Catching Up with MD LACHLAN

MD Lachlan’s Wolfsangel reinvented the werewolf lore, turning it into in a very dark twist on Norse mythology. The novel has since been followed up by the equally excellent Fenrir and the just-released Lord of Slaughter. Lachlan was also the first interview I did for this blog, so I thought I’d send him a few, quick follow-up questions about how he thinks things are going…

Week In Review (May 26)

Bit of a mix this week: an article about authors and Library eBook loans; Amazon & Waterstone’s; Special Needs in Strange Worlds (the series just keeps on going strong); a mini-article by S.G. Browne; a great review of Railsea by China Mieville; and an article by Sarah Pinborough.

“Fenrir” by MD Lachlan (Gollancz / Pyr)

Norse Mythology, Werewolves, Devious Gods. Awesome.

The Vikings are laying siege to Paris. As the houses on the banks of the Seine burn a debate rages in the Cathedral on the walled island of the city proper. The situation is hopeless. The Vikings want the Count’s sister, in return they will spare the rest of the city.

Can the Count really have ambitions to be Emperor of the Franks if he doesn’t do everything he can to save his people? Can he call himself a man if he doesn’t do everything he can to save his sister? His conscience demands one thing, the demands of state another. The Count and the church are relying on the living saint, the blind and crippled Jehan of St Germain, to enlist the aid of God and resolve the situation for them. But the Vikings have their own gods. And outside their camp a terrifying brother and sister, priests of Odin, have their own agenda. An agenda of darkness and madness. And in the shadows a wolfman lurks.

Fenrir takes the story that began in Wolfsangel further along in history, delving further into the mythology upon which Lachlan has built his series. It’s dark, grim, and bloody. And it’s also extremely well written, and exceeded my high expectations going in. I’ve avoided including any spoilers (there are so many surprises in this novel), so my review focuses more on the themes than the events of the novel.

Fortnightly Acquisitions

It’s been a while since I did a post like this, but given the exciting stuff that’s arrived these past two weeks, I thought I’d share a bit. After being away from home for a week (which should explain the relative inactivity), there were a couple of nice surprises waiting for me, too! So, here’s the pile:

And some brief details on the titles, all of which have been on my radar for a while (some longer than others)…

2010: A Retrospective – Fantasy & Sci-Fi

I know every blog, magazine and newspaper does one of these, but because 2010 was quite a bumper year for reading, I thought I’d offer a quick run-down of my favourites. I’m not going to reiterate why I thought these books were the best of the year – instead, I’m just going take this as an opportunity to link to the reviews I already posted during the year. And last year was quite busy.

Not only was there a considerable increase in posting (in part thanks to Alyssa joining the reviewing team), but I’ve also been able to get so many books read (including non-fiction, I’ve read 109 books in 2010). Thinking about this post, however, I realise how much my reading habits are changing – I have read and enjoyed far more fantasy novels than thrillers, which makes this the first year I’ve had difficulty coming up with the ‘Best Thrillers’ selection (which I posted earlier today). Also, given the wealth of fantasy novels I’ve read this year, whittling them down to just ten was impossible, so I’ve mentioned all the ones that really stood out (in no particular order).

 

Chris Wooding, The Black Lung Captain (Gollancz)

(I should to take this opportunity to say another big “Thank You!” to Alyssa for giving me this novel. I loved it!)

Col Buchanan, Farlander (Tor)

Kevin J. Anderson, The Map Of All Things (Orbit)

Daniel Abraham, Shadow & Betrayal (Orbit)

Blake Charlton, Spellwright (Harper/Voyager)

Brent Weeks, The Black Prism (Orbit)

N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms & The Broken Kingdoms (Orbit)

Graham McNeill, A Thousand Sons / James Swallow, Nemesis / Aaron Dembski-Bowden, The First Heretic

(Black Library)

MD Lachlan, Wolfsangel (Gollancz)

Lachlan was also kind enough to answer a few questions for me, and his was the first interview we’ve done on the site.

Ari Marmell, The Conqueror’s Shadow (Gollancz)

In addition to the review, Marmell agreed to do a short interview, which can be found here.

(As I mentioned at the end of the Lachlan interview, I’ll be trying to get as many short interviews with authors as possible – either with authors whose books have been reviewed on the site, or exciting upcoming authors, if at all possible.)

There are many more fantasy novels, and a couple more sci-fi novels that could easily have made the cut (for example, Sam Sykes’s Tome of the Undergates, Amanda Downum’s The Bone Palace, and CL Werner’s Wulfrik). But, in order to keep the post as short as possible, and to properly highlight the best of a very good year, I shall leave it at that. Feel free to use the comments to add your own. There are, as with every year, a number of novels I was unable to read. I will catch up on those that were missed, where possible and time permitting.

Anyway. It is time to start looking to the present, and 2011 looks like it will be a very good year for readers of every genre. Keep checking back for more reviews, interviews, artwork, and asides!

“Wolfsangel”, by MD Lachlan (Gollancz)

An original, enjoyable take on Norse mythology and Werewolves

The Viking King Authun leads his men on a raid against an Anglo-Saxon village. Men and women are killed indiscriminately but Authun demands that no child be touched. He is acting on prophecy. A prophecy that tells him that the Saxons have stolen a child from the Gods. If Authun, in turn, takes the child and raises him as an heir, the child will lead his people to glory.

