Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Clown Service
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Ashe, Gregory
BIRTHDATE: 1/6/1976
WEBSITE: http://www.guyadamsauthor.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: Spain
NATIONALITY: British
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Adams
RESEARCHER NOTES:
Writer Note: Cited quotes are indicated in the research packet by [[double brackets.]]
PERSONAL
Born January 6, 1976, in England.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Also worked as an actor, including appearance in the television series Emmerdale, performances in the role of Sherlock Holmes, and occasional work as a standup comedian.
WRITINGS
Author of comic books, including The Engine, Madefire; Goldtiger; and Ulysses Sweet: Maniac for Hire, 2000 AD. Work represented in anthologies, including Don’t Panic: Douglas Adams & the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Neil Gaiman, Titan Books, 2009; and Doctor Who: The Legends of River Song, created by Stephen Jones, Running Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2012.
SIDELIGHTS
Guy Adams became a professional actor in the late 1990s. He was still working as an actor some ten years later, when he decided to try his hand at writing. He drew his initial inspiration from familiar sources: horror movies from Hammer Films and Italian westerns, popular television series like Life on Mars and Torchwood, and the larger-than-life character of Sherlock Holmes. Adams also nurtured a longtime fascination with fantasy and the supernatural and a bent for comedy.
Deadbeat
Adams commented at his home page: “I’d had the idea to write a fun pulp-crime novella with some heavy fantasy leanings,” but several years passed before Deadbeat: Makes You Stronger came to life. Deadbeat is the story of retired actors Tom and Max who spot a coffin being carried from a cemetery with a breathing corpse inside. They cannot resist the urge to investigate, but contacting the police is out of the question. Tom and Max share more than their professional background: their supernatural connection will get them into all sorts of trouble if it comes to light. Despite comedic missteps, the amateur detectives proceed with modest success, until Max is kidnapped. Tom turns to his jazz club, Deadbeat, to recruit volunteers for a rescue operation. Tom and Max alternate as first-person narrators of the thickening plot. Both comedy and horror abound as the story careens toward a thrilling climax that leaves enough open questions to support the series that follows. Matt Molgaard reported on the Horror Novel Reviews Web site: “Adams is a phenomenal storyteller who understands all the intricacies a tightly knit mystery novel demands,” plus “the comedic overtones are flat out spectacular.” Kirstie Haruta recommended the novel on the Nerdophiles Web site: “Deadbeat is something distinctly different, totally fun in its own right.”
While waiting for Deadbeat to take shape, Adams honed his skills with a number of manuscripts connected to his favorite movies and television shows. He credits the British television series Life on Mars for kick-starting his writing career. He wrote two companion volumes to the series about a cop from 2006 who wakes up after a car accident in the year 1973. Then Adams entered the mindset of the politically incorrect, morally ambiguous Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt to produce three books that he describes as “humor.”
The Breath of God, The Army of Doctor Moreau, and Countess Dracula
Then Sherlock Holmes beckoned. The Breath of God is the story of a legendary power that could be used to take control of the world. Holmes is not especially interested in this supernatural nonsense, but he can’t ignore a good mystery, especially when members of the Golden Dawn Society are dying all around him. Sean Canfield wrote at the Daily Rotation that the story unfolds in the style of the Arthur Conan Doyle originals, while Adams portrays Holmes as “the 19th century Batman, using only his resources, intelligence, and instincts to resolve the case.” He called the story “a well plotted mystery” full of “crisp wit, high adventure, [and] knowing nods to literary fans” of the series. The Army of Doctor Moreau was similarly well received, as Carrie Hildebrand observed on the Three if by Space Web site, as “an interesting twist to an age-old tale, seamlessly intertwining a fascinating mix of science fiction and logical deduction.”
Adams also published three well received reinterpretations of horror classics produced by Hammer Films. The third, Countess Dracula, revolves around the legend of Elizabeth Bathory, a sadistic Hungarian noblewoman who actually lived from 1560 to 1614, who was said to use the blood of young women as bathwater. She was portrayed as Elisabeth Nadasdy in the film adaptation from Hammer Horror. Adams’s novel, however, is set in Hollywood in 1971, when an aging Hungarian film star is rumored to be using Bathory’s recipe for a bloody fountain of youth to restore her own fading beauty. Nadia Mook reviewed Adams’s version on the Concatenation Web site as a “gruesome story of Hollywood debauchery, adultery and loyalty.” Leaving no genre unplumbed, Adams also penned three novels in the style of classic “Italian western” adventures like A Fistful of Dollars, the film that catapulted a young Clint Eastwood to fame as “the man with no name.”
