Gillian Polack's Blog, page 220
November 29, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-11-29T11:13:00
Every now and again the reviewer aspect of me gets letters from writers. The first letter is lovely because it shows how much the writer cares about their work. Being asked more than once if I'm going to review their book soon is less lovely. Each time I get a gentle reminder, I have to put the book in question to the bottom of my review pile.
This is not because I'm sulking (although I admit it looks very much like sulking, from the outside) but quite simply because I'm supposed to review the book, not the writer. I have not yet perfected the art of putting those reminders out of my head when I read the book, so I postpone reading the book.
Even when these notes are phrased gently and kindly, I read them as nagging me. This is because I'm a middle child, I've decided. This would be because a review book I just read has one of the best middle children short stories I have yet met. Books have their own voice and my mind needs space for that voice to be heard. Some book-voices create their own space (like that book of short stories) but others need a quiet room or a bit more time. Some voices are subtler, some are more complex, some say one thing and mean another - time is what helps me to find the voices in these books and to appreciate them.
I have no idea how to explain this to the small number of writers who feel it is their duty to chase reviewers. All I can do is suggest here is please don't do the chasing. Just one reminder, and then leave it, perhaps. For me, one reminder. Maybe other people like the personal touch.
I would rather not even have one reminder, to be honest. I keep my review books in stacks by my computer and they remind me of themselves every time I sit down to work. I have a stack of ones I have plans for and a stack of ones still to be thought about and a stack of ones that are problematic*. Although right now the stacks are scrambled. I need to sort them by Monday, by which time a lot of them will be written about.
There are so many reasons why I don't review books the moment I receive them. Sometimes it's simple delay. Sometimes it's because I can't find any good things to say and either need to look further or give it up as a bad job (the latter I do seldom and reluctantly). Sometimes (more rarely) it's because a publisher has sent me something that's so outside my interests I don't know where to begin and when I begin I'm filled with horror. Sometimes it's because the publishing schedule is filled up (this is BiblioBuffet, always - I only write a fortnightly column, after all) and, whenever the time arises to reschedule, the writer sends me a reminder and so the book gets put off for a bit longer...
I've just done my schedules for BiblioBuffet from now until the end of February and a book that has waited quite a while (because it has problems and I need to consider them fairly) is now going to have to wait a while longer, simply because the nice email made me instantly think of the reasons why the book had problems. Instead of focussing on solutions, I had one moment when I wanted to give up on it entirely.
When I had no novels published, I didn't understand the world of novels. Why things took so long and the shape of their appearance and what the processes were. One of the reasons I started reviewing was to get a sense for time and shape and processes in reviewing in that part of the industry. The big thing I've learned is that if you want a review to appear for certain, you need to target your reviewer very carefully. Every publication and blog and website is different in its needs and its writers. You need to know the publication and you need to understand the limits the specific reviewer works under.
Reviewers don't work to the same schedules as writers, nor to the same goals. For instance, at BiblioBuffet, I have a fortnightly column (if I keep saying that, I will know it as a fact). That means that I can't talk about more than a certain number of books in a year. I have to balance the subjects I write about so that my readers don't get bored to tears. I get sent several books a week (not that many in the scheme of things - this is why I'm still able to read them all and talk about most of them) and I do my best to cover most things. When a book is a bit too difficult, however (for whatever reason) I always have other book I can write about. This aids and abets my personal tendency (mine, Gillian's, not all reviewers) to put off the difficulty and think about it. I still write about these more difficult books, but I need to think about them longer. And so some writers get impatient. Yet how happy would they be if I wrote a half-digested rant?
For the record, I will have a column in January or February that covers a range of books and the one about which I just received a note will probably appear. It was going to get a whole column, later, because there are real issues to discuss, but if I can't deal with the issues because I have polite emails from the author, well, then I don't have to. I have other books I can use that whole column for. I could write about middle children in fairy tales, for instance. If what the writer needs is to be seen, then I can get it out of the way and please us both.
Except it doesn't please me. Not at all. The books I have to postpone because they fret me are the ones that lead to the most interesting thoughts. Often they're the most interesting books. Sometimes it's about the cultural assumptions of physicists, sometimes it's about the border between fiction and history, sometimes it's how we use fantasy to explore ideas we're very comfortable with or can't bear to think about.
