Refreshed and relaxed.

Back from my holiday to find...nothing much has changed. There are still deep issues in Iran, the British economy is still punch drunk, the weather in Edinburgh is still grey and I still don’t have a firm date for the release of ‘The Missing.’ Being out in Marrakech I made sure I stayed away from the internet, in the desert I couldn’t get anything. No phone signal, no wifi, no electricity. In these instances I always expect something momentous to happen whilst I’m hidden from the world. I always think I’m going to get back to the UK and be asked, ‘have you heard the news?’, but it never happens. Even Michael Jackson waited until I returned.

So now I’m rested and ready for action. The holiday was excellent. We stayed at The Riad Dar One, run by a very nice French man and his two very large dogs. The hotel catered for our every need as well as providing us with a room on the top floor terrace that gave a view over the city.

In the desert we stayed at La Pause, which was both luxurious and primitive at the same time. With great views of the desert, this is the only time I’ve been able to use the term ‘an oasis of calm,’ in its truest form.

The people of Marrakech are friendly, the food was wonderful and the sun, very, very hot.

So now back to life and writing and trying to make some sort of career out of my humble works.

I'll put more photos up on my Flickr! stream.

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I did a lot of reading whilst away and tried to get through a small chunk of the books that have grown next to my desk.

Already Dead is the first Joe Pitt novel from Charlie Huston. It’s a fast simply plotted book, part film noir, part horror. Pitt is, as the book title tells you, already dead; but he’s returned as a private eye for hire in a New York City split by vampire clan loyalty. It’s fast and furious and great fun to read, with some excellent lines. I will certainly be reading the rest of the series.

A Madness of Angels is Kate Griffin’s (better known as Catherine Webb) first book for adults. A bit slow to start but it builds into a wonderful urban fantasy. Griffin has created a magic which runs off the power, vitality and electricity of London city, with magicians becoming part of the urban experience. Unlike much of Urban Fantasy, which just plonks a magical story into a modern setting, Griffin has interwoven her novel with a modern essence completely dependent on urbanity and the interconnectivity of the modern world. The book riffs off Neverwhere, but it is its own work and one worth praising.

Carey’s ‘Thicker Than Water’, is the fourth in the Felix Castor series following the London freelance exorcist. As usual Felix is in hot water with everyone, but this time the world that Carey has created is changed as something new enters the fray, something which will make Felix judge what the return of the dead is all about. The novel doesn’t so much end but open up the saga for the next novel. Another good read.

MPD - Psycho Vol. 1 is the first in an ongoing Manga series that lead to a film in its native Japan. It follows Yousuke Kobayashi, a man suffering from multiple personality disorders, framed for a murder he is unsure he committed and now out of prison and joined to a ‘special’ police unit hunting dangerous serial killers. It’s brutal, perverse, gory and as with most Manga, slightly confusing as to what is happening, but at the same time contains brilliant off kilter ideas.

Read this week:

Already Dead by Charlie Hutson

A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin

Thicker Than Water by Mike Carey

MPD - Psycho by Tajima and Otsuka

Before I go...

Today’s my last day in front of the Mac for some time as I’m visiting Morocco - Marrakech to be more precise. I plan to spend the time playing with the new Nikon and attempting to get that perfect shot that encapsulates the heat of the street, the shadows and mystery of the souk, the light playing off the Atlas Mountains and the history that beats within the walls of that mysterious city. If that doesn’t work then I’ll just have to eat tagine and drink mint tea until I’m fully rested.

I’m taking a bit of reading material with me including Huston’s ‘Already Dead’, Carey’s ‘Thicker Than Water’ and ‘A Madness of Angels’ by Kate Griffin. That should keep me busy.

The Royal Mail stamps containing art by Dave McKean and words by Neil Gaiman have arrived. I’m not much of a philatelist, but these are lovely little things and worth £4.35 of any-ones money

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Century: 1910 is the next outing for The League of Extraordinary Gentleman by Mr. Moore and Mr. O’Neill and I’m glad to say a big improvement on ‘Black Dossier’, which I found just a little too self indulgent.

The book begins with Nemo’s daughter, setting her up as a replacement for the ageing mysterious submariner pirate. Running away from her destiny she ends up in the East End of London where the unaging Mina and Allan have been joined by Orlando, Raffles and Carnacki.

As usual part of the enjoyment is spent identifying all the allusions to history and characters real or imagined. The story seems more straight forward than the last outing and the art work is as usual excellent.

The Scar by China Mieville is probably one of the best works of fantasy I have ever read. The book follows a woman in exile from her city of birth, via a slave ship to a new urban sprawl, the pirate city of Armada. Made up from boats the entire vast city floats around the ocean collecting enforced citizens and growing in size and power. The rulers of the city, a mysterious couple called ‘the Lovers’ decide to increase the power of the fledgling state with or without the help of its people, by steering the city to a place that might not even exist.

The book deals with alienation, freedom, servitude, responsibility, civic power, and trust, just to mention a few things. Written in the steampunk subgenre the book stands heads and shoulders above many due to its breadth of ideas and its intelligence. It’s a demanding book that deserves your attention, a book that shows that fantasy need not be considered ‘a foolish thing’, but when written correctly can display more about the human psyche than even the best works of literary fiction.

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So with all short stories in before my deadline, ‘Pick 57’ gestating nicely, I bid you adieu and leave you with a couple of Dave McKean shorts in my absence.

Read this week:

Century: 1910 by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill

The Scar by China Mieville

The Small Print

A short short entitled 'Pastoral Effect' is out in this months copy of New Horizons which I believe can be purchased from The British Fantasy Society. I've got two short stories ('Heart of Glass' and 'The Museum of Human Experience') plus a poem ('Singing the Low Down Geek Blues') in the book The Small Print which should be out in August and available from the British Heart Foundation. 

'Pick-up 57' (which I now think is completely the wrong name for the book), is coming on slowly. It's a complex work as I'm trying to strike a balance between what the narrator knows and what is really going on. I have about thirty pages done so far but that should increase rapidly once I get back from holidays at the end of June.

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Mind the Gap is the first in a series of novels called 'The Hidden Cities' written by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon. The story follows Jazz who is on the run from the mysterious 'Uncles' who have just killed her mother. Racing across London she enters the underground and then disappears further into the abandon tunnels and secret place deep below the city. Taken in by a 'family' of petty thieves Jazz must learn her about her own past if she is to deal with her future.

Drawing influences from Neverwhere, the novel is magical, but it's a very mundane magic, rooted as it is in the history of London. The underside of London is seen as somewhere dark and foreboding, holding hidden secrets and a violent history. The story itself is a little weak and could have done with more interesting characters particularly the bad guys who come across as enigmas and not really that threatening. That said, it's a good book and one that further enhances the sub-sub-genre of Subterranean fiction.

My second recommendation this week is the book that started Subterranean fiction off. A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne has a professor and his future son in law following the guidance of an old parchment written by a Viking that leads them deep into Mount Sneffels and a world hidden below ground. Unlike all the film versions, the book is more interested in the journey than the hidden world, and though it is a world of palaeontology, lumbering dinosaurs such as the Tyrannosaurus Rex do not make an appearance. 

By today's standards the book is slow, and being told by a character recounting the story as if to a diary, feels old fashioned. But this is where it starts. The world is opened up and the hollow Earth theories are turned into fiction.

Read this week:

Mind the Gap by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon

Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne