Category: books

Devil in the Smoke

I finally got round to watching the Christmas episode of Doctor Who and I will say I did enjoy it. I really liked the fact it was set in a Victorian London and glad a fair bit of screentime was given to Madam Vastra, Jenny and Strax.

I was quite pleased to find that there is an ebook with a Madam Vastra story which is available for both Kindle and the Apple Book Store.

Doctor Who: Devil in the Smoke

Madame Vastra, the fabled Lizard Woman of Paternoster Row, knew death in many shapes and forms. But perhaps one of the most bizarre of these was death by snow…

On a cold day in December, two young boys, tired of sweeping snow from the workhouse yard, decide to build a snowman – and are confronted with a strange and grisly mystery. In horrified fascination, they watch as their snowman begins to bleed…

The search for answers to this impossible event will plunge Harry into the most hazardous – and exhilarating – adventure of his life. He will encounter a hideous troll. He will dine with a mysterious parlour maid. And he will help the Great Detective, Madame Vastra, save the world from the terrifying Devil in the Smoke.

This is very much a must read if you enjoyed the Doctor Who Christmas special.

Get Devil in the Smoke at Amazon.co.uk for your Kindle (or Kindle App).

Get Devil in the Smoke on the Apple Book Store.

Dominion – Book Choice

I saw this book in my local branch of WHSmiths.

Dominion

1952. Twelve years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany after Dunkirk. As the long German war against Russia rages on in the east, the British people find themselves under dark authoritarian rule: the press, radio and television are controlled; the streets patrolled by violent auxiliary police and British Jews face ever greater constraints. There are terrible rumours too about what is happening in the basement of the German Embassy at Senate House. Defiance, though, is growing. In Britain, Winston Churchill’s Resistance organization is increasingly a thorn in the government’s side. And in a Birmingham mental hospital an incarcerated scientist, Frank Muncaster, may hold a secret that could change the balance of the world struggle for ever. Civil Servant David Fitzgerald, secretly acting as a spy for the Resistance, is given the mission by them to rescue his old friend Frank and get him out of the country. Before long he, together with a disparate group of Resistance activists, will find themselves fugitives in the midst of London’s Great Smog; as David’s wife Sarah finds herself drawn into a world more terrifying than she ever could have imagined. And hard on their heels is Gestapo Sturmbannfuhrer Gunther Hoth, brilliant, implacable hunter of men . . . At once a vivid, haunting reimagining of 1950s Britain, a gripping, humane spy thriller and a poignant love story, with DOMINION C. J. Sansom once again asserts himself as the master of the historical novel.

I’ve always had a soft spot for this kind of alternate history novel. I’ve not yet had a chance to read it, but the blurb sounds good.

Buy Dominion from Amazon.co.uk

World War Z

They are currently filming World War Z up in Glasgow. They are using Glasgow to stand in for Philadelphia and as a result they have dressed the place up with props to make it look the part. Very strange to see Glasgow with American police cars, fire engines, taxis, cars and trucks.

The signage looks very effective as do the extras dressed in SWAT gear or army camouflage.

There are some more great photographs of the filming in this Flickr group.
With this story in the news it did make me think about checking out the book on which the film is based.

It began with rumours from China about another pandemic. Then the cases started to multiply and what had looked like the stirrings of a criminal underclass, even the beginnings of a revolution, soon revealed itself to be much, much worse. Faced with a future of mindless, man-eating horror, humanity was forced to accept the logic of world government and face events that tested our sanity and our sense of reality. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and key players in the 10-year fight-back against the horde, “World War Z” brings the very finest traditions of American journalism to bear on what is surely the most incredible story in the history of civilisation.

I have to admit I am not a great fan of horror movies, but will occasionally watch the odd zombie film and quite enjoyed The Walking Dead.

Zombies have, as I am sure you know, great potential for gaming. Hordes of the undead swarming across the battlefield, whilst a small group of humans try and survive. At quite a few shows I have been to, there have been zombie participation games which I think demonstrate the interest in the genre.

So while I wait for the movie to be finished and released I am probably going to get a copy of World War Z and have a read.

After America

In my e-mail box this morning came a recommendation from Amazon, After America by John Birmingham.

afteramerica

March 14, 2003, was the day the world changed forever. A wave of energy slammed into North America and devastated the continent. The U.S. military, poised to invade Baghdad, was left without a commander in chief. Global order spiraled into chaos. Now, three years later, a skeleton U.S. government headquartered in Seattle directs the reconstruction of an entire nation—and the battle for New York City has begun.

Pirates and foreign militias are swarming the East Coast, taking everything they can. The president comes to the Declared Security Zone of New York and barely survives the visit. The enemy—whoever they are—controls Manhattan’s concrete canyons and the abandoned flatlands of Long Island. The U.S. military, struggling with sketchy communications and a lack of supplies, is mired in a nightmare of urban combat.

Caught up in the violence is a Polish-born sergeant who watches the carnage through the eyes of an intellectual and with the heart of a warrior. Two smugglers, the highborn Lady Julianne Balwyn and her brawny partner Rhino, search for a treasure whose key lies inside an Upper East Side Manhattan apartment. Thousands of miles away, a rogue general leads the secession of Texas and a brutal campaign against immigrants, while Miguel Pieraro, a Mexican-born rancher, fights back. And in England, a U.S. special ops agent is called into a violent shadow war against an enemy that has come after her and her family.

