author post

Here come some idle, and quite possibly delusional, musings prompted by a comment from The Exalted Beings of New York (aka the fine folk at Orbit’s US HQ).

Said comment arose in the context of casual discussion about The Edinburgh Dead, my new novel.  It’s historical dark fantasy with a liberal seasoning of crime fiction, horror, urban fantasy, science fiction, gothic thriller etc. etc., and that was kind of the gist of the comment: you’ve got a lot of genres in there, haven’t you, Ruckley?  Care to explain yourself in public?

Why, yes I do.  Read the rest of this entry »

Share/Bookmark

by Brian Ruckley •6 Comments • Posted in: Guest Post

author post

So, two of my all-time favourite fictional characters aren’t actually in books, but on screen. And they were both created by Joss Whedon. I’m talking Spike, aka William the Bloody (Awful Poet), and Wesley Wyndham-Price.

On the surface you might not think they have anything in common. Spike burst into Sunnydale as an unrepentant villain, while Wesley minced his way in as the replacement Watcher for Giles, emphatically a white hat. But as the series, and their characters, evolved, as they transitioned from the world of Buffy to the world of Angel, both characters became more and more nuanced, less and less one-note. More complicated. More ambiguous. And as the lines blurred, so did their allure increase. Spike started doing good, but not always for the right reasons.  Or for pure, unselfish reasons. And Wesley shed his goody two-shoes persona to reveal a man far darker and more damaged than any of us had ever suspected.

But what they also had in common was, at the heart, enough self-knowledge to know they wanted better, they could do better, they needed better. And that struggle became integral to their journey through Whedon’s fictional worlds.

A few months ago, for various reasons, I started watching The Vampire Diaries. And it wasn’t too long before I found myself actively engaged in Damon’s story. Yes, Damon, the bad boy older brother who’d promised to wreak revenge on his younger brother for forcing him into vampirehood, and who delighted in causing misery and mayhem. The other brother? Stefan? The handsome central love interest, hero to the heroine, steadfast and loyal and honourable and good?

Yeah. Meh.

Damon is twisted, he’s complicated, he’s damaged and he’s dangerous. Which means, for me, he is infinitely more intriguing. He fascinates because of his flaws and scars, not despite them. It’s his moral ambiguity that immediately sparks my interest. Every day, he struggles. And in the struggle lies the story.

When it comes to fiction, the morally ambiguous anti-hero  – at least for me – is vastly superior to the straight arrow good guy or gal.

The question is, of course, why? Surely we should be most attracted to the stalwart and shiny, morally unambiguous, never tarnished  hero?  And maybe we are, in real life. Or tell ourselves we are, anyway. Read the rest of this entry »

Share/Bookmark

by Karen Miller •3 Comments • Posted in: Guest Post, Uncategorized

author post

There are authors who chest thump about military experience (the same way guys buff their muscle-cars) and then claim this experience is why their military science fiction is better than the other guy’s (or girl’s). Me? I drive an old Toyota pickup, which hasn’t been washed in donkey’s years, that’s missing one hubcap, and which shimmies at sixty because one rim is bad. It’s a great car, though. Much more useful than a Camaro, that truck carried me across the country twice, hauled just about everything in the world, and is so beaten up that people just laugh when they open the door and look inside – if they don’t throw up.

Germline is my debut novel and it’s military science fiction. But it’s also my response to what I see as a subgenre that’s losing its way, a middle finger to books in which the importance of military jargon overshadows that of sympathetic characters, believable tactics, at least some glimpse of strategy, and a decent ending. Don’t get me wrong: the books I’m flipping-off have a place. They entertain, and a large segment of science fiction readership buys and enjoys them. It’s just that the last time I picked up a military science fiction book and then dropped my jaw at its awesomeness was when I finished The Forever War (in 1983) so when 2008 rolled around it became put-up-or-shut-up time – time to write the book I’d want to read. Read the rest of this entry »

Share/Bookmark

by T. C. McCarthy •4 Comments • Posted in: Guest Post, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US, Uncategorized

author post

Earlier this week I posted about my favourite female characters in fantasy fiction, and mentioned that Terry Pratchett’s characters clearly stood out. I vividly remember the very first Discworld novel I read. It was Pyramids, and I borrowed it from the Galston branch of my local council library, way back in … well, it was last century. Probably the mid ‘90s. I think. Anyhow. I’d never heard of the Discworld, or Terry Pratchett. All I knew was that the Josh Kirby cover looked amazing and I liked the blurb, so I thought what the hey? It’s not like I’m shelling out for a hardcover by someone I’ve never heard of.

Within a couple of pages I was truly, madly, deeply in love. And now I own all of the Discworld novels, as many in hardcover as I could find. They remain one of the great literary pleasures of my life, and my memories of the dinner I shared with Terry Pratchett and the late, wonderful David Gemmell (back when I had a bookshop and put on a convention with them as the guests) are something I will forever treasure.

Much has been said and written about the inclusion, or exclusion, of female characters in speculative fiction. A common observation made is that, so often, too often, women in fantasy, science fiction and horror fiction are reduced to objects of desire, sexual adjuncts to men, rendered pathetically helpless so they can be rescued, or are killed off as soon as possible in order to provide motive for the male hero’s journey, or pretty much airbushed out of the narrative altogether. Unfortunately there is merit in these criticisms of the genre, but one thing I can say without hesitation: you simply cannot point that particular finger at Terry Pratchett.

Throughout the course of his Discworld novels, Pratchett has created some of the most fantastic, three-dimensional and iconic female characters to be found in the realms of speculative fiction. In no particular order of personal favouritism they are:

Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat, Angua, Lady Sybil Ramkin, Cheri Littlebottom, Agnes Nitt., Tiffany Aching, Susan Sto Helit. Read the rest of this entry »

Share/Bookmark

by Karen Miller •7 Comments • Posted in: Guest Post

author post

Don’t you just love reviews that start with those words? I do…at least when they are talking about one of my books.

When I have a new book out, I am in a state of total panic, worried that this time I’ve made a muck of it, that no one will like it, that the story will be totally rubbished by incredulous reviewers who can’t get past page 5. I’m torn between ignoring the internet, pretending it doesn’t matter if no one ever reviews the book, and googling furiously in the hope that someone has.

Every book is the same. Every publication date results in nail-chewing, chocolate-raiding terror on my part. Yep, eating chocolate helps a little, but the relief doesn’t last…that only comes when I have a good review. Then I know at least one person likes it!

And the odd thing is that every time my initial reaction to that first favourable review is total disbelief. Really? You liked it that much? Are you sure you read my book?

And the week the last book of a trilogy comes out is the worst of all. Because until I have produced an end that satisfies (most) readers, I really haven’t reached my goal. The Stormlord trilogy is over half a million words in length. That’s a long journey to keep a reader interested, and I am both touched and a little astonished that people stay with me — or rather with my characters — over the space of several years and that many words to find out what happens. Read the rest of this entry »

Share/Bookmark

by Glenda Larke •Post a Comment • Posted in: Guest Post, Uncategorized