Prey - by Michael Crichton

I quite like Michael Crichton's writing so when I spotted Prey for around £3 in ASDA a few weeks ago it seemed a no-brainer for something to read.

Californian Artificial Intelligence systems expert Jack Forman, fired for trying to expose his boss's criminal activities, is practically unemployable and finding life as a house-husband very stressful. His wife Julia however, is riding high an an executive in a nanorobotics company on the verge of perfecting a revolutionary new nano-technology based medical imaging technology.

When Julia starts working very long hours and behaving very oddly, Jack suspects she's having affair. But then his daughter develops a strange rash that disappears as soon as she's put in an MRI and when his son's MP3 player's memory chips simply corrode away and he finds a strange device in his daughter's room, he suspects something much more sinister is afoot.

When he gets invited to help with a software problem at Julia's company fabrication plant out in the desert, he doesn't think twice. However, that's when things start to get really out of control!

Prey serves us up a tale of nanobots gone rogue. However, these aren't just your average nanobots, these are intelligent, solar-powered and self-replicating with a drive to succeed and prosper as a "species" and all of this was programmed into them by us short-sighted humans. In essence, Crichton is trying to tell us what could happen when commercial pressures force companies to disregard the proper controls over scientific research and produce something that could threaten our very existence on Earth.

Frankly, I didn't buy it! Sure, it's an entertaining enough read but the science just didn't ring true enough and as someone with a fair bit of programming experience, the idea of them being able to install a whole AI predator-based program into something of just above atomic size, seems highly doubtful. Not impossible but just very, very unlikely with our current silicon technology. On top of that it was a bit predictable and it seemed obvious that Mr. Crichton had written it with the potential for a movie deal in mind.

A sensationalist, over-hyped, sci-fi thriller - quite readable but switch off your logic circuits first.

Genre: Science-Fiction, Thriller
ISBN: 978-0-00-722973-4
My Rating: 6/10

The High Lord - by Trudi Canavan

The High Lord is the final volume in The Black Magician trilogy, which also contains The Magician's Guild and The Novice. Here's a short taster of the story without giving too much away…

Sonea has learned much at the Magician's Guild in Imardin and the other novices now treat her with a grudging respect. Apprenticed now to High Lord Akkarin himself, she cannot forget what happened in his underground chamber or his warning that the Sachakans, their realm's ancient enemy, are growing in power once more and are getting ready to attack.

However, can she trust him, knowing what she does about him? Is Akkarin trying to trick her into assisting him in some dark and evil scheme or is he telling the truth and they really are in enormous danger from the Sachakans.

Having been somewhat dissatisfied with the forerunners to this book, the story takes a darker turn here and really starts to hot up a bit. It's obvious that the thread around Akkarin and black magic that started back in the first book has finally solidified into a tangible story here.

The dialogue is still somewhat stilted and the plot a bit predictable but it's a great improvement on the first book and obviously Ms. Canavan's writing skills have developed a great deal since beginning this tale.

Now that we've finally got going with what was the main plot of the series, it runs along at a decent pace with plenty of action, magic and even a bit of romance. The High Lord brings the trilogy to a fairly satisfying conclusion and, on the whole, the The Black Magician is reasonably entertaining and worth reading is you like fantasy tales.

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
ISBN: 1-84149-315-5
My Rating: 7/10

The Seagull Drovers - by Steve Cockayne

The Seagull Drovers is the last installment in Steve Cockayne's Legends Of The Land trilogy. It's a complex tale but here's a taster of the story line…

Nothing is right in the Land. King Matthew is indisposed and the city is controlled by the wicked Fang and his Royal Wolf Boys. Leonardo Pegasus, inventor of the Multiple Empathy Engine and ex-Royal Magician, has retired to the country where he searches the murky depths of the Signal Network for a malevolent entity that lurks there and preys on the weak.City girl Ashleigh Brown needs a change from her urban life in Tower Mansions and has set her sights on the gaudy wagon of Wanderer Liam Blackwood while Charles Bannister has made his fortune from his Power-Driven Carriage and nows searches the Islands for fuel to run them on. Imp Fever is rife on the Network and roaming bands of Seagull Drovers seek to guide lost gulls back to the sea and when they pass, the children are vanishing.

The Legends Of The Land is a trilogy in three fairly separate parts, spanning about twenty years. Each book tells a different story and in The Seagull Drovers, some of these story threads and characters come together. I'm not sure if I'd call it a climax but some things get tied up at the end.

I suppose the character of Leonardo Pegasus is the most prevalent in the stories but it is all very loosely tied together and you'd easily get lost wondering what some characters play in it at all. That said, it's a pretty easily read and mildly entertaining story. The characters are well developed and easily empathized with but on the whole it's just a little unsatisfying and a bit slow in getting where it's going.

Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Science Fiction
ISBN: 1-84149-304-X
My Rating: 6/10

Wintersmith - by Terry Pratchett

Wintersmith is the third Tiffany Aching novel and the 35^th in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

Two years after the events of A Hat Full of Sky, young Tiffany Aching is now 13 years old and in training with the terrifying old witch Miss Treason. When Miss Treason takes Tiffany to witness the secret "dark morris", the dance that welcomes in the winter, Tiffany finds herself drawn into the dance and joins in. Unfortunately, she finds herself face to face with the Wintersmith, the spirit of winter himself, who mistakes her for the Lady Summer and falls in love with her.

The Wintersmith pusues his suit well and gives her gifts of ice roses, her name in the frost on windows, snowflakes with her picture on and even giant Tiffany shaped icebergs. When Miss Treason, Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax find out about all this they try to recify things and recruit the Nac Mac Feegle to find a hero that will rescue Summer from the Underworld and sort things out before the prolonged and harsh Winter descends forever. Meanwhile the Wintersmith is trying to make himself ... a man!

Wintersmith is another cracker of a read from Mr. Pratchett. The characters are, as ever, up to par with the best in comic theatre. Miss Treason, the blind old witch, lording it over her flock with a rule of fear and Boffo is perfect as Tiffany's tutor. Regulars like Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg still deliver some amazingly funny quips and the Nac Mac Feegle are hilarious all through the tale in their attempts to protect their Big Wee Hag and avoid the wrath of the witches.

Then there's Tiffany! In training but wiser than any witch her age should be and the side-story around Miss Treason's cottage with Annagramma and Mistress Earwig and the other young witches adds yet another layer to the tale.

The idea that an ageless elemental like the spirit of Winter could imagine itself as human or even in love adds a dark and mysterious edge to the story as well and the trip into the Underworld is both frightening and funny. I mean the ferryman wants his fee but also really doesn't want the always-skint Feegles to stay and cause absolute chaos in his nice, ordered realm.

A very funny book and well worth reading if fancy something light and humourous.

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
ISBN: 978-0-552-55369-8
My Rating: 8/10

The Last Hero - by Terry Pratchett

The Last Hero is Terry Pratchett's 27th Discworld novel and it's been published as a graphic novel, fully illustrated by Paul Kidby. It features a couple of characters that were introduced in the very first Discworld story - Rincewind and Cohen the Barbarian.

Legendary Discworld warrior Cohen the Barbarian is getting on a bit. He's been there and done it all, seeing most of his old friends pass away into obscurity and, now the current ruler of the Agatean Empire, he is unhappy with his Gods. He doesn't like the way they let men grow old and die so now he and his band are heading for Dunmanifestin, the home of the Gods, with the intention of giving them back something that mankind stole from them long ago - fire!

Trouble is he wants to do it with a 50lb keg of Agatean Thunder Clay and, given that the Gods live on top of Cori Celesti, the highest mountain on the Disc and the hub of the world's magic field, the explosion will result in the magic field collapsing. Unfortunately, the Discworld needs magic to exist - the turtle and the elephants holding it all up could very well just vanish.

Cohen and his Silver Horde may want to go out with a bang but it's a bang that could destroy the world. So, Lord Vetinari and the Magicians of Ankh Morporkh send gather their finest, or in this case, Leonard of Quirm, Rincewind and Captain Carrot, to go on a mission to try and stop them.

It was nice see Rincewind and Cohen back in a Discworld tale, even if it is a fairly short story. Pratchett's wit and humour are up to their usual par and there are some very funny moments in there. Also back in the frame are the Silver Horde, who made an appearance in Interesting Times, but they're minus Old Vincent, who has passed on. So Ghenghiz Cohen, accompanied by Truckle the Uncivil, Boy Willie, Caleb the Ripper and Mad Hamish, is on a kami-kazi run to give the Gods a bit of his mind (and body).

On the other side, we've got Lord Vetinari and the wizards of Unseen University, who've somehow got wind of his scheme and obviously want to put a dampener on it. Without going in to much detail, they choose Leonard of Quirm to build and pilot a device that will enable them to catch up with Cohen, Captain Carrot for some muscle and Rincewind as he's been in so many scrapes and is still alive they reckon he must have some serious luck on his sideand they're going to need it this time.

Then there the Gods, who're watching all of these goings on with some amusement. And there's Evil Harry Dread, the stock Dark Lord of the tale, who accompanies Cohen's band but really can't act out of his mould for very long. There's The Code to be followed you know!

It's actually quite a funny story and the book is fleshed out with a fair number of illustrations by Discworld artwork regular Paul Kidby, which helps make it last a wee bit longer.


Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
ISBN: 978-0-575-08196-3
My Rating: 7/10

The Illuminatus! Trilogy - by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson

The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a compendium of the three books (The Eye In The Pyramid, The Golden Apple and Leviathan) in one volume.

