Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical by Robert Shearman

Synopsis

The first love song in the world, as composed by a pig in the Garden of Eden…
The Devil, alarmed when his hobby of writing romantic fiction begins to upstage his day job…
A man finding love with someone who has an allergy to his happiness, another losing love altogether when his wife gives him back his heart in a Tupperware box…

By turns macabre and moving, horrific and laugh-out-loud funny, Robert Shearman's short stories come from a place just to the left of the corner of your eye. Following his World Fantasy Award-winning 'Tiny Deaths', this new collection puts a bizarre twist on the love story. What is love, why does it hurt so much, and how is it we keep coming back for more?

 - Winner of the Readers' Award in the Edge Hill Short Story Competition.

 - Winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story Collection.

What Did We Think?

Much praise was meted out for this, the second collection of Short Stories we've read in our times as a book club.

We liked how Shearman uses the fantastic to express more "mundane" issues. In doing so he accurately and poignantly conveys emotions, concepts and ideas that few other fantastical authors are capable of expressing in their work (or mainstream authors for that matter). It was felt with almost unanimous consent that the stories in this collection make a connection with genuine human emotions, particularly (of course) that of Love.

Despite praising the use of the fantastic, it was also appreciated that Shearman seems to know the power of understatement - both in the amount of fantastic elements a story requires, but also in the prose used to tell it. Many, if not all, of the stories were paced superbly and felt natural at the lengths they were published in. At the same time it was noted, and appreciated, that several of the stories use rather clever narrative techniques and devices, however they are also used in the perfect manner so that they complement the story rather than draw unnecessary attention away from the plot or mood being evoked.

At some point in the session someone must have picked out pretty much every story individually as an example of one they really liked. Even "George Clooney's Moustache" which was, on the whole, found to be a deeply disturbing tale. On the whole the collection was praised for being consistently good rather than putting its best stories at the beginning and deteriorating over the course of the book, as can sometimes happen in such collections.

If anything a criticism of the book was (rather ridiculously) that the stories were so good that you couldn't read them too quickly in succession or they would erase the preceding stories from your mind - so captivating and intense is each narrative. For this reason it reassured at least one member of our group that the stories have been published separately as it was felt that with room to grow in isolation from the other brilliant tales in the collection, they would truly shine.

Votes were as follows: 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7, 6

Next month's book is the rather more traditionally fantastic The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemsin.

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin

Synopsis

The Principle of Simultaneity is a scientific breakthrough which will revolutionize interstellar civilization by making possible instantaneous communication. It is the life work of Shevek, a brilliant physicist from the arid anarchist world of Anarres. But Shevek's work is being stifled by jealous colleagues, so he travels to Anarres's sister-planet Urras, hoping to find more liberty and tolerance there. But he soon finds himself being used as a pawn in a deadly political game.

What Did We Think?


[notes to follow]



Votes were as follows: 7, 8, 8, 9, 9

Memoirs of a Master Forger by William Heaney

Synopsis

William is a dissolute book-forger. A talented writer in his own right he would rather scribble poems anonymously for an asian friend (who is becoming increasingly successful as a result), and create forgeries of Jane Austen first editions to sell to gullible collectors. He's not all bad. The money from the forgeries goes straight to homeless hostel and William's crimes don't really hurt anyone. And there are reasons William hasn't amounted to more. He did something he was ashamed of when he was a student, he drinks far too much and he can't commit to any relationships. Oh and he sees demons. Shadowy figures at the shoulder of everyone around him (except the woman who runs the hostel, she remains untouched), waiting for a moment's weakness. Or is just that William can see the suffering of the world? And then an extraordinary woman, who may just be able to save him from the world's suffering, walks into his life. This is William's own story. But who can believe a master forger?

What Did We Think?

This book caused quite a bit of discussion about the nature of Fantasy. It won the British Fantasy Award in 2009 and so is clearly recognised as belonging within the confines of the genre, it's also published by Gollancz as clear a genre stamp as any. At the same time, it carries a cover quote from a professor of 19th Century Literature at Royal Holloway University (albeit science fiction author and critic Adam Roberts) and the content of the novel is carefully phrased in such a way that it could easily have been shelved with the "mainstream" fiction, what China Miéville calls the genre of "litfic".

