Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea by Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts and artist Mahendra Singh have revisited Jules Verne's classic SF novel with Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea (now available from Gollancz £16.99).

“It is 1958 and France's first nuclear submarine, Plongeur, leaves port for the first of its sea trials. On board, gathered together for the first time, one of the navy's most experienced captains and a tiny skeleton crew of sailors, engineers and scientists.

The Plongeur makes her first dive and goes down, and down and down... Out of control, the submarine plummets to a depth where the pressure will crush her hull, killing everyone on board, and beyond. The pressure builds, the hull protests, the crew prepare for death, the boat reaches the bottom of the sea and finds ... nothing.

Her final dive continues, the pressure begins to relent, but the depth gauge is useless. They have gone miles down. Hundreds of miles, thousands...

And so it goes on. And on board the crew succumb to madness, betrayal, religious mania and murder. Has the Plongeur left the limits of our world and gone elsewhere?”

Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea contains 33 full page pen and ink illustrations by Mahendra Singh.

The Arrows of Time by Greg Egan

Greg Egan’s The Arrows of Time is the third volume of the Orthogonal trilogy (Gollancz £16.99)

“After generations of travel, the spaceship Peerless may finally have achieved its goal – but the decision to return home may create more tensions than ever before.

In an alien universe where space and time play by different rules, interstellar voyages last longer for the travellers than for those they left behind. After six generations in flight, the inhabitants of the mountain-sized spacecraft the Peerless have used their borrowed time to develop advanced technology that could save their home world from annihilation.

But not every traveller feels allegiance to a world they have never seen, and as tensions mount over the risks of turning the ship around and starting the long voyage home, a new complication arises: the prospect of constructing a messaging system that will give the Peerless news of its own future.

While some of the crew welcome the opportunity to be warned of impending dangers - and perhaps even hear reports of the ship's triumphant return – others are convinced that knowing what lies ahead will be oppressive, and that the system will be abused. Agata longs for a chance to hear a message from the ancestors back on the home world, proving that the sacrifices of the travellers have not been in vain, but her most outspoken rival, Ramiro, fears that the system will undermine every decision the travellers make.”

Moon's Artifice by Tom Lloyd

Moon’s Artifice by Tom Lloyd is the first in a new series (Gollancz £20.00).

“The series starts with a bang as Narin has the chance of promotion after an unremarkable career, to be a Lawbringer in the Imperial City. To be a guardian of the Emperor’s laws and a bastion for justice is his dream, but it’s come at a very bad time; a chance encounter drags him into a plot of gods and monsters, spies and assassins, accompanied by a grief-stricken young woman, an old man haunted by the ghosts of his past and an assassin with no past.

To save his own life and those of untold thousands, Narin must understand the key to it all – Moon’s Artifice, the poison that could destroy an empire.”

The Ace of Skulls by Chris Wooding

The Ace of Skulls by Chris Wooding, a Ketty Jay novel, is out this month (Gollancz £12.99).

“All good things come to an end. And this is it: the last stand of the Ketty Jay and her intrepid crew. They've been shot down, set up, double-crossed and ripped off. They've stolen priceless treasures, destroyed a ten-thousand-year-old Azryx city and sort-of-accidentally blew up the son of the Archduke. Now they've gone and started a civil war. This time, they're really in trouble. 

As Vardia descends into chaos, Captain Frey is doing his best to keep his crew out of it. He's got his mind on other things, not least the fate of Trinica Dracken. But wars have a way of dragging people in, and sooner or later they're going to have to pick a side. It's a choice they'll be staking their lives on. Cities fall and daemons rise. Old secrets are uncovered and new threats revealed. When the smoke clears, who will be left standing?”

The Raven’s Shadow by Elspeth Cooper

The Raven’s Shadow by Elspeth Cooper is available from Gollancz (£14.99).

“Sometimes those with the greatest potential must withstand the hardest blows. Fate, it seems, has nothing kind in store for Gair. First his lover and now his mentor have been killed – the first by the dangerous, ambitious Savin, the second in a revolutionary uprising. Alone, and with even his magical abilities betraying him, he has only one goal left: revenge. 

Far to the north, if Teia has one goal it is survival. Attempting to cross a high mountain pass in the teeth of winter is an act of desperation, but the message she carries cannot wait for spring. An invasion force is gathering behind her, and only an ancient order of knights can hold them back. The danger is real, there are enemies in the shadows, and time is running out.”