But Authun discovers not one child, but twin baby boys. Ensuring that his faithful warriors, witness to what has happened, die during the raid Authun takes the children and their mother home, back to the witches who live on the Troll Wall. And he places his destiny in their hands.

And so begins a stunning multi-volume fantasy epic that will take a werewolf from his beginnings as the heir to a brutal Viking king, down through the ages. It is a journey that will see him hunt for his lost love through centuries and lives, and see the endless battle between the wolf, Odin and Loki – the eternal trickster – spill over into countless bloody conflicts from our history, and over into our lives.

Wolfsangel has been left unread for far too long, so I finally forced myself to put down the new and upcoming releases and give this novel the attention it deserves. As a big fan of werewolves, Norse mythology, and weird and dark fantasy, everything I had heard about this novel suggested it would be perfect for my tastes. After reading Wolfsangel, I was certainly not disappointed. Lachlan is a gifted author and one who clearly loves his chosen subject and historical setting, which makes this novel is a must-read for fans of dark fantasy tinged with atmospheric horror elements.

The novel focuses on the lives of the two brothers, raised in very different circumstances, and the transformations they are forced to undergo in a relatively short period of time. Vali, raised as Authun’s son; and Feileg, raised by a family of Odin-worshipping berzerks. Their lives are, of course, very different, and when they finally meet it is not a happy family reunion. Vali is a strange character: to begin with he seems more sensitive than your average Norseman in his thoughts, but he also sometimes acts like a spoiled rich kid. His treatment of and lack of respect for Bragi, his mentor, sometimes jars with his general demeanour, but we slowly come to realise that Vali has learned his lessons of politics and strategy. A strange character, Lachlan keeps us guessing for a long while what sort of person he is, who he will become, and how we’re supposed to feel about him. Feileg, on the other hand, is hard as nails, resourceful and independent: he adopts a wolf-like aspect, mentality and persona, and is fierce and sometimes brutish, given to berzerker-type bouts of sheer violence. When he meets Adisla, Vali’s low-born love, Feileg becomes more human and sheds some of his wolf-like persona. One thing that was particularly noteworthy about Wolfsangel is that, while set over only a number of months, the characters are visibly effected and changed by the ordeals they experience, and we see some proper character development throughout the novel – even a handful of minor characters evolve as the novel progresses.

Norse culture was violent, and Lachlan does not shy away from the grittier and grimmer realities of life in medieval Scandinavia. From raids to single combat, the author really puts the reader into the heart of the action; it is close, brutal and often highly personal. Certainly, Wolfsangel contains some of the best, most realistic fight scenes I’ve read in a while. The author also does a great job of explaining the politics of the times, not to mention the shifting patterns in religion and allegiances.

Lachlan’s writing has a certain quality that sucks you in and draws you on through the story. It’s very difficult to describe if one’s not an English Lit major; but at its best it is captivating, and very atmospheric. The author’s prose is wonderfully evocative, and there is a great, tense atmosphere about the novel. The Norse way of life and their world is fully realised on the page, and you get the sense that the author did a lot of research to make everything feel natural and also realistic and authentic (see the author interview, below). From the idyllic farmsteads where Vali grows up, to the stygian darkness of the Troll Wall (the home of the witches and their queen), Lachlan has a gift for giving the reader a solid impression of what a place might actually be like.

The final quarter of the book throws a lot of what we think we know about the characters and their roles out the window, and the complexity of the conspiracy at the centre of the plot is fully, satisfyingly revealed. Lachlan weaves the machinations of the gods, their human subjects and their enemies deftly; the specific plot and mythological elements expertly woven into an interesting and original plot. That Lachlan keeps to the spirit of Norse mythology throughout the novel is one of its greatest strengths. For example, the magic system and the rituals that comprise it are sacrificial and masochistic in nature, mirroring the sacrifices that Odin had to make in order to gain wisdom and magical knowledge. The nature of the magic also lends itself to the stranger passages in the novel, which come in the form of hallucinations and dreams – I’d recommend making sure you can pay attention throughout these sections.

The magic system Lachlan has incorporated is harsh and brutal, and I thought it was very different from your standard fantasy magic systems (it’s in no way flashy, for one thing). The transformations that take place to turn a man into a werewolf are also handled in a great, original way (actually, it’s a more classical approach than contemporary readers will be familiar with), and is very different to what you might be familiar with. It should be noted at this point that this is not your standard werewolf/supernatural novel. It is far more about Norse mythology and mysticism, and is all the better for it.

If I had one criticism of the novel, it concerns pacing. The momentum of the plot is not overall consistent. After a few early chapters that enjoyed a quick pace, the momentum started to have peaks and troughs that were occasionally quite noticeable. This is odd, actually, as the first few chapters are usually the slowest in any new fantasy series, as the author is forced to do some initial world-building and lay the groundwork for the story to come. In Lachlan’s case, it is clear that one of his fortes is when writing about the Norse and their myths. There was also a short section in the middle that was thematically a tiny bit repetitive (capture, escape, capture, escape). The pacing issues are overcome in the final quarter of the book: there’s a nice surprise at about the 72% mark (thank you, Kindle progress tracker…), which I wasn’t expecting and certainly made the final chapters less predictable. As the pace and tension pick up again dramatically in the final 25% of the novel, as plots and transformations come to fruition, and as the struggle between Odin and Fenrisulfr at the root of the story is laid bare, the novel offers a satisfying climactic battle and some highly intriguing suggestion for future novels in the series.

