Deadline is the zombie book of 2011, and the political horror-thriller of the year. This is the second book in Mira Grant’s Newsflesh trilogy, and the book is just as strong as, if not stronger, than Feed. The political intrigue that started in Grant’s debut book only gets stronger, deeper, far more complex, and Grant proves that she is a master of the genre. In Deadline, we learn more about how Kellis-Amberlee has developed since the Rising in 2014, and we learn that even when faced with the most uncertain of futures for mankind, people will still think only of themselves.

Shaun Mason returns with his Newsies, Irwins, and Fictionals with a bang. Kelly, a CDC researcher, fakes her own death and shows up on his Oakland doorstep with fascinating news about the virus that lies dormant in everyone, and danger follows immediately behind her, throwing off the fugue Shaun and company have been in since the death of their leader (and Shaun’s sister) Georgia Mason during the Ryman campaign in Feed. The staff of the After the End Times barely manage to stay one step ahead of the people out to completely destroy them, shedding people they love and ideals they hold dear along the way. Life after the Rising doesn’t have much room for people lacking in cynicism, Grant reminds us, and looks can be so very deceptive…

This aspect of the Newsflesh world has a lot of corruption, a very large and brilliant underworld, and the development of Kellis-Amberlee as a manmade abomination of nature is just about impeccable. Additionally, Grant has zero qualms about killing off or otherwise maiming characters that we have grown to love, and Deadline is no exception to the rule. Add in a conspiracy that spans the globe and threatens to take over everything we hold dear, even our own meager existence in a world almost overrun by zombies, and… Well. Mira Grant’s Feed was one of NPR’s top 100 science fiction books of 2010, and Deadline is well on its way to knock Feed out of the water. This scifi tale is more science than fiction, and the world Grant portrays is such a realistic dystopia that it catapults her into a league with Orwell, Bradbury, and Atwood.

If you’re convinced we will engineer our own destruction and bring about the zombie apocalypse, or you wonder if science fixing everything may not be the best idea… I recommend the Newsflesh trilogy. Deadline is the perfect followup to Feed, and Blackout is out June of 2012. Rise up while you can….

What they learn turns their world upside down. The Yellow Cross are invading, and the man who came out of the rift, Lysander, has a slew of information that can save Earth from the invasion. Charlie is the only one who believes what Lysander has to say about the invasion, and proves to be his only ally until the tides turn enough that the rest of the team falls in line with Lysander. Lysander is the only one who can close the rift, however, and the clock is ticking…

This is a beautifully-composed scifi story, complete with plenty of action, strange and wondrous creatures, and more than just a dash of romance. Craig weaves a tale like and unlike ‘The Thing’, with realistic monsters, an alien race, and a threat that has been a long time in coming. Antarctica is the perfect setting for an alien invasion, with its moonlike landscape, but Craig picks the reader up and dumps them in the middle of the frozen land, makes them fight for the completion of the story.

The seven characters in this story are anything but heroes, saviors of the world. They’re ordinary men and women who volunteered for what’s quite possibly the coldest, most unpleasant job possible, who remind the reader that we are all made of sterner stuff. We simply have to find what we feel is worth fighting for.

I highly recommend this book, as long as you’re an adult and don’t mind things to be really graphic (violence and sex both are graphically, viscerally described in this book). It’s an Earth-set scifi story that will have you in its grip from start to finish. Saving the world is never an easy job, but this is a new spin on that very old story. Pick up A Line in the Ice today; you will not regret it.

-Shudders-

The story opens with a group of teenage females carefully hijacking an important military space ship. In order to get away from their pursuers, they flight right into an ‘aether crease’. That is, a fold in space (huzzah, science fiction! Oh how I missed that sort of thing.), and essentially get spat out on the other side of the galaxy. What follows is a surprising story with a lot more elements that I had initially anticipated.

I will have to admit however, that this novel falls into the same problem as most other pieces of sci-fi. That is, it’s rather difficult to get into at first. Not because the story itself is boring – if anything, by the end I didn’t want to read the book, I just wanted to /devour/ it…I couldn’t turn the pages quickly enough – but because on top of the obligatory difficult-to-pronounce names, there are also a lot of original terms. There’s a glossary in the back of the novel, which was a nice touch to help the reader out instead of expecting them to figure things out by themselves…but it breaks up the flow of the text, which is a shame when it does so well in keeping up a decent (although in some parts, a little too quick) pace.

