Fantasy & Horror Book Review: The Silent Land, Death Most Definite, Zombie Apocalypse!

I've been meaning to do one of these for a while.  I've read some fantastic books this year, a couple of which aren't normally my cup of tea, but I think it's important to read something a bit different now and again.

So, of the most recently read books, here goes... 

One I Love: The Silent Land by Graham Joyce

I had been eagerly anticipating this book and Joyce's latest offering didn't disappoint. I would even go as far to say that I think it is his best novel to date.  A ghost-love story, The Silent Land slowly sinks its hooks into you, in true Joyce style, until the moment of clarity hits you and you realise that you have given yourself over to the story. My breaking point was a couple of chapters in when the 'snow fell like goose feathers'...  Joyce's clean, minimalistic style allows the story to unfold without wasting time on unneccessary details.

Overall, The Silent Land is a beautiful and powerful novel, that reminds us just how terrifying it is to be human. 


Good Impulse Buy: Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson

An impulse buy that paid off, Death Most Definite takes on the necromancer segment of the urban fantasy genre.  Steven de Selby is part of a community of necromancers who work for Death.  When someone starts killing off all the necromancers, it's up to Steven to find out who is behind the murders and to stay alive, with the help of an attractive-but-dead female necromancer.  Jamieson hails from Australia and the entire novel is set in Brisbane, which makes it a bit different from the majority of the US based urban fantasy novels.  Steven is low on the pecking order and a bit of a waster which leads to some interesting character development as the story progresses. 

In places it is a bit cliched (dead girl is brought back from the dead), however most of the novel is fresh and different to other novels on the urban fantasy market.  (Steven riding a bicycle through the Hell was a favourite moment.) Overall, worth a read if you're after something different. 

            
Wouldn't Normally Read But LOVED: Zombie Apocalypse! ed. by Stephen Jones

 I picked this up at FantasyCon in September and although I would never normally go for anything with zombies (deeply rooted terror from childhood), I found that I couldn't put it down. 

Zombie Apocalypse! is a collection of linked short stories all centred around the theme of... you guessed it, a zombie apocalypse.  With contributions from some outstanding horror writers including Sarah Pinborough and Tim Lebbon, the story unfolds through recovered emails, transcripts, government documents and twitter conversations.  The narrative progresses through different accounts from individuals across society, bringing an authenticity that is truly frightening. 

Zombie Apocalypse! is brutal, hilarious and terrifying (it could actually happen!)  Like The Silent Land it touches the part of us that is human.  At the end of the world, we will cling to the ones we love.          

      
Currently reading: The Night Land by William Hope Hodgeson, as recommended by my dad.  Will report back!

Merry Christmas!

Against the odds: 50,000 to 1,097

On Monday I started working on a story for NaNoWriMo.  The aim is to write a 50,000 word novel by 30th November, which works out at around 1,600ish words a day.  By Tuesday I had 1,097 words.

Today I still have 1,097 words. 

Now, the chances of me catching up on the missed wordcount are pretty slim and with everything going on at the moment, (still fighting off a cold, busy week at work, water & electric company to phone, bills to pay etc,etc) it would make sense for me to admit defeat, right?          

Right.  Except that I don't want to, because the 1,097 words I have written are the start of the novel I have been attempting to write for the past 7 years.    

Time to crack on!

Too many books... (or not enough?)

I've just moved into a new flat and have found that I seriously underestimated how many books I own.  I must have had at least a dozen boxes of books, if not more.  How on earth did I get so many books!?  OK, the crap I bought whilst working in a discount bookshop probably accounts for at least a third, and then there's the uni texts, the 'literary' texts, reference books, not to mention all the cookbooks (most of which I have never used)... 

And then there are the books I love.  The ones I read over and over again. 
I'm fairly sure that I have the largest collection of urban fantasy/paranormal/supernatural fiction outside of the Waterstone's 'Dark Fantasy' aisle.

I don't think that's a bad thing. Not really...


   

Why I don't keep a blog...

There's a reason why I haven't kept a blog or diary for years; I forget about them and leave them to rot, either in the back of a drawer or in the dusty corners of the internet. I'm pretty sure my old Livejournal page is still out there somewhere, rattling around.

I've just finished reading Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger - a very creepy book, especially before bed. I thought it was brilliantly written, she just gets better and better with each novel, although the lack of Victorian lesbians in this one was slightly disappointing.

I've decided to quit whinging about my own writing and have become much stricter over the past few months about making time to write. I've found my lunch hour provides a perfect opportunity to get a few paragraphs or pages out. GoogleDocs is my saviour!

Currently working on a short story about female werewolves. Watch this space.

Why is writing so hard?

I spend all day writing for the company I work for, but in the evenings, when it's my time to write, I struggle to get anything out.
Stress, tiredness, aching fingers... I've used all of these as excuses as to why my writing has been virtually non-existent of late. The main problem I come up against is ideas. I have hundreds of ideas for stories, loads of characters floating around in my head; some brilliant, some er.. not so brilliant. Often I'll have an idea, think 'Yeah, that's great', start writing a few chapters then... nothing. I lose interest/inspiration and it just fizzles out because althought the idea may be good, I have no idea what story I am trying to tell.

Last year, in my 3rd year at university, I wrote the most amazing story (if I do say so myself!) I was awarded a First for my creative writing dissertation, and I was (and still am) so proud of the story I wrote because I proved to myself that I could make my ideas work. It's now about 10 months later and I've written nothing of any significance since finishing my dissertation.

And I call myself a writer!