You have to remember the times in which she was trying to get published. The Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre wasn't just male-dominated in the late '70s/early '80s when she was trying to make her mark, it was downright misogynistic. She used the initials C.J. instead of her name in order to hide the fact that she was female. Having any degree of femininity associated with your work at the time was a death sentence, as far as publishers were concerned. It wasn't just a marketing gimmick, it was self-preservation.
In the 1970s? Try now as well. JV Jones (Julie Victoria), KJ Parker (erm, no-one knows) and J.N. Fenn (Jaine) are all female writers using initials now to at least get people to pick up their books before discovering they are female. JK Rowling tried the same thing but in her case it wasn't really necessary ;-) Robin Hobb is also a somewhat gender-neutral pseudonym.
The Caves of Androzani - DOCTOR WHO at its most mature. Not one for the kids, but adult fans should love it. Dark, gritty and surprisingly bleak, with Sharaz Jek a particularly powerful, intriguing and well-motivated villain.
Genesis of the Daleks - The Daleks as Nazis, the introduction of Davros, and later retconned as the start of the Time War. Great stuff.
City of Death - The Doctor faces down an alien in Paris in an adventure written by Douglas Adams (of HITCH-HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY fame) with a John Cleese cameo and some fantastic lines ("What a delightful butler! He's so violent!").
The Ark in Space - DOCTOR WHO does ALIEN five years early. Some atrocious costumes and special effects, but a gripping, tense story. Noted for the Doctor's 'Homo sapiens' speech ("They're indomitable! Indomitable!") referenced a few times by Tennant.
Day of the Daleks - One of the few times classic WHO actually used its time travel premise in the way Moffat has in the new series, with the Doctor trapped in a temporal paradox as time-travellers from the future try to avert a timeline where the Daleks have conquered Earth (again) only to cause chaos in the timeline. A particularly fine performance by Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, culminating in a UNIT-versus-Daleks battle that was vaguely impressive for 1972 (if hampered by the fact they only have two soldier Daleks they can use, and make feeble attempts to make it look like there's dozens of them).
We can categorically put this one to bed now, having spoken to Russell T Davies himself. It’s all rubbish. "Someone sits in New Zealand", he wearily told us (except with a few more expletives), "Types out a rumour, and I spend the next three days dealing with that rumour!"
Since the restructuring (the second half of ADWD takes place post-AFFC and will feature some AFFC characters, including Cersei), it is possible that Randyll Tarly will be ADWD, but not certain.
Yerolemou is a respected stage actor with only a few small TV roles to his name. He will play Syrio Forel, a fan-favourite character thanks to an extremely badass moment in the first book (which hopefully will make it into the TV show). Luke McEwan appears to be a complete newcomer, playing the fairly minor role of Rast, one of the numerous members of the Night's Watch.
Not for a while. His next book, EMBASSYTOWN, is an SF novel set in space with aliens and stuff. That puts a return to Bas-Lag at least two years away and probably a lot more than that.
21-year-old Bradley-West is playing Samwell Tarly, the son of the much-feared military genius Randyll Tarly (held by some fans, ironically, to be the Chuck Norris of Westeros). Deemed too soft to inherit his title, Randyll has sent his son packing to the Wall to join the Night's Watch, to stand guard for the realm of civilised men and defend it against the savage wildlings, possibly in Sam's case by falling on them. Sam later becomes a friend and confidante of Jon Snow (Kit Harington).
According to Chris, the third book will be called THE IRON JACKAL and out early next year. Del Rey will be publishing the books in the USA, apparently all three in the space of three months at the end of 2011.
There will be a fourth book and apparently plenty of scope for more, although Chris is also working on other projects such as scripts and some YA work.
Not being at all familiar with the books, could they be considered "adult" content? I ask because most of the big HBO and Showtime series (The Tudors, Rome, True Blood etc) have plenty of sex, blood, violence etc. Will this Game of Thrones contain a similar level of such things or are we looking more at a PG13 Lord of the Rings level of content?
Answered elsewhere. Generally, there shouldn't be as much sex as in those shows (although there are two sex scenes in the first episode alone). Generally there's a character reason for a sex scene to be depicted, otherwise the author fades to black. HBO being HBO, of course, may just decide to throw a bunch more scenes in there for the hell of it.
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Also, being a big fan of The Tudors, I have really come to like Tamzin Merchant. I thought she did a GREAT job as Katherine Howard and was looking forward to seeing her in this. Has there been any word yet why she was recast?
No official word. The main rumour is that Merchant has seen her movie career start to take off after her appearances in PRIDE & PREJUDICE and THE TUDORS and she thought twice about committing to a TV series for the better part of the next ten years, especially playing a pretty demanding role who really goes through the wringer and back. There was certainly nothing wrong with her performance, and several people on the project (including George RR Martin) have expressed sadness at her departure.
Her replacement Emilia Clarke is somewhat younger and at an earlier stage in her career, looking for a big breakout role.
Good point :) The simple answer to that is that I haven't read CODEX ALERA as it's taken a long time for it to come out over here in the UK. Now it is out, I'll get round to it at some point.
As I understand it, it was a gesture intended to settle the issue for once and for all whether the new series was actually a continuation of the Classic Doctors. For all but the most stubborn Fan Dumb, we can consider the issue settled.
It was settled a while ago. When he met Sarah-Jane they referenced several of their previous adventures, and in the Season 4 finale Sarah-Jane and Davros recognised one another from their previous meeting in the 1975 serial GENESIS OF THE DALEKS. We also saw images of all 10 (at that point) Doctors in the 'Human Nature' two-parter which did settle the question for good. Plus Steven Moffat asked for this season to be officially called Season 31 to emphasise the connection, but the BBC decided against it.
Exactly why they keep showing previous pictures of the Doctor in this season is less clear, other than possibly being just a shout-out to the fans.
Joe Abercrombie's BEST SERVED COLD (a stand-alone) has a female lead and several other major female characters. This was to correct a perceived imbalance in his earlier FIRST LAW trilogy, in which female characters were only in secondary roles (though very good ones).
Guy Gavriel Kay has excellent female leads, particularly in THE LIONS OF AL-RASSAN and his new book, UNDER HEAVEN (though the central character in the latter is male).
JV Jones' SWORD OF SHADOWS series has a female lead and several very notable supporting female characters.
Robin Hobb's LIVESHIP TRADERS series is also focused on a number of central female characters. Her other books in the same world, FARSEER and TAWNY MAN, are more focused on male characters.
Kate Elliott's CROWN OF STARS series has a female lead character, though it has to be said not the best-developed one. There's a few other, very well-developed female protagonists, however.
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I'm definitely going to read the Game of Thrones books, though I thought they focused more on a couple of the male characters. Which is fine, but...well, a lot easier to find, lol.
As others have already said, there's a lot of very memorable, major female characters in it. In fact, by the fourth volume female POVs outnumber the male ones (just).
There's a bunch of authors who aren't bad as such, but are pretty mediocre, so haven't included (Gail Z. Martin and Karen Millar would fall into that, Trudi Cavanan as well) or who may have once been great but not produced anything worthwhile for many years (Raymond E. Feist, Robin Hobb), or who are simply far too atrocious to be seriously considered (Terry Goodkind, David Bilsborough).
Roy Dotrice has been in a ton of genre productions (HELLBOY 2, HERCULES AND THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS, BABYLON 5, PICKET FENCES, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, SPACE: 1999) and will be familiar to fans of the books who have picked up the audio books, as Dotrice is the reader of the first three books. As such he is the actor most familiar with the source material to be cast to date.
Other casting announcements are also expected shortly, although this time round HBO are only doing big announcements for major actors they are casting. The 'smaller' roles seem to be being confirmed by the actors themselves via Twitter, Facebook and other mediums.
They could get away with some impressive cameo stunt casting here, because Renly will only appear in a handful of episodes. Gerard Butler? Clive Owen? Henry Cavill?
Renly has to be fairly young though. In the books he is 21, fifteen years younger than Robert. As Robert is now 45 in the TV show, they can go down to about 30 or so for Renly, but making him too old would make it unlikely he'd have taken Loras as a squire (he'd already have one), and also that he'd be at an age where Robert would have insisted on him getting married already for the sake of the family honour.
I think we can rule Butler and Owen out for reasons of age and also time constraints. They're very busy guys, and likely out of even HBO's pay range ;-)
The actress is apparently filming Season 6/32 right now, so the indicates she survives.
It was also amusing that Moffat mentions the Chelonians (extremely popular villains from the books who have never appeared on TV) and Zygons (very popular villains from one Tom Baker story in 1975 who never reappeared) and not show either of them, despite there being many calls by viewers to have them show up in the new series. I'm also a bit puzzled that the Draconians are mentioned as being amongst the Doctor's greatest enemies, as they actually have a very high regard for the Doctor (and aren't monsters or villains in the traditional sense, but a nominally 'good' race who just happened to be engaged in a cold war with Earth at one point). Odd.
2027. A hundred of Earth's most skilled engineers and scientists are dispatched to Mars, braving radiation exposure to land on the Red Planet and establish a permanent scientific outpost. Their goal is to establish whether Mars can ever be a viable target for settlement and colonisation, and if terraforming the planet is possible or desirable.