*Apparently I do this with many things - put the tough stuff off so that my brain can think about it. Then it becomes not tough at all, but fascinating. This is why the books that sit for a while, do so.
This is not because I'm sulking (although I admit it looks very much like sulking, from the outside) but quite simply because I'm supposed to review the book, not the writer. I have not yet perfected the art of putting those reminders out of my head when I read the book, so I postpone reading the book.
Even when these notes are phrased gently and kindly, I read them as nagging me. This is because I'm a middle child, I've decided. This would be because a review book I just read has one of the best middle children short stories I have yet met. Books have their own voice and my mind needs space for that voice to be heard. Some book-voices create their own space (like that book of short stories) but others need a quiet room or a bit more time. Some voices are subtler, some are more complex, some say one thing and mean another - time is what helps me to find the voices in these books and to appreciate them.
I have no idea how to explain this to the small number of writers who feel it is their duty to chase reviewers. All I can do is suggest here is please don't do the chasing. Just one reminder, and then leave it, perhaps. For me, one reminder. Maybe other people like the personal touch.
I would rather not even have one reminder, to be honest. I keep my review books in stacks by my computer and they remind me of themselves every time I sit down to work. I have a stack of ones I have plans for and a stack of ones still to be thought about and a stack of ones that are problematic*. Although right now the stacks are scrambled. I need to sort them by Monday, by which time a lot of them will be written about.
There are so many reasons why I don't review books the moment I receive them. Sometimes it's simple delay. Sometimes it's because I can't find any good things to say and either need to look further or give it up as a bad job (the latter I do seldom and reluctantly). Sometimes (more rarely) it's because a publisher has sent me something that's so outside my interests I don't know where to begin and when I begin I'm filled with horror. Sometimes it's because the publishing schedule is filled up (this is BiblioBuffet, always - I only write a fortnightly column, after all) and, whenever the time arises to reschedule, the writer sends me a reminder and so the book gets put off for a bit longer...
I've just done my schedules for BiblioBuffet from now until the end of February and a book that has waited quite a while (because it has problems and I need to consider them fairly) is now going to have to wait a while longer, simply because the nice email made me instantly think of the reasons why the book had problems. Instead of focussing on solutions, I had one moment when I wanted to give up on it entirely.
When I had no novels published, I didn't understand the world of novels. Why things took so long and the shape of their appearance and what the processes were. One of the reasons I started reviewing was to get a sense for time and shape and processes in reviewing in that part of the industry. The big thing I've learned is that if you want a review to appear for certain, you need to target your reviewer very carefully. Every publication and blog and website is different in its needs and its writers. You need to know the publication and you need to understand the limits the specific reviewer works under.
Reviewers don't work to the same schedules as writers, nor to the same goals. For instance, at BiblioBuffet, I have a fortnightly column (if I keep saying that, I will know it as a fact). That means that I can't talk about more than a certain number of books in a year. I have to balance the subjects I write about so that my readers don't get bored to tears. I get sent several books a week (not that many in the scheme of things - this is why I'm still able to read them all and talk about most of them) and I do my best to cover most things. When a book is a bit too difficult, however (for whatever reason) I always have other book I can write about. This aids and abets my personal tendency (mine, Gillian's, not all reviewers) to put off the difficulty and think about it. I still write about these more difficult books, but I need to think about them longer. And so some writers get impatient. Yet how happy would they be if I wrote a half-digested rant?
For the record, I will have a column in January or February that covers a range of books and the one about which I just received a note will probably appear. It was going to get a whole column, later, because there are real issues to discuss, but if I can't deal with the issues because I have polite emails from the author, well, then I don't have to. I have other books I can use that whole column for. I could write about middle children in fairy tales, for instance. If what the writer needs is to be seen, then I can get it out of the way and please us both.
Except it doesn't please me. Not at all. The books I have to postpone because they fret me are the ones that lead to the most interesting thoughts. Often they're the most interesting books. Sometimes it's about the cultural assumptions of physicists, sometimes it's about the border between fiction and history, sometimes it's how we use fantasy to explore ideas we're very comfortable with or can't bear to think about.
*Apparently I do this with many things - put the tough stuff off so that my brain can think about it. Then it becomes not tough at all, but fascinating. This is why the books that sit for a while, do so.
