BOOK REVIEW: The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles, by Kij Johnson; Nomad's Hollow, by Chris Jags; Unaltered, by JC Steel; Guardians at the Wall, by Tim Walker; Going Green, by Christine McMullen; The Redhead, The Rogue and the Railroad, by Jane Jago; and What She Said, by AM Leibowitz; Six Dreams About The Train, by Maria Haskins

 The first day of the New Year! And this is a hangover from last year. Not in the drank-too-much-the-night-before sense, alas. But this is a catch-up on my last remaining reviews from last year. Coming up soon will be my pick of my favourite books of 2021, but for now... let's start with a tale of a cat and a long walk...

The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles, by Kij Johnson

A thoroughly sweet tale, this tells the story of Small Cat, cut adrift from his community of fellow cats by a fire that rips through their home. With her community held together by stories, she sets off to find another family, one where her story might fit with theirs. 

It's an adventure that sees her face earthquake and fire, abduction and lost friendship as she makes her way to the top of Mt Fuji and beyond. 

At the heart of it is the importance of stories, and the importance of finding our own family and place in the world. 

For Small Cat, that also means finding a new name. A new identity. A new home. 

Charming, delightful and thoughtful. 

AI Rating: 5/5

You can read The Cat Who Walked A Thousand Miles free on the Tor website.

Nomad's Hollow, by Chris Jags

I blasted through this and its sequel, Cannonbrook, over the Christmas holidays, and after a rough year, this was a good way to end things. 

Faeries are cute, right? Well, no better way to start a story with cute critters than by a bunch of human knights coming in to chop them up. 

What do these little cute beings do in the aftermath of the slaughter? Find shelter then plot bloody revenge, of course!

It really zips by as a read - as does its sequel. I wouldn't normally be into stories about faeries, but these are mean little brutes and I'm fully on their side as they exact their vengeance on us mean old humans. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Nomad's Hollow is available on Amazon.

Unaltered, by JC Steel

I didn't quite know what to expect with this one when I started, so I was quite delighted when it turned out to be a splendid little sci-fi adventure, with a dash of Firefly here and a feeling of the old Traveller RPG too. 

It's part of a bigger series, but a great way to dip your toe into the Cortii universe. It tells the story of a horse rancher who has to wear a remarkable number of ridiculous outfits to seal a deal - and the deadly bodyguard watching his back who might be the one in most danger of all. 

It's not a long read, but it does a lot in the space it has to tell its story, hinting at the much larger universe while delivering an effective introduction and telling its own tale along the way. 

Nicely done, and a good way to try out the setting for new readers. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Unaltered is available on Amazon.

Guardians at the Wall, by Tim Walker

A story told across centuries, this book tells of the Roman soldiers of 180CE, and the archaeologists in the modern day uncovering their story. 

Centurion Gaius Atticanus faces a series of battles as he is stationed by Hadrian's Wall, while in the modern day, archaeology student Noah follows the trail of clues that might lead to the centurion's last act, and a treasure hidden for thousands of years. 

Both sides of the story are well told, though I'll confess I preferred the mystery of the modern to the action of the ancient. But no need to choose, we have both! The modern also works in secret lust, tentative romance and grand theft along the way. 

An intriguing way to tackle a story inspired by real history. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Guardians at the Wall is available on Amazon.

Going Green, by Christina McMullen

Published in 2014, my word does this land in a whole different way post pandemic. 

This is a satire about a zombie apocalypse, but boy it might as well be a manual describing how stupidity and selfishness can spread a deadly virus with the past two years as a prime example. 

Told in fragments throughout the apocalypse - World War Z style almost - we see people pretending not to have been nibbled here, the government trying to avoid the word zombie there, the rich trying to flee to safety elsewhere. 

It's witty, it's snarky, it's prescient and I found myself laughing before realising yes, that's exactly how dumb humans would be before slumping into gloom at how horrible we all are. 

If the world was a nail, this is the hammer that hit it upon the head. 

AI Rating: 5/5

Going Green is available on Amazon.

The Redhead, The Rogue & The Railroad, by Jane Jago

Jane Jago has a talent for characters. In this alternative history Western story, the lead characters have the kind of solid relationship you don't often see in books. They've had a rocky road in the past, but they can rely on one another, and pull one another out of the fire when need be. You can feel their history in the storytelling.

The story tells of Miriam and Cuchilo as they try to find out where the girls going west on the railroad are after they keep going missing. 

Along the way, they face all kinds of threats - including the influence of the Church. 

