Adrian Collins's Blog, page 151

Cavan Scott’s Top Ten Villains

Who comes to mind when I think of my favourite villains? Whoever asks me to come up with a definite top ten that’s who! These things are my ultimate nemesis as, come tomorrow, I will remember someone who absolutely should have made the list! I can almost hear Hans Gruber shouting ‘what about meeeeeee?’ as he tumbles from a skyscraper or Gozer the Gozarian preparing to trample on every church in my neighbourhood. But sitting here writing this, on the week leading up to Halloween, these are my choices. Only a villain would judge me, right?

Moriarty

Of course the Napoleon of Crime needs to be included. He’s the blueprint for so many of my favourite bad guys and gals. Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Doctor Who’s Master. Even in some ways the Joker. A mind equal, if not greater, to that of his nemesis who has set himself at the centre of an international web of intrigue and all with the simplest of motivations: money and power, controlling the world from the shadows.

Jareth

Is Jareth a villain? That’s a question I’ve been asking since I first became obsessed by Labyrinth as a kid. Or is he more of a trickster God wanting to show Sarah the error of her ways? Either way, he can belt out a tune and looks great in tights.

Darth Vader

Oh, I wanted to include Maul on this list, truly I did, but how could I leave the Dark Lord of the Sith out of the mix? One part Frankenstein monster, one part angst-ridden Dracula scarred by his lost love, more machine than man. Plus, let’s face it, a nightmare boss if Empire Strikes Back has anything to do with it.

Annie Wilkes

So many Stephen King villains to choose from, so little space. I whittled them down to Annie or Pennywise, but terrifying though the Dancy Clown is, Annie is actually so much scarier, especially these days where certain elements of fandoms can be… demanding. Can you imagine Annie on Twitter? Shudder.

Hill House

Does a villain have to be a person? Oh no, no, no. Shirley Jackson taught us all that a place can have the darkest heart of all.

The Babadook

Why is the Babadook here? Because the Babadook is the ultimate villain for so many of us and one that its monstrously hard to overcome, a villain that is all-consuming and oh-so-destructive. The Babadook is grief.

Candyman

Oh the slashers I could have included. Michael so nearly made the list, Pinhead too for that matter, but Candyman is head and shoulders above the rest. His sole purpose is to spread terror so his name is remembered, a legacy written in blood, becoming the monster that others said he was, turning his curse back on those who cursed him.

Lord Summerisle

To be honest, I could have easily come up with a list of my favourite villains played by Christopher Lee, but out of all of his many, many roles, Lord Summerisle stands tall. He knows the religion his father invented in bunkum, absolutely knows it, but carries on regardless and why…? To secure the harvest? No, oh Jesus Christ no. It’s all to save his aristocratic skin, the bounder.

Norman Bates

I once experience the joy of watching Psycho with someone who had absolutely no idea about Norman’s secret life. The ultimate reveal about his mother shook their world and displayed Hitchcock’s absolute genius. Is Norman himself a victim? Absolutely. Is he a villain? Same answer.

Dracula

The ultimate villain. Why? Well, the man feeds babies to his wives. Babies. Not good enough for you? Okay then, he’s not only the ultimate villain, he’s the ultimate leech. Yeah, yeah, depending on what version you’re reading / watching, he says he wants to rekindle his old love, but at the end of the day, Drac just wants to survive at any cost and it doesn’t matter who dies to keep in unholy heart beating. Also, the baby thing is still pretty hard to forgive.

Like Cavan’s list? Then check out his latest release from Vault Comics, Shadow Service.

 

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REVIEW: The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart

Book two in the Drowning Empire series, The Bone Shard Emperor was a wild ride full of action, betrayal, and heart-in-your-throat plot twists. Nothing happens as expected, and it’s fantastic.

The Bone Shard Emperor picks up soon after The Bone Shard Daughter ends. We are still following the points of view found in book one, although a few characters find themselves crossing paths. This is one of the main changes in dynamic: the new interactions. Instead of being on separate but related paths, the book slowly brings the characters into contact with each other. Some form alliances. Others…not so much.

While the world is well developed (and massive), it’s the characters that drew me in and kept me enthralled. Phalue and Ranami, now married, grapple with Phalue’s new role as governor. There are new obstacles and a new twist in their relationship: a scrawny urchin who may be hiding something. While still not my favorite points of view, Phalue and Ranami add a different angle to the story, fleshing it out well.

Meanwhile, Lin finds herself head of a kingdom that is, quite literally, drowning. I am always curious why anyone in their right mind would actually want to be in charge, so seeing her motives and the shifts in her viewpoint was fascinating. She is no longer the idealistic and motivated character she was in The Bone Shard Daughter. Instead, she is a person struggling to keep her head above the dark waters of politics, alliances, secrets she must keep, and an approaching army. From being rather ambivalent about her for the first half of book one, I have gone to eagerly reading the next part of her storyline, wondering if she can somehow hold the fraying kingdom together. I loved the combination of vulnerability and sheer stick-to-it-ness that Lin displayed. She didn’t quit, even when she really probably should have.

