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Review: Poison by Sarah Pinborough (Gollancz)

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Poison by Sarah Pinsborough

The cover promises ‘a wicked, delicious, sexy Snow White fairytale’ so the question is does it deliver?

But before we answer that let’s look at the problem of modern-day fairy tales.  In Cinderella, when the wicked step sisters cut off parts of their feet to fit in the glass shoe what was really shocking was the two singing pigeons:

Rook di goo, rook di goo!
There’s blood in the shoe.
The shoe is too tight,
This bride is not right!

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm021.html

What do you mean you don’t remember that in the Disney version? Oh that’s right; they didn’t use it. They sanitised the original and made it more ‘child-friendly’ (whatever that means) though I think a child would like that little bit of gore.

There are lots of issues with the portrayal of both sexes in  modern fairy tales. Things that you might not at first see to be issues. If you’ve read the works of Angela Carter especially The Bloody Chamber you’ll know what I mean. Her short stories give you a completely different view about how women are expected to behave and how powerful or powerless they can be.

In Poison Pinborough is in a middle ground between Disney’s interpretation and Carter’s feminism though much closer to the latter than the former. She takes the girl who was saved by dwarfs and turns her into a women and in the process strips away the veneer to show us a warts and all portrayal that is much more akin to reality.

Of course, it is still a fairytale. We have wicked step-mothers, charming princes, poisoned apples but we also have depth and characters that show a range of both emotion and reaction. Something that the stripped down fairy tales can’t do as they are usually delivering simple moral messages (or if you’re Disney ideals that can never, and probably should never, be reached).

Some might complain about the sex (and they already have) as it’s not something that should be used in fairy tales as fairy tales are for children. Oh come on, really? How many adults do you know that secretly love sitting down watching Cinderella or Aladdin or Hercules? (The last two are my faves btw). And what’s wrong with extending that enjoyment into something that addresses adult themes? And then allows the heroines to be women and that allows wicked step-mum to have a range of emotions rather than being token evil. As well as asking who falls in love with an almost dead girl in a glass box?

A few points to note Poison is the first published book in a trio of interlinked but it is also cyclical, which is new technique on me, and it’ll be interesting how these events loop back on themselves. The reason I’m saying that as a standalone it doesn’t make sense. The ending is like an opening to another chapter rather than a resolution. Though the focus will change, next we have Charm and then Beauty, the exploration I hope will be as strong. And I hope to find out how the prince managed to be walking in the woods a bit worse for wear.

What I loved about Poison is it’s liberation. Snow White is what I’d like to see a princess aspiring too – maybe not everything – though pretty much. She holds her own. She resists the ideals of her step-mother as well-intentioned as they are. And the step-mother is well-intentioned, if deluded. You can see where she get’s it from as her own great-grandmother shows up.

Now at this point it’s worth mentioning that there as some things that might grate. Not the great-grandmother I liked her. And I liked what she represented. But she does represent ‘borrowing’ and Pinborough borrows a lot. It can’t be helped. It’s a fairytale. There are conventions and expectations, which kind of spoils my point about Disneyfication, but you can lean too heavily and there are points like the names of the dwarfs, where its source material may feel a little too borrowed from.

That’s a niggle.  Another niggle is that some things aren’t as smooth as they could be. The step-mothers moods are extreme and could have had more nuisance in the middle range. But again it’s irritant like an itch. Nothing that’s worth picking at.

Poison really does feel like Pinsborough is showing a world where women in fairy tales should be seen as women, sexual, dangerous, and real rather than something that can be projected on as they lie in a box like a warm corpse only for the charming prince to realise after who his love truly is after she’s woken up and strayed from his ideal.

To answer the original question: it is a wicked, delicious and sexy fairytale and well worth reading.

Review; The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan (Windmill)

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The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan

Synopsis

Fifteen-year old Anais Hendricks is smart, funny and fierce, but she is also a child who has been let down, or worse, by just about every adult she has ever met. Sitting in the back of a police car, she finds herself headed for the Panopticon, a home for chronic young offenders where the social workers are as suspicious as its residents. But Anais can’t remember the events that have led her there, or why she has blood on her school uniform…

Comments/Thoughts/Analysis

Having pre-conceived ideas of what a novel is about before you read is usually helpful. In fact most books go out of their way to let you know something about themselves.  If you’re going to buy a book on impulse it’s usually the cover that catches your eye, and then the blurb, and maybe the opening few pages.  Finding out by word of mouth relies on someone giving their own version of the book, which isn’t always a universal version.