Dialogue in this book is – despite the odd terms – surprisingly realistic. Part of it had me smirking at the witty banter between two of the main characters, since it reminded me of conversations I’ve had with my own friends. Any author who can write good dialogue consistently ought to be applauded just for that, since it’s where the majority of authors tend to have weak spots.

The most obvious things to note about the novel, is the fact that in the universe where it is set, both genders are female. The gender split itself is signified by hair colour (blonde for ‘women’, brunette for ‘men’, naturally). But although digs are made at what they call ‘mascul’ species (men, essentially), I couldn’t help but to chuckle at their point of view. Perhaps I took it a little too light-hearted, but I (thankfully) didn’t get the impression that the author was having any particular digs at men.

There are other themes, too. Parallels between the east/west divide on our own world…“I get it. I’m only a shallow Westrenne…”, as well as a closer look into gender norms, and even the role of tradition and religion versus ‘barbarism’ and mechanisation.

It’s also a surprisingly effective coming of age story. This theme isn’t particularly something I had ever thought to associate with the genre before, and although I did have to remind myself once or twice that the protagonists were rather young, I think Matchei has a very solid base from which to—

Was that sudden stop mildly irritating? You were just getting into the swing of the paragraph and suddenly you had to stop? Suffice it to say, I could quite happily have read twice the pages this book had to offer.

Despite the mild pacing issues (too quick in places, and not a lot of room to breathe since things happen so swiftly) and the fact that – although the characters were likeable and all individual – more could have been made out of the protagonists, I have to admit that I am eagerly awaiting the second book in the series.…although I still don’t know whether I would recommend this book to mascul–sorry…men.

What Gods Would be Theirs? is a politically charged coming-of-age novel set in the opulence of Northlake, an affluent community that sets even the Lake Travis area to shame. Preston Wiley is your stereotypical spoiled brat rich child; he’s oftentimes found on the family yacht on the lake, or taking all sorts of psychedelic drugs whilst drinking simultaneously. Life for a rich kid is pretty much set in stone in the Northlake community – you go to college, you follow in daddy’s footsteps, or you marry someone rich. Life in Northlake is interrupted, however, by two of the high school’s more polarized English teachers.

Gavin McBride did a stint in the Peace Corps, where he learned that the world is not as ideal and perfect and easy to fix as he’d like it to be. Laird Hardin is disillusioned with the life he’s found himself in, no longer wanting to be teacher, husband, father, and instead wanting to return to the fun days of his years in the Air Force. For one, Preston is the teacher’s aide; the other is his senior year English teacher. McBride and Hardin each set out in their own ways to influence the thinking of their impressionable young students, but it is the radical ideas of Gavin McBride and his YouTube monologues declaiming current events that set Northlake, a conservative community, on edge, splitting an otherwise peaceful community into factions of liberal vs conservative, old vs young, wolf vs sheep.

Each teacher buckles under pressure from the Northlake community, but in different ways (and I’m not about to give away the denouement of a fantastic novel set in a world parallel to the one I went to high school in). What spoiled Preston takes from the culmination of ideals is surprising when one considers the young man’s background and influences growing up.

No matter what you believe, McBride and Hardin are powerful in their own rights, with convincing debate as to why their side is the right one, and the reader is left, like Preston, to draw their own conclusions from what each teacher has to say. It’s fairly obvious from his portrayal of the conservative camp in Northlake that Shanafelt is more liberal than not, simply because that portrayal borders on propaganda rather than real, but even the most conservative of readers will walk away from this book thinking just a little differently about why they believe what they believe. I highly recommend this book as one that will leave you pondering the novel’s theme long after you’ve finished the pages, commend Shanafelt on his debut novel, and eagerly await what else he has to teach the masses.

So, reader… Are you a leader or a follower? Better yet, what gods would be yours?