Earth is overcrowded and choking, with national governments and transnational supercorporations (whose annual balance sheets outstrip the GDPs of most of the world's countries) feuding for control. Soon, vast reservoirs of water are discovered in hidden aquifers deep below the Martian surface, making colonies self-sustainable. To the transnats, this means that Mars can become a dumping ground for Earth's excess population. When valuable mineral deposits that Earth is crying out for are also discovered on Mars, then its exploitation for the benefit of the people of Earth becomes inevitable. The resulting clash of wills and desires of the transnational Earth corporations and the beleaguered settlers on Mars forced to accept hundreds of thousands of immigrants they cannot cope with can only have one possible outcome: revolution, and the cry for independence.
Kim Stanley Robinson's epic Mars Trilogy chronicles humanity's colonisation of Mars, beginning in the early 21st Century and extending over a period of some two centuries. The first book, which covers a period of some forty years, sees the initial settling of Mars by the First Hundred, the welcome arrival of additional waves of colonists intent on scientific research and then the more challenging problems of the arrival of hundreds of thousands of economic migrants, refugees and outcasts on a world that is not ready for them, and the resulting tensions between the newcomers and old-timers, and between the authorities on Mars and Earth.
The success of the trilogy as a whole is debatable, but this first volume, at least, is a masterpiece. Robinson's story rotates through a number of POV characters amongst the initial settlers, the First Hundred, and it rapidly becomes clear that most of them are somewhat unreliable narrators. Maya's complaints in her own POV of her 'important problems' being ignored by the base psychiatrist are given another perspective in her friend Nadia's POV, which reveals Maya is more interested in a trivial love triangle between herself and two Americans rather than in the colonisation of Mars, whilst the psychiatrist Michel's POV reveals that he is giving Maya colossal amounts of time and attention (to the detriment of his own mental health) which is unappreciated. Robinson repeats this trick several times, showing that the ultra-laidback and inspirational John Boone (the First Man on Mars) achieves his famous demeanour through the assistance of addictive drugs, whilst self-deprecating Nadia is actually the most universally-respected of the First Hundred. Character is thus built up in layers, from both internal viewpoints and external sources, making these central characters very well-realised (although characters outside the central coterie can be a little on the thin side).
Whilst the characters are important, it is Mars itself which is the central figure of the book. Robinson brings a dead planet to vivid life, emphasising the differences in terrain and character between the frozen northern polar icecap and the water-cut channels in the depths of the Valles Marineris, with the massive mountains of Tharsis towering high into the atmosphere and colonists eagerly staking claims to future beachfront properties in Hellas, the lowest point on Mars and the first place to see the benefits of terraforming. The ideas of Mars as it is now as a pristine, beautiful but harsh landscape and the habitable world it could be are sharply contrasted, and the rights and wrongs of terraforming form a core argument of the novel. I get the impression that Robinson sides with Ann Clayborne's view that the planet should be left untouched, but he is realistic enough to know this will not happen, if Mars can be settled and exploited in a way that is economically feasible. Mars in this work becomes a success of SF worldbuilding to compete with Helliconia and Arrakis, losing only a few points for actually existing.
On the downside, Robinson hits a few bad notes. Some of these are unavoidable consequences of the book being nearly twenty years old. Even in 1992 the notion that the Chinese would not play a major role in the financing and undertaking of a Mars colonisation mission only forty years hence was somewhat fanciful, but today it is almost unthinkable. More notably, the global recession has made the possibility of a manned mission to Mars, let alone a full-scale colonisation effort, by the 2020s somewhat dubious. Of course, these are issues Robinson could not hope to predict in the optimistic, post-Soviet Union years of the early 1990s.
Other problems are more notable. Robinson goes to some lengths to make the pro-terraforming and anti-terraforming sides of the debate both understandable and intelligent, but his political sympathies are much more one-sided. The pro-Martian independence brigade have charismatic leaders and a grass-roots movement of plucky, honest-men-against-the-machine supporters to their name, whilst the pro-Earth-control movement is led by a fundamentalist conservative Christian and resorts to weapons and mass-slaughter extremely easily. Robinson, to his credit, recognises this problem in later books and tries to repair the damage somewhat (Phyllis, presented extremely negatively in Red Mars, is shown in a more sympathetic light in later volumes), but there remains a feeling of political bias in this first volume. In addition, it sometimes feels that Robinson really wants the reader to know about the years of research he put into the book, with tangents and divergences which make the book feel like half a novel and half a factual science volume on how the possible colonisation of Mars might happen. For those fascinated by the real-life plans to terraform Mars (like me) this isn't an issue, but for some it may be. It is also, by far, the biggest problem the sequels face.
Nevertheless, the sheer, massive scope and complexity of Red Mars makes up for this. There is an overwhelming feeling running through this novel unlike almost any other hard SF novel ever published, that this might actually happen. Maybe not as soon as 2027, maybe not with such a determined push towards colonisation and terraforming right from the off, but one day, barring the collapse of our civilisation, we will go to Mars, and many of the challenges and problems faced by the First Hundred in this book are issues that will need to be overcome to make that possibility a reality.
Plus, and this cannot be undervalued, the dry and more sedentary tone of the earlier parts of the book are made up for by the final 100 pages or so, which contains one sequence which ranks amongst the most memorable and stunning moments of SF imagery achieved in the history of the genre to date. Robinson may have the image of being a bit of a laidback Californian optimist, but he sets to blowing stuff up at the end of the book with a relish that makes even Greg Bear look unambitious.
Red Mars (****½) is an awe-inspiring feat of SF worldbuilding and a vital novel on the colonisation of our neighbouring world, let down by a few moments of naivete and simplistic straw-manning of political points of view not to Robinson's liking. Overcoming this, the central characters are fascinating, the sheer scope of the book is stunning and the climatic revolution sequence is dramatic and spectacular. The novel is available (with a nice new British cover) in the UK and USA.
22-year-old British actor Finn Jones has joined the cast, the first official casting for the series itself. Jones, a veteran of British soaps (appearing in DOCTORS, HOLLYOAKS and THE BILL), will be playing Ser Loras Tyrell, the Knight of Flowers, one of the most renknowned knights in the Seven Kingdoms, beloved by the commons for his chivalry, his good looks and his skill in battle and in tourneys.
Well, I'm not American, so the breakdown in responsibilities between the Federal and State laws and law enforcement is not immediately obvious, especially in this case.
So, the actual holding of the border itself is the responsibility of the US Border Patrol, which is a Federal institution. Once these illegal immigrants/drug smugglers are across the border and within Arizona proper, they are then liable to intercept by the Arizona police force. But what is complicating this particular case is that the area where these smugglers/people traffickers are operating is Federal-reserved parkland, where the Arizona police force do not have jurisdiction at all? Is that the case?
So, if this is the case, what reason is there for Federal law enforcement operating within Arizona not to have dealt with the problem, and if these people are on Federal land where Arizona law enforcement cannot operate, what effect would changing Arizona's laws have at all on this particular issue? Presumably Arizona could change its laws authorising the use of nuking sites of criminal activity from orbit, and it still wouldn't make a difference to this issue, as it's on land where Arizonan law does not hold sway? Or is this not the case?
The law enacted by Arizona doesn't even take effect until July 29th, so how can it have been effective yet? And even when it is in place it will likely take years to make a difference. So, yeah. I'd say your recap is pretty much... bupkis.
Right, so your position is actually that Arizona has not taken harsh enough measures in the past to stop illegal immigrants crossing the border, and these new, much-criticised laws are nevertheless needed to stop this from happening and combat the drug cartel problem.
This still doesn't explain why Arizona's laws are so lax in the first place as to allow Mexican drug cartels to set up a permanant camp and crossing point on American soil. Wouldn't existing laws be enough to send them on their way? Or are the existing laws simply not being enforced? And if the existing laws are not being enforced, why does it then follow that harsher laws are required? If law enforcement personnel in Arizona are not enforcing current laws, what guarantee is there that they will enforce the new ones?
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We could just legalize drugs and let people come and go as they please.
If you legalized drugs, there would be no need for smuggling as people could just buy them from the local store. Of course, it'd be a cold day in hell before the USA even considered doing this.
It's not a tangential issue. Our lack of border security is the root cause of both issues. They are, in this part of the country intertwined.
So, to recap the thread so far, Arizona is taking harsh steps to combat illegal immigration because Mexican drug and people traffickers have turned a national park on the border into a no-go area which means clearly that in fact Arizona is not taking harsh enough steps to combat illegal immigration and in fact its existing harsh steps (which have significantly damaged the state's reputation on a national and international level) are completely ineffective?
Or at least, that's what the situation appears to be so far.
Interesting that the thread is focusing on my choice of presentation rather than the actual article and the fact that the drug cartels have unopposed mobility through an incredibly large area of sovereign U.S. soil.
No, people were focusing on the original question of the thread:
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Still wondering why Arizona is taking harsh steps to combat Illegal Imigration?
If you wanted a discussion thread about the drug cartels and cross-border security, perhaps giving the thread a title related to that subject rather than a tangential issue would have been advisable?
Now, anyone care to tell us who the drug cartels are comprised of? Anyone care to take a guess? Anyone?
The drug cartels are comprised of drug barons and criminals based in Mexico, where they have greater freedom of action than within the United States. They sell their product within the United States, but have no wish to live in the USA where they would be arrested quite quickly. Their operatives are crossing the border, sure, but they are also going back and forth, not staying put in the USA. That's why they're called 'smugglers'.
