets of Dublin, her aunt and uncle have taken them in and seem to be doing everything they can to help Tamara while her mother has a nervous breakdown in the Irish countryside.

Still, Ahern cleverly allows the reader to follow Tamara's inner monologue as she realises that she's in need of a heart and that she is really concerned about her mother's condition.

As Tamara begins to come to terms with her new life, she discovers a mysterious book – a book that will help her not only work out what's going on with her mother, but will also shed some light on a past that Tamara knows nothing about.

Plot spoiler coming up, so if you are planing to read The Book of Tomorrow, skip to the next paragraph. The book of the title is Ahern's touch of magic realism – much like the love letters of PS, I Love You, the book allows the character to move forward and, somewhat similarly, gives shape to the narrative. Without the book offering Tamara different versions of the future, she could just as easily have ended up as a dead-end character going nowhere. The trope is not particularly new, but it is cleverly handled and adds another dimension to what could have been a lack-luster 'coming of age' tale.

Right; so, the book is central to the overall plot, adding another layer of information to the novel which allows both the reader and Tamara to ask questions that move the plot along.

Again, like PS, I Love You, Ahern has managed to create characters that are both realistic and interesting. The plot twists about a bit and the supporting character's all come into their own. There is the obligitory family secret to unearth, a love interest, an embarrassing episode and some crazy people – just like everyone's life, right?

But what makes Ahern stand out from the crowd of chick lit novels is her thoroughly modern sensibility, a lovely turn of phrase and a cheeky sense of humour. You also get the impression that Ahern herself was either just like Tamara or knows girls exactly the same. There's a hint of 'insider story' in The Book of Tomorrow; particularly in the descriptions of clothes, cars, houses and lifestyles.

Still, even if Ahern comes from the same sort of privileged background, she just as obviously has grown up and away from the superficiality of celebrity; just as Tamara grows up and discovers there's more to life than a flash handbag.

The Book of Tomorrow is a guilty secret, I feel prepared to own up to. It's chick lit with life and humour and a great choice for your holiday read.

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern is published by HarperCollins and is available from good book stores and online.

First published in The Straits Times blogs on October 13, 2009

fantastic fantasy series

Niki Bruce reviews the latest round-up in long-running fantasy series.
THERE are a number of long-running fantasy series that have kept readers enthralled for years. This is a particular quirk of the genre and one of the things that ensures that fantasy will be a mainstay of publishers around the world. In the last couple of months there have been a number of new installments released and here's a bunch of brief reviews to keep fans happy.

Chasing the Dragon by Justina Robson (Gollancz)
THE story of Lila Black continues. She's back in the human world of earth, having left her demon husband behind in Hell after he went missing during their trip to the further reaches of the various dimensions. Lila is also looking for her lover, Zal. He's dead but apparently that doesn't mean she can't find him and save him. At the same time, Lila's reconstituted body — still partially human but mostly a self-evolving robot — seems to have a mind of its own, changing and adapting without any conscious input from Lila. In Lila's world, a "quantum bomb" has allowed the various dimensions of the universe to fuse together and overlap and as Lila attempts to find her men, she comes to realise that changes are still happening years after the bomb detonated. Robson's world is completely unique, and if you haven't read the first books it is kind of difficult to know what's going on. Still, this is a fantastic blend of romance, religion, science, magic and fantasy and well worth getting into.

