SPACECRAFT

 I was SO looking forward to this, but…

Author Timothy Morton and I were in perfect alignment in the opening chapter as he spoke of being 13, seeing Close Encounters and Star Wars and making up spacecraft in his head for his own amusement. Sadly, this nerdy bonhomie didn’t last long as I soon encountered the sentence “This is a feminist book about spacecraft and hyperspace”. 

Oh, dear. 

I soldiered on for a bit but when he referred to the Millennium Falcon (the ostensible subject of the book) as “a vulva rushing through the vulva-like realm of hyperspace” I had to call it a day. The points he makes are probably quite astute to someone who can work out what he’s going on about. There is a lot of rambling about how good Star Wars is, which I wouldn’t normally mind reading, but his analyses and conclusions are quite barmy. The kindest description I can give this book is pseudo-intellectual, word salad-y claptrap. This book is not about whizz-bang spacecraft and sci-fi - it is about everything really being a vulva. 

Who signed off on this??

MARVEL LEGENDS OF ASGARD | REBELS OF VANAHEIM

When Heimdall and his companion, the Valkyrie Captain Uschi, return to his homeland of Vanaheim, they are shocked to find it in the grip of an infestation of draugr - hideous, undead creatures. But not everyone is welcoming of their presence or offers of help, making Heimdall’s task even harder, and he soon finds himself at odds with his own people. However, the threat of the draugr becomes even greater than Heimdall could have imagined. And are the draugr even the real enemy? 

“The Rebels of Vanaheim” by Richard Lee Byers is the fourth novel in the “Marvel: Legends of Asgard” series and follows on from the author’s previous novel “The Head of Mimir”. Just as in that book, the story is set in a time long before Heimdall became the guardian of the Bifrost, and once again the story is related in flashback by a member of the Warriors Three, in this case Hogun, reluctantly taking on the role of babysitter and telling the tale to a young girl. 

The descriptions of the draugr are deliciously gory and squirm-inducing, and their power is vividly brought to life by Byers. The story isn’t all relentless action and gore, although there is plenty of that and it is visceral and exciting, but there is also intrigue and mystery as Heimdall and Uschi discover that they aren’t being told absolutely everything about what is going on. When they discover the truth, they realise the threat goes far beyond mere draugr. 

Heimdall and Uschi have a solid relationship based on friendship and mutual respect and as lead characters the reader couldn’t ask for more. The supporting cast of characters is diverse, from gods to dwarves, and the main players feel well-rounded and interesting with realistic motivation. 

Following on from Byers’ earlier book in the series, the story mentions previous events and they have a bearing on the narrative, specifically regarding Heimdall’s abilities, but the book is still readable as a standalone novel. And readable it certainly is - pacy and breathtaking at times and thought-provoking at others. It has well-rounded characters and vivid scene-setting, with plenty of sorcery and magical weapons to satisfy fans, and a nail-biting climax. Richard Byers writes in dense, fluid language which demands close attention but which never bores, and it is always a joy to escape into the world that he has created. “The Rebels of Vanaheim” is a worthy follow-up to “The Head of Mimir“ and I can’t wait for the next one!

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I received an advanced reading copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

For more information visit marvel.com. © MARVEL 2021

INHIBITOR PHASE

 “Inhibitor Phase” is the latest novel by Alastair Reynolds and is a return to his ongoing Revelation Space universe. 

Deep underground on a rocky, desolate planet called Michaelmas, one of the last outposts of mankind struggles to survive whilst staying hidden from the alien Inhibitors, known as “wolves”, who want to eradicate humanity. On a mission to destroy a passing spaceship before it betrays their presence, Miguel de Ruyter encounters a lone survivor who may know more than she’s letting on. The woman, known only as Glass, will lead Miguel on a quest for a weapon which may end the Inhibitor threat. 

It’s been a while since I’ve read one of Alastair’s books, but it all came flooding back as I re-immersed myself in the Revelation Space world. Reynolds has created a living, breathing space empire, so even while reading a story about one isolated part, you still get the sense of a much larger universe affecting events; an universe of sentient spaceships and omnipotent life-destroying weapons. 

Whilst this is a standalone book, there is a moderate amount of recapping of previous events in the Revelation Space saga, but that’s to be expected as it has to pull centuries of backstory behind it. The preface assures us that whilst this book can be read without prior knowledge of the preceding books (I recommended reading them all anyway, if you haven’t already), it does reference them a little but without major spoilers. The preface includes a short intro to the major events of the Revelation Space universe and a more detailed timeline, glossary and list of prominent characters is provided at the back of the book. 