There is a human trafficking element as well, which feeds into illegal immigration, although the money the smugglers get from this is peanuts compared to what they get for drugs.
So primarily this is a border control and narcotics smuggling issue. 'Proper' illegal immigrants to the United States are going to try and disappear ASAP into the big cities and avoid detection. Illegal immigration is a major problem in the United States and worldwide, but its connection to this particular incident is minor at best.
The more I think of it, the FIREFLY comparison is perhaps not entirely just, although a convenient shorthand. The 'wayward bunch of conflicted people forced to work together' story has been done way earlier than that and Whedon was partially inspired by BLAKE'S 7 (which in turn was inspired by the likes of THE DIRTY DOZEN and various Westerns).
Going back to the original post, it is most likely this incident was an accident, a NK captain getting trigger-happy or drifting beyond the border line and not realising it (the North Korean Navy is horrendously badly-equipped and uses antiquated ships) and opening fire. And of course neither side will admit that or back down as it's a matter of pride.
As a prelude to war it makes no sense to take out a single SK vessel. As part of a power-play between government and military factions jockeying for position in the post-Jong world, maybe, although I can't quite fathom how it would work or who it would benefit.
Whilst much is made of North Korea's paranoia and eccentricities, they're not suicidal and they're not out-and-out insane. They know their nukes work best as a deterrent against a US pre-emptive attack (even if that is no longer a possibility) and they know that not only can they not win a conventional war, but it is impossible to launch such a war without destroying their own regime.
Thus, the isolated border incident explanation is the most credible. Nothing else really makes sense.
A review of Chris Wooding's new, excellent semi-steampunk-meets-Firefly series. The first book is out now in the UK, the second is due in a few weeks and the third, The Iron Jackal, is already pencilled in for 2011. A US publisher - Del Rey I believe - has picked up the rights and will be publishing the books at some point, probably next year. Further volumes are hinted at, but my understanding is that the first three books form one self-contained story arc (or 'season', continuing the Firefly comparison).
Book 1: Retribution Falls
Retribution Falls is the first novel in The Tales of the Ketty Jay, which promises to be a series of semi-stand-alone novels set in the same world and focusing on the crew of the airship Ketty Jay and its crew of miscreants and scoundrels. If I had to provide a quick soundbite for this it would be Firefly meets Crimson Skies, with a dash of Locke Lamora sprinkled on top.
Darian Frey is the captain of the Ketty Jay, a battered old freighter which he keeps running by the skin of his teeth, by accepting jobs on the dubious side of the law and trying not to get into too much trouble. When Frey is offered the chance of a lifetime - an easy theft in return for a massive fortune - he overrides his common sense and accepts the job. When it goes hideously wrong and a lot of people die, Frey realises he has been set up, and must prove his innocence even though he and his crew are now Public Enemy #1. Frey's quest to redeem himself takes him and his crew through multiple aerial dogfights, double-crosses, high society soirees and lowlife gambling dens. At the same time we get to know his crew, from the troubled new navigator harbouring a dark secret to the former aristocrat-turned-demon-summoner to the alcoholic ship's surgeon to the powerful and dangerous metal thing they keep in the hold...
Occasionally a book comes along which takes the concept of fun and turns it up to 11. Retribution Falls is one such book. The story powers along at a relentless, page-turning pace. The characters are a diverse and fascinating bunch and Wooding uses skillful economy in getting into their backstories and motivations quickly and convincingly without bogging the story down in unnecessary detail. The world of Vardia is a fascinating one as well, with its diverse landmasses, the dark, forbidding storms that wrack the planet, and a wide range of cultures and people. There are certainly a tremendous number of concepts introduced in this book that aren't followed up on, leaving open a large number of possibilities for future adventures with this crew.
What makes the book refreshingly different from so many fantasies is the setting and tech-level. Airships are the primary method of transportation and the cavalry charges and duels of traditional epic fantasy are here replaced by frigate broadsides and intense dogfights. The technology of the airships and how they work is depicted convincingly, and the battles are great fun and a nice change of pace for a fantasy novel.
As I said before, the book is 'FUN' but at the same time it is not lightweight. Some of the characters are carrying real demons around with them and Wooding doesn't wimp out of some the bad things they've done or had done to them. There are also some genuinely unsettling moments (one flashback sequence to an arctic location is pretty disturbing, which is all the more impressive since we know the character involved survives), and hints of greater, darker threats out in the world which could come into play in later books.
Retribution Falls (*****) is an accomplished and enjoyable novel, and hopefully the start of many adventures for this crew. The novel will be published on 18 June 2009 in the UK in hardcover and tradeback, and the tradeback will be available in the USA via Amazon after that date as well.
Book 2: The Black Lung Captain
The crew of the Ketty Jay are down on their luck. A year after the events at Retribution Falls, Darian Frey is reduced to robbing an orphanage to keep his craft in the air. And when he can't even pull that off, it's clear that the crew need a lucky break. Enter Captain Grist of the Storm Dog and an offer that is too good to refuse: a mission to a hostile island to retrieve valuable artifacts from a civilisation dating back to before the dawn of time. The money is good, the opportunity for fame and glory huge. What can go wrong?
Obviously, the answer is a lot. The Black Lung Captain is the second volume in the Tales of the Ketty Jay series, following on from last year's excellent, Arthur C. Clarke Award-nominated Retribution Falls. Readers of that book will feel immediately at home here, as Wooding continues his Firefly-meets-steampunk story of a clapped out aircraft and its crew struggling to make ends meet in a hostile world of shady deals and, at the fringes of civilisation, hostile savages.
The Tales of the Ketty Jay series promises to be somewhat episodic, with this book seeing the crew of the Ketty Jay embarking on another adventure. However, character arcs and storylines are continued from the first book. Pleasingly, these aren't separated from the plot and in some cases are vital for the resolution of the story. Those who were left wondering about Jez's unusual heritage and abilities from the first book and the dark secrets of the tormented daemonologist Crake will find these stories continuing to unfold in this novel. In fact, there's enough references to the previous novel and the backstories of the main characters that it would be difficult to recommend readers to start with this novel. There is a particularly satisfying evolution of the character of Trinica Dracken and the recurring supporting characters of the Century Knights (who are interesting and strong enough characters to possibly warrant their own spin-off novel or series at some point in the future).
On the minus side, The Black Lung Captain does not feel as immediately fresh and vibrant as the first novel. The callbacks to the first novel are part of this, but more notable is the fact that, just as with Retribution Falls and indeed Firefly and many of the pulp books and adventures which inspired this series, there's a slight sense of predictability to events. The number of times our heroes are double-crossed, held at gunpoint, swap sides and so on is quite high, to the point where, by simply assuming that the worst possible thing will happen at every story turn, you can almost predict what will happen next, at least until the major twists in the plot start happening towards the end of the novel.
These are minor issues, however. The Black Lung Captain, like its forebear, is page-turning entertainment from start to finish, packed with aerial battles, chases, intrigue and hints of much bigger stories to come.
The Black Lung Captain (****½) will be published in the UK on 29 July. A US edition is in the works for next year, but the UK edition will be available on import much sooner.
"I'm sure we can put all of our past differences behind us, for science."
Yup, that sounds like it's going to work. Obviously, this should be brilliant, but I'm interested to see how they're going to keep the game fresh. Apparently PORTAL 2 is a 'full game' compared to the original PORTAL's more demo-like length, and given that PORTAL was praised for not milking the concept but for ending just as the trick was getting old, I'm wondering if PORTAL 2 will be in danger of getting a bit stale.
Probably not, as it is Valve, so I guess we'll see how they manage it.
In a perfect universe WARHAMMER 40,000 ONLINE would be a PLANETSIDE-style tactical shooter with all of the races, weapons and equipment from the WH40K tabletop game to play and go completely insane with.
In practice, it appears they've gone for WORLD OF WARCRAFT WITH 500 FOOT TALL BATTLE MEK THINGS, which could still be fun. But intriguing glimpses of a cover system of some kind suggests there might be a more dynamic combat system at work here. Potentially interesting.
Charles Dance's name has certainly been forward by the fans and is a popular choice, alongside a few others. He'd also be adding to his iconic modern fantasy characters resume list, having also recently played Patrician Vetinari in the Terry Pratchett adaptation GOING POSTAL.
Alan Dale - Widmore from LOST or, for Brits and Aussies, Jim from NEIGHBOURS - is also a popular choice, but is an extremely busy guy with many fingers in many pies. Both of these guys are hugely popular with the fans, but both are also extremely busy as you say. There's also Kenneth Cranham, who was brilliant as Pompey Magnus in ROME, and Ian McShane who was Al Swearengen in DEADWOOD, who have both been mentioned by fans.
I'd certainly say this is more the fame level we're talking about of possible choices: actors whose names you might not immediately recognise but you'd recognise once you listed their credits.
That said, a shock casting of a star actor is not impossible. HBO are also developing a mini-series project with Kate Winslet, one of the most famous actresses in the world, for 2012 or so. A lot of actors, even ones who are far above TV's apparent pay grade, would like to work with HBO based purely on their track record and prestige. I don't think it's very likely you'll see the likes of Stewart, Nighty or McKellan in the role (particularly the latter due to HOBBIT commitments), but it also cannot be ruled out 100%.
