Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books - Fantasy Book Picks - January 2015 (Older Reads)

Samantha Shannon - The Mime Order (The Bone Season) - Published by Bloomsbury Publishing (27 Jan. 2015)

Paige Mahoney has escaped the brutal prison camp of Sheol I, but her problems have only just begun: many of the survivors are missing and she is the most wanted person in London...

As Scion turns its all-seeing eye on the dreamwalker, the mime-lords and mime-queens of the city's gangs are invited to a rare meeting of the Unnatural Assembly. Jaxon Hall and his Seven Seals prepare to take centre stage, but there are bitter fault lines running through the clairvoyant community and dark secrets around every corner.

Then the Rephaim begin crawling out from the shadows. But where is Warden? Paige must keep moving, from Seven Dials to Grub Street to the secret catacombs of Camden, until the fate of the underworld can be decided.

Gareth L. Powell - Macaque Attack (Ack-Ack Macaque) - Published by Solaris (15 Jan. 2015)

This is the amazing conclusion to the award-winning series. The dangerous but charismatic Ack-Ack Macaque finds himself leading a dimension-hopping army of angry monkeys, facing an invading horde of implacable killer androids, and confronting the one challenge for which he was never prepared: impending fatherhood! Meanwhile, former journalist Victoria Valois fights to save the electronic ghost of her dead husband and reclaim his stolen soul from the sands of Mars.

Michael Moorcock - The Whispering Swarm: Book One of the Sanctuary of the White Friars - Published by Tor Books (13 Jan. 2015)

Now return to London just after the war, a city desperately trying to get back on its feet. And one young boy, Michael Moorcock, who is about to discover a world of magic and wonder. Between his first tentative approaches to adulthood - a job on Fleet Street, the first stirrings of his interest in writing - and a chance encounter with a mysterious Carmelite Friar, we see a version of Moorcock's life that is simultaneously a biography and a story. Mixing elements of his real life with his adventures in a parallel London peopled with highwaywomen, musketeers and magicians, this is Moorcock at his dazzling, mercurial best.

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books Interview with Danny Weston - The Piper

Following the sounds of the eerie piper, I found myself under the unbreakable spell of Danny Weston. Wherever he leads, I follow. In the shadows of the ancient gravestones, I approached the lonesome figure. The following cheeky interview soon began . . . . . 

Are you a real person?

What an extraordinary question! I like to think I’m real. There are certain people who claim that I died in 1874, but to them, I say, ‘Well, if I’m dead, who’s that lurking in your wardrobe?’

What are your current projects?

Aside from the irksome duties of writing yet another book, I have been conducting some interesting experiments on literary critics. It’s interesting to note that no matter what age or size they are, they all take roughly the same time to drown. Quite by coincidence, all of them are people who have written bad reviews of The Piper. Strange that.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

I like to think that I have no peers, but of course dear long-lost Uncle Edgar was a great influence of my writing. His rib-tickling comedies The Premature Burial and The Fall of the House of Usher are still firm favourites at Weston Towers. We bring them out every Christmas and my goodness how we laugh!

How much of The Piper is realistic?

Well, the story deals with an ancient curse on a family home and a series of deaths that reoccur every sixty years… so I would say that it’s very realistic. I mean, there surely can’t be a house in the UK that hasn’t suffered similar problems at one time or another?

Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?

I learned that if you wake up in the small hours of the morning to find little girls dancing to eerie music in your mist-wreathed garden, it’s probably not a good idea to go outside and join them. I also discovered that being an evacuee wasn’t a bed of roses.

When did you get the idea for your debut book The Piper?

Ah, now that was Uncle Victor’s fault. As I watched his figure hurtling over the cliff, two thoughts occurred to me. 1. What a good job he’d just changed his will in my favour and 2. There’s a book in this. As it transpires, I ended up cutting that scene but Victor, if you’re up there… ahem, I mean, if you’re down there watching this, thanks for the inspiration!

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?

As a young boy, I was left very much to my own devices. But, after a while, those devices broke down and because of a general shortage of wood, string and wire mesh, I started to doodle in a notebook. My Aunt Agatha discovered what I’d written and beat me soundly with a broom handle, but that only encouraged me! Poor Aunt Agatha. Such a shame, what happened to her…

When is your next book out?

My next book, Mr Sparks, will be released some time in 2015, though my publishers won’t commit to a date, no matter how much I tighten the thumbscrews. It’s called Mr Sparks and it’s about a psychopathic ventriloquist’s dummy, one that’s a little too convincing for comfort. He tells everyone that he used to be a real boy and the fact is, he just might have been, once upon a time…

As he departed into the mist, his final words were: "Did I really make it into Mr Ripley's Top Ten Favourite Reads 2014?"
"Yes," I replied.
"Well the supernatural gods must have been shining down on me on that day," he whispered. 
Without any further hesitation he vanished, apart from his cheeky chuckle which could still be heard trailing behind him.

Out now in all good bookshops, but beware of the haunting sounds of the piper!

Book review here......

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Book Picks December 2014 (Christmas Festive Written Delights )

Neil Gaiman & Lorenzo Mattotti - Hansel and Gretel - Published by Bloomsbury Children's (11 Dec 2014)
The enduring story of the children, the breadcrumb trail and the gingerbread house is brought to life by master storyteller, Neil Gaiman. Who better to retell the Brothers Grimm's greatest, and perhaps darkest, fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel? Coupled with breathtakingly haunting illustrations from Lorenzo Mattotti, you will be enticed into the world and into the woods . . . so beware.

Lisa Mantchev - Ticker - Published by Skyscape (1 Dec 2014)
A girl with a clockwork heart must make every second count.

When Penny Farthing nearly dies, brilliant surgeon Calvin Warwick manages to implant a brass “Ticker” in her chest, transforming her into the first of the Augmented. But soon it’s discovered that Warwick killed dozens of people as he strove to perfect another improved Ticker for Penny, and he’s put on trial for mass murder.

On the last day of Warwick’s trial, the Farthings’ factory is bombed, Penny’s parents disappear, and Penny and her brother, Nic, receive a ransom note demanding all of their Augmentation research if they want to see their parents again. Is someone trying to destroy the Farthings...or is the motive more sinister?

Desperate to reunite their family and rescue their research, Penny and her brother recruit fiery baker Violet Nesselrode, gentleman-about-town Sebastian Stirling, and Marcus Kingsley, a young army general who has his own reasons for wanting to lift the veil between this world and the next. Wagers are placed, friends are lost, romance stages an ambush, and time is running out for the girl with the clockwork heart.

Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 Stories: 12-book, 12 postcard Gift Edition

A gorgeous twelve-book slipcase edition of twelve amazing adventures about the twelve Doctors written by twelve of the most exciting authors living in our galaxy today. This edition also comes with twelve exclusive postcards. A must-have gift edition for all Whovians!

Ian Edginton & I.N.J. Culbard - Brass Sun - Published by 2000 AD Graphic Novels (4 Dec 2014)

The Orrery is a fully functional, life-size clockwork solar system, a clutch of planets orbiting a vast Brass Sun via immense metal spars. But the once-unified collection of worlds has regressed into eccentric fiefdoms, and ice is encroaching on the outer planets as the sun is dying. Wren and Eptimus must find the key to restart the sun, but first must escape the world known as The Keep...This is a wholly original new SF-clockpunk series from the bestselling artist of New Deadwardians and The Mountains of Madness, and the writer of Scarlet Traces and Stickleback.