[Side Note] Halloween Night, People

It's Halloween night. Supposedly, the dead should walk again [one way or another], so I suggest you prepare a boombox with Thriller on it [just in case] before you decide to venture out. Maybe what will haunt you are the skeletons in your closet... I'm personally haunted by the fact that we don't celebrate this in my country. It's a harrowing horror, trust me.

ANYWAY, have fun and don't get eaten. I'm personally awaiting the pilot of THE WALKING DEAD, which should be hours away in the [past] USA. Here is a video to salivate over:




If interested you can check out my Halloween Art Post over at the Book Smugglers. I showcase human-bunny hybrids, smurfs eating people and a Lady Gaga Jr. talking on the phone [which is nestled in the abdomen of a huge, animated teddy bear with guts and stuff].

You thought I was hoking?

I also review the Spanish ghost movie The Orphanage over at Beyond Fiction. I can't exactly call it horror, because I didn't feel all that scared, but atmospheric and intelligent.

So this is my somewhat celebration. Not even a lantern. How will YOU mark the occasion?

[Beyond the Wordcount] Paul Jessup on Collaborating with an Artist

Do you wonder how a book is made? If you are an avid reader and the sight of a book makes you glow, then you probably have wondered about a novel’s journey from idea to hard/softcover delight on your local bookstore’s shelf. Did the author discover the story whole and intact? Did the story need countless revisions? How much is researched and how much is the product of the author’s imagination? What did the author have to go through to publish that novel you just love? Beyond the Wordcount is the feature that will give a behind-the-scene look to the story behind the story, the things that you will never guess as they stay off the pages.

In this installment of Beyond the Wordcount is Paul Jessup, of whom I had the pleasure of reading his short story collection Glass Coffin Girls, an eclectic mix of weirdness, madness and a bit of beautiful absurdity. He also penned the highly praised Werewolves, which will be the topic of his post.

Bio: Paul Jessup is a weird writer, who has lived his entire life on the haunted shores of Lake Erie. He dabbles in many genres, with Urban Fantasy and Steampunk being his two current favorites. He has three books out currently, with a fourth on the way. Open Your Eyes is a surreal space opera, published in 2009 by Apex Books. Glass Coffin Girls is a collection of short stories, published in 2009 by PS Publishing. Werewolves is an illustrated book published in 2010 by Chronicle Books and illustrated by Allyson Haller. In Autumn/Winter 2010 The Zombie Feed (an imprint of Apex Books) will publish his short zombie novel Dead Stay Dead.

Blurb:

Werewolves takes the form of an illustrated journal that plunges readers into the life of a high school girl-turned-werewolf as she makes her transformation. After Alice and her brother are bitten by what they assume are large dogs, her journal/sketchbook becomes a place for her to record the changes they start to experience her socially awkward brother falls in with some creepy new friends, and she surprises herself with new strengths and instincts and a suddenly nonvegetarian interest in raw steak.

Task: I asked Paul to write of his experience working with an artist in order to produce an illustrated book. The process as you will learn is very interesting, albeit complicated.

---

The process for doing my new book Werewolves was a fairly interesting one. I didn’t work directly with the artist, instead we worked out what we wanted to do with the story first, plot wise. Then started working on a way to tell this as visually as possible. I needed to come up with something that would inspire an interesting visual image on every single page, which was very difficult.

Not only did I have to do a diary entry per each page, but each diary entry had to be self contained, interesting as text, and contain a cool image. This got to be challenging, knowing how much to be into a section, what to leave out. How to get the plot across in a diary format without it being stiff and wooden.

I rewrote entire sections over and over again, trying to get the right emotional pitch, the right level of information, and trying to move the plot in gently and not dumping it all across the page.
I also had to refrain from detailed descriptions in the work itself, and I had to divorce the text from directly stating things that would be better off shown in the image itself. So the text had to be less description, more sounds smells and internal thoughts.

When we were done with the text I know that they picked an artist that fit the tone of the work itself, and wanted to bring in someone that not only reflected the way the character talked, but also got the high school journal feeling down pat.