Most of my collection was either lost, loaned out and never returned, or badly damaged in some of my many moves over the years. So, I had considered replacing the books – someday.

Someday came with my new Kindle. The Pern series is available for Kindle and my initial purchase is, of course, the first book in the series.

It has been many, many years since I read these books. Sometimes you wonder if the books are still going to be “as good” now that I’ve all grown up. I was young, impressive and the books are from so long ago. Will they stand the test of time? Having re-read some other science fiction books and knowing that some of them can disappoint since the technology has gone so beyond those early visions, there is that caveat with any book.

But Dragonfight did not disappoint! The advantage here is that the Pern series is Fantasy Science Fiction. It doesn’t matter how old the technology is, the fantasy overrides the technology, which remains timeless and enduring.

As a quick synopsis of the book with no spoiler, the story focuses on Lessa, last rightful heir to Ruatha Hold. She hides in rags and filth to survive to avenge her family’s deaths. She is a powerful telepath, can speak with the animals of the Hold and she waits her time to strike.

In the meantime, the Dragonriders of the last Weyr are on a Search for a woman who will bond with the single queen dragon egg laid by the late queen. F’lar the dragonrider heads the Search to Ruatha and discovers treachery and an amazing young lady who could well be the woman to “impress” the new Queen. This is important to F’lar, because he is convinced that the Thread threat is returning shortly after a long absence. A strong queen is needed to rebuild Benden Weyr, help him convince the Hold Lords that the threat of Thread is real and save Pern from destruction from Thread.

OK, if none of this makes sense to you, then you obviously have not read any of the books. Maybe this will peak your interest to get yourself a copy and investigate further. But let me stir more interest for you.

Anne McCaffrey is a master story teller. This particular book has been touted as her best in the series, though I would beg to differ. (I think they were all her best!) It is, however, a very strong introductory novel to the series. A little history: this story was published in two parts in Analog science fiction magazine in 1967 and was published in paperback in 1968. The second installment in Analog won the Hugo Award for Best Novella and was nominated for the Nebula Award for best Novella. The second year the book won the Nebula Award and was nominated for the Hugo award again. It says much about the author and her work. A better recommendation could not be made for the author.

The characters are carefully developed and the lead characters are strong and impressive. The dragons are bold, intelligent, humorous and their history is well laid out. The planet’s history is rich, filling and impressive. This books was carefully thought through, and you see this through the entire series. Ms. McCaffrey never falters in her story telling, never leaving loose ends. The stories never get boring. There is adventure, romance and dragons; what could be better?

A few notes on the Kindle version I purchased by Del Rey sold by Random House Digital, Inc. I was very tempted to purchase the trilogy volume (book club edition Del Rey) – the first three novels in one file. However, the many reviews suggested that the typos were hideous and that you would be better off purchasing the books individually. While all the Kindle versions appear to be plagued with typos, I prefer those that do not distract. So I went with the single volumes.

I believe the issue here is that the books were done before word processors, so the books needed to be retyped into files that can convert to Kindle format. And it appears the publishers are not as careful with the Kindle versions as they should be. Some of these books have been out of print in the hard cover version for a long time, as the prices on Amazon for the hard cover versions will testify to.

The most obvious typo was early in the book where Pern was referred to as Peru. I noticed other typos, but not as bad as some of the free Kindle books that are out there. And not as bad as the reviewers for the Trilogy version say are in that particular version.

So, overall, I was pleased with the Kindle experience with this book, and would recommend this Kindle version.

I am also glad I am going back to relive the adventures of the Dragonriders of Pern again. I realized as I read the book that I did miss the adventures; that it had been way too long between reads for me. I am looking forward to the next book.

Mira Grant is the evil, machete-wielding alter ego of Seanan McGuire, author of the October Daye series. Where October Daye is a slightly noir series, detectives mixed with faeries mixed with a dash of murder and mayhem, this first novel in the Newsflesh Trilogy is absolutely scarily realistic, and will leave you checking under the bed to make sure no one snuck a body or a vial of Kellis-Amberlee in while you were out (you will also cry; if you do not, you have already fallen victim to the dormant version of Kellis-Amberlee and there is no hope). Grant has researched her viruses well, and has given voice to humanity’s worst nightmare – a cure for cancer and the common cold both gone horribly, horribly awry. Feed is a political book, a book about the truth and common human decency, and how those things occasionally slide by the wayside when your dead friend really really wants to eat your face off.