Jovis (and Mephi!) once again stood out as my favorite storyline, although things are a little different now. Jovis is now Lin’s Captain of the Guard, and his relationship with her is complicated, to say the least. They are both hiding big things, while at the same time trying to learn who to trust. His part of the book felt like it was always about to tip over into chaos, but never quite did. Author Andrea Stewart kept the multiple threads of his narrative held together wonderfully. Nothing was forgotten, and every action had consequences that were both far-reaching and sometimes flat-out terrifying.

Stewart has come into her own, her writing skillful and confident. The narrative flows wonderfully and the pacing is magnificent. The Bone Shard Emperor felt like a roller coaster, building up speed as it hurtles from drop to turn, turning everything on its head before plunging you straight into an astonishing confrontation. If the series continues on in this vein, it will easily become one of my favorites.

Read this one sooner rather than later.

Read The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart

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Vampire fiction that doesn’t suck: Where to start reading

If you know anything about me then you know I love vampire fiction. Ever since I picked up Vampire: The Masquerade 1st Edition at the tender age of fourteen, I’ve been obsessed with the undead rulers of the night. I’ve written more than a couple of books about the undead myself with Straight Outta Fangton being my primary series. However, there is a lot of trashy vampire fiction.

I mean, a lot.

That isn’t to say that vampires are themselves a concept meant to be reserved for the dust bin or guilty pleasures. It also isn’t to say that trashy fiction isn’t something that can be enjoyed for its own sake. I read at least one book of literary fiction per year. Every year, I also read a hundred books or more books that you could drive a truck through the plot holes of. Guess which I enjoy more?

Here are some of the best vampire books I’ve read and a good place to start reading if you want “good” books about the undead. It leaves off some gems and doesn’t include a lot of my favorites. However, if I were to dump my forty-years of vampire reading in your lap then you’d probably run screaming for the sun.

10. The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Grady Hendrix is a master of writing throw-back novels to the Eighties. One of these is a sort of Stranger Things for adults where a vampire comes to a small Southern town that reminds me a good deal of my own in the worst ways. The middle aged women have to deal with class and sexism plus their own privilege as the vampire predominately preys on the poor African American portion of town. A lot darker than expected and genuinely horrifying places.

You can read our review here.

The book

Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families.

One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor’s handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind-and Patricia has already invited him in.

Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted-including the book club-but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.

Read The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires

9. Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story by Christopher Moore

The only comedy on this list, Christopher Moore’s classic story of a young yuppie woman’s transformation into one of the undead and her younger idiot lover is one of my all-time favorites. I learned a lot about writing comedy from Christopher Moore and these books are hilarious. The book hasn’t aged 100% well with some issues regarding race and consent but it is still something I strongly recommend. Jody the Vampire is also someone who has a rare reaction to being dead: “This is awesome!”

The book

Jody never asked to become a vampire. But when she wakes up under an alley Dumpster with a badly burned arm, an aching back, superhuman strength, and a distinctly Nosferatuan thirst, she realizes the decision has been made for her.

Making the transition from the nine-to-five grind to an eternity of nocturnal prowlings is going to take some doing, however, and that’s where C. Thomas Flood fits in. A would-be Kerouac from Incontinence, Indiana, Tommy (to his friends) is biding his time night-clerking and frozen-turkey bowling in a San Francisco Safeway. But all that changes when a beautiful undead redhead walks through the door…and proceeds to rock Tommy’s life–and afterlife–in ways he never thought possible.

Read Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story by Christopher Moore

8. This is my Blood by David Niall Wilson

Stoker award winning author David Niall Wilson tackles the age old subject of “What if Jesus was a vampire?” Oh, wait, that’s only something stoners talk about. Besides, it’s not entirely accurate as it’s actually Mary Magdalene. You may or may not like combining religion and horror but the Devil creates a vampire to tempt Jesus and she proceeds to Forrest Gump her way through the final days of Rabbi Joshua ben Joseph’s life.

Read our review here.

The Book

First published in 1999, This is My Blood is David Niall Wilson’s first and most important novel. It is a retelling of the gospel from a very different perspective. When Jesus goes into the desert and is tempted by the devil, there is one temptation added. One of the fallen is raised as a woman to tempt him with the flesh. Instead, the woman, named Mary of Magdalene, falls in love with Jesus and his promise of returning her to Heaven.

Cursed to follow him and drink the blood of his followers, Mary walks a fine line between her desire to love and support the Christ, and her burning need to return to Heaven. This novel takes the world of faith, which was the world of men, and of the apostles, and shows it through the eyes of a fallen angel – one who has, in her own words, walked the roads of both Heaven, and Hell. She doesn’t believe there is a God…she knows.

Faithful to the storyline of the original gospels, only weaving in new things when there are gaps in the old, this is a novel of faith, redemption, and ultimate sacrifice.

Read This is my Blood by David Niall Wilson

7. Sunglasses after Dark by Nancy A. Collins

I had to pick at least one book that occupied the urban fantasy genre and it was a doozy. There’s a lot of knock offs and some really good originators. Sunglasses after Dark is my favorite, though. A young woman becomes a vampire and finds herself in a world where every corner hides a monster of some sort. Sonya Blue remains enigmatic on the page even as she prefers to feed on her fellow monsters rather than normal humans. She does make an exception every now and then, though.

