Preview - The Left Hand of God

We wouldn’t normally do this, but I’ve just read a proof for Paul Hoffman’s forthcoming fantasy debut The Left Hand of God, due in January 2010 and a word is definitely required. All things being equal this new piece of “imaginative fiction” should prove to be one of next years big titles on the fantasy market and probably the cross-over market as well. International rights sold in a heartbeat after it appeared at the Frankfurt book fair and Penguin Michael Joseph are planning to heavily market what they consider to be a very important new author.

Being touted as a blend of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose and Harry Potter, the novel follows the adventures of Thomas Cale, a Redeemer Acolyte raised from toodlerhood in a sort of brutal preparatory academy for fanatical warrior priests. I’m not going to give a single plot point away but trust me; this is riveting stuff, artfully crafted and a joy to read. It grabbed me from the first page and it’s incredibly well developed world and dark sheen of danger, adventure and intrigue kept me hanging on until the end.

So be sure that come January next year you get your hands on what might well prove to be the biggest new name in fantasy.

[Rob]

The Recommendation

Once in a while - interspersed with shelving and pricing, stock checking and reordering, title searches and tidying - a bookseller gets to perform one of his/her primary, and all too often neglected, functions: the Recommendation. Oh yes, the capital 'R' is most certainly warranted. In today's book market the range of titles is staggering and when you walk into a bookstore, particularly one as capacious as Chapters, the task of finding something to take home can be daunting for even the most determined bookworm.

To some greenhorns the hopeful, beaming visage of a customer in need can be a source of great apprehension. “What if they don't like the book I recommend”, one thinks. “What if they never come back, because I promised them a nerve shredding page turner and they fall asleep on page 24?” And so forth. For some of us, however, recommending a book can be one of the most rewarding parts of the job. There is little to compare with knowing that you've gotten the right book for the right reader, and getting positive feedback always makes the day that little bit better.

Of course the internet has made it that much easier to find that book you heard about last week in the café, or read in the Guardian Review but forgot to take the clipping, but in a world of Amazon auto-suggestions and keystroke targeted online marketing there is no substitute for looking someone in the eye, asking the right questions and guiding them to the book that's been sitting on that shelf, quietly and patiently waiting for them to pick it up. So don't be shy, if you're ever in need of some inspiration, a new direction for your reading or even just someone to tell how awful that last book you read was, talk to us. It's what we're here for.


[Rob]

The Man Who Sold The World

If the name Stieg Larsson doesn't mean anything to you, then we have one question: Where have you been?

Riding high in sales charts all over the world, translated into around forty languages so far, dubbed "the virus from the north" in France due to their staggering success, the books of Swedish journalist, activist and crime-novelist Larsson's Millennium Trilogy - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and, due for release in October, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest - have landed on bookshelves and promptly enjoyed an explosion of popularity akin to a small nuclear device.

Alas the man himself cannot enjoy the fame which his three-volume blockbuster has brought him: he died suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart attack in November 2004 at the age of 50. Founder of the anti-racist EXPO Foundation in 1995 and editor in chief of EXPO magazine, Larsson possessed a life long commitment to counteracting racism and right-wing white-power extremism. He was also among other things a successful graphic designer, chairman of the Scandinavian Science-Fiction Society and publisher of two sci-fi magazines. A man of many parts indeed.

So, a new popular crime/thriller series, in and of itself nothing extraordinary there. However the exciting thing about Larsson's books is that they are, and continue to be, appealing to an unusually broad range of readers: men and women, young and old, hard-core crime readers and holiday readers alike are champing at the bit to get their hands on the final volume this October. As to their plot, well without giving anything away, the books centre largely on Mikael Blomkvist, down-at-heel journalist and editor of the controversial Millennium magazine, and Lisbeth Salander the spiky, troubled, mysterious hacker-turned-private-investigator and titular girl with the dragon tattoo. Mystery, violence, romance and sexual politics are the order of the day, and while Larsson does take time to stop and reflect - on the scenic wonder of his home country, on the moral dilemmas of his main characters - these books are all about fast-paced, page-devouring, eye-tiring action and mystery.

And with a Swedish film already successfully released and rumours of a Quentin Tarantino-helmed adaptation with Brad Pitt in the lead role, the hype surrounding the Millennium Trilogy shows no sign of letting up anytime soon.

[Rob]


Millennium Trilogy V1: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo & Millennium Trilogy V2: The Girl Who Played with Fire
Published By Quercus, In Store now

Millennium Trilogy V3: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest
Published By Quercus, released 1 October

What we're reading.

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the name Robin Hood? Merry Men, Maid Marion, Errol Flynn fencing his way up a circular staircase, tights, feathers and Bryan Adams songs? Whilst modern interpretations of the Robin Hood myth have pervaded popular culture for over two centuries in poetry, literature, theatre and cinema, Adam Thorpe’s latest novel Hodd, is a completely different animal.