There is a very good reason Feed was nominated for a Hugo award this year; Feed is what happens when Stephen King decides he wants to write about zombies and blogging and a political stage similar and dissimilar to our own. Meet George and Shaun Mason, their friend Buffy, and a United States of America that has been positively decimated by the Rising, an event set to occur in 2014 (though in Feed, 2014 is the past, and the end of an era of normalcy for us). The Masons, along with Buffy, are blogger-journalists who decide to take a leap into the limelight and cover the breadth of the presidential election. In this universe, blogging is the best way to obtain news, and since the Rising, the most true way of obtaining your news. The bloggers do the dirty work for the general populace by getting out and in the way of the zombies in order to give something to a society that jumps at shadows.

George Mason is determined to give society the truth, and the whole truth. Her brother Shaun is dedicated to poking zombies with sticks, and other creative ways of courting a death that will surely be transmitted live, to the excitement of all viewers. Buffy wants nothing more than to write poetry and fanciful stories, and nevermind those zombies. Together, the three set out across America on what they thought was the biggest news trail in years…

Instead, they found that that particular trail led to something far bigger, and someone out there doesn’t want the truth let out just yet. The second book in the trilogy, Deadline, was due out May 31st of this year.  But you should take the time to read Feed, before the next installment.  When will you Rise?

Dave Gorman harbours remarkable levels of both of these traits.

On a tequila fuelled night of drunken whimsy, Dave Gorman and his mate Danny Wallace (the same Danny Wallace who would in a few years become the Yes Man) embarked on a journey, both actual and metaphorical, that would consume their lives for the next six months. Danny is convinced that Dave cannot meet 54 other men called Dave Gorman (one for every card in the deck, plus the jokers). Dave reckons that he can.

The adventure that takes them all over the world begins in Scotland, ends in Jersey and features more trips to East Fife inside one week than most people would care to take in a lifetime.

Are You Dave Gorman? is written in two narrative voices distinct in both tone and appearance, Dave writes in bold and Danny doesn’t, and it is a feature that really brings the book to life. We get two very different perspectives of the story that unfolds and the personality and attitudes of both men really come through in their respective passages. Danny, who accompanies Dave to every encounter, takes on the role of the responsible parent, while Dave, who displays the endearing innocence and enthusiasm of a child, takes on the role of…well, the child.

What is heartening, and rather striking, about this book is the kindness and hospitality that Dave and Danny encounter with each Dave Gorman that they meet. If you were contacted by a stranger who claimed to share your name and wanted to meet you and take your picture, would you reply? Would you welcome him into your home, offer him a cup of tea and tell him about your life? I don’t think that I would. But luckily the 54 Dave Gormans who he met were less cynical that I (minus Royal Leamington Spa Dave Gorman) and each one has a unique and interesting story attached to them. The epilogue provides a fitting summary to the story and an insight into how the bet took on a life of its own and how the message reached as far as TV shows Friends and Neighbours.

Now I know what you’re probably thinking at this point: ‘Find some namesakes? No problem! Give me five minutes to search Google and Facebook and then I’ll…’ I’ll stop you there. The enormity of this challenge has lessened slightly with time given the ease in which you can find pretty much whatever you want on the internet nowadays. But you must bear in mind that this adventure happened over 10 years ago and back in 1999 that kind of information wasn’t readily available online. So with social networking yet to be invented, Dave had to conduct his search via word of mouth, newspapers and looking for ‘D. Gormans’ in phonebooks (remember them?!) from every region in the UK and beyond.

Those of you with a good memory, and a good taste in television, will remember that BBC2 showed a series entitled The Dave Gorman Collection in 2001 where Dave presented his adventure in the medium of a stand-up show. For those of you who didn’t see the show, the book provides a thorough, and thoroughly funny, recount of the six months that changed the lives of two regular men and the ‘stupid boyish bet’ that led them to 54 new friends.