When The Panopticon was first being one person (Simon) thought it was sold as having a heavy science fiction thread with the experiment and the watchful panopticon in the young offenders home that Anais (the main character) has been sent to. I though knew it was going to be a literary novel with some SFFness to it but I wasn’t expecting what it turned out to be.

We meet Anais, as it says in the blurb, on her way to Panopticon but we follow a character who is presented as an outsider. She describes herself as an experiment in the prologue. She might be but if you strip away that idea away as a safety valve of an institutionalised teenager you have the same novel but a prism is missing. It’s very much a novel about reality, how it forms around us, how we protect ourselves from others versions of it and that we can’t always appreciate what we have.

Every year Anais allows herself a fantasy thinking about an alternative life, one where she wasn’t born in a petri dish (or was it a test tube she isn’t sure), but this fantasy of a happier life is always knocked back by the reality of her life. The people that she hangs with get her into trouble. She ends up fighting to save  friend and she misses someone who drags her back down enough to see him again when she really should  move on.

It’s the core of Anais that makes this a book worth reading. She does make mistakes, she does have issues with reality, and she copes with the help of drugs. But given the circumstance she’s in she hopes for a better life. She keeps hope her around like the box that Pandora opened.

Fagan cleverly lets the reader make up their own mind about several of the people in Anais’s life. She is an unreliable narrator in some regards. She’s a fantasist and at the start she’s not sure if the blood on school uniform is that a policewomen who is in a coma. But when it comes to seeing other people she seems bang on. She describes them but their actions are more telling. Like Helen her social worker who things that doing ‘good’ deeds makes her a good person but as Anais doesn’t conform to her idea of a reformed character she drops her. Her boyfriend Jay leads her on is one  leads to one of the most gut wrenching scenes.

You also have more positive relationships like the one she has with Angus, who keeps seeing her in a positive light. Her fast friendships with John, Shortie, Tash and other children of the home show different sides to Anais and how those around her effect her. They also demonstrate a range of people who end up in care.

Ultimately though this is Anais’s story and she’s going to tell it in her own unique way.

Summary

The Panopticon is one of those novels which you can’t describe as enjoyable but definitely leaves you feeling grateful you’ve read it. It’s a story that is dark, but filled with moments of light and hope. Jenni Fagan is unflinching in her descriptions of Anais’s reality. She shows a world of sex, drugs and violence, and it asks you to question your view of reality.

It’ll leave you thinking that you should never assume what leads to someone’s life being as it is. You never really know what they’ve had to deal with.

—

The Panopticon is the 8th Book Club Choice on The Readers Podcast, which I co-host with the Simon Savidge, and it’s now available in paperback.

Jenni Fagan has also been included in Granta’s 2013 list of bright British novelists.

Review: The City of Silk and Steel by Mike, Linda & Louise Carey (Gollancz)

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The City of Silk and Steel by Mike, Linda & Louise Carey
OUT NOW in HB

Synopsis

Once, in a city called Bessa, there was a sultan who was over throne by religious zealots, lead by Hakkim Mehdad, who didn’t like the way the sultan and his people enjoyed themselves. The sultan’s wives and children were slaughtered and his 365 concubines were banished and sent to a neighbouring caliph as a tribute. But something threatened the banished concubines and everything changed.

Comments/Thoughts/Analysis

Imagine you are in the desert and a group of you are sat around a fire and someone starts telling a story about a City of Women. You may think from the way the narrator tells the story of exiled concubines that it is just a tale that has no basis in reality and to be fair it does start as just as story. But our narrator, the librarian Rem, tells us how a city of women came to be and what they did afterwards.

The City of Silk and Steel is this story but it’s built from asides and reflections and futures of those involved and as it grows you end up seeing the full picture.

