The Pledge (The Setup)

Like most people, I was introduced to Christopher Priest via another Christopher (Nolan, this one) by way of the 2006 film The Prestige. After picking up what pieces of my mind remained after that film’s conclusion, I eagerly noted the “based on a novel by Christopher Priest” credit. It wasn’t until a few years later that I finally tracked down the book, and I was delighted to find that it’s so much more than just what you see in the film.

Both the novel and the film share many commonalities, but it is the myriad differences that make them stand on their own. If you’ve only seen the movie, you should read the book. If you’ve only read the book, you should see the movie. Let me put it this way: I was still surprised by the twists found in the novel even after I’d seen the film three or four times.

The Turn (The Performance)

And the differences are readily apparent. The book begins in the present day with the first-person narrative of Andrew Westley, a young reporter on his way to investigate an incident at a religious sect. He meets a young woman named Kate Angier, who believes the fate of Andrew’s brother is somehow tied to events that occurred a hundred years earlier to Kate’s ancestor Rupert Angier (a stage-magician known as The Great Danton), and Angier’s lifelong rival, Alfred Borden. A book of magic written by Borden as well as Rupert Angier’s private journal make up the bulk of the narrative.

The origin of the feud between Borden and Angier is much different than what we see in the film, and I found the way Priest escalates the hostilities between the two illusionists to be much more organic. It is more fleshed out and I found my sympathies bounced back and forth between Borden and Angier. Indeed, with each magician in effect telling his own story, you really get to see each side of the feud. One interesting aspect of this is that in the film, the viewer may prefer one actor over the other (come on, we all have our favourites) and thus side with him; this is not an issue in the book, where each character’s positive and negative traits are more obvious. In fact, it often seems like neither man is particularly interested in continuing the feud, and if one had just had the courage to reconcile with the other, a much different outcome would have unfolded. (This idea is actually made explicit when it is paralleled by some of the Borden-Angier ancestors.) As haunting as the film’s conclusion may be, the novel’s ending is even more so.

If you think you know where the novel is going, you probably don’t. And even if you do, the narrative thrust and absorbing prose make the journey worthwhile.

The Prestige (The Pay-off)

The novel was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award (1996), the British Fantasy Award (1995), and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1996) and the World Fantasy Award (1996). I guess what I’m saying is it’s got a pedigree. And, in my opinion, it is well deserved. It’s fair to say that, like the film, the novel is itself a magic trick of sorts, relying on the pledge, turn and prestige. It has its own literary tricks (sentences in Borden’s book like “If I say no more of this, it will be acceptable. I shall not intervene again. I may continue to the conclusion.”) in place of the film’s visual hints, and while it doesn’t have the same overall impact as the film (understandable, given the differences between the two mediums), it definitely has its moments. After reading the 10 lines that make up chapter 14 of Part II (“I say, ‘Look at my hands. There is nothing concealed within them.’ “) I had the same feeling as when I heard Christian Bale whisper “Are you watching closely?”

It’s hard for me to write about the novel without mentioning the film. I choose to view this as an extension of The Prestige‘s themes of obsession, rivalry and duality, because it makes me seem deep. Often when a novel is adapted to film, there is a tendency to prefer one over the other. Usually the book, because the book is always better. With The Prestige, however, both the novel and the film were made by artists at the height of their powers (as opposed to some bestselling books that get turned into blockbuster movies . . . I’m sure you can fill in your own blank), and while both tell essentially the same story, they do so in drastically different ways, ways that could only be accomplished in their respective mediums.

I enjoyed Christopher Priest’s novel immensely, and I look forward to reading more of his work. I would also be interested to read the thoughts of someone who read the book first (or, even more drastic, someone who has read the book but hasn’t yet seen the film). To the comments section!

You can pick up a ridiculously cheap e-book copy for the Kindle, or the pretty hardcover edition!

The full list of nominees is here.

He is the author of 4 novels, 5 collections, and 1 novella as Michael Marshall Smith, and 6 novels as Michael Marshall. His work has also seen print in comic form, with The Straw Men being produced by Zenoscope Entertainment

His work has been published by Subterranean Press, Cemetery Dance, Earthling Publications, the Overlook Connection, and PS Publishing to name but a few.  His works are now widely available in e-format and are published by the respective publishing companies.

Michael’s work has been optioned a number of times for film and television.  He has also worked as a screenwriter, and has collaborated with Stephen Jones on a number of projects.

He is a five-time winner of the British Fantasy Award, winner of the Philip K. Dick Award, and a six-time World Fantasy Award nominee.

His most recent novel was Killer Move, this being a Michael Marshall work.

A question & answer session that promises not to ask “Where do you get your ideas from…”

Firstly I’d like to thank Michael for taking the time to answer some questions from a strange man based in Somerset with delusions about one day running a small press….