The world of Helliconia is moving away from the supergiant star Freyr. The Great Winter is about to descend on the planet with full, unmitigated fury. The tropical continent of Campannlat is ill-prepared to deal with the falling temperatures, and the defeat of their armies by the forces of the harsh northern landmass of Sibornal signals the beginning of the end of their period of dominance. Luterin Shokerandit, a soldier in the Sibornalese army, returns home in triumph, only to face treachery. The ruthless leader of Sibornal, the Oligarch, has decreed that the victorious army is returning home infested with plague, and cannot be allowed to reach succor.
Meanwhile, life on the Earth Observation Station Avernus, in orbit around Helliconia for almost four millennia, is drawing to an end as the inhabitants revert to savage barbarism, even as the world beneath them falls from the glories of Summer into the abyss of Winter. But some in Sibornal have vowed that humanity and civilisation will ride out the Winter no matter the cost in blood...
Helliconia Winter picks up the story of the world of Helliconia 478 local years - 669 Earth years - after the events of Helliconia Summer. As before, whilst the individual characters who starred in the previous novel are long dead the fall-out of their actions continues to have consequences in this novel, although in this case at something of a remove, since the action is now transplanted to the northern continent of Sibornal. Here, we follow a band of characters led by the betrayed Luterin as he struggles to return to his distant home in the Shivenink Chain, giving rise to what, potentially, should have been the most dynamic storyline in The Helliconia Trilogy. Instead, we get a travelogue. A fascinating, intelligent, well thought-out travelogue, but nevertheless there is the feeling of Aldiss pointing out the cool scenery at the expense of developing his themes in tandem with the plot.
This is not to say that the themes Aldiss wished to explore with the trilogy have been neglected, but they have been shunted into a somewhat unfocused subplot that ranges from the Avernus back to Earth and to one of Earth's almost-failed colony worlds. These ideas are interesting and intelligently-handled, but whilst in Spring and Summer they integrated nicely into the Helliconian story, here they are separated, to the detriment of both. That said, it is satisfying to get an answer for the mystery of why the Helliconian afterlife spirits went from angry, monstrous creatures in Helliconia Spring to peaceful, loving entities in Helliconia Summer, and these developments do a good job of tying the relevance of events in the two earlier books to the events of this one.
On the plus side, Aldiss's gift for invention remains formidable here. The landforms the characters pass through, the political machinations within the government of Sibornal and its member-states and the constant evolution of the flora and fauna of Helliconia to deal with its climatic extremes all remain stunning. His characters are similarly well-drawn and convincing, but it has to be said in this case they are mostly unpleasant and selfish characters whose ambitions and motivations are interesting on an intellectual level, but unengaging on an emotional one. In particular, his female characters receive short shrift here, which is odd especially after the first book in the series (where it is the women of Oldorando who drive forward its scientific and technological development). The ending is also rather more unsatisfying than in the first two books, where the ambiguous conclusions are alleviated by us learning what happened next in historical texts mentioned in the succeeding volume. With no succeeding volume to Helliconia Winter, the ending is too abrupt.
Helliconia Winter (****) is packed with inventive ideas, fascinating characters and some genuinely exciting and dramatic moments. However, it is the weakest book of the trilogy, with an unsatisfying ending and a cold, remote prose style that is not as engaging as the first two books in the series. Nevertheless, the ambition and achievement of the trilogy as a whole remains stunning. The novel is available now in the USA and in the UK will be reissued as part of the new Helliconia omnibus due for release on 12 August this year.
I very much doubt we will have heard of the actor playing Robert Arryn, considering he'll be six years old. As for the next casting announcement, it could come at any time. Next week, three weeks from now, not until after the cameras start rolling in late July, we just don't know.
Quote:
What names have you heard going around?
Not allowed to say :)
I can say it almost certainly won't be Patrick Stewart or Bill Nighy, two favourites often mentioned. They're both expensive and both have movie and stage careers they probably wouldn't want to put on hold for several months a year for several years to do the TV series. So not actors at that level of name recognition.
As said above, they either haven't been cast yet, or have been but not announced. The only actors announced are the ones in the pilot (two of whom - Jennifer Ehle as Cat Stark and Tamzin Merchant as Daenerys Targaryen - have since been replaced).
Shooting of Season 1 begins on 26 July, so I'd expecting casting announcements before then. But to give an idea of some of the actors involved, I know that Aiden Gillen (one of the leads in the UK QUEER AS FOLK and Mayor Carcetti in THE WIRE) was interested in auditioning for Littlefinger and no less than three guys who are really over 7 foot tall were auditioning for Gregor Clegane. I also know the several high-profile, familiar-to-SF&F geeks, actors have been talked about for Tywin Lannister.
One correction: Robert Baratheon has been cast as he's in the pilot. He's being played by Mark Addy (from THE FULL MONTY and A KNIGHT'S TALE with Heath Ledger), presumably standing on a box ;-)
The trailer features Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) drawing his greatsword Ice from a scabbard held by Theon Greyjoy (Alfie 'brother of Lily' Allen), scenes of the Dothraki wedding and shots of Will (Bronson Webb) and Gared (Richard Ridings) in the Haunted Forest (note: not actually haunted).
One idea might be to sample his MALAZAN novellas. These are much smaller, much shorter and much less confusing, with a tighter focus on just three characters (Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, and their long-suffering manservant Emancipor Reese, who also cameo in Erikson's third novel). I believe Tor are publishing the first three - BLOOD FOLLOWS, THE HEALTHY DEAD and THE LEES OF LAUGHTER'S END - in omnibus in the next few months.
Freed of the constraints to tell fifty stories about a thousand characters simultaneously, the stronger aspects of Erikson's writing stand out a lot better.
In the last couple of years the term 'the new fantasy' has been flung around a fair bit. It was inspired by 'the new space opera', a term developed in the previous decade to describe the explosion of fresh, exciting new space opera SF by a number of authors combining the tropes of traditional space opera with more advanced SF ideas like quantum states, exotic wormhole physics and so on.
The 'new fantasy' is much harder to pin down. Broadly it refers to fantasy which is either grittier and more realistic than previous 'safe' authors, or to traditional epic fantasy which has taken on some of the ideas and tropes of steampunk and the New Weird (a fantasy movement sparked off in 2000 with China Mieville's PERDIDO STREET STATION but which has now more or less merged with fantasy in general). Or indeed, both. Confusingly, a number of more 'old-school' authors who reject some of these new ideas in favour of a solid story, well-told, are also incorporated into the movement, leading to the conclusion that 'the new fantasy' is nothing more than fantasy works simply published in the last few years. It is also distinct from 'Urban Fantasy' (like Jim Butcher's DRESDEN FILES) or 'Dark Fantasy' (romance-oriented horror-fantasy such as TWILIGHT).
The following is a list of authors who may be said to work in this movement:
Joe Abercrombie
Joe Abercrombie has carved a name for himself as the author of brutal, bloody fantasy novels featuring redoubtable antiheroes and dark, black humour. His FIRST LAW TRILOGY is superb, with a very traditional first novel suddenly turning into a subversive and increasingly refreshing story with an unexpectedly dark ending. A stand-alone set in the same world, BEST SERVED COLD, is, if anything, even darker. His next book, THE HEROES, follows next year. Abercrombie describes himself as "David Eddings, except with characters who swear and occasionally s**t themselves," which is uncharacteristically underselling himself.
Dan Abnett
Best-known as the finest author of WARHAMMER 40,000 fiction, Abnett has recently moved into fantasy with his original series TRIUMFF, a swasbuckling series where it is revealed that Elizabeth I married the King of Spain to forge a huge, powerful empire which has gone on to rediscover magic. Triumff himself is a spendidly roguish, sword-wielding hero and the first book, HER MAJESTY'S HERO, mixes together elements of historical fiction and 'magepunk' to great effect. The second book is due in 2011.
Daniel Abraham
Occasionally called George R.R. Martin's protege, Daniel Abraham's writing style is perhaps closer to Guy Gavriel Kay. His short fiction is excellent, but Abraham's LONG PRICE QUARTET series of novels (starting with A SHADOW IN SUMMER) is set in a world loosely based on Asia rather than Medieval Europe, with a novel magic system based around capturing and giving form and violition as spirits to ideas and concepts. These spirits, the Andat, have made the Khaiem city-states invulnerable to attack from their rivals, the Galts (a steampunk-esque power armed with steam-tanks), at least until a Galtic general hatches a scheme to use the Andats' own power against them... An emotionally intense and powerful series, but a bit of a slow-burner, with the main plot arguably not really kicking off until the third book, but the stunning ending makes up for it. Abraham's new series, THE DAGGER AND THE COIN, is promised to be what a collaboration between GRRM, Joss Whedon and the Medicis would look like, and kicks off in June 2011.
R. Scott Bakker
Scott Bakker's SECOND APOCAYPSE mega-series will, when complete, comprise three distinct works: THE PRINCE OF NOTHING trilogy, THE ASPECT-EMPEROR trilogy and a third series whose very title would be a spoiler. The series starts with a Holy War against the heathens, but an engimatic man emerges to take control of the crusade and twists it to his own ends. Bakker's work is grown-up, dark fantasy which comes across as a darkly twisted melding of J.R.R. Tolkien and Frank Herbert, complete with the reams of worldbuilding and fictional languages of the former and the metaphysical musings of the latter, and is batting on the same level as both. Definitely not for those looking for a light read, but those who want fantasy with depth and intelligence should look no further. The first book is THE DARKNESS THAT COMES BEFORE.
