ABARAT by Clive Barker

With the release of ABSOLUTE MIDNIGHT this week, I decided I would give the first two books of the Abarat series a re-read. In the case of ABARAT, this is my third time through.

If not the most exciting story, nor Barker's best writing, it displays such a fantastic breadth of imagination, it's nearly impossible to, well, imagine!

With Abarat, the author has created a world unlike anything you have encountered before in the pantheon of fantasy fiction. And make no mistake, it is the world, so much more than the story itself, that shines here. Abarat is a place of bizzarities, of strange folk, and even stranger creatures.

Besides Candy Quackenbush, the story's heroine, you'll meet the master thief John Mischief and his brothers; the terrifying bounty hunter Mendelson Shape and the Criss Cross Man. Then there are the Big Bad's, Rojo Pixler and Christopher "The Lord of Midnight" Carrion, and his mother Mater Motley with her evil army of stichlings.

And that's just scratching the surface. I could tell you about Abraham Hollow, and the Fugit Brothers, but that might drive you insane!

It's probably not a good idea to even mention the monstrous Requiax. Oh, and dragons? Yes, here there be dragons!

Abarat is full of dangerous wonders and extraordinary delights. All of which are beautifully rendered in Clive Barker's colourful paintings which decorate this marvellous book.

Unfortunately, the edition that is readily available to the public in light of the release of ABSOLUTE MIDNIGHT does not contain a single piece of art. A shame, as they are truly fantastic. If you can wrangle up a copy of the original addition of the hardback, I promise you won't be sorry.

Clive Barker's Abarat - Absolute Midnight Trailer

The official release for ABSOLUTE MIDNIGHT is today. If you have yet to delve into this series, you are certainly missing out. Even if you don't like the story, the art inside is absolutely worth the cover price.
 

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber

One of my most anticipated books of the year! Comes out in October.

NOWHERE TO GO by Iain Rowan

With Bouchercon 2011 and working a lot of days in a row, I darn near forgot to make sure all you Wormies out there were aware of some cool news.

Iain Rowan's short story collection NOWHERE TO GO is being offered at a discount price.

For the month of September you can buy NOWHERE TO GO for 99 cents @ Amazon.com.

That's a pretty awesome deal, so don't miss out. September is almost over!

Don't know too much about Iain Rowan? Well then, check out the terrific interview he did with moi back in July.

SICK by Brett Battles

SICK by Brett Battles is a taut thriller that sucks you in from the first scene and doesn't let go until the final page is turned.

I've got a Kindle full of Battles' work but had yet to find the time to read anything and recently decided that had to change.

Because, boy was I missing out.

I don't want to tell you too much because to do so would give away all the surprises that make SICK such a fantastic thriller.

If you like stories with shadowy government organizations and end of the world plots that draw ordinary folks into extraordinary circumstances, then SICK is the book for you.

SICK is the first novel in what Battles is calling THE PROJECT EDEN THRILLERS, but works very well as a standalone novel, tying up most of it's loose ends.

SICK also works well as a great companion to the current blockbuster movie, CONTAGION, as both centre around a deadly virus that could kill millions and change the entire complexion of the human race and the world we live in. If you enjoyed CONTAGION, you will love SICK.

The sequel, EXIT NINE, will be out sometime in the near future, and I for one, can't wait!

GETTING READY

Ad created by Jeroen ten Berge

So Bouchercon is two days away and I'm getting pretty darn excited. It's just about time to pack and make sure I have everything I need.

If you're attending and you care about what some fans have to say (and you're not too hungover), I'll be on a Sunday morning panel, called SPELLBOUND (10-11am), discussing favourite books and books we're excited about from the convention.

There are so many folks that I'm looking forward to meeting and that includes you. If you see a lonely and lost looking Canuck in need of a drink and some friendly conversation...that's me! Lets have a drink and shoot the shit for awhile.

IRREDEEMABLE by Mark Waid

With Irredeemable: Volume 1 Mark Waid postulates what if the world's greatest hero decided to become the world's greatest villain?

The Plutonian (think Superman) has gone postal. He's had it up to here with the human race and their backstabbing, lying and ungrateful ways. He's had his heart broken, this patience shredded and his kindness slowly bled from his soul.

Now he's on a mission and it isn't to save the White House from a suitcase nuke, or stop a giant robot from destroying a packed ballpark. No, his mission is to burn the safety blanket beneath which the world slept under his watch.