The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (Orbit)
THE untimely death of Robert Jordan in 2007 saw fans of his epic The Wheel of Time series around the world completely devastated; after all he was in the process of writing the absolutely final installment in a series that has gone on for almost 20 years. Sanderson came to the rescue by invitation of Jordan's wife, Harriet McDougal. The Gathering Storm is actually the first book of three that will make up A Memory of Light — the final book of the series. As someone who's only dipped into the series on and off over the years, I'm hard pressed to find a definitive difference between the writerly voice of Jordan and Sanderson. Dedicated fans, however, may be able to pinpoint small differences. But for the general reader, this book continues the encompassing story of Rand al'Thor and his friends, lovers and enemies as they attempt to save the world from the Shadow. The characters are as they have always been, the convoluted plots as difficult to understand as always, the various alliances, loves and betrayals are there, as are the cryptic hints of how the story will play out. The joint-venture has generally been accepted as being successful by fans and critics and as such, will at least eventually bring the series to an end. Like most of these long-running series, there really is no way a new-comer will manage to enjoy this book without know something of what's going on. The Wheel of Time is a must-read series if you're into fantasy novels, so I recommend you start at the beginning and save this for last.

The Silver Mage by Katharine Kerr (Harper Voyager)
THIS is the seventh book in the Dragon Mage series from Kerr, an author whose fictional world of Deverry has spellbound readers of all ages for decades. Kerr is often described as a "scholarly writer" and her dedication to ancient Celtic myth, history and culture has been the backbone of all her Deverry novels. Again, like all of these long-running series, it's hard to keep track of who's who and what's what in The Silver Mage — even more so because Kerr's characters are almost always reincarnations of previous characters — apart from the elves and a few mages who manage to live for hundreds of years. Still, those following the series won't be disappointed. Kerr's renowned action and detailed plotting continue to astound — it amazes me how she keeps it all together — and the enemy Horsekin continue to harass the grasslands. The circle of time is closing once more and the plot lines are beginning to finally come together. Another great installment in the series.

A couple of newer series:

The Final Empire & The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz)
THESE are books one and two in Sanderson's Mistborn series. Sanderson (as mentioned above) has taken up the gauntlet of Robert Jordan's final The Wheel of Time series and you can clearly see where his credentials to do so come from in these books. The Final Empire starts with a world that's covered in ash and mist, separated into the Skaa, slaves, and the nobles who master them, and ruled over by an undying Lord Ruler. The Lord Ruler supposedly saved the world from; well a fate worse than the one they currently suffer presumably. But a small band of Skaa are planning a revolution and they have the help of a Mistborn — a person who can use certain metals to give them the power to be faster, stronger, smarter than ordinary people. The thing is, the Mistborn should only be nobles, but this one is Skaa. The second book follows the story of the Skaa as they try to take over the running of their kingdom after the death of the Lord Ruler — but they finally realise that they may of bitten off more than they knew; apparently the evil, repressive Lord Ruler really was protecting the world from something even worse. This is a tightly-written, well-plotted storyline with believable characters. It's clear what Jordan's wife saw in Sanderson, he's an authentic fantasy voice and writes a great read.

The Wounded Guardian & The Risen Queen by Duncan Lay (Harper Voyager)
LAY has created a classic fantasy world with a flawed hero, an idealistic princess, manipulative nobles and a smidgen of magic in The Dragon Sword Histories series. In The Wounded Guardian we meet Martil, a career soldier haunted by an event that is both his greatest battle and his worst nightmare. Known as the Butcher of Bellic, Martil is attempting to leave his name and history behind when he is tricked into taking care of a young girl. Against his will he's dragged into both protecting the girl and offering his services to a beleaguered princess about to lose her throne to evil relatives. In The Risen Queen, Martil is still tied to Queen Merren and his ward, Karia emotionally, but the burden of continually being identified as the Butcher of Berric is twisting his thoughts and he feels that he both needs to escape his current position as the bearer of the Dragon Sword, as well as his love for the Queen and his "adopted" child. These are classic fantasy tropes of anti-hero, sacrificial love and the burdens of responsibility. However, Lay has such a deft way of writing that one cares little about these generic themes and more about the outcomes for the characters. Martil is a complex man and in The Risen Queen, the action makes up for the more convoluted emotional too-ing and fro-ing. This is a great new classic fantasy series; well-worth getting your hands on.

First published on The Straits Times blogs on February 15, 2010