James Barclay
Barclay is the polar opposite to Bakker, being fairly light and unadventurous. His books chronicling the adventures of the mercenary company known as the Raven (now seven books in length, with more RAVEN novels and others set in the same word on their way) are somewhat disposable, but his duology comprising CRY OF THE NEWBORN and SHOUT FOR THE DEAD is more interesting. This transplants the Roman Empire to a fictional fantasy world where the Empire is threatened with destruction until it is saved by four magic-wielding children. However, the Empire's religion demands the death of all sorcerers as abominations, setting up a clash of religion and state that is well-handled.
Peter V. Brett
Peter Brett's debut work is a fantasy which borrows a lot of ideas from post-apocalyptic fiction and horror. Essentially, the world is haunted by demons which rise from the core every night at sunset and have free reign until dawn, when sunlight banishes them again. Homes and towns are protected by wards which keep the people safe, but nothing is being done to wipe the demons out. This changes when a prophetic figure called the Painted Man emerges with wards tattooed into his skin, and begins the fight back against the enemy. The first book is THE PAINTED MAN (THE WARDED MAN in the USA), whilst the second, THE DESERT SPEAR, was recenty released.
Col Buchanan
Irish author Col Buchanan is a newcomer, having just published his first novel, FARLANDER. This combines elements of the traditional epic fantasy (a secret guild of assassins thrust into conflict with a powerful empire) with steampunk elements such as airships and Renaissance levels of technology included. However, more impressive is the cliche-inverting conclusion, which means that the sequels will unfold rather differently to what readers are probably expecting.
Alan Campbell
Campbell rose to fame as a co-writer and developer on the GRAND THEFT AUTO games before switching to writing fantasy. His completed trilogy, THE DEEPGATE CODEX, is a dizzying tale of the New Weird, with a city suspended on chains over a vast abyss with ghosts descending into the darkness and an inert god lying far below. The first book, SCAR NIGHT, is dizzyingly inventive and intelligent, but the later books are less accomplished, with the trilogy petering out rather lamely rather than finishing with a bang. Still, the author has a tremendous imagination and it'll be interesting to see if he can harness it to a stronger storyline in a future book.
Stephen Deas
Stephen Deas' debut series is A MEMORY OF FLAMES, starting with THE ADAMANTINE PALACE and continuing with THE KING OF THE CRAGS. A vast fantasy land is riven by internal war, with the factions equipped with hundreds of fire-breathing dragons, drugged into subservience. A more brutal, less twee and better-written take on material also mined by Naomi Novik's TEMERAIRE books.
Kate Elliott
Elliott is best-known as the author of the immense CROWN OF STARS fantasy series, which is a solid traditional fantasy epic. Her more recent work has been more interesting, however, with the Asian-influenced CROSSROADS trilogy (which starts with SPIRIT GATE) soon to be followed by an 'icepunk' trilogy starting with COLD MAGIC.
Steven Erikson & Ian Cameron Esslemont
Erikson and Esslemont's vast MALAZAN series remains one of the most influential modern epic fantasy works, and is covered by another thread elsewhere ;)
Celia Friedman
Celia Friedman is one of the defining authors of 1990s epic fantasy with her notable COLDFIRE TRILOGY, and continues to write original, interesting fantasy tinged with an SF flavour.
Peadar O Guilin
Irish author Peadar O Guilin's debut work, THE INFERIOR, was a somewhat disturbing but entertaining YA SF-fantasy hybrid in which a tribe of cannibals battles for supremacy in a jungle teaming with savage animal life. The sequel, THE DESERTER, is expected next year.
Ian Irvine
Ian Irvine's massive THREE WORLDS fantasy series currently comprises eleven novels with more planned. This is a Darwinian fantasy series in which different races compete and battle for control of the world of Santhenar. Irvine is noted for his grey characters and murky morality amidst toweringly impressive worldbuilding, but his writing tends towards the bland.
J.V. Jones
J.V. Jones made a splash in the 1990s with her BOOK OF WORDS trilogy, an entertaining but unoriginal work about a nasty wizard scheming to conquer a medieval kingdom. THE SWORD OF SHADOWS, starting with A CAVERN OF BLACK ICE, is the much darker, far better-written quasi-sequel, set in the arctic lands far to the north. This is a snowswept land of feuding clans, enigmatic wanderers, power-hungry city-states to the south and something stirring in the northern icefields. A triumph, albeit one where the books are taking a significantly long period to come out.
Guy Gavriel Kay
Kay is an established figure in the fantasy field and arguably not really part of the 'new fantasy' field, but his recent UNDER HEAVEN is one of his strongest-ever novels and his lyrical writing and fusing of real history with fantasy remains compelling.
Paul Kearney
Kearney's been around for a long time, publishing gritty, no-nonsense fantasy in the spirit of the late David Gemmell since the early 1990s. His MONARCHIES OF GOD series, about cultures and religions clashing in a vast, multi-front war, is being reprinted this year in omnibus for a new audience. His current books follow the adventures of the Macht, a ruthlessly efficient race of mercenaries and soldiers adrift in a world not their own. The first book in this series is THE TEN THOUSAND. The sequel, CORVUS, is published later this year. Kearney is one of the most underread and underrated authors in the genre.
Greg Keyes
Keyes is well-known for his tie-in work, publishing STAR WARS, BABYLON 5 and most recently ELDER SCROLLS novels amongst others, but made a recent stab at his own epic fantasy series with THE KINGDOMS OF THORN AND BONE (starting with THE BRIAR KING). Keyes' approach is impressive, fusing GRRM-eseque epic fantasy with rural, forest-mysticism more familiar from the likes of Robert Holdstock. Unfortunately, after three books of solid entertainment, Keyes lost the plot with the concluding volume to the series, which was rushed and nonsensical.
M.D. Lachlan
Lachlan is another brand new author, whose first novel WOLFSANGEL was just published. Lachlan's series sees three people from Viking times whose destinies become entwined and then cursed, resulting in them being born and reborn again across the years as part of the war between Odin and Loki. Interesting, mythologically-heavy stuff.
Scott Lynch
Scott Lynch's THE LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA was 'the' big fantasy debut of 2006 and one of the first novels whose word-of-mouth success was primarily generated by the Internet and blogosphere. A richy-imagined world provides the perfect backdrop for a tale of thieves, blood and vengeance. The sequel, RED SEAS UNDER RED SKIES, was less accomplished and Lynch has spent a long time fine-tuning the third volume, THE REPUBLIC OF THIEVES, which is now due for publication in early 2011, four years after the previous book, with a lot riding on it.
George R.R. Martin
Martin's A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE remains the dominant work of epic fantasy in the genre, enjoying both constant critical acclaim and growing sales success, despite the extremely protracted writing time of the fourth and fifth books in the series. Martin has maintained his profile by continuing to edit further books in the 25-years-running WILD CARDS superhero series. With the fifth ASoIaF novel due at the end of this year or start of next (touch wood) and a HBO TV adaptation of the books due to begin in April 2011, the series' profile and influence can only increase, whilst the number of writers emerging citing Martin as a major influence continues to increase.
China Mieville
Mieville's recent work - UN LUN DUN, THE CITY AND THE CITY and KRAKEN - has been 'slipstream' fantasy merging elements of the real world and the fantastical, so he's perhaps not as automatic an entry on this list as you may think. However, he has promised a return to his signature world of Bas-Lag at some point, and his trinity of PERDIDO STREET STATION, THE SCAR and IRON COUNCIL remains hugely influential on the modern fantasy field.
Richard K. Morgan
Morgan is better-known for his SF works featuring Takeshi Kovacs (beginning with ALTERED CARBON), but recently dabbled with fantasy with THE STEEL REMAINS, the first book in his LAND FIT FOR HEROES trilogy. The second, THE COLD COMMANDS, follows next year. This is fantasy drenched in blood, sweat and sex where the author pulls no punches. The first book was a bit too interested in shocking at the expense of character and plot, and hopefully the second book picks up on these elements.
Mark Charan Newton
Newton, a long-standing SF&F editor and blogger, is perhaps the one most self-conciously melding traditional fantasy and the 'New Weird' in his LEGENDS OF THE RED SUN series, which began with last year's NIGHTS OF VILLJAMUR and continues this year with the excellent CITY OF RUIN. This is a world descending into a devastating ice age, where the island-spanning Jamur Empire must face an interdimensional invasion. A grotesque menagerie of monsters and creatures combines with robust military action to make for a compelling fantasy series. Also check out Newton's stand-alone in the same world, THE REEF, about scientists studying a remote island culture and getting more than they bargained for.
Naomi Novik
Naomi Novik's TEMERAIRE sequence (commencing with HIS MAJESTY'S DRAGON) has a great conceit, namely that the Napoleonic Wars are being fought with both sides equipped with an air force made up of dragons and their crews. Unfortunately, the series doesn't quite live up to the billing, mainly due to the overly-twee nature of the dragons, but it's still fun.