SSB: I think I am right in saying this, but none of your novels (aside from The Servants) are set in the UK, is there any reasoning behind this?

MMS: Well, Only Forwardis, in fact — albeit in the future. The novels have all been set in the USA because that’s where they wanted and needed to be set, basically. Either elements of the plot or the underlying theme demanded that setting: and a novel needs to be about a place just as much as it needs to be about people and plot. No other reason.

SSB: Are there any subjects that you have wanted to write about, but felt that the subject matter is too sensitive or provocative to submit for publishing?

MMS: No. If I believed I had a worthwhile take, I’d write about anything. Nothing’s too provocative so long as you’re respectful of the subject matter, and are clear – rather than judgemental or sensationalist – in what you say.

SSB: What are your views on the current state of publishing?  Lots more books are being issued as e-format, and how do you see this affecting the small press houses signed limited editions and so forth?

MMS: I don’t think it will have a huge impact. Some people are always going to love physical books, and the market will continue to support that. I suspect we’ll see a reigning in on the limited editions that don’t really add a great deal bar a signature, but otherwise, the specialist market will continue to thrive, albeit quietly. I fought reading e-books for a long time, but have now started to do so. I’ll always buy special books, and second-hand, and books I know I’ll read over and over again. I prefer the feeling of a real paperback in my hand. But for some non-fiction stuff, and novels I know I’m only going to read once, a e-book works perfectly well… especially in low lighting conditions!

SSB: Looking at TV and film for a moment, your work has been optioned a number of times, and you have written a number of treatments.  Can you give any updates on the state of affairs with these projects?

MMS: Well, like most TV and film projects, it’s a waiting game at the moment. The Intrudersis in development with the BBC as a series, and I’m waiting to see a new script. It’s been a slow process, but they seem committed, and each version I’ve seen has been better than the last. The Straw Menis with a director and production company in LA, and we’re looking to pitch that to TV this month. Hell Hath Enlarged Herselfhas been in film development for a number of years, but seems to have hit the wall for the time being… apart from that, the only thing going on right now is a short film of What Happens When You Wake Up In The Night. I’ve just seen a cut of that, and it looks great. Laterwas also made into a very good short last year by the director Simon Duric… I’m hoping that I’ll get some time this year to turn my attention to getting a few other things up and running — including doing a film adaptation of a short story of mine.

SSB: The hard edged TV drama seems to be in a strong place at the moment, with The Walking Dead, Spiral, American Horror Story, Braquo, Wallander, and The Killing (Danish and US) all doing well.  What is your take on this trend, and what if any of these series gets watched in the MMS household?

MMS: Hard-edged is good, so long… as it’s good. I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t got much TV-watching done in the last year or so, and the only one of those shows that I’ve seen so far is The Walking Dead, which I loved. I’m looking forward to The Killing, when I get round to it…

SSB: Are there any authors out there at present who you feel are putting out innovative and exciting work.

MMS: Sadly, my reading is very, very behind too! I find my fiction-reading drops to next to nothing when I’m writing a novel, and most of 2011 was spent that way. I’m starting to get back into it now… but I haven’t read anything notably innovative for a while. Except, perhaps, for a novel written by a friend of mine which is finding it very hard to find a publisher… which perhaps tells its own story.

SSB: I know you have worked with Steve Jones in the past on some TV work, are there any plans to collaborate with other authors on any other projects?

MMS: Steve’s really the only person I collaborate with — we communicate very well, and I’ve very much enjoyed working on film and TV stuff with him. I just wish some of it had been made! We’re still tinkering with a few things, and I’m hoping to do some work with a director/writer friend of mine in LA this year, but otherwise… to be honest I’ve got enough projects of my own stacked up that I don’t really have time to consider much in the way of collaboration. Time is always the problem…

SSB: The World Horror Convention was held in the UK in 2010, and I believe you were in attendance.  Did you enjoy the event, and do you think that it will come back to the UK shores again anytime soon?

MMS: I was actually on the organising committee for that event, and yes – it was a blast. It was fantastic to see all those writers and fans of horror gathered together on British soil for once, and a lot of work was done, and fun had. I have no idea how long it will be before that particular convention comes back to the UK — that depends on someone else bringing it back, and the committee changes every year — but I do know that the same committee that worked on WHC2010 (including myself) is working on the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton in 2013, and believe me, that convention is going to be even better. If we pull off everything we want to, that’s going to be the con to end all cons.

SSB: What does 2012, and beyond hold for people following your work.  Are there more Michael Marshall, Michael Marshall Smith, or even M M Smith titles in the offing? Also what short story work, or even collections do you have planned?