And make no mistake, the Plutonian isn't fooling around. He's destroying cities, killing millions of innocent lives, at the same time he's hunting down and murdering every superhero he can find. In the opening sequence the Plutonian incinerates the family of superhero trying to escape from his fiery fury. Even when the man begs for the life of his children it makes no difference. Before killing the little girl the Plutonian whispers in her ear, "Do you know who I am, Sarah? I'm a superhero."

As the Plutonian continues his rampage, his former friends delve into his past trying to find out why he's become the way he has, while searching for a solution to stopping an unstoppable force.

IRREDEEMABLE is a very frightening, yet wickedly satisfying read. I found it very easy to slip into the Plutonian's mindset and feel his unquenching madness towards the world. I mean, I'm no superhero, but I can see exactly where this guy is coming from. Sure, I've never saved a kid from falling into Niagara Falls, or saved the world from Terrance Stamp but I do hold the door for folks behind me and I got to tell ya, when that person doesn't acknowledge my little superduty, it pisses me off! It makes me want to grab their nose and give it a little twist. "How you like that you ungrateful assbrain!"

So yeah, I get where the Plutonian is coming from. You do all this good for folks and some guy in the crowd thinks, Showoff jerk and Flipping underwear pervert.

You can only take so much shit from the world before you feel like you have to give some back.

Thanks to Gef over at Wag The Fox for pointing this one out to me. If you haven't checked out his blog, it's a must. I can't tell you how many books and comics he's put me on to over the last couple of years.

CONTAGION - review

If you're planning on seeing CONTAGION be sure to pack along a bottle of hand sanitizer and maybe a face mask, for good measure. If you don't use them before the film, you most definitely will want them by the time the final scene finishes rolling.

CONTAGION, staring (among others) Matt Damon, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne and Jennifer Ehle is about a terrible virus that infects a woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) while she is on a business trip to Hong Kong. Contagious but not yet showing signs of the illness, she has a fling with an old flame on a stop over in Chicago, before returning home to Minneapolis and her family.

From this point the movie shows how quickly a virus can sweep across the globe at the same time as doctors and specialists try to track and contain the sick, while also digging for the origin of the sickness and creating a cure.

I really enjoyed CONTAGION. I thought all the actors put in strong performances, in particular Jennifer Ehle, who I found mesmerizing every time she was on the screen. She has a particularly touching moment with her character's father near the end of the film which will tug at your heartstrings.

But the most sensational star of this show was not an actor at all. In fact it was the movie's soundtrack. It has been a long time since I remember being as blown away by a movie's music as I was here. The synthesized score by Cliff Martinez is out of this world, and does as much to propel the movie forward as the script itself. The soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission.

Interesting, fascinating, but most of all worrisome, CONTAGION paints what I can only imagine is a very real life picture of what it would be like if we are hit with something more vicious than SARS. Not only does it show the struggles the health care infrastructure would face, but also the unbelievable, almost unimaginable red tape politicians and government organizations would throw up in such if such a tragedy occurred.

Not exactly a date movie (you probably won't be interested in swapping spit with anyone by the end) but definitely an attention grabber, a thinking persons film. 

Actually, it was so quiet exiting the theatre you could have heard a pin drop, and I could not help but think if everyone was thinking what I was thinking: I wish I had some hand sanitizer right now.

 

Z. CONSTANCE FROST - interview

This past summer I read a terrific thriller called The Serial Killer's Wife by Robert Swartwood. At the end of that novel was an excerpt for a book called No Shelter (Holly Lin, No. 1) by Z. Constance Frost.  

I really dug the premise and having just finished one rocket ride thriller, I was in the mood for more, and NO SHELTER sounded like just the thing.

It surpassed my expectations and more!

I couldn't wait to pick the author's brains and find out more about this fantastic new writer on the scene.

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MEB: Welcome to THE MAN EATING BOOKWORM! 

So, you're a mother of two, and author, living just outside of Washington D.C. Like your main character's nanny job being a cover for her work as an assassin, is this a deceptive front for a...darker life? Who is Z. Constance Frost really?

Z: Thanks for having me, Peter! 