K.J. Parker
The enigmatic Parker - an alias for an author whose true identity must remain secret for reasons unknown - is one of the most hardcore and grittiest fantasy authors out there. She has penned three brutal trilogies - FENCER, SCAVENGER and ENGINEER - and is now working on a series of more concise stand-alone books. Vengeance, blood and war feature heavily in her books.
Pierre Pevel
French author Pierre Pevel's debut, THE CARDINAL'S BLADES, is a terrific novel set in Cardinal Richelieu's Paris, where Spain is ruled by shapeshifting dragons intent on France's destruction. Richelieu assembles a 'dirty dozen' of swashbuckling swordsmen to handle the dirty work that needs to be done to safeguard France against her many enemies. Well-written and enormous fun. The sequel, THE ALCHEMIST IN THE SHADOWS, is published in English this year.
Terry Pratchett
Pratchett continues to publish his DISCWORLD books, with the final Tiffany Aching book, I SHALL WEAR MIDNIGHT, due this year, and the final Moist von Lipwig book, RAISING TAXES to follow next. The DISCWORLD series, particularly Ankh-Morpork's development into more of a steampunk Victorian city over the past ten years or so, has been enormously influential on the state of modern fantasy, with other works following where Pratchett has been leading for some considerable time.
Robert V.S. Redick
Robert Redick's CHANTHRAND VOYAGE trilogy (which starts with THE RED WOLF CONSPIRACY) is another fun series, set on board a ship so insanely huge that it's basically the ocean-going equivalent of Gormenghast. The crew - comprising humans, nonhumans and sentient rats - become embroiled in political tension between two neighbouring superpowers and must avert a war that could destroy the world.
Alastair Reynolds
Reynolds is primarily an SF author, but his most recent work, TERMINAL WORLD, also mixes together elements of steampunk and planetary romance to great effect, complete with massive airship battles.
Justina Robson
Hard SF author Justina Robson has made a recent switch to fantasy with her successful QUANTUM GRAVITY series (starting with KEEPING IT REAL), in which reality has been warped by a quantum bomb, resulting in elves and monsters being called into existence. The central character is a cyborg who falls in love with an elven prince whose primary career is a rock star. It's all a bit lightweight, but not without some fun elements.
Patrick Rothfuss
Rothfuss' debut novel, THE NAME OF THE WIND, has had an impact like no other individual fantasy novel published since PERDIDO STREET STATION. WIND is a traditional epic fantasy, albeit an unusually well-written one. The sequel, THE WISE MAN'S FEAR is due in March after a lengthy delay.
Brian Ruckley
Ruckley is another author working in the gritty epic fantasy field, and is known for his GODLESS WORLD trilogy beginning with WINTERBIRTH. His series is ruthless and well-written.
Brandon Sanderson
With all the 'gritty' fantasy around, it's unsurprising there might have been a slight backlash. Sanderson is a rather 'safe' author who doesn't use bad language or sex, but makes up for it with bundles of invention: endlessly impressive magic systems, well-drawn characters and a vast, cosmic scope. His new series, THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE, begins in August, whilst he continues to bring THE WHEEL OF TIME series to its conclusion with TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT due in October and the final novel in the series, A MEMORY OF LIGHT, to follow next year.
Andrzej Sapkowski
Sapkowski has been a mainland European superstar for twenty years, but has only recently become known in the USA and UK. Two of his novels, THE LAST WISH and BLOOD OF ELVES have been translated and met with critical and popular success, whilst a computer game based on his work, THE WITCHER, has been one of the biggest-selling PC games of recent years. His work combines inventive humour based on traditional folk tales and fairy stories with a more gritty element based around the character of Geralt, a monster-hunting 'witcher' of dubious morality.
Ken Scholes
Ken Scholes is another new fantasy author whose PSALMS OF ISAAK series (starting with LAMENTATION) has met with widespread acclaim.
Jon Sprunk
Jon Sprunk is another brand new author whose first novel, SHADOW'S SON, is due in a few weeks. His book follows the misadventures of an assassin who ends up befriending the daughter of the target he was sent to kill and becomes embroiled on political turmoil.
Steph Swainston
After China Mieville, Swainston's CASTLE series (commencing with THE YEAR OF OUR WAR) is the standard-bearer for the New Weird. A world is riven by war between humanity and the giant insects that live beyond, with several powerful godlike entities leading the fight against them. The four books follow the misadventures of the only being in the world who can fly under their own power, but who is also a drug addict.
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Adrian Tchaikvosky's SHADOWS OF THE APT series (planned to eventually run to ten novels, with four out now and the fifth soon), starting with EMPIRE IN BLACK AND GOLD, is based around a world where human cultures have become influenced by insectoid totem-like figures and adapted the characteristics of those insects. When the wasp-kinden wage war on the rest of the world, a mighty struggle begins.
Chris Wooding
Chris Wooding is a YA author who's been around for a while (an early project was working on some of the YA tie-in material for THE PHANTOM MENACE) but has only recently come to high-profile attention for his adult fantasy work. THE BRAIDED PATH TRILOGY is set in a China-like empire controlled by mask-wearing wizards where political tensions are threatening to spill over into civil war. His stand-alone, THE FADE, is a subterranean fantasy set in an underground environment that is brilliantly realised. His new series, THE TALES OF THE KETTY JAY (the first book is RETRIBUTION FALLS), is a steampunk FIREFLY focusing on the redoubtable and secret-keeping crew of a mercenary airship who are trying to make enough money to stay flying. Well-written and endlessly entertaining.
Now that's some good reviewing, Werthead, I may just check the series out now. Please, write some more reviews of stuff that's getting big now/has gotten big over the past few years, cuz I know I'm out of the loop a bit(read: chasing Richard Lee Byers, Paul Kemp and Erik Scott de Bie stuff while waiting for A Dance With Dragons).
Hmm, some kind of overview of the big names in the genre now and who've come up in the last few years? Could make for an interesting thread.
Helliconia basks in the glow of the Great Summer. The continent of Campannlat is now dominated by the Holy Empire, a loose religious affiliation between the three great kingdoms of Pannoval, Oldorando and Borlien. These nations find themselves threatened by the far less technologically-advanced but considerably more populous jungle and desert nations to the west and the even more savage tribes to the east. When King JandolAnganol suffers a humiliating defeat to tribesmen using firearms (bought at great cost from the progressive nations of Sibornal far to the north), he divorces his wife so he might seek a more favourable alliance by marrying a princess of Oldorando. However, the queen is a greatly popular figure in Borlien and by divorcing her the king enrages the native population, triggering political turmoil and military action that will have great ramifications for all of Helliconia.
Meanwhile, the crew of the Earth Observation Station Avernus have fallen into internal dissent and debate over the nature of reality and their own orders from distant Earth not to interfere with life on Helliconia. Rejecting this order from a world they can never see or return to, the crew hold a lottery with a grand prize: to allow the winner to visit Helliconia, so for the brief few months it will take for the planet's viruses and bacteria to kill him he can live under a real sky. The arrival of Billy Xiao Pin in Borlien's capital likewise triggers events that will have unforeseen consequences.
Helliconia Summer picks up the story of the world of Helliconia some 355 local years - more than 500 Earth years - after the conclusion of Helliconia Spring. The planet is not far from its time of closest approach to the supergiant star Freyr and humanity rules supreme over the planet, the phagor population reduced to slavery or forced to hide in remote mountain valleys. It is a time of great technological innovation, with firearms, gunpowder and cannons flowing south from Sibornal, but also of turmoil, with the doctrines of the Pannovalan Church stifling the advance of technology and science within Campannlat itself. Like its forebear, the novel mixes thematic elements such as the rise and fall of civilisations, the advance of science and the uneasy union of progress and religion, with a more traditional action and character-driven narrative.
Helliconia Summer, appropriately, sprawls luxuriantly where its forebear was more focused and constrained in narrative scope and geographical area. It is in this novel that Aldiss' achievement in creating Helliconia is best-realised, with lush descriptions of the world and its myriad animal life and human cultures in full flower. The main storyline is compelling, combining intriguing politics and well-realised (if not particularly likable) characters clashing over the fate of their kingdoms in the face of warfare, religious turmoil and arguments over the fate of the phagors, the dominant nonhuman species of Helliconia reduced by the heat into docile soldier-slaves. The relevance of having an observation station from Earth is also made clearer in this novel, with one of the Avernus crewmembers becoming an important character. There are also some intriguing mysteries, such as a murder mystery whose conclusion is ambiguous and a deeper one surrounding the changes in pauk, the bizarre ability of the Helliconian people to commune with the spirits of their ancestors after death, which provide much food-for-thought going into the third and final novel.
On the negative side, the book suffers slightly from its lack of focus compared to the first volume and also from a somewhat clumsy chronological structure, where the first several chapters take place in the present and then we rewind a year and move forward to where the first part began, then skip to after it. The story doesn't really require this structure and would perhaps have benefited from a more linear progression.
In Helliconia Summer (****½) Aldiss' grand ambition, nothing less than a history of an entire world and its peoples across vast chasms of time, becomes clearer and more impressive. The book is available now (albeit somewhat expensively) in the USA and will form part of the new UK Helliconia omnibus due on 12 August this year.
DEM is the bane of the Malazan series, and the two best books (2 and 3) are notable for not relying on it. Book 2 in fact expands on the resolution of Book 1 for its ending, so what is DEM in Book 1 becomes backstory and foreshadowing for Book 2.
