Gone, But Still In Our Thoughts
Black Static #23 has either mailed out to subscribers already, or is just about to. I've sent off PDFs of the Case Notes section to all the publishers and some of the authors reviewed, and am now waiting patiently to find out who's going to send me hate mail this time around.
And, unfortunately, that means it's time to once again perform triage on the pile of books waiting to be reviewed, with those longest in the tooth given the old heave ho.
First out the door is Halfhead (Harper Voyager paperback, 376pp, £7.99) by Stuart B. MacBride, a serial killer novel set in a near future Glasgow where convicted criminals are 'surgically mutilated and lobotomized by the State, then sent out to do menial jobs in the community', and with that sort of a game plan I bet it got a five star review from The Daily Mule. Michael Marshall, who knows a thing or two, said, 'Slick, gruesome and brutally intelligent, this is bare knuckles thriller-writing.' I originally got sent the trade paperback edition that came out in September 2009, and then reallocated it to the mass market paperback in August 2010. And at one point I did make a start on the book, but then something else took priority, and I put it aside and didn't pick it up again.
I also made a start on the July 2010 release More Stories from the Twilight Zone (Tor hardback/paperback, 480pp, $27.99/$17.99), edited by Carol Serling. The plan was to include it as part of our all-female Case Notes in #21, but it soon became obvious that I wasn't going to be able to fit the book in, and the couple of tales I did read were a lot further over the dividing line between horror and science fiction than I felt comfortable with, and so I didn't finish it, and now it's time to let go.
Thriller writer Ryan David Jahn seems to be doing very well for himself with Pan Macmillan, who have just reissued his first novel Acts of Violence in a uniform edition with his third and latest, The Dispatcher, and I have both those books still in play, though the thriller element could very well put them outside of my remit. We'll see. As far as I can tell, second novel Low Life (Macmillan hardback, 295pp, £12.99) hasn't been reissued since its July 2010 debut, and that means it's now too old for review, but I'll keep an eye open in case the publishers bring out a paperback.
Dark Origins (Penguin paperback, 416pp, £6.99) was originally out in hardback from Michael Joseph in February 2010, and the Penguin paperback came along in July. With the tag line 'Serial Killers Aren't Made, They're Born', it's the first in the Level 26 series of novels (a second was out in May, and there's a third due in November), while author Anthony E. Zuiker was one of the creators of hugely successful TV franchise CSI, which some people may not regard as a recommendation, but I'm rather partial to it myself. From memory there was a CD sent with the book, and a fun game you can play online to join in the crime solving experience.
Johannes Cabal the Necromancer (Headline paperback, 352pp, £7.99) by Jonathan L. Howard is the first volume in a new fantasy/horror crossover series, and looks like it could have been a whole lot of fun, bringing to mind Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes mixed and messing it up with the Faust legend. It debuted in hardback in June 2009 and put on paperback dress in February 2010, and then there was an Anchor Bay edition in June of that year, and all the time I kept casting lustful glances in the book's direction, but was always led astray by some other cheap floozy, with a vampire or zombie between its covers, and now it's too late. C'est la vie, as the French say.
As per standard operating procedure, having failed to review these books myself, I shall now invite you to scroll to the foot of the page and point your browser in the direction of some people who did review them. It may only be a consolation prize, but it's all I've got to give.
And also as ever, writers and publishers are reminded that I receive more books than I can review, and an expression of interest in seeing any particular title is not a guarantee that a review will be done. You can, of course, query me via whitenoise@ttapress.com
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