Review | Death's Head Day of the Damned by David Gunn (Bantam)

Title: Death's Head Day of the Damned
Author: David Gunn
Publisher: Bantam
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 400
Release Date: June 18th 2009

Lieutenant Sven Tveskoeg is a killing machine whose DNA marks him out as less – or perhaps more – than human.

He’s survived everything a hostile universe can throw at him, but it’s not luck that’s kept him alive. A lucky man wouldn’t be picked out of obscurity to serve in the army of his Emperor, OctoV, a machine-human hybrid who appears to be a teenage boy but is actually immeasurably older. Maybe Sven’s survived out of sheer bloody-mindedness (although let’s not forget his enhanced healing abilities and preternatural strength).

He and his squad of auxiliaries are in Farlight, capital of the Octavian Empire, for a bit of R & R. But the emperor is missing and what begin as riots soon turn to slaughter as civil unrest erupts into civil war. And behind the double-crosses and Byzantine betrayals that threaten to topple OctoV from his throne is, of course, the U/Free, a galaxy-spanning empire with the technology of gods and the morals of schoolchildren. As anarchy takes over, Sven could choose stay low and do nothing. But when has he ever done anything that sensible?

Once again we join Sven Tveskoeg in another Death's Head book, and after thoroughly enjoying the first, Death's Head (review), and the second, Maximum Offense (review), I was very eager to see where this one would take the series. After two books that delivered an excellent first person, stripped down prose with more action than you could shake a bazooka at, I was hoping that Day of the Damned would deliver more of the same, but with some new elements to keep it fresh. I was very pleased when it did all, but felt it may have been at a cost.

We start Day of the Damned with a little prologue with General Jaxx while he is waiting to meet OctoV, but he doesn't show. This little scene sets up the story quite nicely, with OctoV apparently missing and General Jaxx the obvious figure at which to direct unrest on the Octovian Empire. We then catch up with Sven, taking leave on Farlight, the capital of the Empire, although the leave he is on comes to an abrupt end when civil unrest threatens the throne that OctoV has held for millenia. Although visiting friends away from the city, a chain of events is put in motion when the life of Vijayy Jaxx is put in danger and Sven must get back to Farlight and join up with the Aux to tackle the ever-growing problems there. Not only this, but the political maneuverings of the U/Free - a galaxy wide civilisation - are starting to bring down the empire that Sven knows and serves.

What I liked about Day of the Damned is that it still keeps the first person view and the focus on the gritty and violent that I enjoyed so much in the first two. Not only that, but the political aspect is coming more into its own this time around and has a bigger role in the story. The only trouble with this is that Sven is our eyes and ears as we progress through the story - he freely admits that the political side of things is of no interest to him. David Gunn uses and excellent analogy for this, that when someone tries to teach Sven to play chess he quite simply puts it that he "doesn't play the long game". While this viewpoint has worked well up to now, I felt that it didn't really help that side of the story this time around, especially with the plot revolving around these aspects, although this is one aspect of Sven that he is consciously aware of and tries to work around this.

One of the other things that caught me out was the lack of the Aux - they don't appear in the first half of the story and the character and team building that was done in Maximum Offense didn't feel like it was paying off as much as I was hoping. That isn't to say it doesn't - when the Aux turn up they fall in very nicely with the story and I felt at home with them almost immediately. Despite this, I felt that Day of the Damned was much more focused on Sven after the detour of the second book that focused on the team more. This is good as Sven is one of those characters that you can't help to like and I wouldn't be reading a third book in a series if the main character didn't work.

One of the other things that Gunn has done so well is convey the bleakness of a civil war. With Farlight plunged into civil unrest we get a street view of events and I can fully believe that this would happen. It feels both depressing and frightening to know that, although this is fiction, this is the sort of thing that would happen given the chance, that people would behave like this. What makes this hit home even harder is the casual way Sven shrugs it off - he's seen worse and has lived through it. This just makes me realise that despite the enjoyment I've had from reading the Death's Head books, both Sven and the stories are dark entities, but Gunn has used them to give us good, entertaining stories.

To be completely honest, this wasn't as good as the previous two, but that's not to say it isn't good - it is. I enjoyed the new political aspects here but felt that, overall, they detracted from the enjoyment of reading from Sven's view. The ending has been left in such a way that it could go many places from here - all of which could deliver more of everything that makes the Death's Head novels so good.