I didn’t actually see any of the final art until after the novel was ready and rolling toward publication. So I had no idea what to expect at all. But I must say, the final product looked fantastic. I didn’t really have any input into the artist at all, I mostly just came up with basic ideas, notes, stuff that could work as sketches. It was interesting to see which ones the artist (Allyson Haller) used, and which ones she discarded. I could see why she used the ones she did, since some suggestions probably wouldn’t be as striking or as interesting as the ones she came up with.

All and all, it was an interesting experience. One I’d definitely do again.

[The Interview Feature] The End: What happens after the last question?

With a lot more than four weeks, The Interview Feature has come to an end. In this final part, the charming interrogator, Theresa Bazelli, asks me questions connected with the processes that happen after an interview has been completed. What happens after the last question and before going up online? Here is the conversation.

---

TB: And so we've coming to the last part of this interview feature. It's fitting that we talk about endings. Journalists may choose to ask a series of questions during an interview, but not publish the answer to every question. Do you do any editing once an interview has finished? Do any questions fall prey to the chopping block? And does the interviewee get the last look before it gets posted?

HM: No, I don’t cut out questions [unless I ask a wrong question, which I admit I have done, when I interviewed artists]. I have had interviewees turn down one or two questions, because they felt that they were too intrusive or too revealing of their next novel [usually]. However, I do not censor my guests and allow them all they freedom they want. Just because I didn’t like or feel enthusiastic about an answer does not mean that somebody won’t, which I keep the interview as intact as possible.

Whatever editing I do is to make the answers flow better with the questions. I add a personal comment here and there to strengthen the coherence and make it all flow better, though I’m still mastering that art. As far as showing the interviewee the last look of the interview, I advise that you do that. I myself rarely manage, which is what I’m currently working on [aka time management rather than anything else].

TB: What happens after the interview gets posted online? How do you let the world know about the awesomeness you just participated in?

HM: I wait and all the comments and adoration find their way to me… Which never happens in the real world, so I have to suck it up and promote it.

I always e-mail the author with a link, who will most likely feature it somewhere. Part of the promotion comes from there. The rest I do through Twitter, which is excellent for these sorts of things. However, I would suggest that a person should tweet a thing four times at most and then cut it out, because it aggravates people. When I discovered how awesome Twitter was for shooting links into the dark I did non-stop, until I followed individuals that do the same. It showed me how annoying that was, so I stopped doing that and the promotion was dropped to a minimum there. There are other websites that one can use such as Digg and the likes, but I am rather chaotic and inconsistent with those.

I’m open to hearing more from better experts, but for now this is what I do.

TB: I want to hear a few stories! Tell me about your favorite interview (if you have one). Tell me about the most popular (perhaps unexpectedly) interviews posted on your blog. Tell me about your worst interview experience (no names mentioned of course).

HM: Popular interviews? I can’t really say which interview is most popular at the moment. I don’t keep a score of which interview fared better than the other as far as hits go. Now I do have a few interviews that got more comments than usual, but those were the early Reviewer Time interviews and the commenters where the loyal readers of said blogs. I’m not particularly interested in ranking my interviews.

I however do have favorites. Most recently I conducted an interview with Nancy Kilpatrick, which is one of the most exciting ones to make, because this is Nancy Kilpatrick after all. I’m most satisfied with the interviews I conducted with Paul Smith and Charles Tan, because they are exceptionally talented bloggers I admire. Then I think should come editor David Moore, who rocked my world with his answers about the industry [he also figured out why I asked him]. The list goes on to include authors such as Blake Charlton, Kaaron Warren and J Robert King. Basically all the newer ones.

As far as negative experiences. I’m not pleased a section of Reviewer Time. I selected guests that I did not exactly feel for and that resulted in piss poor interviews. You can probably spot the lackluster and unimaginative questions I asked.

TB: You mentioned that you hope to improve with each interview. What have you learned through the process so far? Have you made any mistakes that you've learned from? Have you made any discoveries that you're proud of?

HM: What I’ve learned is that the person you’re talking with will react in a way that you’ve not expected. I have come across questions that to me seemed perfect and simply begged to be answered with at least two fat paragraphs, but which received skinny lines instead. The opposite has also happened.

I have learned to be patient with the authors, who I am interviewing since they have all lives and I am asking of their time. Patience is valuable to have, hard to obtain.