The story begins with an investigation by a couple of New York City detectives into the bombing of a leftist magazine called Confrontation and the disappearance of its editor. The two discover that it was currently looking into the John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinations and, following a trail of memos that suggest the involvement of powerful secret societies, they become drawn into a web of conspiracy theories.

Who really shot the Kennedys? Why is there a pyramid on a one-dollar bill? Can dolphins really talk? All this and the mysteries of of the lost city of Atlantis are answered within.

Unfortunately, for all the back cover hype, this was perhaps the most disappointing book I've read in a long time. There were so many occasions that I thought about just giving up and reading no more but I persevered just in case something could resurrect my interest. Sadly it was not to be and I ended up finishing the book with no more satisfaction than I had after the first 100 pages.

The writing style is atrocious! There is literally no structure to the work. There are no chapters and sentences can run on from one to the next with no breaks or punctuation. What's even worse is the fact that, within a paragraph, you can be reading about one character's exploits and in the next sentence the focus switches completely and there's no indication that anything has changed at all until it dawns on you that something doesn't seem right.

How anyone can rate this as a "cult masterpiece" or a "devilishly funny work" I'm not sure. There's very little in the way of humour in it and most of the story is either just confusing or absolute waffle. Okay, they've seeded it with a few hard-core sex and drug scenes to appeal to the pulp-fiction junkies but even that gets a bit tedious after a while. Most of the main characters meandered through the story while high on drugs so I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the authors were in a similar condition when they wrote it.

If you want to retain your sanity, then give this one a miss!

Genre: Mystery, Science-Fiction
ISBN: 978-1-85487-574-7
My Rating: 3/10

Ironcrown Moon - by Julian May

Ironcrown Moon is the second volume in The Boreal Moon Tale by Julian May. Here's a short summary of the plot as it develops…

Conrig Wincantor has achieved his aim of uniting the island of High Blenholme under his sovereignty and he now sits on the Ironcrown throne as King. But not all of his subjects are happy about the new arrangement.

Conrig's spy Deveron is now Sir Deveron but he's still Snudge in more ways than one. Conrig's first wife Maudrayne, thought drowned when she leapt from the tower after agreeing to his divorce demand, has resurfaced in the north. Conrig fears that she could divulge his secret to the world and rob both him and his heirs of the crown.

Meanwhile the many other plots and schemes continue. Prince Beynor of Moss, banned from using moon sigils by the Beaconfolk on pain of death, is now playing several sides off to his own advantage, or at least that was the plan. Killian Blackhorse, Conrig's denounced alchemyst, has escaped and plans to recover the Trove of Darasilo and aid the exiled prince of Didion to help him gain the throne of that province and so challenge the sovereignty.

Deveron, sent North to seek out Maudrayne, is unhappy with his King and is worried that the old saying about absolute power corrupting absolutely may be starting to have its effect on him. Oh, and the Salka monsters want their island back!

Julian May continues to impress with this series. It has a wealth of characters, creatures, schemes and plots; certainly enough to keep most readers turning the pages. The plot may be fairly standard fantasy stuff but there's so much going on and all of it interlinking nicely as the tale progresses. The main players are very well developed at this stage so it's interesting to see how their own circumstances and the ramifications of the storyline lead them to change character.

Basically, Ironcrown Moon is a very acceptable sequel to Conqueror's Moon and an entertaining story in itself.

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
ISBN:
My Rating: 7/10

Black Sun Rising - by Celia Friedman

Black Sun Rising is the first volume in Celia Friedman's Coldfire series. It looks like the beginning of a very readable science-fiction/fantasy story so here's a brief outline of the plot…

Over 1,000 years ago, colonists from Earth settled on the far distant, seismically active but beautiful planet Erna. However, this seemingly habitable world was fraught with perils that no-one could have forseen and the colonists soon found themselves caught in a desperate struggle for their very survival.

Erna was home to the Fae, a terrifying natural force with the power to prey upon the human mind, indiscriminately bring both dreams and nightmares to life. But with nowhere else to go, the colonists learned to live with the Fae and twelve hundred years later, mankind and Fae have reached an uneasy stalemate.

Now, human sorcerors manipulate the Fae for profit but what they don't realize is that there are demonic forces on Erna that feed upon their interactions with the Fae and they are gaining in strength. Into this cauldron of power are thrown a priest, an adept, an apprentice and a sorceror and together they must find and confront an evil beyond their imagining. The very fate of humanity depends on them.

Okay, it's been done many times before now but I like the mix of science-fiction and fantasy here. It gives some background to the story and provides a set of rules by which the fantasy element can be controlled. Friedman has crafted a plausible world with a sound basis in science-fiction and populated it with a rich mix of characters for her story. Erna has three moons, which means there's always some light available and only rarely do all moon set together, bringing about true night. True night is a time to be feared by all as the Fae is at its strongest.

