Review – The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack

As threatened promised I am trying to document my 2012 reading, and provide some handy reviews all at once. This first one is abit of a cheat, since I read at least half of this book in 2011, but there’s nothing like hitting the ground running, besides I’m just not that much of a pedant!

Anyway, let’s get on with this.

Its Steampunk. Its a reimagined Victorian London, complete with ludicrous fogs, steampowered bicycles, airships, mutant monsters, time travel, and rudimentary genetic engineering. It is almost as if Hodder has taken the entire genre and shovelled it, belts and braces, into this novel.

Its totally barmy, really nuts at times, but full marks to Hodder for melding a whole host of popular legends into something that is almost original. I say almost, because it doesn’t remake the mould.

What Hodder does do though, is utilise an impressive array of historical characters, subvert them to an impressive degree and then weld them into an intriguing narrative which really doesn’t make any sense until you get to the second half of the book. Which may explain why it took me a good while to properly read it. The first half does meander a little bit, almost as if Hodder had assembled such a varied and wonderful cast of characters that he then felt compelled to use all of them.

However, once we get to the crux of the matter – the true story behind Spring Heeled Jack, that is – and this has to be one of my all time favourite riffs on the time traveller idea – the story sheds its excess baggage and veritably hums along, finishing with a couple of glorious set pieces and an ending that shows Hodder is prepared to stick to his guns where the essential characteristics of his main protagonist, Richard Burton are concerned.

If I had to rate it, I’d give the first half 3/5 and the second half 4/5. Its nearly very good, but not quite.

But if you love steampunk, victoriana with a healthy does of everyone’s favourite mad scientist thrown in for good measure, you will like this book, and I would recommend it.

I am now reading this. Which is totally not steampunk, and much more cyberpunk. If that helps. Oh and the cover art is gorgeous!

(I started reading this is 2011 as well. I’ve been busy, alright!)

Happy New Year!

I guess it wouldnt be right to let this one go by without a quick post, and besides, I have been abit lax of late.

So, the novel is done.  All eighty seven thousand words of it. It needs abit of an edit, and a few bits of work done to make sure the continuity works, but otherwise, I am pretty chuffed with it. I’ve given myself until March to get it into shipshape and then I will be sending it off to a publisher, and then writing something else!

So that’s pretty exciting, and I already have a fair idea of what I will be writing next – another novel, set in the same fictional world – it seems a shame to waste what I have spent so much time building, and I know there are so many more stories I can tell within it. With any luck, and using all the lessons I have learned from writing the first one, I will have the second novel complete by the end of 2012, about the time the first one should have been rejected. Then I will have something else to send off, and if I have as much fun writing the second one as I did the first, then I know it is a worthwhile endeavour, no matter the outcome.

That is about it at the moment on the writing front. I have some work stuff coming up which is going to take up all my free time until March, so I wont have any chance of starting something new, but I think editing the novel will give me something diverting to do when I get a chance.

Lets just hope that the publishers like it as much as I do!

Oh, and I am going to try and start some sort of a reading blog this year, so keep posted for that. I literally cannot remember which books I have read this year, so I’m going to try a little harder to keep a tally.

Hope you all had a good end of 2011 and all the best for 2012!

This is how it works….

71000 words.  SEVENTY ONE THOUSAND WORDS.

That’s a lot of words. Someone is going to have to edit those words. And it’s not finished yet. Christmas is still doable. Just. If I work hard, and if I stop playing Skyrim!

 

reblogged from http://tragictimezone.tumblr.com

for context

 

Skyrim… (contains mild spoilers)

This was a terrible mistake.

The wooden cart rattles and bumps down a bumpy track through thick woodland. I look down – my hands are bound in front of me.

Remember what happened last time?

I look up. There are three other men on the back of the cart, all restrained. An armed guard sits at the front of the cart, holding the reigns in his hands. The glint of steel shimmers in the morning sunlight at his hip. Another armed guard rides behind us, equally armed.

I warned you about this. This was a bad idea.

‘Chances are, we are going to our deaths.’

Chances are, my social life is going to its death. But what about the rest of your life? You are meant to be at work, remember? Remember what happened with Oblivion?

On the executioners block, I look up into the blade of the executioners axe as it catches a ray of sunlight. It would be beautiful, were it not for the gravity of the situation – my impending doom.

I think the word is serendipity.