To sum up, I would say that Wolfsangel is a highly recommended historical fantasy. It may not suit everyone’s taste (be it for the pacing concerns I mentioned earlier, or maybe the lack of ‘overt’ fantasy elements), but I think if you give it a try you will be rewarded for doing so.

Dark, atmospheric, original… This is a great read.

Six Questions for MD Lachlan (Gollancz)

An interview with the author of Wolfsangel

Wolfsangel offers a twist on the werewolf myth, and marks the beginning of a superbly written fantasy epic that spans hundreds of years of our history to bring Norse legends and the myth of the werewolf to blood-curdling life. After reading Wolfsangel, I found that I had a handful of questions I wanted to ask the author, and thanks to the wonder that is Twitter, I contacted Lachlan and was kind enough to take some (considerable) time and provide some answers to them.

1. What drew you to Norse mythology & why or how did you come up with the idea for Wolfsangel, & this particular werewolf 'breed'?

I’ve been a Norse nut since being a kid. I read about them in library books starting at about aged eight. Originally, the series began in World War II and the Norse episode was a flashback to the werewolf’s creation. I realised when writing the first chapter that the werewolf had lived for a very long time and that, as he was drinking a whisky looking at the full moon when the book started, that he wasn’t a conventional ‘skin splitter’ as we’ve come to expect from Hollywood.

My werewolf is nearer to the Norse conception of the creature: someone becomes a wolf either by choice, through sorcery, or as a curse. The idea of werewolves changing with the full moon is a very late one – it doesn’t arrive even in film until the 1950s, although there are a few earlier examples. Even in The Wolfman (1941), the Lon Chaney film, the creature doesn’t change with the full moon. Similarly, the werewolves of legend don’t transfer their curse through a bite. This is something that arrived with horror films and novels.

So my werewolf is nearer to an older, traditional werewolf. These werewolves couldn’t always turn back into humans, either. I think the interesting thing about the werewolf is how his wolf nature intersects with his humanity. My idea of the werewolf was to try to make it truly horrific, in that the wolf consumes the man’s personality, destroys everything he loves.

2. What sort of research did you do for the novel? How did you find the whole process?

I didn’t have to do too much, as I’ve spent a lifetime being interested in this sort of thing.  The magical sections were all things I knew about anyway – stuff drawn from Norse, Celtic and Mayan cultures along with other ascetic traditions. I was very interested in witchcraft and the occult from a very early age and all of that went into the novel. All the rest of it, I research as I write. When I find something I don’t know, I just move on and look it up later. There are difficult things – language, how extensive the deck is on a trading longship, do Vikings wear makeup (yes), the religious climate of the day, but that’s part of the fun of writing.  I very much enjoy finding out about the historical world my work’s set in and incorporating a bunch of other ideas I’ve had down the years. It’s a challenge to make the characters convincingly “of their time”. I want my characters to act and think as people from the 9^th Century, not 21^st Century people in helmets and armour. For this reason I agonised about putting a love story into the book. However, there are enough contemporary references to love to make it historically possible, if not common, for two people to love each other in a sense we would understand today.

History can achieve one of the aims of fantasy – to show us different worlds, different ways of thinking.  The risk is that if you’re too successful in your depiction of early medieval thinking, characters come over as too alien or unsympathetic but I’d rather have that than having a Viking with a modern outlook. The heroine of my new book, Fenrir, for instance, is a Frankish aristocrat and quite a snob. This doesn’t change, really, throughout the book. She’s a woman of her background. She has many good qualities – she’s brave, resourceful, clever and resilient. But she is still going to expect the peasants to do exactly as she says, when she says it, and never question her commands. She won’t view the death of a farm worker as anywhere near as meaningful as the death of a lord.  I could have made her a modern egalitarian and readers might have liked her more. I could have had her learn the value of humility. But it would have been very unrealistic. It’s simply not how she’s been raised and, to her, there is no value in humility. Her pride is the product of a god-ordained social order. Vali, in Wolfsangel, however, sees himself on more of a level with ordinary farmers. This is because he was raised in a much smaller society and dealt with these people every day of his life, even living in their houses. As a warlord’s son, he farms himself. So there is a marked difference of view between an early/mid-medieval Frankish lady and a late Dark Ages son of a warlord.

You can’t give the daughter of Robert the Strong the outlook of a modern woman just because she will reflect your readers’ views more closely and make them warm to her more easily. We come to fantasy for strangeness, among other things, and it seems a cop-out to ignore that strangeness when history presents you with it. I think fantasy writers are entitled to ask a little of their readers. You come to this genre to be amazed, to be shocked, to be thrilled and even disturbed. So go with that. Don’t always look for easy certainties and cosy, comfortable characters. Fantasy can be a challenging and radical genre. You’re missing out if you come to it just looking for a mirror of yourself.

