Books Received - An Update
Listed below are the books received for review since the last update, which was back on 19 December 2009.
And a couple of titles that leap out straight away are The Beautiful Red by James Cooper and A Matter of Blood by Sarah Pinborough. Cooper is an accomplished short story writer whose list of credits includes several appearances in Black Static (and some of those stories appear in this collection). Keeping up the TTA connection, TBR has cover art by David Gentry and an introduction by Christopher Fowler, both BS regulars. Pinborough is one of the up and coming talents in the Horror genre who, having earned her spurs with US publisher Leisure, is now moving on to, hopefully, bigger and better things. A Matter of Blood is billed as the first volume in The Dog Faced Gods series, and it has one of the most striking covers I've seen in a long while (don't take my word for it - nip on over to amazon.co.uk and check). At Black Static we like flies.
Also good to see the return of Dan Rhodes, whose work should find a place in the hearts of Horror aficionados, even if it's not the pure stuff. I reviewed Anthropology, a collection of 101 drabbles (stories of exactly 101 words) back in the days of The Third Alternative, and it's one of the few books, along with Geoff Ryman's 243, to make me think there might be something to oulipo. Canongate are reissuing Anthropology and Timoleon Vieta Come Home to complement the publication of Rhodes' new novel Little Hands Clapping, which features a German suicide museum and a cast of oddball characters that make the Addams brood seem positively healthy. Nip on over to director Victor Solomon's website, which I've linked to at the foot of the page, to check out some short films based on Rhodes' work.
I'd never heard of S. J. Bolton before review copies of Blood Harvest and Awakening landed on my doorstep. No less an entity than The Times describes Bolton as 'the High Priestess of English Rural Gothic'. The covers are certainly enticing and, along with the press copy, they seem to denote a blurring of the lines between the Horror and Crime genres, the kind of thing Phil Rickman does so well. I shall almost certainly check out one of the books to see which way Bolton jumps.
Serial killer fare from Anthony E. Zuiker, the creator of TV series CSI, with Dark Origins, which is described as 'the world's first Digi-NovelTM' and 'a revolutionary storytelling experience'. The Level 26 books, of which this is the first, offer 'a multi-platform experience that moves the reader from passages in the books to supporting videos and other content. As you read the book you'll see calls-to-action that direct you to the website to enter codes that unlock cyber-bridges'. It sounds intriguing, but as somebody who gets put out when he has to turn to the back of a book to read the footnotes I have a feeling I'm not going to like this. I've linked to the website, in case there's anything to see without the aforementioned codes.
There's another television connection, with three tie-in novels to the BBC's Being Human. I believe it airs on BBC3 and is a (sort of) sitcom in which a vampire, werewolf and ghost live together. I've never seen the programme, but I may very well dip into one of the books.
Lastly, the bad news. The shoddy proofreading that has recently dogged many books, has now spread to publishers' publicity material. From the Pinborough handout - 'when his brother shots his own wife and children'. From the Golden zombie anthology handout - 'survival in a wasted wasteland'. From one of the Bolton handouts - 'Who is making the threats or they simply trying to warn him...'
Is this the moment to mention that I'm available for proofreading work and my rates are reasonable?
April 2010
- James Cooper - The Beautiful Red - Atomic Fez paperback (ARC)
- John Llewellyn Probert - Wicked Delights - Atomic Fez hardback (ARC)
- S. J. Bolton - Blood Harvest - Bantam Press hardback (ARC)
- Tami Hoag - Deeper Than The Dead - Orion hardback (ARC)
March 2010
- Sarah Pinborough - A Matter of Blood - Gollancz paperback (ARC)
February 2010
- Dan Rhodes - Anthropology - Canongate paperback
- Dan Rhodes - Timoleon Vieta Come Home - Canongate paperback
- Dan Rhodes - Little Hands Clapping - Canongate hardback
- Robert N. Stephenson - Uttuku - Altair paperback
- Jonathan L. Howard - Johannes Cabal the Necromancer - Headline paperback
- James Goss - Being Human: Bad Blood - BBC Books paperback
- Simon Guerrier - Being Human: The Road - BBC Books paperback
- Mark Michalowski - Being Human: Chasers - BBC Books paperback
- Edited by Christopher Golden - Zombie: An Anthology of the Dead - Piatkus paperback
- Anthony E. Zuiker - Dark Origins - Penguin hardback
January 2010
- S. J. Bolton - Awakening - Corgi paperback
- Edited by Dennis Lehane - Boston Noir - Akashic Books paperback
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