Books What I Like

The Graveyard Team by Gerald Seymour

2012-01-09T23:00:00.001Z

I've just found this blurb for a new Gerald Seymour novel on Amazon UK:

They used to meet for a smoke behind the MI5 building. They were disbanded after the death of the youngest member of their team at the hands of a Russian gangster. Now, suddenly, the Graveyard Team is being called back together.

Word is that the ganster is staying at a villa in Spain - the Costa del Sol being a multi-billion dollar hub in the worldwide drug trade.

Winnie Monks has never forgotten - or forgiven - the murder of her agent. Now she asks permission to put a photo surveillance unit in the empty house next door to the villa, not mentioning that she is also sending one of the Graveyard Team - Sparky the sniper.

In another part of London, likeable young man Jonno is starting a relationship with a girl called Polly. They are offered the chance to spend a week in a little house belonging to family friends on the Costa del Sol. A house that MI5 thinks is empty . . .

The Graveyard Team is vintage Seymour: action, suspense, brilliant characterisation and fascinating insight into a full-scale war - the war against organised crime, which is happening all around us. every day.

The Graveyard Team is due for publication in July.

Books for 2012

2011-12-18T13:04:00.001Z

Here's a quick look at some of the books I'll be reading in the early part of 2012.

On 29 January the new science fiction novel by Alastair Reynolds, Blue Remembered Earth, comes out. Reynolds is probably my joint favourite science fiction author right now along with Stephen Baxter. It's been a couple of years since his last novel so I'll looking forward to the new one, Blue Remembered Earth.

On 16 February From the Deep of the Dark, Stephen Hunt's sixth Jackelian steampunk adventure appears. This one seems to involve a submarine adventure which bodes well as my favourite of the previous books, The Kingdon Beyond the Waves, involved a similar odyssey.

On 13 March An American Spy, Olen Steinhauer's third thriller in the Milo Weaver series comes out. Steinhauer quickly became a facourite author and I'm looking forward to this one.

On 29 March the new spy novel by Charles Cumming, A Foreign Affair, comes out. I quite enjoyed his last novel, The Trinity Six, so I hope this ones is as good. Harper are also reprinting two of his first three paperbacks on the same day so I'll be glad for a chance to get them as well.

As previously mentioned in another post The Thief, the fourth collabaration between Clive Cussler and Justin Scott, The Thief, comes out on 1 March.

Finally on 26 April The Wind Through the Keyhole, the eighth book in Stephen King's epic Dark Tower series comes out. Well, it's not actually the eighth book as it's set between the present books four and five. I bcame a big fan of the original books back in 2003 and it will be a pleasure to return to mid-world and met up with Roland and his ka-tet again.

Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr

2011-11-07T21:00:00.004Z

I've just finished Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr. I believe this is the eighth book in his Bernie Gunther series, although it's only the third one I've read, following If the Dead Rise Not and Field Grey. I had read a couple of his earlier novels back in the 1990s, namely Gridiron and The Second Angel, both of which could be described as high-tech thrillers not a million miles from that pioneered by Michael Crichton.

The Gunther series however is mainly set in 1930s and 1940s Germany and features Berlin Cop Bernie Gunther and his struggles to solve crime while avoiding pandering to the excesses of Nazi Germany. The two previous books jumped around in time a little between 1930s Germany and 1950s Cuba.

Prague Fatale is a lot more focused and is set mainly in 1941 in Berlin and Prague. Gunther is back from "the east" and is investigating the murder of a Dutch worker. He gets sidetracked when he has to rescue a lady who is attacked while delivering a mysterious letter in the middle of the blackout. Gunther is trying to work out what connection she has, if any, to a spy ring when he gets called away to Prague at the behest of Reinhard Heydrich where the Nazi top brass are staying at Heydrich's house.

While in Prague one of Heydrich's adjutants is found dead in a locked room with bullet woulds to his body but the shell casings in the hall. Gunther must solve the murder and is told to treat everyone as a suspect regardless of their rank or affiliation to the Nazi party, a task he is uniquely suited for as he detests the party.

Of course there is more to the investigation than meets the eye and Gunther soon realises that the murder may be connected to a hunt for a traitor who is supplying secrets to the Czech resistance.

The Gunther novels are beginning to turn into a favourite read of mine. I still have the five earlier ones to read while waiting for the next one. Recommended.

A Justin Scott "Isaac Bell" series checklist

2011-10-27T21:23:00.000+01:00

In what seems a very short space of time author Justin Scott has produced quite a few books in the Isaac Bell series along with Clive Cussler.

The books are set in the early years of the 20th century and feature the adventures of Van Dorn agency detective Isaac Bell.

While the books have "Clive Cussler" in Really Big Letters on the covers I suspect the actual writing was dong by Justin Scott. Honestly he deservers at least equal billing as he's been producing quality thrillers for years such as The Shipkiller, Normande Triangle and A Pride of Royals, all of which are among my favourite novels.

The Bell series actually started with The Chase authored by Clive Cussler alone. This was followed by Justin Scott collaborations The Wrecker in 2009 and The Spy in 2010.

Today is the official publication date of The Race, at least in hardback in the UK I note that the trade paperback appeared in bookshops last month.

However Amazon and other sites are already listing the next in the series, The Thief, for publication as early as March 2012.

All the UK editions feature striking cover art by Larry Rostant. I quite enjoy how the art focuses on early 1900s tenchonlguy such as the steam engine, the dreadnought, an early aeroplane and what I assume is the Mauretania on The Thief as it's mentioned in the blurb.

Given the setting opf the books there are inevetiable hints of the tensions between the great powers of the time and the drift towards war. The books are essentuiall adventure stories however Scott also includes a nice amount of period detail such as a turn of phrase. I also have detected at least one mention of a character from one of his own books, namely the main character from A Pride of Royals which is set not long after the Bell books.

Alien Vault by Ian Nathan

2011-09-09T21:14:00.002+01:00

I just discovered the existence of this book this evening and as soon as I did I ordered a copy. It promises to be the definitive account of the making of the first Alien movie with lots of previously unseen photos and pre-production art.

It also includes ten 'arifacts' such as a Nostromo blueprint and sticker, storyboard art, Giger illustrations and an example of a page from the script.

I don't know how news about this escaped me. I look forward to it. All other priorities rescinded.

A Deniable Death by Gerald Seymour

2011-08-19T15:33:00.004+01:00

Abigail Jones, aka Alpha Juliette, is an MI6 agent in Iraq. She develops some sources across the border in Iran that help her identify the engineer who is developing the sophisticated IEDs that are causing so much death and injury to allied troops in Iraq and Afganistan. She also learns that the engineer’s wife is seriously ill and will be travelling to seek medical expertise outside Iran. If MI6 knows where they will be travelling then they can “interdict” the engineer with help from the Americans and the Israelis.

But the sources inside Iran are killed and so an alternative method of finding out the destination is needed. The decision is made to send in two experts in CROP - Covert Rural Observation Posts. They will set up position near the engineer’s house and listen with a microphone for the all important destination.

The two men picked are nicknamed Badger and Foxy. They have never worked together before and take an instant dislike to each other. Badger is young and has a natural talent for the role of a “croppie”.Foxy is older, more experienced and most importantly he knows Farsi.

However Foxy is also a little full of his own self importance. For example as he lies in the hide he imagines working the experience into an anecdote in his next lecture.

The novel describes their covert entry into Iran and vividly describes their experiences in the mosquito ridden marshes as they wait, watching and listening for any hint of where the engineer and his wife will be travelling. Across the border Abigail Jones waits with her protection team to help extract Badger and Foxy as curious locals edge closer.

In typical Seymour fashion the “opposition” are not faceless and evil. We get to know the engineer, his wife and their security “goon” Mansoor. We get to know the motivations of each and sympathize a little despite their actions.

Gerald Seymour routinely turns out high quality work but every now and then one of the books is exceptional. I think this is one of the exceptional ones. The final section of the book is agonisingly tense.

The book is bookended by descriptions of repatriations of British service personnel through the town of Wootton Bassett. In another author’s hands the passages would feel like extraneous material inserted for their topicality. It’s hard to imagine this book without them.

New covers for Sharpe 30th Anniversary

2011-08-11T13:31:00.000+01:00

I've just spotted some of these new Sharpe editions down in my local Waterstones. (Amazon have the relase date as 15 September so I guess they are jumping the gun.)

