Denise Mina / Leonardo Manco Hellblaser: The Red Right Hand

Another solid Constantine story, by yet another artist/writer combination. Constantine’s characterisation seems a bit off, with him being rather more of a whiney bugger than I remember him, but that is perhaps due to the nature of the problem at hand – an empathy plague raging in Glasgow. A grim tale about the nature of humanity and imagination, where the fate of the world hinges on whether or not England can win a World Cup semi-final match. I felt that the balance between horror and comedy was a bit off, but the writing was otherwise engaging and solid. The artwork has a sombre grittiness that any Constantine story really needs, but the thick linework combined with the low-key colouring could make the page a bit murky for my tastes. I’d give it a B+ if I were giving out grades.

George R.R. Martin Dream Songs

Technically, I haven’t finished this yet; it’s a collection of short stories by George R. R. Martin (he of the Song of Ice and Fire series), and I’ve got the last one, The Pear-shaped Man yet to read. Each themed selection comes with a commentary by Martin on how he came to be writing these stories, and they go from his first submissions to fanzines to his later award-winning tales. They also run the gamut from superheroes, through science fiction, to fantasy and horror and back again. With the exception of the very very early tales, I’ve really enjoyed them all. Thus far, The Ice Dragon is my favourite, and The Pear-shaped Man will have to do quite well to beat it.

This will do quite nicely to tide over anyone waiting for the next Song of Ice and Fire book.

Update: have now read The Pear-shaped Man. It was good (very creepy), but The Ice Dragon is still my favourite.

C. S. Forester A Ship of the Line

I first encountered Horation Hornblower as a series of T.V. movies done by ITV, and only later discovered they were adapted from novels. I’ve read one collection of Hornblower tales, where he is an Admiral, but this is from earlier in his career, when he has just taken command of his first Ship of the Line, the ships that were the backbone of the British fleet during the Napoleonic wars. Not a single tale, this is more a series of encounters that the HMS Sutherland has while under Hornblower’s command.

It’s all enjoyable adventure stuff, and I think I shall have to pick up some of the other volumes, especially as this one ends on quite the cliffhanger.

Jonathan Kellerman Gone

This is one of a series of psychological murder mystery novels starring Alex Delaware, sometime consultant to the Los Angeles Police Department, and his partner in crime-fighting, homicide detective Milo Sturgis.

I like these novels, and I like Alex Delaware, but this novel felt more like Alex and Milo stumbling about aimlessly until the clues assembled themselves, rather than two clever people working out what had happened. There are a couple of sub-plots involving Alex’s complex love-life, and a disgruntled fellow psychotherapist, but they are slight, and feel a little tacked on. I enjoyed the read, but it felt rather insubstantial in the end.

Terry Pratchett The Wee Free Men

This marks the start of another of Pterry’s Diskworld strands. On the gently rolling hills of The Chalk, a young girl called Tiffany Aching has grown up knowing more than most nine-year-olds ought, and finds herself pitted against the Queen of Fairyland armed with nothing more than a frying pan, a book about sheep, and the friendship of the Nac Mac Feegle, the Wee Free Men…

The Wee Free Men can most easily be described as homicidal Scottish Smurfs, and much comedy abounds, as usual. I’m not sure this is Pterry’s A game, but it’s certainly a good solid B game, which from Pratchett is good stuff indeed.

Bonus book, from Whitburn library:

Bernard Cornwell Sharpe’s Regiment

Like Hornblower, I first came to Sharpe from a series of T.V. dramas (which were recently on UK History). This is an unusual Sharpe novel in that, instead of fighting the French armies, he is in England, trying to find out what has happened to the Second Batallion of the South Essex Regiment. He is fighting red tape and noble privilege more than soldiers and guns, but it’s still a good tale for all of that. I’d seen the T.V. version of this first, and the adaption was a close one, so there were no real surprises for me, but very enjoyable for all that.