Steven Savile

Back in the LiveJournal days, I had a friend there who was invited to pitch for this book; he reached out to me and my friend Michael for Doctor Who advice because he hadn't really seen the show. (In retrospect, he was kind of obnoxious; he got in the book, and I saw him making comments in promotion of his story like, "I always liked x Doctor because of y," when I know for a fact he'd never seen a story featuring x Doctor until we recommended one to him!) Because of this, I seem to recall show more (it has been almost two decades, so I may be wrong) that editor Steven Savile wanted to do an anthology covering the history of a city, and was torn between doing London and Prague. Prague has a rich history, but it seems kind of random to be honest (I explained the premise of this book to my wife while reading it and she laughed), and how many Doctor Who authors know a lot about the history of Prague? London would be more familiar territory... but of course, probably too familiar. What's the USP of a book made up of Doctor Who stories set in London?

Obviously, Savile decided to go with Prague in the end. I thought the book opened a bit oddly, with a story about an inhabitant-less Prague being taken out of time, hardly the kind of thing that makes the reader experience Prague and thus see the upside to setting a bunch of stories there. The next story takes place in Prague's future, and so does the next, and so does the next. I found this a bit of an odd choice, too—I felt like if the selling point of this book was Prague's rich history, then maybe we ought to lead off with a story set in that rich history.

Halfway through, though, I realized we still hadn't had a historical, and so that must be intentional in the sense that I was wrong about the book's premise. It wasn't chronicling past and future history, but only future history. I feel like this is an okay idea, though in that case, I think it probably would make more sense to go with a city readers are more familiar with, like London. But I also think that if you are going to tell just future history, it would be better to do it in chronological order. If the book had a mix of historical and future-set stories, then jumping around would definitely be the right choice for the sake of variety. But if the decision is to only tell the future story of the city, then jumping around makes that future story hard to discern. It would be neat to get a series of snapshots of Prague's future, chronicling its various ascents and descents moving ever further into the future... but what we get instead is dispersed and fragmented and hard to glom onto.

On top of that, I think the choice of just telling future-Prague stories doesn't play to the authors' strengths. I suspect a bunch of authors largely unfamiliar with a city could do some research to find interesting historical incidents to build stories around, and I think a bunch of authors familiar with a city might have found something to say about its future. But telling stories about the future of a city you don't know much about is a tricky business, and mostly what we get are pretty generic sci-fi stories and/or repetitive transpositions of classic Prague things into the future, like (if I counted correctly) three different Golem stories and three different Kafka's "Metamorphosis" riffs.

Like the last Short Trips volume I read, The Quality of Leadership, this one has a second, implicit USP: the editor is not part of the usual cohort of mid-2000s Doctor Who tie-in writers, and thus they have a different Rolodex of authors to call on, most of whom had never written a Doctor Who story (or maybe just one) and many of whom never would again. Some of them are people who have had (or would go on to have) pretty decent writing careers outside of Doctor Who in fact: names I knew from other contexts included Mike W. Barr (a number of DC comics from the 1980s, including Batman: Year Two and Star Trek: The Mirror Universe Saga), Keith R.A. DeCandido (innumerable Star Trek stories, including editing the S.C.E. series), Kevin Killiany (S.C.E.: Orphans), Mary Robinette Kowal (the Lady Astronaut series), Paul Kupperberg (JSA: Ragnarok), Todd McCaffrey (Pern, though I've never actually read any of his contributions), and Sean Williams (The New Jedi Order: Force Heretic).

Bringing in outside writers to an existing tie-in franchise can be hit-or-miss in my experience. Sometimes those outsiders have an expanded way of seeing it, and they come at it from atypical, interesting angles. But conversely, sometimes they have a more limited understanding of it, because their understanding is mostly shaped by what's on screen; because they haven't been living and breathing tie-ins for a decade, they don't see the dynamism that the premise really allows for. Doctor Who can do really interesting stuff in the medium of prose short fiction... but I don't think you'd know it by reading this book, where it seemed to me that most writers were trying to tell fairly "typical" Doctor Who adventures with aliens invading or time-travel shenanigans or rogue Time Lords, stuff that might work very well on screen with a canvas of ninety minutes, but comes across as superficial on the printed page. In particular, the book suffers from the sheer quantity of stories; some Short Trips anthologies have as few as seven or eight, if I recall correctly, but this one crams in over twenty, meaning many of them are by necessity quite short. You just can't do the "typical" Doctor Who story in fifteen-ish pages in a satisfactory way.

Thus, I found this one a bit of a struggle. Indeed, I think it's indicative that of the three stories I did think were very good, two of them were by authors who have written multiple other Doctor Who stories. The first story that really clicked for me was Mary Robinette Kowal's "Suspension and Disbelief"; it's weird and short (the Doctor has to help a woman whose husband is going to be executed for chopping down a tree so she can make a puppet; the resolution involves a giant puppet) but inventive and well told.

The second was James Swallow's "Lady of the Snows," which was a beautiful story about an artist falling in love with an amnesiac Charley Pollard, using her as his muse, with some great imagery and interesting thematic resonance between what the artist is doing to Charley, and what has happened to Prague in the far future. (To be fair to Swallow, who has gone on to write a lot of Doctor Who stories, I think this was just his fourth one or so.)

The last one was also the very last in the book, Stel Pavlou's "Omegamorphosis." (And to be fair to Pavlou, though he has written other Doctor Who stories, it's literally just two of them. But all three are bangers!) This is the book's third and final Kafka riff... but it's the only one of them that actually feels Kafkaesque, surreal and disconcerting.