It's 30 years since Bernard Cornwell's first Richard Sharpe novel, Sharpe's Eagle, was published. To mark the occasion HarperCollins are releasing new paperbacks with a retro nineteenth century design.

I'm a big fan of the Gino d'Achille and David Scutt art on the covers of previous editions but I quite like the new design.

A Deniable Death out now

2011-08-04T14:03:00.000+01:00

A Deniable Death is officially out today in hardback and trade paperback editions. I actually saw the softcover edition a week ago in Easons but decided to hold on for a week to get the hardcover edition, especially since both versions are identically priced.

Tesco are offering the hardback edition for £8, which is where I got my copy. I suspect Asda and Sainsburys will also be selling the book but I have not had a chance to check yet.

Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard

2011-07-26T22:56:00.001+01:00

Just published is another movie tie-in from an author I've been meaning to read, namely Conan the Barbarian by Robert E. Howard.

This is actually a collection of some Conan short stories "personally selected by the makers of the new film and the greatest Robert E. Howard scholars". In any case it should prove to be a good introduction to the character.

The book features some movie art on the cover.

The movie itself stars Jason Momoa, following in Arnold's footsteps, as Conan. I know him from Stargate Atlantis which was a favourite TV show of mine. Here's another of the movie posters designs.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carre

2011-07-26T21:29:00.001+01:00

I must confess that I have yet to read any of John le Carre's novels. I'll make a special effort to read his Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which is being reissued to tie-in with the new movie staring Gary Oldman as George Smiley.

The paperback is due out on 4 August 2011.

Olen Steinhauer Kindle bargains

2011-07-23T22:56:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note about a couple of bargains I found on Amazon UK's Kindle store, namely Olen Steinhauer's The Nearest Exit and the spy story collection Agents of Treachery for just 99p each.

www.amazon.co.uk

Bloodmoney by David Ignatius

2011-07-01T19:54:00.000+01:00

Recently I read the new hardcover novel by David Ignatius, Bloodmoney, and thought it worth a mention here. Ignatius is perhaps best known for his novel Body of Lies as it was made into a movie by Ridley Scott a few years ago.

Bloodmoney is a present-day thriller, mainly dealing with the relationship between the American and Pakistani intelligence agencies. The plot deals with a secret off-shoot of the CIA that is sending off-the-books agents into Pakistan to bribe local warlords to stay out of the fight. Somehow the agents are being identified and picked off one by one.

Sophie Marx is given the job of tracking down the leak or mole responsible for blowing the identities of the agents. Along the way she discovers the unusual method being used to fund the bribery operation.

As a nice departure from the norm, the main "villain" is not some crazed terrorist looking to destroy the west. He's a university professor who's family was killed in a US drone attack and he is trying to balance the scales a little.

Overall the book was an entertaining enough read. I'm not a big fan of what I call "da Vinci Clones" and serial killer books so it's nice that there are still some authors out there writing espionage thrillers.

Faber & Faber Secrets and Lies

2011-07-01T19:37:00.000+01:00

While browsing a local bookshop I spotted these eye-catching covers from Faber & Faber's "Secrets and Lies" themed series.

There are eight books in the series and two of them are books I've been intending to read for a while, namely Resistance by Owen Sheers and The Observations by Jane Harris.

You can see all the books in the series at http://www.faber.co.uk/list/secrets-and-lies/

John Gardner's James Bond reissues

2011-06-11T22:48:00.001+01:00

I've just read that Orion are reprinting John Gardner's James Bond novels to mark the 30th anniversary of the publication of Licence Renewed in 1981.

The first five novels, Licence Renewed, For Special Services, Icebreaker, Role of Honour and Nobody Lives Forever, will get new hardback editions complete with their original classy cover artwork from the 1980s that was designed to match the cover designs of Fleming's hardbacks from the 1960s. The hardbacks will be out in June and July 2011.

Later all the books will get new paperback editions which is welcome as I believe they have been out of print since that late 1990s.

The Gardner Bonds are probably a littl bit underrated and it will be good to go back and reevaluate them. I suspect I'll be buying at least a few of the new editions.

http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/news/orion-publishing-group-celebrates-30th-anniversary-of-john-gardner-s-james-bond-titles

Carte Blanche review

2011-05-30T15:38:00.002+01:00

As mentioned in a previous post the new James Bond novel by Jeffery Deaver, Carte Blanche, was published on 26 May. I managed to find a hardback copy in my local branch of Tescos for £5.00, a price I was quite happy to pay. I read the novel of the weekend and here are my initial impressions.

The book itself is very nicely presented. There is a nice glossy '007' embossed on the front cover and the dust-jacket has a pleasing satin finish. At around 428 pages the novel is quite a bit longer than previous Bond novels.

The character of Bond has been moved to the present day. He is now a veteran of Afghanistan and works for an organisation called the ODG, which is attached to MI6. A lot of Bond characters make appearances such as M, Miss Moneypenny (albeit briefly), Mary Goodnight and Felix Leiter. Q Branch still exists although there is no Major Boothroyd.

The story concerns an intercepted message that suggests an attack on British interests will take place at the end of the week, resulting in the deaths of thousands. Bond has to investigate and find out who the players are and what the plot is.

There are four main settings: Serbia, the UK, Dubai and South Africa. I thought there was relatively little time spent in Dubai considering how the book was being trailed as being set there. I think I probably enjoyed the early UK-set parts of the book more than the latter parts, maybe because of the passages describing Bond's thoughts on his appealing colleague Philly. I do have to say that I think Deaver has got Bond's 'voice' spot-on.

And there are definitely little touches of Fleming in the book, for example when describing Bond's Bentley thus:

'It had always been his goal to own one of the stately yet wickedly fast and clever vehicles.'

When I read lines like that I just smile.

If I have any complaints they would relate to some of the slightly contrived misdirection and that there were not enough 'Fleming' style chapter titles. As I read the book I thought up quite a few suitable ones.
It must be noted that the American Deaver must have done a lot of research on British pop culture. Top Gear, The Two Ronnies and ASDA all get a mention. The only 'mistake' I picked up was one reference to 'Dr Who' instead of 'Doctor Who'.

Overall it was a very enjoyable read and I would not object to seeing Mr Deaver's name on the next Bond novel, whenever that may be!

Carte Blanche for a fiver

2011-05-26T16:16:00.001+01:00

Today Carte Blanche, the new James Bond novel by Jeffrey Deaver, is published. Some shops are selling it for half price, however I managed to buy a copy in my local Tescos for a mere £5.00, or 75% off the RRP.

Other new books out this week that caught my eye include the new Jason Bourne novel The Bourne Dominion by Eric Lustbader, the paperback of The Dealer and the Dead by Gerald Seymour and the paperback of Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

LUTHER: The Calling by Neil Cross

2011-05-03T23:42:00.001+01:00

Last year a new detective show appeared on the BBC called Luther. I quite enjoyed it so it's interesting to see that the creator of the show has written a novel about the character. It's due for publication in the UK (in proper hardback!) on 4 August.

Meet Detective Chief Inspector John Luther. He's a murder detective. A near-genius. He's brilliant; he's intense; he's instinctive. He's obsessional. He's dangerous. DCI John Luther has an extraordinary clearance rate. He commands outstanding loyalty from friends and colleagues. Nobody who ever stood at his side has a bad word to say about him. And yet there are rumours that DCI Luther is bad - not corrupt, not on the take, but tormented. Luther seethes with a hidden fury that at times he can barely control. Sometimes it sends him to the brink of madness, making him do things he shouldn't; things way beyond the limits of the law. Luther: The Calling, the first in a new series of novels featuring DCI John Luther, takes us into Luther's past and into his mind. It is the story of the case that tore his personal and professional relationships apart and propelled him over the precipice. Beyond fury, beyond vengeance. All the way to murder...

Gerald Seymour's A Deniable Death cover

2011-04-17T22:03:00.001+01:00

A cover image for A Deniable Death has turned up on Amazon UK.

Frederick Forsyth reissues

2011-04-13T20:08:00.000+01:00

Over the weekend I noticed a new paperback edition of Frederick Forsyth's first novel The Day of the Jackal in the shops, featuring the words "40th Anniversary Edition" prominently on the cover. I realised that I had never read the book or bought a copy before so I decided to get it.