The World House and Restoration
In 2010 Adams recorded at his home page, he had “the chance to create something totally original … a dream come true.” The World House exists within a mysterious box discovered by an antiques dealer who falls into it. Inside the house, according to Jonathan McCalmont’s review on the Strange Horizons Web site, are “impossible rooms, impossible creatures and other people from other time periods who have also fallen into the box.” Everyone is trying to escape. “At the very top of the house,” Adams wrote at his home page, “a prisoner sits behind a locked door waiting for a key to turn. The day that happens, the world will end.” McCalmont described the novel as “a fast and furious romp through a big concept fantasy world filled with colourful characters and deadly danger.” There are so many characters, he added, that they fail to inspire an emotional attachment, but he called the story “a heady cocktail of adventure and weirdness.”
The prisoner at the top of the house represents infinite evil, and he is finally loose in the world. The end is near, unless time travelers and continent jumpers can recapture him. The story continues in Restoration, which functions as the second volume of the continuing drama. A reviewer on the Science Fiction Book Reviews Web site called it “full to the brim of twists and turns … with a high body count” and an escalating air of dread. “There are some real genius ideas here,” commented the reviewer, while commending the author for “smart dialog and wonderfully rich characters, a truly mind bending experience.”
The Clown Service
The Clown Service follows the adventures of secret service agent Toby Greene after his demotion from active duty to the basement office of Section 37. The much-ridiculed unit known as the Clown Service is supposedly responsible for investigating paranormal threats, but it is generally accepted as a dead end for agents who have failed elsewhere in the organization. To Toby’s surprise he uncovers evidence of “an old enemy … re-animating the dead to destroy the country from within,” Adams revealed at his home page.”Adams does a wonderful job of creating a gallery of fascinating characters,” Abbas Daya reported in the Fantasy Book Review Web site, calling The Clown Service “a delicious cocktail of all your favourite British spy icons … with a twist of the supernatural for added flavour.” In the same review, Cat Fitzpatrick described Toby as a disgraced and demoralized agent defeated by life who finds himself rejuvenated by “a world of astral projection, geriatric KGB agents, time travel and the apocalypse.” A Publishers Weekly contributor suggested that Adams created “immediately likable characters” that offer “just enough incentive to stick with the series.” The series continues with The Rain-Soaked Bride and A Few Words for the Dead.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly May 30, 2016, review of The Clown Service. p. 43.
ONLINE
Concatenation, http://www.concatenation.org/ (February 12, 2017), Nadia Mook, review of Countess Dracula.
Daily Rotation, http://www.thedailyrotation.com/ (September 30, 2011), Sean Canfield, review of The Breath of God.
Fantasy Book Review, http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/ (February 12, 2017), Abbas Daya and Cat Fitzpatrick, review of The Clown Service.
Guy Adams Home Page, http://www.guyadamsauthor.com (February 12, 2017).
Horror Novel Reviews, https://horrornovelreviews.com/ (June 27, 2013), Matt Molgaard, review of Deadbeat: Makes You Stronger.
James Stewart 13, https://jamesstewart 13.com/ (March 18, 2013), review of The Breath of God.
Nerdophiles, http://www.nerdophiles.com/ (July 23, 2013), Kirstie Haruta, review of Deadbeat.
Pop Cultured, http://www.pop-cultured.net/ (October 23, 2012), Katharine Stubbs, review of The Army of Doctor Moreau.
Robert McGrath Home Page, https://robertmcgrath.wordpress.com/ (December 4, 2016), review of For a Few Souls More.
Science Fiction Fantasy Book Reviews, https://sfbook.com/ (June 4, 2011), review of Restoration.
Strange Horizons, http://strangehorizons.com/ (June 14, 2010), Jonathan McCalmont, review of The World House.
Three if by Space, http://www.threeifbyspace.net/ (August 5, 2012), Carrie Hildebrand, review of The Army of Doctor Moreau.
