>>Nostalgia For Infinity

Books on music can be a funny thing. The old saying that writing about music is like dancing about architecture holds as true with the long form as it ever does (by which I mean, shut up, I will write about music as much as I like). This leaves authors a few options: to focus on the autobiographical aspect of their subjects, to focus on their cultural impact, or to adopt a more historical fact-checking technique. The latter is probably the method I struggle with the most as it demands an already somewhat encyclopaedic knowledge of its subject from the reader; this is a problem I had with the one book of Ian Glasper’s I’ve read. To be fair, such books are intended as more of a resource to be dipped into than something to be read cover-to-cover.

Examining the cultural impact of various bands or a scene can be equally tricky; manage it just right and you have something like Our Band Could Be Your Life, a book so successful and widely-read that it re-introduced many of the classic 80s bands it championed to a generation growing up with bands several generations down the line. You can also end up wallowing in cliche, romanticising history and aggrandising it to an almost embarrassing point – such as any number of books about punk written by people who lost interest after ’79. (You can usually find these books in shops specialising in unsold trade paperbacks and hardbacks; they can usually bought quite cheaply. Ha!)

Then there is the autobiographical approach. This has the inherent strength that most people, being people, tend to find reading about other people interesting. It also has the risk that, well, most people lead quite boring lives, even those in famous bands. And I don’t just mean clean-living; after you’ve read a few coke or booze or glue-sniffing stories, you’ve pretty much read 99% of them.

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Originally published in Vector at the beginning of the year.

October, and a storm is coming. A travelling lightning rod salesman arrives and alerts two young friends to what he senses on the horizon. Throughout the town, others feel the tension in the air. Something is coming. And that night, 3 am, that something is come. Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show: a travelling carnival, promising rides, freaks, wonders and delights. But Will and Jim watch the carnival arrange itself outside town, and what they see unfold that night is not the rosy funfair that the townsfolk find the following day. Soon enough the carnival folk, the twisted slaves captured by Mr. Cooger and Mr. Dark over their timeless centuries, are led by their masters in a hunt for the boys who alone grasp at the truth. Alone, that is, but for Will’s reclusive father Charles, a man half-lost in his own past.

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Back at the outset of August I promised to post one of my book reviews for Vector every Saturday, and then repeatedly forgot to queue up the reviews for the rest of the month. Duh. Here’s the first of the two, of an understated and clever space opera by Paul McAuley.

The Overturn, a period of catastrophic political and climatic change which saw the deaths of hundreds of millions throughout the solar system, lies several centuries passed, yet its shadow still hangs over humanity. Earth’s old nations have conglomerated into three international super-states under authoritarian and militaristic systems of rule, pursuing ecological doctrines and endeavouring to restore their planet to some of its former natural glories. Elsewhere in the solar system the loosely affiliated networks of democratic Outer colonies pursue their own agendas, be they posthumanism, scientific research, or the simple pursuit of pleasure.

The conflict and atrocities of the Overturn left many tensions between Earth and the Outers, but tensions also lie between their internal factions. On Earth, the super-states still squabble for power at every level. The most established players uneasily eye the Outer colonies, afraid that as the Outers continue to evolve and expand Earth will lose any ability to exert influence over them. Among the Outers the older and younger generations disagree about their future: the old are conservative, desiring controlled populations on already established colonies, whereas the young argue for change and expansion further out into the unknown.

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I’ve written about the independent comics publisher Big Head Press once before, indirectly, when I wrote about their excellent story La Muse. Their tagline is “thoughtful stories” and this was certainly true of La Muse, a comic in which a young woman with superpowers set about to change the world to something better.

They have recently concluded the story Odysseus the Rebel, which begins ten years after the fall of Troy. Sound familiar? Yes, it’s a re-imagining of the classic Odyssey with a distinct spin. Writer Steven Grant (an industry veteran, thought as a comics n00b I’m not that familiar with his work – he did a Punisher mini-series and has written for most of the major IP of the biggest comics companies in the last three decades) presents a much more cynical view of the great Greek heroes. Achilles and Ajax are simple-minded bullies, Agamemnon a selfish murderer, and Odysseus is a man determined to make his own way in life in defiance of what is demanded of him by higher powers. Following the fall of Troy, Odysseus’s fate tangles directly with vassals of Poseidon – god of the sea – who demands that Odysseus bend his knee to the will of the gods. Odysseus rejects him, refusing to willingly play a role as a mere pawn. And so begins an Odyssey quite distinct from the one you may be familiar with, in which the plots and power struggles of the Greek Pantheon, heroes and monsters play out in a manner not entirely expected.