November 28, 2011
Empire State - Adam Christopher (Angry Robot)
There are so many novels set in New York. Of those, an exceptionally large proportion love Manhattan. Of those, a significant proportion are noir, or steampunk, or steampunk noir. Pyr put out one quite recently (George Mann's Ghosts of Manhattan, which I talk about here) so it makes sense, that, since Angry Robot like steampunk (look at the Jeter, and the novels by Tidhar), and noir (lots of noir! Every fifth book of theirs is noir) and are based in England… OK, so that last bit doesn't quite work. Basically, there is a market desire for steampunk and noir and Manhattan is cool, so publishers are buying and selling books with those themes.
The question is, what is Angry Robot's noir Manhattan steampunk novel like? Maybe I should start with what it's called (Empire State) or who wrote it (Adam Christopher), but tonight I'm not being rational. I emerged from the Middle Ages (ghosts and Jewish customs and crafts) into this novel and feel somewhat turned upside down.
It's a pacy novel, starting with a foot on the accelerator, which nicely symbolises what's to follow. Illegal liquor during prohibition, the industry that supplies it, lots of bad guys, superheroes with the golden age turned to dross, a private eye, a newspaper reporter - and that's just the first thirty pages. A lot of it has a familiar feel, largely because it plays with the stuff of noir and the stuff of superheroes and the stuff of other popular trends. It's not historically precise, but it's not the sort of novel that has to be. Perfect summer reading, which is great for those of us who are about to get summer. Maybe firelight reading for those sad souls stuck in the cold north.
Like other books of its kind, the pace is occasionally punctuated by explanation. There's too much background for it to be woven seamlessly into the narrative. Or maybe information scene-setting blocks is part of the joy of the sub-genre. Either way, they're there, and undeniably so. Why someone would rehearse the history of superherodom in Manhattan while suffering rather dramatic personal problems that have only just occurred is a mystery to me but it's not specific to Christopher. Steampunk noir often seems to include drama then a halt for a bit of backstory, then more drama. I like my stories told a little differently, but I can't criticise Christopher for a technique so many other writers use. Or I can, but I shan't.
Once the explanations are past, the novel picks up again. And why am I writing this in the present tense? This is because when the novel picks up it really does. It's a bit busy - switches from big thing to big thing without a sense of them connecting in a grand way, or fitting together like the tiles on a pavement. The planning is there, but it felt a bit disconnected to me. Maybe it was the language. Maybe it was the characters. It's more likely to be the exposition, though, that it was a bit uneven. That's the bad news. The good news is that when this approach works, it gives the same sense as Jeter or Harland in their steampunk novels - the feel of a society that's fundamentally strange and careening into disaster.
And then the novel shifts. It starts to work. And then it becomes special, in its steampunk noir Empire State way.
The question is, what is Angry Robot's noir Manhattan steampunk novel like? Maybe I should start with what it's called (Empire State) or who wrote it (Adam Christopher), but tonight I'm not being rational. I emerged from the Middle Ages (ghosts and Jewish customs and crafts) into this novel and feel somewhat turned upside down.
It's a pacy novel, starting with a foot on the accelerator, which nicely symbolises what's to follow. Illegal liquor during prohibition, the industry that supplies it, lots of bad guys, superheroes with the golden age turned to dross, a private eye, a newspaper reporter - and that's just the first thirty pages. A lot of it has a familiar feel, largely because it plays with the stuff of noir and the stuff of superheroes and the stuff of other popular trends. It's not historically precise, but it's not the sort of novel that has to be. Perfect summer reading, which is great for those of us who are about to get summer. Maybe firelight reading for those sad souls stuck in the cold north.
Like other books of its kind, the pace is occasionally punctuated by explanation. There's too much background for it to be woven seamlessly into the narrative. Or maybe information scene-setting blocks is part of the joy of the sub-genre. Either way, they're there, and undeniably so. Why someone would rehearse the history of superherodom in Manhattan while suffering rather dramatic personal problems that have only just occurred is a mystery to me but it's not specific to Christopher. Steampunk noir often seems to include drama then a halt for a bit of backstory, then more drama. I like my stories told a little differently, but I can't criticise Christopher for a technique so many other writers use. Or I can, but I shan't.