Also, whilst I really like Book 1, note that my opinion is not widely shared amongst the fan community. I know people who LOATHED the first book who absolutely loved the second and third, so it may be worth checking them out.
Short summary of the above: The Malazan book of the Fallen is quite easily one of the best series of book that I've read the last couple of years, what I particulary like is the fact that the books come out every other year (still waiting for the next G.R.R Martin ;<).
True. But I think many or all of the problems I list above could have been eliminated by Erikson being able to take more time over each book (he has to deliver a book a year to get each instalment of that huge advance). In interviews he has said that each novel is effectively a first draft with minor edits and tweaks, as he has no time to do additional edits and drafts, explaining the huge continuity errors and occasional padding. It is notable that, for my money and many fans', the best book in the series is MEMORIES OF ICE, the one he effectivey had to write twice (as he lost the manuscript first time around and replaced it with DEADHOUSE GATES) and seemed to get better for it.
Given that many authors' first drafts are completey unreadable and only get knocked into shape over many, many rewrites, Erikson's ability to produce decent, occasionally brilliant books first out of the gate each time is nothing short of mindblowing, but they definitely fail to live up to their potential because of the speed with which they are produced.
It is notable that Erikson's new contract for the trilogies only requires one book every 18-24 months rather than one every 12, as Erikson wants to take more time and care and attention on them.
The first three Martin books definitely benefited from having three years each spent on them, whilst the fourth one didn't, and we'll hopefully find out in the near future if the fifth has benefited from the huge rewrites and structural changes that have caused it to go from a one-year project to four and a half.
I love the series, but I hate the parts with Sevanna. She comes across so flat that I was expecting her to twirl some facial hair and tie Faille to the railroad tracks shortly before noon.
Spoiler:
Well, she's gone now, so that's not a problem for the last few books ;)
The Malazan Book of the Fallen is a series of epic fantasy novels written by Canadian author Steve Rune Lundin under the pen-name Steven Erikson. The series is currently planned to extend to sixteen novels comprising three distinct acts. The first act consists of ten books and is almost complete, with the final book out in January 2011. The remaining two acts are two trilogies, a prequel series set hundreds of thousands of years prior to the main sequence and a sequel immediately following on from the main series.
The Malazan world was created by Steven Erikson and his friend and collaborator Ian Cameron Esslemont. Esslemont is writing a companion series, The Tales of the Malazan Empire, which is planned to run to six books. The third in this series, Stonewielder, is due out in November this year. The complete Malazan experience will thus run to twenty-two books and a number of novellas and short stories. The two writers have also announced a companion volume which will be published at an indeterminate point and have not ruled out additional books, although these may be less connected to the central storylines of the two series.
Interestingly for roleplayers, Erikson and Esslemont are both keen gamers. The world of Malaz was originally created for an AD&D campaign in 1982. Dissatisfied with the original TSR rules, they made a lot of house rules to account for a much more complex magic system. In 1987 they switched to the much more customisable GURPS system. They began writing fiction based on the world around the same time. Using their campaigns as backstory rather than the main storyline, they developed a film script called Gardens of the Moon about the ‘Phoenix Inn Regulars’ and their adventures in the gaslit city of Darujhistan. When they failed to attract interest for this project, Erikson revamped the script and expanded it massively as a novel, written in 1991. Again, it failed to garner any interest. Erikson and Esslemont went their separate ways, although remaining in touch, to have successful careers in anthropology and archaeology. Erikson also published several books of mainstream short stories in this time. In 1998, whilst based in the UK, he sold Gardens of the Moon for a record-breaking advance for a debut fantasy author (a record that still stands, to my knowledge), along with the rights for nine sequels. Whilst working on the second book he lost the entire manuscript in a computer error. Crestfallen, he instead wrote a completely different book set on a different continent, Deadhouse Gates, explaining the series’ unusual structure of swapping continents every volume. Gardens of the Moon was first published in 1999, and has been followed by eight books in the series. Tor started publishing the series in the USA in 2004. The ninth volume, Dust of Dreams, saw the series hitting the bestseller lists for the first time in both the UK and US.
What’s it about?
The Malazan Book of the Fallen does not have an easily-explainable central premise like The Wheel of Time or other big fantasy series. The first five books are more or less stand-alones with the central plot of each volume concluded in that volume, but with subplots laying the groundwork for later books. The sixth book sees these formerly separate storylines and groups of characters start to come together and interact. The second half of the series is more linear and starts to follow more central plot threads (although arguably the eighth volume is something of a break, catching up with characters from the earlier books who have fallen by the wayside in the interim). Ian Esslemont’s companion series expands and fleshes out elements left undeveloped in Erikson’s novels. Still, the books can be summarised as having three distinct storylines:
The first storyline, focused on in Books 1, 3 and 8, is set on the continent of Genabackis, where the powerful Malazan Empire is trying to bring down the last of the free cities of the continent, Pale and Darujhistan. The Bridgeburners, an elite military unit of sappers, is sent into Darujhistan to weaken the city ahead of the Malazan armies’ arrival. Unfortunately for the Malazans, they are opposed by the powerful and immortal Tiste Andii sorcerer-warlord Anomander Rake, who has extended his protection (and that of his flying city, Moon’s Spawn) to the government of Darujhistan. The book concludes with a stalemate and the revelation that a much more powerful and evil empire is spreading from southern Genabackis, the Pannion Domin. The third book sees the Malazan armies allying with their former enemies to stop this mutual threat.
The second storyline is set on Seven Cities, the continent that acts as the breadbasket of the Malazan Empire, and is explored in Books 2, 4 and 6. With more Malazan armies being drawn off from the occupation of the continent to fight wars in Genabackis and in Korelri, the natives are getting restless. A massive uprising known as the Whirlwind is launched against the Malazans. In the city of Hissar a small, under-strength Malazan army is ordered to escort 50,000 Malazan civilians to the fortified stronghold of Aren, more than 1,500 miles away, all the while harried by local tribes and armies many times their own size. Even worse, this Malazan army is mostly made up and led by Wickans, tribesmen from the Empire’s home continent of Quon Tali who are held in distrust by other Imperial troops, leading to internal dissent. Later books see the Malazans attempt to retake the continent via the newly-formed 14th Army, known as the Bonehunters.
The third storyline is set on the distant, uncontacted continent of Lether and is the setting for Books 5, 7 and 9-10. The Letherii are an expansionist kingdom, fully confident of their well-trained army and their immensely powerful sorcerers. Having absorbed many of the surrounding kingdoms and tribes, they now look to conquer the primitive Tiste Edur tribes of the northern tundra. Unfortunately for the Letherii, the Edur leaders have allied themselves to the enigmatic Crippled God, gaining access to immense magical power. The Edur overrun and conquer the Letherii Empire instead, and begin building a massive fleet to extent their power across the entire world, leading to an inevitable showdown with the Malazan Empire...
Esslemont’s companion volumes intertwine with Erikson’s. His first volume takes place in Malaz City long before the other books, on the night that the former Emperor was overthrown by his successor. The second book is set on the Malazan Empire’s home continent of Quon Tali in the wake of the rebellion of Seven Cities, with civil war threatening and the return of the long-exiled and vengeful Crimson Guard imminent. The third volume visits the hitherto-unseen but oft-mentioned continent of Korelri, where the Malazan armies have been fought to a standstill by the Korelri Compact and are now threatened with total defeat.
Sounds complicated!
You have no idea. Did I mention the race of sentient dinosaurs whose magic bends gravity, or the race of Neanderthals who swore eternal vengeance on their enemies and committed racial suicide so they could survive as badass undead warriors and meet their enemies again when they came out of suspended animation hundreds of thousands years later? Or the shattered warren of sorcery which two enigmatic gods have taken control of for their own shadowy ends? Or the two necromancers and their bumbling assistant who provide dark comic relief during moments of high tragedy? The bad guy who melts his entire home continent down to the bedrock for THE LOLZ? The giant jade statues that act as an anti-orbital laser battery? And I’m still only scraping the surface here.
What’s good about the series:
Most written epic fantasy is either low-magic (Tolkien, Martin), or where there is high-magic there are careful rules on how it can be used (as with Jordan and Bakker). Erikson has no qualms about using magic to blow some major stuff up. Characters ‘ascend’ to demigod status on a fairly regular basis, and ultra-powerful beings pursuing vendettas stretching back a third of a million years show up frequently. The only real rules in the world ensuring it doesn’t get vapourised appear to be that gods are very vulnerable if they visit the mortal world, and a highly enigmatic race known as the Azath steps in and eliminates beings if they get too uppity or powerful and start threatening the planet. Basically, if you’ve ever wanted to see a realistic depiction of Epic Level D&D play in a coherent fantasy world, or one of the more mental anime series in novel form, this is for you.
Erikson is also very good at depicting battles, and also at harnessing and addressing emotion. He is particularly fond of tragedy, and the second and third volumes feature some of the most powerfully tragic scenes in all of epic fantasy. His worldbuilding skills are amazing. The Malazan world is like nothing before seen in epic fantasy, vast, well-detailed and more than slightly crazy. The magic systems are solid and Erikson’s anthropology experience means the cultures, tribes and how they are descended from more ancient civilisations that came before are all realistically described.