And who is Z. Constance Frost? Well, there really isn't much to tell. I have two kids, two jobs, and try to write when I find time. I'm living the American dream! :-) 

MEB: Tell us about writing NO SHELTER. How long did it take to write and what were some of the biggest obstacles you had to overcome?

Z: I’m a big fan of Lee Child, and one day when I was reading one of his books I thought it would be cool if there was a female character as smart and tough as Jack Reacher. And from there Holly Lin was born. 

I'm also a big fan of Charlie Huston's early novels and love the voice and knew if I wanted to tell this story I should do it in the first person present tense. It took about six months to write from beginning to end, but I wasn't writing every day I'm sorry to say, just when I found the extra time. 

MEB: So you finish NO SHELTER and are ready for the next step. Publication. What made you choose to release it as an e-book?

Z: Again it took me about six months to write the book (first draft to final draft), then another six months before I managed to sign with an agent. I was thrilled but then the rejections started coming in. Basically a few editors liked it but didn't like it enough, or they liked it but didn't know how they could properly market the book. 

Long story short, my agent decided it was time to put the book away. And that was really disheartening, because I wrote it as the first book in a series. It wasn't like I could write the second book and try to sell that. So I decided it wouldn't hurt to self-publish it as an e-book.

MEB: Holly Lin is one of my favourite characters to read this year. She kicks an awesome amount of ass. What was your inspiration for Holly and did you intend at the outset to make her a series character?

Z: Thanks! 

Like I mentioned, I wanted to do a female version of Jack Reacher, though a character that was a little more vulnerable. As much as I like Reacher, him being smart and always right all the time sometimes gets old. So I knew with Holly Lin, I wanted to make her ... well, a little bit more realistic. 

MEB: I dig the cover for NO SHELTER. Who is your cover artist and what sort of input did you have in its creation?

Z: The cover was designed by Wyatt Perko. I found him through Robert Swartwood's blog. I really loved the cover for The Silver Ring and so I contacted Robert and he put me in touch with Wyatt. I told him what my book was about and he came back with this cover. It's great! 

MEB: One Amazon.com reviewer enjoyed NO SHELTER so much he doubted your claim as a debut novelist. He actually claimed you might be a "Best Seller" testing the e-book waters. If this were true, which "Best Selling" author would you be?

Z: Toni Morrison, because I think it would be neat if a Nobel Prize winning author wrote about female assassins. 

MEB: The title of your book comes from a Rage Against the Machine song. The sequel, DOWN IN A HOLE, is from Alice In Chains. I'm guessing you're a grunge/hard rock fan. One of my favourite concerts as a teen was seeing Soundgarden in a small bar in downtown T.O.. What was one of your favourite shows you attended?

Z: Definitely Tool. I'm a huge Maynard fan, so I also love A Perfect Circle, though I haven't had a chance to see them in concert. 

MEB: What's a writing day like for Z. Constance Frost? Do you crank the music to ear splitting levels? Do you write in a coffee shop or on a subway train on the way to work? Any weird rituals, or human sacrifices made before touching fingers to keyboard? 

Z: My writing day is very sporadic. It's basically whenever I can get an extra hour to write a few words. It could be in the morning, could be in the afternoon, could be in the evening. I just never know! 

MEB: I thought your book was one of the most kick-ass reads so far this year. What books have your read this year that you would label "kick-ass"?

Z: Because I have two children a lot of the books I've been reading this year are for kids (we just finished the Lemony Snicket series, which was great!) but I did get a chance to read Robert Swartwood's new thriller The Serial Killer's Wife (which No Shelter is excerpted in) and it was really awesome.  

MEB: Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer some questions, Z! 

Z: Thank you! 

*

There you have it Wormies. I hope you enjoyed the interview and if you're looking for something fantastic to read be sure to check out Z. Constance Frost's No Shelter (Holly Lin, No. 1).

You can find Z. on the web right here.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE - No Shelter

A teaser for tomorrows post...

IT'S ABOUT A CAR!

In my review of Stephen King's Mile 81 (Kindle Single) (and in the comments) I was pretty hard on Scribner for their lame ass cover work. I'm just not a fan of plain or vague book covers.

Some folks prefer them. I get that. They don't want anything to spoil what they might discover between the covers.

But me, I want a peek at what strange lands I'm going to be exploring, what sinister creatures I might encounter and the heroes that will do battle with them!

