R.B. Harkess's Blog, page 3

Pelquin's Comet: Ian Whates

I promised a review of this a couple of weeks ago, but I'm afraid I got busy. However, never one to knowingly go back on a promise, here are my thoughts.

This is what I call 'traditional' science fiction. There is the beat-up but trying hard spaceship with a rapscallion captain complete with dubious past. The crew is a bunch of misfits and everybody has a hidden history, including the baddie your not sure is a baddie and the 'mystery girl' who is both a killing machine and a ripper engineer, but who doesn't understand how or why she can do either. Add in a hostile group of aliens, and a 'lost in the mists of time super powerful aliens' group and...

Hold on, sounds like Firefly. Or maybe Farscape. Or was I thinking of...

That's what I mean by 'traditional' science fiction. Some would call it space opera (I wouldn't). It sits firmly inside the comfortable definition many of us have about 'old school' SF.

The good news it that it works. I mean really works. It is a page turner (or button tapper, depending on your media). Thing is, you can take pretty much any story down to its fundamentals and its ends up like every other story (check out the 'net for similar comparisons that show Harry Potter and Star Wars to be essentially the same story).

Its not about the story. It never is about the story. There are only five stories (yes, I know opinion varies on the exact number, but cut me some slack here).

Its about what you do with it. Its about what you do with the characters, and the setting. Its about how you tell the tale. Whates is a Master storyteller. Enough description to sets scenes without spoonfeeding detail, enough depth to bring his characters to life without giving everything away about them  - actually quite a difficult thing to write. It pulls you in, doesn't demand too much from you, and lets you wash along with the story.

Certainly worth a read, and I am looking forward to the next book.

I love days like today, because today I get to announce m...

I love days like today, because today I get to announce my next book - 'A Meeting Of Minds'. 


The book will be 'launched' and available for sale on March 18th - to co-incide with Sci Fi Weekender 7. Pre-order is not available yet, but I will announce it here and on my publisher's site as soon as we have a date. Or you could sign up to my publisher's mail list


Here's a taster of what you'll find inside:
Jaxon’s world, our world, has been scorched by a solar flare. The Dagashi came to help in city-sized space ships, but all they do is use what is left of humanity to scavenge technology - and to get taken for ‘rides’ by youngsters with neural implants. Everybody thought the Dagashi could only use the interface to receive, to listen, watch, or feel - until one of them speaks to Jax.


On the other end of the link is a human girl, around his own age and soon they become friends. When she tries to break off their contact because she is in danger, Jax offers to rescue her from the Dagashi ship. Once there, he not only discovers his friend has been hiding a secret, but that the Dagashi aren’t rescuers at all. They triggered the solar flare, and intend to strip anything of value from the Earth before abandoning it.

Twofer! Just like buses

Nothing for months, then two book reviews at the same time. Or that was the plan when I started this. However, given how long I have enthused over Airship Shape, I'm going to put the review for Pelquin's Comet up in a few days

Now, I have to admit that neither of these are entirely new; Airshipshape is almost two years old, and Pelquin's Comet came out around April last year. But I finally caught up with them in my reading list, and have been sufficiently impressed by both to set finger to keyboard.

Airship Shape first. Published by Wizard's Tower press, this is an anthology of Steampunk tales set in Bristol, or an alternate universe remarkably like it. Its always good for an anthology to have a theme, but in this case the editors (Roz Clarke and Joanne Hall) have added and extra thematic twist by splitting the book into three sections. Some believe (personally I dont) that 'proper' Steampunk should involve examination and/or damnation of slavery or the struggle of the disadvantaged classes to 'stick it to the man'. The first section, 'Less Than Men', looks into this but with wider eyes than the subject suggests. and I was delighted to see a 'Brassworth' by Christine Morgan consider a pet concept of mine; the rights of and Artificial Intelligence - And to do it with an excellent and witty tale.

The other two sections are 'Lost Souls' (creepy and fantastical), and 'Travelling Light' (bold adventurers and tales told over brandy and cigars in the smoking room of the club). The sub-divisions work really well, and I loved the mix of styles and stories it promoted.

As with all anthologies (pretty much), there is one, or possibly two, tales you are surprised made the cut, but apart from Brassworth, three more impressed me enough to deserve individual mention. First, a surprise from Andy Bigwood. I know Andy as a remarkable artist, but had no idea he could write as well. 'The Lanterns of Death Affair' was a clever little tale that fit neatly into the 'Travelling light' category.