Nonetheless, it was a novel that was found to be artful, poetic, and striking. The character of William Heaney was seen as being a man who despite being massively flawed (and a raging alcoholic) was also immensely likeable and we were very happy for him at the end of the novel, although the criticism was voiced that elements of the ending were perhaps too neat for a novel with such realist tones, that it was perhaps "too pat".

The issues of trauma which were central to the book (both physical and emotional) were convincingly and thoughtfully dealt with. Whilst the war content was not to every reader's taste, in the book-within-the-book, the examination of Gulf Syndrome was a rare and sincere examination of a phenomenon that that has been largely ignored by much military fiction, let alone science fiction or fantasy.

We enjoyed the contrasts between Heaney the self-confessed fraudster and the characters we encounter everyday: beauracrats, celebrity chefs, politicians who are not literal fraudsters in the sense that Heaney is, yet who live their lives behind a veil of lies and deceit which is far more damaging and less easy to empathise with than Heaney's altruistically driven charismatic swindling.

Overall it was a book that everyone enjoyed although that didn't live up to everyone's expectations of a demonic romp through London. Rather than the trad-fantasy that they were expecting it was altogether something more delicate and unique. A touching, but also funny novel which left you thirsty for a glass of red wine....

(Sorry for the short nature of this summary, it's been a busy week. To make up for it checkout Graham Joyce's acceptance speech for the British Fantasy Award and William Heaney's blog where he makes some entertaining comments about his creative writing tutor...)

Votes were as follows: 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9

Inverted World by Christopher Priest

Synopsis

A uniquely powerful novel of a society in decay. On a planet whose very nature is a mystery a massive decrepit city is pulled along a massive railway track, laying the line down before it as it progresses into the wilderness. The society within toils under an oppressive regime, its structures always on the point of collapse, the lives of its individuals lived in misery. No one knows where they are going, why they are going or what they will find when they get there.

What Did We Think?

Christopher Priest's Inverted World (1974) delighted the majority of our book club members. It was considered to be, on the whole, beautifully crafted although the structure of the novel did cause some debate, oscillating as it does not just between focal characters but also through first and third-person perspectives. Some readers found this a peculiar and seemingly unnecessary added confusion whilst others found it to be a jolt against complacency and thus a form of hint at the novel's twist ending. There was a practical element too, it was widely agreed that the second section of the novel would not have been half as effective, or indeed affective, had it been in the first person. One reason for this is the emotional detachment which third-person narration allows: our protagonist, Helward Mann, couldn't understand what was happening him as he travelled south 'down past' and a first-person narration would have had to replicate his confusion and bewilderment, making the task of understanding this crucial episode far harder for the reader during this "journey through faerie". In addition, a third-person narration allowed the numerous sex scenes in this part of the novel to avoid falling into the realms of erotica.

The sexual content of the book was another focus for the group. The motivations of the women as they become seemingly more and more sexually promiscuous were unclear. Whilst we acknowledged that Helward had different moral and emotional boundaries to us due to his very different upbringing, this element of the novel, dubbed a "sexcapade" was largely seen as peculiar and mostly unnecessary. Certainly it did nothing to advance the plot other than provide something for Helward to do on his journey south. In many ways the fact these scenes were not intended to be titillating - as so many similar sections might be in lesser sf fare - made their inclusion all the more confusing.

Criticism of the sex scenes should not be taken as criticism of the gender roles in Inverted World. On the whole Priest does a brilliant job of providing interesting and faceted female characters who prove crucial in driving the plot. Indeed, Victoria and Elizabeth prove to be far more important characters in the novel than Helward in that they are the driving forces behind the plot whilst Helward is simply the catalyst who brings them all together.

Overall, Inverted World was seen as being a novel which despite its age felt fresh and modern. It was enjoyable and absorbing despite, or perhaps because of, being at times remarkably complex. A worthy Masterwork.

Votes were as follows: 7 (in absentia), 8, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9, 9.

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Synopsis

Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's calorie representative in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, he combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs long thought to be extinct. There he meets the windup girl - the beautiful and enigmatic Emiko - now abandoned to the slums. She is one of the New People, bred to suit the whims of the rich. Engineered as slaves, soldiers and toys, they are the new underclass in a chilling near future where oil has run out, calorie companies dominate nations and bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe. And as Lake becomes increasingly obsessed with Emiko, conspiracies breed in the heat and political tensions threaten to spiral out of control. Businessmen and ministry officials, wealthy foreigners and landless refugees all have their own agendas. But no one anticipates the devastating influence of the Windup Girl.