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(It occurred to me after writing the review of ‘Feels Like Steven King’ last week that I’d promised to post my Vector reviews online a month or two after they appeared in the magazine itself. That deadline has long since passed for the first three reviews, so I’ll post one on Saturdays for the first three weeks of August.)

This all-new story set in Brooks’ world of Shannara is not only its first appearance in a graphic novel, but also my first experience of the setting. Fans may wish to take my opinions with a pinch of salt.

Set after the events of ‘The Wishsong of Shannara’, ‘The Dark Wraith of Shannara’ resumes the story of Jair Ohmsford, a young man capable of using a form of magic known as the wishsong. As the story begins Jair’s sister has him swear not to risk using the dangerous wishsong again, but Jair is troubled by portentous dreams. The following day he learns that several old friends have been kidnapped, and so Jair and those allies he can round up set out to rescue them. Along the way Jair learns more about the wishsong and about his own potential.

This story is generic, inoffensive quest fare, featuring appearances by various characters who I assume will be known to Shannara fans. The central plot works well enough; it is unoriginal but comprehensible to a newcomer. But it is as a graphic novel that ‘The Dark Wraith of Shannara’ is flawed. » Read the rest of this entry «

Steven Deighan has been plugging away in the indie horror scene for almost a decade now, and published his first collection in 2006 (which I reviewed for now-defunct site Yet Another Book Review). It was a promising if unpolished set of stories and I felt it was worth keeping an eye on Deighan’s work. Now, along with illustrator Terry Cooper, he brings us a short graphic novel titled ‘Feels Like Stephen King’. At a bit under 40 pages it’s more of a graphic short story than a graphic novel, but who’s counting? Aside from hardcore comics fans who are already grumbling at my use of the term “graphic novel”, of course…

Deighan’s story focuses on a somewhat autobiographical subject: Eric Bain, a young horror writer who is struggling to get his work noticed by a publisher. As the story opens he receives a returned manuscript in the post, and at first is filled with anger at another rejection. Once he reads the cover letter, however, he realises that DM Publications wish to publish his novel ‘The Dying Game’. As his relationship with the head of the publishing house develops, however, Eric finds that his life is beginning to resemble something out of one his stories.

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I forgot to mention this at the time, but the most recent issue of Vector featured my review of Ray Bradbury’s reissued classic Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Vector is the critical journal of the British Science Fiction Association and is only available to members. The main BSFA site is here, Vector’s rarely-updated site is here, and the much more happenin’ Vector editor’s blog is here.

My review of Paul McAuley’s space opera The Quiet War is in the latest issue of Vector to hit doormats around the world (but mostly the UK). Vector is the critical journal of the BSFA and this is my second review to be published. I continue to be stoked about writing for Vector. The journal’s official site, which hasn’t been updated in a while, can be found here.

[Edited for me being a numpty. McAuley's book has nothing to do with Deus Ex...]

As noted in my 52 Books post, I recently finished reading Rad Bradbury’s classic gothic horror / coming of age adventure novel, Something Wicked This Way Comes. I just sent off my review to Vector’s editor, Dr. Kari Maund, so hopefully it will appear in print later this year.

My review of Paul McAuley’s The Invisible War has yet to appear, so I expect the Bradbury review will appear in the following issue. I’d guess at that being late Summer, but I may be wrong. As ever, I’ll update when I see the review in print!

My review of The Dark Wraith of Shannara - a graphic novel written by Terry Brooks, adapted by Robert Place Napton and drawn by Edwin David – appeared in Vector #257. If you’re a BSFA member you’ve probably already seen this issue. If you’re not, the best place to go to find out more about the journal is the official site, here.

I’ll probably post the review online in about a month’s time – I believe this is generally considered a courteous amount of time to wait before republishing.