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Wednesday reviews round-up for 25th November
Posted by Paul Raven on November 25th, 2009 at 16:22
Things seem to be slowing down on the reviewing front, possibly thanks to the looming holiday season… only a week until December! Where has the year gone, I ask you? I guess that’s the upside of being busy…
Speaking of being busy, did you know that we here at PS Publishing have been busy reinventing the future? Well, we sure have, along with a bunch of other super-cool independent publishing houses as profiled by big-hitting science fiction blog io9. Go read about the others (but beware the rather creepy opening image… *shudder*).
We can expect to see plenty more “list posts” like that at this time of year, along with the inevitable best-of-the-year (and, this time round, best-of-the-decade) round-up lists. But hey, if we get even a quarter as many books mentioned in them as in Charles Tan’s best-of-2009 list at Jeff VanderMeer’s Ecstatic Days, we’ll be happy people indeed! Charles has recommended loads of other good stuff there, some of which I know, and some of which I don’t; he reads widely and with eclectic taste, so he’s an interesting man to follow.
And now a couple of reviews, the first of which sees Aimee of the My Fluttering Heart blog impressed and perplexed in equal measure by Paul Jessup‘s Glass Coffin Girls Showcase collection:
I would be lying if I said I understood it all. There seems to be more layers to this sort of work than a wedding cake. And maybe it’s a bit Forer Effect, where I’m just seeing the symbolism I like where there might just be randomness. I’m utterly confused, a little bit dazed and a little bit unused to light right now.
Definitely though, there are parts to each story that link up. The cruelty and fragility of human beings, the mirrored halves of the soul. Freedom and domesticity. Animal behaviours and model citizens. Wolves and dogs and rats and foxes. They’re all there.
[...]
Of course, this book won’t be for a lot of people. Some might be a little offended, some might be confused, some might be unmoved. If, however, you like things that are perversely pretty, like I do, then you might find yourself thoroughly enjoying this book, and perhaps even feeling guilty for it. I know, I know, I haven’t given you much to go off. But it really is a collection that deserves to be speak and be discovered for itself. And quite frankly, no matter how hard I try, I can’t explain it. It might be beyond my comprehension.
The best way I can describe Glass Coffin Girls? Like Cinderella walking over the shards of her own glass slipper, broken…the blood looks positively gorgeous against the crystalware, don’t you think?
And to finish off, The Baryon Review recounts an encounter with Gilbert & Edgar On Mars, courtesy one Mister Eric Brown:
Imagine a meeting of three of Britain’s greatest writers, George Bernard Shaw, Herbert George Wells and Gilbert K. Chesterton (GK to his friends) finishing a night of discussion at the Athenaeum and heading home. Chesterton is approached by an autograph seeker and discovers along the way that he is believed to be Wells. He thinks this will be a good story for their next meeting when is apparent something more sinister is afoot.
[...]
This is a very enjoyable tale and would make a great present for your friends who enjoy the pulpish tales of yesteryear.
Indeed – buy now to ensure things arrive in time for the Festive Season! As always, click on the cover art to be taken directly to the catalogue page for the book in question, or just pop over to the PS webstore to have a browse.
Have you read a PS Publishing title recently? If so, let us know so we can link you back from here!