MMS: I’m just about to start the second draft of the new novel, though I fear that may not be published until early 2013. I’m also going to start putting together a new collection of short fiction, which I hope will come out in the not too distant future… there will be short story appearances here and there, and I really hope this will be the year when I get the time to start working on a Michael Marshall Smith novel that I’ve been nursing for quite some time now… and I have a few other projects simmering that I hope are finally going to come to fruition Watch this space

SSB: A final question – if you were ship wrecked on a desert island what would be the book, movie (assuming you had access to something to view it on), and album you could not be without?

MMS: That’s so hard to answer I can’t choose just one novel, so it’d probably be the OED – I’m fascinated by the history of words, and the cultural stories they tell. The album would be something by Bach, perhaps Barenboim playing the first book of the Well-Tempered Clavier. Movie… that’s too hard. Maybe I’d just plump for THE INCREDIBLES, partly because of the many, many times I’ve watched it with my son, partly because once it’s started, I can never seem to stop watching it…

More info on MMS can be found at http://michaelmarshallsmith.com/

* * *

I’d like Halloween to really come alive within a small town setting (a little like mine in New Zealand) and get into the spirit of things. Have a film screen in each shop/store, place of interest etc, and show an appropriate film. Essential viewing to give children (especially the very young) the best of nightmares.

On the train from Wellington to my town let us have NIGHT OF THE DEMON. Don’t let anyone off the train until the end.

The Toy Shop. Puppets! Bloody scary things. Those porcelain dolls which are supposed to look cute but aren’t. Chucky dolls. And let us not forget the clowns. Show IT.

The Estate Agent. Perched on a hill here in the Wairarapa is the creepiest old colonial style house. Two storey which is uncommon in the countryside. From a distance is stands, quite grandiose, and as you drive closer you see the decrepit exterior, a house crying out to be bought, and repaired. Show THE HAUNTING.

The Old Cinema/Theatre. The 1945 Ealing Studios Portmanteau film with one story about a ventriloquist and his dummy. Film to be: DEAD OF NIGHT.

The Museum. Show HOUSE OF WAX.

The Hotel. THE SHINING. Of course.

The Butcher. Don’t even bother. Put a pig’s head in the window, throw a little blood on the walls, and you are done.

* * *

ISIS UNBOUND is due out in December from Dark Regions Press.

Visit Allyson Bird’s website.

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Here, Simon reminisces about a particularly creepy churchyard from his youth. Be sure to watch the video (below), directed by Clark himself, for a walking tour of the location…

* * *

LET’S GET SCARED

Simon Clark

‘Let’s get scared.’

‘How?’

‘When it gets dark we’ll go to the cemetery. The old one at the church.’

‘Why do we want to get scared?’

‘It’s Halloween, that’s why.’

We were ten years old at the time. Getting scared on Halloween seemed like a brilliant idea. So, me and my friend, Tom, headed off to the medieval church. You can find some terrifically strange gravestones there. Just the perfect venue for two young boys who are eager for a Halloween adventure. You see, Badsworth Church* was routinely used by local kids when they were in the mood for something on the eerie side of frightening.

So as dusk fell we arrived at the church. With perfect timing a thick mist ghosted in from the surrounding fields to engulf the cemetery. To our delight we discovered the fog had become so thick that we couldn’t see each other if we were separated by just a dozen yards. What was even more brilliant (for a couple of ten year olds) was that the gloom and the mist made the tombstones resemble strange, motionless figures – as if the dead had risen from the earth and now stood silently in the dusk.

Perhaps waiting for two reckless adventurers to happen by.

Well, two reckless adventurers did happen by.

Tom and me.

We ran along the graveyard paths hooting out ghost sounds.

Dusk darkened into night.

The mist grew thicker. We could now barely see ten feet in front of us.

Our laughter began to sound forced. We decided – as the last of the daylight died – it would be a good idea to go home now. In fact, it would be a good idea to get right away from this forlorn field of the dead.

We hurried along one of the paths that led to the churchyard gate.

Suddenly, there was a clatter from behind us on the stone path. When we checked we found pieces of broken glass.

‘Someone chucked a jar at us,’ declared Tom.

‘What would they do that for?’ I asked.

‘To scare us.’

‘They didn’t have to do that, I’m already scared.’

My heart beat faster. Suddenly the cemetery seemed vast. The quicker we walked to the gate the less progress we made. It seemed as if the cemetery pathway had become uncannily elongated.

We headed through the mist and the darkness, determined to get out of that suddenly frightening realm.

By now, we could hardly see anything at all. So when the figure loomed out of the darkness we nearly ran into him. We stopped dead.

An old man turned to look at us. His eyes were almost colorless. In truth, they seemed as white as the mist.

‘Wait,’ he grunted. Then he pointed at a headstone. ‘What does it say there?’

Tom was a polite child. So he obediently read from the stone, ‘Alfred Kellett. Died 1^st November, 1936.’

