The third part of Steph Swainston’s excellent Castle series, The Modern World, is due to be published this month by Gollancz, following on from The Year of Our War and No Present Like Time. I’d rate Steph as one of the finest of the new generation of UK fantasy scribes, but if you don’t want to take my word for it, take the word of China Miéville, Richard Morgan (who said “a rich vein of imagery that veers with consummate ease between the wry baroque of Angela Carter and the austere weirdness of M John Harrison” and the great M. John Harrison himself.
You don’t get praise from writers of this calibre for no reason; if you haven’t entered this highly unusual and intoxicating realm yet I highly recommend picking this series up (go on, pick up the three of them you’ll thank me later). To whet appetites for those who have been following the series, Steph has the first chapter of the third book available to read as a PDF on her site. From the blurb:
“The Emperor San and his Circle of immortals lead the people of the Fourlands in their endless struggle against the terrifying, alien Insects that threaten to annihilate them. A war for survival has long since become a grinding war of containment. But now Frost, the Circle’s architect, unveils a visionary plan to break the stalemate and finally defeat the Insects.
Jant, the Emperor’s winged messenger, has more immediate concerns. Lightning, the Circle’s archer and Jant’s best friend, asks him to find his rebellious teenage daughter who has disappeared in the sprawling city of Hacilith. Jant starts a search that takes him into his past, through the criminal underworld, across the bizarre worlds of the Shift, and to the very limits of temptation. The girl is seventeen and beautiful but if Jant so much as touches her, Lightning will kill him. Will curiosity be the death of Jant?
As Jant struggles with his newly-found conscience, Frost’s plan produces shocking results. The Fourlands suddenly faces a greater threat than ever before. Can the Circle survive the dawn of a new, modern world?”
Tue, Apr 10, 2007
Books