Don’t think I'm knocking traditional, epic fantasy here. There’s a place for it, just as there’s a place for the new wave of so-called “gritty” fantasy writing, some of which is very good. It’s a broad genre and if you want to read about a downtrodden but plucky servant boy who turns out to be the wizard/warrior the world has been waiting for and battles the Orcs or Orc-substitutes to take the X to the temple of Y with the help of the Elves or Elf-equivalents and save the world/girl in a clash of Mithril and adverbs, then you’ll get no argument from me. Similarly, if you want to read about a washed-up, one-spell wizard who finds himself running errands for the murkiest of Troll gangster lords and who blunders into a situation way over his head, you’ll probably have to borrow the book off me.  I want to read those stories sometimes. It’s just that I don’t have much interest in writing them. Or rather, I couldn’t write them. You have to really love a story to write it well. You only have to like it to read it.

So, to sum up, as a historical fantasy writer, I’m all for historical accuracy. That said, I believe there is room for characters who do not reflect absolutely the prevalent thinking of their day. There are streams of thought that run through any age and not all of them go in the same direction. The Vikings were a warrior culture who prized strength and skill in battle, ostentatious displays of wealth and who didn’t regard death with the same fear we do today. But that’s not to say everyone felt like that. Our society, for instance, is founded on the acquisition of personal wealth. Wealthy people are looked up to and people seek to emulate them. However, not everyone does. There are plenty of people who swim against mainstream opinion, so I think it’s as realistic to have a Viking who’s ambivalent about fighting as it is a university graduate who’s not interested in making money.

I really enjoy the task of creating a memorable and believable story which gives people an insight into the thinking of characters who may not be very much like themselves. This is one of the reasons I like historical fantasy because I think people get a true sense of strangeness when they read; for instance, someone describing a town of 100 houses as “vast” , or seeing a wolf shaman through the eyes of fearful villagers who interpret him as something from a myth and really believe he is a werewolf.

3. What can we expect from Fenrir and other future volumes in the series?

I’m very proud of Fenrir. I think it may be the best book I’ve written. It virtually wrote itself inside six months, which is a good sign. It takes off where Wolfsangel finishes, and explains more about the magical background to the novel – exactly what the mad god Odin is up to. It’s much faster-paced than Wolfsangel, which is saying something because I think Wolfsangel is quite fast paced. I wrote it as “24 with a werewolf” but it turned into something a bit different, though still with a very fast-moving plot.

Writing is, to an extent, a game of pot luck. You start a story and wonder what sort of characters are going to turn up in it. Sometimes no one interesting appears and you have to start again. Fenrir seemed to bring in a whole bunch of characters who – and I know this sounds pretentious – I enjoyed meeting. It begins with the Viking siege of Paris in 885, and goes on from there. The same mythic forces are operating as in Wolfsangel, but the plot is more linear. There are two main characters – one male, one female and a host of major supporting characters including two Norse shamans, a fat Viking, a Slavic merchant and a few kings. The fat Viking in particular surprised me, because he was meant to have one line in the whole book but he decided somehow to take it over. Saitada did this in Wolfsangel. You really long for a character to do that because, if as the writer you’re fascinated by them, then the chances are the reader will be too.

Future volumes in the series will follow the central struggle between Odin and the Fenris Wolf down the centuries, and chart the stories of those who find themselves caught up in it. I have stories mapped out for WWI and for the modern day. The third book, however, takes place at the end of the 10^th Century, so we have a way to go through history yet!

4. How do you enjoy being a writer and working within the publishing industry? Frustrations, pleasant surprises, writing process, etc.?

I love being a writer and wouldn’t want to do anything else. It’s what I feel I was born to do, and I take it very seriously. That means reading a lot, thinking a lot about writing and trying always to be better. I try to take on board criticism of my work and to learn from it.  There’s nothing I’d rather do. Given the choice between the TV, the pub, the cinema, a PC game or an evening’s writing, I’ll go for the evening’s writing. If I’m in the flow of a novel I find normal life a very irritating interruption. Luckily, I have an understanding wife.

Frustrations? Hmm. Well, there’s the up-and-down nature of artistic careers. You can’t tell why a book succeeds and another fails sometimes. I was convinced that my third mainstream novel under my real name – Lucky Dog – was very good. It didn’t sell well, though, despite good reviews. Sometimes you can’t explain these things. Perhaps I was wrong about it, and it wasn’t very good, you never know.

Pleasant surprises would include how well received Wolfsangel has been. For good or for bad, it’s not a typical fantasy tale and, for that reason, I was anxious that people wouldn’t get it. It contains two very distinct forms of writing – one an adventure story, and another that operates in the area of hallucination, dream and myth. Putting the two together felt natural to me but I wasn’t sure everyone – or anyone – would feel the same way. There are moments that are deliberately jarring, too. Not everyone likes to be jarred!

The writing process, for me, just involves writing the book as quickly as I can and then meticulously rewriting it, trying to be as savage and unsparing as I can with my own work. I’m not an author who thinks “oh well, the story’s a belter, I won’t worry too much about the odd cliché here and there, or a bit of wooden dialogue or bad description.” Or, as one author I know said: “Grammar? I leave that to the editor.” To me, it’s important that every word in the story earns its keep. If it doesn’t, it goes. I’m lucky enough to work with a truly excellent copy editor so, if I miss lines like “he froze and drew his sword”, at least I know someone is going to put a blue pen through them.