John Hawkes-Reed's 'Miss Butler and the Handlander Process' may be misplaced in the 'Lost Souls' section, but for me is an excellent, archetypal Steampunk tale involving plucky young women, shady military organisations, and mechanical elephants with exploding knee joints. An absolutely superb romp, only narrowly beaten from first place by my third and final selection.

If 'Lost Souls' had not existed as a section, it would have needed to be created just for this story. 'The Girl With the Red Hair' by Myfanwy Morgan is a splendid tale, set comfortably in the milieu and oozing paranormal activity, with a triumphant end that makes you want to punch the air and hiss 'Yesss'.

In fact, both Morgan and Hawkes-Reed produced stories which I thought so good they poked, briefly, at my writerly confidence and left me think 'how the hell will I ever write like that?'

As I say, I know its not old, but the book is still available and I strongly recommend it.

I shall post the Pelquin's Comet review in a day or two.

Dont panic, no retrospectives here

Tis the season for the usual glut of posts on blogs and social media generally, all trawling over what we did last year. Relax. None of that here. Oh, I've no objection to people doing it - I guess it neatly summarises the year and brings it into focus, and perhaps even gives an opportunity to thank people or organisations. On the other hand, if it needs to be said again, somebody wasn't paying attention! (Only kidding).

I'm also a little cautious about prognosticating too fully on what's planned to happen in 2016 - things have a nasty habit of changing due to circumstances beyond our control. For example, I've filled out my holiday form in work already. I've two holidays, three long weekends and (and I can barely believe this myself) EIGHT conventions lines up. Less than two days after getting those approved it looks like I may need to change at least one of them to cater for an unexpected diagnostic procedure for a close family member. I'm not saying its bad to plan, but I am saying nothing is cast in stone.

Incidentally, the Cons I am booked for this year are

Feb 6: True Believers in Cheltenham
March 17: SFWeekender(Wales)
April 1: First Contact Day (Telford)
May 30: EM-Con (Nottingham)
August Bank Holiday: Asylum, Lincoln

And later in the year, Fantasy Con, Bristol Con, and possibly Swindon and Gloucester

Hectic, eh? Hoping it will be fun though.

Other major events I'm looking forward to are at least two new books coming out this year. 'A Meeting Of Minds' will hopefully be out in time for the SF Weekender. This is back to my Science Fiction roots, but with a liberal dash of romance. Expect the cover reveal in the next week or so.

Also, 'Amunet' will be published by Kristell Ink in the autumn. Gritty alternate-reality supernatural steampunk. Very excited about this, and to be working with the fine people at Kristell Ink.

And if I'm really lucky, I may get the last volume of the Warrior Stone trilogy out for Asylum, though I will freely admit to a large dollop of wishful thinking there.

Hmm, well, I kept half my opening promise. At least I haven't rattled on about last year. Having said that, did I tell you the story about...?

See what happens when you dont pay...

Profound apologies. I've put up a couple of static pages so anybody browsing my blog can find my books more easily. Sadly, Blogger is messing around something aweful and I am havving enormous fun making changes only to find they have been ignored or - worse - something else entirely different was done.

Be nice while I bang my head against this particular wall

(And yes, I know I should hire a web designer and use something decent like wordpress)

(Update: And yes, I just figured out it would be much easier to just tap on the 'remove formatting' button and start again rather than trying to untangle automatically generated html)

See what you miss when you dont pay attention?

Lovely surprise review of White Magic from Joanne Hall , author of Spark and Carousel and the 'Art of Forgetting' duology 
https://hierath.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/book-review-warrior-stone-white-magic-by-r-b-harkess/#comments