I suppose the story can be likened (a bit) to the movie Forbidden Planet, where monsters of the id were responsible for the extinction of the Krell race. Where Altair-4 had the vast machinery if the Krell, Erna has the Fae but the results are much the same. Imagine a world where your very thoughts, even a stray one, can become reality and you'll appreciate how living on Erna would be very difficult. It also explains the rise of the church in what should have been a scientifically oriented society.

The mix of primary characters is pretty good too with the reverand Damien Kilcannon Vryce as the leader of the party of adventurers and the mysterious Gerald Tarrant, also known as the Hunter and master of the forbidden Forest, as a sort of anti-hero. You know Tarrant is evil but even he isn't beyond redemption and there are much worse things out there.

The next installment is called When True Night Falls and it's definitely on my must read list.

Genre:Adventure, Fantasy, Science-Fiction
ISBN: 1-84149-541-7
My Rating: 8/10

Dark Space - by Marianne de Pierres

Dark Space is the first installment in the Sentients Of Orion series by Australian author Marianne de Pierres. Here's a brief summary of the plot…

While drifting in space, lost due to navigational failure, mineral scout Jo-Jo Rasterovich encounters an entity that can only be described as "God". When word gets out, academics from across the Orion sector scramble to gain favour with the entity, whom they named Sole. However, not all of the sentients of Orion hold this god in awe and some are deeply suspicious of its intentions.

Meanwhile on the planet Araldis, Baronessa Mira Fedor is being cheated out of her heriditery role as Pilot First. Her family's genetic makeup allows her to communicate with the sentient, deep-space ships capable of interplanetary travel and the Principe wants to transfer her genes to his son Trinder.

While Mira is on the run from those that would perpetrate this atrocity and doom her to insanity, Araldis is invaded by a race of what appears to be giant water spiders whose only aim appears to be to decimate the population and feed on them. Only the Orion League of Sentient Species can lend aid but someone would need to got offworld to let them know and OLOSS is somewhat preoccupied in communicating with "God".

Can Mira evade capture by her own people and prowling aliens, get to the planet's only remaining spaceship Insignia and get the news of the invasion to OLOSS and exactly how is the misogynistic Jo-Jo Rasterovich and nefarious alien Tekton involved in all of this? As for the Entity, only it knows what its priorities are and it isn't telling...yet!

I really liked this story! With one arc following Mira as she flees the Principe and his surgeons, one following Trinder as he is recruited into the local Carabinere, one following the alien Tekton as he vies with his peers for the attention of the Sole entity, one following Jo-Jo on an erotic, drunken romp and then there's Sole and whatever it's up to.

Mira and Trinder's stories get sucked into the after affects of the invasion of their world while Jo-Jo and Tekton get involved for some pretty dodgy dealing, which seems to have some involvement with Araldis. There's certainly enough going on in this tale to keep you reading avidly on. Jo-Jo and Tekton's antics are verging on the hilarious in places while Mira and Trinder, used to lives of luxury as aristocrats, are seeing things from the perspective of victims of war.

Definitely worth reading and I hope the sequel continues at this level.

Genre: Science-Fiction.
ISBN: 978-1-84149-428-9
My Rating: 8/10

The Swarm: A Novel Of The Deep - by Frank Schätzing

The Swarm is a tale of what could happen if the Earth decides that humanity can no longer be tolerated in the face of our complacent destruction of the planet's delicate ecology. Here's a brief taster of the plot…

Something strange and terrible is occurring in our oceans and seas. Whales and orcas have started attacking boats and tourists off the coast of Canada, South American fishermen are going missing, a lot of very odd worms have turned up near an ocean-floor drilling station near Norway, huge shoals of highly toxic jellyfish are plaguing the Australian beaches and a weird lobster explodes in a French restaurant, causing a lethal epidemic to spread.

Is the marine life fighting back against decades of our polluting the seas or is it all part of a terrorist plot to destabilize the world economy? Leading scientists from all over the world are recruited to try to figure out who or what is behind all of these occurrences but when events take a catastrophic turn for the worse, they soon come to realize that we may not be the most dominant species on Earth and never have been.

The Swarm was originally published in German and has been translated into English but I don't think it's lost anything in the translation as it's still a cracking read. At almost 900 pages, it's maybe a bit on the long side for some but Schätzing uses that to build and develop his main characters very well and, given the global scope of the storyline, there's a lot going on.

It starts off with a few small incidents coming to the attention of scientists and governments and builds in tension and speed as it heads towards the inevitably climactic conclusion. Schätzing has done his homework regarding the science behind the story pretty well, especially in the fields of marine biology, geology and geophysics, which makes it all the more plausible.

It's a change to read a novel written by a non American/non British author as Schätzing brings a definitely European perception of things into the mix. This isn't Independence Day and the Americans aren't going to get to save the world in this story or at least not without a lot of help from the rest of us.