Overall rating: 7/10

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

Book Haul 16/07/09

I've been getting a little restless with books this week and although I've got two on the go that I'm enjoying to an extent, I just wanted to get some more! Before the ones I bought today, here are a couple that have come through the post, both of which I'm really looking forward to reading:

The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks (Transworld)
I won this limited edition hardcover through twitter and I'm so chuffed with it! I heard good things when it was released a few years ago, but now I'm finally able to sink my teeth into it! Here's the blurb:

In the shadows of our modern society, an ancient conflict between good and evil is being fought. A life-and-death battle we will never see, between those who wish to control history and those who will risk their lives for freedom and enlightenment…
Los Angeles: A city where you have to work hard to live beneath the surface. Gabriel and Michael Corrigan are trying to do just that. Since childhood, the brothers have been shaped by the stories that their mystical father, a man of strange powers and intuition, has told them about the world in which they live. After his violent death, they have been living ‘off the grid’ – that is, invisible to the intricate surveillance networks that monitor our modern lives.
London: Maya, a tough and feisty young woman, is playing at being a citizen, is playing at leading a normal life. But her background is anything but. Trained to fight since she was a young girl, she is the last in a long line whose duty is to protect the gifted among us. When she is summoned to Prague by her ailing father, she learns that Gabriel and Michael’s lives are in danger and are in desperate need of protection.
Prague: Nathan Boone, a disciplined and amoral mercenary, watches Maya leave the meeting with her father before brutally killing him. Tasked to hunt down the brothers, he tracks Maya as she seeks to fulfil what turns out to be her father’s last command. When Maya flies to California to find them, an extraordinary chase begins, the final running battle in the war which will reveal the secret history of our time…
The Traveller: What lies ahead is already here . . .

Cadian Blood by Aaron Dembski-Bowden (Black Library)
It's a Warhammer 40k book - that's good in itself. What's even better is that that it's a Zombie Warhammer 40k book. Zombies, woot! Enough said ;)

When the Imperial shrine world of Kathur is blighted by Chaos, the brave Guardsmen of Cadia are sent to reclaim it. The plague of Nurgle has set in deeply on the planet, forcing the Cadians into battle with an innumerable legion of the infected. In the midst of battle, Captain Parmenion Thade is thrust into an unlikely commanding role. Yet, he cannot imagine what lies ahead on Kathur, and just how important it will be to ensure victory there…

And now for my lovely purchases!

Tau Zero is by Poul Anderson and is a book I've seen before but never picked up. With the latest release from Gollancz as part of their Totally Space Opera series it was only a matter of time. So, it's a nice short book so will be read soon! The second I picked up is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. I've heard of it before and just could not resist seeing what it's like. I've never read a Jane Austen book, but if it's got zombies it can't be all bad! Really looking forward to reading this one!

I also picked up the first two Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer, mainly for my wife who has started the first after borrowing it from a friend and she is loving it. I got them in a buy one get one free, so can't complain!

Event | God of Clocks Launch

The Directors of Tor UK invite you to celebrate the launch of:

GOD OF CLOCKS by Alan Campbell

‘A theological fantasy with echoes of Gormenghast is both spellbinding and literary… I was left in the delicious dilemma of wanting Campbell to write more about his invented world or just invent a wholly new one instead.’ Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday

At a reading and Q&A discussion at Waterstone’s West End , 128 Princes Street , Edinburgh , EH2 4AD

On Thursday 23rd July, 6pm

For more information and to book a (free) ticket, call the store on 0131 226 2666 or pop in and speak to a member of staff

Review | Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi (Tor UK)

Title: Zoe's Tale
Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor UK
Format: Paperback
Pages: 335
Release Date: June 5th 2009

How do you tell your part in the biggest tale in history? I ask because it's what I have to do. I'm Zoe Boutin Perry: A colonist stranded on a deadly pioneer world. Holy icon to a race of aliens. A player (and a pawn) in a interstellar chess match to save humanity, or to see it fall. Witness to history. Friend. Daughter. Human.

Seventeen years old.

Everyone on Earth knows the tale I am part of. But you don't know my tale: How I did what I did — how I did what I had to do — not just to stay alive but to keep you alive, too. All of you. I'm going to tell it to you now, the only way I know how: not straight but true, the whole thing, to try make you feel what I felt: the joy and terror and uncertainty, panic and wonder, despair and hope. Everything that happened, bringing us to Earth, and Earth out of its captivity. All through my eyes. It's a story you know. But you don't know it all.

