Books Received - An Update
Listed below are the books received for review since the last update, which was back on 18 May 2010.
Only twelve titles shown, which might suggest the flow of review copies is easing up since my last post, but actually there are other circumstances that I suspect might have had an impact, and I won't expand on that as I've been trying to avoid any and all discussion of what is going on in South Africa.
I've been sent several books by Thomas Emson and haven't got around to any of them (my bad), but Zombie Britannica looks like the title which might break my duck. I've cracked it open and initial impressions are favourable.
Christopher Farnsworth's Blood Oath gets a thumbs up from John Connolly (our featured author in #17), who says 'this may just be the best debut vampire novel in many years'. Described as '24 with a supernatural twist', it's the story of Nathaniel Cade, the President's vampire, who swore an oath 140 years ago to protect the presidency from supernatural threats, all of which rather puts me in mind of the Jaz Parks' series of books by Jennifer Rardin, but we'll see.
A couple of thrillers in the mix, and I'm not sure if A Rush of Blood and, especially, Moscow Sting quite fall within our remit. I'll give them a look, time allowing, but not as a priority.
Simon Kurt Unsworth's story 'The Knitted Child' in #15 was well received and there's another story from him lurking in the future of Black Static readers. Unsworth's collection Lost Places is the first Ash Tree Press title I can recall being sent, and it's a very nice book indeed, so let's hope this is a precedent. I've been concentrating on anthologies at the moment for a feature in #18, and Unsworth's is a name that keeps cropping up in the various ToCs, as for instance in that for Brit-pack anthology Where the Heart Is from Gray Friar Press.
If memory serves (meaning I can't be bothered to go and check), one of Quentin Crisp's earliest published works, 'The Psychopomps', appeared in a chapbook from Paul Bradshaw's Dream Zone Publications with a couple of my longer stories, back when we were all a lot younger than we are now. Our careers have diverged since, but it's great to see Quentin's first novel, the marvellously titled Remember You're a One-Ball, lurking in my TBR pile.
Last but not least, there's Alraune, the best known work of controversial writer Hanns Heinz Ewers (1871 - 1943), a novel I've long been curious about and that it now looks as if I might actually get to read, thanks to the efforts of Side Real Press in keeping this writer's work alive. Obviously I can't talk about the story as yet, but Alraune is certainly a beautiful book, with a gorgeous cover and interior illustrations reproduced from previous editions. Everything about it screams labour of love on the part of the publisher.
One last thing, and as an aside, I've observed before that only 20% of the books I get sent are by female authors. The recent results of the Campaign for Real Fear, in which 31% of the submissions and 65% of the published stories came from women authors, got me thinking about this gender divide. One thing that occurred to me is that, while male writers within the small/independent press regularly ask me if I'd like to be sent review copies, I can only recall one female writer who has done so. So ladies, consider yourselves encouraged to be a bit more pushy.
The Standard Offer and Disclaimer - If anyone wants to query with me the suitability of their book(s) for a review in Case Notes, then I can be contacted by writing to whitenoise@ttapress.com and, as ever, an expression of interest in seeing the book does not guarantee that a review will be done. We receive many books and space is limited.
August 2010
- Thomas Emson - Zombie Britannica - Snow Books paperback
July 2010
- Robert Masello - Blood & Ice - Vintage paperback
- Christopher Farnsworth - Blood Oath - Hodder paperback
June 2010
- Laurell K. Hamilton - Bullet - Headline hardback
- Laurell K. Hamilton - Flirt - Headline hardback
- Quintin Jardine - A Rush of Blood - Headline paperback
- Alex Dryden - Moscow Sting - Headline paperback
- Edited by Gary Fry - Where the Heart Is - Gray Friar Press paperback
March 2010
- R. B. Russell - Literary Remains - PS Publishing hardback
- Quentin Crisp - Remember You're a One-Ball - Chomu Press paperback
- Simon Kurt Unsworth - Lost Places - Ash Tree Press hardback
- Hanns Heinz Ewers - Alraune - Side Real Press hardback
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