Part Western, part Noir, this is a really intriguing tale that you could easily see spinning off into more books involving Miriam and Cuchilo.

AI Rating: 5/5

The Redhead, The Rogue & The Railroad is available on Amazon.

What She Said, by AM Leibowitz

Sometimes in life there are moments that matter so very much. This collection of short stories dwells on some of those.

In large part, it's a series of vignettes, dropping in on moments of romance, of coming out, of realisation. 

While short, some of these really hit the mark, and it's especially nice to see stories such as these navigating life within the LGBTQ community. 

My only wish - which is never a bad one - is that we could have had more. The stories are gone too soon, and I wanted to stay a while longer. That said, the length may be slight, but for some these will be important moments. 

AI Rating: 3/5

What She Said is available on Amazon.

Six Dreams About The Train, by Maria Haskins

Maria Haskins is one of the best writers in the field today. That takes some saying, because this really is a golden age for short story writing. There are magicians who delight, conjurers who pop up worlds of magnificence and entertainers who bring a grin. 

Maria writes extraordinary stories. I bought this and... well, I couldn't read it quickly. I had to savour it. I had to let each story of pain and heartbreak and love and uncertainty settle in my bones before I could move on to the next.

There's And You Shall Sing To Me A Deeper Song, which creates a world of rogue military AI and the singers who silenced them - only to become unwanted weapons no longer needed in the aftermath.

There's the title story which binds together fragments of action with cords made of heartache and hurt, telling the short tale of imminent and unavoidable tragedy.

There's Cleaver, Meat and Block, which has made it into the best horror stories of the year anthology, telling of a world after a zombie apocalypse in which the zombies were cured, and those who weren't infected live side by side with those who ate their friends, their relatives.

Then there's one I had a hand in publishing originally, Tunguska, 1987, which tells its story across time periods about a man and his dog having a strange encounter in 1929 and picking up the after-effects of that in a world of 1987 where the Tunguska meteor contained something very different from in our own world.

It's a collection of beautiful, sometimes painful stories. There's an old story about two sculptors who are carving a piece of work. Both are asked what they're carving, and one says "A unicorn! It's beautiful!" and the other says "My heart." Maria is carving her heart with these stories to see what it shows. They are personal, and really linger with you afterwards.

Read this. It's wonderful.

AI Rating: 5/5

BOOK REVIEW: The Midsummer Wife, by Jacqueline Church Simonds; The Apple-Tree Throne, by Premee Mohamed; Leaps of Faith, by AM Leibowitz; Dark Flash 3, by Maria Haskins; A Study In Emerald, by Neil Gaiman; plus Wolverine and short stories by NC Stow and Jason Sanford

While busy behind the scenes with production work, I've been falling behind a little on posting my reviews - so time to catch up! Here's a bumper bundle of book reviews, and I'll follow up with a review of audiobooks over the weekend. But first up, time for a spot of Arthurian romance with a very big twist...

The Midsummer Wife, by Jacqueline Church Simonds

I'll confess to not being initially drawn to this story - perhaps it was the title that didn't snare me and I thought it was romance, not my genre for reading generally, but while there's passion indeed within these pages, I was very wrong to scroll by on my Kindle before now.
The Midsummer Wife is a dystopian sci-fi Arthurian romance. Yup. All of those. A nuclear blast has devastated London, taking the royalty and the government with it, and a shattered Britain is left to pick up the pieces - even as its citizens scramble to leave on the next boat or plane.
Into this are plunged the descendants of King Arthur and Merlin, along with the heir of an ancient priestess, Ava, who is crucial to hopes of defeating ancient foe Morgaine and her cultists and hopefully reunite Britain.
The opening chapter of this book may be one of the best openings I've read in a long time. It's taut, pacy, and introduces us to an assured and determined Ava. Except that's just a mask - in truth, she's beset by anxiety and agoraphobia, a fractured soul trying to hide her weaknesses because she knows the fate of the country, perhaps the world, rests on her shoulders.
It's fantastic to have a more complex character at the heart of the story rather than a perfect, infallible hero - and that's before she finds herself driven by impulses more ancient than she knows to form a bond with... the wrong man?
Perhaps... as only turning the pages will reveal.
This book is a little more saucy than my usual reading fare, but that's no knock on the book itself, just a note that you can expect shirt-ripping and gasping ahead.
I was delighted to be surprised by this book, and to be left wanting more by the time I turned the last page.

AI Rating: 5/5

Available on Amazon here.