Even though you could think of it as an Arabian Nights style tale due to its setting and the classical feel it captures. The Careys have managed to take what may have been a safe linear tale and push themselves  into holding a reader’s attention as they pause, re-tell, give backstories, and make you as interested in the events of the characters lives have lead them here as to where they find themselves now.

An example of this is the titles of some the tales. Some are more ambiguous than others for example ‘Tales Whose Application is Mostly Tactical: Bethi’ versus ‘Giver of Gifts’. One of my favourites stories is ‘The Cook’s Story’ as it includes recipes but they are used to make a point. They show the contrast between the old Sultan and Hakkim and how the ascetic movement has effected the kitchens and the merchant’s who supply it. This technique adds a quality that is rare in most stories though to be fair most stories wouldn’t sustain this type of narration.

It works here as there is no main character as such, unless you’d define it as the city of Bessa, instead you have characters who are important to the tale. There are those that make decisions like Zuleika who changed the entire direction of the women’s lives,  Gursoon who makes sure they survive Zuleika’s actons, Rem not only narrates but gives commentary on events as she was there affecting them not in small part due to her sight of the past, present and future. Then there is Anwar Das who grows to be much more than a camel thief. There are other characters and other stories including the act of kindness that the women will come to regret in the end.

But it does show rightly that you can have all sorts of strong female characters and what women can achieve. When the tale starts most, but not all, of the women have no other recognisable skills than those needed to survive their role as concubines, which involve not only looking after the sultan’s physical needs but ensuring, along with his wives, that they diplomatically cool his fires when he could make rash decisions.

But as they need to survive outside the city their underused (and unacknowledged) skills have to be used and honed in order to trade as well as fight when needed. And this the heart of The City of Silk and Steel and the source of its title. The silk is the women and their soothing nature and the steel is the fight inside them and both are needed. Though it may not be enough but not for the reasons that you may think. A city run by women is a very successful one but compassion is sometimes a weakness.

The ease with which regime change occurs may be have some readers pausing to wonder why it wasn’t harder but then again it’s a story that plays out over several years and its focus is on the characters not particularly on capturing a true ‘reality’. The narrator freely admits that is a story not a historical record though it is both.

It is the record of Bessa but also a story about Bessa.

Summary

I was truly enchanted by The City of Silk and Steel. The narrative style is refreshing. The way in which the story passes back and forth. The changes in focus. The way it builds. And the devastating way it ends. You may think that it’s bound to be a happy tale. It is in lots of ways as the women are practical but even that isn’t enough.

The Carey’s sometimes gloss and lubricate in some places where more grit and resistance would make the journey feel tougher but when it matters they don’t hold back. You want the women to beat the odds. You know the dangers of what they are doing and all you can do is read and wait.

If you like classical feeling fantasy tales with modern complexities, which is enchanting, captivating and enjoyable then The City silk and Steel should be top of your list.

Review: The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence

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The Universe Versus Alex Woods

Synopsis

Alex Woods is seventeen when he is stopped at Dover by Customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urn full of ashes and the feeling that he’s done nothing wrong.

This is the story of how Alex goes from a twelve year old who is struck by a meteorite to being in Dover five years later and it involves an unusual friendship with the reclusive widower Mr Peterson.

 Comments/Thoughts/Analysis 

This caught my eye because we did an episode of The Readers on the Waterstones 11 (their selection of 2013 debut fiction) and The Universe Versus Alex Woods (TUvsAW) caught my attention.  It’s not a book I’d normally pick up but he fact that it had a meteorite in it gave it a slight SF edge and the title makes Alex sound like a superhero but I went in pretty much blind.

TUvsAW is one of those stories that relies heavily on the power of the narrator. As Alex retells the story of the last five years of his life. We are dragged into wondering how Alex managed to get stopped at Dover and for a long time that really isn’t clear. But that is because Alex is letting everything unfold as it happened to him.

Now I’ve got to be very careful with spoilers. I think knowing why Alex got there before you get told would cut the little cord that keeps you reading.

It’s not that Alex’s life isn’t fascinating in its own way (he has some intriguing views and obsessions) but it’s not very dramatic. It’s really about how his relationship with Mr Peterson changes as they get to know each other and how strong Alex becomes.  Exctence gives them a grandfather/grandchild relationship and their friendship is quite sweet.