Once the explanations are past, the novel picks up again. And why am I writing this in the present tense? This is because when the novel picks up it really does. It's a bit busy - switches from big thing to big thing without a sense of them connecting in a grand way, or fitting together like the tiles on a pavement. The planning is there, but it felt a bit disconnected to me. Maybe it was the language. Maybe it was the characters. It's more likely to be the exposition, though, that it was a bit uneven. That's the bad news. The good news is that when this approach works, it gives the same sense as Jeter or Harland in their steampunk novels - the feel of a society that's fundamentally strange and careening into disaster.
And then the novel shifts. It starts to work. And then it becomes special, in its steampunk noir Empire State way.
gillpolack @ 2011-11-28T13:55:00
It's BiblioBuffet day today. This time I talk about being kafkaesque and about Jewish Narnias thanks to a new book from Tachyon.
David Tallerman - Giant Thief (more Angry Robot)
I like novels that have wry narrators. Especially I like fantasy novels that don't take themselves too seriously and whose narrators know that the world is serious enough and needs a bit of cheek and a series of really stupid decisions made without remorse or, indeed, any overthinking. Giant Thief, therefore, had me from the start.
As fantasy novels go, it uses many standard tropes. A charming thief. A landscape littered with wonder (in this case, littered most particularly with giants). Armies. War. Megalomania. Easie Damasco walks through this landscape with cynicism and a sense of survival. It's his personality and humour that makes this novel not-quite-standard and kept me reading when I was supposed to be doing other things.
It's an old-fashioned novel. It's not big and it's not pretentious. It's non-stop and full of incident (often bloody incident, but incident). It is, however, entirely charming. Easie and his new sort-of-friend, Saltlick, are good companions in the sense of being interesting. Saltlick knows what he wants (or doesn't want), and Easie thinks he can talk or steal his way through life. Early on, Easie realises that stealing a giant was less useful than stealing a horse and resolves to switch the two. The rest of the tale is about why this goes dreadfully wrong, of course. The big questions (and all good novels have a big question) is whether Easie is ever going to learn common sense, or whether his uncommon capacity to make bad decisions is going to be his downfall.
Mostly this novel is about what happens when the wisecracking sidekick unexpectedly becomes the centre of attention. I was supposed to be doing other stuff today, but I opened the file and… the fact that this review is already written and the other stuff is yet to be done says it all.
The e-book is already out, with paper versions early next year.
As fantasy novels go, it uses many standard tropes. A charming thief. A landscape littered with wonder (in this case, littered most particularly with giants). Armies. War. Megalomania. Easie Damasco walks through this landscape with cynicism and a sense of survival. It's his personality and humour that makes this novel not-quite-standard and kept me reading when I was supposed to be doing other things.
It's an old-fashioned novel. It's not big and it's not pretentious. It's non-stop and full of incident (often bloody incident, but incident). It is, however, entirely charming. Easie and his new sort-of-friend, Saltlick, are good companions in the sense of being interesting. Saltlick knows what he wants (or doesn't want), and Easie thinks he can talk or steal his way through life. Early on, Easie realises that stealing a giant was less useful than stealing a horse and resolves to switch the two. The rest of the tale is about why this goes dreadfully wrong, of course. The big questions (and all good novels have a big question) is whether Easie is ever going to learn common sense, or whether his uncommon capacity to make bad decisions is going to be his downfall.
Mostly this novel is about what happens when the wisecracking sidekick unexpectedly becomes the centre of attention. I was supposed to be doing other stuff today, but I opened the file and… the fact that this review is already written and the other stuff is yet to be done says it all.
The e-book is already out, with paper versions early next year.
gillpolack @ 2011-11-28T11:24:00
Today I am in counting mode and my numbers are all represented by blue sticky notes. It makes a change from lists.
I have four articles to write for which I've done most of the reading. It's just a matter of sitting and thinking until I find my approach and then sorting out any missing reading and then writing. There are eight for which I still have to read. Two of the eight are computer reading and the rest are all paper.
All this is dull when I spell it out, but on my writing slope it looks very pretty. The sticky paper, you see, isn't ordered by what reading I have to do, but by who the pieces are for, and so I have a row of six and then one of four and then one of two.
I plan to spend most of my week entirely destroying all the pretty patterns.
Next week is all about writing*.