Blood Grains Speak Through Memories, by Jason Sanford

I'm late to the parade, of course - this was the Nebula award winner for best novelette, so that tells you all you need to know, right? 

Ahh, but were the Nebula voters right in throwing their highest honour on this tale?

Yes. So very much yes. 

Sanford creates a remarkable world - where powerful, nanite-infused humans known as anchors guard and protect areas of land, while the rest of humanity is forced into a vagrant, nomadic life, travelling in caravans between lands and hoping not to fall foul of the dangerous, close to pyschotic anchors. 

The story is told from the perspective of Frere-Jones, one of the anchors, who begins to doubt her role as one of the guardians of the land. 

The nanites, known as grains, push at Frere-Jones to obey, to protect the system, and even manipulate her memories - but still, her doubts remain, and when she gives shelter to a band of nomad humans, that could pit her against other anchors driven to protect the land and even, perhaps, against the humans she tries to guard.

It's a remarkable, bravura piece of writing, and thoroughly worth its Nebula win. It's the kind of writing that lets you peer over horizons you'd never dreamed of, and that is the mark of great writing. 

It tugs at your heart, it breaks it in two, and makes you wonder if that's not the right thing after all. 

AI Rating: 5/5

The Emotionless, In Love, by Jason Sanford

The sequel to Blood Grains Speak Through Memories, this flips the perspective, telling the story through the eyes of those in the caravans that scuttle from place to place, seeking just enough shelter to eat and survive before moving on to a different spot. 

Colton is one of those caravan travellers, and has a link back to characters in the first story. He also has a problem - his emotions have been stolen from him in a previous encounter. 

His caravan finds a dangerous kind of shelter in the lands of a crazed, fractured anchor named Sri Sa. She protects his caravan, even as her behaviour endangers them all. 

And more, she can make him feel. What price would you pay to feel even sadness instead of nothing at all?

The Emotionless, In Love expands the setting from the previous novel, and shows more of the effects on the other displaced inhabitants of this world. 

It's not quite as taut as the previous story, and Sri Sa sometimes seems a little too invincible - the other anchors seem little of a threat at times - but it's still engrossing. A worthy follow-up to the original tale. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Available on Amazon here and here.

The Apple-Tree Throne, by Premee Mohamed

I almost don't know how to begin writing about this book, because it is so very different from many modern stories. 

Indeed, in some ways, it's a story out of time, that owes a debt to the cautious mannered intrigue of Wilde or MR James, even of Austen, and the classic ghost stories of old. 

In an Unreal Britain, Benjamin Braddock is a survivor of war. His commanding officer died in battle, perhaps at the hand of the enemy, perhaps at the hand of his men. Braddock returns home to a country that doesn't need a soldier any more, and has little room to accommodate the trauma that he suffered on its behalf. 

And yet... the family of the commanding officer who got so many soldiers killed extend a hand of friendship to him. They offer him company. They offer him his officer's old home. Perhaps even there is the promise of romance with a woman who might once have chased his commander's hand. 

There's one problem, however: The ghost of the commander might not be done with everything yet. 

Very slowly, very carefully, very deliberately, the author creates a sense of creeping dread - and we do not know whether we fear for the presence of the ghost pawing at the window in the dark or for the fragile and broken man that Braddock has become. It's a story that aches, in the spaces between heartbeats. 

By the end, I felt I was still trying to get to grips with the story, trying to fit pieces in their place - and lingering on it in my mind more than I expected in the early examination of a quasi-Victorian steampunk world had promised. It's a very personal tale of a man and his journey through grief and despair, an exquisitely crafted clockwork timepiece for our age of digital phones. 

I heartily recommend it - but don't expect to rush, savour the slow build. 

AI Rating: 5/5

Available on Amazon here.

Leaps of Faith, by AM Leibowitz 

I'll be upfront from the start - this wouldn't normally be my kind of book as it sits outside the genres I usually read. I read it as a book club pick, and one of the nice things about book clubs is that it brings books to you that you might not normally encounter, broadening your horizons. 

It's a series of short stories - but all interconnected, telling the story of a young couple and those around them as characters explore their gender identities, their sexuality, what makes them love, what makes them hurt. 

There are sex scenes, and other elements that probably make this a book that fits at the top end of Young Adult and more squarely in New Adult but there's a great value in the stories within. 

Let me explain by taking a trip back in my own time - back in the 1970s, author Joan Lingard published a series of novels that these days would be classed as young adult. They told the tale of Kevin and Sadie, two young people on opposite sides of the religious divide in Northern Ireland at a time when that kind of difference could get you killed. 

