vivdunstan

I'll be blogging about this properly on my academic musings blog. But I've just finished watching my final catch up videos from the Cymera 2024 Edinburgh festival of fantasy, scifi and horror writing. Here is the list of things I got through - a rather impressive total of 18 events. Rather stunned with that, given how asleep I am constantly, and I have been mainly watching them just before bed at night. And not every night. And usually taking several nights to finish each one! These and other Cymera videos have been available for me to watch online from early June until tonight at midnight.

• From Dr. Who to Star Trek: New Stories with Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson and Una McCormack
• The Power of Books with Gareth Brown and Mark Lawrence
• Eldritch Gods and Other Uninvited Guests with Mark Stay and Charles Stross
• There’s Been A Murder with Amy Goldsmith, T.L. Huchu and Frances White
• Arctic Horrors with C.J. Cooke, Tim Lebbon and Ally Wilkes
• In Search of a New Eden with Oliver Langmead, Ken MacLeod and Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Time Travels with Poppy Kuroki & Nigel Planer
• Cassandra Clare in conversation with V.E. Schwab
• The Pleasures of Reading
• The Secret to a Successful Partnership with Megan Bannen and Gabby Hutchinson Crouch
• Many Shades of Darkness with Elle Nash, Kaaron Warren and Johanna Van Veen
• Creating Legends with Kate Heartfield and Sophie Keetch
• Past, Present, Future with Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, William Letford and EJ Swift
• Dark Encounters with Em Reed and Lorraine Wilson
• Writing the Future with Rachelle Atalla, Dan Coxon and Una McCormack
• Thrilling Futures with Lauren Beukes, Nikhil Singh and Maud Woolf
• Retellings with Joanne Harris, Lucy Holland and Shona Kinsella
• Unleashing Chaos with Jane Flett and Kelly Link

I've just finished this contemporary fantasy book, a debut publication by a new novelist. Who lives near Edinburgh of all places! I liked a lot about it. It's a combination of a tale of magic books / contemporary fantasy / time travel / thriller and I'd say memoirs in a strange way. But I did have problems, and that's why I've rated it just 3/5 overall.

The plotting is intricate, right through to the very end, and admirable. But I found the mass of characters being introduced early on and the chopping and changing of points of view tricky to keep up with, and hard to stay engaged with. However when it reached about halfway through something happened that was so very clever as writing. I was rather wowed. And then from there it careers towards the finale. Again densely plotted.

Beware it gets very violent in places. Very violent. This is not what I would term a young adult read for that reason. It's closer in some respects to crime fiction in that respect. It also strangely reminded me of the TV scifi series Heroes, with the many protagonists in there. But it was a bit overwhelming to read in book form. Though on plus it's very cinematic, and I could easily imagine this book adapted to a movie version.

However for fans of contemporary fantasy who aren't deterred by violent bits in places I'd recommend this. Just maybe beware going in that it is going to be a bit choppy in narrative, especially earlier on, and you may need to give it more time to get hooked.

I would definitely read another book by the same author, but would prefer one with a fresh plot and concept. I am also looking forward to seeing the author chat about this book at the Cymera book festival in Edinburgh in the summer. I have an online weekend pass for that whole festival, and will be watching - mainly on catchup - with interest.