{"id":7191,"date":"2023-03-22T21:28:41","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T21:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=7191"},"modified":"2023-03-22T21:28:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T21:28:41","slug":"not-exactly-heroes-three-new-fictions-reviewed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/not-exactly-heroes-three-new-fictions-reviewed\/","title":{"rendered":"NOT EXACTLY HEROES: THREE NEW FICTIONS REVIEWED"},"content":{"rendered":"

Armoured Siberian trains, Portuguese madmen, and depressed American academics \u2014 today we review three new books to hit a range of audiences \u2014 two novels and a novella by Rhys Hughes<\/strong>, John Guy Collick<\/strong>, and Polly Schattel<\/strong> respectively.<\/p>\n

As Banjo and Alexandra bicker, Perceval gets borne along by the tides, and Hetta grows resentful, we find intriguing protagonists, but, well, perhaps not exactly heroes. Not always, anyway…<\/p>\n

The Star Tsar<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First of all, here\u2019s a novel which may surprise you. The Star Tsar<\/i> appears, at first, to be offering an \u2018alternate history\u2019 tale involving the defeat of the White Russians in the far east of Russia, 1923, intermingled with the sort of folk-horror found around such figures as Baba Yaga and Koschei the Deathless. Monstrous factories, looming woods, freezing terrain, brutality and gigantic trains-of-war on endless rails; Banjo, a British soldier abandoned by the retreating forces, and two Red Russian women, Alexandra and Ekaterina, on the hunt for an unfaithful lover \u2014 one out of duty, one with both malice and romance in mind.<\/p>\n

However, weaving in and out of the story are references to the only book the British chap has with him \u2014 Edgar Rice Burroughs \u2018Princess of Mars\u2019 \u2014 which is his sole comfort. And this battered volume proves to be both a clue and a wry nod to the larger plot of John Guy Collick\u2019s novel. It\u2019s a little hard to review the work without spoilers, but the planet Mars does eventually play a part in what turns out to be a helter skelter struggle to survive for Banjo and the two Russians. Ekaterina is a drug-addicted singer and a touch lunatic; Alexandra is an earnest politico-scientist who believes in the Red cause:<\/p>\n

“Once we educate the people in the liberating ideals of Soviet science they’ll break the chains of ignorance by themselves,” she said.<\/i><\/p>\n

The fractious, adversarial relationship between the cynical, plebeian Banjo and the idealistic Katerina forms the core of the narrative, as they face weary treks, monstrosities, betrayal, horrendous conditions beneath and inside forbidding mountains, and science beyond anything either of them could have dreamed of:<\/p>\n

The glass-sided cabinet stood on three rubber tired wheels with thin steel spokes. Articulated arms like parts of a dentist’s drill stuck out at random intervals from the lower half of the case, which looked as if it was moulded out of Bakelite reinforced with copper strips. Alexandra read the number 339 in faded script on the plastic. Oily liquid filled the inside of the iron-framed tank, staining the corpse a greasy yellow. The corpse was bald and thankfully her eyes were closed, turning her into the grotesque echo of a sleeping baby. Her forearms ended in metal and canvas sheaths curving into the bottom of the artefact. More tubes snaked from the side of her skull, neck and from underneath her breasts. Shreds of skin, peeled loose by time, decay or mishandling, floated in the preservative.<\/i><\/p>\n

As Banjo struggles simply to survive and Alexandra has many of her ideals stripped away, we are teased with the vaster implications of what they encounter. Collick\u2019s descriptive powers, his attention to historical detail, and his interweaving of bizarre and diverse elements all stand the reader in good stead. An intelligent speculative romp with an unusual setting, this is Book One of a planned series. We look forward to Book Two…<\/p>\n

We interviewed the author a while back, here:<\/em><\/p>\n

http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/a-colossus-of-mars-john-guy-collick\/<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Star Tsar<\/i> is available for pre-order and will be released in Kindle format on 31st<\/sup> March:<\/strong><\/p>\n

amazon uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

amazon us<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The Wistful Wanderings of Perceval Pitthelm<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rhys Hughes is a curious beast. Hugely inventive, he straddles lines of magical realism, classicism, parody, and whimsy, and we confess we\u2019re not always sure what to make of his work. The Wistful Wanderings of Perceval Pitthelm<\/i> is a fine example of his non-genre explorations \u2014 a book-length meditation on the nature of saudade <\/i>(Portuguese: \u201can emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent something or someone\u201d), a satisfactorily bizarre adventure novel, and a complex construct of unlikelihoods, which also weaves a few true histories into its web.<\/p>\n