Zoe's Tale is the fourth novel from John Scalzi set in his Old Man's War universe (Old Mans War (review), The Ghost Brigades (review), The Last Colony (review)), although this time we have another viewpoint. Previously we've followed either John Perry or his wife, Jane, but in Zoe's Tale we get what the title make obvious - the story of Zoe, their adopted daughter. We also have another first in that the events of Zoe's Tale run parallel to those in The Last Colony. So, does Zoe's Tale live up to the promise of Scalzi's previous novels? Is Scalzi able to write as effectively as a 17 year old girl? Does the book work when we're getting a story re-told? The answer to all of these is a resounding yes!

I won't lie - I'm a big fan of John Scalzi and find his writing compulsive reading, but the thought of reading a story following events that I had already followed didn't do much for me. Perhaps this is why I didn't import the US hardback when it was released last year, although I feel that the wait I had between The Last Colony and Zoe's Tale was needed. If I had read both of them back to back I think I would have been a little less likely to enjoy it as much with all events fresh in my mind. The break between them allowed the time needed and it let me come to this with a fresh perspective.

Basically, John and Jane are asked to lead the first colony world founded by current colonists (rather than Earth natives). With a threat from the Conclave - a gathering of races now turning towards more peaceful solutions than the fighting that has gone on for many, many years - to all other races not a member that any colony founding will be dealt with by, if necessary, deadly force. John, Jane and Zoe are thrown into the deep end of the Colonial Union politics. Zoe, a person regarded by the Obin as a figure of near-messiah status due to her fathers work, is seventeen year old trying to settle into new colony life after leaving everything she knew behind. And this is how we see it - through her eyes, seeing things that a teenager does that adults don;t necessarily pick up on.

As we see things from Zoe's side it gives the opposite viewpoint to the military one we had in The Last Colony. We also get to find out a little more about events that took place during The Last Colony that weren't fully covered in the book, or events in the previous book that have some follow on side-events here. These are mainly minor, from the children's point of view of the strange attempts at breaking into the village, the attacks on the village and, ultimately, the arrival of the Conclave. The biggest addition is the time Zoe spends apart from her parents in trying to find a solution to the whole Conclave/Colonial Union problem. This is outlined in The Last Colony, but getting to see it first hand and experiencing everything properly certainly adds to the story.

Scalzi once again delivers an excellent story with great characters. Yes, the viewpoint is not one you'd expect from an author who has given us some pretty great military sci-fi books, but it works. In a book where the main downside is that it's reliving previously told events - which isn't as bad as it sounds, not by a long shot - John Scalzi has given us a story with everything he's known for in his typical flair. Very highly recommended!

Overall rating: 9/10

Buy from: Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

TV Show | Virtuality Pilot

Virtuality is a pilot episode from one of the guys behind Battlestar Galactica, Ronald D Moore. I've been watching Galactica and I'm now on season 3 and enjoying it, so when I heard about Virtuality I was interested enough to make sure I took a look at it.


What we've got in Virtuality is a near future sci-fi drama based upon the first ship capable of interstellar travel - the Phaeton. On a 10 year mission to Epsilon Eridani and coming towards the go/no-go point near Neptune, we follow the crew as they go about their daily lives while relaxing using the virtual environments available to them on board. These environments seem like the real thing and various programs are chosen by each crew member as their form of escape from the confines of the ship. Not only that, but the whole mission is being filmed as a reality-type show by two of the crew members as part of the sponsorship that funded the ship.

However, as we follow each crew member in their personal spaces a recurring person seems to be in the programs with them. No one knows why, or who they are, but as conversation about this isn't readily bought up until later in the show we are left guessing ourselves. Combine this with the impending go/no-go choice the commander has to make, the fact that we're told Earth has less than 100 years before it becomes uninhabitable due to global warming, and a serious medical condition in one of the crew arising and we have a very interesting concept.

Personally, I enjoyed this very much. Not only is the situation an interesting element of the show, but the characters are engaging and I want to know more about them while discovering more about the mission, the ship and the nature of the planet Earth they have left behind and the star system they are heading to. Most of all, I want to know what is happening with the virtual reality programs and how this affects the crew when it is there only escape.

Despite enjoying it, I can't help but feel that it would soon run out of story if it had been picked up as a series. With only twelve characters, and in a limited environment, the possibilities are far from endless. Perhaps this is one of the reasons it hasn't been commissioned for a full show, although if it were set up as a mini-series it could effectively tell the story that needs to be told without becoming stale.

It's regrettable that good sci-fi shows like this are developed only to be dropped before getting a proper chance to shine, but when the tv stations want a hit they won't put the time and effort into a show that will require involvement and development to fully hit it's potential.

In the end, worth watching and enjoyable. A good example of thoughtful sci-fi that doesn't require big action set pieces to leave an impression.