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The 1980s CYBERPUNK pen-and-paper RPG (aka CYBERPUNK 2013, CYBERPUNK 2020 and CYBERPUNK v3), created by Mike Pondsmith, is being turned into a CRPG by CD Projekt, the creators of THE WITCHER and THE WITCHER 2. Apparently the game is at an early stage of development.

Excellent :-)

Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2143. Detective Sid Hurst is called upon to investigate the unusually violent murder of a North. The Norths are a large family of clones who have forged a powerful, interstellar corporate empire. Twenty years ago another North was killed in the exact same manner on the world of St. Libra...but the woman responsible, Angela Tramelo, has spent two decades in prison, protesting her innocence and claiming that an alien lifeform was responsible.With mounting evidence that she may have been right, an expedition is mounted to St. Libra's wilderness hinterland to investigate further, even as Hurst's enquiries on Earth continue.

However, St. Libra, a planet twice the size of Earth circling Sirius, is a difficult world to survey. It's thick ring system inhibits the operation of orbiting satellites and the planet is already under investigation for its bizarre plant life (which cannot have evolved in the short lifespan of the system). The expedition soon finds itself operating in a wilderness far beyond any relief efforts, with something in the jungle stalking them.

Great North Road is the latest novel from Britain's biggest-selling science fiction author, Peter F. Hamilton. It's a stand-alone unconnected to any of his previous universes or series, so can be read in confidence that there are no cliffhanger endings lurking in wait. With my review copy clocking in at 1,087 pages (the final version may be slightly shorter, apparently) it's also a huge book, giving a lot of words to the pound. It's actually Hamilton's longest book since The Naked God, outstripped his previous seven novels in size (none of them particularly short either).

As usual with Hamilton's space operas, we are introduced to a large cast of characters who are divided up amongst several storylines. There are two primary plots: the investigation into the murder in Newcastle and the expedition on St. Libra, with a number of smaller subplots that are developed more concisely. There's also a complex backstory to the novel that is revealed gradually through strategically-placed flashback sequences. Hamilton is an old hand at both multi-stranded epic plotting and also depicting high-tech police investigations and Great North Road is a triumph in both departments. The pacing is pretty good as we move between characters and storylines and their individual pieces of the puzzle slot together nicely in moments of revelation.

Character-wise, it's a solid cast, although not Hamilton's best. We're lacking a character as vivid as Ozzie or Paula Myo (or as frustratingly punchable as Joshua Calvert) but otherwise they are an interesting bunch. Angela Tramelo is embittered from her two decades in prison (not to mention effective torture by a shadowy government agency), but also has herself to blame for her lack of cooperation when that could have vindicated her much earlier. The reasons for this form a mystery that gradually unfolds over the course of the novel. Sid Hurst is a reliable protagonist as the detective investigating the murder, although his house-hunting woes (Hamilton continuing a slightly random theme of futuristic property market musings that began in The Dreaming Void) take up a fair bit of space that could have been trimmed. Vance Elston, the leader of the St. Libra expedition, is also a key protagonist and Hamilton uses him to return to one of his favourite topics, the place of religious faith in a science-driven world.

The science is a mix of the fairly basic and the advanced, speculative. The basic science comes from the history of observations of Sirius, which, if you accept the history at face value, is fairly bizarre. The presence of a fairly complex system of planets orbiting Sirius is also something Hamilton almost cheekily sneaks in: due to Sirius's size and type, detecting planets circling it through current methods has proven almost impossible, giving him a window to make up his own planetary system. The more speculative science applies to his traditional use of quantum and wormhole physics. As in his earlier novels, Hamilton brusquely describes his advanced scientific concepts in a straightforward manner that renders them fairly understandable to the reader. Unfortunately, he does commit one error when he fails to take into account relativity during a sublight interstellar voyage, which is a bit of an elementary mistake. Fortunately, it is not of major importance to the storyline.

In most respects, this is Peter F. Hamilton at his traditional, page-turning, easily-readable, SF blockbuster best. Unfortunately this extends to his traditional problem of including a number of sex scenes that add little to the narrative. It's not as prevalent an issue as it has been in the past (and we're fortunately still a long way from the dissolute Misspent Youth) but there are still a few scenes where characters start disrobing and the reader has to groan as the more interesting SF stuff is put on hold for a few paragraphs. Hamilton's other notable problem of how he ends his novels also rears its head here. In general terms the ending is fine and well-foreshadowed, but it does seem to almost be implausibly happy given the body count in the story and is certainly rather abrupt (something a character even half-apologetically notes). However, the storyline is mostly wrapped up satisfyingly, with only a couple of minor elements that could have been explored a bit thoroughly.

Overall, Great North Road (****) is a very solid novel. It's not amongst his best, but it rattles along at a good pace and handles its immense length quite well. It's also great to read a book where Hamilton is able to combine his mastery of epic plotting with a definitive ending. The novel will be published on 27 September in the UK and on 26 December in the USA.

The Hammer by K.J. Parker

Seventy years ago, a colony was founded on the western tip of an unexplored landmass. The colonists were supposed to mine silver, but didn't find any. Instead they farmed and lived in uneasy peace with the natives to the east. Later, the noble met'Oc family fled to the colony as exiles. Living on an impregnable plateau and raiding the colonists for livestock, they have not been the best of neighbours. Gignomai met'Oc, the youngest son of the family, rebels against his father and is disinherited, sparking a series of events that will define the future of the family and the colony.

So, what do you call a novel which is not SF, which is set in an invented world but has no magical elements in it whatsoever, but where the spine of the book revolves around science and engineering? Science Fantasy? Fantasy Engineering? Of course, this is such a narrow field that you can simply call it a K.J. Parker novel and anyone who's read her* work before will know what you're talking about.

The Hammer is Parker's twelfth novel and is a stand-alone book, not part of any series, although it is set in the same world as just about all of her work. Those familiar with Parker will know what to expect: a cast of complex characters who fail to fall into neat categories of good and bad; a dry, black sense of humour; and an occasional tendency to turn the book into an engineering treatise for a few paragraphs.This latter trait is usually extremely important to the plot, which in this case turns on the different calibres of primitive bullets and the practicalities of setting up a factory, but can slow down the narrative at key moments if the author is not careful.

As usual, the book revolves around one character, in this case Gignomai, a bright lad who - understandably - does not want to spend his whole life living on a plateau farmstead with his distant father and somewhat ruthless brothers. Gignomai is a familiar Parker character: one man with a grand vision who is able to prevail over those of lesser vision through a mixture of ruthlessness, good team-management skills and thinking outside the box. In this case, however, Gignomai is also reliant on his friend Furio, whose essentially serves as his conscience, and Furio's father Marzo, whose unexpected diplomatic skills during a crisis end up with him being declared de facto mayor, to his own distress. These three characters form the core of the novel and drive forward the plot. They're all well-realised, but it's disappointing that a promising female character, the would-be doctor Teucer, almost vanishes from the novel after being set up as more of an important player.

The plot is somewhat complex and involved, relying as it does on mysteries, sleight of hand and the economic workings of the colony, although the small scale of the book means it's easy to keep everything straight. Parker has a deliciously twisted imagination and sense of plotting, and keeps the pages flying by as you try to work out what's going on. The novel is on the short side for an epic fantasy (if that's what it even is) at 400 pages, and Parker's prose style - deceptively straightforward writing masking more complex characterisation - is highly readable.

Overall, then, The Hammer is a fine novel that's fairly compelling and well-characterised. Where it falls down is that Parker's air of cynicism - present in most of her works to varying degrees - is a little too dominant here (instead of being more nicely balanced, as in the splendid Folding Knife) and some of her economic ideas are rather odd. The book initially presents the colony as being set on a poor landmass, with some valuable resources but nothing too special, explaining its small size. The later suggestion that it's on the edge of a mostly unexplored continent just a week's sailing from the Vesani Republic not so much beggars as breaks credulity. How has this land not been colonised on a much larger scale already?

Still, despite these lapses The Hammer (***½) remains an above-average novel from one our better and more interesting fantasy writers. It's certainly a lesser work from Parker, but one that's still worth checking out if you can overlook the minor faults. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

* No, I don't know if Parker is a man or a woman, but I'm going with the majority view that she's a she in the absence of any other information.

The Dreamblood #1: The Killing Moon by NK Jemisin

In the city-state of Gujaareh, power is split between the ruling Prince and the priests of the dream goddess Hananja. The priests have magic based on the power of dreams, with which they can heal the sick. One sect, the Gatherers, is dedicated to helping people peacefully pass over when their time has come. However, when the Gatherer Ehiru discovers he has been manipulated into trying to kill an innocent, he realises that Gujaareh is threatened by a conspiracy lurking at the very heart of the nation.

The Killing Moon is the first novel in the Dreamblood duology, the latest work from N.K. Jemisin (the author of the Inheritance Trilogy, which I have not yet read). It's an epic fantasy, but one that proudly discards the limitations of a Medieval European setting. Gujaareh is inspired by the legends and mythology of ancient Egypt, although it is not a carbon copy (there are no pyramids, sphinxes or mummies), and the novel draws upon Carl Jung's ideas about the collective unconscious to provide its unique magic system.

The setting is vividly described. The planet Gujaareh is located upon is a moon circling a gas giant (the 'Killing Moon' of the title is actually the gas giant, although confusingly the cover art depicts a red-coloured version of our moon) which makes for an interesting day/night cycle. This feeds into the power of night, sleep and dreams which provides the book with its spine. Gujaareh itself is a compelling location, built to withstand annual floods and with a complex mixture of native and foreign influences: like ancient Egypt, Gujaareh is not a monolithic state, but one where people from across the world can be found, trading or negotiating.

Ehiru, our central character, is an expert at using the power of dream magic and is trying to pass his knowledge onto his apprentice, Nijiri. This process is interrupted by the discovery of a possible threat to the country, which Ehiru is compelled to investigate. Sunandi, an ambassador from the southern nation of Kisua, completes our central triptych of characters. Though there are occasional chapters from other POVs, these three viewpoints dominate the novel. Each is a fascinating character, with Sunandi being a capable and intelligence diplomat who is sometimes undone by arrogance. Ehiru is determined and resolute, but is also prone to become unhealthily obsessed, to the point of endangering himself. Nijiri is highly capable but lacks confidence. He's our 'young, tallow youth' viewpoint but amusingly that's more his own assessment of his abilities than the reality. All are painted with colour and depth.

The novel is a fast read, with a cracking pace that still allows time for some interesting characterisation. Something that Gujaareh shares with ancient Egypt is a certain rigid inflexibility in its traditions (something Pratchett notably satirised in his novel Pyramids, the only other Egyptian-flavoured fantasy that immediately comes to mind) but also the ability to adapt once those limitations are exposed. This extends to the micro-level of the characters, who each find their view of the world widened by the events of the book. This self-realisation is hardly new in concept (Nijiri becomes more confident, Sunandi becomes a bit more open to other cultures) but is executed with skill.

Where the novel falters is in its denouncement, which feels both rushed and a little too neat. This does mean that The Killing Moon works excellently as a stand-alone novel (there are little to no elements left dangling for the sequel, The Shadowed Sun).

The Killing Moon (****½) is available now in the UK and USA. The sequel will be published in June.

The railsea: a network of metal rails and wooden slats which extends in all directions, covering the hostile, animal-filled earth which is too dangerous to walk on. Great islands and continents of rock rise between the rails, on which cities, towns and people exist. Sailing the railsea are thousands of trains, ranging from the primitive wooden, animal-pulled trains of tribal plainsfolk to the sleek, metallic dreadnoughts of powerful navies. Inbetween lie the independent trains, such as the Medes, a moler which strikes deep into southern climes in search of an ivory-coloured moldywarpe, the nemesis of the captain and the subject of her obsession. But when the Medes instead finds a wrecked train holding a tantalising secret, the destiny of the railsea, and of a young man named Sham Yes ap Soorap, will be forever changed.

Railsea is Moby Dick rewritten to feature a crazy woman steering a train across an ocean of rails in search of a giant burrowing mole. Except when it's not, which is most of the time. It's also A Wizard of Earthsea but with trains rather than boats, except not really. It's a homage to trains and to boats and pirate movies. It's a book about language where people's lives are given meaning by pursuing giant monsters, which they call their philosophies and embody ideas and archetypes within them. It's a Young Adult novel but with so much baroque language and complex use of metaphors that no-one should consider the term a pejorative. One thing is clear: it's a China Mieville novel.

Railsea is Mieville's ninth book and, judged purely superficially, is a romp. It's an adventure about a young man (Sham Yes ap Soorap) who goes to (rail)sea, gets caught up in his captain's obsession and uncovers a secret that will lead him to the ends of the earth and beyond, in search of the meaning of it all. Along the way he fights, is captured by and eventually escapes from pirates, takes part in the hunting of a gigantic mole (going by Mieville's illustrations, we're talking a mole bigger than a blue whale), tames a hostile bat and gawps at vast, cosmopolitan cities. It's a vigorous page-turner, compulsively readable and endlessly inventive.

Stepping back, the book is more complex. In a possible metatextual nod at the cliches of such fiction, many captains of trains have missing arms and legs, snatched away by one kind of beast or another. Captains even carry lists of what animals their fellows are hunting, so they may pass on news of any sightings. Each animal represents an ideal and a philosophy, so the ships of the railsea aren't just molers and merchants, but devices searching for meaning and answers. For Nephi, captain of the Medes, her nemesis represents something very simple indeed: everything. And to find that truth, she would take her ship and her crew anywhere the trail leads. For his part, Sham is likewise obsessed, with an impossible image glimpsed briefly, an image that could shake the world, and it is how these two obsessions cross paths and align that gives the book its narrative spine.

The world of Railsea is vivid and initially bewildering, with Mieville's inventive but remorselessly logical mind working overdrive to give us his most fully-fleshed out creation since Bas-Lag itself. It's a world with two skies and myriad levels of land, a place that is a secondary fantasy world like Bas-Lag but also an alien planet such as those seen in Embassytown. It also might be something else. No direct answers are given, but the questions are more interesting for that (and the ending is powerful, opening more possibilities as it closes down others). It's a world of monsters, however, and Mieville gives us some of his best, from the great southern moldywarpes to the naked molerats to the friendly (if treated right) daybats. Occasional illustrations show these creatures in all their (sometimes revolting) glory.

Mieville populates the book with his normal gallery of well-defined characters, from the archetypal young hero Sham to the coldly authoritative Captain Nephi to the vision-seeking siblings Shroake. What unites the characters is their need for answers and their desire to search rather than to accept what is and what has been for centuries.