I’m sure that they have been mistakes. Delays in my following questions. Delays with starting the interview as well. I have seen that time management and flexibility are not my strong suits, but I’m trying to compensate for those.

Discoveries… Perhaps that if you really try to speak to the person and avoid the obvious, then the magic happens.

TB: I like that - leaving a little room for some magic is an important thing. So, we've finally come to the close of this interview series. Do you have any last words for your readers?

HM: Thanks for reading [though commenting would have been nicer, just saying] and hopefully you have found this entertaining and informative.

[Promo] Dark Fiction Magazine

FOREWORD: Behold a new podcast webzine has risen to power. Or technically it will rise along with all the ghouls and the ghosts and the dead on October 31st. I'm pretty stocked about it, so I advise you to keep vigilant!

DARK FICTION MAGAZINE LAUNCH

LONDON, MIDLANDS AND MANCHESTER, UK, 26 Oct 2010. Dark Fiction Magazine (www.darkfictionmagazine.co.uk) is pleased to announce the launch of a new service for fans of genre fiction. Beginning Oct 31st (Halloween), Dark Fiction Magazine will be launching a monthly magazine of audio short stories. This is a free service designed to promote genre short fiction to an audience of podcast and radio listeners. A cross between an audio book, an anthology and a podcast, Dark Fiction Magazine is designed to take the enjoyment of short genre fiction in a new and exciting direction.


Dark Fiction Magazine publishes at least four short stories a month: a mix of award-winning shorts and brand new stories from both established genre authors and emerging writers. Each episode will have a monthly theme and feature complementary tales from the three main genres – science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Co-founder Del Lakin-Smith said: "I love reading short stories, and with the increased uptake of mobile and portable devices this really is a growth area. But like many I find I don't have as much time as I would like to read, so I tend to listen to many podcasts on the go. The idea of replacing my podcasts with high quality, well performed audio short stories is something I find highly appealing, so Sharon and I set about making that a reality."

Sharon Ring, co-founder of Dark Fiction Magazine, said: “From technophobe to technophile in less than two years; I spend a great deal of time working online. To while away those hours, I like to listen to podcasts and drink copious amounts of strong coffee. Now, while I don’t recommend you drink as much coffee as I, I do recommend you check out what Del and I have created. We love podcasts; we love genre fiction; we built a site to bring the two together.”

The theme of Dark Fiction Magazine’s first episode is The Darkness Descends and will feature four fantastical stories:

* ‘Maybe Then I’ll Fade Away’ by Joseph D’Lacey (exclusive to Dark Fiction Magazine)
* ‘Pumpkin Night’ by Gary McMahon
* ‘Do You See?’ by Sarah Pinborough (awarded the 2009 British Fantasy Society Short Story Award)
* ‘Perhaps The Last’ by Conrad Williams

Lined up for future episodes are Pat Cadigan, Cory Doctorow, Jon Courtenay, Grimwood, Ramsey Campbell, Rob Shearman, Kim Lakin-Smith, Ian Whates, Lauren Beukes, Mark Morris, Adam Nevill, Gareth L Powell, Jeremy C Shipp, Adam Christopher, and Jennifer Williams, among others.

With a team of dedicated and passionate narrators, a central recording facility and a love of genre, Dark Fiction Magazine delivers a truly outstanding aural experience.

The Domino Pattern (Quadrail 4) by Timothy Zahn [Book Review]

“Murder on the Galactic Orient Express” sums up the basic plot of this Hercule Poirot story, if Poirot was a dashing former undercover operative named Frank Compton with a beautiful telepathic sidekick slash love interest named Bayta and the Orient express was a train crossing the galaxy in six weeks operated by their alien spider employers.

Add a little conspiracy, foul murder, an intelligent coral that wants to take over the galaxy and an assortment of interesting aliens and humans of varying levels of cooperation and demeanor and you have a pretty entertaining novel.

The Domino Pattern is book four in the Quadrail but works well as a standalone read. This is the first book I read in the series so I speak from experience. It is a fast paced story with lots of action, twists and turns and I do get that Agatha Christie feeling when I read it. I was so immersed in the story that I didn’t really check but it felt like Timothy Zahn used the same technique to compress the narration, making it tighter and more thrilling in the end, just the way Christie is famous for.

