Graeme does Comfort Reading: ‘The Mark of the Demons’ (John Jakes)

Just look at that cover :o) We might moan about cover art these days but back in the day, this was all our parents had and they just got on with it. Maybe it's time to stop moaning?

My comfort reading is in danger of becoming a regular feature on this blog; there’s certainly something about Fridays, just recently, where all I’ve been good for reading-wise is picking up old favourites from my childhood. All you can do is go with it and let the reading take care of itself, and it’s always good to stop and take a look back every now and then.

Today’s comfort read features possibly the most derivative barbarian warrior in fantasy fiction; Brak is a shameless Conan rip off (albeit perhaps a little more thoughtful and with a fear of heights) who is bound on a quest to reach the fabled lands of Khurdisan and the riches that lie there. Sounds familiar? That’s because it is and that’s what makes ‘The Mark of the Demons’ (and the other book in the series that I have read) such a comfort read. You don’t really have to think about the plot because you know it already, just go along with the story and watch Brak conquer all before him... Well, eventually, after he’s taken one too many knocks to the head and someone else has had to rescue him. Brak is derivative then but there’s just enough of his innate ability to cock up going on to keep things interesting (even though you know it will all turn out ok in the end). I’m going to shut up for a sec though and give you some blurb…

We go to the dark. We ride to the awful dark. A stranger leads us, a savage man. His presence brings the evil down!"
The soothsayer's grim words chilled the hearts of the travellers. Even the iron nerves of Brak the Barbarian twanged with foreboding. For in the traders' caravan as it crossed the wasteland of Logol he was the savage, the stranger. Though his strength and swordsmanship might protect the caravan from attacks by brigands or wild beasts, even from the ruby-eyed warriors of Quran, he was as helpless as any against the menace of supernatural powers.
And as first one, then another of the travellers fell prey to the horror that stalked them, Brak knew that he must find a weapon more powerful than his sword if he too was not to be discovered drained of blood and bones, a dry husk bearing the three black marks, the triangular Mark of the Demons.

A lot of my childhood genre reading came out of markets and old second hand bookshops that I used to hang out in while on holiday; it was a mixed bag in terms of quality but at 50p a book (or something like that) I never complained, just carried on reading. ‘Brak the Barbarian’ and ‘The Mark of the Demons’ were first read while holidaying in Norfolk and I’ve been revisiting them ever since. ‘The Mark of the Demons’ in particular is worth a quick read if you ever come across it. Yes, Brak can come across as hapless and the outcome of the story is never really in doubt but there’s also a rich vein of horror running through the story that is worth the price of entry (which may well be only a penny if you get the book on Amazon but you know what I mean).

Unlike his more illustrious counterpart, Brak scares easily and I mean very easily… Brak is a barbarian who really can’t get his head around the fact that dark gods and their minions are very much a part of his world; they scare him and this fear rubs off onto the reader. This is especially the case when you the true nature of the evil stalking the caravan becomes apparent; Jakes really strikes that discordant note you get when pure evil and great beauty inhabit the same body and this works to great effect, especially when that evil starts singing (seriously, a very powerful moment in the book)

‘The Mark of the Demons’ will always be a comfort read for me. Derivative enough not to be too taxing, bloody and scary enough to be gripping; it also takes place in a world well drawn enough to get lost in very easily. I don’t know if Brak ever found Khurdisan in the end (I’d guess that he didn’t, given how clueless he can be sometimes); I hope he did.

Cover Art - 'The Fell Sword' (Miles Cameron)

This was waiting for me when I got home last night and I have to share the cover because it looks just lovely as well as continuing the cover theme begun in 'The Red Knight'. No catchy little slogan this time but I can let that go because OH MY GOD LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THE ROC! Go on, have a look...

Loyalty costs money.

Betrayal, on the other hand, is free

When the Emperor is taken hostage, the Red Knight and his men find their services in high demand - and themselves surrounded by enemies. The country is in revolt, the capital city is besieged and any victory will be hard won. But The Red Knight has a plan.
The question is, can he negotiate the political, magical, real and romantic battlefields at the same time - especially when intends to be victorious on them all?

I still need to read 'The Red Knight' and am playing with my ever-changing reading pile to see if I can do this sooner rather than later. So many books, so little time etc etc. I wouldn't have it any other way would you? Has anyone here read 'The Red Knight'?

In related news, everyone who has a blog was told yesterday that Miles Cameron is in fact Christian Cameron, historical novelist with the 'Tyrant', 'Long War' and 'Chivalry' series to his name. So that's a whole load more books that I haven't read then...