Railsea (*****) is a well-written, compulsive page-turner and sees Mieville's imagination on top form. It's a book that works on multiple levels and is thoroughly rewarding. His finest work since The City and The City and maybe his finest since The Scar. The novel will be published on 15 May in the USA and on 24 May in the UK.

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Swan Er Hong, a notable performance artist native to Mercury, has her life abruptly changed by the death of her grandmother, Alex. As Swan is asked to investigate the project her grandmother was working on, her home city is subjected to a brutal terrorist attack. This sparks a series of journeys back and forth across the Solar system, from Mercury to terraformed Venus to drowned Earth and out as far as Io and Titan, as Swan and her allies attempt to discover the threat nature of the threat to humanity.

2312 is Kim Stanley Robinson's first widescreen, big-budget, blockbuster SF novel in some considerable time. His recent novels (such as the recent Galileo's Dream or his near-future Science in the Capital trilogy) have been modest in their ambitions, but 2312 trots out the same Robinson who charted the colonisation of Mars in such fascinating, exacting and sometimes-frustrating detail over the course of three books in the 1990s.

The novel works on several levels. On one, it paints a portrait of life in the early 24th Century where the bulk of humanity lives on Earth (and, increasingly, Mars) but the 'spacers' who have settled the rest of the Solar system hold increasing amounts of power, despite their small numbers. This portrait is vivid, rich and compelling. It shows Robinson's imagination at its most fertile, as he depicts Terminator, a city which rolls over Mercury's surface, permanently trying to stay on the nightside of the planet out of the fierce rays of the nearby Sun. Elsewhere he shows the terraforming of Venus as its thick atmosphere is stripped away and politicians debate on slamming giant asteroids into it to increase its rotation. Another section takes us to Greenland, where a huge damming project is underway stop one of the Earth's last few glaciers from melting into the sea. On Io people have to live in settlements which act as gigantic Faraday cages (to hold the immense radiation of Jupiter at bay), whilst in orbit around Saturn people go surfing on plumes of ice pulled out of the rings by the passage of the shepherding moonlets. As a grand tour of the Solar system, 2312 is constantly inventive and fascinating.

On the second level, the book is striving for literary credibility. Robinson has always been one of the finest writers of prose in hard SF (not, it has to be said, a densely-populated field), and that continues here. He may be fascinated by science, by technology and by visions of the future, but he's much more fascinated by people, as individuals and as collective societies, and how they operate. As such the characters are richly-defined and textured, showing surprising depths as the novel develops. The prose is also finely-weaved but Robinson's long-standing tendency to interrupt it with infodumps remains an issue, although much less so than in his Mars Trilogy. Most notably, Robinson's writing keeps two potentially dull sections (one featuring characters having to hike along a thousand mile-long tunnel, the other featuring a character adrift in space) from flatlining and in fact elevates them to two of the strongest sections in the book.

The third level, the actual plot, is where the novel hits the most bumps. In the Mars Trilogy Robinson portrayed a vision of the future where the characters had to deal with scientific hazards and the simple realities of day-to-day life in a hostile environment. Whilst there were antagonists, these were shown to be part of the naturally-arising problems of colonisation and the eventual need for independence. In 2312, however, Robinson has a much more overt and traditional thriller storyline in which mysteries need to be investigated and explored and a resolution reached. To put it mildly, this plot feels half-arsed at best and the novel improves dramatically when Robinson completely drops it for much of its middle third, instead focusing on his grand vision of humanity's possible future.

2312 (****½) is a credible and somewhat optimistic vision of our future, highly detailed and constantly inventive. Coupled with some rich characters and enjoyable prose, this makes for his finest novel in many years. However, some contrived plot twists and a dull thriller element weaken the narrative a little. The novel will be published in the UK and USA on 24 May.

NOTE: The first half or so of the novel strongly indicates that 2312 is set in the same continuity as the Mars Trilogy. However, a detailed timeline given later in the book reveals this is not the case and the two works are separate, although 2312 does borrow a few names and terms from the older work.

The Elder Scrolls Online has been announced.

What we know so far:

An MMORPG (obviously).
The entire continent of Tamriel will be the setting. Some areas will be locked off for use as future expansion areas, however (i.e. Windhelm is reachable but Winterhold is not in the initial release).
Set 1,000 years before the events of SKYRIM.
Cyrodiil will be a PvP zone with 3 factions fighting for control of the Imperial City. Cyrodiil's topography has been recreated from OBLIVION, though it will be slightly smaller.
100-vs-100 PvP battles will be possible.
Faction 1: Ebonheart Pact, an alliance between nords, dunmer (dark elves) and argonians.
Faction 2: Aldmeri Dominion, an alliance between altmer (high elves), bosmer (wood elves) and khajiit.
Faction 3: Daggefall Covenant, an alliance between bretons, redguards and orcs.
Thieves' Guild, Fighters' Guild and Dark Brotherhood will be present.
'Hubless' quest design: an attempt to give quests to players in a less contrived fashion than going to town and asking around, though that will still be present.
'Dark Anchors' will fill same role as Oblivion Gates/Dragons: tough, semi-random magical objects that must be destroyed (otherwise Tamriel will be dragged into a daedra dimension). The arrival of one is hoped to be a big event in any given area, hopefully encouraging lots of players to band together to destroy it.
The stamina bar will impact on combat by allowing different types of attacks and defences to be used.
'Aggroing' will apparently be non-viable due to superior AI that will target the most dangerous players rather than the first one to wander into range.
Towns/Cities present: Imperial City, Daggerfall, Windhelm, Sentinel, Mournhold, Ebenheart, Elden Root, Shornhelm, Evermore, Riften and 'many more'.
Fast travel possible through waystones only. Standard fast travel will not be possible.
Radiant AI of singler-player games likely to be dialled back for player convenience (i.e. stores will be open all the time).
No houses, or NPC romances. Dragons probably not present in the main game, but may be encounterable via time travel quests. Pets possible.
Mounts present, but no flying ones.
Vampires and werewolves present as enemies, but players cannot become them (at least, not in the initial release).
Constellation and birthsign-based buffs will be present.
Developed by Zenimax Online Studios, helped by Bethesda. Bethesda will remain focused on their single-player RPGs, however.
In development since 2007.
Full voice acting.
Pretty standard MMORPG controls: 3rd person, hotbar-based skill use.
Shouldn't interfere with future Bethesda projects (FALLOUT or ELDER SCROLLS).
Out in 2013 for PC and Mac.

Screenshots and concept art.

Rome, 2760 AUC. Three years ago, the Emperor's younger brother was murdered as part of a scheme to seize control of the Roman Empire. His son, Marcus, went into hiding and survived thanks to the help of two slaves, Sulien and Una, who harbour secrets of their own. When the Emperor suffers a stroke, Marcus has to assume the regency. With tensions rising between Rome and her great eastern rival, Nionia, Marcus embarks on a daring peace mission. But there are those within Rome who still covet the Imperial throne, and will use Marcus's past against him.

Rome Burning is the sequel to Sophia McDougall's debut novel, Romanitas, and the middle book of the Romanitas Trilogy (which concludes with Savage City). The premise of the trilogy is straightforward: the Roman Empire never fell and, by the present day, has gone on to conquer most of the world. However, the Empire is still built on the back of capital punishment, slavery and the occupation of other peoples. The principal characters in the books are Marcus, the imperial heir whose view of life is radically altered after spending time in the first book as a fugitive, and Sulien and Una, the freed slaves who now want Marcus to abolish the institution once and for all. Also, somewhat randomly, Una also happens to have mildly telepathic powers (which definitely seem to have been pared down in this second novel).

Romanitas was a flawed novel. It had a strong premise, but the premise was constantly under-explored throughout the novel. Coupled with somewhat poor characterisation and often stodgy prose, it was a hard book to get through, despite the 'on-the-run' storyline giving rise to some interesting tension. Rome Burning shows massive improvements in some areas but, unfortunately, some significant weaknesses in others.

On the plus side, McDougall's characters are (mostly) much-improved. Sulien, Una and Marcus are all better-defined, with Una in particular becoming a more interesting, complex protagonist and Sulien having a lot more to do this time around. Marcus's development from callow youth to statesman continues, with his former idealism now being tested by political practicality. His desire to end slavery is contrasted against the possible economic collapse of the Empire if he moves too quickly, and his attempts to find a balance (that come across to Sulien, Una and other former slaves as back-pedalling) are constantly misunderstood. There's a lot more meat to the main characters this time around. Unfortunately, our principal antagonist for most of the book, Drusus, is a cartoon villain at best, who is so utterly unsuited for the political skulduggery required that he should never really be a threat to the considerably more intelligent Marcus. The eventual defeat of Drusus's return to power is also chronically under-explained (basically Marcus gets annoyed and makes a speech to his uncle and suddenly everything's okay).

On the worldbuilding front, the alternate Imperial Rome is not particularly convincing, resembling as it does one of those computer game RPG cities which seem to consist of three streets and twenty people. There is no real sense of any life in the city beyond where the immediate action takes place, and it's a genuine surprise when other Roman senators or characters outside of the core cast show up. For the first half of the book, it's a claustrophobic-feeling story rather than the epic it is aiming towards. Things improve a lot when the action moves to Bianjing (where the isolated-from-the-outside-world feeling is much more appropriate) and the scope of the story widens.

The biggest problem is the writing. McDougall favours a very old-fashioned style with frequent POV shifts within the same paragraph, making following what's going on and who's thinking what unnecessarily difficult. Coupled to some fairly indifferent prose, this makes reading the novel rather hard work. In fact, the book is definitely leaning towards the turgid when the halfway-point shift to Bianjing takes place. At this point, fortunately, the book picks up a lot, the writing improves, the pacing turns up a notch (as Drusus's laughable political fumblings take a back-seat to a much more interesting plot about slavery and terrorism) and things become more enjoyable, ultimately culminating in a genuinely tantalising cliffhanger.

Rome Burning (***) is a book that very nearly collapses under the weight of its negatives until they get straightened up and it ultimately becomes a solid read. The presentation of the premise is still highly implausible, characters outside of the central trio can still be sketchy and the writing style can be frustrating, but the latter half of the novel shows an improvement in quality that ultimately makes the experience - just about - worthwhile. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

In one of the more amusing industry work-arounds I've seen, BioWare spelled out what to expect from DRAGON AGE III at the recent PAX East convention. One problem is that EA has not officially confirmed DRAGON AGE III to be in development (possibly they were going to by now but the furore over ME3 has delayed things), so BioWare got around this by talking 'hypothetically' about what a 'possible' DRAGON AGE III would be like.

So the news so far is:

* No reused locations like DA2.
* You can equip henchmen again.
* No Kirkwall.
* More open, varied and 'French' landscapes.
* Less wheels of cheese.
* Decisions from previous games having consequences.

Pretty much what people wanted, then. Apart from the French thing, which just sounds odd.

Whilst hard info is still borderline non-existent on the PlayStation 4 (apparently code-named, and maybe finally-named, the PlayStation Orbis) and the X-Box 720 (code-named Durango), there seems to be a growing consensus that Sony and Microsoft want to shoot dead the pre-owned gaming market with their new systems, regardless of what impact that has on gaming retail.

According to Kotaku, the PlayStation Orbis will require Internet activation for all of its games. This will link your game to a unique serial code. The code may actually be transferrable, but only for a fee payable directly to Sony.

It is also strongly rumoured that at least the PS4 will require an always-on Internet connection in order to work.

In other words: for the next console generation there will be uniform, perpetual DRM for all titles. There will be no preowned games market to speak of. There will probably be no grey/import market for hardware. If you're living in the USA and want an early console, tough, you'll have to wait for the native release. If you haven't any Internet access for any reason, tough, you won't be able to play games.

I suspect many console gamers will not be happy with this.

Obviously we're still 2-3 years away from these consoles launching and complaints and market research may change the console companies' minds, but this is still a startling development. Sadly, it may have been triggered by the relative passivity that has greeted PC DRM schemes in the last few years. Whilst there's been complaints about it, PC game sales have still increased dramatically in the last two years, mostly through DRM services like Steam and Origin. This may have encouraged Sony and Microsoft to take this step.

Kings of Morning by Paul Kearney

Years ago, ten thousand Macht mercenaries marched into the heart of the Asurian Empire and were betrayed. Only a handful of survivors, led by the famous warrior Rictus, escaped to see home. In the years since then, Rictus has lived through times of peace and war, standing alongside the legendary Corvus as he forged the fractious Macht cities into a single nation. The Macht have now re-invaded the Empire, this time deploying new weapons and strategies that baffle their enemies. But their greatest ally is the division and turmoil that seethes in the heart of the Empire, as the imperial household is divided at the very moment it needs to unify against the invaders.

Kings of Morning is the third and concluding book in Paul Kearney's Macht sequence, which began with 2008's excellent The Ten Thousand and continued with 2010's even better Corvus. As with those books, Kings of Morning mixes fantasy with historical fiction and even a hint of SF: Kuf, the planet on which the books take place, is apparently an alien world and the Macht seem to be the descendants of human settlers/invaders, with the natives a notably different humanoid race. The influence of Alexander the Great on Corvus's story is clear, meaning the general trajectory of the plot can be a little predictable. However, Kearney mixes things up enough to ensure the story never gets stale.

Structurally, the novel is a little different to its two predecessors, which focused almost completely on Rictus's point of view. The opening quarter or so of the novel shows a political crisis within the heart of the Empire, as the brutish heir to the imperial throne, Kouros, and his younger brother engage in a bitter feud, with their father apparently unwilling to intervene. A hapless slave boy is unwittingly caught in the middle of this dispute, to his ruin (a strong stomach is required for the scenes where he is tortured by Kouros). This is an interesting way of starting the book and demonstrates Kearney's impressive power of concise storytelling without sacrificing depth. In this story the Macht are a vague and distant threat, easily dismissed, until it's almost too late.

We then switch back to Corvus, Rictus and the Macht army on the march and are soon back into a world of strategy meetings, comradeship and desperate battles against superior numbers. Yet Kearney, for all his reputation as one of the finest writers of battles working today (in either fantasy or historical fiction), keeps the martial action at a distance for most of the book, instead focusing on Rictus's character development as he sees the culmination of Corvus's plans and starts thinking about his own future. The conflict in Rictus between the lifelong soldier who tires of peace but hates the waste of war is developed well throughout the book and contrasted against the world-weariness of the Asurian Great King, Ashurnan.