The time is thirteenth century England and the tale that unfolds is related to us by Thorpe’s narrator, the elderly monk Matthew, scribbling his confessional memoirs by candlelight around the year 1305. Ridden with guilt for popularising Hodd as a hero of the common man in his younger days, Brother Matthew attempts to set the record straight with a ‘true’ account of Hodds doings. We follow his misadventures as a young would be jongleur, a singer and player of the harp, and companion to Brother Thomas a gluttonous, blasphemous, drunken monk (there‘s always one), who is taken captive by the enigmatic outlaw Robert Hodd (or Robyn Hodde, or Robin Hood) . But none of your feather-in-the-cap-bright-green-merry shenanigans here.

Thorpe’s Hodd is a brutal anarchist, a man who is as at home with acts of sudden motiveless slaughter as he is among the grey, misty confines of his woodland hideout. Not a whisper of any charitable handouts to be found within these pages, Hodd is a man who believes himself above any law of Man or God, fired by his belief in the Doctrine of the Free Spirit (a familiar heresy in medieval Europe which places him beyond sin), Robert and his not-so-merry men selfishly pillage and rape as they see fit.

Little John (another member of Hodd’s criminal brotherhood and a constant competitor for the mantle of leadership) is here too as is Will Scarlett but no sign of the eponymous Marion or indeed many of the other characters that are considered central to the Robin Hood canon. Yes, Hodd goes armed with his famous English Longbow but rather than piping the ace at royal archery contests, we have him, in one early episode, using a well aimed arrow to staple the hand of a helpless quack doctor to a tree branch. Thorpe has much to say about the inequalities of life in the middle ages and paints an unflattering picture of the clergy and landowning nobility of the day, however those of you looking for clearly defined good guys and bad guys will be disappointed.

Overall Hodd presents us with an absorbing and disturbing re-imagining of a familiar folk hero. Thorpe’s use of a pseudo-Chaucerean English and fast lean narrative add much to our immersion in a world where beauty and simplicity of life went hand in hand with constant danger and a keen awareness of the nearness of death. If you like your fiction uncompromising and your novels historical, then Hodd is definitely for you.

[Rob]

Hodd by Adam Thorpe
Published by Jonathan Cape, in store now

The Cunning Man

Every so often, you may be lucky enough to read an author that makes you think, why have I not read this until now? One such writer who came to me through a friend’s recommendation some two years ago is Robertson Davies. Born 28 August 1913 in Thamesville Ontario, Davies was one of Canada’s premier novelists and literary figures until he sadly passed away in 1995. He was a man who wrote of art, love, theatre, music and literature with such genuine joy and witty skill that I couldn’t help but be bowled over.

Having inherited a love of books from his parents Davies also acquired a love of the theatre from a very early age. Studying at Upper Canada College, Queens University Ontario and Balliol College Oxford, in 1940 he worked at London’s Old Vic theatre playing small roles and working in a literary capacity for the director of the theatres repertory company. After writing amongst other things several successful plays, in 1951 he published the first novel in his Salterton Trilogy, Tempest-Tost.

His fantastic Cornish Trilogy, The Rebel Angels, What’s Bred in the Bone andThe Lyre of Orpheus deal with the central themes of literature, painting and opera consecutively. Absolutely steeped in wry humour and a deft exploration of the interrelationships of the various characters these novels are rare in the apparent ease of their execution. Without reservation I would highly recommend Davies books to anyone for whom reading is one of the central pleasures of their life, bearing in mind the words of the great man himself:

“A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.”

[Rob]

What we're reading.

From the outset I should confess that ever since seeing Pan’s Labyrinth three years ago I have been an avowed fan of Guillermo Del Toro’s films. Few directors I have come across seem to have such an understanding of fable, myth, and the traditional tale of wonder. So when I first heard about the forthcoming novel from the Mexican Marvel, written in conjunction with video-store-clerk-turned-best-selling-thriller-writer Chuck Hogan I was, naturally, a little excited.

So does this tale of viral vampires in modern day New York hit the spot? Whilst Booker Prizes obviously won’t be beckoning, this cracking piece of sci-fi horror will certainly keep fans of the genre entertained from start to finish. With plenty of gore, wry humour, and some genuinely creepy moments (one scene in particular, where an evening visit to a neighbour’s house goes badly wrong for one wealthy suburbanite, had me quite unnerved), The Strain does exactly what it sets out to do. With plenty of nods to its source material and a palpable sense of nerdish enjoyment, Del Toro and Hogan are clearly out to frighten and entertain diehard vampire fans and newcomers alike.

The high concept biology behind The Strain’s unique brand of zombie-like Strigoi adds a truly engaging element to the narrative and in a literary landscape where the vampire-as- icon has become increasingly domesticated and friendly, thanks to the runaway success of the Paranormal Romance genre (authors like Stephanie Meyer, P.C. Cast, Sherrilyn Kenyon and Charlaine Harris numbering among the biggest sellers of the past twelve months), it’s refreshing and fun to meet Creatures of the Night who most certainly don’t want to be anyone’s boyfriend, and are solely interested in the one thing a blood-sucker should be interested in, sucking your blood!

[Rob]

The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro & Chuck Hogan
Published by Harper Collins, in-store now, €13.99