Orbus is the third book in the Spatterjay series – I know this as William Gaminara reminded me when he started narrating Neal Asher’s return to Sniper and Vrell. This time we the switch in focus to Captain Orbus as he takes us away from the planet Spatterjay and out to the Graveyard, border between the Polity and the Prador Kingdom.

But before we continue I highly recommend reading The Skinner and The Voyage of The Sable Keech  first as Orbus is not a good jumping on point, being the last (so far) in this loosely connecting series. I guess you could read it in isolation but you’d miss a lot what makes Orbus a brilliantly imagined book. If you’re continuing to read I’m including spoilers form now on in. So with that in mind…

Spoiler Warning

Asher has been keeping secrets, the virus of Spatterjay isn’t all that it appears. It is so much more. And the evolution to its true nature is one part of what makes Orbus a crackling read.

At the end of the last book Vrell had entered Vrost’s ship but it’s what he does there which causes the viruses true nature to be revealed and causes the Prador King personally to arrive to finish the job that Vrost has so far failed to do. And you can see why a Prador who is infected with the Spatterjay virus shouldn’t be allowed to leave. Asher also introduces us to the Golgoloth, a myth and a story to scare young Prador, and a creature is that is very real.

Together they create a mix and a direction that I wasn’t expecting after the low level storytelling of the first two as this time the stakes could not be higher for King personally as well as the Kingdom and probably the Polity if the virus manages to get loose, which sounds dramatic, and it is.

Asher gets to stretch himself writing a grand space battle which he handles with fineness as he winds back time to see events from different views and plays out smaller dramas along with the big battle.

Orbus, being an old sea captain, infected with virus and very much mentally tainted by the Polity/Prador war on Spatterjay as explained in The Skinner and The Voyage of Sable Keech makes him a darker hero to follow. And his struggle with killing or saving Vrell at several points makes great reading.

Not that Orbus was expecting this mission when he signed up to Captain the trade ship Gurnard but Asher uses this book to demonstrate the the Polity AIs are quite manipulative and forward thinking.

End Spoiler Warning

The thing I like about Asher is that he’s always pushing and exploring his creation (the Polity). For example I’m going to read The Technician as soon as I can and that is supposed to feature a black (as in magician) AI. Now they might feature in his Agent Cormac series, which after The Technician will be the only books in the Polity I’ve not read, but I know it’s generated a sequel, Penny Royal, that he’s writing now.

But back to Orbus and a question: what should science fiction do? In Asher’s case his science fiction tells a great roller-coaster story and explores survival, genetics, societies, technology and other themes should be present in science-focused fiction. And he manages to show deep thinking without derailing the story he’s chosen to tell.

Though the voice telling this tale is that of William Gaminara who also lifted The Skinnerand The Voyage of Sable Keech off the page. It’s staggering to think that not only does Gaminara have to read for 14 hours plus but he also has to keep up with what voices he’s given to each character and it’s so smoothly done that when he slips (and he did only a handful of times) do you realise how effortless his narration feels.

For me Asher is a master craftsman and makes the Polity one of my favourite storytelling environments. It’s a universe that I’d urge any SF fan to explore right now.

Orbus is out now in paperbook, ebook and audiobook.

Presented without comment

Robert Jackson Bennett – A Sexual Experience from Jake Sam on Vimeo.

I’m sure you’ve already listened to this weeks episode of The Readers but if not here it is!

28th May – The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan
4th June – Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
11th June – Packing for Mars by Mary Roach
18th June – Bleakley Hall by Elaine di Rollo
25th June – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
2nd July – Now You See Me by S.J Bolton
9th July – Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
16th July – Pure by Andrew Miller

I’m really looking forward to recording these – not only do I get to read a few books away from the norm for me I also get to speak to the authors and then chat about the books with other readers. Very much looking forward to it!

Alright it’s a trilogy of anthologies. No TOC yet but looking forward to seeing the whole list. I’m dipping into the first Book of Cthulhu atm and enjoying it so can’t see why the new anthology would be different.

Coming October 2012 so plenty of time to catch up!