Nice shiny book, but I was expecting perhaps a new introduction by Forsyth or some other new content to explain why the book is considered such a milestone in thriller writing. Alas no. Still, I'm a quarter way in and it's a good read.

Searching online it appears that Arrow are also reissuing his other earlier novels including The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative and The Fourth Protocol. Also included in the range are No Comebacks, a short story collection and his short novel The Shepherd.

The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming

2011-03-06T12:34:00.000Z

I've just finished my first novel by Charles Cumming, titled The Trinity Six. This is the fifth novel by this author and it belongs very much in the spy genre. This makes a nice change from the usual Di Vinci Clones and serial killer epics that are presently filling up the shelves of the bookshops I visit.

The book is set in the present day with Sam Gaddis, an English academic and expert on Russia, finding himself in financial trouble. He needs to write a best-seller instead of his usual dry tomes. He comes across the theory that there was a sixth doube agent called Eddie Crane who was spying for the Russians during the Cold War. Apparently Crane's death was faked in 1992 and he has been living under another identity ever since. Gaddis starts the detective work.

Eventually he encounters a contemporary of Crane who starts revealing some details to Gaddis. Meanwhile otyher people who know of Crane's faked death are being eliminated, apparently be the Russians. It would appear that Crane has knowledge of a secret with implications to the relationship between the UK and Russia.

This was an entertaining novel and was quite well written. While not action packed it did feature a increasingly paranoid Gaddis traveling around Europe trying to get to the bottom of things while avoiding the Russian assassins and potential MI6 interference.

In time I will be checking out the author's other four novels.

Gerald Seymour update

2011-02-20T15:58:00.001Z

Thanks to Brian for alerting me that the release date for the next Gerald Seymour hardback has been put back slightly. A Deniable Death is now due for release on 4 August 2011.

Source: www.amazon.co.uk

The paperback of last year's The Dealer and the Dead is due out on 26 May 2011 from Hodder paperbacks and Amazon have the following cover image up.

The Afrika Reich by Guy Saville

2011-02-15T21:56:00.000Z

I'm a fan of alternate history novels and there's a new book out this week called The Afrika Reich by Guy Saville that looks to be in the mold of The Man in the High Castle, SS-GB and Fatherland.

1952. It is more than a decade since the Dunkirk fiasco marked the end of Britain’s war and an uneasy peace with Hitler.

In Africa, the swastika flies from the Sahara to the Indian Ocean. Gleaming autobahns bisect the jungle and jet fighters patrol the skies. Britain and the Nazis have divided the continent but now the demonic plans of Walter Hochburg – architect of Nazi Africa – threaten Britain’s ailing colonies.

In England, ex-mercenary Burton Cole is offered one last contract. Burton grabs the chance to settle an old score with Hochburg, despite his own misgivings and the protests of the woman he loves. If Burton fails, unimaginable horrors will be unleashed in Africa. No one – black or white – will be spared.

But when his mission turns to disaster, Burton is forced to flee for his life.

His flight takes him from the unholy killing ground of Kongo to SS slave camps and on to war-torn Angola, finally reaching its thrilling climax in a conspiracy that leads to the dark heart of the Reich itself.

Guy Saville has combined meticulous research with edge-of-the seat suspense to produce a superb novel of alternate history.

Source: www.amazon.co.uk

The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett

2011-02-15T21:38:00.000Z

Discovered an interesting sounding book due out in April called The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett.

The year is 1919. The McNaughton Corporation is the pinnacle of American industry. They built the guns that won the Great War before it even began. They built the airships that tie the world together. And, above all, they built Evesden — a shining metropolis, the best that the world has to offer.

But something is rotten at the heart of the city. Deep underground, a trolley car pulls into a station with eleven dead bodies inside. Four minutes before, the victims were seen boarding at the previous station. Eleven men and women butchered by hand in the blink of an eye. All are dead. And all are union.

Now, one man, Cyril Hayes, must fix this. There is a dark secret behind the inventions of McNaughton, and with a war brewing between the executives and the workers, the truth must be discovered before the whole city burns. Caught between the union and the company, between the police and the victims, Hayes must uncover the mystery before it kills him.

Source: www.orbitbooks.net

James Bond in Jeffery Deaver's Carte Blanche

2011-01-19T20:54:00.001Z

According to Amazon it looks like the new james bond novel by Jeffery Deaver is to be called Carte Blanche.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Carte-Blnche-Jeffery-Deaver/dp/1444716476/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295469761&sr=1-1

The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer

2011-01-03T17:13:00.000Z

Over the Christmas break I made sure to read the latest Olen Steinhauer thriller, The Nearest Exit. This is the author's seventh novel and the second to feature his "Tourist" hero Milo Weaver, who works for the Department of Tourism, a super-secret branch of American intelligence.

This book follows on a number of months after the events of The Tourist where Milo discovered that his Department was responsible for an assassination in Sudan. The repercussions of this event form the background to the new book.

Since then Milo, estranged from his family back in America, has been doing some low-key missions as he is reintroduced into the fold. Now after being ordered to kill a teenage girl in Germany he discovered he has to disobey orders.

And if that's not enough to keep him busy it then transpires that Chinese intelligence may have uncovered information about the Department and the identities of its agents.

I really enjoyed this book. Steinhauer has quickly become one of my favourite thriller authors. I'll be reading the rest of his backlist in 2011 and looking forward to novel number eight.

Aurelio Zen novels by Michael Dibdin - TV tie-ins

2011-01-03T16:52:00.000Z

The BBC is broadcasting adaptations of the first three Aurelio Zen Italian-set mysteries by Michael Dibdin, namely Ratking, Vendetta and Cabal. This is an author I have noticed on the shelves for many years but never got around to reading any of the books. I'll rectify that now.

The first three novels have been given Rufus Sewell covers (he's playing Zen) and are out now.

It seems that Ratking is the first in the series although the BBC has broadcast Vendetta as the first episode.

A Deniable Death by Gerald Seymour

2010-12-20T23:13:00.000Z

For a while Amazon have had a listing for an untitled Gerald Seymour novel due out next summer. Tonight I noticed that they have added a description...

C.R.O.P.: Covert Rural Observation Posts are places where men like Danny ‘Badger’ Baxter hide for endless, motionless hours, secretly recording criminal or terrorist activity.

But now Badger has a bigger job than photographing dissident Republicans in muddy Ulster fields or Islamic extremists on rainswept Yorkshire moors.

I.E.D.: Improvised Explosive Devices are the roadside bombs which account for 80% of British casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

MI6 have a plan to assassinate the leading maker of these weapons when he leaves his house in Iran to visit Europe. But first, they need to know when he is leaving, and where he is going.So it is that Badger finds himself on the wrong side of the Iranian border, lumbered with a partner he loathes, lying under a merciless sun in a mosquito-infested marsh, observing the house. And knowing that if they are caught, Her Majesty’s Government will deny all knowledge of them.

Welcome to A Deniable Death.

I am assuming A Deniable Death is the title. The publication date is currently 7 July 2011.

Olen Steinhauer

2010-12-05T17:23:00.000Z

One of my new "discoveries" this year has been an author called Olen Steinhauer. To date I believe he's written seven books and I've now read three of them.

The first one I read is his most recent paperback. The Tourist (2009) is a post-9/11 thriller set in the world of CIA operatives who are known as Tourists. The main character, Milo Weaver, is a former Tourist who on the face of things is hunting for an assassin. However things get complicated. The book is actually not that action-packed and is more of a character piece with some twisty plot developments to keep the reader thinking. I found the book well written and an enjoyable read so I decided to come back for more.

The second of his books that I read is The Vienna Assignment (2005). This book was also published under the title 36 Yalta Boulevard. This book is actually the third of five volumes set in a fictional unnamed Eastern European country through the post-war years. Most of the action takes place in 1967 and the main character is a spy called Brano Sev who is forced to defect to Vienna as part of an operation.

Finally I've just finished my third novel by this author. Victory Square (2008) is the fifth book in the five-book sequence set in the East and the date is now December 1989. The unnamed country now bears a stark similarity to Romania as it is undergoing a revolution and the dictator is put on trial. This was a very enjoyable read providing a recreation of the fall of the old regime with an added layer of mystery. Some old men are being targeted for death and the connection seems to be a trial in 1948. Is there a connection to the revolution? The main character in this one is Emil Brod, although Brano Sev pops up in the later stages of the book.

