I am not sure when urban fantasy/urban horror was released on the scene but it is safe to say that there are a number of authors whose books would fit within this genre. Laurell K. Hamilton and Charlaine Harris are two that come to mind. Simon R. Green’s Nightside series and Liz Williams’ Snake Agent are two that I have read which are written in a similar vein. Mystery stories featuring a private investigator set in a world where the supernatural is not a myth, but a reality. While the products of good writers tend to spawn derivative works from those looking to cash in on a trend, there are surprises to be found amongst the pretenders. Kat Richardson‘s debut novel, Greywalker, is one of those surprises.
The surprising, unexpected affection for the James Bond franchise that arose with Daniel Craig’s portrayal of England’s formidable secret agent in Casino Royale stirred within me a desire to read the Ian Fleming novel that started it all. At a mere 181 pages (in the Penguin trade paperback version) there was only a slight risk of not enjoying the experience. I am happy to say that the gamble paid off and Casino Royale, the book, has won me over.
In October I shared with you my thoughts about John Scalzi’s Campbell Award-winning debut novel Old Man’s War. I come to you not quite two months later to report that he has done it again. With the sequel, The Ghost Brigades, Scalzi has once again proven just how enthralling and entertaining good science fiction can be. Actually, what John Scalzi has proven is how enthralling and entertaining good fiction can be.
As a child I do not remember having any strong attachment to the story of Alice and her adventures in Wonderland. I am not sure that I was aware of it on any level outside of the Disney version. I do recall, however, a fascination with the idea of a hole in the ground leading to other realms. I remember having daydreams about this idea frequently. Thus I have had a kinship to Alice for years before ever becoming enamored of her story. It wasn’t until Neil Gaiman released the novel Neverwhere that I really started paying attention to Alice in Wonderland and how the ideas in that book are often replicated in other stories. I finally picked up the story when the book The Annotated Alice was published. This book, with its insight into Lewis Carroll’s brilliant use of language and the plethora of Victorian error inside jokes, etc., made my fascination for the stories grow. And the computer game American McGee’s Alice cemented Alice and her cohorts as one of my favorite literary characters. In fact, I have an homage to that world on one wall in my work office:
One of my recent birthday gifts from my friend Pat was the book Grayson by Lynne Cox. It is the story of an event that happened to the award winning author of Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer approximately 30 years previously when she was 17. The story details a routine morning swim off the coast of California that turned into an exciting and potentially dangerous adventure when the author discovered that she was being followed back to shore by a baby gray whale. The whale had been separated from its mother and the bulk of the story revolves around Lynne Cox’s attempt to stay with the whale and help it be reunited with its mother.
