Angry Robot 2009: ISBN 978-1-59102-697-0
Chris Roberson is the author of the Celestial Empire series of novels and the Bonaventure-Carmody Sequence as well as several media tie-in novels.

In this opus he tells the story of Spencer Finch, a man who is gradually wasting his life away through his going-nowhere careers in drinking and freelance journalism. Following his grandfather’s death, he uncovers a pair of conspiracies: one in relation to a mysterious book owned by reclusive millionaire J. Nathan Pierce; and the other in the form of a family history told through the pages of pulp literature and mediaeval – and older – stories and poems. As he travels further back into the history of his family he discovers a recurring theme of a masked avenger fighting the evils of the day which in turn is the corruption of an even older story relating to…well, to say more would be telling.

This book reads like a pulp fiction version of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. However, Roberson is talented enough to carry you through it. His recreations of pulp literature, classic adventure, mediaeval verse and Greek drama are believable and entertaining: enough so that you are prepared to run with the idea and see where it takes you. The theme of a family, or a band of like-minded individuals, fighting injustice across history is not new – Roberson even dedicates the novel to Lee Falk, creator of The Phantom, among several other similar writers – but it is treated here with realism and enough respect for the genre to carry it off effectively. And there are also a lot of great comic/ pulp writing concepts bandied about here. You have the various bands of criminals who suspend their enmities for a common goal; the secret family history that is on display but only to those who know where to look; and the range of Spencer’s acquaintances straight out of Doc Savage: a University lecturer in Ancient Greek, an FBI agent (with a secret past), a retired catburglar (with a heart of gold and a love of fine art) – the list goes on. I wish, though, that Roberson had spent as much time working on the other plotline in the story: the reclusive millionaire and his book. Aside from a terrific setpiece in which Spencer attends an auction hosted by criminals to dispose legally of certain items that come their way – and which places Spencer’s friends in mortal danger – the antique book subplot feels like a device inserted by the author to stop Spencer from thinking too much about his family history. And I didn’t particularly like the way it dominated the climax and conclusion of the novel, leaving us with an ending that disappointed, due to its being below the standard of the previous 250 or so pages.

On the whole, though, I really enjoyed this novel. If you’re a fan of pulp fiction, or classic adventures, or superheroes, or pretty much anything, you may very well have a lot of fun with this book.

For more about Chris Roberson go to http://www.chrisroberson.net.