And that’s the thing; it’s a sweet story. Alex is funny. It has some sad and some extremely sad moments as well. It has a cast who all have their own distinct personalities and view. Though it is a limited cast and that is one of my issues with it.

The narration of Alex is obviously selective but it feels that Extence has been slightly too sparse with Alex’s life outside the story. Even the most lonely children usually find things to do with other people every now and again. Alex’s life feels a little too insular, which niggled at me as I read it.

I also felt it had that crossover feel of The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime. Not because of their unique protagonists, though they do share that, but because a teenage reader may see themselves and their life differently after reading it.

I’m not sure they would be able to do what Alex does and I’m not sure how many people could. That is the strength of story that is being told. Alex’s voice keeps you reading but the ending makes you admire him and makes it a tale that you’re really glad you’ve read. Even it did need the occasional wiping of the eye.

Summary

It’s becoming a cliche to that say that x is a strong debut novel which shows the author has potential but TUvsAW is one of those novels.

It’s definitely a story to read for its emotional rather than logical impact. As I’ve said above, there is a sense of unreality around some of the events but not enough to pull me out of the story.

Extence is a strong writer.  Alex Woods feels like a unique and powerful character and as a narrator had me laughing and crying.

Extence’s storytelling sense is strong. He has Alex skim events without you feeling cheated and slows down at the right places. In that sense it reminded me of The Song of Achilles, where Miller focuses on the emotions and pulls into the Iliad as needed and so does Extence.

Despite the occasional fuzziness of world outside the bubble of the story it’s a tale well worth telling and reading. It’s also one that makes a cross-over novel for adults and children alike and I’m curious to see that Gavin Extence writes next.

City Watch Re-Read: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

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Guards! Guards!

Synopsis

A plan is being hatched to overthrow the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork and replace him with a King. In order to do that the Unique and Supreme Lodge of the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night need to summon a dragon, because everyone knowns that the true King will be the man who saves the City by slaying a dragon.

At the same time Carrot Ironfoundersson, who is too tall to be dwarf (being human and all), is sent by his adopted dwarf parents to Ankh-Morpork to join the City Watch, who we first meet in the form of a drunk Captain Vimes. The somehow unneeded, until now, Night Watch get it together to investigate the appearance of dragon and some burnt human outlines in a wall, which couldn’t possibly be a dragon? Could it…

Comments/Thoughts/Analysis

It has to be 16 years since I last read Guards! Guards! I’ve read almost all of the Disworld books (but not end of Mort, or all of Wintersmith, Making Money, I Shall Wear Midnight, and Snuff) so I’m well versed in the Discworld, and I have read a few of them multiple times when I was younger (Wyrd Sisters, Sourcery, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, Hogfather), but I haven’t re-read any of the City Watch ones until now.

After the effect of The Stress of Her Regard had on my reading (it drained my strength enough that 80 pages from the end I called it quits) someone on twitter (I’m avoiding name dropping) said I should re-read some Pratchett and she was absolutely right!

I hadn’t forgotten what a joy it is to read an early Pratchett as such but I may have forgotten the joy of re-reading something you liked a lot. I even think I had a better time this time around. More than once I was laughing out loud and then having to explain what I had set me off, which is particularly hard when you’re chuckling to the image of Lady Ramkin as Discworld parallel valkyrie carrying off a battalion.

As an early Pratchett he’s working his way through some well trodden fantasy tropes by taking the mickey and here it’s not only the idea of a royal heir coming back to reclaim a throne but also the idea of what it is to be hero, which is played out beautifully in a scene where the various heroes for hire decide that they’d rather be in the put.

It also show’s how skilled Terry is an observer of human behaviour:

‘Human nature, the Patrician always said, was a marvellous thing. Once you understood where the levers were.’

This quote is at the beginning but is especially effected when reflected on at the end after discussion between Vimes and Patrician where they consider their respective roles in the world.

And by the end you can see why the world needs both a Vimes and a Patrician. Someone that sticks by the rules and someone who manipulates them.

It’s also novel of privilege, the brothers who summon the dragon are doing so because they want to end the oppression they feel they are suffering. Though of course when the King strips the privileges of others there will be some exceptions won’t there? They are slightly deluding themselves I think.

