Did not finish… 'The Wolves of London' - Mark Morris (Titan Books)

Alex Locke is a reformed ex-con forced into London's criminal underworld for one more job. He agrees to steal a priceless artefact - a human heart carved from the blackest obsidian - but when the burglary goes horribly wrong, Alex is plunged into the nightmarish world of the Wolves of London, unearthly assassins who will stop at nothing to reclaim the heart. As he races to unlock the secrets of the mysterious object, Alex must learn to wield its dark power - or be destroyed by it.

So, the first post for October is a 'did not finish'… If I'd got my act together this post would have probably featured around the middle of last month but a heck of a lot has been happening and the blog has suffered the most in terms of what has my attention (probably because, out of everything, the blog really doesn't care if I ignore it for a few days and that's the way it should be). I'm also finding it really difficult to focus on more than a few pages at a time (which is killing me, I love reading) which isn't really conducive to blog posting either. I keep plugging away though :o)

But the book, the book… I picked up 'The Wolves of London' with high hopes that eventually came to nothing and resulted in a 'did not finish'.

I live in London and it's a place that was made to be an Urban Fantasy/Horror setting with its haphazard sprawl and attendant myths and legends all helping to provide a setting full of inspiration. Hence the high hopes then and, to begin with, 'Wolves' looked like it was going to deliver with an engaging lead and a set of intriguing questions punctuated with otherworldly violence. All good, right? 

Well, it would have been all good if Morris could have kept up that early promise of fast paced action with his own slightly weird (but very unsettling) take on Urban Fantasy. If he had, this would be an entirely different post. This is the post it is though and some moments of really intense and creepy fear were cancelled out, for me, by a tendency for the prose to linger (where it needed to keep that frantic pace) and an inescapable feeling that 'Wolves' was treading overly familiar ground in terms of this particular sub-genre. I try to be forgiving of things like that but that forgiveness only goes so far when I want a book to hold my attention (instead of feeling like I'm reading the same book over and over again...) 

I read the first couple of hundred pages (well, more like the first hundred and then skimmed the next hundred...) and there is evidence of a read that will suit fans of Urban Fantasy mixed with a hint of horror. Just not me though; the days are long gone where I would have torn through this and had a review up the next day. I need a little more from my reading and 'The Wolves of London' didn't quite make that leap into 'must finish' territory.

Oh well, onto the next book (which is Brian Ruckley's 'The Free' in case you were wondering)...

'Couldn't Even Really Get Started, Let Alone Finish It…', 'The Black Guard' - A.J. Smith (Head of Zeus)

The city of Ro Canarn burns. With their father's blood fresh upon the headsman's sword, Lord Bromvy and Lady Bronwyn, the last scions of thehouse of Canarn, face fugitive exile or death. 

In the court of Ro Tiris, men fear to speak their minds. The Army of the Red marches upon the North. Strange accidents befall those who dare question the King's new advisors. Those foolish enough to speak their names call them the Seven Sisters: witches of the fire god; each as beautiful and as dangerous as a flame. 

And, called from the long ages of deep time by war and sacrifice, the children of a dead god are waking with a pitiless cry. 

All that was dead will rise. 
All that now lives will fall... 

Look at that blurb and bask in the glorious promise of epic fantasy… Cities with stirring names? Check. A Lord and Lady on the run? Double check. Attractive ladies who get up to all sorts of machinations in the name of their 'fire god'? And what about an ages old threat waking up to lay waste to the world of the living? Check and Check.

It's a blurb that really wants people to think that it's the next 'Song of Ice and Fire' and I really wish that's what 'The Black Guard' had been. If it had been then I'd still be reading it instead of casting about looking
for something to take its place. As it is, I will go back to 'The Black Guard' at some point as there is a lot of potential in what I've read. It's just a real shame that I made it about two hundred pages into the book and found that the story was still to get going… Slow and steady may win the day but 'too slow and steady' has a nasty habit of sending me to sleep
these days. Reading that first chunk of of 'The Black Guard' was like wading through treacle; really sweet but ultimately tiring.