*And about my work experience students, but that's as well as writing, not instead of.
I have four articles to write for which I've done most of the reading. It's just a matter of sitting and thinking until I find my approach and then sorting out any missing reading and then writing. There are eight for which I still have to read. Two of the eight are computer reading and the rest are all paper.
All this is dull when I spell it out, but on my writing slope it looks very pretty. The sticky paper, you see, isn't ordered by what reading I have to do, but by who the pieces are for, and so I have a row of six and then one of four and then one of two.
I plan to spend most of my week entirely destroying all the pretty patterns.
Next week is all about writing*.
*And about my work experience students, but that's as well as writing, not instead of.
November 27, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-11-27T15:18:00
Today I'm back where I was eighteen months ago, thinking about the mind-shapes of physicists. I found some of my carefully-put-aside-for-later-thinking pages* when I did my financial stuff yesterday and I realised that 'later' has become 'now.' One of my characters was half-arced...
*about 100, for the curious
*about 100, for the curious
November 26, 2011
gillpolack @ 2011-11-26T14:48:00
I've rearranged my work for today. It was obviously going to be one of those days no matter what I did, so I'm spending the afternoon sorting some of the financial papers that have plagued me (space wise) but that have to be gone through one by one, because some are allowed to be recycled and some need to be kept. I can't do my tax until I've done this and done the next stage of sorting, so they're both essential. They're also dull and remind me of things I'd rather forget. Although hidden amongst the financial papers were my uni results from my Grad Dip in Adult Education: my lowest mark was a distinction. Why this should be cheering over a decade later, I don't know, but it was.
I wonder what other vile tasks I can accomplish today and feel better for tomorrow?
I wonder what other vile tasks I can accomplish today and feel better for tomorrow?
gillpolack @ 2011-11-26T12:28:00
Today is a day of things going wrong. Nothing world-shattering, but a lot of stuff that I thought was sorted is now not sorted and the realities are dubious. This may be perfectly normal for my existence, but it's terribly annoying. My whole morning has been spent sweeping up various pieces. Some of them are small pieces (answering emails - several emails apparently didn't get through to me this week, and a couple of people have decided that I was being rude in not answering) to sweeping up quite large ones (five pages had to be produced in a great hurry, plus more research done).
Right now I'm finally, finally up to where I should have been three hours ago. This means, of course, that I'm still behind on everything I need to have done by Monday. I have decided to heave a mega-sigh and make much coffee. Also to take more pain relievers, for this has been a high pain week and the end is not yet in sight.
I reserve the right to grumble some more if the day persists in its messiness.
Right now I'm finally, finally up to where I should have been three hours ago. This means, of course, that I'm still behind on everything I need to have done by Monday. I have decided to heave a mega-sigh and make much coffee. Also to take more pain relievers, for this has been a high pain week and the end is not yet in sight.
I reserve the right to grumble some more if the day persists in its messiness.
November 25, 2011
The Big Angry Robot Catch-Up Post
Today continues strange. We have weather and so I'm battling aches and almost-functioning eyes. The books I'm reading for all the various things I'm reading for are not what I expected and, just now, of all the pages of notes about Angry Robot books, only a half has manifested. Since I wrote them all months ago, I'm giving up on them and will resurrect my thoughts.
Let me start with the book I enjoyed most and found most memorable: Guy Adams' The World House: Restoration. It's very much a sequel to the first World House book and really can't be read comfortably without it. I love the smooth transition between the two books and the feeling that I just paused in the adventure to take a breath. This is the way I like my trilogies.
I loved that the cover comments talked about the fast pace, because for me the pace wasn't that fast. Lots was happening, but there was no sense of tumult. The characters are starting to be stronger and the peril deeper. The mysterious box that is the World House (I need a better way of explaining it but a storm is on its way and I've lost all my notes and so you will have to live with my impoverished language and ideas) is no longer just a quirky and strange thing that some people find changes their lives, but something bigger and more ominous.
Occasionally there was drama and display and pageant for the sake of drama and display and pageant, but not too often. Some of the plot points are a little too neat. To balance that, there is some lovely writing. It has a sense of reality and (oddly) a sense of Indiana Jones. And I want to know what happens next. I want to finish the story.