This astonishing debut novel was named 9th best book of 2009 in TIME magazine. It won the Nebula award for Best Novel, was joint-winner for the Hugo award for Best Novel (a tie with China Miéville's The City and The City [which we've already read] and a plethora of other awards. It has been nominated for the 2010 British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel, results pending.

What Did We Think?

The first thing to point out is that despite the emphasis on Anderson Lake in the above synopsis, this novel doesn't really have a protagonist. There is no set "main character" but rather an ensemble cast of multiple characters whose lives intertwine and crossover to varying degrees. Another thing to note is that none of these characters are what we could call "good guys", there are no heroes in Bacigalupi's world. By the end of the novel we felt sorry for pretty much everyone because whilst there are no truly good people there are no truly evil people either (except perhaps the faceless organisations behind the scenes). The character development was subtle and effective. Despite hopping from character to character we never lost track of where we were or what was going on, something helped by the novel's strong pacing.

It was not universal praise as far as the characters were concerned however. The author's emphasis on Emiko (the eponymous Windup Girl) as a sexual object was hard hitting, especially in the rape scenes, but understandable. However, there were moments when we're alone with the character, inside her mind, and this emphasis on sexuality continues. This was problematic as it sends confusing  messages to the reader about how they should feel about Emiko. The worst instance of this was the "showering" scenes on the roof top where the flow of water and soap is described too sensually, detracting from the fact that this girl has just been violently and horrifically sexually assaulted and raped. That said, it was argued that Emiko's is the most effective character arc, that she grows more than any other character and, from some perspectives, comes closest to having a happy ending at the close of the novel as she is offered a possibility for something she never dreamed possible [he says edgily trying to spoil anything for those who have yet to read it].

This is a dystopia, the word biopunk has been bandied around, and it bears more than a passing resemblance to Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (discussed by this book club already) thematically at least. More than anything this is a capitalist dystopia with layers of big business dominance, union politics, and the kind of arrogance we've come to see from our own capitalist leaders. This is also a rare example of a trade war being made to sound interesting in fiction.

Overall, The Windup Girl is a wonderfully written book, which evokes place and mood with a skill far beyond most debut novelists. It has interesting and relevant themes and realistically flawed characters that we can enjoy. Whilst almost everything is kept in a morally grey area (as in most dystopian fiction) - with the possible exception of Jaidee who casts a long shadow on the plot, despite being dead for most of it - this allows the reader to enjoy the plot without feeling put-upon and to form their own opinions. Bacigalupi mixes real science with touches of magical realism (the Cheshires, the ghosts) and a flavour of the far-east that comes across as genuine.

  

Votes were as follows: 1, 7, 8, 8, 8 ,8, 9, 9, 10

   

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

Synopsis

Imagine a distant world where gods walk as men, but wield vast and hidden powers. Here they have made the stage on which they build a subtle pattern of alliance, love, and deadly enmity. Are they truly immortal? Who are these gods who rule the destiny of a teeming world? Their names include Brahma, Kali, Krishna and also he who was called Buddha, the Lord of Light, but who now prefers to be known simply as Sam. 

What Did We Think?

 (Notes Coming Soon)



Votes were as follows: 8, 9, 9, 9, a 6 given in absentia, plus two abstains

The City and The City by China Miéville

Synopsis

When the body of a murdered woman is found in the extraordinary, decaying city of Besźel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks like a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he probes, the evidence begins to point to conspiracies far stranger, and more deadly, than anything he could have imagined. Soon his work puts him and those he cares for in danger. Borlu must travel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own, across a border like no other. The City and The City won the 2010 BSFA award for Best Novel, the 2010 Arthur C. Clarke award for Best Novel (a record breaking third for Miéville), and tied with Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl for the 2010 Hugo award for Best Novel. It has also been nominated for World Fantasy Award and Nebula Awards in the same category.

What Did We Think?

 China Miéville is continuously praised for the strength of his world building. This is showcased in The City and The City in a manner which is in some ways more obvious than in other novels. The reason for this is that what Miéville has written is essentially a straight-forward crime plot set against the background of the amazing and yet seemingly real cities of Besźel and Ul Qoma.