Dragon Queen by Stephen Deas

Now available: Dragon Queen by Stephen Deas (Gollancz £16.99).

“In the years before the Dragons laid waste to man's empire, the fearsome monsters were used for war and as gifts of surpassing wealth to buy favour in the constant political battles that tore at the kingdoms. Notorious in these battles was the Dragon Queen. And now she is a prisoner. But no-one is more dangerous than when caged...”

Dragon Queen is a companion volume to the Memory of Flames trilogy.

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson is now available from Gollancz (£12.99).

"Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills. 

Nobody fights the Epics ... nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them. And David wants in. He wants Steelheart – the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning – and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience. He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.”

On the Steel Breeze by Alastair Reynolds

On the Steel Breeze by Alastair Reynolds comes out later this month from Gollancz (£16.99).

“It is a thousand years in the future. Mankind is making its way out into the universe on massive generation ships... It’s a tale of betrayal and deceit aboard a flotilla of hollowed-out asteroids as they take millions of people to start a new world on a far distant planet at one seventh the speed of light.”

Proxima by Stephen Baxter

Proxima is Stephen Baxter’s latest, due next week from Gollancz (£12.99):

“The very far future: The Galaxy is a drifting wreck of black holes, neutron stars, chill white dwarfs. The age of star formation is long past. Yet there is life here, feeding off the energies of the stellar remnants, and there is mind, a tremendous Galaxy-spanning intelligence each of whose thoughts lasts a hundred thousand years. And this mind cradles memories of a long-gone age when a more compact universe was full of light...

The 27th century: Proxima Centauri, an undistinguished red dwarf star, is the nearest star to our sun – and (in this fiction), the nearest to host a world, Proxima IV, habitable by humans. But Proxima IV is unlike Earth in many ways. Huddling close to the warmth, orbiting in weeks, it keeps one face to its parent star at all times. The 'substellar point', with the star forever overhead, is a blasted desert, and the 'antistellar point' on the far side is under an ice cap in perpetual darkness. How would it be to live on such a world?

Needle ships fall from Proxima IV's sky. Yuri Jones, with 1000 others, is about to find out.”

Orcs: War Fighting Manual by Den Patrick

“The essential guide for anyone who wants to fight with or against fantasy's most fearsome foe: the Orc. Written in the form of a soldier's manual on strategy, tactics and weapons The Orcs War-Fighting Manual is an innovative and fun way for readers and gamers to add colour and excitement to their knowledge of fantasy's premier villains.

Translated from the original Orcish the book contains details on Orc strengths and weakness, key tactics, survival and field tips and accounts of notorious battles from Orc history as well as key tips on defeating Elves and Dwarves. Puny humans are not considered worth discussing.”

Orcs: War Fighting Manual by Den Patrick is available from Gollancz (£9.99).

Gallow: The Crimson Shield by Nathan Hawke

It says that “Fantasy needs a new hero”. Book one in a new series, Gallow: The Crimson Shield by Nathan Hawke is out now from Gollancz (£7.99). For some odd reason they neglected to put any text on the front cover.

“I have been Truesword to my friends, Griefbringer to my enemies. To most of you I am just another Northlander bastard here to take your women and drink your mead, but to those who know me, my name is Gallow. I fought for my king for seven long years. I have served lords and held my shield beside common men. I have fled in defeat and I have tasted victory and I will tell you which is sweeter. Despise me then, for I have slain more of your kin than I can count, though I remember every single face.

For my king I will travel to the end of the world. I will find the fabled Crimson Shield so that his legions may carry it to battle, and when Sword and Shield must finally clash, there you will find me. I will not make pacts with devils or bargains with demons for I do not believe in such things, and yet I will see them all around me, in men and in their deeds. Remember me then, for I will not suffer such monsters to live. Even if they are the ones I serve.”

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch – the latest in his fantasy/crime series that began with Rivers of London – is out now (Gollancz £14.99):

“A mutilated body in Crawley. Another killer on the loose. The prime suspect is one Robert Weil; an associate of the twisted magician known as the Faceless Man? Or just a common or garden serial killer?

Before PC Peter Grant can get his head round the case a town planner going under a tube train and a stolen grimoire are adding to his case-load. So far so London.