The author has a second Milo Weaver book currently in hardback titled The Nearest Exit. I expect it will be the next one I read before I track down the other three books I'm missing.

Let the Right One in by John Ajvide Lindqvist

2010-11-01T20:24:00.000Z

I think I have found a new author to add to my 'favourite authors of all time' list.

I've just finished reading Let the Right One in by Swedish author John Ajviide Lindqvist. I was vaguely aware of the book from it's previous adaptation to a movie of the same name (that I have yet to see). I knew that the movie had been critically acclaimed and that an English language remake was on the way. When I saw the nice shiny tie-in edition for the new movie (retitled as Let Me In) I decided to add it to my Waterstones 3 for 2.

I am very glad I did. Within a few dozen pages I was totally hooked. By the time I was a hundred pages in I was looking up which other works by the author had been translated into English.

I won't go into a lot of plot detail here as you can find that stuff elsewhere. But the book focuses on a boy called Oskar who lives in Stockholm in 1981. Very quickly we discover that he is relentlessly bullied by other boys at school. In fact many of the incidents are quite difficult to read. One night he meets a strange girl called Eli who has moved in next door. They strike up a touching friendship dispite the fact that she turns out to be a vampire.

Some of the quotes on the cover compare the book favourably with Stephen King and that is probably accurate, hoverer I found the Swedish setting added something extra. And as with King you get to know the characters and feel the loss when bad stuff happens to them. And it does. What is also interesting is that the motivations of the characters are explored and explained so the reader has some sympathy for them right across the board.

I've already bought the other two translated books, Handling the Undead and Harbour. Lindqvist has also some other books that have yet to be translated so I have them to look forward to as well.

Follett, Doctor Who, Cornwell and Hamilton

2010-10-02T21:08:00.000+01:00

It's about time I updated this book blog thing so I thought I'd talk about some of the books I have bought this week.

First up here's Fall of Giants by Ken Follett which is just out in hardback. As noted in a previous post Follett is not really one of "my" authors. However this book looked interesting and was half-price in the supermarket so I thought why not give it a go. It's the first of a trilogy and is set in the years from 1911 onwards. It's also a long one at over 800 pages.

Next is The Fort by Bernard Cornwell, best known for his Sharpe books. Strictly speaking I don't have the book yet but I've ordered it from Amazon at 60% off. Yes: 60%. Madness.

Anyway I used to read each new Cornwell novel as they came out but the last few I've not got around to. However The Fort sounds very interesting as it is set during the American war of Independence in 1779 which is a period that Cornwell has rarely visited.

Next is Doctor Who The Brilliant Book 2011. Yes, it's for kids, but it was only half-price in the supermarket and is lovely and glossy. It deals with the recent "season 5" episodes featuring Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond. This means there's lots of photos of the lovely Karen as the lovely Amy...

Sorry, I got sidetracked there. It also features a short story by one Brian Aldiss which is a nice bonus.

Here's a book that's not out for another couple of weeks but I thought I would mention it here. It's a Doctor Who novel called The Coming of the Terraphiles and is by one Michael Moorcock. Moorcock is a very highly regarded author of fantasy that I am ashamed to admit I have never read. I'm hoping this book will be a good way in for me.

Now, here are two books by science fiction author Peter F Hamilton that I already have lying around somewhere. I saw these new editions of Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained today in Waterstones and was quite impressed by the new cover designs. I'm going to dig up my copies and finally get reading them.

Finally here's that Follett chap again. The Pillars of the Earth is his 1989 novel about the building of a cathedral in Twelfth century England. Many regard it as his best book and a TV series has been made. Channel 4 are supposed to be showing it soon and I thought I'd give the book a go. It's another long one at over 1000 pages though.

Stephen Hunt's Jack Cloudie (with new cover design)

2010-09-04T14:16:00.000+01:00

Amazon.co.uk have revealed the cover to the next Stephen Hunt novel, titled Jack Cloudie, as well as the cover of the paperback edition of Secrets of the Fire Sea.

First of all I'll get my disappointment out of the way. HarperCollins have ditched the lovely retro designs that graced the covers of the first four hardbacks in favour of a generic photoshopped thing. It's not nearly as nice.

Jack Cloudie comes out in hardcover on 7 July 2011 so it's quite a wait. Here's the blurb:

A tale of high adventure and derring-do set in the same Victorian-style world as the acclaimed The Court of the Air and The Secrets of the Fire Sea. Thanks to his father's gambling debts, young Jack Keats finds himself on the streets and trying to survive as a pickpocket, desperate to graft enough coins to keep him and his two younger brothers fed. Following a daring bank robbery gone badly awry, Jack narrowly escapes the scaffold, only to be pressed into Royal Aerostatical Navy. Assigned to the most useless airship in the fleet, serving under a captain who is most probably mad, Jack seems to be bound for almost certain death in the far-away deserts of Cassarabia. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Omar ibn Barir, the slave of a rich merchant lord finds his life turned upside down when his master's religious sect is banned. Unexpectedly freed, he survives the destruction of his home to enter into the service of the Caliph's military forces -- just as war is brewing. Two very similar young men prepare to face each other across a senseless field of war. But is Omar the enemy, or is Jack's true nemesis the sickness at the heart of the Caliph's court? A cult that hides the deadly secret to the origins of the gas being used to float Cassarabia's new aerial navy. If Jack and his shipmates can discover what Cassarabia's aggressive new regime is trying to conceal, he might survive the most horrific of wars and clear his family's name. If not!

The previous book in the series, Secrets of the Fire Sea comes out in paperback on 3 Feb 2011.

New books for July

2010-07-10T20:09:00.001+01:00

Here are a few books that I bought last Thursday and am looking forward to reading over the next few weeks.

First of all Gerald Seymour's new novel The Dealer and the Dead has just been published in hardback in the UK. I've been reading Seymour since 1987 and he's my favourite author currently writing, so his new novel is always something I look forward to.

This new book deals with a hit-man being sent after an arms dealer who never delivered weapons to a Croatian village that was under siege during the civil war in the 1990s.

Next up is the new Robert Harris paperback, Lustrum. As with a previous novel, Imperium, the book is set in ancient Rome and takes the form of a fictional biography of Cicero. Put like that it sounds quite boring but Harris can make anything exciting and is great at describing his characters.

Finally there's the new 800 page plus door-stopper from Stephen King, Under the Dome. This books deals with a mysterious barrier appearing around a small town that cuts it off from the outside world. (I know at least one other novel that dealt with a similar set-up, All Flesh is Grasss by Clifford D Simak.)

The UK publisher has the gimmick of a "limited edition" set of different covers, four of which are shown below. I think there is at least one other that I have not seen online yet. I went for the "young woman" cover oddly enough, although the "old man" cover is growing on me!

Inverted World by Christopher Priest

2010-07-04T16:00:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Gollancz for reprinting another of Christopher Priest's early novels. Priest is an author I knew nothing about until I saw the movie of his 1995 book The Prestige. I've gradually been gathering up his back catalog as they become available.

This edition of Inverted World is published as part of Gollancz's SF Masterworks and has the new "yellow" themed cover.

Inverted World features a strange society of humans who have to keep their city moving on railway tracks. They are trying to keep the city as close to its "optimum" position as they can, however optimum keeps moving. If they fall too far behind then a strange phenomena will destroy the city.

But as with Priest's other works, not everything is as it seems.

I enjoyed the book very much and will be looking forward to reading his others.

Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End

2010-07-04T15:42:00.000+01:00

Today I spotted the new Gollancz "SF Masterworks" edition of Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End in Waterstones. What's interesting is that it has a hardback cover rather than the usual paperback that most of the other books in the series have. I assume this is because another publisher has the rights to the paperback.

Gollancz has done something similar with their editions of Frank Herbert's Dune and Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle. Currently they also have a hardback of H.G. Well's The Island of Doctor Moreau.

As with the other books in the series it has been given what I can only describe as a "yellow" makeover. Compare and contrast the actual cover with the original artwork (the first image).

Childhood's End deals with the arrival of an advanced alien race who seem to have some knowledge about mankind's ultimate destiny. It's been a while since I read the book so I may treat myself to the new edition.

Some classy looking Collins Classics

2010-05-30T15:28:00.000+01:00

I caught sight of the new Collins Classics series of novels in HMV (of all places) yesterday. The series includes the usual classic novels but the difference being that they have been given a more contemporary cover makeover. Most of the books feature photographic covers rather than detail of old paintings which has become the norm. They seem to be priced at £2.50 each although for some reason Jane Eyre was priced at £2.00.