While reading it, I was thinking it would make a good movie and lo and behold, I found out that actress and producer Uma Thurman bought the film rights to it in May 2006 and it has been subsequently announced that a film version is in the works for sometime in 2008. Unfortunately that probably means that the Americans will take all the main leads and ruin it.

Well worth reading all the way through to the end!

ISBN:978-0-340-89524-5
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Science-Fiction, Thriller
My Rating: 8/10

Sign Of The Cross - by Chris Kuzneski

Sign Of Che Cross is yet another in a long line of religious thrillers in the same vein as The Da Vinci Code but it was going cheap and the blurb on the back cover made it attractive enough for a no-brainer read. Here's the basic tempter from the back…

A Vatican priest is found murdered on the shores of Denmark, nailed to a cross in the shadow of Hamlet's castle. He is the first victim in a vicious killing spree that spans the world, each horrific murder exactly mirroring the crucifixion of Christ.

Meanwhile, deep in the Roman catacombs of Orvieto, an archaeologist uncovers an ancient scroll dating back two thousand years. The scroll, he knows, holds the key to a dark and treacherous secret that will rock the very foundations of the Church. But only if he can decipher its lost meanings and only if he can live long enough to reveal them.

As expected it was a fairly easy and undemanding read with a plausible storyline to give it some credence. Kuzneski has obviously done a fair bit of research and has managed to come up with a decent plot, almost believable characters and a pace that makes you want to just read the next chapter and then the next.

It does keep you guessing for a while as to who's behind the killings and why. It's an unfortunate coincidence for the bad guys that the archaeologist was rooting around in something connected to their scheme just as they kicked off with the killing spree but I don't suppose it'd been much of a story otherwise.

The only annoying thing was the fact that, once the action hotted up, quite a lot of the chapters ended with one of those little leading statements of things to come. You know what I mean. Stuff like "Of course, that was nothing compared to the evidence that someone was about to uncover next." and "Miraculously, their prayers would be answered less than an hour later."

Nevertheless, it's not a bad read and ideal for a long plane or train ride.

Genre: Action, Mystery, Thriller
ISBN: 978-0-141-030845
My Rating: 6/10

The Blade Itself - by Joe Abercrombie

The Blade Itself is the first installment in The First Law, a fantasy trilogy from new author Joe Abercrombie. Here's the gist of the story…

Logen Ninefingers, the infamous Northern barbarian, is on the run with his luck running out. He and his band have been banished from their homeland, the vile Shanka are coming down from the far North and now he's been separated from his men.

Captain Jezal dan Luthar is in training for the swordfencing Contest in Adua and that's all he cares about. Not that he'd care about anyone else but himself at any other time but he needs the glory of the win to keep his father sweet and still paying for his selfish lifestyle.

Inquisitor Glokta is a bitter man. Once the hero of the Contest and the brightest soldier in the army, he's now crippled and reduced to torturing confessions out of any unfortunate enough to come under his scrutiny. But even Glokta must watch his step as failure is not tolerated in the Inquisition.

Bayaz, First of the Magi, is again moving in the land and looking to take back the position that was once his on the inner council. This time he's looking for those who can aid him and, among others, Logen, Jezal and Glokta have stirred his interest.

For a first novel, this is an excellent tale; one of those hard to put down books that only comes around once in a while. The Blade Itself is a many-threaded tale, introducing the characters and the storyline and it does it really well. These are real people and not the standard fantasy novel characters who are usually way too good to be true. If anything, the primary characters here are anti-heroes. Logen has the blackest reputation, they don't call him The Bloody Nine for nothing, but he's just so likable; he swears, drinks, fancies a bit of the other and is ruthless when he has to be but he can be a big softie as well.

Logen's band are also a mean bunch but they have to be, living as they do as outlaws. Sand dan Glokta may be bitter but he was good once and there are glimmers in there that he may still be at heart but he's been dealt a very bad hand in life and is happy to see others suffer for a change. However, Jezal is thoroughly unlikeable but maybe he'll get more interesting in later books. Also introduced here is Ferro Maljinn and she hates just about everyone, happier to try and kill you rather than risk trusting you. On the whole, they're a pretty mixed bunch of characters but they all play off each other well.

Okay the plot so far is pretty formulaic. The middle kingdom is in trouble. Stuck between two fronts; the far North produces barbarians who are looking to come down and wage war on the weak kingdom and in the South, there's the wicked empire trying to conquer all as it expands. On top of that there's the political back-stabbing and manoeuverings of the nobility and a bit of love interest between Jezal and the sister of one of his colleagues.

Definitely worth reading this one and I'm off to get the sequel - Before They Are Hanged!