Series
Deadbeat
1. Makes You Stronger (2005)
2. Dogs of Waugh (2007)
3. Old Bones (2008)
Kingdom
1. Prodigal Son (2009)
World House
1. The World House (2010)
2. Restoration (2011)
Sherlock Holmes
1. The Breath of God (2011)
2. The Army of Doctor Moreau (2012)
Sherlock: The Casebook (2012)
Heaven's Gate Chronicles
1. The Good, the Bad and the Infernal (2013)
2. Once Upon a Time in Hell (2013)
3. For a Few Souls More (2014)
Clown Service
1. The Clown Service (2013)
2. The Rain-Soaked Bride (2014)
3. A Few Words For The Dead (2015)
Novels
The Imagineer (1999)
More Than This (2005)
Kronos (2011)
Hands of the Ripper (2012)
Countess Dracula (2013)
Collections
The Case Notes of Sherlock Holmes (2009) (with Lee Thompson)
The Obverse Book of Ghosts (2010) (with Stuart Douglas and Tom Fletcher)
Series contributed to
Torchwood
12. The House That Jack Built (2009)
The Men Who Sold The World (2011)
The Men Who Sold the World / First Born / Long Time Dead (omnibus) (2011) (with James Goss and Sarah Pinborough)
2.4 Moving Target (2016)
Doctor Who: Legends
Fiesta of the Damned (2016)
The Legends of River Song (2016) (with Jenny T Colgan, Andrew Lane, Steve Lyons and Jacqueline Rayner)
Class
1. Joyride (2016)
Non fiction series
Life On Mars
Life on Mars Official Companion (2006)
The Rules of Modern Policing - 1973 Edition (2007)
Life on Mars Official Companion Volume 2 (2007)
Non fiction
Leonard Rossiter (2010)
The Little Book of Bar Bets (2010)
The Curse of the Werewolf (2011)
Guy Adams
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Guy Adams
Born 6 January 1976 (age 41)[1]
England
Pen name Gregory Ashe[1]
Occupation Novelist, actor, news agent, comedian
Genre Fantasy
Notable works The World House
Website
guyadamsauthor.com
Guy Adams (born 6 January 1976) is an English[1] author, comedian, and actor,[2] possibly best known for the novel The World House. He has also written a BBC Books Torchwood novel, The House That Jack Built.[3] He starred as a mugger on British soap opera, Emmerdale and has also tried stand-up with his own material.[2]
Adams has portrayed Sherlock Holmes twice[4] before embarking on creating his own original novel featuring Holmes.[5]
In December, 2013, Adams will publish second book in his The Heaven's Gate Chronicles series, entitled Once Upon Time in Hell.[6] First book was also published in the 2013 and was entitled The Good, The Bad and the Infernal.
Bibliography
Books Year Title Notes
2005 Makes You Stronger (Deadbeats #1) ISBN 978-1-78116-25-14
2009 The House That Jack Built ISBN 978-1-84607-739-5
2009 The Curse of the Werewolf[7] ISBN 978-1-84732-737-6
2009 The Case Notes of Sherlock Holmes[8] ISBN 978-0-233-00289-7
2010 The World House[9] ISBN 978-0-00-734504-5
2011 The World House: Restoration[10] ISBN 978-0-85766-117-3
2011 The Men Who Sold the World [11] ISBN 978-1-84990-285-4
2011 Kronos ISBN 978-0-09-955624-4
2012 Sherlock Holmes: The Breath of God[12] ISBN 978-0-85768-282-6
2013 The Good, The Bad and the Infernal ISBN 978-0-85768-282-6
2013 Once Upon a Time In Hell[6] ISBN 978-1-78108-156-3
2013 Sherlock Holmes: The Army of Doctor Moreau[13] ISBN 978-0-85768-933-7
2013 The Clown Service[14] ISBN
"Guy Adams is either barking mad or a genius, I haven't decided. His truly fantastic debut is like being caught in a theme park with a killer clown - fun, adventure, the odd cream pie - and a sharp knife when you're not looking."- Mark Chadbourn
"Great idea in very incapable hands. He should email his ideas to Dan Simmons and let him write it." - 'Daniel2' on Goodreads
Guy Adams lives in Spain, surrounded by rescue animals. Some of them are his family. He spent over ten years working as a professional actor and comedian. He has pretended to be Ernest Hemingway, Hitler, Sherlock Holmes and writhed about in his underpants simulating sex with a woman dressed as a horse. Acting is an unusual thing to do with one's time.
Eventually he decided he'd quite like to eat regularly. Switching careers he became a full-time writer.