The book

One spring night in London, heiress Denise Thorne disappears while partying at a nightclub, never to be seen again. That very same night, Sonja Blue, a tough-as-nails punk vampire/vampire-slayer, conceived in terror and blood, is borne from the city’s gutters. Saved by modern medicine before she could die, she is a living vampire who still possesses a soul and is determined to fight for what remains of her humanity. In the years since her bizarre resurrection, Sonja Blue travels the globe, hunting down and disposing of those creatures that prey on the innocent while searching for the vampire Noble who created her. But when she investigates a sleazy televangelist named Catherine Wheele, who is exploiting Denise Thorne’s parents, Sonja finds herself up against a powerful inhuman adversary. But as dangerous as Catherine Wheele proves to be, Sonja’s greatest foe remains the Other, the demonic personality with whom she is locked in a constant battle for control of their shared body. Can Sonja Blue overcome her inner demon in time to rescue an innocent man from Catherine Wheele’s unholy clutches?

Read Sunglasses after Dark by Nancy A. Collins

6. Fledgling by Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler is rightly one of the most celebrated writers out there and this is a fantastic example why. Shori is a young Ina who wakes up amnesiac with a cave and a powerful appetite. The book is brilliant with its deconstruction of many vampire myths and how weird as well as creepy their relationships would be with their human servants. Race plays a big role but in a subdued way that highlights the inherent silliness of prejudice based upon it.

The book

This is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted-and still wants-to destroy her and those she cares for and how she can save herself.

Read Fledgling by Octavia Butler

5. Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

'Salem's Lot" target="_blank" rel="noopener">One of the greatest of Stephen King’s works, he manages to tell a vampire story that restores a great deal of their terror by simply re-telling the original Dracula tale in the modern day without any of the flourishes. When a mysterious stranger arrives in the titular town, it proceeds to spread pestilance and horror among the town while increasing its number of minions. Its just, unlike Dracula, Barlow is far-far more successful than turning just Lucy Westernra.

Read out review here.

The book

Salem’s Lot is a small New England town with the usual quota of gossips, drinkers, weirdos and respectable folk. Of course there are tales of strange happenings – but not more than in any other town its size.

Ben Mears, a moderately successful writer, returns to the Lot to write a novel based on his early years, and to exorcise the terrors that have haunted him since childhood. The event he witnessed in the house now rented by a new resident. A newcomer with a strange allure. A man who causes Ben some unease as things start to happen: a child disappears, a dog is brutally killed – nothing unusual, except the list starts to grow.

Soon surprise will turn to bewilderment, bewilderment to confusion and finally to terror . . .

Read Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

4. Anno Dracula by Kim Newman

“What if Dracula won?” is the central conceit of Kim Newman’s book along with the lesser idea of, “What if every character from Victorian fiction all lived together in one shared universe?” Anno Dracula has Dracula as the ruler of the British Isles after marrying Queen Victoria and turning most of the aristocracy into his undead slaves. Jack the Ripper has started killing vampire prostitutes, though, and there’s quite a bit of confusion over whether this is a bad thing or not.

The book

It is 1888 and Dracula has married Queen Victoria and turned a large percentage of the English population into the undead.

Peppered with familiar characters from Victorian history and fiction (Dr Jekyll, Oscar Wilde, Swinburne, John Jago), the novel tells the story of vampire Genevieve Dieudonne and Charles Beauregard of the Diogenes Club as they strive to solve the mystery of the Ripper murders.

Read Anno Dracula by Kim Newman

3. Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin

The Antebellum South is the perfect place for vampires to exist and multiple series have recognized this. After all, there are few places where the metaphor of a monstrous ruling class preying on those enslaved to them fits more aptly. Fevre Dream is about a luxury steamboat plying the rivers of the Deep South during this period. It also, unsurprisingly, has vampires in it.

The book

Abner Marsh has had his dearest wish come true – he has built the Fevre Dream, the finest steamship ever to sail the Mississippi. Abner hopes to race the boat someday, but his partner is making it hard for him to realise his ambition.

Joshua York put up the money for the Fevre Dream, but now rumours have started about the company he keeps, his odd eating habits and strange hours.

As the Dream sails the great river, it leaves in its wake one too many dark tales, until Abner is forced to face down the man who helped to make his dreams become reality.

Read Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin

2. Necroscope by Brian Lumley

A strange story about a man with the ability to talk to the dead and borrow their abilities. After dealing with a Russian spy who murdered his mother, protagonist Harry finds himself in a secret war against the Wamphyri. It is a very strange and fun series with some truly great writing.

The book

Harry Keogh is the man who can talk to the dead, the man for whom every grave willingly gives up its secrets, the one man who knows how to travel effortlessly through time and space to destroy the vampires that threaten all humanity.

In Necroscope, Harry is startled to discover that he is not the only person with unusual mental powers–Britain and the Soviet Union both maintain super-secret, psychically-powered espionage organizations. But Harry is the only person who knows about Thibor Ferenczy, a vampire long buried in the mountains of Romania–still horribly alive, in undeath–and Thibor’s insane offspring, Boris Dragosani, who rips information from the souls of the dead in a terrible, ever-lasting form of torture.

Somehow, Harry must convince Britain’s E-Branch that only by working together can they locate and destroy Dragosani and his army of demonic warriors–before the half-vampire succeeds in taking over the world!