The straight crime plot was where at least one reader fell out with the book, as we discussed there is a case for saying the book is infact neither science fiction nor fantasy, despite accolades from both camps! If you don't like crime fiction it's unlikely that you'll love The City and The City as it conforms to many of the clichés of the genre, especially in terms of characters' relationships: we see both the classic detective-sidekick relationship, and the detective-fish out of water foreign ace detective tropes repeated here, as is the fact that the strongest female character is the murder victim who never actually appears on stage as a character (at least a living one).

Despite this potential flaw all agreed that the novel had a good strong story, interesting characters and strong pacing. The complexities of the world Miéville has created, which I dare not describe in too much depth here for fear or ruining someone else's experience, are enthralling and reading the book can be compared to being a detective in novel as you work out the intricacies of the location. That said, the concept is so complex that some struggled with the first third or so of the novel and it was suggested (although not unanimously agreed) that some form of introductory short story which established the city from the point of view of an outsider would have been beneficial. Whether this would have detracted from, or added to, the experience of reading the novel was a point of contention.

Whether there was a better way of presenting the city or not, it was certainly a heavily detailed setting which many of us wanted to return to. There were interesting discussions about the possibility of the place (hence it not really being science fiction or fantasy), referencing experiments by Quirkology and real world examples of cultural fragmentation within urban areas (something which clearly influenced the novel).

Overall it was a enjoyable, even lovable novel, which whilst challanging was a rewarding read. However, it is still very much a piece of crime fiction and if you're not a fan of Raymond Chandler then you likely won't like this. That said, the setting is engaging enough that it could still win you over.

Votes were as follows: 10, 9, 8, 8, 7, 4

 

On a personal note: despite ranking this book highly and loving the act of reading it. I wouldn't reccomend it as an introduction to Miéville's fiction, largely for the negative reasons outlined above, if you have the time to tackle such a large book - Perdido Street Station is a superior novel and a massively rewarding read.- Glyn

NEW: Watch a video of China Miéville himself talking about The City and The City here.

Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts

Synopsis

Russia, 1946, the Nazis recently defeated. Stalin gathers half a dozen of the top Soviet science fiction authors in a dacha in the countryside somewhere. Convinced that the defeat of America is only a few years away, and equally convinced that the Soviet Union needs a massive external threat to hold it together, to give it purpose and direction, he tells the writers: 'I want you to concoct a story about aliens poised to invade earth ...I want it to be massively detailed, and completely believable. If you need props and evidence to back it up, then we can create them. But when America is defeated, your story must be so convincing that the whole population of Soviet Russia believes in it - the population of the whole world!' The little group of writers gets down to the task and spends months working on it. But then new orders come from Moscow: they are told to drop the project; Stalin has changed his mind; forget everything about it. So they do. They get on with their lives in their various ways; some of them survive the remainder of Stalin's rule, the changes of the 50s and 60s. And then, in the aftermath of Chernobyl, the survivors gather again, because something strange has started to happen
 

What Did We Think?

(notes to follow)

Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

Synopsis

Prisoner of war, optometrist, time-traveller - these are the life roles of Billy Pilgrim, hero of this miraculously moving, bitter and funny story of innocence faced with apocalypse. Slaughterhouse 5 is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centring on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.

What Did We Think?

Vonnegut's most acclaimed work is a darkly funny book, peculiar and strange as it hops around all over the place. Part memoir, part (anti)war fiction, part science fiction, its a very difficult book to categorise. For example, we're reading this as part of a science fiction/ fantasy book club - so is it science fiction? We found that depends wildly on your reading of the text. So slight and carefully crafted is the plot that it can be read as being all a wild delusion on the part of Billy Pilgrim, that the time travelling and alien abduction are the result of his Dresden induced trauma interplaying with the dementia his daughter is certain he has. On the other hand you can read it as a literal truth, that it happened (or happens) exactly as Billy claims it does. In either case, some found the lack of definitive science fictional content, particularly with regards to the nature of Billy's time travelling, to be disappointing.

Something that was almost unanimous was a feeling that the novel was extremely honest. There was a sense that Vonnegut contemplated deeply on the question of how to write a war novel, how to understand the point of war. If any. Again, Vonnegut's skill as a writer shone through in that you cannot clearly say that this is an explicitly anti-war novel, rather it is a story which emphasises the pointlessness and pathetic nature of war and leaves you to draw your own conclusions, it very pointedly avoids soapboxing.