The old man sighed. ‘That’s what I thought it said.’ He stared into the fog. ‘This cemetery is bigger than it looks. I can never find my way out.’

Tom pointed along the path. ‘That’s the way to the village.’

‘I’ll try,’ he grunted in such an unsettling, pain-stricken way. ‘I’ll try.’

When you’re ten, when you’ve reveled in the mist-swirling weirdness of an ancient cemetery, that’s when you’re prepared to believe the impossible. Right then, we believed that Tom had had been asked by the old gentleman to read what was written on his own tombstone. And now, the ghost was trying to find his way home.

‘Let’s get scared,’ Tom had suggested.

Well, in my book, we’d succeeded in achieving exactly that.

We fled from the graveyard. We ran all the way home. When we felt safe we started screaming. Of course, we were laughing and screaming at the same time, as if it had all been a big joke, and we weren’t really scared, were we?

Of course, with mature hindsight, I can just claim it was coincidence that a short-sighted gent asked Tom to read what was on the gravestone.

But, if all these years later, I walked into the same churchyard at dusk, and I found an old man staring at the gravestone, trying to read the name carved there, I might well turn round.

And I just might run as fast as I did when I was ten years old.

* * *

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

*If you’re feeling brave… if you can handle more eerie stuff, try ‘A Child’s Dominion’. This pint-sized horror movie features Badsworth Church’s atmospheric graveyard in ‘Let’s Get Scared’. Take a deep breath, clench your fists, and watch…

Simon Clark’s latest book is Blood & Grit 21, an e-collection of hard-hitting horror fiction, complete with photographs and an afterword that reveals the story behind the stories. See bloodandgrit.com

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What he hasn’t done is write anything particularly Halloweenish. And here he explains why…

* * *

Halloween.

It’s a funny thing, but though I’ve been horror writer – or sometime writer of horror – for over twenty years (holy cow, time does pass when you’re not looking, doesn’t it), I don’t believe I’ve ever written anything set at Halloween.

I realize that I don’t even think of Halloween as being a horror thing, strangely, despite the fact that a film of that title is my favourite horror movie of all time, its soundtrack providing the ringtone for every phone I’ve owned since it was possible to influence what noise they make. Time has passed there, too: at first the best I could do on whatever tinny piece of nonsense I owned was laboriously program in the sequence of tones – resulting in something that sounded like a series of very small but conveniently-pitched mice being hit in sequence with a mallet. Now the original soundtrack comes singing out of my glorious iPhone. In a few years, assuming that the passing of its genius spirit doesn’t hobble Apple too appallingly, I’ll be able to have a little hologram of John Carpenter actually playing the HALLOWEEN theme, spinning in the air two feet above the phone.

Writing this, as I am, a few days after Steve Jobs’ death, I suppose what I’m getting at is that for me Halloween seems to stand to one side of horror, and not just because of worthy tediousness to do with it being part of a long tradition of blah blah blah. Yes of course it’s spooky, dripping with all the traditional iconography, but it’s also possessed of a kind of manic glee (the capering witches, the darting ghosts, the lunatic screams of children in the throes of sugar rushes); combined with something else – the quiet, silent intensity you find in the slow flicker of the candle inside the pumpkin, or the still tableaus you’ll see outside people’s houses as you drive by in the silent, overcast afternoon. Halloween oscillates between these two poles, and so do we.

We do so much stuff in our lives – rushing back and forth and starting jobs and leaving them and going on vacation and falling in love and getting divorced and buying and selling houses and having kids and shouting at them and being shouted at by them and somewhere in between learning to love them more than anything else in the world. Then comes the afternoon when all that ends, when you’re lying in a bed somewhere as the air seems to get still and heavy around you, terrifying and yet also comforting, as the world darkens around the edges and the simplest, oldest parts of you realize it’s time to leave this all behind, all the sound and fury, and get on with the next thing.

All that movement. And then all that stillness.

Maybe that’s why I’ve never yet tried to write about Halloween. It’s too big. It’s all of life. Somewhere between those two extremes we stand, and eat candy, and smile at each other, and watch our kids go nuts. It’s a dark marriage where every single one of us is bride or groom, entering a bond with our mortality, and accepting it – but deciding, for tonight at least, to dance.

- Michael Marshall Smith

www.michaelmarshallsmith.com

When a new writer joins a workshop, they often run smack into a wall of ruls. No head-hopping! Kill all adverbs! Third person only!

Usually, the ones spouting those rules are semi-new writers, the ones who have absorbed these absolutes through critiques, but who have not yet figured out which rules are really necessary. Their intentions are good. The problem is, they don’t necessarily understand the reasons behind those rules. Worse, they sometimes mistake stylistic choices (omniscient POV) with genuine errors (sloppy POV shifts).

In truth, the only genuine rule is: “Whatever works.”