The one piece of advice I always give to new writers is, “Remember, it’s only ink on paper.” Or pixel on screen. If something isn’t working just throw it away and start again. And listen to other people. Samuel Johnson once said,

“Read over your compositions, and where ever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.”

If you think something’s brilliant and your editor thinks its overblown pretentious muck, the chances are it’s overblown pretentious muck. I once fell in love with the word “calefaction” and used it in a novel. I should have been whipped for the offence and if I could go back in time and chop it away to replace it with the word “heat”, I would. Too late, though. If in doubt, chop it out.

I do love revising the work. Very often – when I’m rewriting fantasy – I’ll then try to listen to music that seems appropriate to the writing, or read poetry that’s in the same area to try to really get in the mood to put some energy into the language. Fenrir was written to The Hounds of Love by Kate Bush and while I was rereading Ted Hughes’s poetry. I also – and I know how pretentious this sounds – reread Macbeth. Shakespeare was a terrific fantasy author and a name I often mention if people say genre is incapable of producing great writing. I want that mythic quality in my own work; the sense that this is part of a story that has been told for a very long time and says something fundamental about us. OK, I might not quite reach the heights of Shakespeare, but it’s that sense of myth-making I’m aiming for. Paradoxically, if fantasy is to work, I think it needs to feel real and rooted.

5. Do you have plans for any other novels outside/beyond this series (different genres, different worlds, different times)?

Yes. I am writing a thriller and a “literary novel” (whatever that means). When I say I’m writing them, the first chapters have spilled out of me and I hope to get time to complete them this year, when I finish the third in the Wolfsangel series. They are all, in some way, novels about transformation. They say you only ever write the same novel in different ways.

6. Who are you reading at the moment (fiction and/or non-fiction), and which books of 2011 are you most looking forward to?

I’m reading all of Ursula K Le Guin – or quite a lot of her. I think she’s a very good fantasy writer indeed. I’ve just finished the book Tehanu, which is excellent and, to me, shows what fantasy can do as a genre. It’s really about post-traumatic-stress, viewed in one way, and brilliantly and sensitively done. What I love about her writing is the complexity of her characters. If you take the priestess Tenar from The Tombs Of Atuan, for instance, it’s very difficult at first to know if you’re meant to sympathise with her or not. She’s been abused, taken from her family to serve terrible old gods in the sightless darkness of the tombs. But it has made her monstrously cruel. In fact, she’s willed herself to become cruel. However, there’s the sense that she’s redeemable. This is a living, breathing character, not a broad type. Le Guin can also write – that is, turn out interesting, clear, striking sentences that are free of cliché, hokiness, corn, or flab.

I’m also embarking on reading A Clash of Kings, the second book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. I loved the first one and am hoping the second will be as good.

I’m not an early adopter in anything – technology, books, or music, and I’ve only just got a mobile phone, so I probably won’t read anything released in 2011. I’m too busy catching up on the stuff I should have read ten years ago.  I’m planning to read The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber, Q by Luther Blissett, and Ash by Mary Gentle next year, so once I’ve chewed through those slabs I’ll probably be in the mood for something short and light.

Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Wind Up Girl looks interesting, so I may have a look at that, along with The Silent Land by Graham Joyce and New Model Army by Adam Roberts, which I haven’t read yet. I’m not implying those books are short and light, by the way, but they look interesting.

Children of Húrin [by J.R.R. Tolkien] is on the list, too.

Thanks very much to MD Lachlan for taking the time to provide such in-depth and interesting answers to these questions!

This is the first interview done for Civilian-Reader, and I would like to start including similar interviews alongside future reviews whenever possible.

Wolfsangel is in stores now. Fenrir will be published by Gollancz in May 2011. Here is the synopsis for the second novel:

The Vikings are laying siege to Paris. As the houses on the banks of the Seine burn, a debate rages in the Cathedral on the walled island of the city proper. The situation is hopeless. The Vikings want the Count’s sister, in return they will spare the rest of the city. Can the Count really have ambitions to be Emperor of the Franks if he doesn’t do everything he can to save his people? Can he call himself a man if he doesn’t do everything he can to save his sister? His conscience demands one thing, the demands of state.

The Count and the church are relying on the living saint, the blind and crippled Jehan of St Germain, to enlist the aid of God and resolve the situation for them. But the Vikings have their own gods. And outside their camp a terrifying brother and sister, priests of Odin, have their own agenda. An agenda of darkness and madness. And in the shadows a wolfman lurks.

M.D. Lachlan’s stunning epic of mad Gods, Viking and the myth of Fenrir, the wolf destined to kill Odin at Ragnorok, powers forward into a new territories of bloody horror, unlikely heroism, dangerous religion and breath-taking action.

Coming Up in 2011…

Once again, I take the opportunity to post exciting artwork and highlight some of 2011’s releases that have caught my eye. It looks like the first six months of next year are going to be pretty interesting in the world of books, and particularly speculative fiction.

As I was putting this together, I noticed that I’ve lost touch with the thriller genre that I so love. Partly, I think, this is because there is a decreasing amount of originality in the genre – the War on Terrorism is fast becoming a limited, saturated topic (which might explain Vince Flynn’s slight shift – see below). As it stands, there were only three thrillers I’m aware of that stood out as novels I’d like to read.