The president is a stranger to the military mindset, but now this mild-mannered city engineer from the Pacific Northwest needs to make a soldier’s choice. With New York clutched in the grip of thousands of heavily armed predators, is an all-out attack on the city the only way to save it?

From the geopolitics of post-American dominance to the fallout of Israel’s nuclear strike, After America provides a gripping, intelligent, and harrowing chronicle of a world in the maw of chaos—and lives lived in the dangerous dawn of a strange new future.

I quite enjoyed the first book in this series, Without Warning that though has a strange premise about an energy wave, is an enjoyable novel about a world without America.

Reading the synopsis above I now have a better understanding of why certain characters were introduced in the first book.

You can pre-order After America from Amazon.

The Light of Other Days

My book choice this week is The Light of Other Days by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter.

With the death of Arthur C Clarke last week I thought I would post my choice of his books.

The Light of Other Days

This is one of my favourite books and I have read it quite a few times now.

‘Space is what keeps everything from being in the same place. Right?’ With these words Hiram Patterson, head of the giant media corporation OurWorld, launches the greatest communications revolution in history. With OurWorld’s development of wormhole technology, any point in space can be connected to any other, faster than the speed of light. Realtime television coverage is here: earthquakes and wars, murders and disasters can be watched, exactly as they occur, anywhere on the planet. Then WormCams are made to work across time as well as space. Humanity encounters itself in the light of other days. We witness the life of Jesus, go to the premiere of Hamlet, solve the enigmas that have baffled generations. Blood spilled centuries ago flows vividly once more – and no personal treachery or shame can be concealed. But when the world and everything in it becomes as transparent as glass and there are no more secrets, people find new ways to gain vengeance and commit crime, and Hiram Patterson finds new ways to keep his Machiavellian schemes secret.

The idea of the wormcams is really scary and the impact they have on the world is immense and explored in this novel.

You can get the book from Amazon.co.uk.

Settling Accounts: In at the Death

My book choice this week is Harry Turtledove’s Settling Accounts: In at the Death.

Settling Accounts

This is the final chapter in the long running alternate history series on a divided United States which started with How Few Remain and went through the Great War, a political inter-war period before finishing off with a four part 1940s era series.

This the final book covers the end of the war (and as the cover gives away) the use of nuclear weapons.

It’s been quite a long haul and I am sure I will go back through the series again at some time (as I did with the WorldWar series).

I am only half way through the current book and so far I have really enjoyed it, though typically Turtledove there are a lot of (similar) characters and I have got lost sometimes. Also so far there has been no mention of Canada, which is a pity as I enjoyed that aspect of previous books.

Recommended.

Buy it from Amazon.co.uk

The Grapple

As per usual a different cover for the UK edition…

I noticed on Amazon that the UK edition of The Grapple is about to be released. Though I have already bought and read the US edition I have always liked to see the different covers that are used on the different editions.

As you can see above the US edition (on the right) has paratroopers landing, whils the UK edition has gone for a Confederate Navy ship.

The books is a typically good Turtledove read, which I enjoyed and was slightly disappointed that this series(of the series) is not a trilogy, on other words there is at least one more book on the way.

One difference which I did like was the fact that Harry intertwined some of the characters, usually this happens rarely in his books, so it was nice to see some of the characters meet.

The United States have found their fighting form at last. Pushed back from Pittsburgh, by 1944 the Confederate States of America are struggling to hold their ground against an American army that seems to grow stronger by the day. While the United States press on towards the Mississippi valley, Jake Featherston’s strategists in Richmond look for some way – any way – to slow down their inexorable advance. Deep in the heartland the extermination camps continue, but when all hope seems lost for their victims, the United States army turns at last towards the Texas plains. The fate of both sides, though, may lay elsewhere. A new menace appears in the Atlantic, intent on attacking the United States and scientists on both sides of the rapidly-moving border have nearly perfected an awesome new weapon that will guarantee victory for whoever uses it first. The greatest war of the twentieth century – fought this time in the heart of America – moves towards its blood-soaked climax.

The Grapple at Amazon.co.uk

Final Impact

Hey a German World War Two Attack Helicopter….

This is the cover from the next (and final) John Birmingham Axis of Time Trilogy set of novels.

A story which looks at what would happen if a future carrier group found themselves back in the middle of World War Two.

I enjoyed the first two novels so I think I will get this one, however it is not released until January 30th 2007.

Buy it from Amazon.

Thud

I saw on Amazon that Terry Pratchett has a new book out, Thud.

Koom Valley? That was where the trolls ambushed the dwarfs, or the trolls ambushed the dwarfs. It was far away. It was a long time ago. But if he doesn’t solve the murder of just one dwarf, Commander Sam Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch is going to see it fought again, right outside his office. With his beloved Watch crumbling around him and war-drums sounding, he must unravel every clue, outwit every assassin and brave any darkness to find the solution. And darkness is following him. Oh…and at six o’clock every day, without fall, with no excuses, he must go home to read ‘Where’s My Cow?’, with all the right farmyard noises, to his little boy. There are some things you have to do.

I use to be a big fan of Terry Pratchett, I stopped some books back and I have never managed to get back into him. Maybe I ought to try as I still think Mort is one of the best books I have read.