Read Necroscope by Brian Lumley

1. Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

No list of vampire fiction would be complete without this novel. I would also state that its sequel, The Vampire Lestat, is actually the better novel and the two books should be read back to back. I admit the series loses some of its luster after awhile and goes in weird directions so I would recommend reading the first four books then stopping. Louie and Lestat are a pair of fantastic protagonists that compliment each other like night plus, well, later night.

The book

Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly sensual, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force–a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.

Read Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

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REVIEW: A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske is probably the least Grimdark book I’ve reviewed for this site. I mean, look at the cover – it’s bright pink. But that’s not to say that this is a happy and fluffy book. It is an intense fantasy of manners centred around Robin Blyth and Edwin Courcey, bureaucrats in a magical Edwardian England. It features amazing writing – this may be Freya’s debut novel, but I fell in love with the way she writes in her short story published in the Silk and Steel anthology in 2020. Her prose is stunning, flowery without seeming overly descriptive. And the dry wit is amazing. I honestly could not get enough of the words in this book.

And the characters. Edwin and Robin are marvellous. They are plastic, multi-dimensional people, grappling with their realities and relations, and especially, each other. Their enemies (or, at the very least, bickering dislike) to lovers arc is a delight and a model to other authors writing the trope. But the secondary characters are no less well-written. They too become real to the reader and soon take shape. My one gripe with A Marvellous Light was that it occasionally fell very hard into romance for my tastes – this absolutely does not cut to black at any point, so you might be in the middle of reading a delightful interaction between Edwin and Robin only to find yourself in a full on sex scene only lines later. Now, this is not something that everyone will take issue with, and I expect will be a selling point for many – so don’t take this as discouragement, but rather as a warning in case this is something you do mind.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021 and it did not disappoint. Edwin and Robin in their magical bureaucracy setting charm the reader within just a few pages, and the mystery at the heart of the book is compelling – Robin’s predecessor in the job has gone missing. The combination of romance elements, mystery and magic is delightful and makes A Marvellous Light a book that should be on your TBR. This is especially recommended for readers of The Midnight Bargain by C.L. Polk, or fans of shows such as Bridgerton or Downton Abbey, who wished they’d be just that bit more magical, and a million times more gay.

Read A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

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REVIEW: 36 Streets by T.R. Napper

In T.R. Napper’s debut novel, 36 Streets, Lin Thi Vu is a bounty hunter working for the most feared gangster in Ha Noi. She works her trade in a cyberpunk future Vietnam where the Chinese have invaded and taken over the region and the people of Ha Noi and the 36 streets are pawns butchered between the Chinese military and the Viet Minh.

Tired of doing jobs for the Chinese rooting out Viet Minh guerrillas, Lin requests a different type of job. Her boss instructs her to act the part of a private detective for a westerner, her Australian English making her the right person for the job. She’s person to trust in a city of people who look like her, but speak differently. Only her job isn’t just to do the job, it’s to take all of the westerners money.

Straight off the bat Lin is gritty and hard and ruthless, but with a burnt and blackened yet unbroken soul, a bit like Kameron Hurley’s Nyx. Her ice-seven drug addiction adds an interesting and desperate edge to her character, while her memories of her Australian adoptive mother raising her in a foreign land (Australia) and then returning to Viet Nam as an outsider adds an excellent angle to her character and really brings the author’s knowledge of a complex Asia Pacific region region and the people living in it to the fore.

As he does in Neon Leviathan, Napper creates so much atmosphere with so few words, you’re transported to the scene on every page. The desperation, the future, the hurt, and the guilt—is as much a theme of the setting and the faceless people as it is of our main character. And with the author having spent a decade in South East Asia (incl. Ha Noi) working as an aid worker, these themes just land magnificently as he draws on his experience working and helping some of the most impoverished people on the planet. The vast cultural nuances between Asia and Australia / the West are really well written, adding plenty of flavour without being beaten over the head with the author’s real life experience.

36 Streets has eighty-something short, sharp chapters to divide up what is a pretty fast read. It provides this pace to the book with Lin’s experience being broken down to memories five years before the current storyline, and the current story, in quick gasps that you rip through pretty quickly. This is the kind of book that’s good enough and short enough that plenty of people are going to read it in one day.

In 36 Streets, Napper brings a Richard K. Morgan style SF noir detective story onto the streets of Vietnam. It’s an excellent, morose, beautiful in the horror of life, brutal, action packed, and gorgeous read. 36 Streets is refreshing, and brilliantly realised SF noir.

Read 36 Streets by T.R. Napper

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An interview with Catherynne Valente

Catherynne Valente is the author of over twenty books, several novellas, and a long list of short fiction. Her most recent, The Past Is Red, a post-climate change story of the last of humanity sailing on a pile of floating garbage, has been my favorite book I’ve read this year. Her newest, Comfort Me With Apples, a genre-defying not-quite-horror not-quite-thriller not-quite-fairytale comes out November 9th. I was thrilled to get a chance to interview her.

[RHM] First off, The Past is Red was so far my favorite book of the year, and a large part of that was Tetley’s voice. How did you know you had the voice right? Was it difficult coming back to that specific voice after the initial novelette?