As for science fiction and, particularly, fantasy… Well, 2011 is going to be an exciting year indeed. I’ve not included every book that has caught my eye – some, such as Doug Hulick’s Among Thieves, I’ve mentioned before on the site, so I don’t want to be too repetitive.

In no particular order, here are some of the intriguing books coming out in the next eight months…

Simon Morden, Equations of Life, Theories of Flight & Degrees of Freedom (Orbit – April, May, June)

Near-future thriller trilogy

Set in the overcrowded, decaying urban jungle of the London Metrozone, the series features Samuil Petrovitch – a foul-mouthed, selfish and anti-social Russian émigré who also happens to have a genius-level intellect. Going against his customary principle of ‘don’t get involved’, Petrovitch surprises himself one day by performing an uncharacteristically kind act – resulting in him being propelled into a world of rival gang lords, exiled yakuza, crooked cops, crazed prophets and gun-toting warrior nuns...

I’ve not been the biggest fan of London-based fiction (save for James McGee’s Ratcatcher), but there’s been quite a buzz about this series for a few months. I’m certainly interested in giving this a go. We’ll just have to wait and see if my strange aversion to London-based fiction can be halted by this trilogy.

Daniel Abraham, The Dragon’s Path (Orbit - April)

Book one of The Dagger & The Coin

The dragons are gone, the powerful magics that broke the world diluted to little more than parlor tricks, but the kingdoms of men remain and the great game of thrones goes on. Lords deploy armies and merchant caravans as their weapons, maneuvering for wealth and influence.

But a darker power is rising – an unlikely leader with an ancient ally threatens to unleash the madness that destroyed the world once already. Only one man knows the truth and, from the shadows, must champion humanity.

The world’s fate stands on the edge of a dagger, its future on the toss of a coin...

Daniel Abraham has been writing for a long time, but I first read his work earlier this year, when Orbit published the omnibus editions of his Long Price Quartet. His fantasy is very broad in scope, superbly crafted, intricately plotted and expertly characterised. High praise? From almost everyone. It is also very highly deserved. With The Dagger & The Coin, the author returns, and hopefully with another winning series.

[Interestingly, Abraham has also written an Urban Fantasy novel, under a pseudonym. I’m tempted to get over my prejudice against that sub-genre and give it a go. If I get the time, of course…]

Dan Abnett, Prospero Burns (Black Library – January)

The Wolves of Fenris enter the fray of the Horus Heresy

The Emperor is enraged. Primarch Magnus the Red of the Thousand Sons Legion has made a terrible mistake that endangers the very safety of Terra. With no other choice, the Emperor charges Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves, with the apprehension of his brother from the Thousand Sons home world of Prospero. This planet of sorcerers will not be easy to overcome, but Russ and his Space Wolves are not easily deterred.

With wrath in his heart, Russ is determined to bring Magnus to justice and bring about the fall of Prospero.

Long-time readers of the site will know just how much I love Black Library’s Horus Heresy series (particularly the last three novels), as well as how much I respect and enjoy Mr Abnett’s work. As this is a sister-volume to Graham McNeill’s superb A Thousand Sons, there is added anticipation as Abnett offers the reverse perspective of McNeill’s novel, and the Space Wolves (think heavily armed-and-armoured Nordic berzerker-supermen) finally get their own novel. [Geek note: When I was younger, and more interested in the game aspect of Warhammer 40,000, the Space Wolves were my favourite army.]

Black Library have kindly sent me an advance copy of Prospero Burns, so it is currently staring at me from my ‘to-review’ shelf… I shall, however, hold off on the review until mid- to late-December.

Brian Ruckley, Edinburgh Dead (Orbit – ?)

An Alternate Edinburgh…

Mixing real history and historical figures with magics and conspiracies, this novel imagines the Edinburgh of 1827, populated by mad alchemists who treat Frankenstein as textbook rather than novel, and by a criminal underclass prepared to treat with the darkest of powers.

The plot follows the progress of an officer of the recently formed Edinburgh City Police as he follows a trail of undead hounds, emptied graves, brutal murders and mob violence into the deepest and darkest corners of Edinburgh’s underworld – both literal and magical – and back again to the highest reaches of elegant, intellectual Edinburgh society.

I’ve not managed to read Ruckley’s Godless World trilogy yet, but when I read the blurb of Edinburgh Dead, I was immediately intrigued. I love the idea of “Frankenstein as textbook rather than novel”, and can’t wait to see how the author does this.

Alan Campbell, The Sea of Ghosts (Tor – April)

The Gravedigger Chronicles

When the last of the Gravediggers, an elite imperial infiltration unit, are disbanded and hunted down by the emperor they once served, munitions expert Colonel Thomas Granger takes refuge in the unlikeliest of places. He becomes a jailer in Ethugra – a prison city of poison-flooded streets and gaols in which a million enemies of the empire are held captive. But when Granger takes possession of two new prisoners, he realises that he can’t escape his past so readily.

Ianthe is a young girl with an extraordinary psychic talent. A gift that makes her unique in a world held to ransom by the powerful Haurstaf – the sisterhood of telepaths who are all that stand between the Empire and the threat of the Unmer, the powerful civilization of entropic sorcerers and dragon-mounted warriors. In this war-torn land, she promises to make Granger an extremely wealthy man, if he can only keep her safe from harm.