The first part introduces us to the story’s main characters; Miguel de Ruyter, the administrator of the outpost and the survivor, who calls herself Glass, who will have a profound effect on both Miguel and the colony. Both characters are superbly written, and as usual there is a colourful cast of equally well-drawn supporting characters. There is plenty of hard sci-fi technology but Reynolds’ never lets it overwhelm the story. His prose, while dense in places, crackles with energy and import, and his distinctive style will soon have you in its grip. The story is pacy, exciting and often gory and brutal, but there are moments of humour - Reynolds even manages to squeeze in a “Game of Thrones” reference - and the relationship between Miguel and Glass sparkles first with sassiness and eventually grudging acceptance as they learn to work together and even to rely on each other. The story builds to a thrilling ending as we’ve come to expect from Reynolds. 

Alastair Reynolds’ books have always been among the hardest of hard sci-fi, but he never loses sight of the human factor, no matter how altered humans become, or how enormous in scope his stories are. And they are big, with “Inhibitor Phase” being no exception; space journeys take decades, characters go into suspended animation or “reefersleep” for extended periods. This is epic sci-fi, but in the end the story hinges on human decisions. 

This novel is every bit as good as the earlier books in the Revelation Space saga, and reading it is like slipping on a favourite old jumper. Fans of those books should not hesitate to buy this. Vast, epic yet very human, “Inhibitor Phase” is vintage Alastair Reynolds.

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A SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE BREAKDOWN

 Oh wow…I feel eviscerated.

Poet and Carly Rae Jepsen fan Patrick Roche has crafted a stunning collection of visceral poetry that explores themes of love & loss, eating disorders, depression, mental health and suicidal thoughts (so trigger warnings for all) with a verbal dexterity that is often breath-taking. Roche relates his childhood as the boy who “only got a clock stuck on midnight” with an alcoholic father, in a life touched by tragedy. 

In the clever “Retcon”, he compares the practice of “retconning” (when comics and TV show writers change details in previous storylines to fit in with new ones) to being able to change traumatic events in his own life-“and I think what a luxury it would be to erase or reset 

at the stroke of a pen”. That resonates so much with me, not least because of the cultural reference. 

Prepare to go through the emotional wringer in poems such as the heartfelt (and heart-breaking) “Self-Portrait as Piranha Plant” or “Suburbs in July”, a poignant reminder of the things we deliberately don’t or are unable to say even to those closest to us. “Gravity” explores the twisted logic of an eating disorder whilst several poems wrestle with depression. 

I could quote forever - “My father drank himself into a funeral” from “Icarus”; “I start doing homework at Starbucks/I have more meaningful conversations with the barista than with my family” from “21”, a stunning entry told in a reverse countdown; “It’s so easy to tell someone you “forgot” to eat breakfast/If you word it the right way” from “Hocus Pocus”, which begins as a tribute to the movie of the same name but becomes something darker and will resonate with readers with eating disorders. Oh wow, here’s another line from it -“What is more witchcraft than the way this/body keeps moving forward/even when I put nothing into it”. 

Oh god, here’s another awesome couple of lines - “So my phone grows heavier and heavier, heavy with/an albatross of words, heavy with apologies I should be/offering…” from “Ode to My Unread Messages”. 

Things get progressively tougher in the third part. “Instructions on Having the Perfect Panic Attack” is exactly that and should be approached with caution, whilst “Every 40 Seconds” refers to the official statistics of how many people commit suicide each year, and it is about suicide, and oh boy, it’s a tough one, especially if you’ve been touched by suicide, but it ends on a hopeful note - “Hundreds of thousands of people are dying in silence/because of silence/but this is saying/we can keep each other breathing”. This is the best poem about suicide I have ever read. The final poem “Open Letter to the Author”, in which Roche addresses himself, ends the collection positively - “There’s a difference between you and yesterday./One still exists.”  

Gut-wrenching, heart-breaking and brutally honest, “A Socially Acceptable Breakdown” shows Patrick Roche can do things with the alphabet that will turn you inside out.

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THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE

What do you think is worse - Richard Osman knows he can’t write and is just taking the money of the gullible, or he actually thinks he’s a good writer? Honestly, I think it’s the latter, and that is terrifying. 