Otherwise? Rules are nothing but obstacles. They trip you up, stifle your voice, and tie your inspiration into moldy wet knots. When someone says, You must, ask them, Why?

Pay Attention To The Rules

This is not a contradiction. What the phrase really means is that it’s useful to know the so-called rules because they often turn out to be useful guidelines. But! Use those guidelines wisely. Learn the reasons behind them. (Too much head-hopping might confuse the reader. Strong, specific verbs make for stronger prose. Choose the POV that works best for your particular story, not the one that comes easiest.)

Discard the rules whenever it makes your story stronger, but know why you are making that choice.

Write What You Know

If you were born in a particular city, grew up in a particular culture, lived through the history of a particular time and place, you know that complex tapestry of taste and scent, images and emotions, and all the other myriad details that transform your story from the superficial to the real.

Know What You Write

At the same time, you should not restrict yourself to the confines of your gender, race, or past. (Or any other identification.) If you decide to write outside your so-called boundaries, however, research is your friend. Use primary sources, not secondary accounts. Don’t depend on one set of opinions. Look for contradictory perspectives. If you can, talk with people who lived through those events. Extrapolate from your own experiences to fill in emotional details. And did I mention research?

If you choose to write about a world outside your own, do so with respect.

Write What Bothers You

Be suspicious of that first idea, the one that comes slipping into your imagination as though it were coated in olive oil. Sure, that might end up being the right approach to a story. Then again, maybe it’s easy because it’s superficial, because it slides over the rough patches.

Look for the story that chases you through your dreams, and itches at your subconscious. Those are the stories that will live longest with your readers, too.

Write What Makes You Happy

Or rather, write the kind of story that speaks to your heart. If you love intricate mysteries, write them. If you love slow-paced character studies, write them. If YA stories are your deepest, truest love, then dive right in. Whatever calls to you, write that. Never, ever, let anyone tell you what kind of story you ought to care about.

Be Arrogant

Your stories are important. Your stories—yes, yours—will lift someone’s heart, make them laugh, make them think, and comfort them when they grieve. Your stories will transport them into worlds and lives they never imagined before. You are the only one who can tell those stories properly. So write, and be damned the ones who tell you otherwise.

Be Humble

Understand that writing is not a short journey. There is no end to the learning, to improving your craft. Complacency kills the writer more often than editors, critics, or indifferent readers. Forget your ego. It’s a trap. All you should care about is making your story as strong and true as you can.

Remember To Breathe

Writing can be a lonely, frustrating process. And when it’s not lonely, it’s often filled with criticism. If things get rough—and they can—talk to your writer friends. Pet your cat. (Or dog. Or parrot.) Search for the balance point inside your soul.

Breathe. 

And remember the joy of telling stories.

Beth Bernobich is a writer, reader, mother, and geek. Her short stories have appeared in such publications as Asimov’s, Tor.com, Interzone, Strange Horizons, and Postscripts. Her first novel, Passion Play, appeared from Tor Book in October 2010. It won the RT Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Epic Fantasy, and was long-listed for Tiptree Award and the British Fantasy Award. Her first YA novel, Fox and Phoenix, is forthcoming from Viking in October 2011. You can learn more about her from her website, http://www.beth-bernobich.com.

Blurb

Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe.

Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, the sea of space and time below the everyday, now returned to her birth planet. Here on Arieka, humans are not the only intelligent life, and Avice has a rare bond with the natives, the enigmatic Hosts – who cannot lie.

Only a tiny cadre of unique human Ambassadors can speak Language, and connect the two communities. But an unimaginable new arrival has come to Embassytown. And when this Ambassador speaks, everything changes.

Catastrophe looms. Avice knows the only hope is for her to speak directly to the alien Hosts.

And that is impossible.

Review

There is no doubt that China Miéville has a lot to live up to with his latest novel Embassytown.China is after all a three-time winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award as well as a winner of the British Fantasy Award twice. The great thing about Miéville is that you know you can expect something different with every novel that he writes.

Embassytown is science fiction with a literary twist, and Miéville finally gets a chance to write what he knows best within this novel: language. Anyone familiar with his work will know that Miéville has a definite passion and love of language – the words he uses throughout his novels sometimes leave you reaching for the dictionary, aching to discover just what the hell Miéville is trying to say.

It was only a few months ago that I reviewed The City and The City by Miéville, with it being the only novel of his that I have read so far, it is all that I have to compare Embassytown with. I had expected, with me not being much of science fiction reader, to struggle to understand Embassytown the way I struggled with The City and The City. However, I was very surprised to find Embassytown a much easier read.

The thing that makes you understand Embassytown more than anything else is the character of Avice. The novel is told from a first-person perspective, through the eyes of Avice, an immerser who travels the universe only to find that she has fallen for someone from another planet, and together they decide to return back to her home of Embassytown. There are many events that unfold throughout, but we witness it exactly as Avice does, and it is up to her to explain them to us just as she is figuring them out for herself. I found Avice an extremely likeable character, and I often find myself turning page after page as I became immersed in her world.