While there is an argument to be made that a lot of epic fantasies take time to get going, you could look at any of these series and it would be really apparent how they have worked round this issue. Compelling characters, ominous foreshadowing, even a dirty great battle where the aftermath can be explored. 'The Black Guard' has none of these things, preferring instead to weave its narrative around the edges of the plot and give you tantalising glimpses of what is to come. Well, that is the idea anyway; it never quite worked for me, mainly because the plot is so slow but also because Smith plays his cards a little too close to his chest and you never really get much of a glimpse of anything.

But you know what? I'll be going back to 'The Black Guard' and powering my way through the rest, probably when the insomnia really kicks in and I know that I've got a couple of hours to myself to really get stuck in. Is that slow pacing deliberate then? Is 'The Black Guard' a book that forces you to
take your time and really get a feel for the setting? I'm thinking it's more like David Bilsborough's 'The Wanderer's Tale' but I'm happy to be proved wrong when I give it another go. In the meantime, has anyone else here read 'The Black Guard'? Did you make it any further than a couple of
hundred pages? If so, what did you think?

A 'Did Not Finish'... 'The Remaining: Aftermath' - D.J.Molles (Orbit)

So this is the second 'Did Not Finish' of July; this time in a genre where I would normally finish a book no matter how bad I found it. What's up with that? I've been slowly going off zombie fiction anyway but, now more than ever, life is just too short for books that aren't worth my time. I never thought I'd say this but there are more important things to do than read and this is why, despite a promising start with 'The Remaining', 'Aftermath' was eventually put down never to be picked up again.
Here's the blurb,


A SOLDIER'S MISSION IN A WORLD GONE TO HELL: SURVIVE, RESCUE, REBUILD

Nothing has gone according to plan.

To Captain Lee Harden, Project Hometown feels like a distant dream and the completion of his mission seems unattainable.

Wounded and weaponless, he has stumbled upon a group of survivors that seems willing to help. But a tragedy in the group causes a deep rift to come to light and forces him into action. In the chaos of the world outside, Lee is pursued by a new threat: someone who will stop at nothing to get what he has.


The thing about zombie fiction is that it inevitably follows the same lines, it has to really. The zombie apocalypse happens and people try and survive it, facing tough decisions along the way. The zombies themselves are almost incidental, it's all about characters made compelling through examination of what they are up against.  And it's this examination of Captain Lee Harden (and that surname is surely no accident...) that killed this book, probably the rest of the series as well, for me.

Harden's military training makes a lot of sense in terms of the overall plot but also has the unwelcome side affect of rendering him pretty much invincible in a world that needs a lot more vulnerability in its main characters if the story is going to work. He is just too good and this lessens the impact when supporting characters die (they clearly serve no other purpose than to be zombie fodder/propel Hardens arc forward).

I could forgive that though if Molle's wasn't so intent on giving all of Harden's actions a military grounding (explaining them all laboriously). We had all this in the last book dammit! It served a point then, it's boring now. I got to a point where I skipped to the end, to see who made it through (no surprises there), but had no interest in going back and reading the rest of the  book. That's that for me, let's see if I have better luck with the next book...

A ‘Did Not Finish’… ‘Touched’ – Joanna Briscoe (Hammer)

There once was a time when I would finish any book that I started, no matter how bad it was. I used to think this was either down to a forlorn hope that the book would improve or my subconscious somehow punishing myself for picking up the book in the first place (it happens). The real reason though was that I had a lot more time to indulge in bad plots, cardboard characters and so on; time that I don’t have at all these days. Even if a book has a great plot and characters full of life, if the book doesn’t work then I’ll be putting it down and moving swiftly on to something else. This is the sad fate that befell Joanna Briscoe’s ‘Touched’ yesterday, ‘sad’ because ‘Touched’ looked really promising at the beginning. Here’s the blurb…

Rowena Crale and her family have moved from London.
They now live in a small English village in a cottage which seems to be resisting all attempts at renovation.
Walls ooze damp, stains come through layers of wallpaper, celings sag.
And strange noises - voices - emanate from empty rooms.
As Rowena struggles with the upheaval of builders while trying to be a dutiful wife and a good mother to her young children, her life starts to disintegrate.
And then, one by one, her daughters go missing ...