This was not what I expected. Having avoided Osman’s first attempt at writing a book due to the lack of evidence that he was capable of such a feat, I had steeled myself for a cozy crime which would be terrible but at least be a harmless way of passing some time. But it appears Mr. Osman reckons himself as a bit of a Val McDermid, but is really more Val Doonican. There are moments, basically unskilled shifts in tone, which are, no doubt, meant to be shocking but are telegraphed pages in advance, and make Mr. Osman’s attempt at a serious crime novel look leaden and clumsy. 

This book is awful. I punished myself reading it. Every sentence is overwritten to breaking point; I think Mr. Osman intended them to be “clever”. He doesn’t succeed. It’s very hard to care about any of the characters because they are all so badly written. There is one called Elizabeth who is nearly seventy but talks like she’s twenty; one of the many signs of poor characterisation in this book. I suspect she is meant to be the “strong female character” in the book, and it is brave of Mr. Osman to create such a protagonist, seeing as he is incapable of writing a strong character of any gender. 

Mr. Osman wants to write well in his heart, (and I suspect he believes, in his head, that he does) but no part of this book is able to hold itself up as evidence for that. The villain is bereft of any dimension, let alone the requisite three. The main characters are as simply drawn as possible so Mr. Osman doesn’t have to work too hard at making them realistic. This book has three parts and 84 chapters for some reason. 84. This is not the hallmark of a competent writer. And neither is writing a story in the present tense just to be “edgy”. 

Mr. Osman thanks practically the entire population of the UK in his afterword; no need to thank your publishers, Richard…just thank the venal culture that allows poor vanity projects like this to exist. Somebody needs to stop allowing celebrities like Mr. Osman to write and publish whatever nonsense he can dream up whilst waiting to record Pointless. The first book “broke records”, and I’m sure this one will too, which is entirely due to the identity of its author. 

A plot that does nothing, characters that irritate and attempts at humour that do nothing but irritate, this is the last-minute homework of a talentless amateur desperately trying to avoid failing a creative writing course. No book can literally be painful to read; words on a page cannot actually cause you physical discomfort. But you know what? With “The Man Who Died Twice”, Richard Osman very nearly makes such a book an excruciating reality. I can believe this book exists - lots of very bad books exist these days - but I can’t believe people will choose to enjoy it. Are peoples’ lives really so empty that something so worthless can make it better? If this is 21st century literature then you have to fear for the future of the written word.

IN PURSUIT OF CALM

Even though I haven’t lived a life remotely like Daniel Fuselier’s, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much sympathy for someone before.

Surviving drug abuse and alcoholism in two separate “drinking lives” and an accident which causes third-degree burns over more than half of his body, Daniel recounts how he was able to turn his life around by “direct physical and mental contact with a spiritual entity”. 

Growing up in New Orleans, childhood trauma led him to resentment and hatred of his father and his new wife - the “Stepmonster” - but he discovered a bond with his father through his first taste of alcohol, ultimately leading to wild partying in high school and the start of his alcoholism.

Lyrical passages relate his blissful school days filled with fun and friendship. Drinking became Daniel’s way of easing social anxiety but this leads to destructive behaviour and accidents. He always seems on the edge of achieving something but self-doubt always prevents him. Once he achieves his goals, we rejoice with him. 

“In Pursuit of Calm” is a harrowing yet rewarding read, and it doesn’t matter whether or not you believe in spiritual entities, the reader can still take a lot of comfort from this inspirational book.

THE BEATLE BANDIT

On July 24th 1964, Matthew Kerry Smith, wearing a Beatle wig, burst into a Toronto bank toting a semi-automatic rifle - with a barrel painted pink to disguise its purpose in a guitar case - escaping with over $25,000 after a street gunfight which claimed the life of a local man, Jack Blanc, and led to a violent crime spree and a national manhunt. When Smith was eventually caught, his crimes raised wider issues of gun control, mental health and the death penalty in Canada. 

The tale of the robbery itself is riveting and lucidly told; many sentences made me catch my breath, and this quality of writing is consistent throughout the book. A word of warning, the details of Jack Blanc’s and others’ injuries are uncompromising. Nate Hendley writes with forensic clarity as he describes the robbery and its aftermath, offering a lurid insight into Smith’s life and motivations. The impact of Blanc’s death on his family and community is touchingly told. 

Illustrated with photographs of Smith, the crime scene and his trial, “The Beatle Bandit” is a fascinating, brutal, unflinching true crime story, shorn of sensationalism, which will thrill you and anger you in equal measure.