I didn't expect this. I enjoyed the first book, but not enough to make me hunger for the next one. Sometimes a trilogy is stronger in its whole than the first book shows and Restoration is definitely one of those instances.
Peter Crowther Darkness Falling. It has a great beginning. Sharp and unexpected. An unhappy couple are on a plane and… any more will tell you what happens and will give away the first twist. Since this novel is all about the twists and the turns, I won't do that to you.
The pace is good in the first part, it lags a bit and then it picks up again. There are some interesting choices for viewpoint characters (a serial killer - what is it with Angry Robot and serial killers?) And… I didn't enjoy it. This is one novel, though, where lack of enjoyment meant it's not my kind of book rather than it's not a book worth investigating. It will suit other readers, especially those who like slow build and conclusions as part of the successive volumes.
My problem was quite simple: I needed a reason to enter the book emotionally, and I didn't find one. I also found the elucidations not complex enough for the time and attention given to them. These are the reasons why I'm not giving you a plot summary - if the main reason to read the book is its horror and the thrill of the unexpected then really, it doesn't help for me to explain these things in a neat plot summary, and yet these are the things that one wants to explain in a plot summary where one (personally, this is not a universal truth about Crowther's characters) doesn't feel an affinity for the focal points of the tale.
Tim Waggoner's Dead Streets is really for avowed fans of the first book in the series. It has the same wonderful twisted Underworld and many of the same characters. For me, alas, it doesn't have the heart of the first book. It revolves around clever invention and characters acting to meet the need of the plot. Waggoner's level of invention is fabulous, I have to admit. He's like a magician pulling bunch after bunch of extraordinary flowers out of a hat.
Waggoner's zombie detective has to visit an alternate world to deal with its very specific alternate problems otherwise disaster will ensue. Disaster will ensue anyway, of course (as it always does in an underworld with a zombie detective-for-hire and far too many vampires), but if he's not careful, it will ruin any chance of happiness for him and the people he cares about.
I love the zombie private eye and the send-up of the hard-boiled and horror and the way it morphs into comedy. What I don't like, here, is the way the plot is forced and characters don't seem to develop naturally. It feels as if I'm watching a world that's designed, rather one that has grown. And the hard-boil is now rather soft-boil. As I said earlier, it will have enough for fans of Waggoner's writing and this particular world to enjoy, but it's not for someone coming in new and me, I much preferred the first book in the series. I'm hoping that the third one will pick up the genuine fun of the first one and make the characters live for me again. I liked Dead Streets enough so that I will be reading the third one, but I felt that Waggoner was coasting, and that he's capable of much, much more.
I missed a couple of Angry Robot books because my computer didn't want to talk to their website for a bit, and, of course, there are the ones that I've read but can't review (all of which are worth reading, let me just say, now that I've finished them all). What this means is that I only have two Angry Robot books to read and report back on before I'm as up-to-date as I'm going to get.
I intend to get hold of the missing volumes and read them eventually, since I really do want to see what's happening with Angry Robot as it evolves as an imprint. When I do, I'll report back on that, too.
Let me start with the book I enjoyed most and found most memorable: Guy Adams' The World House: Restoration. It's very much a sequel to the first World House book and really can't be read comfortably without it. I love the smooth transition between the two books and the feeling that I just paused in the adventure to take a breath. This is the way I like my trilogies.
I loved that the cover comments talked about the fast pace, because for me the pace wasn't that fast. Lots was happening, but there was no sense of tumult. The characters are starting to be stronger and the peril deeper. The mysterious box that is the World House (I need a better way of explaining it but a storm is on its way and I've lost all my notes and so you will have to live with my impoverished language and ideas) is no longer just a quirky and strange thing that some people find changes their lives, but something bigger and more ominous.
Occasionally there was drama and display and pageant for the sake of drama and display and pageant, but not too often. Some of the plot points are a little too neat. To balance that, there is some lovely writing. It has a sense of reality and (oddly) a sense of Indiana Jones. And I want to know what happens next. I want to finish the story.
I didn't expect this. I enjoyed the first book, but not enough to make me hunger for the next one. Sometimes a trilogy is stronger in its whole than the first book shows and Restoration is definitely one of those instances.
Peter Crowther Darkness Falling. It has a great beginning. Sharp and unexpected. An unhappy couple are on a plane and… any more will tell you what happens and will give away the first twist. Since this novel is all about the twists and the turns, I won't do that to you.
