Alex Bell – Book Review

Jasmyn
Alex Bell
Gollancz
Due Out: June 18th







Since Jasmyn’s husband died, everything has been different. And the arrival of a stranger asking questions raises difficult questions. As Jasmyn explores the events leading up to her husband’s death she is drawn in to a world of fairytale castles, black roses and ancient myths.

Alex Bell’s second novel, like her first, is told in the first person perspective. The upside of this is that you really get under the skin of the character. However, if you are not keen on the protagonist, you are lumbered with them for the entire book. It’s not that Jasmyn is unpleasant, but she comes off as bland as her complexion (she’s an albino). Both the first novel and the second have their respective protagonists suffering from life changing events, in The Ninth Circle it was amnesia, in Jasmyn it’s bereavement. Both characters seem to flounder around in self-pity, which whilst being a very real observation of people, doesn’t always make for interesting reading. For much of the book she simply reacts to events unfolding around her, which is maddening for readers of more heroic fiction where the protagonist gets out there and takes the fight to the enemy, so to speak.

The plot of the book revolves around the events leading to the death of Jasmyn’s husband, Liam. Jasmyn is led around by the nose, by her cruel and cryptic brother-in-law, to ask questions of equally cryptic characters that may (or may not) be involved in Liam’s death. The prose occasionally lapses in to travelogue gushing about locales, and Jasmyn never seems to be in a great deal of danger. The book is a slow burner, so if you’re naturally given to grittier faire with more pace you might want to avoid this book.

A cosy supernatural thriller that is unfortunately short on thrills or darkness. This book might be better suited to teenage readers.

5/ 10

We Love Daisy Lola Speak

My good friends Jesse and Debbie (finally) had a little girl. She was seventeen days overdue, and when she arrived was a teeny tiny 7lb 3oz.

I'm assured she is a good baby, and isn't causing her proud parents too many headaches, or sleepless nights.

The (Early) Weekly Round Up

Forbidden Planet Thrill Power Signing


FORBIDDEN PLANET is delighted to announce that they’ve bagged a slew of 2000AD types to celebrate and promote the release of THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD. Head down on Saturday 21st March 1 – 2:30pm at the London Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, and meet British Comic stalwarts: -

* Dan Abnett
* David Bishop
* Simon Davis
* Rufus Dayglo
* Al Ewing
* Brett Ewins
* Henry Flint
* Frazer Irving
* Robbie Morrison
* Tony Lee (probably with Dan Boultwood close by)
* Matt Smith
* Simon Spurrier

They’ve gathered together writers and artists from a host of 2000AD titles – together with Matt Smith, the magazine’s editor. They’ll be available to sign, sketch and chat!

School Of Seven Bells – Video

You might have read my enthusiastic response for New York dreampop/ shoegazers else where on this blog. I was pleased to discover that SVIIB have released their first video, and whilst it hardly sets the world on fire (first person footage of cars driving around cities), it does neatly introduce fans to the Deheza sisters. Clearly they didn’t have a huge budget, which is a shame. I’m more that a bit psyched to see these guys support Bat For Lashes at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire next month.



Stuff And Nonsense

Still writing the novel. Finished chapter four. It’s still weird. And I like that way. Probably shouldn’t say anything else in case I jinx it and get stuck.

Neil Gaiman Saying F*ck


via videosift.com

Not big, clever or literary (my title for this segment, not Neil Gaiman) but very amusing.

Joe Abercrombie – Book Review

Best Served Cold
Joe Abercrombie

Monzcarro Murcatto is good at her job, perhaps a touch too good at her job. So, when she finds herself quite literally cast down from the Captain’s Chair of the Thousand Swords Mercenary Company, she understandably has a score to settle. The fact that her employer has just killed her brother will only make the revenge she takes out so much more brutal.

At first glance it would be easy to write off Joe Abercrombie as a one trick pony. As anyone that has read his award winning First Law trilogy will know – harsh language, unrelenting violence and flawed or broken characters are de rigueur in Abercrombie’s bleak fantasy world. However, it’s the deft humour, the bruised wisdom and the entirely likeable (but no less treacherous, lethal, selfish and proud) characters that really keep the pages turning. It’s not uncommon to find yourself wincing at particularly bloody descriptions, and then be laughing a few pages later at an equally pithy put down.

As ever, Abercrombie weaves a dense plot, but not at the expense of the pace, and casts an ensemble of gritty, odd, but always interesting and deadly characters to undertake Murcatto’s revenge. All this is done whilst at the same time telling us the chain of events that led to Murcatto’s downfall. At no time does the author try and shoehorn in saccharine attempts at redemption, rather the characters either slither down towards bloody amorality, or edge forwards to a brighter, slightly less chaotic future.