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
ISBN: 978-57507-979-3
My Rating: 9/10

Conqueror's Moon - by Julian May

Conqueror's Moon is the first volume in The Boreal Moon Tale, which is set on the island of High Blenholme, a land of four very different kingdoms. Here's the basic gist of this first installment…

Prince Conrig of Cathra has a vision to unite the four kingdoms of Cathra, Didion, Moss and Tarn on the island of High Blenholme under his own sovereignty but not all of them are in favour of submitting to his will.

While Conrig has an ally in Princess Ullanoth of Moss, a very powerful sorceress, he also has to contend with her brother Beynor, who has plans of his own for Moss and High Blenholme. Meanwhile the sealords of Tarn and a fair number of the Cathran nobility are also looking to feather their own nests as best they can out of the deal while Didion opt for war to avoid the union.

Then there's the original inhabitants of High Blenholme, ousted years before by Emperor Bazekoy. Both the monstrous Salka and the Spunkies want their land back with the humans on their menus. Overseeing all of this are the Great Lights, also known as the Coldlight Army and the Beaconfolk. They may look light pretty lights in the sky but they are far, far deadlier than that.

All of the above is fairly run-of-the-mill fantasy drama fare but the hero of the tale is a young lad, born with a wild magic talent, taken into service as a spy by Conrig, who has ambitious plans to unite the land and stave off an invasion from without. It's got magic, political manoeuvering, familial bickering, foul murder, war, nasty monsters and some right evil demons in the mix to keep things lively and interesting.

May seems to write fantasy novels just as well as she does science-fiction and Conqueror's Moon shows all the signs of The Boreal Moon Tale developing into a very decent piece of work. It mau be a wee bit predictable in places but High Blenholme is a pretty rich and varied setting for the story and the characters are nicely developed as the story progresses.

ISBN: 0-00-712320-5
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
My Rating: 7/10

Online Books, Audiobooks and eBooks

I've just come across the World Public Library site and, given that I've got a fair few book reviews here, then it might be of interest to anyone that likes reading.

Boasting that they are the world's largest digital archive of PDF eBooks, audiobooks and eDocuments and hosting more than 500,000 items ranging from fiction to technical manuals, there has to be something in there to interest almost everyone.

Subscribing as a member costs under $10 a year but there's an awful lot of free stuff on there as well and it's well worth having a look at what they've got.

Planets Of Adventure - by Murray Leinster

Planets of Adventure is a collection of two novels and some short stories, comprising classic works of early science-fiction from the 1920s up to the 1950s…

The Forgotten Plant - This tells the tale of a world which was, by chance, "mislaid" by he galactic bureaucracy. Its terraforming project left incomplete, it evolved into a nightmare planet of giant insects and spiders. When a space-liner crashes on the world, the human survivors and their descendants have to learn to survive this version of hell.

The Forgotten Planet was Leinster's rewrite and novelization of three previously published novellas: The Mad Planet (Argosy, June 1920), The Red Dust (Argosy, April 1921) and Nightmare Planet (Science Fiction Plus, June 1953). This is classic B-movie stuff with giant, man-eating spiders and forests of enormous mushrooms.

The Planet Explorer - As humanity spreads throughout the galaxy, the colonization of new worlds is strictly monitored and controlled. As often happens, what appears to be an apparently hospitable planet may well contain undiscovered dangers. It's the job of the Colonial Survey Office and one man in particular to help avert these disasters.

The Planet Explorer started off as four separate tales: Sand Doom (Astounding, December 1955), Exploration Team (Astounding, March 1956), Critical Difference (Astounding, July 1956) and The Swamp Was Upside Down (Astounding, September 1956). Leinster rewrote them to give them all the same protagonist and then re-issued them under the name Colonial Survey in 1956 and then as The Planet Explorer in 1957. We get to follow Senior Colonial Survey Officer Bordman through his career as he has to deal with four of these "problem" worlds.

The other five tales (Anthroplogical Note, Scrimshaw, Assignment on Pasik, Regulations and The Skit-Tree Planet) are short stories published in various magazines between 1947 and 1957 but each is a science-fiction gem and well worth reading.

Murray Leinster (aka William Fitzgerald Jenkins) is one of the fathers of science-fiction writing and this little collection, compiled and edited by Eric Flint and Guy Gordon, is a cracking example of his work.

Okay, some of these stories may feel a little dated but that's what they are. This is a galaxy where rocket ships still land vertically on their tale fins, robots are clanking automata and advanced alien civilizations can still fall foul of a common cold.

Genre: Science-Fiction
ISBN: 0-7434-7162-8
My Rating: 8/10

The Novice - by Trudi Canavan

The Novice is the second volume in The Black Magician trilogy and a sequel to The Magician's Guild, continuing the story of Sonea, the little girl from the slums who has now been accepted as a novice in the Magician's Guild.