It’s also a love story, and a sweet one at that, but it would spoil it to say more.

Summary

I really enjoyed Guards! Guards! I enjoyed it that much that I’ve had to stop myself from reading Men at Arms until I’d written this review. If I hadn’t I think I’d have caught up with Snuff (the latest to feature Sam Vines) and not got around to reading any other books but those featuring the Watch.

For a new reader to the Discworld I think this is the perfect introduction. Not only do you see the embryonic stages of the Watch (three dysfunctional men joined by an eager forth), you get to see the City as a fully formed character. You get glimpses of the Guilds and what a clever man the Patrician is and why he is one of my favourite characters along with the Librarian (and it takes a lot of skill to understand a character who mostly says Ook!?).

TRBC Review: Tom-All-Alone’s by Lynn Shepherd

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Synopsis

Tom-All-Alone’s is a What if? set in the world of Bleak House. What if Charles Maddox, who has been unfairly dismissed from the Metropolitan Police, is set the task of finding out the identity of the person behind some anonymous but threatening letters by the mysterious lawyer Edward Tulkington?

Well if he was he’d find out that there was more to the letters and more mysterious connections going on than he first would have thought.

Comments/Thoughts/Analysis

I’ve not read Bleak House so I was coming in blind with no preconceived ideas of what to expect, so for me it needed to stand on its own and it does, but not without leaving you wanting to know more and not without a period of adjustment at the start, which if I’d known the style of Bleak House might have been avoided.

But let’s start with what Tom-All-Alone’s is or at least what it isn’t. I was expecting a detective novel, maybe in the style of Holmes, that would have a modern feel in a period story. It does have detection in it but mostly it’s a London novel set in the mid 1800s that shows you the squalid bits that Dicken’s couldn’t (I got this from the author so I’m not going to argue as it does have a lot filth).

Writing a parallel story to a true classic is a big deal and if it was me I’d be putting on those cotton gloves you see people wearing to handle antiques but Shepherd knows her material and is a bit more robust. And I think because of her confidence she not only can get stuck in but can do so without worrying that she may damage the original.

Which brings me nicely to the style and the oddities of it, at least if don’t know the blueprint you may think it’s odd. Firstly the narration, the narrator has a habit of talking directly to the reader, especially foreshadowing future events. At first this is a little odd as it takes you away from being in with the characters but then you realise that it might be a little too strongly signalling in places but in others the modern reader is being directed and informed without the need for awkward character moments. Secondly is the character of Hester, she gets her own thread told in the first person, which together with the modernism in the third person narration at first felt jarring.

But this is where faith comes in. The need to see through Hester’s eyes is compelling. You don’t get the impact of the revealing ending without seeing the world through Hester’s eyes. Shepherd is following the mould set by Dickens but using that to shape an impression that ultimately is going to get shattered. Not all narrators are reliable you see. And putting the third person narrator at odds with the first ‘pure’ vision is a device that pays off.

Shepherd is good at building texture and flavour into her characters. When she introduces Inspector Bucket you already see him in a certain way but his actions reveal a different side to the one that has been sold before. I think that’s quite a skill especially as I really ending up liking but not entirely trusting him.

There are sweet moments too. When Charles Maddox moves in with his great-uncle also called confusingly Charles Maddox, we see a caring side to our Charles. But he is also provided with a much-needed mentor, who again changes our view of things.

It’s a modern novel in the sense that all these twists and turns are well handled. Nothing is frustrating and when the cover comes off at the end nothing is ambiguous. I’d definitely say it’s model novel in the confines of an older one.

Summary

After a bit of readjustment when the narration becomes ‘normal’ Shepherd’s skill at atmosphere and characterisation kick in. It’s a novel that takes you in the dirtier side of Victorian London. It also shows you what people of privilege do to keep their dirty secrets. It’s also a brave novel to use a classic as its model but then Lynn delves into it and gets her hands dirty.

Part of me worries about the character of Tulkington. It’s not that I mistrust Shepherd’s interpretation but until I’ve read Bleak House I won’t know if I’d see him quite as she does.

But I’m taking Tom-All-Alone’s too seriously if I let that spoil what was a great game of deception in some way or another by most of the characters, though not our hero, Charles Maddox.