Another thing that caught my fancy was the world building; alien spiders facilitate galactic travel by train!

The series is about the Quadrail and how Frank and Bayta protect it and the galaxy. I am happy when I find another series to read. Good read if you like murder mysteries on trains and aliens.

Reviewer: Ove Jansson

Copy: Bought from Amazon

Rating: 8/10

Information

Title: The Domino Pattern

Series: The Quadrail 4
Author: Timothy Zahn
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Tor 2010

Order from: Tor | Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

Frank Compton used to be an agent for the security forces of Earth, but that was a piece of cake compared to what he’s had to deal with working for the aliens who run the Quadrail, an interstellar transportation system connecting a dozen civilizations across the galaxy.

He’s been trying to end the domination of an alien lifeform called the Modhri. This enormously powerful creature wants to rule the galaxy by controlling the thoughts of all its citizens. It does so by having parts of itself “infect” others on contact, and act as agents for it without them being aware they’re being manipulated. When Frank and his assistant Bayta journey to investigate a connection between the Modhri and the Filiaelians, they come up against a conspiracy on the Quadrail.

Passengers are being murdered…but something besides murder haunts the Quadrail. A plot is brewing that even the Modhri fears. And once again, Frank and Bayta may be the only ones who can stop it.

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[Twitter Talks] Guilty Reading Pleasues

As an early teen I had an impressive amount of time during the summer, because I usually spent it in our summer house far enough from the city to have no cable TV and computer, not to mention an Internet connection [not that at that time I had Internet at home either; I was introduced to that drug a lot later]. I had all that time and not much else to do, so I read and read and read.

At that time I knew I was into fantasy. I bought books with muscled men with swords and trademark bikini-clad women [Sword & Sorcery was my thing back then], the god-awful Pratchett covers and comically drawn monsters. I owned it. Chin up, embarrassing retro cover in hand and all that jazz.

That continued until I entered a specific hormonal summer and learned all about shame. I overdramatize a bit, it would have been a rather awkward situation for me had I needed to explain exactly why that book I was reading had a shirtless Fabio and a distraught young woman in his arms as cover art. So all the historical romances I bought [not that many to be honest] were wrapped up with newspapers and when completed, stacked in the lowest drawer in the house, where nobody looked for anything.

From then on I've lived through shorter periods of shame [when I entered the world of the comic book adventures and then paranormal romances]. Once you became self-conscious about what you read, I have to tell you it's hard not to feel a bit guilty whenever someone raises an eyebrow. Though personally I'm more annoyed that the person shuts down and plain refuses to hear why I enjoyed the books...

I turned to Twitter to seek what other people thought about guilty pleasures. I asked the following: Which is the book you feel most embarrassed about reading and why?

I got three detailed answers:

@kingrat says Mission Earth, because I was young and easily swayed by brightly colored covers. Also, Writers of the Future made me think he was legit.

@ShennandoahDiaz says probably Twilight, oh and Dr. Phil's book but I was recently "divorced" with a kid and claim temporary insanity!

Then there is @yagrrb who picked Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. The combination of incest and arsenic donuts is fascinatingly grotesque!

I have to add that Twilight does not surprise me as an entry. I knew it would be a must. It is the perfect guilty pleasure book [one which I would have to find a bunker to hide in, if I ever decided to read it].

Then the following answers all trend towards the romance [maybe the spicier kind]:

@readinasitting I reviewed a book earlier this year that I didn't want to take out in public. It was a bit suggestive!

@HiHighHigher Yikes, I have a whole 'Naughty' bookshelf in my closet, stuff I don't want my kids pulling off the bookshelf

It's funny really that people feel awkward to read about love [granted it's not very explicit like some books I have read]. Our culture celebrates love. From McDonald's I'm Lovin' It to 90% of modern mainstream music about relationships to almost 90% of all mainstream movies that simply have to insert a bit of a romance. Isn't it bizarre that the readers, who enjoy reading about love [the shared, the tragic, the forbidden, the passionate] feel as if they need to keep that them to themselves. But maybe it's the sexual undertones, which is also prudish considering that modern commercials are short softcore porn.