All of a sudden there is a bestial, primeval roar on the wind, and a vast shadow blocks out the sun. A dragon! Fire blasts apart my would be executioners and I run, mingling with the crowds of fleeing soldiers into the relative safety of a nearby stone walled keep. I can hear the men left outside screaming as they burn and die. I find a sword and a willing companion slices through my bonds. I have escaped!

I haven’t escaped. This is only the beginning…

Black Library link and ooh, its November

Black Library kindly linked to my review of The Gildar Rift by Sarah Cawkwell – so thanks for that, and I hope everyone who came along to have a look liked what they saw.

I was flicking through old blog posts, and realised I wrote that I was surprised it was May already.

Well, now its November, and my surprise has turned into mild shock. I have absolutely no idea where the last ten months have gone! Not to worry, plenty more coming along.

Course, last weekend the clocks went back, plunging us into darkness for the sake of a few scant moments of daylight in the morning. Today it got light at 7am and was pitch black by 5. Winter sucks, basically.

I have been at work all week, so writing output has been minimal, but hopefully next week I’ll get back on track. I have 20k or so words to go, and I have finally figured out the path for my heroine to take that will bring her up to the (hopefully) climatic ending. So I’m pretty pleased about that, and it is entirely conceivable that I will get that done by Christmas, freeing me up for a few months editing in time for my speculative completion date in March. Its been a fascinating journey, and with luck the lessons I have learnt from writing this one will make the next one alot smoother (and yes, I already have an idea for that)

Hopefully I will find time to blog about those issues, and how I have managed to deal with them.

Meanwhile, this song and video are oddly entrancing.

Earshit, writing and the Bloghole

Only a short post this.

I have, I think, finally cracked it. Or cracked up. After three years of “trying” I think I nearly have the workings of an actual novel in my hands. Well, on my laptop, but that is not the point.

59000 words of text, the majority of which I have churned out in the past couple of months, and it has a plot, and a world, and some characters, and a storyline thing. Its not finished, and it needs a serious edit, but I am still pretty happy and pretty proud of what I have managed to achieve so far.

With luck, but mainly with graft, I should have the first draft finished by christmas. Which is cause for a celebration, and a huge sigh of relief. Not sure which order.  Anyway, I am, as you can tell, pretty excited by the prospect.

In other news, the Black Library Bolthole is now in its, uh, third incarnation. or at least it soon will be. Sarah Cawkwell decided/realised that one can’t really write books for the Black Library and look after a fansite and have a fulltime job and have some semblance of a real life. I think the main delay in her realising this was the fact that she didnt have any time to realise it.

So a few of the rest of us have picked up the slack, made a few tweaks but to be honest, the site will continue in very much the same vein as before.  We have reached out tentatively onto twitter ( @BlBolthole) and soon there will also be a blog… which will inevitably be called The Bloghole… which should be pretty fun.

Anyway, thats all.

And I leave you with this, unedited, extract from my novel.

“Albert slid agilely into the booth opposite me, and ordered tea. The waiter left a couple of lunch menus and then retreated back to the bar. I waited until he was safely out of earshit.”

That’s gotta be worse than earwax!

Review – The Gildar Rift

Huron Blackheart hands out some pain.

I’ll come clean with you. I’ve been pretty excited about reading this book for a long time. I know the author, y’see and I knew she was writing it, knew she was putting everything into it.  So to finally get to pick up a copy of it last Saturday and flick through it was pretty exciting for me (it must have been unbelievable for her)

Of course, knowing the author makes writing a review a potentially awkward experience… what if I didn’t like the book?! I know Sarah would take all criticism well, but still, its her first novel. Its a big thing.  I did, however, promise her an honest review. So I’ll do my best.

All of this and more was going through my mind as I picked up the book and started reading it.  Now I know a lot of you won’t have had an opportunity to read it yet, so I can assure you that there will be no pesky spoilers in what follows.

The Gildar Rift is part of the Space Marine Battles series of books. Which was of mild concern for me, since battles don’t always make the best stories – I think it puts more pressure on the author to deliver a balanced tale, and develop characters who have personalities in their own right, without just relying on their abilities on the field of war.

However, I have read (all) of the Silver Skulls short stories Sarah has written for the Black Library’s Hammer and Bolter eZine, and I knew they were all very good.

So I was confident that I’d enjoy it.

And The Gildar Rift did not let me down.

It tracks the efforts of the Silver Skulls Space Marines in taking on, and attempting to defeat a force of chaos renegades – the Red Corsairs led by Huron Blackheart himself through the tumultuous Gildar Rift area of Imperial Space.