Embassytown is home to not only humans like Avice but other races as well, and most particularly the native aliens known as the Hosts, who speak Language. There are only a small group of genetically-engineered people in Embassytown that can speak Language and communicate with the Hosts, and these are known as the Ambassadors – each Ambassador is two clones which when speaking together can emulate the sounds of the Hosts and are able to hold conversations with them in order to keep the peace of Embassytown.

The problem with these Hosts is that they are unable to speak any kind of lie. It is through the help of Avice and others that they gradually learn to lie, but this together with the arrival of a new Ambassador, makes life as they know it in Embassytown change forever.

As you can probably tell, it is a very difficult storyline to try to explain, and I have failed a couple of times when trying to describe it to my friends. Before I started reading Embassytown , and I read the blurb, I don’t think I even understood then what it was really about. But the way Miéville has written it through the eyes of Avice, it becomes a lot easier to get your head around, I assure you!

I have never read anything like Embassytown before, and I’m sure I never will again. Miéville never fails to astound me with how creative and imaginative it is when it comes to writing his novels, and just how original his work actually is. I think Embassytown will be a lot more accessible to science fiction lovers than perhaps his other books have been in the past. Miéville really has proved himself as one of the best genre writers of modern times.

Embassytown is ultimately a story of survival. Of several races trying to co-exist in one place together, of trying to bridge the gap of communication and live peacefully. It makes you think about the importance of language and the way we use it. You will question things you never dared question before, and you will look at language and people in a whole new light.

If I am honest I would say that I much preferred The City and The City to Embassytown, but ultimately that could be because I loved the infusion of crime and science fiction within The City and The City, despite it being the harder read of the two. However, I have no doubt in my mind that science fiction lovers will devour Embassytown and be left in awe after turning the last page.

I can only imagine what China Miéville will come up with next…

Embassytown is published 6th May 2011 by Pan Macmillan and is being released alongside his backlist, which now have all brand new covers!

To read my review of The City and The City click here.

Rating: 

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Gav Reads: Embassytown

Are they right? Probably a bit. If you lined up all the coverage the Times has done of male “literary” authors versus female “literary” authors in the last five-ten years, I’m sure the males outnumber the females substantially. And certainly, the non-white authors have a hard time in lily pale Anglo media getting as much coverage as their white counterparts, though some of them do. Certainly an effort is being made to counter this trend in these publications, but it’s at the usual slow, glacial pace.

But the real problem in this particular case  is not that Franzen’s book is getting a lot of attention, which was only to be expected given his track record. The real problem is that the way publishers used to publicize books and print media used to review them — the imaginary social class  system of literary versus commercial that was inherited from the 19th and early 20th centuries — is increasingly useless to people today. That system relies on perpetuating the statistically incorrect  idea that the masses, being poorly educated and unsophisticated peasants, will buy commercial stories in droves, creating bestsellers, while the educated elite, the ones who read The New York Times Book Review and The New Yorker, keep literary works of fiction barely alive.  Why would they do this? To sell books, both as racy “commercial” fare to those who think they are in the lower classes, and “you’ll look so smart” literary fare to those who think they are in the upper classes or want to be, and so will also read certain forms of “literary” print media. Everyone knows that whether a book is considered to be or marketed as literary or commercial has very little to do with whether it becomes a bestseller or not, but the genius in the gutter versus the hack in the mansion myth is still clung to with a strength that makes younger readers  and critics shake their heads in puzzlement.

What Weiner and Picoult are actually facing is the old-fashioned view in publishing and among print media that only a tiny minority of women can be literary writers compared to men. When Helen Fielding wrote The Diary of Bridget Jones, a scathingly satiric, fun, cleverly structured literary novel, and it became a bestseller, publishers and the media did not instantly think, hey lets use this to show we’re in the age of interesting women writers. Instead, the media dubbed any contemporary novel written by a female about a female as “chick lit” — commercial and a passing fad, easily dismissed, and publishers obliged by slapping romance style pastel covers on any book they had that might fit, regardless of its content or the author’s writing style. And so Weiner, who writes contemporary satiric dramedies about women, and Picoult, who writes dramatic contemporary novels about controversial topics, find themselves largely locked out of the publicity channels reserved mainly for literary authors, male or female, such as the New York Times. (The other publicity channels are open to authors of all stripes.)