[CV] The voice arrived in my head with the first line of the short story and simply never left. Tetley was her own self from the jump, and I just followed where she led. I’ve always felt odd about other writers saying that—we make our characters, we are in control! But now I have to eat garbage-crow, because Tetley just appeared in my skull like Athena, determined to crack her way out. The story lives or dies on Tetley’s voice, if you like it, you’re in, if you don’t, my apologies. It’s also the most fun to write—the dichotomy between her joyful love of the world and conviction that it, and the people in it, is good and right, contrasted with the absolute grim horror of the reality of that world as it exists around her is pretty endlessly fertile ground.

That said, it was a bit tough getting back into that voice. I wrote The Future Is Blue, the first quarter of this volume, in the beginning of 2016. I wrote The Past Is Red in 2020. A LOT HAPPENED TO MY OPTIMISM GLANDS IN THAT TIME. It felt daunting to climb Mt. Joyful Girl again, and I wondered if I could get it back, make it last for much, much longer than a short story. The concepts of Mister and Big Red Mars pulled me through. I knew if I could get to them, I could pull it off. So Tetley is perhaps a little more cynical, a little more damaged, but her core is as it always was, a big summer sun shining on literal Sesame Street.

[RHM] With The Past is Red and Comfort Me With Apples coming out so close together, what scenes from each would you use to pitch new readers to pick them up?

[CV] I usually use the participation trophies scene to sell people on The Past Is Red. I knew I would the day I wrote it—being a writer sometimes involves that kind of time travel. It re-frames the oft-mocked concept of participation trophies through the eyes of someone just trying to eat enough to survive, who sees them literally and unquestioningly, not as something stupid and wasteful, but as something extraordinary. Stripped of cultural context, participation trophies shine.

Comfort Me With Apples is a tough one because it has such a massive twist that we’ve worked so hard not to spoil in the lead-up to its release (and reviewers have kindly helped out!) so I would likely just read the first chapter, which sets up Sophia and her ever-so-slightly off existence, as well as the first of the hilariously specific HOA bylaws she lives under. All without giving away the game.

[RHM] Your writing tends to have a lot of voice, but this was purposefully reduced in Comfort Me With Apples, as Sophia has a more muted, naive personality than many of your protagonists. How hard was it to write a more stripped-down story?

[CV] It wasn’t at all, really. The voice serves the story, it’s not idiosyncratic for its own sake. Because of who Sophia is and what is happening to her, as well as the literary magic trick I’m trying to pull off, her voice couldn’t be too specific, or it would cease to feel in any way universal. Too much style would obscure this story, which takes its tone from more traditional suburban thrillers.

I wrote Apples very quickly, it was very much all there before I set one word to paper. I think the stripped-down style was also helped by two things: one, I had done some media tie-in work recently, which requires pulling back on my own signature stylings quite a bit, so I was in good practice. But also, to be blunt, I had had a baby about a year before and I was just tired. I’m still tired! Which I think is weirdly serving me pretty well! The tired balances out my predilection for purple prose and makes everything run damn smooth and just terribly accessible. Because I think we’re all tired at this point.

[RHM] Given Sophia’s personality, were you worried about people’s reactions to her?

[CV] I mean, it nearly killed me to write a perfect housewife who is so entirely fulfilled by that. Sophia might be the most alien character I’ve ever created—at least, alien to me. But I think that pretty quickly, she becomes sympathetic, as her world starts to crumble and she takes on some agency seeking after the truth. I don’t know if people will love her the way they love Tetley, but I feel pretty confident they will feel sorry for her, and that’s good enough for government work.

There is a certain demographic I suspect will hate this book, but they don’t usually go in for my work, anyway.

[RHM] Both The Past is Red and Comfort Me With Apples are quick reads. Was there much cut from either of them?

[CV] Absolutely nothing, to be completely honest. They are both very lean and close to the bone, not a word wasted. With novels, I often have deleted scenes or alternate versions of chapters, with both these books, I have no scraps.

[RHM] You’ve mentioned The Refrigerator Monologues was inspired by The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and The Future is Blue was inspired by The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the Drowned Worlds anthology. What was the moment of inspiration for Comfort Me With Apples?

[CV] Erm. Well. I can’t exactly tell you! Because spoilers! Let’s just delicately say that in researching another book I came across a piece of mythological/folkloric tale I had never heard of before. I made a cynical joke about it to my empty office, and that joke became Comfort Me With Apples.

[RHM] Your work jumps around constantly, from myth to superheroes, science fiction to fantasy, comedy to horror, and middle-grade to adult. What do you enjoy about this? Is there a genre or a tone you prefer? Is there a particular kind of story you’d still like to try out?

[CV] It’s very important to me to always be trying something new, pushing the edges of my skill level, challenging myself. Which is a lot of positive spin on: I have severe ADHD and it literally kills my soul to do the same thing twice.

As far as genre and tone—usually my favorite is what I’m working with when someone asks. I enjoy the more comedic tone of Space Opera and Refrigerator Monologues (and Past Is Red to a slightly lesser extent) quite a bit these days, though.

If I haven’t tried it yet, I still want to try it out! Except realism. Ew. No thank you.

[RHM] Given how much your work jumps around, how do you know which project to take on next?

[CV] Whichever editor is currently yelling the loudest calls the lineup.

Not a joke, just a fact.