But then Peter gets word of something very odd happening in Elephant and Castle, on an housing estate designed by a nutter, built by charlatans and inhabited by the truly desperate.  Is there a connection?

And if there is, why oh why did it have to be South of the River?”

Evening’s Empire by Paul McAuley

Evening’s Empire by award-winning Paul McAuley is now available (Gollancz £14.99):

“In the far future, a young man stands on a barren asteroid. His ship has been stolen, his family kidnapped or worse, and all he has on his side is a semi-intelligent spacesuit. The only member of the crew to escape, Hari has barely been off his ship before. It was his birthplace, his home and his future. He's going to get it back.

McAuley's latest novel is set in the same far-flung future as his last few novels, but this time he takes on a much more personal story. This is a tale of revenge, of murder and morality, of growing up and discovering the world around you. Throughout the novel we follow Hari's viewpoint, and as he unravels the mysteries that led to his stranding, we discover them alongside him. But throughout his journeys, Hari must always bear one thing in mind. Nobody is to be trusted.”

Charm by Sarah Pinborough: reviewed

Charm by Sarah Pinborough. Gollancz £9.99

Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

Charm is the second in Pinborough’s reworked fairy tale cycle, being with Poison and to be concluded later this year with Beauty. Although there are recurring characters and story-ties to the previous volume, I don’t think it’s necessary to read them in order and so new readers can start with this volume – as long as you do read all three.

We all (almost all, at least) are familiar with the tropes of the Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, et al, stories and Charm sticks fairly close to those tales to begin with. But luckily the story does go off at little tangents, when a character from another tale makes an appearance, or when a discovery is made, that jolts one’s expectations. And I rather enjoyed these moments.

Charm is about Cinderella and her desire to attend the Ball, to meet Prince Charming, to fall in love with him and live happily ever after. She has two step-sisters and a step-mother who seem not to care for her; a father who is attempting to write a novel (that’s a novel idea, isn’t it, in a fairy story?); Buttons, the thief who provides food and coal for warmth in an unending winter; and the fairy godmother who grants Cinderella’s wishes. And then there are the mouse and the huntsman...wait! I don’t remember them. One of those plot twists. Unlike the familiar fairy stories we know, despite Cinderella’s best intentions, things don’t work to our heroine’s plan. But do things turn out happily ever after? Maybe, maybe not...

Fairy stories are metaphors for their young audience, about duty and honour and honesty and hard work all being good; laziness, deceit, lust, avarice all being bad. These remain germane to Charm but I would have preferred to see less absolutes. There are some grey areas: sex, for example. It’s there in Charm (and in Poison) and it’s dealt with in an even-handed manner – sex is natural, after all. I suspect you’ve heard that Pinborough’s fairy stories are written for adults and that there’s rampant sex between the covers. Well, not really. It features but it doesn’t occur often and when it does it’s modestly described.

Charm is a quick, amusing read and shouldn’t be taken seriously. It’s FUN. Read the book and allow it to evoke memories of those times when your parents told you stories of Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks. And one other thing: there are loads of lovely line drawings by Les Edwards.

Charm by Sarah Pinborough

Charm by Sarah Pinborough hits the shelves next week (Gollancz £9.99):

“It's Cinderella, but not as you know her... Charm is a re-telling of the Cinderella story, which takes all the much-loved elements of the classic fairytale (the handsome prince, the fairy godmother, the enchanted mouse, the beautiful girl and, of course, the iconic balls) and puts a modern spin on the characters, their motives and their desires.” 

Charm is the follow-up to Poison, which re-examined the Snow White myth, and is the middle volume of a trilogy that concludes with Beauty (due in October this year). Although part of a cycle, I understand that you should be able to read the books in any order.

Terra by Mitch Benn

Terra is the debut novel by the stand-up comedian Mitch Benn (Gollancz £ 12.99 – available next week):

“No-one trusts humanity. No-one can quite understand why we're intent on destroying the only place we have to live in the Universe. No-one thinks we're worth a second thought. And certainly no-one is about to let us get off Rrth. That would be a complete disaster. But one alien thinks Rrth is worth looking at. Not humanity, obviously, we're appalling, but until we manage to kill every other living thing on the planet there are some truly wonderful places on Rrth and some wonderful creatures living in them. Best take a look while they're still there.