Anyway, if you hadn't heard the news then you have now. As you were everyone... ;o)

'Betrayer' - Aaron Dembski-Bowden (Black Library)

The Shadow Crusade has begun. While the Ultramarines reel from Kor Phaeron's surprise attack on Calth, Lorgar and the rest of the Word Bearers strike deep into Ultramar. Their unlikely allies, Angron and the World Eaters, continue to ravage each new system they come across - upon the garrison planet of Armatura, this relentless savagery may finally prove to be their undoing. Worlds will burn, Legions will clash and a primarch will fall.

I love reading Black Library books and I’ve really enjoyed the Horus Heresy books in particular; well, I did but I don’t seem to be reading much of them these days… I spoke about this a little bit when I wrote about ‘The Death of Integrity’, not so long ago, but never really went into one of the aspects of the Horus Heresy series that has kind of dampened things for me. To put it bluntly, it’s too damn long.

Now, there’s a school of thought that questions why this should be a problem. If the quality is maintained (and it is, for the most part) then a series should theoretically be able to go on forever and it won’t be a big deal. For me though, the Horus Heresy series promised explosive civil war that would engulf the galaxy but has settled down into a steady amble where things are slowly being built up to a finale that might happen one day (once Black Library decide that they can’t stretch the series any further). That’s how it feels to me anyway, I’m not the kind of person who appreciates being strung along and there are loads more books out there to read. Right?

So why am I here, right now, about to embark on a post about a fairly recent Horus Heresy book? The answer is Aaron Dembski-Bowden. In all the time I’ve been reading Black Library books, Dembski-Bowden hasn’t written a bad one. If anything, he just keeps getting better and better so the prospect of a book about the World Eaters Chapter (Space Marines that I’ve heard of but never really seen) was an intriguing one to say the least…

Everything that Dembski-Bowden touches seems to turn to gold then and ‘Betrayer’ is no different. While it may be a straightforward read with no big surprises (hence this review being a touch on the short side), ‘Betrayer’ makes up for this in plenty of other ways and this results in a read all too easy to get totally immersed in. Time spent reading ‘Betrayer’ just flew by.

Whatever Legion Dembski-Bowden focuses on, he just seems to instinctively get them and this applies to his portrayal of the World Eaters; a Legion caught between loyalty to their Primarch Angron and hatred of him for what he has turned them into. A Legion then with no other direction than to do what they have always done best, fight whatever is in front of them. Dembski-Bowden imbues the World Eaters with all the raw savagery that you would expect then unleashes the inevitable results on well-meaning but ultimately doomed Ultramarines. The resulting scenes of warfare (well, carnage really…) make for awesome reading not only for the bloodshed but also for the slight feeling of tragedy that tempers the proceedings. Here is a once proud Legion that has been basically mismanaged into a pack of snarling animals that don’t even have the nobility of the Space Wolves. Angron himself is the most tragic character of all, a man forced to turn his back on everything he knew was right and take up a life of cold loneliness. It’s a sad state of affairs and Dembski-Bowden uses the sense of inevitability, which comes with it, to introduce powerful new tones to the plot as stronger minds take control and force events to their own ends. Yes, fans will know the outcome but the stops that Dembski-Bowden forces us to take along the way really make the reader appreciate what the unfolding events mean for everyone involved. From Primarchs and Marines at the centre of the Heresy to the humans caught in their wake and forced to readjust their entire lives; Demsbki-Bowden more than any other Black Library author paints the Heresy as the galaxy wide phenomenon that it is. If only the rest of the series had followed his approach, things would actually get done in this series…

‘Betrayer’ is a book that forces the reader to examine that very concept at all levels and really appreciate how all that betrayal has resulted in civil war. Everyone is guilty and everyone must reap the consequences. I can’t think of anyone better than Aaron Dembski-Bowden to bring these concepts into the Warhammer 40K universe; a writer brave enough to write stirring battle scenes whilst having his warriors mock the ability of people to capture these moments on the page. I love that attitude and I hope to see a lot more of it in this series. 'Betrayer' might take a straightforward route from A to B but what you find along the way makes that journey a little tougher than you expected.

The Biggest Ebook Ever...?

Well that might be pushing the point a little too far but I can't think of any others that are bigger... :o) Tor have just released 'The Complete Malazan Book of the Fallen' as an ebook only bundle with a search function for those awkward moments where you get five or six books and realise that you can't tell your Tiste Andii from your Tiste Edur. Admit it, it's happened to all of us at one point or another ;o)
The cover art looks pretty damn cool as well. Check it out...