It's what the @booksmugglers say [though Ana is proud of whatever she reads]: Don't think so, dude I read and review romance remember? I am embarrassed by some of the covers but I own it. *grin*

Last but not least, I have an interesting opinion from @misskubelik, who is, of course, very right. She says:

I don't feel embarrassed about reading anything. Why would you? Librarians, writers, reviewers, etc. should tell ALL readers there's nothing embarrassing about ANYTHING they choose to read. From Goosebump books and comics all the way to James Patterson and romance novels. There's NOTHING embarrassing about reading, because, as a rule, we shouldn't be embarrassed about pleasure and leisure activities - and *that's* what reading should/can be.

The way I had planned this post was to gather people, who enjoyed a novel secretly. The sort of forbidden fruit, the rush of reading in secrecy the way little boys browse through their fathers' Playboys or girls browse through their mothers' wardrobes. A secret pleasure known only to you. Something innocent.

But after Angie's last comment, it has left me thinking WHY I'm guilty and WHY I allow something as fun as reading be invaded by guilt. Why do we say things like 'I wouldn't be caught dead reading that'? Is it because we are sure we will not like a book or because we know what the mass will think of us, if seen reading on a bench or in the bus or on the plane?

Thoughts anyone?

[Magazine Review] GUD: Issue 5

GUD magazine stands for Greatest Uncommon Denominator Magazine.

In their submission guidelines the magazine states:

"Our dictionary defines literature thus: written works, esp. those valued for form and style. And that is what we are looking for—form and style, though be sure there's substance as well. Any genre, including literary or mainstream, is acceptable. We don't back away from a fight—if your work screws with convention, breaks rules, makes demands of the reader, then we're equal to the challenge. Just please, by whatever you hold dear, give us some prize at the end of the fight."

This small paragraph defines what the magazine is looking for, what it promises to the reader and gives the magazine its identity. I read Issue 5 of GUD Magazine with this paragraph in mind as I wanted to verify if GUD really had that Greatest Uncommon Denominator. I also used it to give me a sense of direction for my review as I don’t regularly review magazines.

In short, GUD delivers what it promises. In this issue I discovered stories the type of which I’m not sure I could have read in most venues, while at the same time I didn’t encounter either weak or badly written pieces. The magazine is genre ambiguous as it hosted both excellent SFF shorts as well as strong and emotional literary pieces. I'd probably need a few two-three thousand words long posts to cover all the excellent material, which is why I’ll stop on the stories that left strong impressions on me, separated by genre.

In the SFF selection, I enjoyed "Imperfect Verse" by Rose Lemberg, which read much like an uncensored Grimm Brothers fairy tale had the Brothers traveled to Scandinavian countries. Lemberg tackles the old Norse legend of how Odin steals the mead of poetry, but told from the point-of-view of the giantess guarding the mead. The result is a lyrical and authentic sounding tale of magic and betrayal.

"Nature's Children" by T.F. Davenport won me over with its complex plot structure and references to Ursula LeGuin's "The Word for World is Forest". Davenport juxtaposes two races - indigenous inhabitants and outerworlders - both of which want to cultivate the planet, but with means that imply the destruction of the other race. It's a thematic short story touching upon topics such as the environment and genocide. What especially impressed me was how both races mimic each other. The majority in both societies gears towards war, while only few individuals speak of peace.

"Getting Yourself On" by Andrew Tisbert discusses what it means to be human, when a considerable amount of one's body is machinery and your work requires you to have your personality locked away. It's a touching story about how far a father would go in order to ensure his son has a life. All this is set in an intriguing future of cyborgs and technology that allows you to wear different personalities as if they are fashion statements.

Here I conclude with the SFF section, but there are other strong entries, which beg to be read such as "The Pearl Diver with the Gold Chain" with its always speaking narrator, who has developed radio-telepathy with the help of his gold chain and "Liza's Home", a lesson in why time travel is dangerous.

In the Literary section, I was consumed by "The Tiger Man" by Geordie William Flantz. Flantz mesmerizes with a bizarre tale of a couple, which invite a complete stranger in their homes and in their lives. The bizarre thing is that the man is taller than average, hairier than average and works as a trainer of tigers in a circus. This is a tale of an over-emotional wife, a passive husband, a pug with anxiety issues and a stranger, who doesn't talk much. It's a story about how sometimes life has its own inertia and outside the norm is better for everyone.

