Over on CHUD Cameron Hughes makes his reading preferences clear before starting a good interview with Richard Morgan: “Richard K. Morgan is a brilliant writer. I’ve never seen such perfect worlds created using both cyberpunk and noir, and the dystopic worlds that Richard create are the most real and compelling I’ve come across since Blade Runner. His writing is sexy, full of depth, and always provoke thought and are dangerous in the best ways. He’s a valuable talent in a genre that is so often looked down upon. You owe it to yourself to read his Takeshi Kovacs trilogy and his newest masterpiece, Thirteen.”
Hyperbole to get the reader enticed into the actual interview? You might be forgiven for thinking so, but frankly I wouldn’t argue with him because he’s bang on the money – Richard is one of the best writers in the genre and I’ve been saying that right since his powerhouse debut, Altered Carbon, while his latest work, Black Man (published as Thirteen in the US) is another tour-de-force mixing gripping action with intelligence (so you can wallow in hi-octane action but not feel guilty about it because you’re feeding your head at the same time as Richard slips in commentary on genetics, gender, wealth distribution, the ethics of violence and race ) and one I know will end up on my best of the year list when I look back on 2007’s releases.
Richard also discusses his first foray into the world of fantasy writing – he’s been talking for sometime about wanting to bring that Noir sensibility from his splendid Kovacs novels into the fantasy genre – currently under the working title of Land Fit For Heroes (yes, he is being sarcastic!) and the possibility of returning to do more comics work: “The comic-book thing is on hold at the moment, but that’s logistics rather than personal preference. I’ve got some nice ideas, and some sympathetic ears at Marvel and Vertigo/DC, and in fact my own US publishers, Del Rey, have talked about me doing a graphic novel for them.” Go read the full interview on CHUD and if you haven’t read Richard before I’d recommend Black Man – a standalone work – as an excellent jumping on point. And if you are a female reader and thinking it looks too much like a ‘guy’s book’, please don’t be put off – I remember a couple of female readers coming up to me after we did Altered Carbon at our SF Book Group for our very first meeting to say how much they enjoyed it and how they would never have picked it up if it hadn’t been the reading for the group, but now they wanted to read more.
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