Nobody said he was clever.
Against all odds he managed to stay busy and since then he has written over twenty books. From bestselling humour title THE RULES OF MODERN POLICING (1973 Edition) to novels for BBC Books' TORCHWOOD range and brand new adventures for Sherlock Holmes in THE BREATH OF GOD and THE ARMY OF DR MOREAU.
He is the author of THE WORLD HOUSE novels, the DEADBEAT series and the weird westerns THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE INFERNAL and ONCE UPON A TIME IN HELL.
He also writes comics, including THE ENGINE from Madefire, the creator-owned GOLDTIGER and the forthcoming ULYSSES SWEET: MANIAC FOR HIRE from 2000AD.
THE CLOWN SERVICE, his new series from Del Rey UK mixes espionage with horror and fantasy. Because he's never met a genre he didn't like. He isn't a spy. But he is a boy, so naturally he's always dreamed of being one.
He is singularly useless at updating his website but hopefully there's enough waffle about all of his books available from the links on the left.
You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter, where sometimes I'm a bit more on the ball.
Note from writer: Additional material about his books in his own words:
The Clown Service
My latest series of novels, this time coming out from those fine folks at Del Rey UK.
The pitching process was long and scary. I've always been a fan of espionage novels, you can't beat a bit of Deighton and Le Carre. The idea was to do something in that field that also tapped into my fantasy bent. Which sounds like a health condition but I'm sure you know what I mean.
The idea of a department within the Intelligence Service that handles the preternatural (same as supernatural but with a stronger emphasis on the strange event being something that could one day be explained by science rather than just 'weird spooky shit') is not completely fictional, such departments have existed over the years.
I am currently contracted for three adventures in the company of my unusual spies, August Shining and Toby Greene. The first, taking its title from the series as a whole, will be published in the UK in hardback, September 2013. Paperback to follow. The current blurb for book one (subject to change, as is the cover). Toby Greene has been reassigned. The Department: Section 37 Station Office, Wood Green. The Boss: August Shining, an ex-Cambridge, Cold War-era spy. The Mission: Charged with protecting the Great Britain and its interests from paranormal terrorism. The Threat:[[ An old enemy]] has returned, and with him Operation Black Earth. The Plan: Create the ultimate insurgents by[[ re-animating the dead to destroy the country from within]].
Deadbeat
The history of the DEADBEAT Series is long and strange. The two central characters, Max Jackson and Tom Harris, were ciphers for myself and Steve Newman, a fellow writer and theatre director. He got me a job writing a bizarre online serial and I created them by of a thank you, putting them in an adventure with Ernest Hemingway (the subject of Steve's serial). It was a joke. As a passing point of interest, the adventure was called THE BREATH OF GOD, a title I would later use for my first Sherlock Holmes novel. L
Later, [[I'd had an idea to write a fun pulp-crime novella with some heavy fantasy leanings]] (this is me after all, never stick with reality of you can help it). The two of them seemed exactly what the story needed.
That novella had an awkward birth. Originally written for a specific publisher I later withdrew it when it became clear that I couldn't make the changes they wanted without losing the love I had for the story in the first place. This wasn't an argument I hasten to add, the editor simply had a very strong idea of what they wanted to see and I realised I wasn't the writer to provide it. Two things they were insistent on: you can't tell a novella from more than one viewpoint (the Deadbeat stories leap from one first person narrator to another) and you can't mix horror and comedy. I didn't agree with either (though fully understood their reservations on both points).
So I'd written a novella and there was nobody to publish it. Being utterly unaware of the potential flak such a move would cause, I put it out myself through a small company I had created with Steve Newman and Lee Thompson. Avoiding discussion of the merits or failures in the notion of self-publishing (life's too short) I'll just say that it seemed a waste to leave it unread and shoved it out there without much thought. I wasn't writing for a living back then and I knew nothing about the business. Luckily it didn't do me any harm, people seemed to like it. It got some nice reviews and was short-listed for a British Fantasy Award. I was pleased.
I wrote a second novella a couple of years later, intending to make it a regular series. By then, though, I was writing for a living and just never found the time to do book three.
Over the years I have frequently taken the stories out and looked at them, occasionally sounding out publishers. In fact, it was DEADBEAT I tried to sell to Angry Robot first, with the THE WORLD HOUSE a hasty replacement idea when they decided it was too similar to an urban fantasy series they were publishing.