"Birthday Licks" by Kevin Brown is a heartfelt tearjerker about home abuse, which after years of intensifying ends with a well-deserved death. It's frightening to think that a father would punish his son, because his wife died during childbirth. Even more so, when the punishments not only involve degradation, but border on lethal. Brown's prose is raw. It conveys genuine pain and torment that made me flinch while reading.

"The Prettiest Crayon in the Box" by Heather Lindsay brings bizarre bar conversation to new heights as in this piece the characters discuss beets, betacyanin -the pigment that is responsible for the beet's color - and how some people cannot break down the pigment. The result is pink and magenda colored human by-products. The character with this condition says he doesn’t like beets, but eats them nonetheless, because then the world will be less brown [I know that you get it, so I phrase it as vaguely as possible]. In its bizarre way, this is a beautiful message.

I've concluded with the fiction section and now it's time to move on the other mediums featured in GUD. The magazine has an impressive amount of poetry, which I don't feel qualified to review as I don't read poetry in general, so I’ll skip the poems at large. I'll only mention that "Dead Man on the Titanic" by Alicia Adams and "7 Ways to Fake an Orgasm" by Melissa Carroll entertained me [but I fail to explain how, so I'll leave it at that as a task for those better versed than I].

Last but not least I'd like to comment on the comics, both of which are visually stunning, but I was more taken by "Ada Lovelace: The Origin" by Syndey Padula. It’s a very successful blend of historical facts, humor, superhero fiction and alternative history, which made me chuckle. If you thought that perhaps mathematicians were boring, then you’d be gravely wrong.

As far as the magazine itself goes, I thought the spread throughout the issue poems and images [I'd especially like to praise "Bust" by Jon Adlett] act as natural breathers for readers and add a rhythm or a flow to the issue, making it easier to read.

The Verdict: GUD Magazine is what your doctor has prescribed. Get a subscription now for a concentrated those of diversity, quality and entertainment.

The Case of the EMBARGO or Shouldn't Bloggers be Ethical?

Book reviewers have not been restricted to any rules. We ride the Internet and nobody can restrict the Internet, hell yeah, freedom of speech and self-expression. We can do a lot that can only happen on the Internet, but is that an excuse to forgo all ethical behavior? Shouldn't we at least consult to some set of ethical guidelines?

Case in point is the Embargo on the latest Wheel of Time novel. Bloggers, who have been lucky enough to receive an ARC of the novel, have been asked to keep to quiet till November the 2nd, the official release of Towers of Midnight. Now, considering that this is a series with massive cult following, which can be best described as the Trekkies of fantasy, it's obvious why an embargo has been issued. After all, people have patiently waited and no matter what the opinion, it's bound to spoil the experience for the others.

Now, Amanda has covered the crux of the issue in her post called EMBARGO:

My opinion is that embargoes are only given on few books - and bloggers should follow the rulings given. If a person breaks embargo, they should have their privilege stripped. It is a matter of ethics - the same as when people sell ARCs, even when asked not to by the publishers. I am angry that this is likely to go unpunished.

She is courteous to not give names, but the majority of us know that the wise guy behind this stunt is the mighty Pat from Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, who is notorious for such stunts. I am not surprised that he just could not hold it in, bend the rules and leak some of his 'thoughts', which is so not a review, even partial at that. But whatever, I mean the man is ambitious to see his blog grow.

HOWEVER, this begs the following questions:

Isn't this an example on why we should have some courtesy and do what has been asked of us? Selling ARCs, breaking such an embargo, selling autographs?

AND

Is what Pat did ever going to get punished?

I'm not going as far as to say that we need official regulations, but seriously, whenever you as a book blogger receive an ARC you are trusted by the publisher. Although it's so very often as a straight business transaction aka we give you the book and you promote it via your review, fact is that there are so many books and an impressively larger amount of reviewers wanting it.

If you get picked by a big publishing house with a book with such high celebrity status such as the Towers of Midnight, then the publisher has trust in you to remain ethical and hold off from reviewing until November the 2nd. If you don't then you betray that trust, which although earns you extra hits and controversy, effectively gives you a bad name, which may or may not reflect on the public opinion regarding the group you represent - I may be going a bit too far here, so I will stop.