Kearney's skills of characterisation are impressive, particularly the attention he gives to Kouros. Though an unthinking, thin-skinned brute, Kouros is given a backstory and motivation that explain why he is the way he is without ever risking him becoming sympathetic, and developing him as a villain (if he's even competent enough to be called that) much more than beyond the initial impression the reader gets of him. Kearney also undercuts the storyline of the two royal twins and their mutilated servant trying to flee into the wilds, with it moving in some very unexpected directions (even if the ultimate destination is unsurprising).

Kearney restrains the military activity to a few brief descriptions of sieges and negotiated truces before giving us one large battle. Inspired by several of Alexander's engagements, the Battle of Gaugamesh is an impressive display of depicting a complex engagement spread over a large battlefield in a straightforward manner. Kearney's skills at writing warfare remain undimmed, but it's his depiction of the aftermath, of the mix of disgust at the waste of life of war and admiration of the heroism of those who endure such hellish circumstances, which impresses the most.

The novel climaxes in a surprising fashion. Whether the parallels between Corvus and Alexander will continue or not is something that is not answered, as this trilogy is the story of Rictus, and that story ends impressively with Kings of Morning. We bow out of the story at this point with the full impression that life will go on regardless.

Criticisms are hard to find. The novel is very concise and at times the reader will want more information, more character scenes, more battle sequences, but these are not necessary for the story Kearney is telling. In epic fantasy it is rare to find an author who leaves the reader wanting more rather than feeling over-stuffed on thousands of pages of needless filler, and the former is definitely preferable. Some may feel the novel lacks a full resolution to Corvus's story, which is fair, but then this trilogy is not about Corvus and it certainly finishes Rictus's story in fine form. Finally, some may feel we don't get any revelations of note about the (possibly techno-organic) black armour of the Macht that makes them so difficult to kill, but again Kearney gives us some clues to be going on with and there are few possible explanations for it that would not veer towards either the obvious or the cheesy.

Overall then, Kings of Morning (*****) is a superb military fantasy novel and a fine conclusion to one of the best epic fantasy/historical fiction crossovers of recent years. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

Blue Remembered Earth

Tanzania, 2161. The matriarch of the Akinya family, Eunice, a famous pioneer of space travel and exploration, has died at the age of 130. The family convenes for the funeral, but grandson Geoffrey would prefer to be carrying on his research into elephant cognition. When an anomaly is discovered amongst Eunice's possessions, Geoffrey is asked to investigate, the beginning of a journey that will take him from Earth to the Moon to Mars...and further still.

Alastair Reynolds's new novel is the first in a new sequence, Poseidon's Children, which will span 11,000 years of human history. As such, the three books in the sequence will presumably be stand-alones, divided by immense gulfs in history, but with added context given to the reader by reading all three in order. Reynolds and his publisher have backed away from the 'trilogy' moniker (and the 'Book One of Poseidon's Children' tagline present on some early drafts of the cover has been removed) to de-emphasise the idea this is a serialised story that people will have to wait years to be concluded.

Reynolds is noted for having a somewhat grim vision of the future in his previous books, so Blue Remembered Earth is notable for its more optimistic tone. The human race has become richer and more technologically advanced than ever before, with Africa now driving the world economy and formerly war-torn, poverty-stricken states are now prosperous and driven. The price of this new era of peace and development is the Surveilled World, a state of near-total coverage of the planet by AIs which intervene if any crimes are detected. As a result almost no crimes or murders have been committed in decades (although Reynolds, a noted fan of crime thrillers, can't help dropping one puzzling and apparently impossible murder in as a subplot). This near-total surveillance state is not so prevalent on other planets and moons, however, due to time-lag issues.

The book is essentially a treasure hunt, with Geoffrey and his sister Sunday following the trail of clues left behind by their grandmother which ultimately leads to the Big Reveal. The trail, and the resulting plot, are somewhat convoluted and, it has to be said, unconvincing. Nevertheless, the story is entertaining with a constant stream of inventive ideas: an area on Mars controlled by rogue machines; an AI simulacrum of Eunice who provides advice and becomes more and more like the real Eunice as they uncover more information; attempts to help improve the quality of life for zoo elephants by merging them holographically with a real herd in the African wilderness; and a system-wide telescope being used to scan for signs of life on other worlds. The characters, particularly Geoffrey and Sunday (our main POV characters) are well-developed as we learn their respective reasons for turning against the family's strict business-oriented hierarchy, but even their antagonistic siblings (who initially appear to be villainous) are fleshed-out satisfyingly by the end of the book.

As the most low-tech of Reynolds's books to date, Blue Remembered Earth is perhaps his most conservative in terms of ideas and scale and scope. This isn't a bad thing and he seems to enjoy working under greater technological constraints than previously, but occasionally he seems to chafe against the restrictions (the robots on Mars and the large-scale mining of the Oort Cloud both seem somewhat more advanced than the tech elsewhere). He also doesn't fully explore the freedom implications of having a state of total surveillance, other than in a cursory surface manner.

Still, Blue Remembered Earth (****) is highly readable, brimming with ideas and refreshingly optimistic. Recommended. The novel is available now in the UK and on 5 June 2012 in the USA.

The Black Company

The Black Company is an elite mercenary force whose history goes back centuries. Last of the Free Companies of Khatovar, the Black Company fights for coin, but is also a proud army that is its own master. Accepting the commission of the Northern Empire and its ruler, the ruthless Lady, the Company soon finds itself fighting a war against an oppressed populace struggling to be free...but the leaders of the rebellion seem every bit as ruthless and amoral as the Lady and her senior sorcerer-warriors - the Taken - are. Evil battles evil, a continent bleeds and through it all the Black Company struggles to survive.

Glen Cook's Black Company books are widely regarded as being amongst the most influential and important epic fantasy novels ever written. Steven Erikson cites them as the primary influence on his Malazan series, whilst George R.R. Martin is a fan. A dozen years before Martin made 'grimdark' cool, Cook was already writing adult stories about wars, soldiers and the causes they fight and die for, with no elves in sight and no punches pulled.

Published in 1984, The Black Company is an object lesson in how to write a large-scale epic fantasy and execute it with razor-sharp focus and nuanced characterisation, and to do so in a relatively modest page count. More happens in The Black Company's 300-odd pages than in many entire trilogies. Empires rise and fall, battles that make the Pelennor look like a playground scrap are fought and all is seen from the point of view of a single medic and historian, who is all to often drawn in to become part of the events he is trying to dispassionately record.

The book is episodic, with each (very long) chapter relating a different incident during the war. As the Lady's empire battles the Rebel, so the different Taken feud amongst themselves and the Black Company are caught up in one of the exchanges (but don't exactly get much gratitude for taking sides), giving the conflict an air of complexity and extremely conflicted morals. This is emphasised by the addition to the Company of its first native northern soldier, Raven, who has his own agenda. Given that we are with the POV of Croaker, the medic, for the entire novel, Cook achieves an impressive depth of characterisation of the other principals. Other well-developed characters include the old, feuding mages One-Eye and Goblin, Raven and his mute ward, Darling, and the Taken Soulcatcher, who may be a servant of darkness but even he needs to unwind and chew the fat from time to time.

The prose is clipped and efficient, though some criticise it for being blunt. Cook skips descriptors in some sentences, or uses a soldier-style shorthand designed to transmit information with maximum efficiency and conciseness on the battlefield. It can be a little odd at first, but once you get into the author's headspace it becomes second nature, and a marvellously effective way of telling a large, epic story in a constrained space.

Problems? The absence of a map makes the geography of the war (which is critical to the plot) sometimes a little confusing. With one exception, we really don't get to know anyone on the side of the Rebel, making them a somewhat faceless and uninteresting foe. Cook also prefers to avoid exposition, starting in media res and pausing for explanations only rarely. However, unlike Erikson (who employs a similar device at the start of the Malazan sequence) Cook's story is actually pretty straightforward, and by the end of the novel the reader should have pieced together everything pretty nicely.

The Black Company (****½) is a novel brimming with verve, confidence and attitude. As fresh and readable today as when it was published a quarter-century ago, it's a stellar opening to the Black Company series. The novel is available now in the UK and USA as part of the Chronicles of the Black Company omnibus (along with its immediate sequels, Shadows Linger and The White Rose).

Eden: a world of perpetual darkness, lit by fluorescent vegetation and headed by geothermal trees. Five hundred humans - the Family - live in an isolated valley. They are all descended from the same couple, Tommy and Angela, astronauts stranded on Eden one hundred and sixty years ago. As a result, genetic deformities and aberrations amongst the Family are commonplace. The Family is held together by the dream that one day Earth will send a rescue ship to pick them up and take them home.

For teenage hunter John Redlantern, this dream is a futile delusion. He believes that the Family must branch out to survive, as the valley's food stocks are dwindling. But the only way out of the valley is a dangerous ascent over an unlit, freezing mountain that has killed every person who has tried to climb it. John's determination to escape to a better place splits the Family apart, but how much is John's plan motivated by a desire for humanity to survive on Eden and how much to appease his own ego?

Dark Eden is a dark (thematically and literally) novel that uses an interesting SF concept - a world in perpetual darkness - to explore themes about human society and the impact of ideas, traditions and rituals on a small group of people. Chris Beckett, the author of the excellent Holy Machine, has been noted as an author who fuses SF subject matter and 'literary' ambitions together into something interesting. Whilst hardly new - there's a faint hint of Brian Aldiss or early Ballard to his work - it's something that Beckett does well, creating stories that work from a scientific viewpoint as well as a literary one.

Eden itself, with its luminous trees and vividly nocturnal wildlife, is a fine, stirring creation. It's the inverse of the superheated Earth of Aldiss's Hothouse, a world here plunged into utter darkness and, away from the geothermal foliage, total cold. How this is possible is left to the reader's imagination: does the planet orbit a black hole or a brown dwarf? Does it orbit a normal star and is merely tidally locked? If the planet is indeed freezing cold, how does the atmosphere not simply melt away? Various solutions to such questions present themselves but are ultimately left ambiguous.

The Family survive by clinging to one central belief - that a rescue ship will come from Earth to find them - and their entire existence revolves around it. They refuse to travel far from their ancestors' landing site, even though local food sources have been almost exhausted. They constantly tell stories about their ancestors and the founding of their society. But they are trapped into a mode of existence so all-consuming it is taken for granted. When John Redlantern is able to step back and point out the flaws in their blinkered worldview, it creates strife and discord. A serpent enters this Eden, but this time we are on the serpent's side, as the Family remaining where they will ultimately destroy them.

At the same time, John is motivated not just by a desire to save his people, but also to prove himself better than them, a visionary leader. Beckett's structure - he uses a rotating first-person POV, swapping characters every chapter - allows us to see events from John's perspective and also from that of both his friends and enemies, allowing a tremendous depth of character to be achieved (both of John and several other key characters). John's character is built up, deconstructed and reassessed with tremendous skill. Beckett is keen to avoid passing judgement: some of John's actions are admirable, others are loathsome, and the reader is invited to decide which is which.

At the same time the story moves forward, it also moves back. The story of how Tommy and Angela ended up on Eden is revealed in layers, as more and more stories and legends from the distant past of Eden are revealed, and the story that the people of Eden know may not be the whole truth. It's also a story that doesn't have an ending, as the fate of the three astronauts who left Eden in search of help is not known (in the novel's only possible misstep, Beckett eschews the ambiguity of the rest of the book to give as a fairly straightforward answer in the book's climax). The Family want to stay in their valley so the rescuers can find them, and the end of the story can be known, whilst John and his followers want to abandon such beliefs and strike out in search of their own destiny. Conflict follows and both sides' arguments have their merits.

Dark Eden (*****) is a superb novel about ideas, the struggle to survive and the dangers of blind faith. Beckett says little that is new, but makes his points with subtlety and intelligence, all against a well-realised, vividly-described backdrop. The novel is out now in the UK and is available on Kindle in the United States.

Some thoughts on books by one of the better-known 'classic' SF authors.

Childhood's End

Humanity is about to launch its first manned mission to another world. Finally, the human race is about to escape its cradle and take its first step towards the stars. But on the eve of the launch the skies over the Earth's major cities are blotted out by the appearance of huge, alien spacecraft. The Overlords have arrived, and nothing will ever be the same again.

Arthur C. Clarke is one of the most famous writers the science fiction field has ever produced, thanks to his work on the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and his role as a popular science commentator (he covered several of the Apollo moon landings for American television and had several successful TV series in the 1980s). Clarke's work is notable for its straightforwardness (he was never a great prose stylist) but also its scientific rigour. With a few exceptions, Clarke had little truck with what he considered to be some of the more fantastical concepts of SF (such as faster-than-light travel and artificial gravity) and did not use them in his work. In his view, the universe is vast, timeless and unknowable. Much of Clarke's work is notable for a certain melancholic optimism: the human race can be much more than it is now, but even so is unlikely to challenge the vastness of the universe.

Childhood's End was published in 1953 and was his fourth novel, although his first published in the United States, where it immediately established him as a major voice in the field. In many ways it is atypical Clarke. The aliens are comprehensible and easily relate to human beings, unlike the enigmatic entities of say 2001 or Rendezvous with Rama. At the same time, his normal scientific vigour is a little slacker than normal, as concepts such as telepathy and group consciousnesses are explored (Clarke had a passing fascination with the supernatural at the time, though later firmly rejected such notions). Clarke's influences are clear, with the presence of Olaf Stapledon particularly hard to ignore.

The novel is extremely concise, with my paperback copy clocking in at 160 pages. For its short page count, the novel is fairly epic. It is split into three sections, each with a distinct cast, focus and storyline (unsurprising, as the first section was originally a stand-alone short story). In the first, the Secretary-General of the United Nations has to oversee the painful transformation of humanity from bickering nation-states to a single world government. In the second, a family 'escape' the Overlords' utopia to live in an island commune free of their influence, only to discover the real reason for the Overlords' arrival on Earth. In the final section, a lone human who stowed away aboard an Overlord ship returns to Earth eighty years later (though only a few months later by his count, due to time dilation) to find a world vastly changed from the one he left. Clarke doesn't waste a word as he lets the story unfold inexorably, moving to a conclusion that looms somewhere between awe-inspiring and horrific.