Is Franzen a more literary writer than Weiner and Picoult? That’s a subjective assessment and in the precarious world of social class, a potentially fragile one. Like Weiner and Picoult, Franzen’s The Corrections was a bestseller that then also became nominated for the National Book Award. Then the book got selected by Oprah Winfrey for her television book club. This threw Franzen into a panic because Oprah, getting her female viewers to buy various novels, would potentially make Franzen look too commercial, and he could then lose the NBA. So he announced he was thinking of declining the book club endorsement, which threw his publisher into a panic.  Oprah got so angry that, even though she let a chastened Franzen on to her show, she shut down the book club altogether for new fiction for years. Franzen’s sales climbed further up the bestseller ranks with Oprah’s word of mouth, and he still managed to win the National Book Award — which also increased his sales. But the main point is that as long as books are declared unwelcome because their publisher gave them a pastel cover, their actual worth as literature is not really being assessed one way or another. And many, many books with pastel covers will never be bestsellers either.

In my view, Weiner and Picoult were wrong to use Franzen as their example of the problem, and the issues are bigger than simply male versus female writers. That doesn’t mean, though, that female authors aren’t still having to climb bigger hills than their male counterparts throughout the fiction world, (despite recent claims by some that females are taking over fiction publishing and fiction writing.) For instance, the British Fantasy Award — I was astonished to learn today that only one female writer has ever won the Award for Best Novel, Tanith Lee for Death’s Master in 1980. This oddity becomes even stranger when you look at the other winners of nearly thirty years of this award and discover that Ramsey Campbell won the award seven times, and that Stephen King, Michael Moorcock and Graham Joyce have all won it  four times apiece. Over half the awards went to four white guys? Clearly the British Fantasy Award voters like their horror novels, and the difficulty of women to make much headway in horror up until recently is well known. But I find this statistic more disturbing than Franzen getting two New York Times book reviews.

Kim Newman

His awards include, but are not restricted to, a Bram Stoker, an International Horror Guild Award, a British Fantasy Award, a British Science Fiction Award. If you haven’t read Red Reign, or The Man from the Diogenes Club, or The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club … or indeed anything he’s written, then kindly go and correct this omission forthwith. Off you go, we’ll wait.

Okay, now they’ve gone … here are the stray questions Mr Newman was kind enough to answer.

1. Christopher Lee: best screen vampire ever – discuss.
He’s in my top five, with Max Schreck, Delphine Seyrig, Lina Leandersson and Mariclare Costello.

2. Anno Dracula came from …
A footnote in an extended essay on turn of the century apocalyptic literature I wrote for a course called Late Victorian Revolt at the University of Sussex in 1979.

3. A story can always be improved by the removal of …
Excess words. Except sometimes, when prolixity is the point.

4. The best Hammer Horror Heroine was …
Angharad Rees in Hands of the Ripper. And, having worked with her, she’s just as lovely in person and didn’t stick hatpins into anyone. Unlike some other scream queens.

5. Donuts or danishes?
Ah, we call them doughnuts here. My favoured pastry is Pains aux Raisins*, which I get from the cafe on the corner in Islington. I understand the cafe gets them from Belgium.

His official website is here.

* There is no truth to the rumour that he keeps China Miéville at bay with the raisins. Okay, I started the rumour.

Of course, for me it would have been better if my story was nominate but that’s okay. And it’s too bad that some of the reviews really just recapped the book and my story didn’t make much of a splash. Pooh. I liked it but perhaps the most informative review was a very late, after the fact one, where the reviewer decided to leave his notes as haiku, partly because it was so late. The one which I’m sure was for “The Fathomless World” said something like, “more style than substance.”  That would be the middle line of the haiku if you count “style as a two-syllable word.

So it goes. I thought it had substance but I also did it in a mythic style. I continue to send works out and work on new ones. Unfortunately the whole economic crisis has affected story markets to the point that I’m thinking I should just be working on my novel and skip the stories right now. For speculative fiction, whether horror, fantasy, science fiction or other, there are not a lot of markets to submit to right now. Some have gone the way of the dodo, while the majority of the pro markets (those that pay five cents a word or more) are closed to submissions or on hiatus. A sad state indeed.

And it’s always been a sad state that the pay for speculative fiction has been so low. Definitely not a make-a-living type of wage. Literary markets as a whole tend to pay somewhat better but many of them also pay the equivalent of $100 a story, which many anthologies do. Some literary markets pay anywhere from $15-40 a printed page, which again could work out to the same amount.

Why do we write then? For fame? Partly, though that’s a long hard road. Hardly for fortune. And maybe most of all, because we love words and our minds just keep filling with them and we want to tell a story and share in the mysteries of what-if. And not onto the shortlisted works for the British Fantasy Award.