The pace is good in the first part, it lags a bit and then it picks up again. There are some interesting choices for viewpoint characters (a serial killer - what is it with Angry Robot and serial killers?) And… I didn't enjoy it. This is one novel, though, where lack of enjoyment meant it's not my kind of book rather than it's not a book worth investigating. It will suit other readers, especially those who like slow build and conclusions as part of the successive volumes.
My problem was quite simple: I needed a reason to enter the book emotionally, and I didn't find one. I also found the elucidations not complex enough for the time and attention given to them. These are the reasons why I'm not giving you a plot summary - if the main reason to read the book is its horror and the thrill of the unexpected then really, it doesn't help for me to explain these things in a neat plot summary, and yet these are the things that one wants to explain in a plot summary where one (personally, this is not a universal truth about Crowther's characters) doesn't feel an affinity for the focal points of the tale.
Tim Waggoner's Dead Streets is really for avowed fans of the first book in the series. It has the same wonderful twisted Underworld and many of the same characters. For me, alas, it doesn't have the heart of the first book. It revolves around clever invention and characters acting to meet the need of the plot. Waggoner's level of invention is fabulous, I have to admit. He's like a magician pulling bunch after bunch of extraordinary flowers out of a hat.
Waggoner's zombie detective has to visit an alternate world to deal with its very specific alternate problems otherwise disaster will ensue. Disaster will ensue anyway, of course (as it always does in an underworld with a zombie detective-for-hire and far too many vampires), but if he's not careful, it will ruin any chance of happiness for him and the people he cares about.
I love the zombie private eye and the send-up of the hard-boiled and horror and the way it morphs into comedy. What I don't like, here, is the way the plot is forced and characters don't seem to develop naturally. It feels as if I'm watching a world that's designed, rather one that has grown. And the hard-boil is now rather soft-boil. As I said earlier, it will have enough for fans of Waggoner's writing and this particular world to enjoy, but it's not for someone coming in new and me, I much preferred the first book in the series. I'm hoping that the third one will pick up the genuine fun of the first one and make the characters live for me again. I liked Dead Streets enough so that I will be reading the third one, but I felt that Waggoner was coasting, and that he's capable of much, much more.
I missed a couple of Angry Robot books because my computer didn't want to talk to their website for a bit, and, of course, there are the ones that I've read but can't review (all of which are worth reading, let me just say, now that I've finished them all). What this means is that I only have two Angry Robot books to read and report back on before I'm as up-to-date as I'm going to get.
I intend to get hold of the missing volumes and read them eventually, since I really do want to see what's happening with Angry Robot as it evolves as an imprint. When I do, I'll report back on that, too.
gillpolack @ 2011-11-25T12:13:00
I'm reading a book that would be a lot more fun if the characters weren't interchangeable. I play with the plot in my mind, making this young female a middle-aged male and this other female of a different nationality and about three stone heavier. The characters have so little individual shape and colour that my changes hardly affect the plot at all and don't impact on the dialogue or the situations. This makes the book very fast reading, so I'm catching up on the time I lost to that three day migraine. I'd rather fall further behind and have a better book to read.
I haven't got time today to catch up on the IHR conference, which is a pity. Still, if I can finish the current round of Aurealis reading and do a third of what I need to do for BiblioBuffet and find my notes for the Angry Robot books (of which this current novel is NOT one) and blog them, I shall consider the day well spent and I shall go out tonight in a state of "I've worked, so there." Tonight is dinner with one of the best cooks of all the many extraordinary cooks who tested Conflux banquet recipes for me: Ingrid-of-the-astonishing-cakes. It's time out for both of us, as we're going to a local cafe.
I haven't got time today to catch up on the IHR conference, which is a pity. Still, if I can finish the current round of Aurealis reading and do a third of what I need to do for BiblioBuffet and find my notes for the Angry Robot books (of which this current novel is NOT one) and blog them, I shall consider the day well spent and I shall go out tonight in a state of "I've worked, so there." Tonight is dinner with one of the best cooks of all the many extraordinary cooks who tested Conflux banquet recipes for me: Ingrid-of-the-astonishing-cakes. It's time out for both of us, as we're going to a local cafe.