This is what Granger is best at. But when other factions learn about Ianthe’s unique ability, even Granger’s skills of warfare are tested to their limits. While, Ianthe struggles to control the powers that are growing in ways no-one thought were possible. Another threat is surfacing: out there, beyond the bitter seas, an old and familiar enemy is rising – one who, if not stopped, will drown the world and all of humanity with it…

Another author I’ve not yet read (Emma nabbed his previous series for review, and I’ve just not managed to get around to it, even though it sounds superb). With the beginning of a new series, however, I’ll have the opportunity to get in at the beginning. Also, if you read the synopsis and aren’t intrigued (even a little), then they could well be something very wrong with you.

Expect a review mid-March – might even be able to do a joint-review with Emma, who is reading the book at the moment.

Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl (Orbit – December 2010)

Prize-Winning Dystopian Future

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.

Bacigalupi’s novel has been out in the US for a while, now, but Orbit are finally bringing it to the UK! The Windup Girl has been winning a slew of prestigious awards, and received praise from a broad range of critics and authors. Anticipation is high – so high, in fact, that the publication date has been brought forward – and I’m certainly going to give it a try as soon as I can.

Jon Courtenay Grimwood, The Fallen Blade (Orbit - February)

Act One of the Assassini

Venice in the early Fifteenth Century is at the height of its power. Duke Marco’s aunt and uncle reign as regents, but Venice’s fate will be decided by three men.

Atilo il Mauros: head of the Assassini, the shadow army enforcing Venice’s will at home and abroad.

Prince Leopold: bastard son of the German emperor and leader of the krieghund – the only force in Venice more feared than the Assassini.

And Atilo’s angel-faced apprentice. Only a boy, Tycho is stronger and faster than any man. He can see in the dark, but sunlight burns him. It is said that he drinks blood...

I first heard of this novel when the cover artwork was published on the interwebs (although I forget, now, where I saw it first…), and I’ve been intrigued ever since. As far as I can tell, it’s a story of a vampire assassin. I am assuming this will not be anywhere near Twilight fare, so my interest in (almost) all things vampiric has been well and truly piqued.

Vince Flynn, American Assassin (Simon & Schuster - January)

The Makings of a CIA Killer

Before he was considered a CIA-super agent, before he was thought of as a terrorist's worst nightmare, and before he was both loathed and admired by politicians on Capitol Hill, Mitch Rapp was a star college athlete with an untapped instinct for violence.

Tensions in the Middle East are simmering when Central Intelligence Agency Director Irene Kennedy pays a visit to Syracuse University, where she hopes to recruit none other than Mitch Rapp, a student who has quickly climbed up the academic and athletic ranks. At first glance, he appears like any other smart, good-looking American college kid. Under the surface, however, a tempest rages.

Tragedy entered Mitch's life a year before when 35 of his classmates, including his girlfriend, perished on Pan Am flight 103. Since then, Mitch has grieved their senseless deaths and has felt helpless in his desire for revenge. When Kennedy arrives on campus, his career path is suddenly laid out for him. Nine months later, after gruelling training, Mitch finds himself in Istanbul on his first assignment, which is to assassinate the Turkish arms dealer who sold the explosives used in the Pan Am attack. Mitch hits his target but quickly sees, for the first time, what revenge means to the enemy.

When Mitch's mentor and a fellow recruit are kidnapped and tortured by a dangerous group of Islamic jihadists, he must stop at nothing to save them.

I have long been a fan of Flynn’s novels, and have reviewed a couple of the most recent ones on the site. He remains one of the best thriller writers today, and his novels are always well-plotted and -paced, and his characters are complex and realistic. Mitch Rapp may, at times, be a bit too gifted at his job, but despite his killing expertise, he remains very human and aware of his sociopathic tendencies. Irene Kennedy, his mentor, is likewise an excellent character. The twelfth novel in the series, it is going to be interesting to see how Mitch was inducted into the CIA.

David Baldacci, Hell’s Corner (Macmillan - December)

The Latest Camel Club Novel

On the night of the State Dinner honouring the British Prime Minister, Oliver Stone witnesses an explosion as the motorcade leaves the White House. A bomb has been detonated in what looks like a terrorist plot directed at the President and the Prime Minister.

In the aftermath, British MI5 agent Mary Chapman, an experienced, lethal operative with an agenda of her own, is sent to assist and coordinate the investigation alongside American authorities. Stone, together with Harry Finn, Alex Ford and the rest of the Camel Club, is drawn into the inquiry.

But everything is not what it seems, and what happened in the park may not have been the actual plan. It seems the mysterious attackers had another target in their sights, and it’s up to the Camel Club to stop them, or face the catastrophic results.

Easily the best of Baldacci’s series, The Camel Club books offer an interesting take on the American political thriller. Oliver Stone is a great, complex character with a colourful (and lethal) past, and each new novel offers more insight into his character and background. His companions are alternately kooky and your typical straight-laced federal cop, trying to get used to Stone’s unorthodox methods. The premise of this novel sounds, again, pretty original and with great potential. I’ll review this as soon as I can. Hopefully it’ll live up to my high expectations.

Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear (Gollancz - March)

The epic Kingkiller Chronicle, continues

“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”

An escalating rivalry with a powerful member of the nobility forces Kvothe to leave the University and seek his fortune abroad. Adrift, penniless, and alone, he travels to Vintas, where he quickly becomes entangled in the politics of courtly society. While attempting to curry favour with a powerful noble, Kvothe discovers an assassination attempt, comes into conflict with a rival arcanist, and leads a group of mercenaries into the wild, in an attempt to solve the mystery of who (or what) is waylaying travellers on the King’s road.

All the while, Kvothe searches for answers, attempting to uncover the truth about the mysterious Amyr, the Chandrian, and the death of his parents. Along the way, Kvothe is put on trial by the legendary Adem mercenaries, forced to reclaim the honor of the Edema Ruh, and travels into the Fae realm. There he meets Felurian, the faerie woman no man can resist, and who no man has ever survived. Under her tutelage, Kvothe learns much about true magic and the ways of women.

In The Wise Man’s Fear Kvothe takes his first steps on the path of the hero and learns how difficult life can be when a man becomes a legend in his own time.

And so continues the Kingkiller Chronicle, the story of Kvothe. I’m reading The Name of the Wind at the moment, and I’m eager to know how Kvothe’s tale progresses. The pace of the series is a bit slower than I would like, but there is no denying Rothfuss’s skill as an author. Highly enjoyable, and rather immersive, this novel is expected to dazzle readers all over again.

*     *     *

As well as these new novels, I thought it would be a good idea to just mention some other novels I’ll be reading in the final month of 2010 and early months of 2011 – specifically, the long-neglected series that have been collecting dust on my shelves for far too long.

Joe Abercrombie, The First Law series & Best Served Cold (Gollancz)

I don’t really know why I haven’t got around to this series, yet – I’ve started The Blade Itself before, but really wasn’t in the mood for fantasy at the time (so I stopped before I got grumpy with it), and I’ve read the first chapter of Best Served Cold (which I thought was great). I’ve also been a long-time reader of Abercrombie’s blog, so I really have no idea why I keep putting the series off…

I shall finally remedy this next year, or possibly over Christmas. Abercrombie’s novels have, like a lot of other Gollancz books, been bumped aside by other novels I’ve been sent for review. I don’t know why I keep doing so, but it’s probably because of Reviewer Guilt – that sense that one should be reviewing what we’re sent by publishers, rather than stuff we’ve bought ourselves… It’s an irrational feeling, but I think other bloggers and reviewers sometimes suffer from it.

MD Lachlan, Wolfsangel (Gollancz)

Reimagining the Werewolf myth

The Viking King Authun leads his men on a raid against an Anglo-Saxon village. Men and women are killed indiscriminately but Authun demands that no child be touched. He is acting on prophecy. A prophecy that tells him that the Saxons have stolen a child from the Gods. If Authun, in turn, takes the child and raises him as an heir, the child will lead his people to glory. But Authun discovers not one child, but twin baby boys. Ensuring that his faithful warriors, witness to what has happened, die during the raid Authun takes the children and their mother home, back to the witches who live on the troll wall. And he places his destiny in their hands.

And so begins a stunning multi-volume fantasy epic that will take a werewolf from his beginnings as the heir to a brutal viking king, down through the ages. It is a journey that will see him hunt for his lost love through centuries and lives, and see the endless battle between the wolf, Odin and Loki - the eternal trickster - spill over into countless bloody conflicts from our history, and over into our lives.

Another Gollancz orphan that I’ve been wanting to read ever since I first heard about it. I love Norse Mythology (I even took an elective module in Old Norse during my third undergraduate year), and coupled with my conviction that what Lachlan does with the werewolf mythology will be nothing like Twilight, this novel should be a perfect selection. I shall get to it ASAP (it’s ready and waiting on my Kindle), and hopefully before the second in the series, Fenrir, is published in May 2011. 

Here’s the blurb (and artwork, of course) for book two:

The Vikings are laying siege to Paris. As the houses on the banks of the Seine burn, a debate rages in the Cathedral on the walled island of the city proper. The situation is hopeless. The Vikings want the Count’s sister, in return they will spare the rest of the city. Can the Count really have ambitions to be Emperor of the Franks if he doesn’t do everything he can to save his people? Can he call himself a man if he doesn’t do everything he can to save his sister? His conscience demands one thing, the demands of state.

The Count and the church are relying on the living saint, the blind and crippled Jehan of St Germain, to enlist the aid of God and resolve the situation for them. But the Vikings have their own gods. And outside their camp a terrifying brother and sister, priests of Odin, have their own agenda. An agenda of darkness and madness. And in the shadows a wolfman lurks.

M.D. Lachlan’s stunning epic of mad Gods, Viking and the myth of Fenrir, the wolf destined to kill Odin at Ragnorok, powers forward into a new territories of bloody horror, unlikely heroism, dangerous religion and breathtaking action.

Sounds bloody marvellous! I think I’ll be pre-ordering this, depending on how much I like Wolfsangel.

There are actually quite a few Gollancz orphans at the moment (Tom Lloyd is another author I have neglected), but as the months pass, I shall do everything I can to finally catch up with these authors and their novels. I am already remedying this with Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind, and will do so again with Abercrombie and Lachlan very soon.