As a novelist, Clarke was much more interested in ideas (thematic, scientific or both) than people. His characterisation was often variable, although Childhood's End is actually one of his better books in that regard. Its major protagonists (even the Overlords) are clearly defined and sympathetic. In terms of structure, Childhood's End is unusual in that the entire story is pre-ordained, and nothing any of the characters do can change what is happening. They - and the reader - can only witness it and make their own minds up about whether it is something that can be called 'good' or not, and I suspect many will fall on the 'not' end of the spectrum.

As a result Childhood's End can be viewed as a colossal tragedy. The book has a tremendous emotional charge as it poses a simple question: how would we face it if our way of existing ended tomorrow? Clarke's answer is surprisingly bleak but, one suspects, one that would be close to the truth.

The novel has aged in some respects. The first edition opened with the USA and USSR battling to land a man on the moon, since Apollo 11 was still sixteen years in the future at the time it was published. Clarke also makes a very dated joke where he discusses how the Overlords have to force the rulers of South Africa to treat all their citizens equally regardless of skin colour. The 'joke' is that by this time majority rule in South Africa has been restored, and it's the white population that's being mistreated. An amusing aside in 1953 actually feels rather cynical today, assuming as it does that the African population would be as racist and authoritarian as the white one was. However, another point about how the people of Israel bitterly resist being absorbed into the Overlords' hegemony and giving up the freedom they have spent centuries fighting for, is more resonant. There's also a recurring problem in Clarke's work where he underestimates the power of religion, and the sequences where the Overlords' arrival causes the downfall of all world religions in a matter of months are rather unconvincing.

In most respects, Childhood's End (****½) has not aged badly at all, and its central themes of parenthood and the futility of railing against the night - but the effort nevertheless being laudable - remain interesting. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Thousands of years from now, the myriad colony worlds of Hain (including Earth) are being reunited under a new interstellar government, the Ekumen. Genly Ai is the First Envoy, who sets foot alone onto the surface of the frigid planet of Winter (Gethen to its inhabitants) to bring offers of trade, peace and alliance to the people of the planet. However, the genderless inhabitants (who only have sexual urges and genders for a brief period once a month) are sceptical of Ai's claims, and he soon finds himself a pawn of political factions in two neighbouring countries eager to use or discard him as they see fit.

The Left Hand of Darkness was originally published in 1969. It is set in a shared future history which Le Guin has used for several other novels and short stories, though foreknowledge of these other works is completely unnecessary to read this book. The novel also has a formidable reputation as one of the most critically-acclaimed science fiction novels in the history of the genre, noted for its complex themes and its use of metaphors to tackle a wide variety of literary ideas.

The novel spends a fair amount of time talking about the genderless inhabitants of Gethen, who have no sexual urges at all apart from a brief period called kemmer, when they are able to mate and reproduce. Le Guin has put a lot of thought into how not only this works biologically but also the impact it has on society and on the world. Her notions that a lack of sex drive for most of the month reduces the aggressiveness of humans (Gethen has never had a major war) seem obvious, but these ideas are constantly examined and re-examined during the course of the book and she steers away from trite answers.

Whilst the gender theme is notable and the most oft-discussed aspect of the novel, much is also made of the planet's cold climate and the challenges the people face in living in a world mostly covered by glaciers and icecaps where the warm seasons are perishingly short. The politics and divisions between the neighbouring countries of Karhide and Orgoreyn are also described in some detail. As a result Gethen, also called Winter, is as vivid and memorable as any of the human characters in the novel.

Amongst the individual characters, the dominant ones are Ai himself and Estraven, the Prime Minister of Karhide whose interest in Ai sees him suffer a fall from grace and having to travel a long road to try to redeem himself. The book is told from the first-person POV of both characters, moving between them with interludes taking in myths and legends from Gethen's past and also on matters such as the Gethenese calendar and sexual biology (there's also an appendix which handily collates this information into an easy-to-find collection). The two characters are compelling protagonists, with Ai's bafflement at his status as a man from another planet being considered incidental at best to the trivial politics of two nations leading him into difficulties, whilst Estraven's characterisation is subtle and compelling, with the reader constantly having to review his or her opinion of him based on new information as it comes to light.

The themes that the novel tackles extend far beyond the obvious ones of gender and climate. Duality (expressed in Ai's discussion of Taoism with Estraven), faith, the difficulties of communication even when language is shared and politics are also discussed and examined. But where The Left Hand of Darkness impresses is that these thematic discussions are woven into the narrative in a manner that is seamless and stands alongside a compelling plot. The book's climax, where the two main characters have to traverse a 700-mile-wide icecap with limited supplies, is a fantastic adventure narrative in its own right.

Complaints are few. Written in the 1960s, Le Guin presents a few outdated ideas on gender roles and sexuality that were common at the time, but these are minor issues at best.

Overall, The Left Hand of Darkness (*****) is a smart and intelligent read that has a lot to say and does so in a manner that is page-turning, compelling, relentlessly entertaining and refreshingly concise (the novel clocks in at a slim 250 pages in paperback). One of the all-time classics of the genre and a book that more than deserves its reputation. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

Riyria Revelations #1: Theft of Swords

Hadrian and Royce are partners in crime, a mercenary and thief who make a living working for the various nobles who rule over the lands of Avryn but spend most of their time feuding with one another. One particular job ends with Hadrian and Royce being arrested and charged with regicide. Determined to prove their innocence and take revenge on those who framed them, they set out on a quest that could change the fate of Avryn and the whole world.

Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria Revelations series is already a proven success, with both small press and self-published editions of the books selling well. Orbit have picked up the series and recast the original six books as three omnibuses, bringing them to a wider audience. Whilst this laudably rewards the author's success, it also raises the stakes: standing out from the crowd in self-publishing is one thing, but how does Sullivan's work stack up compared to the current fantasy heavyweights?

The answer is...okay, actually. Sullivan's ambition with this series was to create a series that in a way beat against the current trend for adult, edgy, violent and explicit fantasy novels in favour of something more straightforward or 'classic'. Something that evoked the spirit of say Eddings or Brooks without being as dire. Sullivan lists Harry Potter as an inspiration, particularly the way it welded together accessibility and a classic structure with darker elements (such as major character deaths), and that's certainly a reasonable ambition.

Theft of Swords (which combines the first two novels in the series, The Crown Conspiracy and Avempartha) is a fast-paced, straightforward read with a fast-moving plot and easy-to-read writing. Sullivan's risk in aping the simpler form of fantasy fiction is that he might skirt towards blandness, and this is certainly a problem in the book. He has a fairly blank prose style which is effortless to read, but also somewhat forgettable. His skills with characterisation are somewhat stronger, but still not as great as might be wished. Particularly odd is that his central characters of Hadrian and Royce are not very well-developed at all, and many of the secondary characters are more interesting and better-drawn. The central duo do get a bit more fleshed out towards the end of the second half of the book and we also get a possible reason for why Sullivan had to hold back on certain revelations about them, but it is a bit of a challenge to read a book where the two heroes are so (apparently) shallow.

Other issues can be found in the worldbuilding, particularly the existence of apparently substantial kingdoms with walled cities in them that are only about 20 miles wide. Sullivan aims for some consistency here - a couple of hundred soldiers forms a large army in this world, presumably because populations are correspondingly tiny - but it's still a bit odd. On the racial front, things are fairly traditional: dwarves are geniuses for stonecarving whilst elves are long-lived, pointy-eared types. The only dwarf we meet is a grubby villain, whilst the elves are (in this first book anyway) kept firmly off-screen and are the enemies of humanity, but these are minor (and not particularly unprecedented) twists to the established formula. Naturally, the main storyline also revolves around prophecies, chosen ones whose arrival will signify the end of the world and so on, and it won't take a genius to guess who the chosen one is going to be.

The principle problem with the book is its very predictability. At first, reading an epic fantasy without blood spraying over people's faces every five seconds or two mandatory graphic (and usually badly-written) sex scenes per book is a refreshing change of pace, and feels like a valid direction to take at this time. However, the book's embracing of classic tropes without doing much (or, at times, anything) to subvert or challenge them eventually gets dull. Brandon Sanderson, for example, is also writing classic epic fantasy but remembers to put in plenty of interesting twists: a post-magic-apocalypse setting, a Wild West angle and, of course, lots of original magic systems. These flourishes are absent from Sullivan's debut work.

Theft of Swords (***) is an easy, relaxing read but also one that lacks depth or originality. It's fun enough to warrant reading on (and the series rep has it improving massively as it continues), but I do wonder if publishing these stories as 650-page omnibuses rather than their original 320-page, bite-sized chunks was a mistake. A fun popcorn read, but ultimately not much more. The omnibus is available now in the UK and USA.

HBO has added to its already impressive fantasy resume (GAME OF THRONES, TRUE BLOOD and the forthcoming AMERICAN GODS) by picking up the TV leg of the massive, multimedia DARK TOWER adaptation being masterminded by Ron Howard.

The project is set to encompass several theatrical movies and a TV series lasting for three or more seasons. Universal were developing the project but ditched it three months ago due to concerns over mounting costs. Ron Howard and fellow producer Brian Grazer have downgraded the budget of the movie project (the first movie's budget has been dropped by $45 million) but potentially upgraded that of the TV series by teaming up with HBO.

Javier Bardem is attached to the role of Roland Deschain, apparently for both the TV series and movies.

The definitive Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is now online. This project started life as the 3rd Edition of the print version (previous editions published in 1979 and 1993) but rapidly grew far too large to be published: the final version of the title is anticipated to be more than 4 million words in length and contain more than 12,000 entries.

The current version of the Encyclopedia is the beta, consisting of about 75% of the 'final' book, which is anticipated in about a year's time. However, even the 'complete' book will still be updated on a regular basis after that time.

Note that this is the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, and covers the SF genre alone. The same team produced the print Encyclopedia of Fantasy in 1996, so I assume that if this project is successful, they will produce an online fantasy encyclopedia at a future date.

The Dream Archipelago is a vast string of thousands of islands, wrapping themselves around the world between two great continents. Some of them are deserts, some are home to great cities and others have been riddled with tunnels and turned into gigantic musical instruments. The Islanders is a gazetteer to the islands...and a murder story. It's also a musing on the nature of art and the artists who make it.

The Islanders is Christopher Priest's first novel in almost a decade, a fact which itself makes it one of the most interesting books to be released this year. His previous novel, The Separation, a stimulating and layered book about alternate versions of WWII, was one of the very finest novels of the 2000s. True to expectations, Priest has returned with a fiercely intelligent book that works on multiple different levels and which rewards close, thoughtful reading.

The Islanders initially appears to be a travel gazetteer, a Lonely Planet guide to a place that doesn't exist. Several islands are presented with geographic information, notes on places of interest and thoughts on locations to visit. Then we get entries which are short stories (sometimes only tangentially involving the island the entry is named after), or exchanges of correspondence between people on different islands. One entry is a succession of court and police documents revolving around a murder, followed by an extract from a much-later-published book that exonerates the murderer. Later entries in the book seem to clarify what really happened in this case, but in the process open up more questions than are answered. Oh, a key figure the gazetteer references frequently is revealed to be dead, despite him having produced an introduction to the book (apparently after reading it). Maybe he faked his death. Or this is a newer edition with the old introduction left intact. Or something else has happened.

The Islanders defies easy categorisation. It's not a novel in the traditional sense but it has an over-arcing storyline. It isn't a collection of short stories either, though it does contain several distinct and self-contained narratives. It isn't a companion or guidebook, though readers of Priest's earlier novel The Affirmation or short story collection The Dream Archipelago will find rewards in using it as such. It is hugely metafictional in that themes, tropes and ideas that Priest has been working on for years recur and are explored: doppelgangers, twins, conflicted memories, magicians, performance art and shifting realities feature and are referenced. At several points Priest seems to be commenting about his own works rather than the imaginary ones written by a protagonist...until one of those books turns out to be called The Affirmation, the same title as one of Priest's earlier, best novels. A character's suggestion that a work be split into four sections and then experienced in reverse order may be a clue as to how the novel should be read...but may be a red herring. Several key moments of wry humour (The Islanders is probably Priest's funniest book) suggest that we shouldn't be taking the endeavour seriously. Moments of dark, psychological horror suggest we should.

The novel embraces its gazetteer format. References to another island in an entry may be a clue that a vital piece of information can be found in the corresponding chapter about the other island. Sometimes this is the case, sometimes it isn't. Recurring names (some of them possibly aliases) and references to tunnels and havens provide links that bind the book together. The strangest chapter appears to be divorced from the rest of the book altogether, but subtle clues suggest curious relationships with the rest of the book and indeed with other of Priest's works (though foreknowledge of these is not required). The interlinking tapestry of references, names and events forms a puzzle that the reader is invited to try to piece together, except that the pieces don't always fit together and indeed, some appear to be missing altogether.

The Islanders (*****) is a weird book. It's also funny, warm and smart. It's also cold, alienating and dark. It's certainly self-contradictory. The only thing I can say with certainty about it is that it is about islands and the people who live on them, and if there is a better, more thought-provoking and rewarding novel published this year I will be surprised. The book is available now in the UK and on import in the USA.

The OnLive gaming service went online in the UK yesterday. It's been running already for a few months in the USA and has been surprisingly low-key in its marketing, despite the fact that it is - potentially, at least - one of the most revolutionary steps forward in PC gaming history.

Up until now, the ability to run a game on your PC has been determined by the specifications of its components: how much memory it has, how much hard disk space and, most importantly, how powerful and capable your graphics card is. Playing games on PC has traditionally been an expensive proposition, requiring a reasonably heavy outlay to start with (usually around £500 at a minimum in the UK, more expensive than even the PS3 at launch) and then requiring upgrades every few years to stay current. An awful lot of traditional PC gamers got tired of this treadmill and with the arrival of the current consoles jumped ship a few years back.

OnLive essentially removes almost all of these barriers in playing a game on your PC. All you need is a keyboard, mouse and a reasonably good internet connection.

Basically, it's cloud gaming. The actual game is running on a super-PC somewhere else in the world. Your commands (mouse movements and keyboard processes) are transmitted to the remote PC and the graphics are updated and fired back at your PC, which displays the transmitted image. Achievements and saved games are stored on the cloud server. Nothing is stored on your PC (or Mac) at all, save only the OnLive app. OnLive's technology is based around reducing lag and latency as much as is technically possible, and the results so far are extremely impressive.

