This is another new author for me. I’d been reading good things about Tony Richards short stories so when the usually reliable Elastic Press brought out this title I reckoned it was as good a book as any to sample his work. And very impressive it is too. While Tony writes within the horror genre he has a varied approach to his stories, with some even incorporating science fiction elements. I’ll certainly be checking out future collections of his work, starting with the ones from Pendragon Press and Gray Friar Press.
I first read a couple of Garry’s stories in PS Publishing’s Postscripts magazine and they made me want to read more. So when PS had their half price sale last year I thought to myself, “I’m having that Moby Jack collection”. Garry seems totally comfortable writing in any genre, which made reading this such a delight; it’s like a story banquet, with each successive tale revealing yet another facet of his very active and fertile imagination. And it’s a beautifully presented hardback too.
Part mystery, part social commentary, the story revolves around the central character, Tsuneo, who feels trapped by the expected behaviours of his culture, having had different experiences during a trip to the USA some years previously. The events of that trip gradually unfold as he also tries to make sense of the woman’s voice he starts hearing. It’s a short novel, which I enjoyed while it lasted, but it seemed to end rather suddenly and part of the mystery voice plot thread I thought was left relatively unexplained.
Back on the 23 June I posted that Orbit Books would be holding a short email-based Q&A session with Mr Banks. A half dozen questions were picked by the staff and Iain’s answers have been posted. And yay, one of them was mine.
Just in case anybody is wondering why some of the pics in my posts are missing, primarily the reading update book covers, WordPress.com are having a problem with the Amazon S3 service they use for image hosting. I won’t pretend to know what that means but if the images are missing that’s the cause.
Hardwired – Walter Jon Williams – 1986 – Night Shade Books
Originally published in 1986 and re-issued by Night Shade Books in 2006 this is a great piece of cyberpunk SF. Chock full of invented terminology chucked at the reader with no explanation but which we instinctively grasp the meaning of, the frenetic pacing pulls us through the mayhem that unfolds. It may be over 20 years old but the book doesn’t feel dated, despite cyberpunk as a sub-genre being apparently a spent force.
Another great horror novella from Humdrumming, this time laced with a healthy dose of dark humour. One of the funniest books I’ve read, with the two central characters, the unlikeliest of investigators, getting into some hilarious scrapes and with some very witty dialogue. This needs to be made into a TV show; perhaps with Mr Adams himself playing Max Jackson?
Going by the numerous online reviews there are those who love this book and those who hate it. Well, put me in the former category. Right from page 1 the pace doesn’t let up, well apart from about five pages in the middle, as the plot unfolds at breakneck speed. It’s a very violent future society, in which living past 30 is highly unusual. With loads of gunfire, explosions, bloodshed and swearing, this is 365 pages of pure fun.
Boffins at the University of Nottingham in England have been busy putting together some short videos to cover every element in the Periodic Table. These are available on You Tube but can also be accessed by clicking on the appropriate element on the table on their dedicated site. It’s a while since I did chemistry at school so I might just check out some of them to refresh my memory, and find out more about those obscure ones most of us know very little, if anything, about.
Back in April I posted that the new thriller from Michael Marshall will be called Bad Things. The cover artwork appears to have been finalised, although the original October release has been put back to January 2009. Must be all that work Mike has on. Anyway, you can read more about Bad Things on Harper Collins website.
The Book Show on Sky Arts has a You Tube channel with snippets from their shows available in decent picture quality. Part of the show has writers giving us tours of where they write, and back in March the show featured Iain Banks.