I'm still reading stuff via my phone, these days, and there is no way that I would even think of tackling the Malazan books on that screen. If a migraine didn't take up residence first, there is every chance that my eyeballs would just pack their bags and leave; I'm not going to do that to them.

This news has reminded me though that my Malazan reading ground to a dead halt about a hundred or so pages into 'Dust of Dreams'; I'm never going to be able to pick up from where I left off but maybe a 'Grand Malazan Re-Read' might be in order, a book a month maybe? Hmmm...

'The Girl with all the Gifts' - M.R.Carey (Orbit)

Every time I reach my absolute limit with zombie fiction another book arrives and persuades me to keep going just a little bit further. Zombie fiction these days is just like the monster it portrays, it's dead but hasn't quite realised it yet and continues to shamble along mindlessly. It's not doing anything new now and there's only so far that survival horror will carry any plot.

But I keep going back, hoping that zombie fiction will scale the heights that it once did and also because (being completely honest here) I love to start the morning commute with a heady dose of gore. There I said it :o) I'm also keen to see what authors new to the genre can do with it. M.R. Carey isn't exactly new to zombies (having written about them before) but has never, to my knowledge, written an entire book about them. I love his style (no matter what name he uses) so had to read 'The Girl with all the Gifts' and I'm really glad that I did. I don't think there will ever be a sequel (for obvious reasons) so make the most of this book now, seriously.

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class.
When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite. But they don't laugh.
Melanie is a very special girl.

'The Girl with all the Gifts' is many things all at once and these seperate facets all combine to form a narrative that is rich and compelling. I couldn't get enough of it and at one point, after a long old day at work, made the decision that a rotten headache in the morning would be a small price to pay for reading the last fifty pages. It's that good.

The zombie apocalypse is here again but this time it's the most plausible it has been since Joe McKinney said there was something in the water. Without giving too much away, there's a zombie apocalypse going on right now and Carey takes this to a logical conclusion that has echoes of 'Day of the Triffids'. Another British apocalypse where the emphasis is on finding a cure instead of shooting up zombies (although the 'hungries' do get shot) and this adds just the right note of urgency to proceedings; especially at the very end where everything is suddenly cast in a new light and the ‘cure’ becomes very different indeed.

Melanie takes centre stage here and is a surprisingly frustrating character to write about in terms of keeping things fresh for people who haven’t picked up the book yet. You can probably guess the ‘big reveal’ anyway but what really keeps the pages turning is Melanie’s childlike view of the world; the sense of wonder that comes with every new thing she sees and her determination to protect her teacher, Miss Justineau, whatever the cost. It’s that naivety that reels the reader in to begin with (makes for some very touching moments), what keeps us reading is seeing how Melanie adjusts to change and how that naivety changes under various pressures (and there are some harrowing moments here, enough to make me say that you probably shouldn’t read this book if you don’t like writing that is close to the bone). It’s a real testament to Carey’s ability as a writer that Melanie becomes a very different person, by the end of the book, but still retains that core naivety enough to make some earth shattering decisions just when it matters the most to the reader. Sometimes you have to see the world through a child’s eyes in order to be able to make the decisions that matter the most.

At the same time as everything else (i.e. a child’s journey through the zombie apocalypse) ‘The Girl with all the Gifts’ is all about your past not only haunting you but eventually taking what is owed. Some things are just too big to run away from, even if you put an entire zombie apocalypse between you and it. Dues have to be paid and what this means for one character in particular is terrifying yet strangely apt. A life sentence takes on a whole new meaning in this setting and while it could mean good things for the future of humanity you can’t help but feel the horror of that last page and what it means. It’s the most powerful ending to a novel that I’ve seen in a long time.

There is so much going on in ‘The Girl with all the Gifts’ and the only thing that I can really say to you is read the book and experience it all for yourself. Carey is a good storyteller at the best of times but here he takes his storytelling to a whole new level. Highly recommended.