[RHM] Are there any themes that you find yourself mining repeatedly, consciously or unconsciously?

[CV] Oh good lord I’ll be dead in the ground before I stop hauling Persephone out of the underworld to be a motif. I seem to be fully unable to knock that off.

[RHM] You wrote tie-ins for both Mass Effect and Minecraft. Can you tell us about how writing those books is different from writing your own fiction? Is there another franchise you’d love to work in? (Also, Yorrik was the best.)

[CV] I’d love to write for Doctor Who, or perhaps less obviously on-brand, Terminator. I suppose the happiest I could be with other people’s IP would be getting a call to work on something Star Trek-related.

The major difference is literally no one cares how pretty I can make a sentence. It’s about the story, it’s about the world, it’s about being face-paced and exciting and accessible. That challenge is why I took those two projects in the first place—basically, I got paid to take a couple of classes in commercial writing.

[RHM] What books have impressed you recently?

[CV] Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow, and Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

[RHM] Other than ‘read a lot’ and ‘write a lot’ what’s your best advice for writers?

[CV] Well, that’s two of the big guns. I suppose it would be: you can never tell what the market is going to want. You can’t tell today, but you especially can’t two years from now when a book sold today might actually come out. So you might as well be yourself, write what moves you and what excites you, no matter how weird it is, because unique and authentic always sells.

[RHM] And finally, what can you tell us about what you’re working on now?

[CV] I’m working on the sequel to Space Opera, Space Oddity! I think that about says it all.

Read The Past is Red by Catherynne Valente

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REVIEW: A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

I am convinced that Alix E. Harrow can do no wrong, and her new book A Spindle Splintered proves this yet again.  I was introduced to her writing two years ago when she released the sublime Thousand Doors of January. Since then, I have read many of her works, including short stories: The Autobiography of a Traitor and a Half-Savage, Mr. Death, and I loved them all.

A Spindle Splintered is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty which is based on the fairy tale “La Belle Au Bois Dormant,” by Charles Perrault, written in 1697. This original story inspired the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, The Briar Rose. But, most people are familiar with Sleeping Beauty because of the Disney adaptation 1959. The original fairy tale is about a young princess named Briar Rose cursed by an evil fairy to sleep for 100 years once she pricks her finger upon a spindle. Knowing how traumatic awaking alone would be, a good fairy put the entire palace to sleep to awaken once the princess does.

The original version of the story has the princess “discovered in her castle by a wandering king, who “carries her to a bed, where he gather[s] the first fruits of love.” He leaves her there and where she later gives birth to twins. “Fruits of Love” means she was raped and impregnated. It is creepy as hell.

There are obviously many issues with the original story, and I’d say that we are looking at the story through the lens of modernity, but I can’t believe there was ever a time where the idea of being raped while sleeping was considered acceptable.  The idea of agency, body autonomy, and free will come to mind. It is one of the biggest things I noticed when I watched Sleeping Beauty as an adult. Harrow took the original story and put a refreshing take on it giving the princess a mind, a heart, and desires for something more. It is a perfect place to fracture this fairy tale.

The story starts with Zinnia, our protagonist, about to turn 21. (Also, I love the flower name nod. The original sleeping beauty was Briar Rose; now we have Zinnia.) Zinnia suffers a long-term illness and knows that her life will be ending soon. She has always been a fan of Sleeping Beauty’s mythology and knows how much Zinnia loves Sleeping Beauty; her friend throws her a themed birthday party, complete with a spindle. The spindle slips and Zinnia is whisked off to the world of the actual Sleeping Beauty.

Zinnia is a very modern woman, and although she has a significantly shortened lifespan, she tries to make the most out of her life. This is in direct contrast to the environment she is thrust upon. There is an air of helplessness to everything. Zinnia cannot help her future and impending death, and the princess cannot help the impending curse.

A Spindle Splintered is a coming-of-age story; finding one’s own path, and not going the way laid before you. I won’t ruin the twists and turns of the narrative. I loved what Harrow did here. Plus, a little science fiction multi-verse thrown in always will be a hit with me. I know that it is not the type of thing a reader of dark fantasy or grimdark goes for, but sometimes you need a little lightness in your stories and this fits.

I recommend this story. Again, I love Harrow’s writing, and A Spindle Splintered is another excellent story to add to your TBR.

Read A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

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REVIEW: Angels of Death: Against the Horde

In the aftermath of the death of an important brother, Kazarion battles the black rage in Against the Horde as much as he battles the Tyranid horde and Ancaeus rallies his brothers for a final stand. In the void above, the Sword of Baal is under assault, with boarders charging the bridge. The latest episode of Angels of Death is a barnstorming ramp-up of the tension and scope of this excellent series.

In Against the Horde we finally properly meet Captain Orpheo on the surgery table of a mysterious Adeptus Mechanicus adept. This is an interesting episode, in that we get a new POV with Captain Orpheo being brought out of the memories of the past and in to the current timeline. He’s alive; the mission of Anacaeus and his brother has not been for naught.

I know I say this every episode, but this is just a visually stunning series. The black and white with red accent just pops off the screen. Once again though, the sound effects for battle are pretty woeful. I don’t think I’ve ever been so disappointed by bolter fire—it’s like they took the original StarCraft Terran soldier gun noises out of the archives. The hard merciless brutal bangs of the bolter are nowhere to be seen.