For the purposes of trying out the service, I chose to play SPACE MARINE, a virtually brand-new release. My PC is a five-year-old single-core machine that would barely be able to boot the game, and would not be able to play it at all even with all the details on minimum. On OnLive, the game runs at reasonably high spec. Image quality is not as 100% crisp and stunning as it would look running natively on a top-tier machine but compared to, for example, not being able to run the game at all, it is excellent. The speed of the game is stunning. There is no discernible lag or latency at all. I move the mouse and the character responds instantly. I have worse lag on playing some games off the hard disk. I played most of the game in a single 5-hour sitting and encountered no slowdown either (and SPACE MARINE can get pretty hectic at times, with huge outdoor areas and hundreds of Orks on-screen at once).

I haven't tested other games yet, so experiences may vary. In addition and probably crucially, I have an excellent broadband connection: a 10mb service from Virgin UK, plugged directly into the cable (no router) and my house is very close to the exchange. I suspect running the service on a shared router with a slower speed will be a dicier prospect.

Aside from the internet speed issue, there are a couple of other drawbacks. Obviously, nothing from the game is sitting on your hard disk, so creating and running fan mods or altering source files is of course impossible. The service also only works online, so in that respect is the ultimate form of DRM, but that is inherent to the service. Also, whilst the games look great, they definitely don't look as good as running a game natively on a top-tier system at high resolution. But then that sort of gamer is not whom the service is aimed at.

On top the obvious benefits of the service, there are quite a few others as well. Firstly, most of the games have trial periods attached to them, allowing you play the first 30-60 minutes of the game for free before you buy. This is obviously useful to everyone, even hardcore gamers, allowing you to try before you buy (a vital service in these days where demos either don't come out at all, or only months after the game is released). Secondly, the service can output to PC, Mac or even a tablet. The (somewhat under-sold) side-effect of this is that Mac users can now play every single PC game ever released (er, on the service) without having to faff around with a Windows installation or hoping that a Mac version of a game is released. Thirdly, the pricing model allows you to pay for 'access' to a game for a few days rather than buying the whole thing. For example, I knew from reviews that SPACE MARINE's single player campaign only lasts for 5 hours, so I paid £4 for a 5-day pass to ensure that I'd have enough time to complete it. Basically, it has a built-in, instant-access rental service.

The prospects for the service are amazing. Obviously there are the caveats that you need a good Internet service and that the service is in its infancy. How well it works at peak times with millions of people trying to log in at once is something that remains to be seen. But right now, it's a really impressive service. Plus when you sign up you get a full game for a quid, so for the outlay of £1 I can now play DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION, which would melt my PC if I tried to run it 'properly' :-)

You may be wondering how it's possible that's passed you by. So is everyone else.

A GAME OF THRONES: GENESIS (the 'A' and the 'Genesis' are there to ensure no-one gets sued by HBO) is a PC strategy game which allows you to control one of the Great Houses of Westeros. Though apparently not the Greyjoys, as they were too hard to implement or something. There are several scenarios, beginning with Nymeria's invasion of Dorne 1,000 years before the books and ending with Robert's Rebellion. Amongst the scenarios is one where you control Aegon the Conqueror as he invades Westeros. Given the presence of dragons, that'll probably be the easiest campaign.

The game's unique selling point is that military activity is not mandatory. Instead, you can win the Iron Throne through skillful negotiations, behind-the-scenes plotting, economic sabotage, timely political marriages or assassination. Which sounds kind of cool, but no-one knows if it works because the developers have refused to reveal how it all works. They've also refused to show any substantive gameplay videos and there's no indication there will be a pre-release demo either. And the developers, Cyanide, have a terrible reputation for releasing bug-filled games that take years to become playable. Suffice to say that many people are predicting a turkey.

Possibly slightly more interesting is GAME OF THRONES: THE RPG, which Cyanide are developing for release for late 2012. This game will be more WITCHER/DRAGON AGE-esque and will be a story-based RPG, featuring a rotating POV structure like the novels, moving you between several characters who are caught up in the War of the Five Kings. The RPG just got the official recognition nod from HBO and will apparently be using HBO art assets, actor likenesses and - maybe - actor voices, which could be cool.

The strategy game isn't really getting me fired up though. Hopefully it'll be good, but for it to be this late in the day with almost no info or reviews about the game is not a good sign.

Orson Scott Card, a noted SF author ('noted' in this cast for writing a half-decent children's book a quarter of a century ago and then cashing in on them ever since), has decided to rewrite HAMLET to make it more rubbish.

In the book, named HAMLET'S FATHER, Card has removed the moral complexity, characterisation and thematic development (not to mention the splendid use of language) from Shakespeare's play and replaced it with the notion that everything bad that happens in the play is down to Hamlet's father being gay. And that he also 'infected' Rosencranctz, Guildenstern, Horatio and Laertes with teh gay as well by molesting them as children. And at the end Hamlet's father threatens to take Hamlet's spirit to hell and do evil gay things to it for all eternity.

I may be wrong about this, but I think Orson Scott Card may be grinding an axe over the issue of homosexuality with this book.

Fantasy author Scott Lynch has applied the Card Formula to Henry V, with interesting results.

Westomoreland stared at the big army of the French. "The French army is so big," said Westmoreland. "I wish we had more guys."

"Who says we need more guys?" shouted King Henry as he rode up. "I've thought really hard about this. The less of us there are, the better it is for us!"

"I'm not sure it works that way, my liege," said Westmoreland.

"Really? I don't know," said Henry. "Sounds good to me. Maybe I'm sleepy! I spent all night wandering around the camp LARPing."

"Reinforcements would be really nice," said Westomoreland.

Excellent. Hopefully Scott can be convinced to write the full-length version.

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE - BLOODLINES is going for £3.75 for the weekend (as compared to its normal price of £14.99; American prices differ). For pocket money, it's a no-brainer to try out the classic and critically-acclaimed (but also somewhat bugged) RPG.

You can get it from here.

Of course, you can also patch the game using community-made mods and patches which close up unfinished quests, fix broken dialogue trees and so on. The problem is that there are two distinct communities working on separate trees of updates and patches, and these communities hate one another and will flame one another to a burnt-out crisp at the drop of a hat. So my approach is to try the game out in its vanilla state and only venture into that minefield later on. Rock Paper Shotgun recently highlighted one of the patches and the resulting nuclear explosion in the comments is very, erm, interesting.

Book 1: Sundiver

Two billion years ago, the Progenitors commenced the process of 'uplift': genetically engineering the more intelligent animals of many scores of worlds to sentience and intelligence. They in turn uplifted other races, and then others, in an unbroken chain that would eventually span aeons and no less than five galaxies. Each 'Patron' race would receive 100,000 years of indentured servitude from their client races before the clients would be allowed to uplift species of their own and become Patrons themselves. The Progenitors are long gone, as are many of the races they sired, but the process of uplift goes on. When a race is discovered in a tiny corner of one galaxy which has no Patrons and claims to have evolved naturally without outside intervention, it sends shockwaves through galactic society.

The Solar system, 2246. Humanity has narrowly avoided being given to another Patron race to 'complete' their 'long-abandoned' uplifting. At the time they were discovered, humanity had already uplifted chimpanzees and dolphins to sentience, and were able to claim Patron status for themselves, to the fury of many, far older races. When a scientific mission is launched from Mercury to investigate lifeforms discovered living in the Sun's upper layers, several other alien races are furious with humanity's temerity: the Galactic Library states that life cannot exist in the atmosphere of stars, so their claims are clearly lies intended to bolster their own status. Jacob Demwa, an expert in uplift, is called in to help clarify the situation, but he finds several human and alien factions battling to control the information about the discovery for their own ends, and some of them may be willing to kill to achieve their ends.

Sundiver (originally published in 1980) is the first novel in David Brin's acclaimed Uplift Saga, a space opera series running to six novels. The series has won two Hugos, two Locus awards and a Nebula for Best Novel, and is highly regarded in the SF canon. However, most of these plaudits are aimed at later books in the series (particularly the second and third volumes, Startide Rising and The Uplift War). Sundiver itself tends to get a little overlooked in the mix.

Sundiver is a totally stand-alone SF novel. It's set about 240 years before the other books and features no ongoing storylines or characters. Readers are in fact often encouraged to start with the superb second volume and disregard this one (there are also a few minor continuity issues between Sundiver and the other books), which is a bit of a shame. Though Sundiver is the weakest book in the series and the most forgettable, it's still a reasonably entertaining SF mystery novel.

Our primary POV in the novel is the conflicted character of Jacob. Jacob is suffering severe PTSD after saving one of Earth's space elevators from destruction through various feats of derring-do, which has led to various mental problems that he has to deal with through conditioning. This makes for a highly unreliable narrator, who often pauses to wonder if his own psyche is undermining his efforts to solve the mystery. This introduces an element of uncertainty into the story which is effective at being unsettling and forcing the reader to re-examine everything that's going on. On the other hand, Brin isn't as good at doing this kind of thing as Gene Wolfe or Christopher Priest and eventually it turns out that the amount of misdirection going on is rather slight compared to the potential. Still, it's a nice idea.

The mystery itself is at the centre of the book: what is going on with these newly-discovered lifeforms floating above the Sun? There are your usual assortment of false leads, red herrings, enemies turning out to be good guys and vice versa, but the reader is not given sufficient information to solve the mystery by themselves (always a slight problem with a mystery-based narrative). The mystery is solved through the application of scientific principles, which is quite enjoyable, but the way Jacob gathers everyone around to reveal the secrets in a scene straight out of Columbo is a little bit cheesy. Luckily, the characters other than Jacob are a colourful and interesting bunch (though the annoying journalist with the outrageous French accent borders on caricature), and Brin is already doing his signature trick of giving us really bizarre and 'different' aliens but also making them relatable as individual characters, something that will come out much more strongly in the later books.

Sundiver (***½) is a reasonably solid SF mystery novel, though the solution is a little bit too neat and the story's full potential is not realised. The book's biggest problem is that its sequels are so vastly superior they tend to outshine it, which I suppose isn't the worst problem in the world to have. The book is available now in the UK and USA.

Book 1: Banewreaker

Long Ages ago, the Seven Shapers forged the world in accordance with the will of their creator, out of whose death they were born. However, Satoris the Sower refused the command of Haomane Firstborn and was named a traitor. For many long Ages Haomane and Satoris struggled, until the world was Sundered. The other six Shapers now dwell in the uttermost west, whilst Satoris finds himself constantly assailed by their servants in Urulat.

Tanaros, one of the Three and Satoris's most stalwart servant, is given an important mission. He must prevent Haomane's Prophecy from coming to pass by seizing the Lady of the Ellylon, Cerelinde, before she can marry the Aracus Altorus, the rightful King of the West. But this kidnapping itself may have set in motion the events that Satoris has long tried to avoid...

Read at a purely surface level, the plot precis of Banewreaker (the first book in the Sundering duology) sounds more than a bit familiar. But this is deliberate: in these two novels Jacqueline Carey launches a revisionist broadside at the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. At a very simple level, this is the story of The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (though chronologically mixed-up) as told from Morgoth's point of view (and, more overtly, the Witch-King of Angmar's, though Sauron also plays a role).

Of course, Carey reworks the names, concepts, races and ideas a fair bit so she doesn't get sued into oblivion by the Tolkien Estate, but these changes are hardly impenetrable, and it's still straightforward enough to work out who is who from the Tolkien mythos. At the same time, Carey imbues her characters with enough depth that they stand on their own two feet and after a while you start to forget the artistic intent behind the series in favour of its own narrative and storyline.

The Sundering is essentially an 'epic tragedy', and it's telling that each book opens with a quote from Paradise Lost. The duology is set in a world where there are two distinct sides, the 'dark' forces led by a fallen deity and consisting of an army of trolls led by 'fallen' Men, and a 'light' side led by stalwart heroes, noble Ellylon (elves with the serial numbers filed off) and a plucky innocent hero who has to take a magical trinket of enormous power (in this case, slightly oddly, a bucket of water) into the heart of enemy territory. The 'good guys' are also advised by a wise and powerful wizard who at one point undergoes an unexpected transformation. The story, spun by the wizard and his cronies, is that Satoris wrecked the world through greed and avarice, and continues to be responsible for all that is evil in Urulat. However, Satoris claims that he only desired freedom of voice and expression and was brutally supressed by the supposedly wise Haomane, who has incessantly pursued Satoris out of vengeance ever since.

The reader is invited to make their own judgement on the truth of the matter, mostly through the character of Cerelinde who is initially a paid-up supporter of Team White Hat. Arriving at Satoris's fortress of Darkhaven, she finds it guarded by fell trolls and maintained by an army of ugly and twisted minions...but the trolls turn out to be honourable and brave warriors, and the minions are outcasts turned out from the world of Men and Ellylon who have been given shelter by Satoris and are treated kindly. As the book progresses, Cerelinde finds herself questioning her own rote acceptance of the written version of history, but at the same time Satoris and his own minions, attacked once again by their enemies, find it difficult to resist becoming what Haomane's PR makes them out to be, evil and destructive monsters.

It's a clever idea for a book, going beyond the mild revisionist intent of Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn (where he merely gave his dark lord a motivation, but didn't attempt to justify the evil he'd still carried out), but the book cannot survive on its intent alone. As an individual work with its own storyline and characters, Banewreaker is satisfying and well-written, with Carey managing the trick of echoing Tolkien's prose style without slavishly following it (and thankfully not even attempting any poems). Events build to a tragic conclusion as an epic battle is fought between two sides where both are in the right and in the wrong, and the stage is set for a bigger confrontation to come in the concluding volume of the story, Godslayer (although the actual ending of the book is a little random, the result of this being one long novel split in two and not two separately-written instalments).

Banewreaker (****) is an intelligent and refreshing take on the traditional epic fantasy novel and is a well-written and enjoyable story in its own right. It is available now in the USA and on import in the UK.

Book 1: The Hunger Games

Over a century from now, North America is a land ravaged by floods and war. Out of the ashes a new nation, Panem, has emerged, consisting of the glorious city known as the Capitol and twelve outlying districts which only exist to provide the Capitol with resources (a thirteenth district was destroyed in a rebellion three-quarters of a century ago). To keep the people in line, the government enforces the Hunger Games, a reality TV show where twenty-four teenage boys and girls must fight one another for survival in a game of wits and strength.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take the place of her sister when she is selected for the Games. Transported to a hostile wilderness, Katniss must use every bit of her cunning and her training as a hunter to prevail.

The Hunger Games is the first book in the trilogy of the same name. First published in 2008, it has become a hugely successful novel, spawning two sequels and a forthcoming movie adaptation, and has won plaudits from both younger readers and adults alike (Stephen King is a noted fan).