Overall, Tom-All-Alone’s is an atmospheric, twisting novel, which leads you to a reveal you’d not have expected when you started following Charles Maddox on his quest to find out who wrote those threatening notes.

Tom-All-Alone’s is this month’s book club choice on The Readers podcast. You can hear Simon and I discuss the book with the author as well as hear more of our thoughts by clicking on this link.

Aside: Open Again To Review Copies

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In August last year I wrote a post called Thanks For All The Fish, which announced I was ceasing to accept to review copies. Well, I’m happy to announce that I’m open again to review copies and updated my page about them.

This does seem to contradict my New Year Resolution to ‘cull the shelves‘ but that’s more about getting to those books that I’ve left unread way too long. How I’m going to balance this I’m not sure though it does involve reading more!

SFMC Review: The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney (@gollancz)

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Body Snatchers

Synopsis

Becky Driscoll turns up after hours at the consulting rooms of Dr Miles Bennell and tells him that her cousin Wilma doesn’t think that her Uncle Ira is really her Uncle Ira. From there Miles starts to see the sleepy town of Mill Valley differently. As the number of similar stories multiples Miles discovers the horrific truth. Aliens are taking over the bodies and minds of his friends and neighbours.

Comments/Thoughts/Analysis

This is the first book I’m reading as part of my SF Masterworks Challenge and one that Graeme highly recommended I read. Now I’ve heard about the pod people but never seen either film (one came out the month after I was born). But I still had some have  preconceived ideas of what I’d be getting. Mostly, I was expecting it to be a bit cheesy.

Surprisingly, it’s not cheesy. It’s actually quite a quiet and thoughtful book. As alien invasions go this is unfussy but that’s mostly the point. It’s an interesting reflection on how things change when we aren’t paying attention.

We follow Miles as he first dismisses and then investigates his patients claims of people not being themselves. The thing is that his friends, families and neighbours are exactly the same in terms of looks, mannerisms, memories so surely they are the same people? The characters pose the question that surely it’s some sort of psychological disorder being suffered by the relatives of the people that they think has been replaced? And it could be until Miles gets shown some disturbing evidence.

Now, I’m in two minds as to whether this would have been shocking when it was first published in 1955. I didn’t find the transformation scenes unsettling for example but I can imagine how they could be a golden-age SF audience. Though what I found creepy was how the atmosphere of the town changes and how easily the invaders start to take over. And I think that would give everyone a healthy dose of paranoia about their neighbours. And it probably draws on the McCarthy instigated fear of communism.

Interestingly it’s  also a love story as Miles and Becky are thrown back together and their relationship is an unusal one. Becky is stronger than she first appears and does resort to unwomanly (for the time) behaviour, or at least she reports it herself that way.

It’s not all smooth. I think you do have to suspend some disbelief and accept that smaller towns, especially then were more isolated than they’d ever be now. There are also some actions on all sides human and alien that feel slightly jarring. Though the aliens can do what they like being aliens I’m not sure that Miles can. But it didn’t spoil my enjoyment as I was happy to be led whether Jack Finney wanted to lead.

Summary

Overall, The Body Snatchers deserves to be seen as a classic of the genre. It’s nice to see a quiet story that works on you slowly but not slowly that it’s boring. It’s engaging and things happen and change but it doesn’t need big dramatic moments to keep the tension.

It’s also a book that needs a healthy dose of following it rather than questioning it. Not that you can pick apart the story so much but you could question what would have happened if Miles had done things differently at a few points.

As a first SF Masterworks Challenge book go can I ask that they are all as good to read as this one?

Review: Cold Days by Jim Butcher (@OrbitBooks)

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Cold Days by Jim Butcher

WARNING SPOILERS FOR EARLIER BOOKS IN THE SERIES AHEAD!

Synopsis

Harry Dresden is back from his ghostly’ adventure in Ghost Story. In Cold Days he’s got a new job and first assignment is to kill someone who should be impossible to assassinate. Being Harry and Chicago’s only Professional Wizard/Private Detective combo he needs to find out why they need to die. Oh, and while he is doing that he also has a world to save.