My friend Mark (check out his terrific blog THE DOCTOR IS IN) brought to my attention the UK cover art for MILE 81. It is, in my opinion, not outstanding but certainly a better effort.

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I had one of those "What's That Author Up To?" moments the other day regarding Susanna Clarke. She took the publishing world by storm with her epic Victorian novel of magic and mystery Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

Anyone who has read Clarke's novel will undoubtedly tell you it is a masterful work of fiction that at times thrills the imagination in it's power and scope, while other times becomes so boring it will bring you to tears. Nevertheless, a novel not to be missed.

It has been seven years since JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL was published in 2004 (you could buy either the black or white edition) and I can't help but believe she must be nearing completion on her expected sequel.

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I've been doing this blog a little over a year and a half and have made a lot of wonderful new friends (some who I'm looking forward to rubbing elbows with in St. Louis in ten days time @ Bouchercon).

When I first set out my main intention was simple. I wanted to get free books. I was jealous of bloggers who seemed to get boxes of books from all the big publishers. And all they had to do was write a little review.

Now, I haven't reached the kind of readership as a Graeme's Fantasy Book Review or Fantasy Book Critic or Bookgasm but I manage to to get about a 100 page views a day. To me that blows my mind. That folks, any folks, enjoy coming here and reading my opinions on books, graphic novels and movies is unbelievable.

While I haven't received a single physical book via a publisher, I have been lucky to receive a lot of e-books from authors (particularly indie writers) wanting their work reviewed on THE MAN EATING BOOKWORM. I've discovered a lot of fantastic new writers this way and look forward to discovering even more as I wade through the waters of Amazon.com.

Unfortunately, moving forward, I will not be accepting anymore books for review on the blog.

The reasons are simple.

One, I'm fooling myself thinking I can get to all the books folks are sending me.

Two, I'm a very, very, moody reader. Sometimes I want horror and other times I want crime, while other times I don't know what the fuck I want to read and I pout around the house making everyone miserable. This does not help me get to that book a patient writer is waiting for me to read. And I feel bad about that!

Three, I just think that if I'm reviewing things I want to read and not necessarily books I feel obligated to read, my reviews will be more interesting, more honest.

So, from this day forth THE MAN EATING BOOKWORM will not be accepting books for review.

If you have a book you think I might like, by all means, bring it to my attention. It might be just the book I'm looking for.

But I will buy it myself and get to it my own time.

Also, though I try to get in three posts a week, to keep things fresh around here, I'm going to be cutting back to just two, and sometimes maybe just one. I'm not sure how it will all work out but I won't be posting as often.

I have a big project I want to begin tomorrow and to give it the necessary attention I have to spend less time here.

I hope all you Wormies will stick with me despite these few changes.

MILE 81 by Stephen King

Mile 81 (Kindle Single) is another automotive horror story from Stephen King, to go along with Christine (Signet), From a Buick 8 and, to some extent, Trucks, collected in Night Shift.

MILE 81 isn't the best short story I've ever read by King, however, it's far from the worst.

It's a quick tale of horror that will help fill the void for fans waiting anxiously for 11/22/63: A Novel to come out this fall.

I do have a few complaints, mainly concerning the less than convincing voice of the main character of the story, a boy named Pete Simmons, who sounds more like a 12 year old from the '50s, rather than a 8 or 9 year old from 2011. 

There were two or three editing errors, a couple words left out here and there, which is a bit irksome considering the price and that it was produced by Scribner. I am somewhat forgiving of such errors by "indie" writers, as long as they are not pervasive but find them hard to swallow when I'm reading a story professionally proof read.

What bothered me the most was the dedication at the end of the story, which for some stupid reason, is tacked onto the very end of the story. For just a moment I was left thinking, "WTF?".  A very shoddy piece of editing, that, and a crappy last impression.

I think it's too expensive for a short story. It was my impression when I ordered MILE 81 I would be getting was a novella-ish length story but that isn't the case. Of course, I don't think Scribner ever claimed MILE 81 would be anything more. 

Overall not a bad story. King always entertains, and in the end that's what I'm looking for.

I do have to say the cover blows. Did someone actually get paid for that crap? People can say it's just an e-book or covers don't matter, but I hold the opinion they do. A cover, to this reader, should encapsulate what you can expect from reading the story within. If you didn't read the product description, you might think the story was set on the highways of some fiery post apocalyptic world, not a deserted truck stop set in the present day.