Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies

Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies by Ian Edginton and Davide Fabri. Wildstorm (Titan Books £14.99)
Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

Yet more zombies! The undead are everywhere, it seems, breeding like flies. Do I really want any more? However, Sherlock Holmes vs Zombies is a jolly jaunt through Victorian London, a city besieged from within by the undead, created by a particular evil mastermind (guess who). Holmes and Watson are called to Scotland Yard to help solve a case, that of a man pronounced dead -- but now very much ‘alive’, a monster craving human flesh.

The secret service warns the great detective off but Holmes being Holmes… Well, you know that wouldn’t work. And so he and Watson climb down into the tunnels far beneath the city’s streets, only to encounter an army of revenants. They are rescued by that other great mind, Mycroft Holmes, and an elite contingent of the British Army.

And over dinner at the Diogenes Club the full story begins to emerge, about a comet and an earlier outbreak of the undead. And Holmes’ nemesis is still alive (well, sort of) and controlling an army of the undead. It is up to the fearless duo to re-enter the necropolis that was London and put an end to yet another evil scheme…

I was in two minds about buying this graphic novel. I had read the first issue of the monthly series on initial publication and dismissed the series. I was wrong to do so and I’m glad I bought the book. I love Ian Edginton’s script -- Victorian detective story, steampunk science fiction and, of course, zombie horror. The dialogue works well; you could easily imagine 19th Century gentlemen talking and acting as depicted, albeit in a subtly altered alternate reality. And Davide Fabri’s artwork illustrates it to perfection. It thankfully avoids excessive lingering details of death and destruction and zombie decay, using these images when necessary and thus causing greater impact. Full marks.

An anthology of geezer noir

A new anthology has hit the book shelves recently: Damn Near Dead 2: Live Noir or Die Trying! edited by Bill Crider (Busted Flush Press $18.00 -- you can buy this via Amazon). The book cover states that this in an ‘anthology of geezer noir’ -- so it seems as if it should be a fun read. There are two dozen stories here, all new, by the likes of Neal Barrett Jr, Christa Faust, Ed Gorman, Joe R Lansdale, Tom Piccirilli, Kat Richardson and SJ Rozan.

Blurb on the back cover says that these stories make ‘Miss Marple look like a Girl Scout’ (Chicago Tribune). We’ll see…

Los Angeles Noir edited by Denise Hamilton

I’ve just come across this series of crime books, of which Los Angeles Noir volume two, edited by Denise Hamilton (Akashic Books, $15.95) appears to be the latest addition. It seems that Akashic began this series in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir and in 2007 Los Angeles Noir volume one saw publication.

LA Noir 2 includes 15 stories by the likes of Leigh Brackett, James M Cain, Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy and Walter Mosley. The stories cover a period in LA’s history from 1933 to 2007 and are grouped into four sections: “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”, “After the War”, “Killer Views” and “Modern Classics”.

A very tasty book – and series – I’m sure.

Midsummer Night by Freda Warrington

The next title in Freda Warrington’s Aetherial Tales series, Midsummer Night (Tor $27.99) is now available.

“Decades ago, at a remote British estate where the veil between our world and the world of the Aetherials – the fair folk – is too easily breached, three young people tricked their uncle by dressing as the fey. But their joke took a deadly turn when true Aetherials crossed into our world, took one of the pranksters, and literally scared their uncle to death.

Decades later, the estate has become an art centre presided over by Juliana Flagg, a noted visionary sculptor and the daughter of one of the long-ago pranksters.”

Meanwhile, a man “stumbles through the portal, into our world, begging for help. The forces of magic and the power of love contend for the soul of a man in this story of loss and redemption.”

Greek Street volume 2 by Milligan and Gianfelice

Greek Street volume 2: Cassandra Complex by Peter Milligan and Davide Gianfelice. Vertigo $14.99
Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

The comic’s title says it all: Greek Street. It involves characters called Furey and Dedalus and Medea. There are visions and vengeance and Oedipal crimes… You won’t need a second guess to work out that in this graphic novel Greek drama is heavily – and cleverly – interwoven: a tragedy repeated as a contemporary thriller.

The action centres round a strip club in Greek Street, Soho, London, run by the thuggish Fureys. Eddie is on the run from just about everyone. (In the previous volume he arrived in Soho searching for his mother. He found her, slept with her, and killed her – he insists that these last two events were both accidental.) Meanwhile, Lord Menon has his own issues: girls seduced and cast off, a daughter maddened with visions, murder, dark secrets – and a wife who apparently commits suicide.

Writer Peter Milligan and artist Davide Gianfelice have wrought a superb Greek tragedy, of discovery and loss – with references to the plays of ancient Athens. They obviously understand their source material but never overload the story with research. The plotting is tight and fast paced. There is little space for reflection or exposition, no long-winded explanations. You got to keep up. If you don’t have a good memory re-read volume one before embarking on Greek Street: Cassandra Complex. In fact, re-read it anyway – and saviour the complete story (although, annoyingly, the drama is not resolved by the end of this book).

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

The Windup Girl by multi-award winning Paolo Bacigalupi is published in December 2010 by Orbit (£7.99). Time Magazine named The Windup Girl as one of the ten best novels of 2009. The book won five of 2010’s SF awards: Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Compton Crook and the John W Campbell awards.

“Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen’s calorie representative in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, he comb’s Bangkok’s street markets in search of foodstuffs long thought to be extinct. There he meets the Windup Girl – Emiko – now abandon to the slums. She is one of the New People, bred to suit the whims of the rich.

Lake becomes increasing obsessed with Emiko. Conspiracies breed in the heat of political tensions… But no one anticipates the devastating influence of the Windup Girl.”

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year

The 2010 edition Jonathan Strahan’s The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year (volume 4) is now available. Here, you’ll find 29 stories first published in 2009. Authors include Stephen Baxter, Peter Beagle, Holly Black, Pat Cadigan, Andy Duncan, Diana Wynne Jones, John Kessel, Ellen Kushner, Margo Lanagan and Kelly Link. The editor sourced the stories from a wide range of publications including The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Postscripts, Interzone and the online Clarksworld Magazine.

Amy Pond sculpture

Hey... Some of these sculptures actually look like the character they model. I like this one. You can buy it for around £50.

Back to the Middle of Nowhere

Back to the Middle of Nowhere edited by Jessy Marie Roberts & Jessica A Weiss. Pill Hill Press. $16.99
Reviewed by Jenny Barber

When reviewing short story anthologies, it’s rare to find one in which all the stories appeal and sometimes the best we can hope for is that the balance is weighted towards the ones that do. Luckily, Back to the Middle of Nowhere has plenty of stories that hit the spot – and strangely, most of the good ones involve food.

Take “Specialty of the House” by Michael Giorgio, an excellent story set in a road-side café where visitors are rare but always gladly welcomed. There’s a thread of dark humour running through this tale and while the denouement isn’t unexpected, it’s seeing how it gets there that will keep you reading.

Out in the wide open spaces, it’s no surprise that strange breeds of flora pop up so don’t eat the apples in “In Apple Blossom Time” by Colin Insole. Once you get past the slow opener, this grows into a beautiful story with an ending that promises creepiness to come.

In “Land of Enchantment” by Mark Souza, the fruit to watch out for is the humble blackberry; this fruit bites back. The characters are unlikeable which does mar it somewhat, but the story is tasty enough to satisfy.

Moving away from food is the slightly predictable but still very good “Clutching at Straws” by Jay Raven. You know where it’s going as soon as the scarecrow is mentioned, but like “Specialty” the journey is going to keep you entranced.

As a whole, this is something that could be said about the anthology – many of the other stories have elements you’ve seen before, some of them take you there in ways that will keep you reading, others will flip you into a surprise turn-off just when you think you’ve got the route figured. So while the road may be a little bumpy in places, for the most part, the destination is worth it.

Zombie Apocalypse! edited by Stephen Jones

Zombie Apocalypse! edited by Stephen Jones. Robinson £7.99
Reviewed by Peter Coleborn

To be honest, I get bored with trends – very quickly. The rash of books all about vampires and werewolves and zombies tend to pass me by. So I was a little apprehensive at first when I obtained Zombies Apocalypse! Fortunately, I had no reason to be concerned. Zombies Apocalypse! was a joyride, from page one to the end.

With over 15 contributors one might expect an anthology. Wrong. This is a mosaic – an epistolic – novel, cleverly woven together by Stephen Jones. Michael Marshall Smith kicks off the saga. Here, a man writes a long missive to his mother, almost a suicide note full of loss and regret. It hints at the tragedy to follow. The entry by Christopher Fowler describes the source of the zombie plague: a church yard being redeveloped for a New Festival of Britain. There then follows a series of police reports, medical reports, diary entries, and so on, and the horror of the plague becomes clear – there is no easy solution (if, indeed, there is a solution).

It’s not obvious exactly when the events are set. Based on clues sprinkled throughout, I suggest 2013. It appears that London’s Olympic Games were a flop – or didn’t take place – and so the Government forces through plans for the New Festival. Picture the Millennium Dome. At the same time, surveillance and the militia-like police create a society of fear and unease. But that society needs something to be frightened of and the zombies fit that bill. The zombies are clearly a metaphor for today’s bogymen (your choice).

Does this mean that the Government deliberately released the plague? Or just try to take advantage of it? Whatever, they failed to control the situation and the end of civilisation becomes inevitable.

Besides Smith and Fowler, other the contributors are (in order of appearance) Mandy Slater, Paul Finch, Sarah Pinborough Jo Fletcher, John Llewellyn Probert, Jay Russell, Kim Newman, Lisa Morton, Tanith Lee, Paul McAuley, Tim Lebbon, Peter Crowther, Robert Hood, Pat Cadigan, Mark Samuels, Peter Atkins, and Scott Edelman. There is no contents page, so it takes a bit of detection to work out who wrote what. It’s fun to do so but not necessary: just get on and read the book. A few characters reappear over the length of the book, notably Sarah Pinborough's young girl writing in her diary about the death of her mother and father. It felt realistic -- very touching.

Zombies Apocalypse! is a mix of horror and science fiction, with added supernatural elements. There is an end, of sorts, but not a satisfactory conclusion to the plague. It’s a scary read, reminding me of The Andromeda Strain and other convincing post-apocalyptic novels. Highly recommended.