Secrets of the Fire Sea by Stephen Hunt, my comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!