Here are the covers to five of the books in the series: Emma, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Wuthering Heights.

I do like these editions. I've bought three already and I expect I'll be buying a few more.

James Bond is back in Project X

2010-05-28T16:26:00.000+01:00

Exactly a year from now we'll have another James Bond novel to read. The Ian Fleming copyright holders have announced that American crime author Jeffery Deaver will be writing a new James Bond novel (codenamed Project X) for publication on Ian Fleming's next birthday, 28 May 2011.

Deaver is one of those authors I've always meant to read so this should encourage me. I believe that he also has written an introduction to one of the recent Fleming paperback reprints from Penguin.

This will be the first new Bond novel since the centenary Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks that came out in 2008.

As an interesting (or not) footnote the book will be published by Deaver's publishers Hodder & Stoughton in the UK rather than Penguin. Hodder published various Bond books through the 1980s and 1990s before Penguin took over.

Find out more at www.ianfleming.com/project_x.asp and www.jamesbondprojectx.com/

Gerald Seymour's The Dealer and the Dead cover revealed

2010-05-15T15:41:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Ross for alerting me that www.amazon.co.uk have put up the cover for Gerald Seymour's new novel, The Dealer and the Dead.

The cover art matches the design of the last year's novel The Collaborator. The publication date is still set for 8 July 2010.

Joe Poyer scans

2010-05-04T19:09:00.000+01:00

I've just done a few cover scans of Joe Poyer's last three novels that were published back in the 1980s. The books are Devoted Friends, a novel set in the days of the Russian Revolution and Civil War and The Transgressors & Come Evil Days, the first two volumes of his unfinished WW2 epic, A Time of War.

You can find out more about Joe Poyer's books at my page Joe Poyer - a checklist (http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/chevron/joepoyer/index.html)

Gerald Seymour's The Dealer and the Dead publication date moved up

2010-03-05T21:09:00.000Z

Just spotted this on Amazon UK. Gerald Seymour's next novel, The Dealer and the Dead, has had its publication date changed to 8 July 2010.

This is only ten months since the previous book, The Collaborator, came out in hardcover so I imagine it might be a mistake.

Still, I am quite happy to be proved wrong!

Secrets of the Fire Sea by Stephen Hunt, my comments

2010-02-22T19:11:00.000Z

I've spent the last number of days reading Secrets of the Fire Sea by Stephen Hunt. This is the latest in his series set in a alternate/future steampunk world. I was a big fan of the previous books in the series so I was looking forward to this one.

While the other books included voyages into dangerous foreign lands a lot of the action took place in the Kingdom of Jackals (imagine a version of 19th Century Britain with an aerial navy). Fire Sea in contrast takes place almost entirely on the island of Jago, a volcanic isle inside the arctic circle that is habitable because a civilization developed around the generation of electricity from geothermal energy.

But the human population on Jago is decreasing and now the only city left inhabited is the underground Hermetica City where humans depend on the mercenary army of ursine soldiers to protect them The ursine are a large bear-like people who as it happens have their own claim on the island.

Into the mix is Hannah Conquest, a student at the Circlist cathedral in Jago. Her parents were killed years before after stumbling across a dangerous secret and now Hannah finds herself having to find out what the secret is if she is to survive.

As usual we have a number of imaginative companions for her adventure such as a detective from Jackals and his steamman friend Boxiron. Also returning from the previous books is u-boat commander Commodore Black who once again finds himself in wicked trouble.

Another entertaining adventure, I look forward to the next one.

Gerald Seymour's The Dealer and the Dead blurb

2010-02-05T23:06:00.000Z

Amazon UK now have a short blurb for Gerald Seymout's next novel, The Dealer and the Dead...

Eighteen years after the barbarous war with the Serbs that tore their communities apart, a group of Croatian villagers discover the identity of the Englishman who they believe betrayed them by welching on a deal to supply arms.

With revenge in sight at last, they hire a professional killer from London to track him down . . . but is the story as simple as they think?

A brilliant, bruising thriller, told in a unique way, about what happens when the hand of the past suddenly reaches out to the present - and is holding a gun.

Source: www.amazon.co.uk

The Spy by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott

2010-02-03T19:40:00.000Z

Amazon UK now have the cover image and blurb for The Spy , the third book in the Isaac Bell series by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott. As I have mentioned before Justin Scott is one of my favourite authors and this one looks interesting.

Here's the blurb.

It is 1908, and international tensions are mounting as the world plunges towards war. When a brilliant American battleship gun designer dies in an apparent suicide, the man’s grief-stricken daughter turns to the legendary Van Dorn Detective Agency to clear her father’s name. Van Dorn puts his chief investigator on the case, and Isaac Bell soon realizes that the clues point not to suicide, but to murder. When more suspicious deaths follow, it becomes clear that someone—an elusive spy—is orchestrating the destruction of America’s brightest technological minds . . . and the murders all connect to a top-secret project called Hull 44. As the intrigue deepens, Bell finds himself pitted against German, Japanese, and British spies, in a mission that encompasses dreadnaught battleships, Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet, Chinatown, Hell’s Kitchen, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Isaac Bell has certainly faced perilous situations before, but this time it is more than the future of his country that’s at stake — it’s the fate of the world.

That reminds me a little bit of Scott's Normandie Triangle (aka The Man Who Loved the Normande) which featured spying and sabotage in New York during World War II.

Here's the link to the book on www.amazon.co.uk.

The book is due on 24 June 2010.

Firefox flies, the new Russian stealth jet

2010-01-30T14:29:00.000Z

The new Sukhoi T-50 stealth aircraft...

... and the fictional MiG-31 Firefox...

OK, this has very little to do with books as such. But my favourite author has been and remains Craig Thomas and the reason I started reading his thrillers was because of the movie FireFox, the novel it was based on, and the sequel novel. (Yes, something was called FireFox before the web browser.)

The original novel FireFox came out in 1977 and dealt with a Russian supersonic stealth fighter that NATO codenamed FireFox. I don't think they called it a stealth fighter in the book but it was invisible to radar which is the same thing.

Clint Eastwood made a move of the book in 1982. It has it's critics but I find it a good solid Cold War era thriller and the plane they designed was pretty darn cool looking.

Craig Thomas went on to write a sequel novel called FireFox Down in 1983 that continued the story at the point where the first book and movie ended.

The US eventually revealed their own stealth aircraft at the end of the 1980s but the Russians never did get around to building a FireFox. So yesterday's news on the BBC website caught my eye. Russia has flown it's new Sukhoi T-50 stealth aircraft, also known as the PAK FA, and shown it off on TV.

The BBC article is at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8486812.stm

and the Times newspaper has an article at
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7007913.ece

New Gerald Seymour novel listed

2010-01-23T23:29:00.000Z

It's a long way off but Amazon UK are listing a new Gerald Seymour novel to be published toward the end of the year.

It's presently titled The Dealer and the Dead and will be published by Hodder & Stoughton on 14 Oct 2010.

No cover or plot details yet and I wouldn't be surprised if the title changes before then.

In the meantime you can find the hardback listing at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dealer-Dead-Gerald-Seymour/dp/034091890X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264289340&sr=1-2

Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card

2009-12-31T22:38:00.000Z

I've spent the last week reading Ender in Exile by Orson Scott Card.

I "discovered" card 20 years ago (!) when I bought his novel of James Cameron's move The Abyss. It was far from the run-of-the-mill novelisations and was a good novel in it's own right. I was an instant fan and hunted out anything else he had written.

Of course Card's "must read" novel is Ender's Game, featuring kids being sent to Battle School in order to learn how to defeat aliens that mankind is waging war with. A strong thread though the book and it's sequels is the humanity that Ender retains despite all that is done to him and all that he does.

Ender's Game was followed up by the Speaker for the Dead trilogy dealing with the character later in life as an adult. Later Card would also write the Ender's Shadow Quartet as a sort of "sidequel". Ender in Exile is the first true sequel to Ender's game and if you are a fan of the earlier books it's well worth a look.

My Ian Fleming/James Bond Website

2009-12-31T22:11:00.000Z

I've spent much of the last day working on my sadly neglected Ian Fleming/James Bond website. I've had this site on the go since at least 1999 and it was high time for an update.

