Nick Bryan

writing about writing

Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan/Tony Harris – Review

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Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris

Ex Machina is a comic book about a superhero. Well, a past-tense superhero – comic fan and civil engineer Mitchell Hundred gained the power to control machines, and embarked on a brief superhero career as The Great Machine, before jacking it in and running for Mayor of New York, believing he could do more good that way.

The series itself, by Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris, starts off with Hundred sitting alone in the dark offering to tell the story of his four years in office, with one warning: “It may look like a comic book, but it’s really a tragedy.”

Well, he wasn’t lying.

The Tragic Machine

Not that I’ll be spoiling the ending, but I’m just saying: it lives up to the tease. Oh, and if you can read the whole series without looking at spoilers, it’s definitely worth doing.

The comic began in 2004, and ran through for fifty issues to a pre-planned conclusion – I read the first few collected editions around the time they came out, then slacked off comics for a while. After Vaughan recently returned to prominence with Saga, a new sci-fi series drawn by Fiona Staples, I decided to finish it off.

The execution of Ex Machina is aptly mechanical – Vaughan’s work always brings the feel of having real thought behind it, from detailed character backgrounds to universe-building, as well as the clear research that’s gone into the political scenarios. (So much research that the characters can’t stop spilling factoids.)

But honestly, it’s the tragic spiral of Mitchell Hundred that’s both most compelling and most difficult to read. As witnessed by the recent success of Breaking Bad, everyone loves a good epic tragedy – watching a character you both love and hate plunge down a horrible rabbithole of their own making is hard to look away from.

Heavy Engineering

Ex Machina might not be entirely perfect – meanders a bit in the middle, slight habit of forgetting supporting cast members until they suddenly become important, – but particularly when read quickly as a whole story, rather than small chunks, these things don’t register as much.

The art is a big part of the success as well; Harris’s photo-realistic style makes it easy to take Mitchell Hundred’s human struggles seriously, even though he has multiple flashbacks to dressing in a silly costume. Said style can vary a lot, sometimes between issues, but it’s never less than lovely

.In short, if you enjoy the big-name mature reader comic sagas like Preacher or Transmetropolitan, I think Ex Machina has earned its place on that list. Maybe it’s not taken as seriously due to the superhero elements, I don’t know, but it’s a great, thoughtful comic. Now, I really need to check out Saga.

London Falling by Paul Cornell – Book Review

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London Falling - Paul Cornell

Today’s book review is London Falling by Paul Cornell – a writer I already liked for his excellent Captain Britain And MI13 comics, as well as the Human Nature two-parter on Doctor Who, one of my favourite David Tennant episodes.

So I had expectations of London Falling, described in the authorial blurb as his “first urban fantasy novel”. It’s the beginning of a mooted Shadow Police series, introducing a team of enjoyably grounded police folk, who find themselves thrust into the messy world of supernatural evil lurking beneath the surface of the one they already knew.

Detective Inspector Britain?

The big selling point here, for me, was not the fantasy stuff but the air of realism – Cornell has done his research to give us a plausible glimpse into the life of UK police. There’s a nice balance between the driven-for-justice fictional lawman and more complicated characters, who struggle with personal demons even before the literal ones turn up.

Which brought me to another realisation: I would happily read a completely straight realistic crime novel by Cornell about these characters. Having said that, his take on how the police try to bring the weird shit down to their level is very logical and intriguing.

He balances his ensemble cast and their multiple perspectives deftly as well, which shouldn’t surprise those of us who read Captain Britain.

Mind’s Eye VS TV Eye

Interesting to note from the acknowledgments at the back that this was once developed as a TV idea – I can see how it would’ve worked on-screen, maybe one day it still will, but I think Cornell is able to do some more interesting things with the magic imagery here, sequences that would be a struggle to visualise effectively. (Especially on a BBC budget, it has to be said.)

Oh, there is a big reveal towards the end which was guessable quite a while earlier. I’m curious how intentional that was – if it was meant to be a jawdropping surprise from nowhere, didn’t quite work, but perhaps Cornell was fully aware some would get it.