Another point of discussion was that of Billy Pilgrim himself, a character Universally seen as being almost unbelievable pathetic, and yet also painfully normal. An observer in his own life he was found to be both frustrating and hard to sympathise with. It was decided that this aspect of his character was almost certainly deliberate and could be a point about passivity and acceptance, or it could be a criticism that people tend to cruise through their lives without sieving the moment. On a more practical note, it could be that Pilgrim's passive nature was a narrative necessity in order to add credence to the idea to the Tralfamadorian model of time being fixed and free-will being non existent.

Overall, feeling towards the book was positive although there was significant disagreement over several issues raised. The group found it hard to agree about what the book actually stood for, or what certain sections and elements meant. Rather than a criticism of the novel however, this is testament to the complex and engaging nature of Slaughterhouse 5.

The votes were as follows: 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10

The audio book received considerable praise from Al, it's narrated by Ethan Hawke and has an interesting interview with the author at the end.

Also: in reply to a sub-discussion we had. Yes, the book has been banned and censored from its publication in 1969 right up to the modern day. It ranked 46th in the American Library Association list of the most frequently banned/challenged books to 2000-2009.

Temeraire by Naomi Novik

Synopsis

Captain Will Laurence has been at sea since he was just twelve years old. Rising on merit to captain his own vessel, Laurence has earned himself a beautiful fiancee, society's esteem and a golden future. But the war is not going well. It seems Britain can only wait as Napoleon plans to overrun her shores. After a skirmish with a French ship, Laurence finds himself in charge of a rare cargo: a dragon egg bound for the Emperor himself. Dragons are much prized: properly trained, they can mount a fearsome attack from the skies. But when the newly-hatched dragon ignores the young midshipman Laurence chose as its keeper and decides to imprint itself on the horrified captain instead, Laurence's world falls apart. Gone is his golden future: gone his social standing, and soon his beautiful fiancee, as he is consigned to be the constant companion and trainer of the fighting dragon Temeraire!

What Did We Think?

  Initial reactions to this book were very good, but that could simply be because those who loved it were more vocal than those who didn't. After a few moments of gushing about how refreshingly positive, enjoyable and easily readable the book was, the critique began in earnest.

It seemed that the easy readability of the novel was actually part of a point against it. The problems and solutions presented in the novel were glossed in such a way that it read as emotionally stunted. Not to say that we didn't care about any of the characters, the bond between Laurence and Temeraire seems a brilliant piece of characterization, but rather that it didn't seem real enough (a phrase I hesitate to use regarding a novel in which dragons fight in the Napoleonic Wars). To put it another way, the novel read in such a way to place in a spectrum closer to teen fiction than to the gloves-off grittiness of, say, Morgan's The Steel Remains (see our discussion here), on the opposite end of the scale.

However, the lack of grit is not necessarily a negative factor for all readers. Despite being at one point compared to "My Little Pony" on a larger scale, the rose-tinted view of the world presented in Temeraire was a refreshing change of pace from the dark, foreboding, negativity of a lot of modern fiction (see Cormac McCarthy's The Road). Novik's novel has a sense of humour,

Another reason the novel was found to be refreshingly different was the charm offered by the "stately language" of the Napoleonic setting. The most obvious comparison on this point is the stunningly wonderful Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke which also blends the Fantastical and Napoleonic history (in a darker, more adult - and possibly more fantastical - manner than Temeraire). The alternate-history nature of fiction means it is less reliant on the Tolkien-esque tropes which riddle the majority of other Fantasy fictions.

The nature of the relationship between a dragon and their rider was a topic discussed at length, natural comparisons were drawn with Anne McCaffrey's extensive Pern series (an essay by McCaffrey on the influence of sexuality and gender on dragon bonding can be found here). McCaffrey's dragons have an explicit psychic connection with their riders to the point that if the rider dies the dragon, in a moment of trauma, "jumps" into the void never to be seen again. Novik's rider-dragon relationship is however, much more based on an intense sense of empathy rather than any explicit psychic bond. Laurence repeatedly refers to Temeraire as a friend, an equal, and this raises interesting questions regarding whether he would have been as willing to retain his dragon had it been of a dimmer-witted breed rather than the intelligent Chinese variety which Temeraire is an example of (no spoiler here!). The relationship is seemingly symbiotic, a supporting role, but unlike McCaffrey, completely platonic.