This is the central ideological tenet of Hasan, the Old Man of the Mountain who dictates the action and narrative of Alamut; the book that became the inspiration for the videogame Assassin’s Creed (which is, admittedly, how I discovered it and why I read it). It’s important to stress that it’s only inspiration because Alamut is a novel that is so much more than an (admittedly excellently written) videogame. Alamut is an overlooked minor masterpiece.

Being a text from the early-mid nineteenth century (a time where the author, Vladmir Bartol’s country was surrounded by the threat of Nazism), it does have the hallmarks late James Joyce; wordy and overblown. Despite this, Bartol rejects the modernist and instead utilises the language delicately and with definite purpose (and no mad twists).

The story itself is one part reworking a classic eastern tale, whilst also containing an ideological argument so simple and so possible in its chillingly grand design, that the moment you realise Hassan’s plan you’re struck dumb by the very notion of it working. The path Bartol lays out through the novel details the unfolding events almost like a technical blueprint at first and then later like a Gospel. The precision of Bartol’s writing combined with the beguiling charm and wisdom of his characters makes this journey a delight for the reader, as well as an unexpected learning experience.

The novel is, admittedly, slow to start, and the opening few chapters bear little resemblance to the glowing praise contained in the blurb. Do not get me wrong, they are still well written and intriguing, but we do not see what La Prensa calls “an epic novel of conspiracies, love stories, and subtle religious and philosophical subtexts that bravely confronts the issue of political extremism”. Before long, however, we are introduced to the working world of Alamut and, along with it, the nuances, politics and grand scheme of the world.

Inevitably of course, we have to tackle this idea of political extremism. Alamut was written when Bartol was surrounded by Nazism in all of its terrifying, barbaric totality, and there are those who would argue that Hassan, the old man of the mountain, is a Hitler figure and his loyal generals are stand-ins for Himmler and Goebbels. There is credence in this argument, admittedly, but I never found myself considering it as such. Hassan is toying with ideas of control and religion; the creation of a totally loyal people, which arguably mirror some of Hitler’s ideas on Eugenics. Nevertheless, I found the text more of an investigation into the human ability to believe and the ways in which we can be convinced. It is perhaps an argument against empiricism, as what people see leads them not to the truth, but to the deception laid for them by another.

I should probably take a moment at this point to stress I’m not a Nazi apologist, so it’s not like a Nazi reading of this book is washing over me.

Alamut, though, is many things. It lends itself to many interpretations and suggestions that I couldn’t possibly fit into a single review, even if I had wanted to. Another quote on the blurb suggests “If Osama Bin Laden did not exist, Vladmir Bartol would have invented him”; this ironic comment is, again, perhaps wide of the mark. Alamut deals with terrorism, yes, but also freedom fighting, and suggestion, manipulation and–something I feel Osama lacked (speaking as a critic…)–subtlety.

Alamut is a maze; a cryptic smorgasbord of ideas and theories, as well as a fully formed and engaging narrative with romance, intrigue, and deception. I realise in this review I haven’t detailed much of the plot. This is because it’s far too densely packed with exciting, revelatory moments that a person simply has to read it unaware of what it holds to enjoy it the most. Also, Bartol is the undiscovered genius of the mid 20th Century, and his work deserves to be read with that blank, open mind all masterpieces do.

You should definitely read this book. If only one person picks it up from this review, then I will have achieved one of my aims.

The other was to use the word smorgasbord.

Ever since George Orwell penned 1984, since Aldous Huxley gave us Brave New World, dystopian future sci-fi has been a staple in the English-speaking world. But how do you follow up such literary classics without resulting in a hashed up mishmash of the two? Surely it would take a feat of unparalleled genius to put something new on the plate.

Nope.

All you have to do is read CITIZEN ZERO by Mark Cantrell to find out there is a new sheriff in cyberspace. Set twenty minutes, twenty hours or twenty years into the future, Citizen Zero follows the life of David Mills, an unemployed steelworker from Great Britain who ‘plugs’ into a virtual reality network called JobNet in an effort to find gainful employment. Sounds simple, huh? Massive unemployment, civil unrest, a government that slowly bleeds the rights of the individual away without actually altering nor changing any laws. Easy peasy.