BEST ANTHOLOGY

Cone Zero(DF Lewis) Megazanthus Press
Myth-Understandings (Ian Whates) Newcon Press
Subtle Edens (Allen Ashley) Elastic Press
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 19 (Stephen Jones) Constable & Robinson
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror(Ian Alexander Martin) Humdrumming
We Fade To Grey(Gary McMahon) Pendragon Press

BEST NOVEL (THE AUGUST DERLETH FANTASY AWARD)

Memoirs of a Master Forger(William Heaney/Graham Joyce) Gollancz
Midnight Man (Simon Clark) Severn House
Rain Dogs(Gary McMahon) Humdrumming
The Graveyard Book(Neil Gaiman) Bloomsbury
The Victoria Vanishes (Christopher Fowler) Little Brown
Thieving Fear (Ramsey Campbell) PS Publishing

THE PS PUBLISHING BEST SMALL PRESS AWARD

Elastic Press (Andrew Hook)
Newcon Press (Ian Whates)
Pendragon Press (Chris Teague)
Screaming Dreams (Steve Upham)
TTA Press (Andy Cox)

BEST COLLECTION

Bull Running for Girls (Allyson Bird) Screaming Dreams
Glyphotech(Mark Samuels) PS Publishing
How To Make Monsters(Gary McMahon) Morrigan Books
Islington Crocodiles(Paul Meloy) TTA Press
Just After Sunset(Stephen King) Hodder & Stoughton

BEST NOVELLA

“Cold Stone Calling” (Simon Clark) Tasmaniac Publications
“Gunpowder” (Joe Hill) PS Publishing
“Heads” (Gary McMahon) We Fade To Grey, Ed. Gary McMahon – Pendragon Press
“The Narrows” (Simon Bestwick) We Fade To Grey, Ed. Gary McMahon – Pendragon Press
“The Reach of Children” (Tim Lebbon) Humdrumming

BEST SHORT FICTION

“All Mouth” (Paul Meloy) Black Static 6, Ed. Andy Cox – TTA Press
“Do You See” (Sarah Pinborough) Myth-Understandings, Ed. Ian Whates – Newcon Press
“N” (Stephen King) Just After Sunset – Hodder & Stoughton
“Pinholes in Black Muslin” (Simon Strantzas) The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror, Ed. Ian Alexander Martin – Humdrumming
“The Caul Bearer” (Allyson Bird) Bull Running For Girls – Screaming Dreams
“The Tobacconist’s Concession” (John Travis) The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror, Ed. Ian Alexander Martin – Humdrumming
“The Vague” (Paul Meloy) Islington Crocodiles, TTA Press
“Winter Journey” (Joel Lane) Black Static 5, Ed. Andy Cox – TTA Press

BEST COMIC/GRAPHIC NOVEL

30 Days of Night: Beyond Barrow(Steve Niles/Bill Sienkiewicz) IDW Publishing
All-Star Superman(Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely) DC Comics
Buffy Season Eight Vol. 3: Wolves at the Gate(Joss Whedon & Drew Goddard/ Georges Jeanty) Dark Horse Comics
Comic Book Tattoo Tales Inspired by Tori Amos(Ed, Rantz A. Hoseley & Tori Amos/ Various) Image Comics
Hellblazer: Fear Machine (Jamie Delano) Vertigo
Hellblazer: The Laughing Magician(Andy Diggle/Leonardo Manco & Daniel Zezelj) Vertigo
Locke and Key(Joe Hill/Gabriel Rodriguez) IDW Publishing
The Girly Comic Book 1 (Ed, Selina Lock) Factor Fiction
The New Avengers: Illuminati(Brian Bendis & Brian Reed/Jim Cheung) Marvel Comics

BEST ARTIST

Dave McKean (The Graveyard Book) Bloomsbury
Edward Miller (Vault of Deeds) PS Publishing
Lee Thompson (The Land at the End of the Working Day) Humdrumming
Les Edwards (Various)
Vincent Chong (Various)

BEST NON-FICTION

Basil Copper: A Life in Books (Basil Copper, Ed, Stephen Jones) PS Publishing
Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale (Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook) BBC Books
journal.neilgaiman.com (Neil Gaiman)
Mutant Popcorn(Nick Lowe) Interzone – TTA Press
What Is It We Do When We Read Science Fiction(Paul Kincaid) Beccon Publications

BEST MAGAZINE

Black Static(Andy Cox) TTA Press
Interzone(Andy Cox et. al.) TTA Press
Midnight Street(Trevor Denyer)
Postscripts(Peter Crowther & Nick Gevers) PS Publishing
SFX (Dave Bradley) Future Publishing Limited

BEST TELEVISON

Battlestar Galactica (NBC)
Dead Set(Zeppotron/Channel 4)
Dexter (Clyde Phillips Productions)
Doctor Who (BBC Wales)
Supernatural (Warner Bros TV)

BEST FILM

Cloverfield (Matt Reeves)
Iron Man(Jon Favreau)
The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
The Mist(Frank Darabont)
The Orphanage(Juan Antonio Bayona)

(With thanks to SFWA for supplying the list.)

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