I wondered about it as a comic, a TV series, a radio show... the idea and the characters were always there, just waiting for me to find somewhere to place them. Finally, after I had started working with Titan on the Sherlock Holmes novels, Max and Tom found their chance.
The books contain some of the material from the original novellas but for the most part they're entirely re-written. Ten years had passed between them and there's a world of difference between the plot of a novella and that of a full-length novel. That said, Max and Tom are finally back, ready to reach a mass audience.
One interesting thing (to me at least): When I first wrote Max he was me. Oh there were differences in circumstances of course, but his personality, his attitude... all utterly mine. When I went back to the original, not only did I find I didn't recognise him but I found I didn't even like him very much. We change more than we realise. Now I can finally let him be his own man... More details about each book at the links on the right (not there anymore).
Heaven's Gate
I've been ever so lucky over the last couple of years that I've been given the opportunity to work in areas I really love. This is a perfect example.
When I was a kid I hated Westerns, then I saw A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and my opinion changed. Sergio Leone's movies are a revelation in so many ways: beautiful, brutal, fantastical and rich. It took an Italian to evoke the magic of the American West for me.
Since then I have been a big fan of Spaghetti Westerns, they're always just one step removed from reality. A warped view of that iconic world of dust and leather, wood and bone. So now I'm writing some.
Of course, they're not really Spaghetti Westerns, they're much more fantastical than that (I never can restrain myself) but they're born from the same place, weird westerns that have a sideways approach to replicating that chunk of history.
Solaris are publishing the first two in what I hope will go on to be a series. Much like The World House novels, these two will be inextricably linked. The first, THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE INFERNAL is about the journey, the second ONCE UPON A TIME IN HELL is about the destination.
For more information about each book, check the links at the right.
The Engine
I've always been a massive comics fan but it's taken me a long time to have the opportunity of writing one.
MADEFIRE is a revolutionary bunch of lunatics in San Francisco (including my pal Liam Sharp, a man built out of the muscles Jack Kirby had left over). They produce what they call 'motion books', comics optimised for reading on a tablet or smart phone. The images move, there is music and foley, it's like reading a comic when you're very drunk. Or Captain Pugwash in an aggressive mood. They have major talent involved. And me.
The series I write for them, THE ENGINE, comes from an original idea by Liam and his wife, Christina. A decommissioned robot and a bunch of miners in an alternative Russia. It's fun and free and worth your time if only to see the wonderful Jimmy Broxton's artwork.
The Change
The Change is a digital-only series published by the fine folks at Endeavour Press.
The series has been gestating for a long time, originally developed for a publisher that took the unprecedented move of folding in order to avoid refusing it.
The whole process with Endeavour has been my most stress-free to date. Originally in contact with them to provide a cover quote for another title they were publishing (Andrew Cartmel's excellent spy novel Operation: Herod), they asked if I had anything I might like them to look at. The Change immediately came to mind and it was met with approval and on sale within a matter of weeks!
The Amazon blurb:
Not a war, but an instant occupation. The Change - as those that survived would later refer to it - took only four minutes to sink its ravenous teeth into our world. But nothing would ever be the same again.
Reality has taken a battering. Everything imaginable - dream or nightmare - can now be found on the streets of our towns and cities. Nothing is impossible and nowhere is safe.
Waking up on London's M25 motorway, Howard tries to get to grips with his new surroundings. The wide road is filled with cars and rotting carcasses. As he struggles to survive, he falls in with the road pirates - a ragged band of bikers who forage amongst the derelict vehicles for anything they can steal to survive.
But the road doesn't belong to them alone, not any more. Between the rows of metal and shattered glass an unimaginable creature has been born and nothing can stop it's hunger for destruction.
THE CHANGE: ORBITAL is the first in a series of uncompromising enthralling adventures, a road trip into London that brilliantly imagines the city's post apocalyptic future.
It is perfect for fans of 'The Hunger Games' and Stephen King's 'The Stand'. 'The Change' has been widely praised.
"An immense world-melding road-trip of a fantasy that colourfully brings the impossible into our world. When the invasion begins, I really hope Guy Adams is on our side." Christopher Fowler, Author of the Bryant And May and Peculiar Crimes Unit mysteries.