The premise is unoriginal but Collins nevertheless executes it reasonably well. This is a brisk read where Collins develops the plot and delivers action beats with skill, but not at the expense of characterisation (though, with only two characters of note to develop, this isn't as challenging as it could be). Katniss is an intriguing but more interesting is the way that Collins establishes the motivation and character of Peeta, Katniss's sometimes-ally in the games, since we only see him through Katniss's eyes. Characters outside these two are less well-developed, however.

Collins also holds back on exploring the full savagery of the games, perhaps understandably given the target audience. Still, there is the feeling that we more hear about how horrible the games are rather than seeing them in full flow (one tense moment involving mutated dogs aside). In addition, we know very little about the other contestants. A couple get some nice moments in the sun so we feel bad when they die, but generally the focus of the game itself is the mental battle of wills and PR that Katniss and Peeta are playing with the people running the game. This is surprising and considerably more difficult than just showing the contestants offing one another, since this struggle can only by necessity be depicted through one side, since we only have Katniss's POV, so we, like her, can only guess what the people in the Capitol are up to. To Collins' credit she pulls it off, and works in a couple of interesting themes about reality TV, bloodsports, PR and marketing into the bargain.

The book does have a potential problem in that it does come off very much like a Battle Royale-lite. Whilst that's not a problem if you've never read or seen Battle Royale, if you have then the weaknesses of The Hunger Games become slightly more apparent. Most notably, whilst Collins' Games are cruel, they don't match the shocking harshness that Royale achieves by simply having all the contestants be in the same school year, meaning they've known one another for years before having to kill one another. In that sense, Koushan Takami scores higher with some of the things he wants to say about youth and teenager-hood being a Darwinian struggle for survival. At the same time, the two works, whilst stemming from the same basic idea, are aimed in rather different directions and Takami benefits from a much greater word-count and a more adult audience to work with, so comparisons between the two are fair only up to a point.

Moving on from that, The Hunger Games (****) is a fast-paced, enjoyable read with some interesting (if hardly revelatory) things to say about celebrity and PR, not to mention a counter-intuitive approach to the inevitable romance story, but suffers a little from the well-mined premise and patchy characterisation. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

The Folding Knife by K.J. Parker

Bassianus Severus - known to the people as Basso - is the First Citizen of the Vesani Republic. He is politically savvy, financially creative, ruthlessly ambitious and very lucky. As his power and prestige grows, so does the rift between him and his sister, and the battle for the loyalty of her son.

The Folding Knife is the eleventh novel by the enigmatic K.J. Parker, a stand-alone book which is not part of any series. Fourteen years ago I picked up Parker's debut novel, Colours in the Steel, and later its two sequels and enjoyed them enormously. I've missed out on her books since then, which is something I'll have to rectify. The Folding Knife is outstanding.

This is the story of a man's life, or rather a twenty-year slice of it, but mostly focusing on the three years after he becomes First Citizen of the Republic. Basso grows up learning the family trade of banking, and through canny deals and excellent advice he soon becomes one of the richest men in the city. He then moves into politics, using his common touch with the people and his skills of persuasion and blackmail with the nobility to become the ruler of the Republic. He even has a long-term plan for the entire nation: to strengthen its borders and increase its resources against the threat of competing kingdoms jealous of Vesani's growing military and economic might.

Basso plays the Republic like an instrument, working out how to make the people and politicians jump to his tune. However, as the story unfolds Basso's inability to mend the feud with his sister or make foreign powers likewise obey the rules he sets out both become dangerous, leading to more desperate gambles. There's a strong economic spine to the book, with Parker successfully showing how expensive it is to run a large kingdom even without trying to fund major wars. In fact, I'm wondering if the economic storyline is a commentary on the current financial crisis, with Basso's self-justifications and ability to conjure money out of nowhere to keep things going just a bit longer being more than slightly reminiscent of recent news stories on the banks and national governments almost going bankrupt.

Basing the story on economics could be deathly dull, but Parker's well-paced writing, solid characterisation and dry sense of humour keeps things ticking along nicely. Basso is a well-written protagonist, monstrously flawed but also sympathetic, with his genius at handling money and politics contrasted against his disastrous relationships and his empty personal life. Basso's story is something of a tragedy then, but one with more than its fair share of humour and ingenuity. Also, by Parker's standards it's not that dark or disturbing (there's no Belly of the Bow 'moment' of unexpected ultraviolence here), though her twisted sense of humour remains intact. She also reigns in her tendency to interrupt the story for a three-page digression on the best way to build trebuchets (though there is one detailed explanation of how to use a scorpion - a piece of field artillery - as a stealthy assassination weapon, but this is quite funny so fair enough).

This is a strong novel with only a few brief but well-described moments of action, with the focus being on political and economic intrigue. Intriguingly, whilst set in an (unmapped) secondary world, there is no magic or mysticism in the novel at all, but this lack is barely felt.

As for criticisms, the tight focus on Basso means we don't get much of a sense of the Republic or the wider world beyond his own views on it, but that's the point of the story, I suppose. The ending is also perhaps a little underwhelming (and whilst it's not the first in a series, the ending is open enough to allow for a later sequel, if necessary). The reasons for Basso's sister's hatred of him are also under-explored, since we don't have any POV chapters from her. Finally, there are moments when things go as clockwork and Basso finds things going all his way that feels a little too clinical and not allowing for the unpredictability of human actions, but the latter part of the novel repays that in spades, so that's not too much of a problem.

The Folding Knife (****½) is an engrossing, page-turning economic and political thriller, executed with finesse by one of our best (but possibly most underrated) fantasists. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.

KJ Parker is one of the most interesting epic fantasy authors around, a perfect fit for those who like say Joe Abercrombie or Scott Lynch (though she predates both by a decade). Might have to try to catch up with her other work in the near future.

Shadows of the Apt 1: Empire in Black and Gold

Thousands of years ago, the tribes of humanity were menaced by the giant insects that inhabited their world. Through means long forgotten, humanity bonded itself to the insects, taking on some of their attributes and abilities, becoming the kinden. They mastered the insects and then came to dominate the world.

Now it is a time of invention and progress. The industrious Beetle-kinden have forged impressive vehicles and tools to drive their world into the industrial age, but they have no fear of war, for the city-states of the Lowlands thrive on their peaceful competition with one another. But, unknown to the Beetle-kinden, another people outside the Lowlands have no such restriction. The Wasp Empire, an empire painted in black-and-gold, is beginning its expansion into the Lowlands and only one Lowlander of influence, Stenwold Maker, artificer-turned-agent, is ready to stand against them. With only a small band of followers to assist him, Stenwold sets out to prevent the Wasps' latest conquest from proceeding.

Empire in Black and Gold is the first volume in Adrian Tchaikovsky's epic Shadows of the Apt sequence, a series currently projected to run to ten volumes (Book 6 is out in February 2011, followed by the seventh later in 2011). However, the series is divided into distinct acts which provide some sense of closure, with four volumes in the first act. I must admit that I was cautious over beginning another huge series, but I'm glad I took the plunge with this one. Empire in Black and Gold is a winner.

Tchaikovsky succeeds here in creating a world unlike most in secondary world fantasy. The mix of steampunk, traditional epic fantasy tropes, the echoes of real history (particularly the Lowlands resembling the Greek city-states of antiquity) and the use of the insect-kinden idea to make the races unique is very effective. These elements raise some interesting questions about slavery and racism (since in this world the different races, although all human, are differentiated from one another by their insect totems and have notably different traits). Tchaikovsky can't be faulted here on his worldbuilding, which is impressive, convincing and original.

On the character front, Tchaikovsky is also successful. Although the Wasp Empire is presented as the antagonists, individual Wasps are characterised as anything from indolent and corrupt rulers to efficient and loyal servants of their cause and ideology. Extremely well-realised is Thalric, an agent of the Empire's secret service, who is presented as 'the villain' but has his own, understandable motivation and driving force. His opposite number, Stenwold, also comes across well. Tchaikovsky captures the frustration of an old man past his prime who has been waiting for a long time for this conflict and now finds himself unable to fully confront it without the use of allies.

The primary POV characters are Stenwold's students, whom he has recruited into the fight: the engineer Totho, the industrious-but-unfortunately-named Cheerwell, the aristocratic swordsman Salma and the Spider-kinden swordswoman Tynisa. These are reasonably familiar character archetypes, but Tchaikovsky brings them to life convincingly, although Totho perhaps could have been developed a little more.

Prose-wise, Tchaikovsky goes for accessibility here, with an approachable and easy-to-read prose style reminiscent of say Brandon Sanderson. Despite the book's length (about 600 pages in paperback) it is a fast read.

On the negative side of things, some elements could have been explored in greater depth, such as the role of women within the Wasp Empire and more about the intriguing 'lightning engines', but then this is but the first volume in a long series and there's plenty of time for such elements to be brought into play later on.

Empire in Black and Gold (****) is a fast-paced, page-turning read set in a vivid, interesting and different type of fantasy world. It is available now in the UK and USA.

I would love to see a RPG based on this world. Some very interesting and impressive worldbuilding elements here.

A recent leak from Blizzard (via the Chinese office, which has resulted in sackings there) shows a production slate of their proposed releases over the next four years. Whilst the dates are not set in stone, they do reveal some of Blizzard's thoughts:

Q4 2011: Diablo 3
Q4 2011: StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Swam
Q2 2012: World of WarCraft: Expansion 4
Q1 2013: StarCraft 2: Heart of the Void
Q2 2013: Diablo 3: Expansion 1
Q4 2013: World of WarCraft: Expansion 5
Q4 2013: Titan
Q4 2014: Diablo 3: Expansion 2

Amongst the high optimism on display is the interesting title Titan, which fans immediately guessed was Blizzard's long-rumoured-to-be-in-development new MMO franchise. A Blizzard rep confirmed this, but would say no more about it. However, Blizzard had previously said that the new MMO was going to be a whole new IP (by the time it comes out, Blizzard's first original title in over 15 years), meaning this isn't the fan-suggested Worlds of StarCraft, but a whole new world.

A trailer that contains spectacular amounts of swearing and should not be viewed at work.

This looks amusing (in a very lowbrow, KROD MANDOON-but-done-right kind o way), especially for anyone who's ever played a non-serious D&D campaign. I once had a player who liked playing mages who is the wizard in this down to a tee ("How are you going to do that?", "Magic, motherf!!!!").

Plus, if the humour doesn't work for you, you get to see Natalie Portman in metallic armour underwear.

This year I made it my project to delve into the WARHAMMER 40,000 universe of novels, starting with the prolific Dan Abnett. To date I've read seventeen of his books: the first eleven GAUNT'S GHOSTS novels, the EISENHORN TRILOGY and I'm now on the final book of the RAVENOR TRILOGY. Having previously had very mixed experiences with tie-in books, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the quality of these novels is very high. Reviews of all of these books can be found here.

My overview of the books so far:

Gaunt's Ghosts
Consciously Sharpe in space, following a detachment of the Imperial Guard (the Tanith 1st and Only, specialising in espionage and special operations) as they fight as part of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, an attempt by the Imperium to reclaim an entire sector from the clutches of Chaos. Notable for a very large cast of characters, shocking deaths and the author constantly finding new ways of telling war stories.

The series is divided into four 'arcs' or storylines, the first three of which are collected in omnibus:

ARC I: THE FOUNDING
The world of Tanith is destroyed by the forces of Chaos on eve of the founding, the commissioning of an Imperial Guard detachment from the planetary population. Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt controversially evacuates the Tanith 1st from the planet rather than stand and fight (and die). In these first three books the Tanith Ghosts come together as a cohesive unit, finally achieving fame in the epic Battle of Vervunhive.

1: First and Only (1999)
2: Ghostmaker (2000)
3: Necropolis (2000)

ARC II: THE SAINT
The Sabbat Worlds Crusade bogs down in hard fighting and it seems that only a miracle can break the deadlock. When the miracle takes place, the Tanith 1st become directly involved in events.

4: Honour Guard (2001)
5: The Guns of Tanith (2002)
6: Straight Silver (2002)
7: Sabbat Martyr (2003)

ARC III: THE LOST
A detachment of the Tanith 1st is send undercover on the planet Gereon, a world lost to Chaos for years. Whilst their mission is a success, the returning soldiers find themselves lost and ill-at-ease amongst their comrades, and their recovery will be long and hard-fought.

8: Traitor General (2004)
9: His Last Command (2005)
10: The Armour of Contempt (2006)
11: Only in Death (2007)

ARC IV: THE VICTORY
After fifteen years on the front lines, the Tanith 1st are finally relieved and given reach-echelon duties on Balhaut. But after two years of inaction, they are chomping at the bit to return to combat, especially as the war enters its deadliest phase so far.

12: Blood Pact (2009)
13: Salvation Reach (coming in 2011)

There are also several spin-off books:

Double Eagle (stand-alone novel focusing on a Guard aerial squadron)
The Sabbat Worlds Crusade (companion book)
Titanicus (stand-alone novel focusing on a Titan legion)
Sabbat Worlds (short story collection)

Eisenhorn
This trilogy (set 400 years earlier than the GHOSTS books and half a galaxy away) follows the misadventures of Imperial Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn, an 'orthodox' Inquisitor utterly opposed to the forces of Chaos. Eisenhorn becomes more 'flexible' as he is forced to use more and more extreme measures to defeat his foes, but risks corruption along the way. This trilogy is notable for its smaller scale than the massive wars of the GHOSTS books, its first-person perspective and its much more thorough examination of 'normal' life for ordinary citizens in the WH40K setting, as well as the lives of rogue traders and Inquisitors.

1. Xenos (2001)
2. Mallaeus (2001)
3. Hereticus (2002)

Ravenor
Following the disappearance of Gregor Eisenhorn, his brilliant, disabled protege Gideon Ravenor continues his work, investigating corruption and heresy. On Eustis Majoris Ravenor and his team discover a new psi-drug, 'flects', which is causing immense problems for the people of the subsector. This trilogy differs from the EISENHORN books (which were three separate stories with some continuing subplots) in being one large story split into three books for reasons of space.

1. Ravenor (2004)
2. Ravenor Returned (2005)
3. Ravenor Rogue (2007)

Next up is Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain series, which is apparently a Flashman pastiche in the WH40K universe. I also need to start looking at the Horus Heresy series, which delves ten thousand years into the backstory of the entire WH40K setting.

Any other books and authors worth a look?

