NEW BOOKS: READ, READING, UNREAD

I'm talking book books this time, not graphic novels, novel novels. Okay. Through the vagaries of British publishing, several novels by some of my favourite writers have all been published within the last few weeks and thanks to Amazon.uk they've all been affordable, ludicrously so in one case.

I'll start with the weakest and the one that doesn't quite fit in.

This got an extremely good review in SFX (a magazine I find very useful for its reviews of books and films) and it sounded quite interesting with its blend of a world with a hostile environment, a matriarchal society, and religious wars. I persevered until page 129 (just under halfway through) when I gave up exhausted, bored, and annoyed by unsympathetic protagonist.

Then came-

Hill, son of Steven King, is carving out his place in the fantasy/horror market and I was very impressed by his novel Horns (currently being filmed with Daniel Radcliffe in the lead role). This, because it's the longest of the lot, I haven't read yet because I'm saving it for last.

Now, coincidentally-

-from Hard Case Crime (an excellent imprint) comes Joe's daddy latest book. It's low key, narrow focus compared to King's usual wide-screen novels and could even be a subplot from one them. Set in a low-rent version of Disneyworld, it focuses on our young male protagonist's first time away from home, prior to going to college, and working at a summer job in the place of the title. It's a blend of murder mystery, coming of age, rite of passage, and ghost story with all elements blended to perfection and as a result it's much more successful than some of his more recent doorstep efforts.

Having enjoyed The Long Earth immensely, I started to read this the day it arrived and finished it this morning. It wasn't quite as good and the title is (deliberately?) misleading but I'm still looking forward to the third book especially as this one ends on a (not completely unpredictable) cliffhanger.

I haven't read any of the next three books which are being listed in order of length which happens to be the order I'm going to read them in.

 

Neil Gaiman's first adult novel for 500 years or something like that. With all the massive volumes and physical danger to life and limb if they -the several volumes of Absolute Sandman- fall off the shelves upstairs, and the rest of his novel novels on an ordinary bookshelf, I wasn't going to miss this one, was I.

Amazon were (or are) selling Iain Banks latest novel for the ludicrous price of £3.99 and I ordered it at £12.99 (cancelled and re-ordered it when the price plummetted) but I was hardly not going to buy it anyway as Banks is (never was) my favourite British writer of mainstream fiction (and maybe I should give Consider Phlebas another go as politically aware socialist SF is about as rare as hen's teeth).

As for Priest, I seem to have been reading his books all my adult life which, come to think of it, I have so why stop now? Really looking forward to it as it's had great reviews.

See, I do do more than sleep, re-home cats, watch DVD box sets, drink wine, and read graphic novels.

Admittedly, not much more.

GRAPHIC NOVELS: COMIC BOOK DAY -3 IN A 4-PART MINI-SERIES

5. Invincible Volume 14: The Viltrumite War. Written by Robert Kirkman, illustrated by Ryan Ottley. Image Comics. Paperback, collects Invincible 71-78.

 

Invincible is probably just about, in a close-run fight, my favourite solo superhero title. Gail Simone's Secret Six group book beats it overall.

When it started, 15 year old Mark lived happily with his mom and Science Fiction writer dad. Except that Dad turned out to be Omniman, the world's strongest superhero and member of the Guardians of the Globe, and Mark is just beginning to develop super powers of his own. He's just getting warmed up when Omniman kills the Guardians and is revealed as an alien, a Viltrumite, who is preparing for the conquest of Earth. After beating his son to a pulp, he heads off into deep space.

For the next few years (this is almost set in real time), Mark as Invincible learns his trade as a superhero, gets a girlfriend, loses his virginity, becomes established in Image Comics superhero universe, develops relationships, realises that his friend Atom Eve is the girl of his dreams, survives encounters with other Viltrumites and finally the stage is set for the Viltrumite War.

Despite their near-Superman power levels, the Viltrumite population has declined rapidly and their interstellar empire is vulnerable to a coalition of their enemies. The coalition, however, needs Invincible (now nearly the equal of his father), a reformed Omniman, their friend the one-eyed Allen the Alien, and Mark's young half-brother by his father with an alien humanoid insectile princess (it's a long story, okay?).

So basically what you've got is an epic interstellar superpower war.

 

Did I mention that it's extremely violent at times? The series started out as what appeared to be a rather sweet son of Superman sort of thing but, despite the clear exaggerated style quickly became dark in tone while still managing humorous touches.

Obviously this isn't the place to start, which is with Volume 1, but it's a terrific payoff for fans of Invincible who've following this series from the beginning. The twist at the end is completely unexpected. I'm also really looking forward to the next one as when Invincible left Earth at the beginning, he didn't know his girlfriend was pregnant. Now it's ten months later.

6. American Vampire Volume 1. Written by Scott Snyder and Stephen King, illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque. Vertigo. Hardback, collects issues 1-5 of the ongoing series.

 

And now for something completely different.

Each chapter is divided into two parts of 16 pages each. The first is set in Hollywood in 1925 and is written by Scott Snyder, the creator of the series. The second is set in Wild West and is the origin story of Skinner Sweet, the American Vampire of the title, and is written by Stephen King. Vertigo is the mature readers imprint of DC Comics and has done much to raise the standards of comic books and the idea of what they can do. Gaiman's Sandman was published by Vertigo to give just the most famous example.

The premise is that European vampires have moved to the USA and expanded into legitimate business enterprises such as movies. Not long after their arrival, they hunted down the outlaw Skinner Sweet who been robbing their banks. Sweet is not a nice person. He is a brutal killer with no qualms about letting his men commit rape during the course of their robberies. He is caught, accidentally vampirised and buried for over 20 years.

In the main story, Sweet appears to have mellowed slightly and is first seen flirting with two movie extras. when one of them, Pearl, is attacked by vampires at a Hollywood party, he vampirises her, gives her some basic information and sets her loose on them (they're old enemies).  The twist is that Sweet and now Pearl are a new breed of vampire, able to walk in daylight. It's also made clear that this series will span the next few decades of the 20th century.

 

This is not superhero stuff and a long way from it, a long way from the fun fantasy violence. It is crude and brutal with an appropriately edgy but highly skilled art style to match. There is a lot of story contained in these five issues making it a dense read which repays rereading. I'd been putting off buying this, despite the many good reviews which suggest it's joining the ranks of Vertigo's best titles, and now I wonder why. This is really very impressive.