It’s interesting to note that Abercrombie has shrugged off the shackles of one of fantasy’s most staid conventions – the trilogy – and written a stand-alone book that is self-contained. Abercrombie finds a way to reward readers of his earlier work with cameos and appearances of characters from The First Law trilogy, something that is not overdone and doesn’t feel self-referencing for the sake of it.

Fans of Abercrombie’s work will not be disappointed by this latest offering, featuring all his usual hallmarks – cold steel, black comedy, fully realised characters and internecine struggles, both personal and epic.

9/10

Not Much Doing

Not much doing this week. So I’ll make like a dwarf with a conical head – short and to the point.





FILM
Saw Watchmen at the cinema, at Imax no less. Better persons than I have teased this apart with analysis and so on. Suffice to say I want to read the graphic novel again (which must be a good thing) and I didn’t scream for my money back and the two and half hours of my life I’d just volunteered. I will say Dr. Manhattan looked great, and Nixon looked terrible.

It has to be said that Silk Spectre was entertaining (cough), and if you have an understanding lady in your life you may be able to persuade her to wear THIS. I’m perilously tempted to get it for the Dame…


WRITING
I’m on to chapter four of my novella. I’m aiming for a thousand words a week and I got off to a pretty good start back in January. Lost faith in it in February and have picked it up again this month. Still ahead of my thousand words a week deadline. And that’s all I’m going to say, as speaking about a thing often stops it from getting done.

MUSIC
I am currently digging those mad Japanese cats, Soil & ‘Pimp’ Sessions. They are playing at this year’s Gilles Peterson’s Wolrdwide Festival in Sete, France. I wrote a little bit about it last year HERE.

Soil & ‘Pimp’ Sessions play jazz at about a thousand miles per hour, but when they aren’t being total mentalists they also slip in some smoother tracks. To see the sheer rudeness of these guys just check out this YouTube Link.

And that is it for this week Comrades.

Remember –
Recycle, fight the Power and stay in skool.

My Week In Comics

Quick round up of various things (barely comic related at all, sorry) –

I bought Radical Comics Shrapnel #2, which was more of the same –great universe and the characters continue to be fleshed out nicely. However, I was equally frustrated by the mostly monochromatic painterly battle scenes, where one lot of brown mechs look like another group of brown mechs. And something about tactics. Maybe I’m just colour blind when it comes to brown.

Che Part 1 (Dir. Steven Sodeburgh) was a long (slightly over long) affair that was beautifully shot, switching between grainy, black and white, documentary style footage, and then colour when trooping through the wonderful countryside of Cuba and fighting Batista’s forces. At times the direction just seemed to lapse into montages of revolutionaries wandering around the forests, which was slightly baffling. Solid performance by Benicio Del Toro, which carried the film, as almost everyone else faded in to the background except for Demain Bichir, playing Castro.

My most recent obsession is Hot Toys Appleseed: Ex Machina 1/20 scale collectible toys. Appleseed is a popular manga and anime that I reviewed last year HERE. Not satisfied with trying to collect all the figures, I’m also trying to track down all the bonus parts as well. Confused? Me too. I would explain but frankly, he level of geekiness may break your web browser, so I’m not going to risk it.



And on the musical front, I’ve been lulled into dreamy, shoe-gaze, electronica, courtesy of School Of Seven Bells – A New York trio comprising of Alejandra and Claudia Dehaza, and Benjamin Curtis (formerly of Secret Machines). It’s difficult to pin down just what they sound like, suffice to say to my ears they’re equivalent to Bjork on temazepam singing with Depeche Mode and remixed by Boards Of Canada (That didn’t help at all did it?). There is also a very hypnotic, almost spiritual undertow to music, which may well appeal to the trip hop set.

As if this avalanche of pop culture wasn’t enough I went to see one Charlie Brooker record a Radio 4 show last night. Mr. Brooker has made a career of slating the less charming facets of the human psyche, specifically the ones that appear on television. He has a regular column in the Guardian on Saturdays. The radio show was good fun, although would have been more fun if I’d been able to beat the guy sat at the end of my row to a bloody pulp. The seats weren’t exactly sturdy, and either this guy had haemorrhoids the size of the Isle of Wight, or he’d never been made to sit still in his life. The entire row of seats shunted forwards each time this blazer-wearing twat squirmed violently. Needless to say I felt equal parts sea and furious by the end of it.

And last but not least, read my weekly column for the Sci Fi Channel HERE.

Have a great weekend.

Cyclops Brute

Here is another figure, painted by my self, for Privateer Press' table top wargame, HORDES. This particular monster (or Warbeast, if you're in the know) is a Cyclops Brute. Brutes make good bodyguards, as the Japanese Yojimbo stylings might suggest. I've yet to field this model of the field of battle, but I'm looking forward to the opportunity.





Photos courtesy of El K.