Anyway, another TV-like quality: it’s clearly setting up the Shadow Police elements for a series, and happily, the sequel sounds like it’s definitely happening. I admit, I won this book in a competition on the generous Bleeding Cool blog, but I’ll be spending hard cash on the follow-up. If you want a thoughtful, grounded take on supernatural cops, London Falling is definitely worth a read.

A Storm Of Swords by George R.R. Martin – Untimely Thoughts

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A Storm Of Swords - George R.R. Martin

Last week, I finished A Storm Of Swords, the third book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire series. Of course, these are among the most prominent fantasy books in existence right now, thanks to their TV adaptation Game of Thrones, so I doubt I’m alone there.

Having read the other two books after watching their screen equivalents, I thought I’d try this one the other way round. So, how was the experience? Has it affected my expectations of the upcoming series?

SPOILER WARNING: If you’re following the TV show, haven’t read the books and want to remain totally unspoiled for events beyond season two, best not read this.

Vague Review (no real spoilers)

Review verdict out of the way: yes, this is a good book, possibly the best of the three I’ve read. The sprawling universe Martin has created is hugely impressive, even if I sometimes lost track of exactly who was who. In many ways, that makes it feel more realistic –you have a “close” circle of people, then a raft of acquaintances.

He wraps up plot threads stretching back to book one – at times, this reads like the climax to a trilogy. There are a few slightly samey chapters of characters trudging around to get into place, but once you get to about 45% (yes, I read it on a Kindle), the pace is full-speed to the end, which is impressive for such a long book. And the climactic scenes are amazingly satisfying once you get there.

TV Murmurs (minor spoilers)

Indeed, the book is so long that it’s being spread across two seasons of the TV show, which is interesting because of all the set-up in the first half. Based on early publicity and comments from the producers, it sounds like they’re going for the Red Wedding as centrepiece to season three. That’s going to be horrific, isn’t it? I mean, just reading it was bad enough.

And then, presumably, Joffrey’s wedding and subsequent manoeuvres in season four, maybe with some material pulled forward from book four to pad out the remaining space. Danerys really doesn’t get a vast amount to do in the latter half of book three, which might mean a worrying amount of padding to keep her in every episode – which would be annoying, as they already did that in season two.

Still, it was a great read, hopefully an equally good twenty episodes of telly. Definitely got me excited for the series returning next weekend. Let me know below if you have any thoughts about all this – if you can refrain from spoiling books 4-5, though, I’d appreciate it. Ta.

Writing Environment II – Coffee Shop Cliché Man

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The Talking Toys Are My Friends

Not even nine months ago, I did this post about my writing environment. Looking back on it now, I seem to have ditched my desk to live the writer-in-coffee-shop cliché. Damn.

But why can’t I work at home anymore? Where did it all go wrong? Isn’t my home-made photo adorable? And how long can one man sit in a coffee shop before the staff punch him?

Coffee House Rules

Turns out, quite a while. However, being there on your own does mean embarrassing things like taking your laptop computer to the toilet with you. Still, at least that I can write down any brilliant ideas that come to me on the crapper – usually, they just slip away.

Bogs aside, most coffee shop staff seem tolerant as long as it isn’t busy and you buy at least one drink every couple of hours. Admittedly, I’ve stuck to suburban branches so far, so never really had a problem with tables running out.

Still, as a man with a constant ongoing money problem, I could live without paying a few quid in caffeine fees every time I want to do some proper writing. So, why did this happen?

Obey The Murmur

In that other post, I said this: “Environment is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter whether I’m huddled in my pit or a nice clean branch of Pret, I will work if I’m in the mood.”

Obviously, that hasn’t entirely worked out for me. At home, I can manage the occasional TV review, but for proper concentration, I’ve started meandering, procrastinating, generally annoying myself.

I have found this website called Coffitivity, which generates ambient coffee shop noise to encourage work. Honestly, I’m cynical, just because it sounds ridiculous, but with the aid of this background murmur, I’ve produced this blog post quickly enough. So, is this the answer? Do you have an answer? What drives us from our homes?

