Shores of Night

If we were to observe the workings of the British state in the Nineteenth Century we would see much of Parliamentary culture has stayed the same. The machinery of state would be familiar, the House of Parliament, the monarch, the labyrinthine Civil Service. At the same time there are stark differences; for one thing the lack of a universal vote and a society that was trapped between anarcho capitalism on the one hand and a slavish devotion to the concept of an organic society on the other. In many respects the sweep of Victorian society can be epitomised by the idea 'a place for everyone, and everyone in their place'. A Lord remained a Lord, no matter how destitute he was, a chimney sweep remained a chimney sweep and God help you if you rebelled against that. Breeding was at the core of your worth, class was the yardstick by which you were judged, everything else being considered secondary. The concept of a welfare state had yet to emerge. The poor, where they needed ass...

The initial collection of short stories from Adrian Tchaikovsky is a treasure. Weighing in at just under 200 pages, its contents are a set of short stories from a wide array of strands of fantasy, horror and SF from across the genres; and they shine. Tchaikovsky is best known for his monster of an epic fantasy series Shadows of the Apt, a (currently) nine book series of bricks charting an immense struggle in a steampunk influenced fantasy world, with a lot of insect influences (to my shame I have only just starting reading the first book of the series, despite being so late to get started, I'm very much enjoying it). Feast and Famine doesn't have the ambitious vision of Shadows of the Apt, but to be honest, it doesn't need it. There's enough here to keep the reader interested and the short stories provide slices, worlds that whirl in to entertain before they're gone again. As you might expect there is a Shadows of the Apt story in Feast and Famine, but the bu...

I first discovered Steampunk as a community, or subculture, a few years ago, when a friend suggested we go to the Asylum, the annual convention held in the picturesque surroundings of Lincoln’s castle and the area around it. We had a really good time, met lots of lovely people and became friends with a lot, if not most of them. The community’s offered me opportunities for expression, for my writing to be published and other things. Sure I may not enjoy the Asylum as much as I did that first year but that’s largely to do with the fact that I find it a bit overwhelming (and a lot of the time the panels I attend feel like déjà vu – but that’s much more to do with the fact that I’ve sat in on a lot of panels about getting published and writing; really there’s little wisdom that can be imparted from them after the first few). It’s a community that’s full of energy, full of ideas brimming up and a strong ‘do it yourself’ ethos. On the books front, I appear to be in the minority in that...

Over the past couple of weeks I've been reading a fair number of book samples from Amazon. I have another wave of them to go but this is what I've got up to to date. Suzanne Mcleod: The Sweet Scent of Blood - looks like a good start to a series, if a little close to the 'hot chicks in leather who kick vampire's arses' meme. The writing's strong and the use of the Fae is good, setting up some nice aspects of the character's world and relationships. Tom Fletcher: The Ravenglass Eye: This looks like a strong start to a horror novel, though the sample doesn't give enough away to give a real handle on what's going on. Joe Abercrombie: The Blade Itself: Ugh, this is everything I hate about epic fantasy at the moment. I know it's realistic and gritty and probably does contain some 'deep truth' but it's too much and I find it quite unappealing. Emma Newman: Any Other Name and Between Two Thorns: I love this, there's a whimsy and a...

I wrote this story back in 2009, but its only just been published. It's my first paid for published work (so that's marvellous). http://www.fictionvortex.com/2013/08/whispers-in-the-flame/ Please, enjoy.