'Guy Adams knows how to end the world in an exciting, grim-humoured, and awe-inspiring way. Young wizards and young spies aside, when the Great Old Ones awake, what the world needs on the case is a young Howard P Lovecraft.' Adam Nevill, author of Apartment 16, The Ritual and Last Days.
The cover comes from the wonderfully talented comics artist Jimmy Broxton.
The World House
My first original novels, both released in the UK and US by Angry Robot Books.
I wanted to take the old chestnut that is the fantasy 'epic journey' novel and subvert it. So I set the whole thing inside a house. Albeit a terribly strange one.
It's difficult to convey the massive deal these books were (and still are) for me. As much as I had enjoyed writing the several tie-in novels that preceded them, [[the chance to create something totally original]] was [[a dream come true.]]
That's not to say the writing of them was easy, of course, especially the climax of RESTORATION which was originally written while suffering from concussion. Thankfully I was later able to go back to it and turn the delirious nonsense into something that makes sense.
On the subject of sense: RESTORATION doesn't make any if you haven't read THE WORLD HOUSE. One reviewer gamely tried and found himself weeping in confusion thirty pages in. It's not so much that it's one big novel split over two books, the two novels are very different, but RESTORATION is a direct response to the events of THE WORLD HOUSE and you really need to know what happened there to stand a chance of keeping up.
The World House: There is a box. Inside that box is a door. And beyond that door is a whole world.
In some rooms, forests grow. In others, animals and objects come to life. Elsewhere, secrets and treasures wait for the brave and foolhardy.
And [[at the very top of the house, a prisoner sits behind a locked door waiting for a key to turn. The day that happens, the world will end.]]
Restoration: None who enter the World House leave it unchanged.
They sought the box for many years, because held inside that arcane magical artefact was, miraculously, a house. But now its real purpose has become clear - it was a prison, and the infinitely evil being it was built to imprison has been let loose. Now the real quest begins in earnest.
This direct sequel to the critically acclaimed The World House is an extraordinary modern fantasy, like an episode of Doctor Who imagined by the twisted mind of Clive Barker.
Sherlock Holmes
I've been a fan of Sherlock Holmes ever since reading the short stories as a child in my school's library - an old building of granite, dark wood and leather that would have been entirely comfortable within the pages of an Arthur Conan Doyle story.
When working as an actor I tried the character on for size twice.
Initially it was in an entirely nonsensical comedy sketch I wrote for Adams & Jarrett, the prosaically titled touring show Phil Jarret and I hiked around provincial theatres and comedy clubs. Occasionally we would perform to literally tens of people. Sometimes they laughed.
(Audio version of the sketch uploaded here)
Later, Phil and I attempted a revival of The Secret of Sherlock Holmes,
a play originally commissioned by Holmes actor, Jeremy Brett.
I didn't play the part particularly well, it was a shallow imitation of Brett who was - and still is - my favourite actor in the role. It's hard to play a character afresh when you think someone else has already hit the nail on the head.
The local reviewers were nice enough though and I got to embarrass my co-star (who was a superb Watson, understated and delicate) by jumping in the river Avon with a bunch of theatre students from the Carpe Diem Theatre School (I kept insisting that Carpe Diem meant 'fish of God', the sort of Latin joke that appeals to dead Romans with no sense of humour).
Since becoming a writer I've also become involved with Holmes, both in a slightly fraught coffee-table book and a pair of novels for Titan Books.
Torchwood
I've always been a fan of Doctor Who, in fact I think it's what developed my story muscle.
So, when I got the call to pitch a novel idea for the "adult" spinoff I was insufferable. Skipping around the house, dancing with the cats, singing Murray Gold scores...
When I got asked to do it AGAIN you'd think the sheen had worn off to the degree that I was a little more restrained, wouldn't you? Not a bit of it.
I don't care how long I do this job, being asked to write things you love AND keep your family fed is the best thing in the world. Details about each one at the links on the left.
Life on Mars
Life On Mars gave me my professional break in writing.
From an interview with James Whittington for The Horror Channel:
"I'd always written fiction for pleasure but about six years ago I was involved in a small publishing outfit and I approached the production company Kudos Film & Television trying to pitch them books about their shows. At that point they had just started screening Life On Mars but they were already successful with shows like Hustle and Spooks.
Trying to remember why I decided to approach them is beyond me now, something had put the idea in my head but God knows what... probably wine.