I’m a bit of a fan of ghost stories and ‘Touched’ looked like it had all the ingredients to be something pretty special along those lines. And it worked for a bit as well with a slow build up of tension and a few little moments that made me shiver once I realised that something entirely different had just happened. Briscoe has a real gift for making these moments seem really matter of fact, lulling the reader into a false sense of security, and then very gently letting you know that things aren’t right at all…
I really enjoyed that but what I didn’t get on with at all was that the plot was very clearly signposted (at least it was to me). It got to the point where I ended up skipping to the end to confirm suspicions that ended up being well and truly confirmed. There was no point reading on to an ending that I could see coming, not with this book (there wasn’t enough to hold that kind of interest), so I didn’t.

It was a shame as ‘Touched’ really felt like it could be have been something special (it's very well written) but if the story is effectively over before it really gets going then there’s no point in carrying on reading. I know I’ve said that sometimes the journey is more important than the destination but ghost stories really need to have it the other way round. Oh well, on to the next book…

Did Not Finish… ‘House of Small Shadows’ – Adam Nevill (Tor UK)

The Red House: home to the damaged genius of the late M. H. Mason, master taxidermist and puppeteer, where he lived and created some of his most disturbing works. The building and its treasure trove of antiques is long forgotten, but the time has come for his creations to rise from the darkness. Catherine Howard can’t believe her luck when she’s invited to value the contents of the house. When she first sees the elaborate displays of posed, costumed and preserved animals and macabre puppets, she’s both thrilled and terrified. It’s an opportunity to die for. But the Red House has secrets, secrets as dreadful and dark as those from Catherine’s own past. At night the building comes alive with noises and movements: footsteps, and the fleeting glimpses of small shadows on the stairs. And soon the barriers between reality, sanity and nightmare begin to collapse…

Is a ‘Did Not Finish’ ever a good thing? Not often, I’ll admit, but every now and then it really is (in a way, kind of).

I finished Josh Malerman’s ‘Bird Box’ over the weekend and was in the mood for a bit more horror; ‘House of Small Shadows’ has been giving me the book equivalent of reproachful looks just recently so the decision pretty much made itself.

Well, that’s what I thought… What I hadn’t counted on is that Nevill gets better with each book and ‘House of Small Shadows’ was such a creepy book that I couldn’t finish it. If it wasn’t the tension being built up by the suggestion of old dolls creeping around, at the corner of your vision, it was Nevill brutally exposing just how damaged Catherine Howard is as a person. Add these two things together and, nope.. I just couldn’t go any further with ‘House of Small Shadows’, it was just too intense for me.

Is this the first ever ‘Did Not Finish’ that is actually a backhanded compliment? I think so :o) If you want to read some seriously scary stuff then by all means get stuck into ‘House of Small Shadows’. I’ll just stick my fingers in my ears and go ‘LaLaLa!’ very loudly if you try and tell me about it...

Didn't Finish The Book... 'Three' - Jay Posey (Angry Robot)

Because I only have limited time now for reading and I want to make sure this time goes on reading the right books. There can be all sorts of reasons why I don't finish a book and sometimes these reasons aren't so much about a book as they are about me. Take 'Three' for example... 

The world has collapsed, and there are no heroes any more.

But when a lone gunman reluctantly accepts the mantle of protector to a young boy and his dying mother against the forces that pursue them, a hero may yet arise.

Now 'Three' is a funny book for me to give up on as not only does it have a whole load of things that I like but they're all very well written and combine to form a decent sounding enough tale. Post-Apocalyptic landscape? Check. Evil creatures prowling said landscape? Check. Mysterious hero who ends up doing the right thing against his better judgement? Check again. What's not to like? Nothing really but the fact remains that if you put a book down and forget to pick it up for a month then something clearly hasn't worked. So what happened?

Well, this time is was none other than the titular character himself; a character so closed off that it was impossible to relate to him. Now I know what you're going to say but go on, say it anyway. What? That's the whole point? Posey is holding his hand close to his chest and will spring something major two thirds in? I can see that and, based on what I read, I think he has the skills to pull it off. That wasn't enough for me though; I needed a little more of a hook early into the book and that wasn't happening here. 

Has anyone else read 'Three' yet? I'm willing to give this book another chance as there is definitely potential for a gripping tale further in. I really wanted this book to work for me (and it still might) so let me know if you find it :o)