But on one trip to Rrth our alien biologist causes a horrendous accident. The occupants of a car travelling down a lonely road spot his ship (the sort of massive lemon coloured, lemon shaped starship that really shouldn't be hanging in the sky over a road). Understandably the Bradbury's crash (interrupting the latest in a constant procession of bitter rows). And in the wreckage of their car our alien discovers a baby girl. She needs rescuing. From the car. From Rrth. From her humanity. And now eleven years later a girl called Terra is about to go to school for the first time. It's a very alien experience...”

With “words” such as Lbbp, Hrrng, Fnrrns and Ymns I can see this appealing to the younger, text-speak generation. Personally, I like a few vowels...

The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce: book review

The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce. Gollancz £12.99

Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

Graham Joyce’s latest is subtitled “A Ghost Story”, but with that certain uncertainty we’ve come to expect from many of the author’s novels. Are they really ghosts or are they memories from long ago, of a terrible deed? Is Rose really clairvoyant or is she a first-rate reader of people’s mannerisms? These and similar questions will remain unanswered in this review; you’ll just have to read the book and decide for yourselves.

Whatever your conclusions, there is no doubt that this is an excellent novel. The chief reason is that the characters are real. You really do engage with David, the narrator, as he experiences life as a holiday camp worker in Skegness during the summer heat-wave (and drought) of 1976, the year Britain was invaded by swarms of ladybirds. There are no cataclysmic events that threaten the world. But there are events that impinge upon David: his relationships with Terri and Nikki; his “friendship” with Colin (who may be a bit of a psychopath); his engagement with the far right and their fascists’ ideas; the hidden memories of his childhood and his father.

David is a student in the 1970s (when university graduates didn’t leave with massive tuition debts, when tertiary education was more egalitarian) and takes a summer job wearing a green-striped blazer, organising events and competitions for the holiday makers. This was a time before the masses flocked to the Costa de Sol and the like, when such camps were in a lingering decline. Apparently Graham Joyce did such work as a student and his experiences add verisimilitude to the novel. He adds in the acknowledgements that the characters he created are, indeed, fictional.

This is the second novel I’ve read recently which is set in a holiday destination – the other was Joyland by Stephen King.  And as with King, The Year of the Ladybird begins slowly and yet within a dozen pages the narrator has completely drawn you into this engaging story. Along with Some Kind of Fairy Story and The Tooth Fairy, this is one of Joyce’s best novels. And at £12.99 for the hardcover, it’s a steal: get the Ladybird bug and read this book.

The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce

The Year of the Ladybird by Graham Joyce is now available from Gollancz (£12.99 – a great price for a hardback novel):

“It is the summer of 1976, the hottest since records began and a young man leaves behind his student days and learns how to grow up. A first job in a holiday camp beckons. But with political and racial tensions simmering under the cloudless summer skies there is not much fun to be had. And soon there is a terrible price to be paid for his new-found freedom and independence. A price that will come back to haunt him, even in the bright sunlight of summer.”

The Adjacent by Christopher Priest

“Tibor Tarent, a freelance photographer, is recalled to Britain from Anatolia where his wife Melanie has been killed by insurgent militia. IRGB is a nation living in the aftermath of a bizarre and terrifying terrorist atrocity – hundreds of thousands were wiped out when a vast triangle of west London was instantly annihilated. The authorities think the terrorist attack and the death of Tarent's wife are somehow connected.

A century earlier, a stage magician is sent to the Western Front on a secret mission to render British reconnaissance aircraft invisible to the enemy. On his journey to the trenches he meets the visionary who believes that this will be the war to end all wars.

In 1943, a woman pilot from Poland tells a young RAF technician of her escape from the Nazis, and her desperate need to return home.

In the present day, a theoretical physicist stands in his English garden and creates the first adjacency.”

All this can be found in the new novel from Christopher Priest. The Adjacent is out later this month from Gollancz (and £12.99 for 400-page hardback can’t be bad).

New books -- round up

The Shape Stealer by Lee Carroll. Bantam £12.99

The Devil’s Looking Glass by Mark Chadbourn. Bantam £7.99

The City by Stella Gemmell. Bantam £18.99 (April)

Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins. Gollancz £14.99

The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones. Coming from Headline

Slaine: The Grail War by Pat Mills et al. 2000AD £17.99

Indigo Prime: Anthropocalypse by John Smith et al. 2000AD 14.99

Among Others by Jo Walton. Corsair £7.99