Bram Stoker Award-winning author Tim Lebbon and his publishers at Bantam (US) very kindly sent me an advance copy of his new fantasy novel, Dusk, which is due in January. Tim is a respected British author but like some other writers here, such as Willie Meikle, has had better luck with the US publishing industry. I’ve just started reading Dusk and if any of the British SF publishers are reading this then I recommend they have a look at it – I was drawn into it right from the start.
Yes, it does feature a rather violent beginning – Tim is well known for his horror novels after all (top fantasy writer Mark Chadbourn called him “a prophet of blood and fear”) – but it isn’t what I’d consider gratuitous; rather it is brutal and honest, showing acts of violence for what they are, horrific. It may be strong material but ultimately I find this approach to be more honest than some heroic fantasy writers who can make violent acts with edged weapons seem overly noble.
I’m only 100 pages in and already I’ve been treated to a violent act in a rural village which would make a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western shootout look tame, a richly described town of poverty and decadence, a burning library, sleeping machines and very odd denizens of the mines. I’ll blog more on this later on, but I just had to say I was impressed so far – I can see readers of the excellent China Miéville enjoying Dusk (the descriptions of the first large town reminded me of China’s descriptive prose in the way they evoked the feel of the place so well). One to watch.
Fri, Sep 30, 2005
Books