The site mainly features the paperback cover art from the various UK editions of the books. It's by no means a complete set of covers but a lot of my favourites are there and I'll add more as time goes on.

I've also changed the font to Century Gothic as it's the one used on the Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace movie posters. We'll see how long it takes for me to grow tired of it.

I've also scanned in a selection of my Ian Fleming paperback collection and here are a few covers.

You can find the new, improved, lovely site at the following link:http://flemingsbond.solidwebhost.com/index.html

I'm trying out that new host. Hopefully it will work ok and the advertising will not be too obtrusive. Feedback is always gratefully received!

Some books for 2010

2009-12-23T20:01:00.000Z

First of all, it's almost 2010. How did that happen! I remember reading Arthur C Clarke's novel 2010 Odyssey Two back in 1985 and thinking how far off that future was and how much older I'd be...

Anyway here are a few books due out in 2010 that have caught my eye.

Hitler's War by Harry Turtledove due out in paperback on 21 Jan 2010. I read all ten volumes of turtledove's alternate history following the Great War and WW2 fought between the USA and Confederates. Hitler's War starts a new series asking what would have happened if Neville Chamberlain had gone to war with Germany a year early in 1938.

Eye of the Red Tsar caught my eye as I like thrillers set in Russia. It deals with a policeman released from the gulags in order to find out what happened to the Tsar's treasure. It's due out on 21 Jan 2010.

Here's three new books by Clive Cussler. Actually they are written by other authors in collaboration with Cussler. Spartan Gold (7 Jan 2010) is part of a new "Fargo" series, The Silent Sea (4 March 2010) is part of the "Oregon" series and of biggest interest to me The Spy (June 2010) is the third Issac Bell novel and is written by Justin Scott. That one does not have a UK cover yet so I have included the US cover that shows an early model German submarine in what I assume is New York. The Issac Bell novels are set in the first decade of the 1900s so that intrigues me.

Two new novels by Stephen Leather. I first read his book The Chinaman in 1993 and bought his new books as they came out over the following years. Lately he has been concentrating on his Dan Shepard character (who has the very unfortunate nickname "Spider") and Rough Justice is the latest of these (due out 22 July 2010). The other novel Nightfall marks a bit of a departure for the author as it is a thriller with a supernatural twist (due out 21 Jan 2010).

I've mentioned before how much I have enjoyed some of Stephen Hunt's alternative steampunk-style adventures. His fourth, Secrets of the Fire Sea, is due out on 4 Feb 2010.

I ready my first Stephen Coonts novel, Final Flight, 20 years ago. I read a lot of his books since but not the most recent ones. The Disciple has caught my eye due to it's eye-catching action-packed cover. (I didn't know they did these covers any more. Lately some of the UK editions of his novels have had Da Vinci Code style "arches" for some reason.) Anyway, this one features Tommy Carmellini and Jake Grafton investigating Iran's covert nuclear programme. Topical! it's due out on 4 Feb 2010.

Able One (2 Feb 2010) is a thriller by SF author Ben Bova about a is a modified 747 fitted with a high-powered laser to knock out missiles in flight. A training flight with a skeleton crew becomes the real thing when they have to try to stop missiles launched by North Korea. Most of Bova's books deal with exploration of the solar system so that is an interesting change of material.

The Collaborator paperback news

2009-12-19T21:01:00.000Z

Amazon UK have put up a cover for the paperback edition of Gerald Seymour's new novel, The Collaborator. It's due for publication by Hodder paperbacks on 29 April 2010. The cover is similar to the hardback design with the main changes being a large black area below the title and the addition of colour to the figures at the top. Indeed they have added (I assume) Immacolata Borelli to the picture.

No word yet on his next book or if Hodder will be reprinting the back catalog.

Philip K Dick's The Adjustment Bureau to be filmed

2009-10-16T16:16:00.000+01:00

This piece of news caught my eye on the Daily Mail site today:

Emily Blunt has had her pins en pointe preparing to play a ballerina who catches Matt Damon's eye.

The two star in The Adjustment Bureau, a movie based on a short story by Philip K. Dick. The London-born actress studied with the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, based down in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, and worked on several pieces of choreography to prepare for the part.

In the movie, Damon plays a politician who falls in love with the dancer. However, he gets the feeling that his romantic liaison is somehow being 'controlled' by otherworldly forces.

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk

I must dig out my PKD books and read that story again.

Bernard Cornwell's Azincourt to be filmed

2009-10-15T14:57:00.000+01:00

There was a story in the Times newspaper yesterday about a new movie being made about the battle of Agincourt. The book will apparently be based on Bernard Cornwell's novel Azincourt which was published a year ago.

Here's an extract from the article:

It was Cornwell’s novel, however, that unlocked a new way of interpreting medieval politics and warfare for a modern cinema audience.

“Cornwell made everyone sit up by using an archer as his chief character and seeing that world from the ground up rather than, as we usually do, from the point of view of kings and princes.”

The main character is Nicholas Hook, an English mercenary, who witnesses and dishes out unspeakable violence, rescues a damsel in distress and becomes a soldier in Henry V’s forces as they struggle, underfed and overstretched, through northern France towards their date with history.

You can read the whole article at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk

Filming is expected to start next year.

Bernard Cornwell is best known for his Richard Sharpe series. I've read some of those plus his Grail Quest series and the first three of his King Alfred books. Azincourt is yet another of the books waiting for me to read it.

Robert Ludlum reissues for 2010

2009-10-13T19:38:00.000+01:00

A while back I noticed that Amazon UK was listing new editions of Robert Ludlum's novels for publication through 2010. No cover images were displayed so I was curious as to what the cover designs would be like. Frankly I think the current UK covers are hideous so I figured that anything would be an improvement.

Today I found some of the new covers on Amazon and while they are not as good as the colourful David Scutt covers from the early 1990s thankfully they are not too bad.

First of all here are covers for three of his later books, two of which were published posthumously.

And now here are three of Eric Van Lustbader's Bourne continuation novels.

And finally here's one of the "Covert One" subset that Ludlum didn't write.

Secrets of the Fire Sea by Stephen Hunt

2009-10-13T19:26:00.000+01:00

A quick visit to Amazon UK today gave me the first sight of the new Stephen Hunt novel, due for publication on 4 February 2010. I'm very glad to see HarperCollins have retained the wonderful retro cover design from the three earlier books in the series.

The "blurb" from the site follows below...

A tale of high adventure and derring-do set in the same Victorian-style world as the acclaimed The Court of the Air and The Rise of the Iron Moon.

The isolated island of Jago is the only place Hannah Conquest has ever known as home. Encircled by the magma ocean of the Fire Sea, it was once the last bastion of freedom when the world struggled under the tyranny of the Chimecan Empire during the age-long winter of the cold-time. But now this once-shining jewel of civilization faces an uncertain future as its inhabitants emigrate to greener climes, leaving the basalt plains and raging steam storms far behind them. For Hannah and her few friends, the streets of the island's last occupied underground city form a vast, near-deserted playground.

But Hannah's carefree existence comes to an abrupt halt when her guardian, Archbishop Alice Gray, is brutally murdered in her own cathedral. Someone desperately wants to suppress a secret kept by the archbishop, and if the attempts on Hannah's own life are any indication, the killer believes that Alice passed the knowledge of it onto her ward before her saintly head was separated from her neck.

But it soon becomes clear that there is more at stake than the life of one orphan. A deadly power struggle is brewing on Jago, involving rival factions in the senate and the island's most powerful trading partner. And it's beginning to look as if the deaths of Hannah's archaeologist parents shortly after her birth were very far from accidental. Soon the race is on for Hannah and her friends to unravel a chain of hidden riddles and follow them back to their source to save not just her own life, but her island home itself.

Hmm. That description was a bit unwieldy and after reading it I'm really not sure what the book is about. But if it is half as entertaining as The Kingdom Beyond the Waves then it'll be a good read.

The Collaborator by Gerald Seymour

2009-10-11T16:07:00.001+01:00

I've been reading Gerald Seymour's novels since 1987 and each new novel is a highlight of my year's reading. This year sees the publication of his 26th novel, The Collaborator.

In this one he retreats from his usual look at terrorism and focuses on organised crime. He did this before, most notably in Killing Ground, The Untouchable and to some degree in Rat Run.

The main character is Eddie Deacon, a young English teacher who meets and falls in love with an Italian girl called Immacolata Borelli whom he immediately calls "Mac".