Authors China Mieville and George R.R. Martin are in the process of trying to get Facebook to remove copyrighted material from their website. Mieville has gone as far as publishing an open letter explaining his concerns:

Facebook

1601 S. California Avenue
Palo Alto
CA 94304
USA
6 October 2010

Dear Facebook People,

URGENT COMPLAINT– PLEASE READ, MORE ACTION TO FOLLOW SHORTLY

1) The short version:

At least one person, if not more, is/are impersonating me on Facebook, with (a) fake profile(s) claiming my identity. Despite me repeatedly bringing this to your attention, you have taken no action to remedy the situation. And I’m getting very annoyed.

2) The full version:

This thing you hold is called a letter. This is the third time I’ve contacted you, and I’m doing so by this antiquated method because, and I realise this may shock you so brace yourself, I have no Facebook account. Which means it is nigh-on impossible for me to get in touch with you. Kudos for your Ninja avoidance strategies.

Back when you had a button allowing me to alert you to a fake profile despite not having an account myself, I contacted you that way. I was answered with a resonant silence. Subsequently, when the problem persisted, I hunted lengthily for, found and left a message on the phone number you go out of your way to hide. Absolutely nothing happened. So here we go again: third time’s a charm.

I am being imitated on Facebook. I believe the only reason anyone is bothering to do this is because I’m a novelist (published by Macmillan and Random House), a writer and broadcaster, with a minor public profile. I think there are one or two community pages about my stuff on Facebook – that of course is very flattering and nice of people to bother. The problem is that there is or are also pages by someone(s) purporting to be me. This is weird and creepy. What’s worse is I know for a fact that some readers, friends and colleagues are friending ‘China Miéville’ under the impression that it is me, and that others are wondering why ‘China Miéville’ refuses to respond to them. And I have no idea what dreadful things or ‘likes’ or ‘dislikes’ are being claimed as mine, nor what ‘I’ am saying.

I know lots of people enjoy being on Facebook. Great. More power to them. Vaya con Dios. Me, though: not my thing. I have absolutely no interest in it. I am not now nor have I ever been a Facebook member. Short of some weird Damascene moment, I will not ever join Facebook – and if that unlikely event occurs, I promise I’ll tell you immediately. In the meantime, though, as a matter of urgency, as a matter of courtesy, as a matter of decency, please respond to my repeated requests:

• Please delete all profiles claiming to be me (with or without the accent on the ‘é’ – last time I looked, I found one ‘China Mieville’, and one more accurately rendered).
• Please do not allow anyone else to impersonate me. I have neither time nor inclination to trawl your listings regularly to see if another bizarre liar has sprung up.
• And while you’re at it, please institute a system whereby those of us with the temerity not to sign up to your service can still contact you on these matters and actually get a [insert cuss-word] answer.

I appeal to you to honour your commitments to security and integrity. Of course as a multi-gajillion-dollar company I have absolutely no meaningful leverage over you at all. If David Fincher’s film doesn’t embarrass you, you’re hardly going to notice the plaintive whining of a geek like me. All I can do is go public. Which is my next plan.

I’m allowing a week for this letter to reach you by airmail, then three days for you to respond to me by phone or the email address provided. Then, if I’ve heard nothing, on 16 October 2010, I’ll send copies of this message to all the literary organizations and publications with which I have connections

…

some of the many books bloggers I know; and anyone else I can think of. I’ll encourage them all to publicise the matter. I’m tired of being impersonated, and I’m sick of you refusing to answer me.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,
China Miéville

Martin's concern is over a specific page which is reprinting his blog entries and photographs without permission. Both authors seem to be indicating that legal action will follow unless Facebook deal with the situation ASAP.

In the heart of the North, two great armies are converging on a small valley to hit one another with bits of sharpened metal. The war chiefs and carls under Black Dow prepare to face the might of the Union under Marshal Kroy, tens of thousands of men (and a few women too) ready to kill for, well, for reasons that seemed good at the time but now escape them.

In this war, heroes are needed. Unfortunately, the only heroes around are a bunch of old weathered stones at the top of a hill. Over the course of three blood-drenched days these stones will form the centre of the battle, and the centre of a storm of machinations, conspiracies and hopes for generals, soldiers, murderers and even a crotchety old wizard who has a new invention to test...

The Heroes is the fifth novel by British fantasist Joe Abercrombie, following on from the epic First Law Trilogy and the stand-alone Best Served Cold. The Heroes is another stand-alone, but certainly those who have read the previous books will get a lot more out of it, with minor, almost disposable moments from those earlier books assuming much greater importance here (especially through the successful device of a major POV and a very minor character in Best Served Cold swapping places in The Heroes). Abercrombie seems to be using these stand-alones to set up a new, bigger story further down the road and it will be intriguing to see if this indeed the case.

Back to the present, The Heroes is the first major fantasy release of 2011, and it looks like the new year is already off to a cracking start. The Heroes chronicles a huge battle, one of the largest in history, between the Northmen and the Union, and unfolds in a tight timeline of less than a week (the three days of the battle, plus a few before and a few after). The titular 'Heroes' are a bunch of stones atop a hill in the centre of the battlefield, but there is a lot of wordplay and some interesting commentary on what it means to be a hero, especially given many of the characters' cynicism. Abercrombie has no truck with 'sides' here, and in fact the exact reasons for the war are never entirely spelled out, aside from some hints it might be about territory and others that it might be part of the ongoing cold war between Bayaz and his Gurkish enemies and their respective allies. On both sides there are 'good' (or at least not-as-bad-as-the-rest) guys and bad guys, and the good guys are shown to sometimes do bad things and vice versa (even Black Dow gets a couple of semi-sympathetic moments).

There are several central POV characters. Prince Calder, son of King Bethod whom Black Dow deposed (via Ninefingers) in the trilogy, is a military coward but a born conspirator and strategist (at least in his own mind) who is keen to get his father's throne back. Curnden Craw is a trusted War Chief, a 'straight edge' known for his honesty and his honour, neither of which is doing him much good on the battlefield. Beck is a fresh recruit, the son of a famous Named Man, eager to make his own name on the battlefield. Corporal Tunny is a Union soldier who is the last into the breach and the first into the loot, who has completely perfected the art of making a rout look like a tactical withdrawal. Finree dan Brock, the daughter of Marshal Kroy, is eager to regain her husband's honour and fortune after his father betrayed the Union in war. Finally, Bremer dan Gorst, the former bodyguard of the King disgraced after failing to protect the royal personage during an incident in Styria, is keen for revenge and redemption.

These stories entwine around one another, with other characters popping into the story (Bayaz, First of the Magi, is bemusingly interested in the battle, whilst Caul Shivers and the Dogman have their parts to play) as it unfolds. This is a book less about the over-arching plot, which is somewhat vague and will possibly become clearer in future books, than it is about the characters and the changes they go through as a result of the battle and the politics surrounding it.

So this is a character-focused epic war story, if that isn't a contradiction in terms. The battle and mayhem are depicted with all the blood, swearing, cynicism and involuntary bowel movements we have come to expect from Abercrombie. Despite the author's scepticism over maps, we get a nice series of illustrations depicting the battlefield as it changes from day to day, which helps visualise the various locations and their relationships to one another. The worldbuilding also steps up a notch, with a sense of time passing (it's nearly a decade since the start of the trilogy at this point) and even some technological (and culinary) evolution and innovation. There's also the continued sense of a stormcloud over the horizon as Bayaz and his enemies continue to skirmish with one another, using proxies to fight on their behalf until some future conflagration is unleashed in full force.

Criticisms? Well, Abercrombie is evolving as a writer, developing a more varied prose style with some nice descriptive touches (even if they are being applied to a soldier's first encounter with the horror of field latrines), but he isn't exactly turning into China Mieville here. If you didn't like the previous four books, there's nothing in The Heroes that will change your mind. However, the improvements and the tighter focus may sway those more on the fence about the earlier books. Fans of the earlier books keen for more information about certain characters from earlier volumes may also be disappointed by the lack of overt information given here on their fates (although there is a whisper of an interesting clue of a possibility that is tantalising). Oh, and disappointingly/thankfully (delete as appropriate) Abercrombie has failed to include one of his trademark terrible sex scenes.

The Heroes (*****) is Joe Abercrombie doing what he does best but better than ever before: gritty, violent, morally ambiguous and darkly funny fantasy with a streak of intelligent cynicism. The book will be published on 20 January 2011 in the UK and 7 February 2011 in the USA.

Book 1: Hawkwood and the Kings

(containing Hawkwood's Voyage and The Heretic Kings)

The continent of Normannia is dominated by the five great Monarchies of God, five kingdoms and myriad duchies and principalities united in the worship of the Word of God as revealed by the holy messenger, Saint Ramusio. But now, five centuries after Ramusio's passing, that union is fracturing. The Merduks of the east have taken the Holy City of Aekir and put it to the sword and the flame. The Kingdom of Torunna stands open to their armies, with only a scant defence being mounted at the fortress of Ormann D*#&. But rather than reinforce Torunna, the Church is instead sending its Knights Militant into the other kingdoms, determined to root out heretics and burn them at the stake.

In Hebrion King Abeleyn, determined to reassert the secular rule of kings over that of the Church, sets his will against that of Prelate Himerius, who is determined to continue the burnings of heretics, magic-users and shapeshifters. As part of these intrigues, Abeleyn authorises his cousin Lord Murad to outfit an expedition across the Great Western Ocean in search of a new landmass rumoured to exist there. Captain Richard Hawkwood is commissioned to lead this expedition, but once to sea it becomes clear that someone, or something, is determined to see it fail. For his part, with the Fall of Aekir and the apparent death of the High Pontiff, Himerius is determined to rise to high office and see the entire continent ordered to his design.

As the Merduk armies dash themselves against the walls of Ormann D!@*, a young cavalry officer, Corfe, last survivor of the Aekir garrison, emerges as a canny warleader who may hold the key to saving Torunna and Normannia. For in his party from Aekir is an old man who claims to be the High Pontiff Macrobius, and the revelation of his survival will splinter the continent in two and unleash turmoil and strife the likes of which have not been seen in centuries.

Hawkwood and the Kings is an omnibus edition containing the first two volumes of Paul Kearney's classic Monarchies of God series, Hawkwood's Voyage (1995) and The Heretic Kings (1996). Long out of print, this reissue is a very welcome move from Solaris. If it wasn't for poor sales (despite heavy critical acclaim), this series would be mentioned in the same breath as A Song of Ice and Fire and The Malazan Book of the Fallen as one of the strongest epic fantasy series of the past fifteen years.

Kearney's writing style, which comes across somewhere between Martin, David Gemmell and Bernard Cornwell, is brutal and direct. This is not a pleasant world and all of the characters are flawed individuals developed with complex motivations. Lord Murad, for example, is initially portrayed as an antagonist but by the end of the book he has gained more of the reader's sympathy, whilst our erstwhile heroes Hawkwood and Corfe both have plenty of negative traits (Hawkwood treats his wife badly, whilst Corfe fled Aekir rather than stand and fight). In this sense the series withstands comparison to A Song of Ice and Fire, although the (relatively) slim page count-per-volume means that the series cannot build up the same kind of unstoppable momentum. Still, the complex politics and characterisation will appeal to fans of that work.

An area which Kearney could have badly fumbled is in his treatment of his source material. The Fall of Aekir is modelled after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, with the Merduks standing in (fairly obviously from the name) for the Ottoman Turks and hence Muslims. Kearney avoids this by showing the Merduks to have honourable generals and soldiers amongst their ranks even as their leaders are shown to be a mixture of the corrupt and the competent. He could have tipped this in the other direction with the Ramusian Church, a clear stand-in for Christianity, portrayed too villainously, but solves this by adding sympathetic POV characters within the Church's ranks (particularly Albec and Avila), showing the internal dissent and strife that have driven some in the Church to the current extremism.

Kearney handles the politics, characters and religious material deftly and also delivers great battles, whether on land or at sea. More common now, Monarchies was unusual when it was published in being set further up the technological ladder than most epic fantasies, with gunpowder, arquebuses, culverins and mortars being the weapons of choice. Fans of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe books or C.S. Forrester and Patrick O'Brien will be very happy with Kearney's depiction of combat, the life of a soldier and life at sea. Those readers tired of interminable thousand-page epic fantasy novels will also find Kearney's laser-like story focus and relentless pace refreshing.

Hawkwood and the Kings (*****) is epic fantasy at its very best, combining strongly-realised characters with epic battles, complex politics and a compelling storyline. This new edition will hopefully lead to a resurgence of interest in this over-neglected series. The omnibus is available now in the UK and USA from Solaris Books.

The producers of the new JUDGE DREDD movie have confirmed that they have cast Karl 'Eomer/Dr. McCoy' Urban as the titular lawman. The film, due to start shooting in the autumn in South Africa, is the second attempt to bring the franchise to the big screen, following on from the 1995 attempt starring Sylvester Stallone.

The new film's director is Pete Travis, whose record is undistinguished (VANTAGE POINT and ENDGAME). More encouragingly the script is by Alex Garland and a lot of the effects/production team working on the film are veterans of DISTRICT 9. DREDD creator John Wagner has given the new script his blessing, stating it is much closer to his vision for Dredd. In accordance with that vision, Dredd will not remove his helmet in the new film.

The new film, which inevitably will be shot in 3D, is due to hit cinemas in 2012.

An assassin in white murders the King of Alethkar, an act commissioned by the enigmatic Parshendi tribesmen of the east. In response the Alethi armies meet those of the Parshendi in battle on the Shattered Plains, a vast landscape of plateaus separated by dark chasms. Progress is slow and gruelling, and Dalinar, the murdered king's brother, adopts a siege strategy to wear down the enemy through attrition.

Meanwhile, Kaladin, a former soldier disgraced and sold into slavery, arrives on the Shattered Plains as a bridgeman, a role designed to help carry and place the immense mobile bridges which carry the Alethi army into battle. Mistreated by his masters, Kaladin begins to burn with the need for freedom and vengeance, and finds like-minded men amongst his fellows.

In distant Kharbranth a woman named Shallan seeks a missing princess, hoping to become her protege and study under the most famous heretic on all of Roshar. But Shallan's quest disguises another, less honourable cause.

These three stories become entwined with the ancient legends of the Knights Radiant and the Voidbringers they fought against. The world of Roshar and the wider cosmere beyond lie in danger from an ancient force, and the key to understanding the nature of that threat lies with a man who can walk amongst the worlds...