The series is immensely long, but unlike Wheel of Time and other comparable series, the books are more stand-alone (although you do need to read them in order to get the best out of them). The movement between different groups of characters keeps things somewhat fresh as well, as the author doesn’t get bogged down with the same group of people for too long. This is certainly the most structurally ingenious epic fantasy series I’ve read.
What’s bad about the series:
As seems to be the rule for epic fantasy series, the quality nevertheless does dip the longer it goes on. In the second half of the series Erikson falls back too much on using some hitherto-unknown type of magic to resolve the situation, or a previously innocent-looking soldier with modest magical ability actually turns out to be an archmage who could eat Elminster for breakfast with no preamble.
Erikson also has a habit of setting up exciting, interesting and compelling characters and groups of characters and then killing them off (sort of) or pushing them to the wayside in favour of less-interesting substitutes who are pale echoes of the earlier ones. The earlier books are somewhat focused on the elite Bridgeburners, who are badass, well-characterised people. The later ones focus on the Bonehunters, who are pale imitations at best and considerably less interesting (aside from the two Bridgeburners who join their ranks) despite getting much vaster amounts of screen-time. Similarly, Anomander Rake retreats from the spotlight after the first few books and the later Tiste Andii characters led by Nimander are lightweight and uninteresting in comparison. Also, whilst he kills characters, they don’t tend to stay dead. They are resurrected or reincarnated, or sometimes reanimated as undead. Even if they stay dead, they occasionally crop up as ghosts to dispense advice, and even the ones who are dead and gone forever sometimes appear in chapters set in the afterlife itself.
Erikson also becomes considerably more self-indulgent as the series (and his sales power) increases. Earlier books are leaner and more action-packed. Erikson has a philosophical streak which he integrates well into the earlier books. The earlier books are also shorter (though the first book is still 750 pages and the second 900; the last four in a row have exceeded 1,200 pages, each). The later, longer books are longer solely because they need to contain hundreds of pages of digression and philosophical discourse (often between army conscripts who, despite being farmers or illiterate peasants, often come across as philosophy majors), with considerably longer gaps between major story movements. Erikson’s prose becomes more accomplished as the series progresses with some genuinely impressive writing at times, but more often he loses clarity in favour of purple prose.
The sheer badassery and impressive scope of the Malazan world rewards those who struggle on through these issues, but the combination of the inconsistent writing and the vast, mega-complex world gives way to immense confusion in later volumes, although those with good memories can pick enough up from the somewhat clearer first few books to see them through.
The first book in the series is, for my money, one of the best and certainly the most ‘fun’. However, many other readers report finding it very difficult to get into due to frequent POV and location shifts in the first few chapters. For this reason, it’s worth giving the first book a good 300-odd pages to see if it grabs you before dismissing it. Starting with the considerably superior second volume, which features a different cast and location, is also viable.
Erikson is also inconsistent with his characters. Some of them are among the most well-drawn and impressive characters in fantasy (although only a few reach the level of Martin or Kay’s characterisation), such as Felisin, Karsa, Whiskeyjack, Anomander Rake, Trull Senger, Toc the Younger and Tool, but the majority are more thinly-sketched with motivations that are often completely incomprehensible.
The series is being marketed heavily as an almost-complete ten-volume sequence, but after Erikson signed a contract for six more books he started setting up the storylines of those trilogies in the main books, often quite blatantly. He has also revealed that several key and apparent essential character arcs and core storylines from the earlier books will only be addressed and resolved in those trilogies or in Esslemont’s side-books. This isn’t really a single ten-volume sequence, but a twenty-two book one written by two authors, and the amount of closure we will get in the tenth book looks like it will leave a lot of fans of certain stories and characters frustrated.
Finally, the worldbuilding is staggeringly impressive on the broad scale, with the number of continents, races, ethnic groups (within those races, including the nonhuman races, which is refreshing), cities, kingdoms and types of magic being overwhelming, but it lacks depth. The history of the world is unfathomably vague (stuff happened 300,000 years ago and then some other stuff happened 150,000 years ago and then the Empire was founded 100 years ago). Even worse, Erikson has seriously screwed over the timeline of the books themselves, resulting in the eighth volume contradicting itself and the other books around it to the point of being almost completely impossible for the events of the novel to happen given the timeframes involved. Full enjoyment of the series basically depends on if you find this sort of thing annoying, or if you can avoid it.
Summary
This is a massive, complex, confusing, intoxicating, sometimes frustrating epic fantasy series. Certainly the most ambitious and epic fantasy series ever attempted, even if it significantly falls short of its ambitions. But, for all the negatives, Erikson has achieved something truly impressive with this series, and I would rank at least sampling it as being essential for anyone with a serious interest in modern fantasy.
List of books
(recommended reading order)
Gardens of the Moon (1999) by Steven Erikson
Deadhouse Gates (2000) by Steven Erikson
Memories of Ice (2001) by Steven Erikson
House of Chains (2002) by Steven Erikson
Midnight Tides (2004) by Steven Erikson
Night of Knives (2004) by Ian Cameron Esslemont
The Bonehunters (2006) by Steven Erikson
Return of the Crimson Guard (2008) by Ian Cameron Esslemont
Reaper's Gale (2007) by Steven Erikson
Toll the Hounds (2008) by Steven Erikson
Dust of Dreams (2009) by Steven Erikson
The Crippled God (2011) by Steven Erikson
Stonewielder (2010) by Ian Cameron Esslemont
Erikson is also planning The Kharkanas Trilogy, set in the Tiste Andii city of Kharkanas 300,000 or more years before the main series. This explores the backstory of the Tiste Andii, Anomander Rake, Mother Dark, Silchas Ruin and so forth. The Toblakai Trilogy will follow on from the main sequence and is expected to focus on Karsa Orlong and his plan to unite the Toblakai against the rest of the world. Esslemont is planning another three books set in Darujhistan, Assail and Jacuruku respectively.
Much better than the previous volume, although this cover and the one for Book 14 will only be around for a short while as Tor US are republishing the series in new covers a couple of years down the line.
Finished King Rat, and true to my hopes China did not disappoint. It was a fantastic read. Has anyone read "The City & The City"? Is it as good? Worth buying?
THE CITY AND THE CITY is very, very good, but it's a bit of a departure for China's writing style. It's pared back and his more whimsical crazy stuff is mostly missing. As a more serious book that takes the fantastical premise more seriously, it's excellent. KRAKEN, his newest book, brings back the crazy in full force (he probably overdoes it, actually, but recovers and ends up delivering a good book).
I really liked Life on Mars but was pretty disappointed with the ending as well. I'm not sure if that's how they would have ended it had the show not been canceled at the end of only one shortened season though. I kind of got the impression that they did the best they could given the time they had left. How did the original British version finally end?
Spoiler:
Not a million miles from LOST, actually. The world Sam Tyler enters is a sort of limbo-esque purgatory created for policemen who have died in the line of duty. Sam, and in ASHES TO ASHES, Alex Drake are different in that they have slipped into the world via comas, and retain their full memories of the real world. They also decide on what time period they are entering based on traumas they have suffered in their own lives. In the final episode we discover that the world is the creation of Gene Hunt, who in reality died as a young police officer in 1953, although he has since forgotten this and believes it to be the real world. At the end the rest of the characters pass on to the next life, whilst Gene stays put, alone. It's a rather sad ending until another 21st Century copper shows up, confused and wanting to know where his iPhone is, and Gene takes him under his wing, showing that his work is not yet done.
The difference with LOST is that MARS and ASHES both laid clues to this ending down from the very first episode, and in fact the ending explains some elements that were left dangling from the very first couple of episodes of MARS.
Come to think of it, I'm having a hard time identifying a single television show that had a satisfying payoff to a major mystery. Are there any? Maybe it's just the wrong medium for the concept (or, maybe it's just so hard to do right).
If you were in the UK, it would actually have been easy to miss any discussion of LOST's resolution this week becuase we've just had our own five-year 'mystery' show come to an end: ASHES TO ASHES, the sequel series to the two-season LIFE ON MARS, ended after three seasons and satisfactorily wrapped up almost all of the outstanding mysteries and unanswered questions from the series in an elegant, concise and well-acted manner. It was excellent, and made LOST's finale look slightly ridiculous in comparison (and wiped the floor with the American LIFE ON MARS, the conclusion to which was just insane).
The other obvious example is BABYLON 5, where the several major mysteries established in the pilot were resolved by the end of Season 2, and other mysteries raised during the first season were mostly resolved by the end of Season 3 or early in Season 4. B5 is really the template for how you handle mystery-based, serialised shows and the repeated failures of shows to deliver good endings can almost always be pinned on lessons not learned from B5.
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER also had an excellent resolution to its three-season storyline. ANGEL ended pretty well after five seasons, although it didn't have much in the way of a central mystery. THE WIRE and ROME both ended brilliantly, but again with not much in the way of long-standing mysteries.
GAME OF THRONES, the HBO fantasy series starting next year, has several strong mystery elements to it, although the main storylines are more straightforward. Otherwise, as far as new shows go, there's not much out there on the horizon. The British supernatural drama BEING HUMAN needs to go into very dark and mysterious territory in the third season, which could be interesting. DOCTOR WHO has its season-by-season arc plots, but these are generally resolved in the season finale and then a new mystery introduced next season, so that may not be quite the same thing.
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