Picking at the text causes a few threads to loosen which may or may not be addressed in later instalments in the series, not least amongst those is the question of why such intelligent creatures allow themselves to be bred, their children to be sent to war for human gains and why they accept the status of essentially being big pets. The placidity of the dragons was found by some to be annoying, an artificial smoothing of situations to allow the plot to flow unhindered by complex inter-personal relations and issues.

Overall the novel seemed to be enjoyed, though for some enjoyment was as far as it got with some readers finding it hard to enthuse too heavily about a novel they saw as being predominantly teen in focus.

The votes were as follows: 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10

The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan

Plot Synopsis

Ringil, the hero of the bloody slaughter at Gallows Gap is a legend to all who don't know him and a twisted degenerate to those that do. A veteran of the wars against the lizards he makes a living from telling credulous travellers of his exploits. Until one day he is pulled away from his life and into the depths of the Empire's slave trade. Where he will discover a secret infinitely more frightening than the trade in lives. Archeth - pragmatist, cynic and engineer, the last of her race - is called from her work at the whim of the most powerful man in the Empire and sent to its farthest reaches to investigate a demonic incursion against the Empire's borders. Egar Dragonbane, steppe-nomad, one-time fighter for the Empire finds himself entangled in a small-town battle between common sense and religious fervour. But out in the wider world there is something on the move far more alien than any of his tribe's petty gods. Anti-social, anti-heroic, and decidedly irritated, all three of them are about to be sent unwillingly forth into a vicious, vigorous and thoroughly unsuspecting fantasy world. Called upon by an Empire that owes them everything and gave them nothing.


What did we think?

A novel far more controversial and modern in feel than its predecessor in the book club. The Steel Remains caused some interesting discussions.

The group were impressed by Morgan's vibrant language and the lively imagery employed which ranged from explicit sex scenes to more domestic fare. Tonally, however, the blackly humorous beginning was felt to hint at a book that wasn't there, the humour quickly ebbing away as the novel became very bleak. Whilst this in itself is not necessarily a negative comment, it will be interesting to see how this tonal "evolution" affects the following books in Morgan's fantasy sequence.

The realism of the novel was striking, it almost seemed as much a War novel with dressings of the Fantastic as a Fantasy novel in its own right. Indeed, the idea of soldiers being tossed aside and forgotten by a society who, feeling safe, no longer needs them was felt to be very close to the bone. Another point which gained much praise was Morgan's challenging of the heterosexual norm in Fantasy, and the respect with which he incorporated these elements into the plot, making the sex scenes graphic but significant.

There was much praise garnered by the impressive backstory which Morgan has clearly cultivated. The world felt fully realised and "already lived in", and the sense that the characters and societies had genuine histories, rather than ones grafted on, was definite. Ringil was described as someone 'you might want to go for a pint with... so long as he doesn't kill you in the process' (Al). At the same time, the sheer volume of names and locations bombarding the reader in the initial phases of the novel, particularly with multiple plot-strings to follow, could get confusing. All said, the backstory was so fascinating that it contributes strongly to our desire to revisit the world in future novels, even to the point where it was more interesting in The Steel Remains than the plot.

The quasi-science fiction element of the novel was fascinating and had clear allusions to Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"). This aspect of the book reminded some of us of Jack Vance's Dying Earth series, as well as Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time. Given the potential of the backstory, and the superb handling of the science-fantasy material, the Dwenda were felt to be disapointing by some. They lacked the threat the novel seemed to bestow upon them, and seemed to diminish as the novel went on (though for some this was a positive rather than negative quality). Comparisons with the Elves in Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies were made, not only because they are both "bat-shit crazy" but also because of their intra-dimensional existence.

On the whole the novel was enjoyed for its feel, and its style. If the plot suffered from "first in a series-blues" then those problems were small enough that they didn't hinder the agreement that this is a series worth watching out for in the future.

The average score given to Richard Morgan's The Steel Remains was 8/10

Votes: Abstain, 7, 7.5, 8, 8.5, 8.5

Wow that was a long summation. Agree with the points? Disagree? Care to add some more, or continue a debate from the session. Post below for all that and more. Also: The book's author has kindly agreed to set aside some time to answer any questions you may have regarding the novel, so just send them to me on the usual address and I'll pass them along en-mass. Thanks guys.