Sonea is now a novice and has moved into the Magician's Guild in order to begin her training. However, her fellow students, the sons and daughters of the realm's most powerful families, see her as an upstart from the slums who should be seen to fail at whatever cost.

When High Lord Akkarin takes her under his protection Sonea is even more despondent as she knows he harbours a dark and sinister secret. Isolated from her family and friends, despised and bullied by her classmates and living in dread in the High Lord's house, Sonea must rise far above her training to meet all of these ordeals.

The Novice follows much the same pattern and writing style of its predecessor. It's a very easy and predictable read but entertaining nevertheless and the plot is getting a bit more complicated but not overly so. Canavan's writing style hasn't improved as far as I can see but its simplicity may appeal to a younger audience.

There are basically two story threads on the go this time. The main one being Sonea striving to keep one step ahead of her enemies and pursue her studies while avoiding Akkarin and the other following Lord Dannyl as he wanders foreign lands trying to find out what Akkarin was up to while he was abroad.

Adds a bit more depth to the story following on from The Magician's Guild so if you've read that and found it enjoyable enough, then this won't disappoint either.

ISBN: 1-84149-314-7
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
My Rating: 6/10

The Historian - by Elizabeth Kostova

The Historian attempts to pick up the threads of Bram Stoker's Dracula and expounds the idea that the 15th century vampire is still among us, walking the Earth as an undead creature of the night.

It tells its tale in much the same way as Stoker did, in a series of journals and letters, only this story spans three generations in its search for the resting place of the medieval monster that Stoker's Dracula was based on. He goes by many names - Vlad The Impaler, Vlad Drakul and Prince Vlad Ţepeş.

The three generations' stories are nested within each other and, while the book follows the latest quest to find the fiend, we are also treated to the historical progress of the previous two which, as you've probably guessed, ended badly.

It has to be said that, while the book promises a lot, it is a very slow and laborious read. We follow the tale of a sixteen-year old girl, who's father is an important diplomat and he's taken off on a quest to find his old University mentor, who he believes has been kidnapped by Dracula. The fact that her mother has gone missing, presumed dead, is also factored into it.

So we get a narrative by the daughter, the notes and journals of both the father in his youth and in his search for his mentor and then even earlier ones from the mentor himself. Their travels cover a fairly wide expanse of Europe from the Romanian region of Wallachia, which is where Vlad Ţepeş originated from, through Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Austria, England, The Netherlands and Spain.

Kostova weaves a detailed tale containing much about the life and deeds of probably one of the worst tyrants of European history so, in reading it, the reader will learn a great deal of the history of Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Unfortunately the characters embued with tracking this villain down are pretty weak. They are, for want of a better word, academics and not the Indiana Jones kind of academic. They are researchers to the core and, while the story is interesting in places, it didn't grip me as a good horror novel should. There's very little action and almost none of the building dread required of such a work and, given the inconclusive ending, it was an unsatisfying read.

Genre: Horror
ISBN: 0-7515-3728-4
My Rating: 5/10

The Year Of Our War - by Steph Swainston

The Year Of Our War is a tale of fantasy and war in the Fourlands.

The Emperor controls and maintains The Circle, a group of 50 immortals and the best at each skill useful in the war against the insects that have plagued the land for centuries, eating everything and everyone in their path.

All mortals dream of joining the Circle and becoming immortal and that place, once gained, must be defended against all challangers. Jant is the Messenger but he's confident in keeping his place among the immortals as he is the only man alive that can fly. Others are not so lucky and have their own rivalries and squabbles to content with. Meanwhile, the insects just keep coming and coming and no-one knows where from!

The Year Of Our War is Steph Swainston's first novel and, as such, it's a pretty accomplished work. However, there's a lot going on and it may get a little too surreal for some readers. It reminded me of the work of China Miéville and his multi-specied world of Bas-Lag. There are the Plainslanders, who seem human, or at least we get no indication that they are unusual in any way. Then there's the Awians, who appear to be humanoids with wings but they can't fly and lastly the Rhydanne, who seem to be evolved from cats but I'm guessing there.

Character development of the main players like Jant and Lightning is quite good but we don't learn much about the Emperor or how he bestows immortality on his Circle. Jant is the main character of the story but I wouldn't exactly call him a hero. He's half Rhydanne, half Awian and, being so light because of his Rhydanne ancestry, he can actually use his wings to fly. As The Circle's Messenger, his place as an immortal is pretty secure; no-one is going to beat someone that can fly but on the downside, he's drug addict with a pretty shady past.

The book ends with no indication of a sequel to come and no obvious loose ends other than the fact that the war goes on. However, it looks like Swainston has decided to expand it into a series so there's No Present Like Time and Dangerous Offspring to be read next if the reader is sufficiently captivated by the first book. I might give the next one a try myself as The Year Of Our War was an entertaining story.