Unknown to him she is part of a Camorra clan, one of the organised crime families in Naples who run protection rackets with impunity. She is in London with her brother who is on the run from the Italian authorities. When she secretly travels back to Italy to attend the funeral of a friend she is met with hostility and is humiliated by her friend's parents. It turns out that her friends death was partly the fault of the Borelli family. Immacolata resolves to collaborate with the prosecutors and give evidence against her family.

When "Mac" vanishes off the face of the earth Eddie decides to follow her. He heads to Naples to find her and falls into the clutches of her hideous grandparents and their enforcer who want to use him as leverage against her. Eddie finds himself held prisoner and he has to discover if he has the strength that will let him endure and escape.

The other main character is Lukas, an American formerly of the FBI who now travels to troublespots around the world when his expertise is needed to help release hostages.

This is another excellent entry into my Seymour collection. The book is a slight departure from the norm as there is very little British involvement. Usually we get a glimpse of the workings of MI5 and MI6. In this book they are notable by their absence. The vast majority of the book is set in Italy, principally Naples. Seymour does a good job describing Naples as a dangerous place, in particular the bits the tourists don't get to see.

The Rise of the Iron Moon by Stephen Hunt

2009-10-02T18:37:00.000+01:00

Again, this post was adapted from one on my other blog thing.

Earlier this year I read The Rise of the Iron Moon, the third in a sequence of novels by Stephen Hunt. Last year I read the previous book, The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, and enjoyed it very much.

As before the novel is set in the alternate/far-future steampunk world of the Kingdom of Jackals. Steamman Coppertracks informs a gathering of distinguished scientists that he believes there is life on the red planet of Kaliban but is laughed off stage.

Later it turns out that he was quite right. A comet (the "Iron Moon" of the title) changes course and returns to earth and is used as a base for an invasion. An nearly invincible Army of Shadows attacks and quickly destroys the armed forces in the countries neighbouring Jackals. It's clearly The War of the Worlds time.

Fear not, for the Kingdom of Jackals has the finest fleet of airships in the world. Unfortunately the Army of Shadows makes quick work of the Royal Aerostatical Navy as well.

It's up to Molly Templar, Commodore Black and Coppertracks to come to the rescue, riding a spaceship fired from a cannon to Kaliban where they will get a weapon that can destroy the invading forces....

I enjoyed the book, but I have to admit not as much as Kingdom. Iron Moon seems a little less polished, a little more rushed. In particular the narrative jumps in various places. Just as we are getting to an exciting escape or battle the scene switches to later on and the action is dealt with in a few sentences. Perhaps Kingdom was just too damn good!

Having said that Iron Moon is crammed full of ideas, almost too many for one book. The true identity of the Masters of the Army of Shadows is quite clever. And the author does not hold back from practically wiping whole armies, countries and populations off the map.

Despite my misgivings with this instalment Stephen Hunt is writing some of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time. I look forward to volume four and in the meantime I still have The Court of the Air to read.

Note to publisher, don't dare change the wonderful retro cover designs for these books!

The Kingdom Beyond the Waves by Stephen Hunt

2009-10-02T18:34:00.000+01:00

This post is adapted from one I made on my other blog thing.

One of my three favourite books from 2008 was The Kingdom Beyond the Waves and by Stephen Hunt.

The book defies easy description. It's a science fiction/fantasy/steampunk/alternative history novel that may be set in the distant past or the distant future. The action starts in the state of Jackals which seems to be based on a 19th Century Britain, only with computers called "transaction engines" and instead of the Royal Navy or Royal Air Force we have the RAN - the Royal Aerostatical Navy which uses giant airships to keep military superiority.

Except those are just side details. The novel deals with the quest to find the missing mythical city of Camlantis, a city that thousands of years before disappeared into the sky during the last dark age. Professor Amelia Harsh joins the mercenary crew of a u-boat to venture down a dangerous river in Heart of Darkness fashion to search for the city. Danger lurks outside the u-boat and inside it as well because some characters have their own agenda.

I don't want to say too much as discovering the details is as much part of the fun as the overall story. The novel is a long one at 556 pages but fairly rattles along packed with incident and cliffhangers aplenty.

Stephen Hunt has written a previous book set in the same world called The Court of the Air and earlier this year the third book, The Rise of the Iron Moon, was published.

Robert Harris reissues

2009-10-02T12:27:00.000+01:00

Every time a new Robert Harris book comes out it's a bit of an event for his publishers because they always reissue his previous books with new covers. Lustrum, the second of his Roman "trilogy", is just out in hardback so the previous novels have all received a make-over.

This time the paperbacks have also been increased to the larger format that is now prevalent and the cover design matches the "silhouette" design on the paperback of his last novel, The Ghost.

Here are the covers of the six paperbacks. Notice how little silhouette men find their way into the book titles!

And here is the hardback cover of Lustrum. Notice that there are no little silhouette Romans on that cover.

I think I like the cover of Enigma best.

And here are my quick thoughts on some of the books.

Fatherland was an excellent "what if" novel about life in Nazi German in the 1960s.

Enigma was one of the best WW2 novels I have read.

Archangel was an entertaining look at post-Soviet Russia and was made into a BBC drama featuring a pre-Bond Daniel Craig.

The Ghost has been in the news lately due to the incarceration of the film adaptation's director, Roman Polanski. The movie was due out next year.

The Wrecker by Clive Cussler "with" Justin Scott

2009-09-29T15:18:00.000+01:00

Just published this week is yet another Clive Cussler novel. Actually I suspect he didn't write very much of it as it's one of those books credited to "Clive Cussler with ..."

This one is of particular interest to me because the "with" in question is Justin Scott. I've read a number of his books over the years and enjoyed them very much. Some of my favourites are The man Who Loved the Normandie (aka Normande Triangle), A Pride of Kings (aka A Pride of Royals), The Shipkiller and The Empty Eye of the Sea.

This book marks a departure for him as up to now I think he only wrote his own books, and not anyone else's.

The Wrecker is a sequel to Cussler's The Chase (no "with" on that one) which featured a private eye character chasing a master criminal across the railways of the US in the early years of the 20th century. The Wrecker features the same detective tracking down a railroad saboteur in 1907.

I think the hardback will be half-price in Tescos on Thursday so I'll look for my copy there.

The Gate House by Nelson Demille

2009-09-25T19:35:00.000+01:00

Got another book for the ever-expanding collection today. I spotted The Gate House by Nelson DeMille, just out in paperback, and as it was half-price I grabbed a copy.

DeMille is one of those authors whose back catalog I want to read. Actually I have read some of his earlier books such as By the Rivers of Babylon and Cathedral. But most of his recent stuff remains on my to-do list.

The Gate House is a sequel to his 1990 novel Gold Coast and features "old money" and the mafia on Long Island.

Here's the cover. I have to say it's a bit uninspiring when compared to the Gino d'Achille cover for By the Rivers of Babylon. But then most book covers are uninspiring these days.

Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons

2009-09-15T20:22:00.000+01:00

I've been neglecting the book blog thing lately. Well, it's not because I'm not reading anything.

Lately I've finally got around to reading Dan Simmons' books Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion. These books were first published back around 1989 and 1990 but I have only become aware of Simmons recently. Last year I read his historical book The Terror about the ill-fated 19th Century Franklin expedition to find the North-West Passage. That book was simply stunning and was one of my three favourite novels that I read in 2008. (If you want to know the other two i can always post about them here.)

Anyway, back to Hyperion. The story is told across two books and you really need to read both to get the full story. I feel that calling The Fall of Hyperion a sequel is a bit inaccurate as it's actually where the real action happens after the sceen-setting in book 1.

The books have been compared to Dune. When I read that I got all sniffy as Dune is my favourite novel, but as it turns out it is the only appropriate comparison I can think of to describe the world-building of Simmons.

The books are set in the far future where the Hegemony of mankind is living a comfortable existence. Citizens are able to "farcast" across the "web", travelling light years in moments through star-gate type devices. Earth was abandoned centuries before after the Big Mistake, an accident with an artificial black hole. Sentient AIs reside in the mysterious TechnoCore and assist the humans when it suits them. And the Ousters are coming... They are an offshoot of humanity that have shunned the Hegemony and TechnoCore and have proved unbeatable in war.

Still with me?

The key to all this is the strange planet of Hyperion, a world that contains the "time tombs" which apparently move backwards in time. Also on the planet is the Shrike, a four-armed spiky killing machine that can move in the blink of an eye.

