Due to an unfortunate accident I was incapacitated for a while during which time I got through a lot of audio books, so therefore it was too difficult to choose just one book for the month this month.
Here are my favourites for this month:
Richard Kadrey – Sandman Slim audio
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Review “If Simon R. Green wrote an episode of Dog the Bounty Hunter, it would read much like SANDMAN SLIM – violent, vivid, non-stop action of the supernatural kind. I couldn’t put it down.” (Charlaine Harris ) “Paced like greased lightning (watch out for friction burns on your turning finger), blend the movie-ish delights of tough guy noir and such smart-mouthgore-fests as Reanimator and Army of Darkness, seasoned by soupcons of Gaimanian romanticism and Koontzian sentiment.” (Booklist ) “Sarcastic, irreverent and ridiculously enjoyable riff on the Urban Fantasy genre. . a lot like a mosh pit — rough, exuberant, unpredictable — and a heck of a lot of fun.” (Miami Herald ) “Nicotine and octane in equal parts might come close to the high-energy buzz from Richard Kadrey’s SANDMAN SLIM. Crisp world building, recognizable and fully-realized characters, and a refreshingly unique storytelling style make for an absorbing read. Sandman Slim is my kind of hero.” (Kim Harrison ) “The best B movie I’ve read in at least twenty years. An addictively satisfying, deeply amusing, dirty-ass masterpiece, SANDMAN SLIM swerves hell-bent through our culture’s impacted gridlock of genres.it’s like watching Sergio Leone and Clive Barker co-direct from a script by Jim Thompson and S. Clay Wilson.” (William Gibson ) “The most hard-boiled piece of supernatural fiction I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. . all confident and energetic and fresh and angry. I loved this book and all its screwed-up people.” (Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother ) |
This is a new release and it was really excellent and the guy narrating it sounded like Christian Slater (but it wasn’t him) I did buy the book but it’s a hardcover at the moment and a little on the expensive side – I think it was about £9-10 on amazon but it’s quite thin. I really recommend it, good urban fantasy, male lead, very little romance, quite funny and lots of action starting from the first page!
Mike Carey – The Devil You Know (Felix Castor #1) audio
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Product Description Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist, and London is his stamping ground. It may seem like a good ghostbuster can charge what he likes and enjoy a hell of a lifestyle–but there’s a risk: Sooner or later he’s going to take on a spirit that’s too strong for him. While trying to back out of this ill-conceived career, Castor accepts a seemingly simple ghost-hunting case at a museum in the shadowy heart of London–just to pay the bills, you understand. But what should have been a perfectly straightforward exorcism is rapidly turning into the Who Can Kill Castor First Show, with demons and ghosts all keen to claim the big prize. That’s OK: Castor knows how to deal with the dead. It’s the living who piss him off… |
I’ve been meaning to read these for a while now but never quite got around to it – see what a few weeks confined to bed can accomplish!
There’s about five of these and this is #1. I have them in print but I decided to listen to the audio and the guy narrating does a cracking job in a very posh OxBridge type accent/ I’m not sure if that’s how I imagined Felix exactly especially as later you find that he’s from Liverpool but anyway lol There was also a funny moment when the narrator pronounced ASDA as A. S. D. A. and not “asda” which made me suspect that perhaps he wasn’t English at all lol. I really like the Felix Castor character and the world is very interesting plus the fact that he’s an exorcist. The plot/story was good and we got some interesting characters to add to future books. Definitely worth a look.
Mike Carey – Vicious Circle (Felix Castor #2) audio
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Product Description Felix Castor has reluctantly returned to exorcism after a successful case convinces him that he really can do some good with his abilities—“good,” of course, being a relative term when dealing with the undead. His friend Rafi is still possessed, the succubus Ajulutsikael (Juliet to her friends) still technically has a contract on him, and he’s still dirt poor. Doing some consulting for the local cops helps pay the bills, but Castor needs a big private job to really fill the hole in his bank account. That’s what he needs. What he gets is a seemingly insignificant “missing ghost” case that inexorably drags him and his loved ones into the middle of a horrific plot to raise one of hell’s fiercest demons. When satanists, stolen spirits, sacrifice farms, and haunted churches all appear on the same police report, the name Felix Castor can’t be too far behind… |
Another good one! Really enjoyed listening to this one too. Don’t want to say too much about the story but it was very interesting.
The first two books are the only ones that are available as audiobooks so far – the third one was due in July but has been delayed – and although I have the books on the shelf I kinda like listening to the guy that narrates so I might wait a bit.
The Night of the Triffids – Simon Clark
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Amazon.co.uk Review Simon Clark’s The Night of the Triffids is the authorised 50th-anniversary sequel to The Day of the Triffids (1951) by John Wyndham, that classic SF nightmare which gave our language the word “triffid”. Clark’s opening consciously echoes Wyndham’s. In Day, narrator Bill Masen woke to a world blinded by strange radiations. Twenty five years later, his son David wakes to a different mysterious darkness. When people can’t see, those deadly walking GM vegetables the triffids have the advantage. They got out of hand in Day and now not only dominate the continents but are learning how to invade human refuges like the Masens’ Isle of Wight. Simon Clark, a devoted fan of The Day of the Triffids, is best known for horror fiction. Although he does a fair pastiche of Wyndham’s very British understated narrative style, this often escalates into darker imagery and moments of memorable nastiness. The triffids have evolved new, lethal tricks but these pale into insignificance besides the unspeakable things that obsessed humans can do to one another. In the long run, coping with triffids may well be easier. The Night of the Triffids builds to a slam-bang action climax, not terribly Wyndhamesque but still gripping. A good old-fashioned read with slick modern trimmings and hints of another sequel. From the Author People have asked me if The Night Of The Triffids has been sanctioned by the Wyndham estate. I can confirm that it has. To close, I’ll repeat part of what I’ve written about The Day Of The Triffids on the cover of my book. I hope it conveys what that classic work means to me. ‘I was twelve years old when I discovered John Wyndham’s awe-inspiring The Day Of The Triffids. For me, standing between the world of childhood and the mysterious new world of adulthood it was a revelation. The Day Of The Triffids wasn’t merely a good story; it was such a powerful transforming experience that the hero’s struggle for survival has stayed with me ever since. Writing this book was a real labour of love, and I dedicate it with true respect and admiration to John Wyndham (1903-1969). About the Author |
OK this was CRACKING!!! If you enjoyed the Day of the Triffids and wondered what happened after, then you should definitely get hold of this officially sanctioned “sequel” written with love by Simon Clark. I absolutely loved it and stayed up well into the night to keep listening to it. I have the audio version for the same reasons as mentioned above and it was just great. I love the Day of the Triffids but because I’ve read it so many times there are no surprises left. This book is a story I am not familiar with and it was FULL of surprises. Really excellent, really well done and really captured the same style of writing as John Wyndham. I’ve heard of Simon Clark before but I hadn’t read any of his books as he writes mainly horror and that’s not usually my thing. He does have two vampire books that I looked at a while back in Borders but I wasn’t sure I would like them. Both are set in Whitby (like Dracula) and are called Vampyrrhic (1998) and Vampyrrhic Rites (2002) and I see there’s a third book out soon – Whitby Vampyrrhic 
so I may pluck up courage and give them a try.