There's no faulting the ambition of this novel. The publisher and the author have set out their stall quite clearly: they want the ten-volume Stormlight Archive series to be the next dominant epic fantasy series, replacing the soon-to-finish Wheel of Time sequence. The publishing marketing spiel has cranked up to support this effort, drawing comparisons with Tolkien and Frank Herbert which are more than slightly hyperbolic. Yet The Way of Kings manages to weather these pronouncements to stand on its own merits as one of the best epic fantasy releases of this year.

The Way of Kings is Brandon Sanderson's finest novel to date, showing a remarkable and satisfying maturing and evolution of his craft. Sanderson is a student of epic fantasy who's made it his business to test the limits of the subgenre and take a mass audience with him, and The Way of Kings raises this skill to new heights. Roshar isn't another generic fantasyland, but a dangerous and alien world wracked by devastating tempests which the normal business of humanity takes place in the lulls between the storms. In his previous books Sanderson has used his worlds as effective background locations, but in The Way of Kings the world itself comes to life satisfyingly, becoming a vivid location which the reader ends up wanting to know more about.

Characterisation is an area where Sanderson takes a significant step forward in quality. His characters in The Way of Kings are considerably more flawed and more real than those in Mistborn or Elantris, but he also avoids turning them into grim, grey ciphers. These characters are given motivations and rationales for what they do which make sense, and then evolve satisfyingly over the course of the book. It has to be said that of the three major protagonists Shallan is the one who is not developed very satisfyingly in this way until the very end of the book, when her last three or four chapters transform the reader's understanding of her character and motives in a very impressive manner.

Sanderson has a strong reputation as the creator of impressive magic systems, so it's rather surprising that The Way of Kings pulls back on the magical side of things. There's an excellent opening sequence depicting the assassination which is slightly reminiscent of Nightcrawler's attack on the White House in X2 and is as impressive, but otherwise actual feats of magic are somewhat few and far between in the book (although there is a fair amount of use of magical artifacts such as fabrials and Shardblades), although with plenty of hints that these will form a bigger part of the story in subsequent volumes.

Another surprise is that Sanderson makes a bold move in this volume by putting some of the common mythology of his universe into the centre of the plot: Hoid, the Shards of Adonalsium, the Shadesmar and other elements which have been hinted at in Elantris, Warbreaker and the Mistborn series are here brought into somewhat sharper relief (although foreknowledge of those earlier novels is not required) and followers of this shared-universe element of Sanderson's work will have plenty more to chew on as a result of this book.

On the downside, Sanderson does adopt an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach with the book, and uses some side-plots purely to establish elements which will have no resolution until much later, and as a result there are a few side-stories which simply have no apparent reason for being in this novel (most notably the scenes set on the Purelake). In addition, to achieve greater resonance and carry out more impressive worldbuilding, Sanderson has had to sacrifice the thunderous pace that made the first Mistborn novel very enjoyable, the result being a book which is a good 150-200 pages longer than it strictly needs to be with some repetition of ideas and some action sequences (the chasm battles, whilst very impressive and atmospheric, do start blurring together after a while).

The Way of Kings (****½) has some minor issues, but overall is a deeper, darker and more satisfying novel than anything Sanderson has produced to date. The book will be published on 31 August 2010 in the USA and on 30 December in the UK.

Red Mars

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.

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.

Sweet.

"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.

Trailer. Screenshots.

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.

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.

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.

Helliconia Spring

Yuli is a child of a hunter-gatherer family living under the light of two suns on the northern plains of Campannlat on the frigid, ice-wrapped planet of Helliconia. When his father is enslaved by the vicious phagors, Yuli is left alone. He finds his way to the subterranean city of Pannoval, where he prospers as a member of the priesthood. Tiring of torturing heretics and punishing renegades, he elects to flee the oppressive city with some like-minded allies, eventually founding the settlement of Oldorando some distance away.

Fifty years later, Yuli's descendants have conquered a larger town, renaming it Oldorando as well, and are prospering. Game is becoming more plentiful, the river is thawing and warmer winds are rising, even as the smaller sun, Freyr, grows larger in the sky. But with peace and plenty comes indolence and corruption, and the people of Oldorando find themselves bickering and feuding for power, even as a great crusade of phagors leaves their icy homes in the eastern mountains on a quest to slaughter as many humans as possible.

The great drama of life on Helliconia is observed from an orbiting Earth space station, the Avernus, the crew of which watch as Helliconia and its sun, Batalix, draw closer to the great white supergiant about which they revolve and the centuries-long winter comes to a violent end.

Helliconia Spring (originally published in 1982) is the first volume in Brian Aldiss' masterpiece, The Helliconia Trilogy. In this work, Aldiss has constructed the supreme achievement of science fiction worldbuilding: Helliconia, a planet located in a binary star system a thousand light-years distant from Earth. Batalix and Helliconia take 2,592 years to orbit Freyr in a highly elliptical orbit (Helliconia is three times further from Freyr at its most distant point than nearest), which results in seasons that last for centuries apiece. Helliconia's plants, animal and sentient lifeforms have all biologically adapted to this unusual arrangement (in a manner that prevents colonisation by Earthlings, who would be killed quickly by the planet's bacteria), but its civilisations have not adapted satisfactorily: humanity rises in the spring and becomes dominant in the summer before being toppled by the phagors in the autumn and enslaved in the winter. However, more evidence has survived of the previous cycle than normal, and this time around those humans who have discovered the truth have vowed to ensure that humanity will survive the next Great Winter triumphant over its ancestral enemy.

Helliconia Spring is a complex novel working on a literal storytelling level - the factional battles for control over Oldorando and Pannoval, the phagor crusade flooding across the continent and the search for truth and understanding of the Helliconian star system by Oldorando's scientists - and also on thematic ones, with Aldiss examining the struggles between religion and science, between those who thrive in peace and those who thrive in war and the duality of winter and summer, humanity and phagor, and though the religious ritual of pauk, between the living and the dead.

Having the orbital Earth platform is a good idea, as it gives us a literal scientific understanding of the Helliconia system which those on the surface are struggling to understand, even if it does feel a little removed from the storyline at this time. Amongst other criticisms are a lack of character closure: whilst the grand history of Helliconia and the thematic elements continue to be explored in Helliconia Summer, the story itself moves on several hundred years, leaving the main characters of this book long dead. But these are outweighed by the strengths: the effective and impressive prose, the fantastic descriptions of a near-frozen planet thawing into life with its millions of species of plant and animal life waking up under the two suns and the impressive melding of cold, impersonal scientific worldbuilding with a satisfying plot and vividly-described characters.

Helliconia Spring (*****) is a masterpiece of science fiction and features the single most impressive work of SF worldbuilding to date. The novel is available now in the USA. A new omnibus edition of the entire trilogy will be published by Gollancz as part of the SF Masterworks collection on 12 August 2010.

Starting with a review of his latest book, UNDER HEAVEN:

Kitai, during the Ninth Dynasty. The Emperor has given the nation many years of peace and prosperity. Far to the west, in a valley where the last great battle between Kitai and Tagur was fought, a dutiful son pays homage to his dead father by burying the bones of the fallen. His honourable task is noted by the Tagurans who give him a princely gift: two hundred and fifty Sardian horses. You give a man one Sardian horse to honour him greatly, four or five to elevate him above all others. Two hundred and fifty is an overwhelming gift, a gift that instantly elevates Shen Tai into a player in Kitan politics.

These are perilous times. The First Minister and the empire's greatest general are feuding, the Emperor is distracted by his most favoured concubine and there is tribal dissent among the Bogu people beyond the Long Wall. Shen Tai and his family are thrust into the midst of great events, and find they and their horses may determine the balance of power, and of life and death, for many.

Under Heaven is Guy Gavriel Kay's eleventh novel, and marks a return to his favoured alternate-history setting and genre after the World Fantasy Award-winning Ysabel, which was a departure from his normal work. The setting this time is 8th Century China during the Tang Dynasty, during the lead-up to the colossal An Shi Rebellion (the most devastating war in human history until World War II, if the casualty figures are to be believed), although as normal the setting is lightly fictionalised, with characters and events hewing close to the originals but not quite replicating them.

Kay's China - Kitai - is a place of scheming nobles, courtly poise and etiquette and labyrinth conspiracies, all of which are depicted impressively. As normal, Kay is less interested in war and battles than in the human characters of the story, from Shen Tai and his ambitious brother Shen Liu to First Minister Wen Zhou, the poet Sima Zian and the women of the story (the Beloved Companion Wen Jian, Tai's sister Shen Li-Mei and the Kanlin warrior Wei Song), whose roles are crucial. Kay's grasp of character is as assured as ever, and he brings these people to life to the extent where the reader finds it impossible not to care about what happens to them next. Kay's grasp of emotion is as also finely-judged as ever, with moments of genuinely raw emotional power which never overreach into mawkishness.

The pacing is also well-handled, and the plot unfolds in a gripping manner. Kay shows greater confidence here as a writer than he has in some time, and his weaving of events, conspiracies and characters into a greater whole is impressive. This is easily his most assured and well-executed book since The Lions of Al-Rassan, if not ever. The only possible criticism I could find is that the ending is slightly abrupt, although the main storyline and character arcs are satisfyingly resolved.

Under Heaven (*****) is a superb book from one of our best writers working at the top of his game, and will likely be judged one of the strongest books of this year, in fantasy or otherwise. It is available now in the UK and USA.

27 July 2010.

That's twelve years and two months after the first game came out. Nice and timely release, then :-)

Ron Howard, director of films such as The Da Vinci Code, Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, has signed on to tackle a movie trilogy based on Stephen King's seven-volume Dark Tower sequence. According to the source, there is also the possibility of a spin-off television series being developed simultaneously.

The series, which sees a gunslinger named Roland making his way to the forbidding Dark Tower, is the unifying cosmological link between much of King's other work, although its sales have not been at the same level as his other, more stand-alone books. King is currently writing a new Dark Tower novel that falls earlier in the books' timeline.

J.J. Abrams and the writing team behind Lost, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, had previously discussed adapting the series as a seven-season TV series, but had changed their minds given the desire to have a break after the conclusion of the six-year Lost project.

Ridley Scott has commented that the familiar xenomorph from the Aliens film franchise will not appear in his planned two prequel movies. According to Scott, he feels that the design has lost its ability to scare by becoming too familiar. The new films will instead address earlier periods in the familiar creature's evolution and will answer long-held questions about the 'space jockey' and the aliens' origins, including addressing long-held fan debates about whether the aliens are a natural organism or a genetically-engineered weapon.

The first film will take place in 2085, thirty-seven years before the events of Alien, and will depict the discovery of a creature (possibly the proto-alien) on a planet called Zeta Reticuli. The second movie will take place five years before Alien and will likely address the events that led to the 'space jockey' spacecraft crash-landing on LV-426 with a hold full of eggs. Sigourney Weaver is not expected to take part, but Scott has stated that the main character in the first film will still be a woman. He also stated the new films will be 'tough', 'nasty' and will be in 3D to 'jump the bar' that Scott's friend and friendly rival James Cameron set with Avatar.

Scott's ambitions seem impressive, and there is no denying that the once-terrifying alien has become a little too familiar in recent years. Luckily, the aliens' tendency to alter characteristics depending on its host body gives a canon explanation for the reasons why the aliens will look different, alongside this notion that the aliens from the movies might be genetically-engineered from an earlier, different-looking lifeform. Still, the iconic and crowd-pleasing alien not being in the films is a bold move, especially since it is not clear if original designer HR Giger will return to work on the film.

Something very interesting in Scott's comments is that by saying the aliens were genetically-engineered in 2085, possibly by humans, he is immediately ruling the two Aliens vs. Predator movies (which take place in contemporary times) non-canon.

On the one hand, a lot of Scott's ideas sound kind of whacked. On the other, fans of the ALIENS movie franchise can now chuck out all references to the AvP movies on the fire, which is great. So drawn on this one.

Starting off with a review of his new book, Kraken:

A giant, dead squid on display at the Natural History Museum in London goes missing, to the consternation of its curator, Billy Harrow, and that of the police officers of the FSRC (Fundamentalist and Sect-Related Crimes unit). The police think Billy might be a link. So does the Church of God Kraken, which is unhappy with one of their deities being half-inched. Less happily, so do Goss and Subby, murderers and pain-merchants for hire. Half of London is out looking for the squid, for its disappearance is related to fevered dreams and portents of apocalypse. The squid must be found, or the world will burn.

Kraken is China Mieville's seventh novel, and probably his most barking mad book to date. Kraken is a total one-eighty from the measured, focused crime noir that was his previous novel, The City and the City, and shares many more elements from his young adult-aimed Un Lun Dun, such as the fantasised (much more lightly here) depiction of London and a whimsical sense of humour (not to mention the short chapters). Where Un Lun Dun stumbled slightly in its opening chapters with Mieville trying to be down with the kids a little too hard, Kraken aims its culture and pop references more clearly at geekdom, with multiple references to TV shows like American Gothic, Lexx and Battlestar Galactica ("The revamp, obviously,"), a number of Moorcock references and a number of plot points related to Star Trek. There's also some nods at Gaiman, particularly Neverwhere (which also inspired elements of Un Lun Dun and King Rat), with Goss and Subby coming over as worthy homages to the latter's Croup and Vandemar, only less pleasant.

For a book that's so satisfyingly bananas in places, it makes you work hard in others. Mieville gropes for a prose style in the opening hundred pages or so, meaning that the opening part of the book is delivered in short, staccato bursts, one moment enjoyable, the next annoyingly obtuse to the point of turgidness. Mieville has never been an easy read, but he's also never been one with problems of flow in his books, and Kraken presents the first issues with this that I've come across in his work. Luckily, once the book shakes off its jitters and gets down to business, these problems fly out the window as well-defined characters, enjoyably weird factions and an ever more engrossing plot come to the fore. Along the way we meet some fantastic characters and creations, from Wati the stone-bound spirit to the loathsome Goss and Subby to the monstrous being known only as the Tattoo, and events culminate in an ending that is satisfying, if a little predictable (and the "It's the end, whoops, no it isn't, here's another one, and one after that too!" nature of the multiple endings is slightly wearying). Previous Mieville novels have perhaps been overall more cohesive, but ending an extended narrative seems to be something Mieville has struggled with in the past (his short fiction is notably better at this, most notably The Tain). Here he shows some true flair in his ending.

Kraken (****) takes a while to get going but once it does, it fires on all cylinders until it reaches a solid conclusion. Frustrating and hilarious by turns, it is a novel that rewards commitment. It will be published in the UK on 7 May and in the USA on 29 June.