1. Introduction: Looking Under the Hat”, Jonathan Strahan
2. “Stray Magic”, Diana Peterfreund
3. “Payment Due”, Frances Hardinge
4. “A Handful of Ashes”, Garth Nix
5. “Little Gods”, Holly Black
6. “Barrio Girls”, Charles de Lint
7. “Felidis”, Tanith Lee
8. “Witch Work”, Neil Gaiman (poem)
9. “The Education of a Witch”, Ellen Klages
10. “The Threefold World”, Ellen Kushner
11. “The Witch in the Wood”, Delia Sherman
12. “Which Witch”, Patricia A. McKillip
13. “The Carved Forest”, Tim Pratt
14. “Burning Castles”, M. Rickert
15. “The Stone Witch”, Isobelle Carmody
16. “Andersen’s Witch”, Jane Yolen
17. “B Is for Bigfoot”, Jim Butcher
18. “Great-Grandmother in the Cellar”, Peter S. Beagle
19. “Crow and Caper, Caper and Crow”, Margo Lanagan

I know this looks like I’ve posted 3 cover art posts in a row but honestly these last two are to show off two collections of short stories I’m excited by. And if you look at my new reading log page (something I’ve only started doing as I want to add short stories and you can’t do that on GoodReads) I’m slowly getting back into short stories and with this and Other Worlds Than These I think I’ve got a couple to look forward to!

Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron is out 28 Aug 2012 (though I ordered it on the 11 March go me )

Anyone have any anthologies or collections that they think I should be checking out?

What if you could not only travel any location in the world, but to any possible world?

We can all imagine such “other worlds”—be they worlds just slightly different than our own or worlds full of magic and wonder—but it is only in fiction that we can travel to them. From The Wizard of Oz to The Dark Tower, from Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass to C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, there is a rich tradition of this kind of fiction, but never before have the best parallel world stories and portal fantasies been collected in a single volume—until now.

John Joseph Adams is turning into one of my favourite anthologists. I’ve enjoyed The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and been dipping into The Way of the Wizard so I’m happy to trust his judgement though as I’ve got little interest in zombies I certainly won’t be reading The Living Dead anytime soon.

I just love the idea of anthology packed with ‘worlds full of magic and wonder’.

It’s out 3rd July.

Jack Glass is the murderer. We know this from the start. Yet as this extraordinary novel tells the story of three murders committed by Glass the reader will be surprised to find out that it was Glass who was the killer and how he did it. And by the end of the book our sympathies for the killer are fully engaged. Riffing on the tropes of crime fiction (the country house murder, the locked room mystery) and imbued with the feel of golden age SF, JACK GLASS is another bravura performance from Roberts.

Whatever games he plays with the genre, whatever questions he asks of the reader, Roberts never loses sight of the need to entertain. JACK GLASS has some wonderfully gruesome moments, is built around three gripping HowDunnits and comes with liberal doses of sly humour. Roberts invites us to have fun and tricks us into thinking about both crime and SF via a beautifully structured novel set in a society whose depiction challanges notions of crime, punishment, power and freedom.

The cover was released a couple of months ago but it’s not out until 26 July 2012 so I don’t feel I’m being late. Also after the weekend at Eastercon I have couple of postcards with the cover on which reminded me I need to share this.

I’m a big fan of Roberts work. I picked up a hardback first edition of Stone (also at Eastercon) and Yellow Blue Tibia really should have been up for, if not won. The Booker.

Am very much looking forward to this one!

Absorption by John Meaney (Gollancz)

Across the ages there are characters three things in common: they glimpse shards of darkness moving at the edge of their vision; they hear echoes of a dark, disturbing musical chord; and they will dream of joining a group called the Ragnarok Council.

There are some books that I read that make me wonder ‘Why didn’t someone convince me to read this earlier?’ Absorption is one of those books. But luckily I read a great review of the sequel, Transmission, and decided that if the second one sounded that good I really should give it a go.

I have to say what kind of put me off in the first place was the same thing that intrigued me: I wasn’t sure how John Meaney would mix of viking myth and space opera elements together. And I should have had a little faith as he twists them around each other very tightly. I don’t know yet what shape he’s making but Absorption definitely sets the stage.

As will all multipoint stories there are some views that are more appealing to follow that others.

Luckily John doesn’t force it by lingering with characters that at that point don’t move the story forward though their lack of stage time in latter chapters is oddly noticeable when you are waiting for them to reappear during scene changes and as will all multipoint stories there are some views that are more appealing to follow that others.

He’s chosen a diverse crew to build up his story. My favourite is probably Roger, a young man that has all manner of talents including being able to travel between dimensions. Meaney also invokes Germany between the world wars – a time and place that I’m starting to feel is a lazy shorthand but not in this case – Meaney looks at the point where physics was on the turn with a greater understanding of the underlying patterns in the universe, which is a good introduction to the scientific complexities (and perhaps impossibilities that he invokes).

It’s nicely compressed something is happening constantly. It doesn’t feel drawn out maybe in a couple of places oddly directed but who knowns where those threads are heading? I’m looking forward to reading Transmission to find out where this SF Norse myth mix is going next.