Plugging Stuff On Twitter – ENTER THE VORTEX

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SPAM SPAM SPAMMITY SPAM

I’d already worried for a while about how much to plug my various writing endeavours on various social networks. Mostly Twitter, but others too. Recently, though, I started doing Hobson& Choi on Jukepop, and I’m telling you, I love doing it. Wanted to do something serialised ever since my comic-loving yoof.

But Jukepop operates on a competitive vote-up system, so to succeed, I need people to go vote for me. And I already felt I was pestering people to read my work quite a lot, so… is this too much? How much is too much? Is this much of a muchness?

Let’s blog about it.

The Life-Span Of The Lesser-Spotted Blog Post

There are a lot of aspiring/self-published writers on Twitter trying to get their work out there, and if you enter that community, follow a few people, you find yourself deluged with links and promo hyperbole. It’s hard to argue with the goal, but when everyone’s doing it, how do you stand out?

I tell myself at least I’m generally plugging new material – I don’t usually push work for longer than a day or two, and TV reviews I only mention once – rather than flogging the same thing repeatedly, but ultimately, it’s still a lot of links. I can’t pretend I’m on that much higher a plane here.

Ultimately, I gotta cross my fingers and pray my followers care – maybe dial it down if the audience figures slide toiletward. But by the same token, there’s only so much I can push things to the same few people, thus why I just mention things a few times to account for time zones, then drop them.

Don’t Miss The Toilet!

After all, I also have idle life updates and toilet jokes, and I’d hate people to miss out due to unfollowing. Yes, it’s my work which I’m genuinely passionate about, but for the same reason, I don’t want it to become background noise either. And there must be places online actually intended as locations to push your flash fiction/serial fiction/TV reviews, rather than just chucking them out into the general Twitter vortex and hoping they “go viral”.

Especially if I’m looking for people to not just idly click the links, but actually invest enough to vote, maybe it’s time for a little targeted marketing. What I really need is some kind of Social Media Marketing Guru to tell me about this – anyone know where I could find one?

(Or, indeed, any thoughts on the issues raised above, shout out in the comments. How much plugging is too much? Is there such a thing? Has anyone had a relative disown them due to excessive flogging of their writing?)

(Creative Commmons spam photo by Arnold Gatilao on Flickr, by the by. Okay, enough bracketed epilogues.)

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey – Untimely Book Review

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The Snow Child

A book blogger I know claims many of them end up reviewing books ages after they come out, so calling these “Untimely Book Reviews” doesn’t say much. Ultimately, I’m not as much of a precious little snowflake as I’d like.

Which leads me neatly into The Snow Child! Set in 1920s Alaska, written by authentic Alaskan Eowyn Ivey, this novel re-imagines a Russian fairy tale about a childless older couple who fashion a child out of a snow and, seemingly through hope alone, find she has come to life. But how long will she be able to stay?

Once Upon A Snow Child

When composing this review in my head, I considering comparing this book to the rash of fairy tale adaptations stalking the popular culture, such as TV’s Once Upon A Time or Grimm, or cinema’s Snow White And The Huntsman and that new Hansel & Gretel which looks terrible.

But that seems insulting, because The Snow Child has little in common with them beyond that superficial point – or perhaps it plays the same game and wins. After all, those mostly use the fairytales to provide resonance for general fantasy. Whereas this book genuinely feels like a retelling of the original with modern storytelling sensibilities, putting us in the moment with the characters without forcing us through a filter of meta first.

Hug Your Kindle Today!

But no, this is a lovely, sad yet hopeful book. Even before the titular child turns up, the portrayal of Jack and Mabel’s relationship, their different yet complimentary views of life, is thorough and convincing.

And then the sad march towards the inevitable end, while I sat hugging my Kindle and hoping it wouldn’t happen. The descriptions of life in Alaska are beautifully done, and even though the child’s fairytale origins are incorporated into the story, it never feels like an overdone fantasy – everything is so practical and realistic that the “magical” elements never take you out of the story.

Hell, you could just explain everything away with regular physics if you wanted.

In short, The Snow Child is a sweet, absorbing story – well written and just the right side of sentimental rather than saccharine. It might’ve outstayed its welcome if it ran much longer, but I liked the length we got here. Recommended.