The second volume in the Warrior Stone series sees young heroine Claire Stone firmly established as a Warrior in Underland, a strange, steampunky alternate London that forms the only line of defence between the Real, the human world, and the incursions of the soul-stealing, shapeshifting Morphs from the mysterious “Below”. She has formed a tentative friendship with Grenlik engineer Tolks, who has in his possession a mysterious cube which he is trying to track down the missing elements of to make it work, while Claire is trying to master her growing magical abilities. But there are sinister elements at work, in a conspiracy that extends to the very top of Underland and beyond, and all too soon Claire finds herself isolated and in deeper trouble than she ever has been in her life.We learn more about Claire this time round, wincing along at her fumbling teenage relationships, her struggles at school, though this second volume is rooted more firmly in the Underland, and when the action swings back to the Real it takes a very dark turn indeed, and Claire is forced to make some harsh choices.It’s quite definitely the middle volume in a trilogy, and I’d certainly recommend reading part one first. The business with the mysterious cube is hinted at, but left firmly unresolved as Claire battles her more immediate problems – a Morph incursion that has taken her parents, the loss of her friend Evie, and the knowledge that there will come a point, very soon, where she will forget Underland in much the same way Susan forgets Narnia. And the book ends on a cliffhanger that will have dramatic, and painful, consequences for Claire, that leaves the reader wondering how on earth this can possibly be resolved.A recommended read – sassy and smart steampunk YA that touches on real-world problems in an unreal Underland.

Why people should read before they sign...

So, I just saw this post from George Takei (yes, him out of star trek) about this article from Good Magazine. Apparently, there are a bunch of folks campaigning to get this talented actress removed from a certain film because Hollywood is 'whitewashing' the cast. GOOD magazine article on Scarlett Johansson
For those who aren't aware of the term, 'whitewashing' is the practice of removing ethnic characters and replacing them with Pretty White People.
The film in question is an adaptation of the stunning and iconic Japanese anime 'Ghost in the Shell'. Well, its Japanese, right, so casting a white woman in the lead role must be Whitewashing, right?

Wrong. The film is about a security unit called 'Section 9', and not one of them is asian in appearance. In fact, through the whole show, the only people who look asian are politicians, android geisha, and peasants. Everybody else is european/american. The image over there is Major Kusanagi, the character Johansson is supposed to be playing. I see no conflict casting an american/european to play this role.



So I say, in this instance, there is no case to answer, and to me this is a classic example of people jumping on the bandwagon of a cause without checking their facts first, which to those in the community is making everybody who is support this 'call' look pretty stupid.
The sad part about it is, when people jump on a bandwagon like this, and make themselves look idiots, they damage the cause they are supposed to be campaigning for. Hollywood does whitewash, and its a terrible practice and should be called out and stopped wherever its seen - but this instance doesn't help.

Resistance is futile...

Yes, I know, bad man, haven't posted in six months. Slapped wrist.

Seriously though, life has been hugely complicated for the last six months thank to a new muggle job.

But, there is new, huge news, which I will share tomorrow,

For today, I shall heal the rift between myself and my alter ego. All my writing news will end up here now, and people can get to it either by www.rbharkess.com, or by www.robertharkess.com

Oh, who am I kidding - I cant keep news like this quiet. I am delighted to announce that I am now signed to Kristell Ink, with whom I shall be releasing my rather gritty and slightly dark Steampunk Novel 'Amunet', around this time next year. Looking forward so much to working with them

Kristell Ink Announcement

The Warrior's New Clothes

Look, don't blame me - I have to think of titles for these posts and its not always easy :)

Unusual day today. Not a re-release as such, but Warrior Stone's first book has a new title, and a  new cover (to match with the cover of White Magic). Say hello to Underland: Warrior Stone Book 1

Thanks to Amygdala Designs for another great cover

Happy book birthday to Terry Jackman: ASHAMET, DESERT BORN

Terry Jackman is an all-round busy person. Apart from running the British Science Fiction Associations 'Orbit Groups' (a wonderful organisation where new and experienced support each other), but she also edits and reviews. How she finds time to write, I have no idea, but I am privileged and honoured to have help crit and edit a number of Terry's books, including this one.


Here's a link to the publisher, Dragonwell Publishing



"A desert world. A warrior nation that worships its emperor as a god. But for Ashamet, its prince, a future filled with danger... 

Ashamet is confident his swordsmanship, and his arranged marriage, will be enough to maintain the empire’s peace. But when a divine symbol magically appears on his arm, closely followed by an attempt on his life, he no longer knows who to trust. Worse, the strange attraction he feels toward a foreign slave could be another trap. As events unravel, too fast, Ashamet must find out if this innocent young male is a tool for his enemies--or the magic key to his survival. 

"Ashamet, Desert-Born" is a debut adventure fantasy with an exotic Arabian-style setting and elements of same-sex romance."