I shan’t give away what happens – and that is right – because up until the final third you won’t know what is going to happen, who is going to live or die, and ultimately, considering this is a Space Marine battles book, which side is going to come out on top.

Which makes for a brilliant, edge of the seat read. And the enjoyment doesn’t end there. Space Marines are not known for their human qualities – but Cawkwell’s Marines do what they can with what’s left, and each marine, both loyalist and traitor, are sketched out in glorious emotive detail. I rather enjoyed the fury of the Silver Skulls Captain in the face of the chaotic incursion, to give but one example.

And this attention to character pays off in the long run. You find yourself genuinely caring about the individual characters, which leads up to some genuinely emotional scenes in the book’s final third. I didn’t shed a tear or anything – but considering this is a book about war between super-engineered post human killing machines, it was a pretty good effort.

At 411 pages, The Gildar Rift is a little longer than the average BL novel, and you even get some handy maps in the middle – although it is a testament to Cawkwell’s clear writing style that I didnt have to refer to them to follow the action.  Which is good – cos I like maps – but there is nothing worse than having to refer to the map just to figure out what is going on!

So, to sum up, before I go off on another tangent, I really enjoyed The Gildar Rift. It was diverting, mercifully free of cliches and ultimately very enjoyable – which is, I think, the whole point.

Chalk one up to the Black Library’s first female full-length novelist.

9/11

Just that.  We all know where we were then.  And to be honest, ten years hasnt made it much better.  I am merely thankful I didnt lose anyone that day.

But that doesnt make it any less horrendous an event.

I only hope that I never see anything so horrific in the rest of my days.

I’m sure everyone has taken a moment today to think about it.

Take care.

And now its September

September is a funny month.  The end of the summer, the start of autumn, the start of a new term for all of those in academia and thus an end to the freedoms of the holiday period.

It’s not the same as you get older though.  Summer holidays, for those of us without children, signal instead a slight lapsing of traffic on the roads and a sudden influx of children in the local park, in the zoo and the cinema.

This blog isnt about what I do for a living.  And its like that for a reason.  But suffice to say, for me the “holiday” period has been stupidly busy. And so I am actually now looking forward to the holiday I do have planned in September when I shall escape to San Francisco and re-acquaint myself with my own wife!

Suffice to say, my job is both physically and emotionally demanding and so I am looking forward to a decent break.

I’m also hoping that when things get back to normal I might actually find sometime to do some writing.  I had planned to re-write Finch so I can try and sell it, but like everything else in my life that has also been on hold.

Meanwhile, from Sweden. I Break Horses!

New post, new theme, new photo

Its been a while… I am definitely 27 now.  So I thought a new theme and a new header photo were in order – this one is Brighton, btw.  The pier what burned down!

It is now August, well basically, which means the summer is threatening to run out.  But thats ok.  I have loads to look forward to in the next few months, including a tremendously exciting trip to san francisco!

But, more on topic with this blog, here are some quite fantastic books I literally cannot wait to read.

The Gildar Rift by Sarah Cawkwell http://amzn.to/p8rjnW an author I have actually met, and a book I am very excited to read as a result – she is lovely and her writing is top notch.  Apparently this one will be available to buy at Games Day UK… I’m not going, but I hope that won’t stop me!

Cold Commands by Richard Morgan http://amzn.to/ncGIRg probably my favourite author ever, this continues his uncompromising, unrelenting fantasy series started in The Steel Remains.  if you haven’t read it, then read it.  Do it now!

The Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding http://amzn.to/pN8KyK this guy has written some brilliant fiction which, if I’m honest is probably abit of a young adult/adult crossover.  But since that hasn’t stopped me enjoying the last two books in the series, it won’t stop me buying and no doubt enjoying this one as well.

And that, given my current level of reading, should take me up to Christmas. (Seriously, I have like no time to read at the moment)

In other news, the Black Library submissions window closes today, so good luck to everyone who took a shot at getting published.  I sent off two entries.  Based on previous efforts, I’m not especially confident. Hopefully I am in for a pleasant surprise.

I also have the opening four chapters of my own novel, set in my own world and featuring my own characters and bizarre take on basically everything.  I am really enjoying writing it, but as with the reading, finding time of late has proven rather difficult!  I know already that August is a write off, as is September, but hopefully as the winter draws in, I will find more time to hunch over my keyboard and put away the words.

This is the longest and probably dullest blog post ever.  I hope you are well.