As a young Northern Irishman myself, they struck a chord on who I was, on the journey others like me were going through - and that's what is most striking about this collection. For those questioning who they are, who they identify as, who they are attracted to, there are representations here of others on that same journey. Just as I could pick up those Kevin and Sadie books and see myself in them, so too many readers either exploring their identity or sure as heck of who they are but not of how to express it to a world might read Leaps of Faith and say "This is me". For those who don't see themselves in the world around them as much as they might, that's no small thing. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Available on Amazon here.

Dark Flash 3, by Maria Haskins

Maria Haskins is a wonderful writer, as anyone who has read my reviews of her previous Dark Flash anthologies is probably aware. 

Dark Flash 3 continues the collections of her stories written to feature in RB Wood's Word Count Podcast - short pieces of flash fiction often inspired by a photograph and then heading off into the wild blue yonder of Maria's imagination. 

It's a quick read - with just nine pieces of flash fiction in there - making it an ideal book for a commute, though it might just transport you to more distant places as you read. 

There are monsters here, and tales of transformation - sometimes into the very monsters themselves. Maria has a habit of picking at the seams of fairy tales and sewing them into a new set of clothes for her characters to wear. It's unnerving, in just the way you'd expect unravelling others' childhood legends to be. 

Keep freaking me out, Maria, it's a twisted pleasure indeed! 

One sidenote - a while ago, I reviewed Mic Drop by Rob Edwards, which also included a number of stories from the same podcast - and it's an interesting exercise to compare those that started out from the same point, and the destinations each author reached. 

You can also hear the podcasts over at RB Wood's webpage here.

AI Rating: 5/5

Available on Amazon here.

Bell-Clock Heart, by NC Stow

Have you ever read a story where the potential of it soars off in a dozen different directions and you wonder just how it's all contained in a short story? 

That's Bell-Clock Heart for me. 

I've read a number of NC Stow's short stories now, which often plunge into Russian mythology in all its wonder and occasional craziness. 

The story tells the tale of a boy who has his heart stolen, literally. In its place is a whirring contraption of cogs and gears, which has a side effect of allowing him to trap spirits. 

He comes to the aid of a girl in need - but is he a greater danger than the perils facing her? 

There is absolutely a fairytale quality here - a dreamlike nature in places - and readers would benefit from reading some of the author's earlier stories first, such as Ogon and Voopyre.

Go read those - and if you're hooked, follow through to here. The boy's clockwork heart will be waiting for you, ticking patiently. 

AI Rating: 4/5

Available on Amazon here.

Graphic novel reviews

A Study In Emerald, by Neil Gaiman, adapted by Rafael Albuquerque, Rafael Scavone and Dave Stewart

Look, here's all that I need to say: Neil Gaiman writes a story mixing Sherlock Holmes and the Cthulhu Mythos. 

Not sold? Really? 

Great Old Ones in charge of the British Empire while a gentleman detective and his former military companion investigating a grim case in the midst of it all doesn't draw you in? 

Let me add that it's a dazzling short story, full of twists and brilliant logical leaps - all told elegantly in this graphic novel form by a team that shows admirable restraint rather than plunging into the blood and madness one might indulge in with a HP Lovecraft-inspired setting. 

I shall spoil nothing, because the less you know about the story itself the better, just be prepared for something wonderful. 

AI Rating: 5/5

Available on Amazon here.

Wolverine Epic Collection 13: Blood Debt

This is one of those chunky collections from Marvel that bundles a whole host of individual issues together - but by golly this is as mismatched a collection as you'll find. 

The front half is exactly what you'd expect from the cover, a bunch of Rob Liefeld-era Wolverine that's pretty low on story quality and all about the art style of the day. It even has one of those Wolverine vs Deadpool fights that makes no sense whatsoever, not least that Deadpool shows up with a whole gang of dull new supervillains who then play no role in the fight. It's the kind of thing that did big numbers in the 90s but is pretty hard to read going back. 

And then you get to the second half of the book which is the utterly splendid Wolverine: Origin, written by Jemas, Jenkins and Quesada and beautifully illustrated by Kubert and Isanove. It's a level of quality light years above the rest of the book and worth it for that alone. 

So, one star for the front of the book, five stars for the back. I'll average that out as three - because goodness knows if you've got Origin in the collection and you opt for a Liefeld picture as the cover, you're missing the lede. 

AI Rating: 3/5

Available on Amazon here.