Morpheus Tales #19 Supplement Out Now!

Hope you had a nice Christmas and New Year! I’m still recovering!

If you’re still in the mood for some Christmas Spirit (the snow’s in London is certainly helping me!) go read the Morpheus Tales Christmas Horror Special:

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/christmashorrorspecial

It’s free, and it’s bloody good, and it’s got one of my stories in it!

BTW, have you got it yet? The Morpheus Tales #19 Supplement is out now, filled with reviews, interviews, articles and loads more!  It also includes a massive preview of Ripped Genes: The Biopunk Special Issue!

You can view and download is here:

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/mt19reviews

Or get the pdf version from the Morpheus Tales website: www.morpheustales.com/reviews.htm

More reviews coming soon, just as soon as I

Zombies… Pressure/Opportunity…

I was recently asked to contribute to an anthology of original dark fiction. Great, you may say, but then I found out who else was going to be in this book. The list was hideously. It sent cold shivers down my spine and made me feel a little nauseous. Two of my favourite writers were on that list, and the rest were pretty damn good too.

Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy writing and when things are going well I feel like I belong up there with Stephen King and Clive Barker. But when things are not going so well, I fear anyone will read the dross I come out with.

Massive opportunity. Massive amount of pressure.

I waited for inspiration to strike, I waited and waited as the deadline loomed closer. Slowly but surely the deadline crept up on me and inspiration failed.

Having been a bit rusty in the fiction-writing department, I had thrown out a couple of stories for practice and to try to get a bit of a rhythm going. Managed to knock together a couple of zombie stories, one, at 60,000 words, the longest  I’d written in years.  Editing that down to the 10,000 maximum was too daunting a task, so I thought I’d adapt an old idea I’d had lurking around for a little while.

A futuristic warrior lands on a zombie infested-planet…

The basic concept needed sorting out into a plot with characters…

With the deadline ever closer I had no choice but to start writing, my brain had no more time to let ideas percolate. If things worked out marvellous, if they didn’t… Well, I didn’t want to think about that!

The story was written, twelve thousand words later, weeks worth of writing and I was done. But the story hadn’t turned out how I’d wanted it to. The editing job it needed would be enormous. I could certainly polish it up into something respectable, but editing isn’t exactly my idea of fun and it would take a lot of work.

With the deadline just around the corner I had a decision to make, and virtually no time to make it.

A personal post-apocalyptic tale I had written before I knew about the book had turned out pretty well, I was happy with it, as happy as us sensitive creative types can be that is.  I put it forward to the editor, on the deadline. He snapped my hand off, gave me a nod of affirmation and later emailed me confirmation that the story would be included.

Now I sit and wait, hunched up and trembling with a mixture of excitement, anticipation and fear…

THE SKINNER By Neal Asher – Reviewed

Three strangers meet on the way to the planet’s surface. That planet, which has little serviceable surface, is Spatterjay, a mostly water-filled world. And the seas of Spatterjay are filled with all manner of creatures all ready and willing to eat you and anything else that invades their watery home: including the strange leeches, whose bite, if not fatal, will change your body chemistry until you are immortal, or near as damnit.

One of the party of three is Sable Keech, several hundreds of years old, and finally returning to Spatterjay to complete his mission: to find the remaining survivors of Jay Hoop’s crew and execute them. They were an ancient gang who sold cored-human slaves to the alien Prador’s during the war. Despite the war now being over a Prador adult and adolescent have arrived on the planet in secret with one of Hoop’s old crew, intent on causing problems.

Another of the three is Janer, part of a hive mind that may have secret plans to colonize the planet.

Throw into this mix semi-immortal pirates; a monster that skins people alive; the various fauna that occupies most of the planet and is intent on eating everything else; an AI overseer that acts as the planet’s police and army; and a War Drone; and you get a massive amount of story, huge back-stories, and a huge amount of information that fortunately doesn’t slow down the plot too much.

It takes a little while to get into the book because of the sheer volume of stuff you need to know, but it’s so full of great ideas that you can’t help but keep reading. The book builds nicely, we have enough action and enough ideas to not only keep you entertained but make you want to discover more. Fortunately Asher’s produced not only more Spatterjay novels, but also Polity novels (based on the more organised part of the universe that only make a brief appearance here). Asher’s universe is massively detailed and cleverly put together, and the novel is the same. What it lacks in pace to begin with is swiftly made up for in the later stages, and you can forgive this because of the amount of detail expounded.

Full of great ideas, with a good solid story and plenty of twists and turns, this first book of Spatterjay is the ideal entry into this virgin territory, and I have high hopes for the other books in the series, which I will most definitely be seeking out.

LEGEND By David Gemmell – Reviewed

This is the book that started Gemmell’s career. The epic battle to protect Dros Delnoch fortress, to stop the invading hordes of the Nadir. It’s a fantasy tale of Thermopylae. If the fortress is lost the entire Drenai empire will follow, but the warriors are outnumbered fifty to one and everyone knows it’s just a matter of time before the fortress falls. They know this even before the Nadir’s massive army arrives.

An ancient warrior, nearly sixty, and aching with fatigue, is called upon to assist. Druss takes his axe and his knowledge, prepared to die to help slow the mighty Nadir forces. He knows it is a lost cause, but he will do everything he can.

A group of monks, a warrior sect, head to the fortress to aid them knowing only death awaits.

A coward helps a woman being attacked in a forest, and suddenly finds himself part of the defending force.

A bandit is called upon, taking his band of thieves and cutthroats to help out.

The massive siege is masterfully portrayed. Gemmel’s detailing is spot on. The characters are brilliant and you can’t help but will them to win, despite the incredible odds.

His first book set off a career and Gemmel is still recognised as one of the masters of heroic fantasy. This book takes from myth and legend, but history and even has a Return of The Jedi moment for those of you reading carefully.

Action packed, cleverly plotted, and brimming with character and sparkling with genius, Legend is a book that’s difficult to put down and easy to enjoy. I think I will be seeking out more of Gemmel’s work and working my way through his back catalogue of Drenai novels.