The first book deals with a number of pilgrims all going to Hyperion. At the start of the book they are all strangers and each takes his or her turn to tell the story of why they are going there. By the end of the book the reader has got to know these characters intimately and will have to go straight to book 2 to find out what happens next. (The fate of Rachel in particular had me on the edge of the seat chewing my nails and biting my lip at the same time.)

Book 2 then picks up the story and it's a full-on adventure space-opera with multiple viewpoints and shocks aplenty including the real face of the Ousters and the TechnoCore. Planets are burned to cinders and the CEO of the Hegemony has a difficult choice to make... You'll see!

Along the way we get discussions on the nature of God and meet the reincarnated 19th century poet John Keats.

Indeed it seems that much of the sequence, including the titles, are inspired by Keats.

=Phew!=

If you like SF you have to read these books. And if you don't like SF read them anyway.

Endymion and The Rise of Endymion complete the story.

And a movie of the first two books is apparently in the works. Good luck to them!

Kingfisher by Gerald Seymour

2009-09-01T21:21:00.000+01:00

I first read Kingfisher back in 1987 or 1988. (I can't be exactly sure of the date except to say that I read all Seymour's books to date in a short period in late-'87 and early-'88. I liked him and I wanted to read them all!) Recently I have reread it.

Kingfisher is probably my favourite of his earlier books. By now his trademark template was established with multiple shades of gray colouring everything that happens.

The book was written and is set in 1977 when the Soviet Union was still a monolith a long way from crumbling. The story concerns a number of Jewish students in the Ukraine who have grown tired of the repression and decide to takes things into their own hands. They botch the shooting of a policeman and one of their number gets captured. The three remaining students decide to hijack a plane in the naive belief that the West will welcome them with open arms and let them go to Israel.

Their illusions are quickly shattered when various Western European airports prevent the plane from landing. Eventually they land in England low on fuel and demand that they are allowed to continue to Israel.

In the control tower is Charlie Webster of MI6's Soviet Desk. He's what passes for an expert on dissidents and has been summoned in order to advise his political masters and the police on the hijackers and their motives. What he observes only reinforces his cynicism and he's desperate to find a way for both the passengers and the hijackers to survive and avoid the inevitable bloodshed.

The book works particularly well because much of the story is told from the point of view of the hijackers. We discover that they are not evil people; rather they are misguided and ultimately find themselves as powerless as the passengers they have taken hostage.

Kingfisher is well worth a look.

Amazon.co.uk Widgets

Ken Follett WW2 novel reissues

2009-08-31T15:59:00.000+01:00

Ken Follett is not really one of "my" authors but I've read some of his stuff in the past and there are a few books of his I've been meaning to read.

I noticed a new edition of his early bestseller The Eye of the Needle in Waterstones last week and it appears that Pan books are doing new editions of a number of his World War 2 era thrillers. The other two books that will follow are Hornet Flight and Jackdaws.

Here are the covers for the three books.

I particularly like the theme of using the various maps in the background. Follett also has a couple of other novels from this era, namely The Key to Rebecca and Night Over Water. Perhaps new editions of those books will follow.

Amazon.co.uk Widgets

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick

2009-08-26T15:36:00.000+01:00

Philip K Dick has been and remains one of my all-time favourite writers. He wrote novels that on the face of it were clearly science fiction, but on closer examination were clearly a genre of their own. He was most preoccupied with asking what it that makes us human and more to the point, what is reality anyway?

The Man in the High Castle is regarded as one of his best books and won the Hugo award when first published in 1962. It describes an alternate America that lost WW2. America is divided into three separate entities. The East cost is under German control, the West coast is under a more benevolent Japanese influence and in between are the Rocky Mountain States that are semi-autonomous.

Then there is a book within the book, a banned novel called The Grasshopper Lies Heavy which describes a world where Germany and Japan the war.

Most of the events in the book take place on the West coast and as normal with PKD concern the "little" people who are just trying to make ends meet and get on in life.

Last year Amazon UK put up the cover of a new "masterworks" edition for publication in 2010. I loved the artwork and emailed the artist Chris Moore (see http://www.chrismooreillustration.co.uk/index.php) to thank him for doing such a good job. I love the depiction of the German supersonic transport, much like Concorde but just different enough to clue you in to the alternate world.

At the moment the book has a publication date of 17 September 2009.

The Art of Star Trek - finally!

2009-08-26T15:24:00.001+01:00

Normally when a big-budget Hollywood movie arrives in cinemas it is accompanied by numerous glossy tie-in books. This year alone there were a multiple "making of" and "art of" books accompanying movies such as Terminator Salvation and Watchmen.

Star Trek however didn't get a tie-in. I understand that (rightly or wrongly) the perception was that a Star Trek book wouldn't sell and booksellers wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

Then the movie opened. And was a hit. A massive, massive (photon torpedo) hit. And I'm sure Paramount and various booksellers were feeling a bit annoyed that there was no glossy tie-in. so we should not be surprised that a glossy "art of" book will finally appear when the DVD comes out in November. It's written by Mark Cotta Vaz who has done a number of these kind of books before. Hopefully there will be lots of pre-production art and photos of the new Enterprise.

Star Trek: The Art of the Film will be published by Titan books in the UK and USA on 17 November 2009.

Final Alistair Maclean reissues

2009-08-17T22:24:00.000+01:00

HarperCollins have been gradually releasing new editions of Alistair Maclean's thrillers and next month they get to his final five books. Cover images are now available for Partisans, Floodgate, San Andreas, The Lonely Sea and Santorini. They can be seen below and are very much in line with the cover designs featured on the books reissued earlier.

The Lonely Sea was Maclean's only collection of short stories and according to that cover image this edition will contain two new stories.

Maclean was out of print for a number of years so these are welcome reprints. May I humbly suggest HarperCollins reprint another author from their back catalog, namely Craig Thomas.

More Gerald Seymour covers

2009-08-12T13:28:00.000+01:00

I've scanned in a few more covers for my Gerald Seymour page...

Here we have the 1991 TV tie-in cover for Red Fox featuring John Hurt and Jane Birkin plus the David Scutt covers for A Song in the Morning, Condition Black and The Heart of Danger.

Gerald Seymour 1990 paperbacks

2009-08-09T20:48:00.000+01:00

And now here are six of the 1990 reprint paperback covers. Most of the covers for this series were by David Scutt.

The books shown below are The Glory Boys, Kingfisher, Red Fox, The Contract, Archangel and Field of Blood.

Gerald Seymour hardback scans

2009-08-09T17:46:00.001+01:00

Recently I have been updating my Gerald Seymour web page and I thought I'd add a few scans of his early UK hardbacks.

Here are The Glory Boys, Kingfisher, Red Fox, The Contract, Archangel and In Honour Bound.

Gollancz SF Classics

2009-08-07T12:54:00.000+01:00

I made a great find in my local remaindered bookshop today. They had a bunch of Gollancz science fiction reissues for just £1 each.

Back in 2007 Gollancz reprinted eight novels under a "Future Classics" banner. The novels were notable for not having the author's name or title on the front cover. They also had unusual features such as "fur" on Stephen Baxter's Evolution. I already have six of them so today I added a shiny Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds to the collection. I've actually already read this one but for £1 I had to get this edition.

You can see all eight "Future Classics" covers at http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/custom-list.aspx?file=future_classics.

Next to that copy of Revelation Space were five books from the earlier 2006 collection of SF masterworks. I picked up The Sirens of Titan, Cities in Flight, Ubik, Lords of Light and Flowers for Algernon. I only had one of the ten books from that series so I was happy to add these to the collection.

These books have non-shiny covers, rounded corners and introductions from contemporary authors such as Stephen Baxter on Cities in Flight. I had regretted not getting this edition of Philip K Dick's Ubik with the spray can so it was a great find!

The Collaborator by Gerald Seymour gets a cover

2009-07-07T22:26:00.000+01:00

I just found this cover to Gerald Seymour's next novel, The Collaborator on Amazon UK.

The book is due out on 17 September 2009 from his new publisher, Hodder & Stoughton.

As the cover text implies the book appears to be focusing on Mafia goings-on rather than his usual terrorism related plots.

Seymour is officially my favourite author who is still writing books.

My Gerald Seymour site can be found at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/chevron/geraldseymour/