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strong conjecture, comes across as shoot ‘em up science fiction, which has a far more niche market than Brookmyre’s other highly accessible work. (Kelly Apter) CONTEMPORARY FICTION IAIN BANKS Transition (Little, Brown) ●●●●●
Iain Banks’ words have a habit of getting inside your head: certain phrases, ideas and characters left tunnelling their way into the consciousness long after you’ve put his books down. Latest offering Transition is no different. While his writing has softened over the years, Banks still knows how to pack a punch, and he does it early on here: the first sentence of this captivating read simultaneously confounds and reels us in as the story is then unravelled tantalisingly, through monologues by a variety of mysterious and occasionally utterly twisted individuals.
Moods switch suddenly and events start to connect as the much celebrated Fifer paints a picture of a world undergoing dramatic change, murder, corruption and intrigue. Perhaps most interestingly, however, Transition finds the author bridging the gap between his fiction and sci-fi work to thrilling effect; seamless shifts between the real and hyper-real ever-so- cleverly rendered throughout. Stylistically, this is Banks at his very best. (Camilla Pia)
DEBUT DRAMA EVIE WYLD After the Fire, A Still Small Voic (Jonathan Cape) ●●●●● After the Fire, A Still
Small Voice suffers from the same problem as its title; too long and too obscure. Evie Wyld, a graduate from a creative writing Masters in London, sets her début novel in the wide open spaces of her native Australia. Here she fills the chapters with portentous metaphors that meander off the
page and only tentatively suggests anything specific about her characters. Wyld’s talent lies in
using poetic language to evoke nothing in particular, for a reason she’s unwilling to unveil to the reader. This device could work by piquing our senses and delicately building into a crescendo, but somehow Wyld’s first effort falls flat on the page. It increases in pace towards the end, revealing connections between characters and adding mysteries of missing children, but by then it’s all too late. Wyld’s still, small voice needs to be a little less pretentious. (Emma Lennox)
COMIC/ANTHOLOGY VARIOUS Khaki Shorts (myspace.com/khakisho rts) ●●●●●
We return to the grimy world of Khaki Shorts, as their rebirth continues, for another dose of Scottish underground comics action. This second issue of their ‘reboot’ is as scatological in its humour, style and subject matter as the last. The compilation of short strips includes the ongoing adventures of ‘Star Trudge’, ‘Men Out of Time’ and ‘Apocalypse Now & Then’. But it’s the addition of the ‘Redtop’ that really gives this edition its edge, especially alongside a strangely poignant ‘Door Wullie’,
ALSO PUBLISHED
5 PAPERBACK CRIME Susan Arnout Smith Out at Night The follow-up to the author’s The Timer Game debut, this presents a complex tale of farming wars with the GM and organic crop brigades going to battle. Perennial.
Dan Waddell Blood Atonement A second novel from the genealogist behind the Beeb’s Who Do You Think You Are?, a sinister tale of the investigation into the gruesome slaying of a single mother. Penguin. Charlie Newton Calumet City An abandoned child is born from the abuse going on in a kids’ home and everyone involved has to relive some horrific experiences during its investigation. Bantam.
NJ Cooper No Escape The relaunch of Natasha Cooper features a new departure with this dark, psycho-thriller set in the Isle of Wight. Pocket. Elly Griffiths The Crossing Places A new series set in the Norfolk Marshes featuring a down-to- earth forensic archaeologist, with a 2000-year-old mystery clouding the present. Quercus.
proving there’s intelligence and pathos at work behind Khaki Shorts, not just gags. Again, the quality is hit and miss at times, but with the talent involved (names such as Rob Miller, Neil Bratchpiece and Martin Smith) it’s always entertaining, often surreal and still just £1 an issue. (Henry Northmore) 20–27 Aug 2009 THE LIST 17
SUPERHERO ALAN MOORE & VARIOUS Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? (DC/Titan) ●●●●● NEIL GAIMAN & VARIOUS Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? (DC/Titan) ●●●●●
In 1985 the Superman titles were reset at issue one, meaning there would a final issue of Superman and Action Comics in the old numbering system (this kind of intricate continuity is a recurring facet of the complexities of comic books). To mark the occasion, Alan Moore was brought in to write a two-issue Superman story; a fictional finale in an already fictional world. It’s a purposefully old-fashioned tale summing up the many ages and eras of the Man of Steel, playing with the absurdities and contradictory back- story from this continuous 38-year (at the time) narrative. It’s funny, quaint and clever all at once, as you’d expect from the man who gave us Watchmen and V for Vendetta. Also included in this package is Moore’s Superman and Swamp Thing special and his Superman Annual, also from 1985.
Jump-cut to 2009 and after Grant Morrison’s apocalyptic run on Batman, two monthly titles, Detective Comics and Batman, have been put on hiatus. So who better than Neil Gaiman to write the final two-part story? Again, it looks to the past, relaying multiple deaths and lives for the Dark Knight. Andy Kubert pays skilful homage to the artists who have brought the masked vigilante to life since 1939 and again this package is bulked out with more Gaiman stories of the Bat. There are similarities in both stories constructing metafictional ends to two of the most enduring fictional characters the world has ever seen. An interesting project from two of comic’s most influential and unique writers. (Henry Northmore)
the first Brookmyre disappointment. Or at least half of it does. When he sheds the science geek coat, and
SOCIAL DRAMA CHRISTOPHER BROOKMYRE Pandaemonium (Little, Brown) ●●●●● It had to happen sometime. Over the course of 12 books, Christopher Brookmyre has maintained his ability to engage, amuse, appal (in a good way) and keep us guessing to the last line. But, unless great swathes of expositional prose about the laws of physics float your boat, then Pandaemonium heralds
enters the world of a group of teenagers dealing with the death of two classmates, he’s cooking with propane gas. Perfectly capturing the
internal politics of high school, the rampaging hormones and musical obsessions, Brookmyre has clearly forgotten none of the nuances of adolescent life. Also on the upside, he gives religion another good kicking, sorry, rational analysis. The rest, although based on