With the Sword of Baal looking like all is lost, but hope being found on the battle ground of the hive, we see a swing in momentum in the war for this world. Despite the loss of an important character, and another becoming unhinged, the impending unification of the angels is an important step forward in the story.

The episodes are flying past and it’s good to see some arc development which I don’t feel we’ve seen since the multi-timeline episode. Next episode really needs to deliver some major steps forward to stop this from becoming a “hack and slash for the sake of it” series, so I’m looking forward to see what the writing team bring to the table.

Watch Angels of Death: Against the Horde on WarhammerTV

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Is Dune a worthy adaptation of its lofty source material?

Dune comes with a lot of baggage and high expectations. For a start, it’s based on one of the most critically and commercially successful science fiction novels of all time (whether it is grimdark or not is something I’ve tackled before).

Even more weighty is the fact that previous attempts to film Dune have resulted in multiple failures (one eventually producing the fascinating Jodorowsky’s Dune documentary,) a flawed and divisive motion picture by David Lynch and an often overlooked Sci Fi channel TV series.

To face that challenge is acclaimed director Denis Villenueve, who’s career since hitting Hollywood has seen a string of beautiful, emotionally resonant films such as Sicario, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. From that CV we know he can handle high concept sci-fi, work with an existing IP and wrangle an ensemble cast.

Speaking of the cast, it’s an impressive one, with Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgaard, Dave Bautista, Javier Bardem and Zendaya all supporting Timothee Chalamet as our protagonist, Paul Atreides.

So, does Dune meet the challenge? Is it a worthy adaptation of its lofty source material or does it fall prey to the hazards that befell its predecessors?

Adaptation

Let’s start with how the plot of the book is adapted. The first important thing to say, which won’t be a surprise to anyone who has been following the production is that Dune is a duology, with the second half of the story to follow in 2023.

While this leaves everything very much up in the air and unresolved at the end of the film, it does allow the rich world building and nuances of character to play out in ways that the Lynch version couldn’t afford (of course, more time to lean into the weirdness might or might not have been a blessing with Lynch).  That extra running time allows a lot of the book to be included and while I can see where pieces have been moved around or scenes combined it’s an almost entirely faithful adaptation.

One slight change is in how two characters meet their fates, but it’s done in such a way that allows a neat exposition of information that partly comes from the novel’s appendices and gives a suitably heroic death to both characters.

I’m a little surprised there’s no visualisation of the Navigators folding space–a notorious highlight of the Lynch version–just some lingering shots of the massive Spacing Guild ships to give a sense of scale, and the weirdness of the Navigators isn’t really seen in the film.

Elsewhere I might have liked to have seen the dinner scene in Arrakeen or Jessica discovering the greenhouse but these are hardly key moments and their major import is moved to more economic scenes.

Story

Dune is a movie that feels very much about pace. It’s slow and measured but feels weighty, with no wasted screen time despite running over two and a half hours. There is a sense of events being important but also driven by a momentum that is far more than the actions of the characters. It’s almost… doomy.

We linger on Caladan–homeworld of the Atreides–for far longer than I’d expect, but that is effective in two ways. Firstly, it allows more interaction between the various family members and retainers and secondly it allows a distinct visual contrast between moisture rich Caladan, all mist shrouded grey / greens and arid Arrakis, all sand colours and harsh light. The glimpse we get of the Harkonnen homeworld, Geidi Prime offers another aesthetic, damp like Caladan, but sickly rather than verdant, with a stark black and white palette.

This is a visually stunning film. With moments of genuine awe mixed with a sense of great, elaborate detail. The way that spaceships land is deeply unsettling, as giant vehicles seem to move without respect of inertia, which is another example of how this movie uses pace and momentum to great effect. The attention to detail with uniforms, the styling of the various factions and so on is delightful.

There is some delicious brutalist architecture in Dune and it tallies with the styling of the ships to feel like it’s profoundly influenced by 70s sci fi artists like Chris Fiss, John Harris and Robert McCall, but with a 21st century sheen. Again, this styling adds to the sense of weight with the greater works of humanity being spartan and of grand scale, while more ornate detail exists only at a personal level.

Characters

Moving onto the performances, everyone is good, although a lot of the big names have little to do, which is to be expected in such an ensemble piece. Special credit goes to Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto, Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Kynes, Javier Barden as Stilgar and Babs Olusanmokun as Jamis. Hmm… seems like the Fremen get a lot of the good lines.

A quick note on Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck. He’s a lot of fun in the role, grim and serious in a very different way to Patrick Stewart – more the bitter survivor of Harkonnen slavery and sadly not uttering the “mood is for cattle and love play” line.

However, this movie belongs to Rebecca Ferguson and Timothee Chalamet as Lady Jessica and Paul Atreides.

Ferguson carries Dune, portraying Jessica in a far more human and vulnerable way than I’ve seen before. She weeps in private, is all but openly grieving for her son as he’s put through the Gom Jabbar and is every bit the scared subordinate to the Reverend Mother but her poise and power when she displays her Bene Gesserit training and does a little light murder. The result is a female character who can be both emotional and rational, sensitive and powerful and it’s brilliant.