Uh-uh.

Toss in a helping of political intrigue, a corrupt politician (is there any other kind?), a killer computer virus disguised as everyone’s favorite insect, an anarchist terrorist group, mix in a love story for some flavor, and you have the recipe for this books complex plot.

While the characters are nothing new, variations on the theme seen over and over, what makes the book stand out is the excellent writing. Heck, forget the characters altogether because once you pass the initial hurdle (the first few chapters are a bit slow) you get to the meat and potatoes of the story and it begins to chug along quite nicely, pulling the reader from chapter to chapter.

So you are probably asking yourself, ‘Mark, what does Citizen Zero bring to the table?’

Good question, oh patient reader. Cantrell manages something most writers (yours truly included) have difficulty with: Realistic dialogue.

What? You think that’s easy? Try it sometime and see if don’t hit the DELETE button on your computer.

Today’s speech carries with it slang, frequently misused words, idioms the modern man understands but would baffle anyone born before 1930, and the frequent, and I mean frequent, use of four-letter-words. Cursing. Swearing. F&$8ing all the time. Cantrell weaves dialogue like a master seamstress; almost flawlessly in a style that anyone can and would relate to.

Okay, love fest over. Time for the nitty-gritty, the heart of the matter, (insert metaphor here). Is this book worth your valuable coin? Is it worth the time out of your precious life to read? Or should you give it a pass and head to the local public library to peruse Orwell again?

Well, despite the flaws in character development and the slow start, Citizen Zero manages to pick up the ball and run with it, fast enough and far enough that when it’s all over, you think to yourself, “Gee, why haven’t I heard of this Cantrell guy before?”. Too often books leave you sorry you’ve wasted your time. Citizen Zero will make you want to read more.

His first history book took on the admirable and gargantuan task of fitting 2,000 years of British history into one manageable 592 page book. In which, he covered all the major events to hit these fair isles from Viking invasions to the end of World War II.

His latest offering puts the final pieces into his historical jigsaw and reminds us of what happened from 1945 until 2007 with his book ‘An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain: or Sixty Years of Making the Same Stupid Mistakes as Always‘ (for sanity’s sake from now on I’ll refer to the book as O’Farrell’s Modern Britain).

O’Farrell’s style mixes the factual with the trivial in a way that makes you think ‘Ooo, that’s interesting!’ – when he covers the events of the shock result of the 1945 election he also weighs in with the rather amazing fact that Winston Churchill himself didn’t appear on the electoral register and thus couldn’t vote. So as well as the bread and butter of historical fact, O’Farrell gives you a generous layer of strawberry jam to stop things getting boring and create an enjoyable pace to the book.

Many of the above titbits appear in the form of footnotes which I found difficult not to read as soon as I turned the page – I know that it’s there so my eye is immediately drawn to it. For me, this distraction was annoying and took away from the text itself.

O’Farrell likes to inject his own brand of dry humour into the book which works at times, but can also fall flat on its face and becomes a little tiresome. In his first book ‘An Utterly Impartial History of Britain or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots In Charge‘ (he does have a knack for those long titles), this technique just seemed to work and complimented the text throughout, but in O’Farrell’s Modern Britain it could sometimes end up feeling rather forced.

But despite these blemishes O’Farrell succeeds handsomely in what I believe was his mission objective: to make history interesting and approachable. O’Farrell does well to distribute attention fittingly between political and social changes of the last 60 years; after you’ve read the book you’re not only aware of the policies of the Heath government, but also of what hairstyles were popular at the time. I found it fun to read about the events that I could recall from my childhood but didn’t understand at the time, to the political figures who I knew the names of but little else (step forward Nye Bevan and Hugh Gaitskell).

If you’re after a more detailed account of post-war Britain then Andrew Marr’s A History of Modern Britain is a great read and will give you a great deal of information on the key events and the players in the tone of a former BBC political correspondent – and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want more-or-less the same information delivered in the style of that fun history teacher that you had at A-Level complete with jokes and funky tie, then maybe you should veer towards O’Farrell.