Or The Bull Kills You by Jason Webster (Vintage)

Either you kill the bull, or the bull kills you – traditional proverb. Chief Inspector Max Cámara hates bullfighting but one hot afternoon in Valencia he has to replace his boss, judging a festival corrida that stars Spain’s most famous young matador. That night, he is summoned back to the bullring where the young matador’s dead body now lies, naked and mutilated.

It has to be hard to bring something new to the crime genre. But crime happens everywhere and this time we’re off to sunny Spain. I initially thought this was going to be a crime in translation but like Martin Walker’s Bruno, Chief of Police series Cámara is written by a non-native that’s made the place a home, and like Walker brings out an accessible view of the culture and the place. Or at least that’s what comes across in Or The Bull Kills You.

Setting it at the time of the festival of Fallas is very immersive not only do you get to a Valencia in the raw it tightens the tension as Cámara of investigating the death of such a high profile figure. Though I wouldn’t say that makes him a worse detective. He’s very shambling. He likes an early drink and a not entirely legal recreational smoke. He is however endearing. And a good policeman even if he’s not that methodical he does have a policeman’s nose.

Webster keeps everything flowing nicely and you get a not exactly subtle but not force fed either lesson in bullfighting.

The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan

Ringil, the hero of the bloody slaughter at Gallows Gap is a legend to all who don’t know him and a twisted degenerate to those that do. A veteran of the wars against the lizards he makes a living from telling credulous travellers of his exploits. Until one day he is pulled away from his life and into the depths of the Empire’s slave trade. Where he will discover a secret infinitely more frightening than the trade in lives.

Now The Steel Remains I confess took me three goes over three different formats to get into. The first two were a review copy, and I bought the ebook to try out the format on my new Sony Reader, but I didn’t get very far. There was something in the opening that didn’t quite gel. So I wrote it off as not for me.

When I was choosing my next audio book a while ago I thought I’d give the sample a go and I’m glad I did (I immediately bought The Cold Commands so that’s a giveaway really). Simon Vance is an amazing narrator so that eased me back into the story.

Morgan challenges expectations from the off. His lead hero is gay and excellently portrayed as a hero who is gay rather than a gay hero. A distinction that is important. Morgan has aliens which haven’t elevated the level of technology to higher or a lasting degree apart from in strengthening swords. But by respecting as at the same time subverting lots of fantasy troupes to me it feels fresh and something I enjoyed listening to.

The place has been given a bit of a spring clean with a new logo and theme. I’ve finally turned off nextread.co.uk and moved a few of its articles and all its reviews over here (though some of the covers might be missing).

It’s been a little quiet around here anyway as mostly I’ve been distracted by twitter my podcast project with Simon of SavidgeReads. And yesterday on The Readers we announced these:

You wouldn’t believe how excited I am to be doing a book club. It’s already caused some encouraged comment and reaction. It’s not a list of books you’d immediately thing of as a GavReads ™ list but that’s the point. It’s supposed to be a list of books that encourages Simon and I as well as our guests to challenge ourselves as readers and for me that’s encapsulated in Now You See Me and Half Blood Blues but they’ve made the list because of that not in spite of my uncomfortableness with gore and stories set around the two World Wars.

One reason we haven’t read them is that we want the book club feel where a group of people come to a book so they can discuss it together rather than have ‘we think this is good and so should you’  tone. And it’s worth noting that I think a few of the publishers were delighted (if a little surprised) by the choices because we’re hopefully looking from a different angle.

Moving away from the fringes back to something a more central to SFF though very much related. I’ve just come back from Olympus 2012 aka Eastercon and had an amazing time with other fans of SFF fiction. One of the agendas of Eastercon is to address certain entrenched positions in fandom. One that’s really hit me sideways incapsulated in my own revelation. One twitter today I posted:

After #eastercon I’m never going to see world building in SFF as incidental – and I’m not sure I’ll tolerate stock setups in the future. Realistic fiction has little choice in challenging the status quo – SFF should every time!

It’s a statement whose basis is too complex and nuanced to explain in detail here but I think it stands on its own. Though I will say that I now realise why people spend so much energy pursuing novels that don’t use the opportunity which reinvention of a world offers and why this suggests that they are happy with the status quo either consciously or subconsciously. And by not seizing  their chance they are making their own  political statements.

Both the book club and the point about world building highlight some inner challenges I’ve been facing with my reading and I’m not sure how all this is going to play out. But it does feel like a new stage of something hence the title of this post. It definitely feels like I’m going through a bit of a reading evolution. Something I’m nervous and excited by all at the same time.

Synopsis