It’s Paul who benefits from most of that power and emotion and Chalament is excellent in the role, although I can totally see a certain kind of person saying he just whispers and looks winsome a lot so he looks dreamy to teenage girls. Chalamet portrays a far more aware and cynical Paul than Kyle MacLachlan did, one who struggles with the order of the universe and is more aware of his awakening power. It is perhaps overplayed how much he foresees Chani more than all the other significant things going on, but he is still a teenage boy, I suppose.

The action

Lastly, the action scenes when they come are spectacular. Paul’s training duel with Gurney is a far more robust affair than in the Lynch version which serves to show Paul’s mean side, which later comes out in his duel with Jamis. The large-scale Harkonnen vs Atreides battle is visually impressive, if in parts tactically ludicrous. That silliness serves to illustrate the sense of scale, momentum and in some parts, futility of what’s going on. This is after all science fiction predicated on a drug produced by giant sandworms that makes you trip so hard you can see the future and pilot spaceships. I think I can live with just a little silliness in my military tactics.

Like the novel it’s based on, Dune won’t be for everyone and some will find the whole premise silly, some will find it too slow, some will dislike Chalamet or be annoyed that it didn’t get something (or lots of things) right as it seemed it should be in their head. This is always the way. However, I adored it and I’m very much looking forward to the second half of the adaptation.

So, does it live up to the hype?

Overall, Dune is an outstanding cinematic achievement. It is ambitious in scope but reaches the heights it aims for and leaves you wanting more. Dune is beautiful, superbly directed and well acted, with a plot that is arguably more relevant today than it was when it was written. As I’ve mentioned, I especially enjoyed the sense of weight and scale that imbued the film, conveyed through its pacing, the choices of shot, the soundtrack and the room given for the actors performances to breathe.

I can’t wait for October 2023 and Dune: Part Two.

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REVIEW: The Fall of Babel by Josiah Bancroft

In 2016 Josiah Bancroft entered Senlin Ascends into the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. Pornokitsch (real name Jared Shurin) put it up as a tie with Phil Tucker’s Path of Flames, and was so enthusiastic about both books that I picked them up immediately. After reading each of them, I picked up their sequels as well.

I wasn’t the only one. Mark Lawrence, founder of the SPFBO, read Senlin Ascends as well and enthused about it, and that kickstarted a chain of events that led to it becoming immensely popular, and ultimately picked up by Orbit Books for a traditional publishing deal.

If you’re new to The Books of Babel, the series follows Thomas Senlin, a small-town teacher in a one-room schoolhouse, who goes on his honeymoon to the Tower of Babel. (To be clear, it has little to do with the Biblical one—Bancroft claimed it was “more of an alternate universe than an alternate history. The Tower is not part of our timeline or this reality”.) Once there, he soon loses his wife and desperately searches for her through a tower that seems to be a maze of Kafkaesque nightmares that its citizens simply accept as the way things are.

The Tower is absurdly huge, filled with separate ‘ringdoms’ that operate largely independently of one another. It’s full of bizarre steampunk technology and defies easy classification. There are several things in the Tower that seem magical, but they all have a scientific basis, even if Senlin doesn’t know how they operate.

The first book follows him quite closely. Senlin is a hard man to like at first, convinced as he is of his own importance and erudition. He has none of the typical fantasy protagonist skills, though he does learn over the course of the series. This does seem to frustrate some readers, but he always felt grounded, realistic, and compelling to me.

The sequels all branch out with various people he’s met, most of them members of his eventual airship crew. And as we reach The Fall of Babel, their stories seem to overtake his.

This isn’t a bad thing. We do spend plenty of time with Senlin. But by the end of The Hod King, Senlin knows what he wants, and he knows what he needs to do, and he’s gained the capability and willingness to do it. He starts The Fall of Babel a man changed. The other crew of The State of Art, their airship, require a bit more to truly complete their character arcs.

This starts with Adam, whose tale opens up the novel. It felt at first like it could have been a separate novella, since it follows a side character and then brings him into a new place, and the reason for its importance takes a while to come up. However, it didn’t take long before I utterly loved his story.

A good part of that is Bancroft’s prose. The sheer number of sentences that can stand up on their own without the story around them and still feel true is impressive. The chapter epigraphs in particular are constantly great. For example:

Pilgrims are encouraged to remember that the principal consumers of sheep are not wolves but shepherds.

And:

Like a drowning soul floundering at sea, the hand of history reaches for objects of convenience rather than perfection. And so are heroes gripped.

Even as the story rushes on towards the ending we keep hearing of new ringdoms, and new realizations about the tower. Senlin is reasonably intelligent, and he meets plenty of other well-traveled people, yet the Tower can still surprise them and us. It’s too mammoth and complicated for anyone to understand, even the titans who are warring for control of it.

Much of the conflict comes down to those two titans. The Sphinx is a genius and reclusive inventor of many of the bizarre gadgetry through the tower. The Hod King, Luc Marat, is a would-be emperor who manipulates the legitimate grievances of the outcasts of society.

While I do not wish to spoil the actual story, I will say the ending was perfect and beautiful. Josiah Bancroft absolutely nailed the ending, and I cannot wait to see what he does next.

Read The Fall of Babel by Josiah Bancroft

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