Genre: Action, Drama, Fantasy, Science-Fiction, War
ISBN: 0-575-07642-9
My Rating: 7/10

1632 - by Eric Flint

1632 is the first novel in a fantasy series where a six-mile wide chunk of West Virginia, USA is inexplicably transported to Northern Germany during the 17th century and in the middle of the Thirty Years' War.

Northern Germany, 1632, and things weren't going so well for anyone living there. Famine, disease and religious war were the norm and where, if you were a peasant, death was a merciful release. In Grantville, West Virginia in the year 2000, all is peachy and most of the town, including the local branch of the UMWA (United Mine Workers of America) are attending a wedding and having a great time. Suddenly, there's a blinding flash and thunder rattles the windows.

When Mike Stearns leads an armed group of the wedding guests out to investgate the source of the flash, they find the road into town cut as with a knife and, on the other side, a scene out of Hell. A man is being nailed to a farmhouse door while his wife and daughter are being attacked by a bunch of men in steel vests. Mike and his boys don't need to think twice and are in no doubt as who needs shooting, bringing good ol' American style justice into the middle of the Thirty Years' War.

Having read the summary while browsing through the books in Forbidden Planet and noticing that it was reduced in price, I thought it might be a light and mildly amusing read. While it certainly isn't that amusing, it is a decent work of pure fantasy and allows us to speculate on an alternate version of reality, a kind of "what-if" the path of history was changed by a visit from aliens with superior technology and completely different moral and cultural values.

I quite enjoyed it and the author has successfully meshed the story in and around a pretty true depiction of the known history of the period. To the eternal shame of Scottish education, I haven't previously encountered anything about the Thirty Years' War or indeed very much about European history of the period during my school years so it was even an educational experience and it made a very entertaining read. It's a pity that there's no sister story about what happened to the chunk of 17th century Germany that Grantville replaced but the prologue does try to explain a little about what happened after Granville vanished.

The idea of dropping a pretty much gun-crazy bunch of Americans into the middle of a historical war-zone is precious stuff and it works very well. I couldn't help wondering if the author had intended any parallels with Afghanistan or Iraq as, while the yanks have superior fire-power, the locals are a force to be reckoned with, regardless of their technological inferiority and they have an almost inexhaustible supply of cannon-fodder on their side.

1632 has spawned an enormous trail of books and spin-offs and a huge fan-base and it can be read or downloaded in various e-book formats for free from the Baen Free Library, where I noticed that they also have the sequel to it available so I might give that a try and save a few quid as well.

Genre: Fantasy, Science-Fiction, Historical Drama.
ISBN: 1-4165-3281-1
My Rating: 6/10

The Runes Of The Earth - by Stephen Donaldson

The Runes Of The Earth is the first volume in The Last Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson. I'd read Donaldson's first and second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever when they were published back in the 1970s and 80s so this was pretty much a "must read" for me. Here's a brief summary of the plot…

10 years have passed since the events leading up to the defeat of Lord Foul the Despiser when Thomas Covenant and Linden Avery remade the Staff of Law and saved the Land from destruction. Covenant died in that final encounter and now Dr. Linden Avery lives quietly with her adopted son Jeremiah and runs a small clinic where, mong other things, she is responsible for caring for Joan Covenant, Thomas's wife, who was driven mad by Lord Foul.

Now Covenant's son Roger has turned up and forcefully removed Joan from the clinic at gunpoint and events ensue that lead to Linden, Joan, Roger and Jeremiah being plunged back into The Land, the parallel world where Linden and Covenant defeated Lord Foul, or at least thought they had.

About 3,000 years have passed since she was last there and The Land is still recovering from the effects of the Sunbane. The Haruchai now call themselves Masters of The Land and the Staff of Law has been lost. A miasma of wrongness pervades the atmosphere and the land is plagued by destructive rifts in space. On top of all that, Linden gets messages from Thomas Covenant telling her to find him and to remember that he's dead.

The first thing to say is that you really have to have read the earlier chronicles to be able to follow this and appreciate it. There are constant references to people, places and events from those books throughout this one so I doubt if a Covenant virgin would be able to pick this up and enjoy it. That aside I enjoyed both this story and trying to remember about all of those references. It almost makes me want to read them all over again.

A couple of things annoyed me and that was Donaldson's use of certain words. One was "percipience", which I'd never heard used before in place of the more widely used "perception" but Donaldson uses it on almost every page or two. The other was "caesures". Yes it's in italics in the book and, as far as I can see, it's not in any dictionary and I tried a quite a few, but he uses it like it's an actual word and as if we were supposed to know what it meant.

The above aside, I think any fans of the original stories will like this one as well and this first volume has certainly started things off pretty well as we're left with several unanswered questions like "is Covenant alive or not?" and "what is Roger's part in this?" I guess we'll just have to wait until volume two hits the stores.

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy.
ISBN: 0-575-07612-7
My Rating: 8/10