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SPEAK NOT

James Griffiths, a Welshman living in Hong Kong, explores how minority languages face extinction in our modern world of “super-tongues” and the race towards globalisation. Taking his native Welsh, Hawaiian and Cantonese as examples, he discovers how some languages have had to fight for their survival and how they are being saved from oblivion. 

The section on Welsh resonates strongly with me as a Welshman. An 1846 government report on education in Wales concluded that the Welsh language was a “vast drawback” to the progress of Wales as a country, noting the tradition in schools of the “Welsh Not”, a wooden stick that was hung around the neck of any child heard speaking Welsh. This led to decades of marginalisation of the language. Later nationalistic acts of protest (or terrorism, depending on your outlook) against the perceived attacks on the Welsh language, including the investiture of Prince Charles in 1969, are examined, many of which were part of my childhood and early life. Griffiths skilfully reconstructs these momentous events and makes me hope he will consider writing an expanded book on this subject. 

It is a miracle that the Hawaiian language has survived decades of colonisation by the British and the French, culminating in the islands becoming part of the United States in a coup. This had an adverse effect on the language as islanders were forced to learn English fluently. A “renaissance” in recent years has led to the survival of the Hawaiian language, culminating in and being accelerated by protests against the building of the Thirty-Metre Telescope at the summit of Hawaii’s highest mountain, Mauna Kea. The turbulent history of Hawaii is eye-opening because it is so jarring when viewed against the public perception of the islands. 

Griffiths admits that including Cantonese in a book about endangered languages is unusual, but this section goes deep into the turbulent history of the Chinese and Tibetan languages, concluding that even Cantonese is at risk given the rapid decline of languages across China and the possibility of losing Hong Kong as a cultural hub. 

Interludes are slotted in between the there main sections, one of which explores the birth of the Afrikaans language and how it became the language of apartheid. It’s legacy is still being felt today and this section contains quite graphic depictions of the violence which still splits South Africa, so be prepared. 

Griffiths also spotlights the creators of Modern Hebrew and the much-maligned “universal” language Esperanto; the former seeking a language of a new Jewish state, the latter hoping to create a tongue too break down barriers between Jews and Gentiles. Both men shared a disdain for Yiddish, widely considered to be the language of the ghetto by most Jews. The Holocaust resulted in the end of Yiddish as the main Jewish languages as so many of its speakers perished, but it has since seen revival and recognition in recent years. 

The main theme of this excellent book is that indigenous languages don’t die out, they are “uprooted by malice or neglect” by the “powerful at the expense of the powerless”. This is usually done through violence, and the reclamation of that lost identity also often leads to violence, as the stories depicted in the book all too clearly confirm. As well as a history of these languages, it takes in politics, religion, identity and mythology. Meticulously researched, profound and often shocking, “Speak Not” is a triumphant celebration of just a handful of the many endangered languages of the world and a reminder of the fragility of national identity. You will also learn how to ask where the toilet is in Welsh, Hawaiian and Cantonese.

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SEVEN DOWN

 

On a normal day in the near-future Toronto of 2022, very much post-pandemic, seven members of the staff of a hotel, each of whom are in reality sleeper agents with a part to play in a clandestine operation in the hotel, are triggered by a specific phrase in a tweet. The agents are unknown to each other, and by the end of the day, “Operation Fear And Trembling” has gone disastrously wrong. In an effort to discover why, the shadowy Company behind the operation interview the agents. 

“Seven Down” is an intelligent novel written in the form of the interview transcripts with the sleeper agents. Cleverly, the contents page of the actual book is the contents page of the folder containing the transcripts. A prologue takes the form of a letter between two colleagues which informs us that the interview transcripts have been assembled out of chronological order, and advises paying attention to the date on each transcript. 

We get vivid insights into each person’s personality and life, their hopes and fears, as they relate their parts in the operation. The interviews are funny, philosophical and poignant, and range from casual chats in a bar to Orwellian interrogations. You get a strong sense of the psychological trauma the agents have been through to get to this point in their lives. The narrative comes to a shocking conclusion in the last interview as the true story of what happened is revealed. 

A satire on the madness of the world we live in, capitalism, conspiracy theories and, to a lesser but hilarious degree, the weird activities of rich hotel guests, are all targeted. Cultural references abound, and an Elon Musk-like character has a cameo. This story warrants a second or third reading to pick up on all the cool little incidental details. Wildly original, economically written, profound and very now, “Seven Down” is a breath of fresh, vibrant literary air and I read it in one sitting.

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