Perceval Pitthelm, its \u2018hero\u2019, is an English adventure novelist who moves to Portugal to provide the tranquillity he needs for his work \u2014 and there encounters a rather peculiar house. Everything pretty much springs from that, and involves continent-hopping (literally) and various \u2018Arabian Nights\u2019 sub-tales, all of which have bearing on Pitthelm\u2019s progress. In Portugal he meets the house\u2019s owner, Old Rogerio, who tells him of certain incidents in colonial Eastern Africa\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes without saying (remarked Old Rogerio) that our situation had an adverse psychological effect on the inhabitants of Kionga. People began to argue, to fall in love inappropriately, to cheat at cards, to wear clothes made from dried cod or fruit skins, to part their hair differently, to shave under their arms, to mix white and red wines, to learn foreign languages.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

The protagonist\u2019s name may itself be a complex joke. Wagner chose a discredited origin for the name Parsifal (the title of his 1882 opera) as being from Persian for \u2018pure fool\u2019; in the Twelfth Century, Chr\u00e9tien de Troyes had Perceval (\u2018Vale-piercer?\u2019) as a hero of the Arthurian search for the Holy Grail, a hero who has to prove his worthiness. And \u2018Pitthelm\u2019 immediately brings to mind the pith helmet of classic \u2018Empire\u2019 adventure stories.<\/p>\n

The book is also in the grand tradition of the absurd. Hughes\u2019s style is part of the book\u2019s charm \u2014 both wise and naive. You feel that if horse-drawn carriages carrying the notebooks of Rabelais, Cervantes, Jerome K Jerome, Borges, and Flann O\u2019Brien were to have collided in some crowded market town, the resultant flutter of papers might have inspired this piece. With a touch of the unreliable travel writing of Sir John Mandeville and a few others. And the absurdity of the main story is reflected in a \u2018review\u2019 of the other books of Perceval Pitthelm at the end of the book, a review which seems laced with Hughes\u2019 own autobiographical murmurings on life, writing, reviews and critics. To make matters worse, we kept being reminded of Sterne\u2019s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.<\/i><\/p>\n

With a beautiful Fado singer who has artificial organs, a vengeful Muslim inventor, cheek trees, and a rogue Brazilian submarine along the lines of the Nautilus, The Wistful Wanderings of Perceval Pitthelm<\/i> is an at times wise, at times ludicrous, book, which is basically\u2026 immensely readable, and enjoyable. We have no idea where it would be shelved in a bookshop though. None at all.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Wistful Wanderings of Perceval Pitthelm<\/i> is available for pre-order and will be released in Kindle format on 23rd<\/sup> March:<\/strong><\/p>\n

amazon uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

amazon us<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

8:59:29<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, quick mention of a new novella by Polly Schattel, author of the novel The Occultists<\/em> and Shadowdays<\/em>. 8:59:29<\/i> is an entirely different piece of work from those, a contemporary horror story set in a small college, where a struggling adjunct professor in Film Studies decides to seek an unexpected way out of her problems. Hetta, the academic in question, is not without her flaws, and not even always a totally sympathetic character, though she is very human; rather than do something constructive about her tenuous career, she decides to focus her various resentments on her superior.<\/p>\n

And so, when a disaffected ex-student, Tanner, comes up with a novel way to create a short video which could make a difference, she takes it on board with the confused enthusiasm of a woman who can\u2019t think of what the heck else to do. Of course, after going through many options, they decide to make a horror movie…<\/p>\n

Becoming absorbed in their film project, which is either utterly pointless or highly dangerous, Hetta eventually finds that \u2014 as with all classic deals \u2014 you rarely get what you wish for in the way you wanted it. Especially if you rely on obscure rituals from the Internet. A quick, crisply-written read for the horror enthusiasts, with some intriguing film-making lore along the way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

8:59:29<\/i> is available now in Kindle format and paperback:<\/strong><\/p>\n

amazon uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

amazon us<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

All today’s reviews were written by an unreliable old man and his dog, so can be taken either as wise gospel or the ramblings of mad folk. The old man’s latest collection (with very little dog in it) is here:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