So, I think there are better Short Trips volumes out there, and I unfortunately suspect this one was fundamentally misconceived from the beginning. show less

Excellent Continuation. This book picks up shortly after The Memory Man leaves off, with some major changes for the team - yet can also be read independently of the first, if you don't mind getting references to the ending of the first book while reading this one. Yet again, Varg and Ash find themselves starting a seemingly straightforward quest only for it to spiral into so much more very quickly. I will note that those sensitive to rape scenes will likely be disturbed by one scene in show more particular early - a not-overly-graphic rape is described "on screen" - and potentially by later developments in the story, though later scenes are likely not as problematic for people with these sensitivities as the early scene. Overall yet another very strong outing for Savile, and particularly with the rather abrupt ending in a cliffhanger, I very much want to see at least one more book in this series. Very much recommended. show less

In London during the summer of 1881, and still early in their now legendary partnership, Doctor Watson schedules a number of appointments for bored, brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes, who has been unable as of late to find a case worthy of his considerable talents. After the string of potential clients are turned away one by one, an unscheduled caller arrives—bringing with her an intriguing case, naturally.

Hermione Frances Sara Wynter, an elderly widow, has been unable to obtain a show more satisfactory answer from the Admiralty as to the whereabouts of her son, Lieutenant Norbert Wynter. Norbert was due home one month previous aboard the HMS Dido after fighting in the war against the Boers in South Africa.

However, all of Mrs. Wynter's initial inquiries to the Admiralty went unanswered until finally, they revealed that Norbert had been classified as missing in action and a deserter. His mother, of course, refused to believe such an outlandish accusation.

Holmes accepts the case and, together with Watson, sets forth to interrogate, beleaguer, and otherwise annoy the Admiralty into providing information on Lieutenant Wynter. Soon, it becomes clear that something is amiss, especially since Wynter was listed as missing in action in February, yet continued to receive a paycheck until July.

When Holmes and Watson are attacked on the street by men sent by someone at the Admiralty, the detective is certain that a government cover-up is at play and, as Holmes is often quoted as saying, "The game is afoot!"

An investigation into the missing officer leads Holmes and Watson to a web of conspiracy that involves the death of former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, the now defunct East India Company, and much more.

Savile and Greenberger deftly capture the characters and relationship of Holmes and Watson in a plot that was well-conceived and unfurled at a perfect pace. I was pleased to see the inclusion of Holmes's "street Arabs," aka The Baker Street Irregulars, as well as Scotland Yard Inspector Gregson over the more famous Lestrade, the latter making only a cameo appearance. I have absolutely nothing against Lestrade, of course, but I appreciate the nod being given to the more minor recurring Gregson. show less

3.5 out of 5 stars

During my last trip to the library a recent release I’d not heard much about caught my eye. Glass Town by Steven Savile is a novel that combines traditional noir mystery, the glamour of 1920s filmmaking, and fantasy in wonderful harmony.

The story begins on the day of Boone’s funeral, the beloved grandfather of Josh Raines. His death was unexpected, a fall down the stairs, but the note bequeathed to Josh is even more shocking. Originally a note from Boone’s father, show more Isaiah, it outlines the disappearance of Eleanor Raines, a young movie star who disappeared with no trace and Isaiah’s first, true love. Obsessed over her disappearance his entire life, Isaiah sought fruitlessly for answers, but he did see Eleanor once again, looking exactly the same as the day she disappeared. Now the mystery of the missing woman who hasn’t aged in more than 100 years is passed down to Josh. And, whether he wants it or not, he will become involved.

Glass Town is a noir mystery at heart, one steeped in magic and revenge. It is the story of Josh, a young man mourning his grandfather’s death, questioning the odd letter he’s bequeathed, and suddenly faced with cousins he never knew who come unannounced to the funeral. Suddenly, the Lockwood’s, the old time mobster family who ruled that part of the city for decades, are thrust into his life. And Seth Lockwood, a cousin separated by several generations doesn’t seem to like him, even as the main who claims to be his father ensures that whatever bad blood was once between them is long buried.

The stage is well set, the pawns in place. The story is pretty quickly paced, following Josh as he tries to unravel a mystery the Lockwood’s would do anything to keep buried. The narrative follows Josh very closely, though the point of view does switch to the villain every now and again.

The magic used in this novel is truly unique and a delight to read. Old movie reels are magic, literally. Terrifying, ghostly images are pulled right off the silver screen. The actors and actresses of early film flit in and out of the pages. The old magic shows and their larger than life magicians really do wield magic. I have never seen magic used in quite this way, nor so creatively. It was fun, different, and I loved second of it.

As much as this is a traditional mystery and an urban fantasy, it is also a story about family and revenge. Just how different is can branches of a family be? How do people change, or not change, from one generation to another. What is a person capable of? What lies buried beneath the surface? All of these are touched on within the story.

Like many noir mysteries, many of these characters are shown in shades of gray. Everyone has flaws, and major ones at that. Cowardice, fear, anger – all of these take a very real toll on the characters. People change throughout the course of the book. Josh is not the same young man at the end that he was in the beginning.

I would definitely suggest reading Glass Town by Steven Savile. If you like mysteries, old movies, noir, or fantasy set in the modern era this is a story you won’t want to miss. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more by this author.

This review and more can be found on Looking Glass Reads. show less