Comments/Thoughts/Analysis

Honestly this is going to really hard to review without spoiling earlier books so if you are sensitive to these things skip to the summary.

Ok?

So here is the thing about The Dresden Files up until Changes (the 12th book), there was a story arc but it was in background to the monster-of-the-book detective-fiction-mould that allowed Jim Butcher to establish and explore relationships and to give lots of supporting characters centre stage. In the last book, Ghost Story, we saw what happens in a world without Harry being able to play hero. But in Cold Days it’s all about Harry and I’m not sure I like it.

At least I don’t think I’d like it to be permanent change of direction for the series. It’s partly a problem with plotting. Butcher has got very confident with his world and his character’s place in Dresden’s life but at the same time this books feels like a role-call in passing to important characters that aren’t Dresden. They play second fiddle to the plot.

It is a really good plot. Butcher chucks in the kitchen sink to make sure that it roars along. And I really enjoyed it. But Butcher has set a time pressure on this story and everything has to happen in short order with no time for characters to talk or reflect. In fact it’s all deflected as they have a world to save like right now!

There are some twists which really make you reconsider the roles the fae of Summer and Winter and their fight for power. And I loved the scenes with Mother Summer, I really wanted more of them as Butcher does those types of observations really well. I think it’s partly that he’s homeless and the routine from earlier books has been blown away that makes me want to see him back in his familiar surroundings, though here is a scene, like the bedroom in the Labyrinth, where is apartment is recreated that is way more creepy that sweet.

As I said I’m torn between liking the skill that Butcher has, the story has a satisfying journey, and missing the character interactions that made earlier books sparkle.

I think the real problem is that Butcher has six more ‘Dresden File’ books planned and an additional trilogy of ‘apocalypse’ books, which, to me, could go one of two ways. This book was setting up the stakes for the next few books and it’s all Harry, Harry, Harry from here on in or the next book has his supporting cast back in a proper supporting role and it’s all Team Harry. I’m so hoping for the later.

Summary

Harry Dresden is back in action. He’s got a time limit and by limiting the story to action, action, action Butcher looses some of the sparkle from earlier books. That doesn’t mean that it’s not gripping and engrossing but by the end it doe leave you feeling that you’ve slide on ice rather than feeling the characters have carved a deep and long impression of themselves.

Mini Review: The Apocalypse Codex by Charles Stross (Orbit)

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Britain has a Secret Service called The Laundry. Computational demonologist Bob Howard is on the fast track for promotion after proving himself in the field by saving us (humanity, British humans for sure) from dangerous Lovecraftian horrors. This time he’s sent to investigate a miracle-working American televangelist who is suspiciously interested in the Prime Minister.

The Apocalypse Codex is the fourth book in this strong series and one I’ve been waiting to read since finishing The Fuller Memorandum two years ago (my only negative about the series is its irregular releases). As with earlier books Stross isn’t sticking to an episodic formula. This time we get to see Bob taking on a  field management role and follow him as his outside contractors look deeper into the Pastor and his Golden Promise Ministries. Shifting focus away from Bob is a clever move by Stross as it a allows a few things happen; he ups the stakes; we see Bob under different pressures; and he gets to look at belief and how extremely it can be twisted. I don’t think we’d get to see things quite them same if we were glued to just Bob’s point of view.

Thinking about it we get to see some real team work between Persephone and Jonny, which is a different dynamic than Bob and his now wife, Mo. I did miss some of the more banterous elements between Bob and his old boss (new role new boss) and I wish Mo was in it more. But I’m realistic that the story didn’t allow it.

I do have a little niggle with the ending; it’s hard to save the world convincingly. It has a sort of double ending that seems to pull the first punch to allow the other.

As we move towards CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN (read the end of the world Lovecraft-style) the series feels darker. I really enjoyed The Apocalypse Codex,  I devoured it on a trans-atlantic flight, so it’s not a bad book by any means. Charlie Stross has created a great team of characters and world for them to be in that works really well  but this book feels like an introduction to sometime bigger.  It didn’t quite seem get the mix quite right compared to the earlier books. I think I wanted more Bob if I’m honest. A lot of the time he’s on the sidelines, which doesn’t do much to his mood.  I’m hoping that next book releases him back into seeing more action.