AVAILABLE NOW THROUGH AMAZON UK & US, AND THROUGH THE PUBLISHER, JOURNALSTONE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amazon US: Where All is Night, and Starless<\/a><\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Amazon UK: Where All is Night, and Starless<\/a><\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armoured Siberian trains, Portuguese madmen, and depressed American academics \u2014 today we review three new books to hit a range of audiences \u2014 two novels and a novella by Rhys Hughes, John Guy Collick, and Polly Schattel respectively. As Banjo and Alexandra bicker, Perceval gets borne along by the tides, and Hetta grows resentful, we … Continue reading NOT EXACTLY HEROES: THREE NEW FICTIONS REVIEWED<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":4,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNOT EXACTLY HEROES: THREE NEW FICTIONS REVIEWED - greydogtales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"New reviews of The Star Tsar by John Guy Collick, The Wistful Wanderings of Perceval Pitthelm by Rhys Hughes, and 8:59:29 by Polly Schattel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/not-exactly-heroes-three-new-fictions-reviewed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NOT EXACTLY HEROES: THREE NEW FICTIONS REVIEWED - greydogtales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New reviews of The Star Tsar by John Guy Collick, The Wistful Wanderings of Perceval Pitthelm by Rhys Hughes, and 8:59:29 by Polly Schattel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/not-exactly-heroes-three-new-fictions-reviewed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"greydogtales\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-22T21:28:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/335296077_1235236800419581_7950455503600628334_n-300x111.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"greydogtales\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"greydogtales\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/not-exactly-heroes-three-new-fictions-reviewed\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/not-exactly-heroes-three-new-fictions-reviewed\/\",\"name\":\"NOT EXACTLY HEROES: THREE NEW FICTIONS REVIEWED - 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The Will\u2019ven\u2019t Bin, just out from IFD Publishing (15th October), joins his other intriguing historically-set works, this time with a Young Adult focus and science\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"alan m clark","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/EbookCover_TheWillventBin_small-200x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7318,"url":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/scotland-the-strange-the-eyes-of-doom\/","url_meta":{"origin":7191,"position":1},"title":"SCOTLAND THE STRANGE: THE EYES OF DOOM","author":"greydogtales","date":"January 24, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This week, in honour of Burns Night, which celebrates Scottish poet Robert Burns (25 January 1759 \u2013 21 July 1796), our greydogtales site begins a ramble through the subject of Scottish supernatural\/horror and related cultural stuff. We\u2019ll have some classic tales, new material, guest reviews of some really bad films\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"SCOTLAND THE STRANGE","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Ben_Lomond_from_Beinn_Narnain-300x163.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4232,"url":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/shiela-crerar-clay-corpses-psychic-investigation-girls\/","url_meta":{"origin":7191,"position":2},"title":"Shiela Crerar, Clay-Corpses & Psychic Investigation for Girls","author":"greydogtales","date":"July 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cOh, you modern women! You dabble in science and medicine, you dabble in politics and law, and now you dabble in the occult. What else is there left for mere man?\u201d Today we get lost in Scotland and its folklore with Shiela Crerar, follow a plucky young woman's psychic endeavours,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"classic horror\"","block_context":{"text":"classic horror","link":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/tag\/classic-horror\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"shiela crerar","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/doll-626790_960_720-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2610,"url":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/shades-of-sherlock-holmes-pastiche-paranormal-or-piffle\/","url_meta":{"origin":7191,"position":3},"title":"Shades of Sherlock Holmes: Pastiche, Paranormal or Piffle?","author":"greydogtales","date":"August 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In which we consider the Holmes pastiche, for better or for worse... Holmes forced more of the vile Turkish tobacco into his pipe, wincing as he realised that yet again he was smoking the damnable stuff in order to keep up appearances. \u201cDespite the fact that you are secretly my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"sherlock holmes\"","block_context":{"text":"sherlock holmes","link":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/tag\/sherlock-holmes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Huty1913428","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/sherlock-holmes-basil-rathbone-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4071,"url":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/fables-disappearances-untethered-tales-gwendolyn-kiste\/","url_meta":{"origin":7191,"position":4},"title":"Fables and Disappearances: The Untethered Tales of Gwendolyn Kiste","author":"greydogtales","date":"May 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, dear listener, we have loss and identity; clarity and hope; the core of writing, style, Angela Carter and some dark, magical stories. When we thought about interviewing author Gwendolyn Kiste, we realised we wanted to burrow behind her work a bit, so we went there.\u00a0 Though we centre on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"interviews\"","block_context":{"text":"interviews","link":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/tag\/interviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"SONY DSC","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/And-Her-Smile-Will-Untether-the-Universe-Gwendolyn-300x201.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7197,"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7191\/revisions\/7197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}