Also, it sets a bad role model for new bloggers, who try to emulate what to them seems as the fastest way to get to the top.

Besides, it's not that hard to do. You just keep your mouth shut. Simple as that really. If we can't on our own follow some simple instructions out of respect for the labor that not only the publisher, but Sanderson [in this case], has put in the novel, then I do think that individuals should be sanctioned. It's only fair and you will have to agree that we need a bit of fairness on the web.

So what do you think, am I painting the apocalypse or should Pat just have done the right thing?

[Book Review] The City and The City by China Miéville

The City and The City got me thinking of Istanbul situated as it is between two worlds, Asia and Europe. And it has much in common with the cities in China Miéville award winning novel. Located at an undisclosed location on the Balkan the two cities Besźel and Ul Qoma lies intertwined and sometimes even occupying the same place. Besźel is rundown and its people wear grey or colorless clothes, the building are dull concrete and they are still recuperating from tyranny. Ul Qoma is the opposite with a booming economy, progress and colorful people. Much like I imagine how life in Instanbul is when you compare the poor with traditional upbringings to a secular European upper class, both living in different worlds in the same city ignoring and maybe not noticing each others.

In China’s world children are thought from young ages to ignore ‘the other city’ until it becomes instinctive. They even have a special corps ‘Breach’ that handles cases when people by mistake or intent breach the mental veil between the cities. ‘Breach’ is a force in itself outside the ruling councils of either city.

I fancy China was indeed thinking on Istanbul when he wrote this story. You might even go further META into the way we behave in today’s society, living inside our own ‘bubble’ of ‘reality’ ignoring the people outside it, even if they live in the same city, state, planet as we do. That’s the setting.

The plot starts as a classic murder mystery that unravels into something significantly larger. The body of a murdered young woman is found in an Alley in Besźel and out protagonist Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad is assigned the case. He quickly becomes convinced that a breach has been committed so the case takes him into the other city where he develops a friendship with his counterpart there. The contrasts between the two worlds are made clearer by the two partners own lack of knowledge about each other’s cities.

This is my first China Miéville novel and I found it very accessible and easy to read. This is not really the usual science fiction for me. I prefer technology and space related science fiction. I still found this an entertaining and fun read. The murder mystery in itself might have been enough for a worthy novel but here the setting add both dimensions and intrigue to the story.

I can tell you I found The City and The City to be a great book, maybe even a future classic. It might not be for everyone, it seems to have a hate it or love it impact on people. I loved it but it was not the book on top of my Hugo vote (nor was the other winner).

Reviewer: Ove Jansson

Copy: Hugo voter package

Rating: 9/10

Information

Title: The City and The City

Author: China Miéville
Genre: Alternative Reality
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Del Rey 2009 | Macmillan | Pan

Order from: Amazon US | UK | B&N | sfbok

New York Times bestselling author China Miéville delivers his most accomplished novel yet, an existential thriller set in a city unlike any other–real or imagined.

When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.

Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives.

What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.

Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.

[Halloween Monster] Bride of Frankenstein

With Halloween approaching and weeks ticking past, it's time for another Halloween monster on my blog. I thought long and hard what kind of monster I should showcase with images. I came up with Frankenstein, since he is the classic monster and a regular choice as a Halloween costume, but at the last second I stopped to think about shaking things up, so here is the Bride of Frankenstein. She's another regular as far as costumes go, but I thought that people would like to see more of her.

This is the classic Bride, rendered by Simon Hayag. If I am to keep thing traditional, this is what I will go with. The Bride [which I so lovingly will call Helga] is true to the character in the movie. I'm not sure whether this is a movie still turned into a mixed-media image or not, but it's certainly atmospheric.

Now, I think that what Dan Vykes is doing here is actually using the original movie poster [Elsa Lanchester never looked more beautiful] and then layers it over for effect. The result is a natural vintage vibe along with the stunning visuals provided by modern software. I especially like the transparency of the chest. Seeing the ribs makes it so much ghastlier.

Third place is for Alice, who delivers an astounding beauty shot of the Bride. She's not much of a monster in this rendition [not that she was in the others], but here she seems most human and most vulnerable, realizing what she has become. Needless to say I love the color blend and the fine lines. It's endearing eye candy.