Cover Art – ‘A Natural History of Dragons’ (Marie Brennan)

I know this book has been around for a little while now (via Tor I think) but not only did I miss that anyway, I love this cover and reckon it’s worth another post :o)

In all the years that I’ve been reading fantasy books with dragons on the cover, I never stopped to think about what they looked like under all those scales. Thanks to this cover, I finally get to find out…

I love the way this has been set out like a biology diagram with the mixture of bone, muscle and scales making for some incredibly eye-catching artwork. I’m not one to go on about fonts but, this time round, I really like the ones used here. They make for a really genteel feel to the book and I wonder how deliberate that is, given how the blurb is promising a certain direction to the book. Talking of blurb, have a look below and see what I mean,

All the world, from Scirland to the farthest reaches of Eriga, know Isabella, Lady Trent, to be the world’s preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth into the clear light of modern science. But before she became the illustrious figure we know today, there was a bookish young woman whose passion for learning, natural history, and, yes, dragons defied the stifling conventions of her day. Here at last, in her own words, is the true story of a pioneering spirit who risked her reputation, her prospects, and her fragile flesh and bone to satisfy her scientific curiosity; of how she sought true love and happiness despite her lamentable eccentricities; and of her thrilling expedition to the perilous mountains of Vystrana, where she made the first of many historic discoveries that would change the world forever.

I couldn’t really get into Brennan’s ‘Onyx Court’ books (as much as I wanted to) but the blurb here has piqued my interest and I want to give ‘A Natural History of Dragons’ a try as soon as I can. I’ve got high hopes, lets put it that way.
Did anyone here read ‘A Natural History of Dragons’ when Tor published it (I’ve got the UK edition published by Titan). What did you think of it?

Graeme does Comfort Reading - 'Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth' (Terrance Dicks)

So I’ve spent most of this week trying to get one daughter to settle whilst hoping the other doesn’t wake up (changing nappies in the dark is not a good thing at all…) and trying to get all my coursework in order for college (handed the folder in and hoping that it doesn’t need any more work on it) whilst also trying my hardest to look like I know what the hell I’m doing at work. Absolutely shattered is the phrase of the day then and I am so looking forward to going to bed tonight and sleeping until Sunday night.
With all that in mind then, did I spend the commute into work reading something new and trying to get my had round the plot? Or… Did I opt for some good old fashioned comfort reading and give my brain a rest? Okay, I know what the title of the post says but pretend you didn’t read it…
Here’s the answer,

Sometimes comfort reading is the only thing to do. Something familiar and easy just to help your brain tick over, something where you can let the plot just flow round you if you’re not up to paying too much attention to what is going on. Something very much like ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’, a book that I’ve had on my shelves for a good thirty years at least (maybe a little bit more). The plot is very simple (as is the case with most Doctor Who books and shows); there is an alien threat and the Doctor defeats it. It’s the Daleks though and that always adds a little extra urgency to the proceedings even if you just know that the Doctor will take care of business. They’re cold blooded killers after all and there is plenty of that going on here with Daleks merrily exterminating the human rebels whether they keep fighting or surrender.

Terrance Dicks is the man most people automatically think of when talking about the ‘Doctor Who’ Target novelisations and I’ve got to say that he’s done a really good job here; I must have read this book hundreds of times but he still keeps me hooked by focussing on the aforementioned evil of the Daleks. Their seeming invincibility is also emphasised as well with a couple of really powerful moments where human fighters think they have destroyed a Dalek, only for it come rolling out of the smoke just as deadly as ever.

What really struck me on this read though is the element of horror that Terrance Dicks brings to this novelisation. We have a chase through a work camp where characters are being hunted by the Slyther, a monster that the Daleks brought with them from the planet Skaro. You don’t actually see the Slyther for most of this chase, you only see the reactions to its howl but that is more than enough to get the blood pumping and share in the fear of those being chased. Really suspenseful stuff here.

It wasn’t these moments that really got me though. Dicks opens ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’ with a Robo-Man (essentially a lobotomised human) committing suicide and that is really powerful stuff coming from what is essentially a kids book. A human being altered to such a degree that the pain and despair have driven him to kill himself; it was this passage that really drove it home…

‘He fell, like a log or a stone, making no attempt to save himself. Dragged down by the weight of the helmet, his head sank beneath the grimy waters. There was something inhuman about the manner of his death – but then, he had not been truly human for a very long time.’

Imagine reading that when you were only six or seven years old… Funnily enough, at the time it didn’t make that much of an impression on me (I was pretty good at reading but not quite so hot with what they actually meant sometimes) but now I look at that and think, “Wow, that’s strong stuff…”

Having seen what I’ve written then, you wouldn’t think that ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’ is much of a comfort read then but I’d have to disagree. Like I said, familiarity breeds comfort and so does the message running throughout these books, the Doctor always defeats evil. It’s also a book that lets me escape to more comfortable (for comfortable, read ‘nostalgic’) memories in my head, times when pressing concerns generally involved whether I could bolt my dinner fast enough to be able to get down and watch Doctor Who on the TV. Maybe not easier times but definitely comfortable times. That’s why I love the occasional comfort read and would heartily recommend you do something similar every now and then. What are your comfort reads?