Anyway, I tried to convince them that books about TV shows didn't have to be predictable and boring and that if they were interested in doing something a bit different then they should let me know. Cocky git. Upshot was, I was invited to a meeting with the head of the company (alongside my good friend, the brilliant designer Lee Thompson) to discuss just that. We left an hour later having agreed to produce a proposal that would be presented to publishers. Now, most proposals are a few sheets of A4, a word document outlining the intentions, but we produced a crazy, beautiful thing, fully-designed, packed full of samples and illustrations, the most ridiculously OTT proposal you ever saw. A book in itself.
It sold, and Lee and I ended up producing two volumes about Life On Mars for Simon & Schuster. The writing of the first coincided with my moving out here to Spain and my poor partner, Debra, ended up handling everything while I concentrated on trying to get this... my first ever professional book... written. Somehow I got away with it and having found there was no other work on offer over here I kept going. I've now written about twenty books, everything from biographies to my own novels. Fiction will always be my first love but I'm lucky that I've been able to turn my hand to lots of different things, it's helped to keep the roof on."
Those two books also led to three humour books written as "Gene Hunt" (one of the show's leads).
Hammer Horror
By the time I was growing up, Hammer Horror had settled into a living death of BBC2 repeats. I have always had a love of creativity on a shoestring. Probably fostered by being a Doctor Who geek.
Hammer, in fact pretty much all British horror cinema of the fifties, sixties and seventies has become another of my adult obsessions. My library of pictures from Hammer, Tigon, Amicus etc. is exhaustive, from lovingly restored DVD releases to pirate copies encoded from late-night cable broadcasts and early VHS. There's just something wonderful about that period of filmmaking, from the smooth Gothic of Hammer's Curse of Frankenstein to the sleazy, sweaty beige of Gary Sherman's Death Line or the wonderful Horror Express from Eugenio Martin (and, yes, the latter's Spanish but it still goes in the pot with all the other Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee greats).
They are quite simply my favourite type of movie.
So imagine how chuffed I was to be able to jump onboard the new Hammer Books line from Arrow and Hammer Films. I am contracted to novelise three classic movies from Hammer's catalogue and the poor editor must have wept when she foolishly asked if I had any preferences. The list was so long the question became moot. The first title was a direct commission, it was just the most enviable good luck that it happened to be one of my favourites, click on the Kronos link to the left for more details.
The second was Hands of the Ripper, reworked to take place in the modern day.
The last, Countess Dracula, is set in thirties Hollywood.
Sherlock Holmes-fan Guy Adams has written two original Sherlock Holmes novels, The Breath of God and The Army of Dr Moreau, as well as The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, a fictional facsimile scrapbook published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Conan Doyle's birth (2009). He has also written three best-selling Life on Mars tie-in books, including The Rules of Modern Policing, as well as two Torchwood novels, The Men Who Sold the World and The House That Jack Built.
The Clown Service
Publishers Weekly. 263.22 (May 30, 2016): p43.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Clown Service
Guy Adams. Random House U.K., $16.95 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-09-195315-7
Toby Greene keeps failing as a U.K. intelligence agent. Exiled to Section 37, whose only other member is an elderly man who seems delusional and irrational, Toby's soon caught up in the ultimate sleeper-agent plot, battling Cold War demons--and his own personal one--in a silly-serious supernatural spy adventure. Adams (Once upon a Time in Hell) struggles with structure; third- and first-person accounts are interspersed with stop-and-start narration of events in present-day London and its recent past. There's also a sense of familiar ground: a clueless guy gets educated by an older mentor to stop a paranormal threat, aided by a large cast of quirky folks and wink-nod references. Adams makes up for it by creating [[immediately likable characters ]]and managing to imbue some overused tropes with new (un)life, giving readers[[ just enough incentive to stick with the series]]. July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Clown Service." Publishers Weekly, 30 May 2016, p. 43. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA454270595&it=r&asid=a76027e83e581aa45bd1fa882f40c710. Accessed 19 Jan. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A454270595
The World House by Guy Adams
Jonathan McCalmont
Issue: 14 June 2010
The World House cover
The World House is the first original novel by veteran media tie-in author Guy Adams. It is the first part of a duology and, in the immortal words of Bernard Black, it's dreadful but quite short. Well . . . shortish.
The book begins with failed antiques dealer and gambler Miles about to have his legs broken by a loan shark. Beyond hope and full of cheap take-away food, Miles sets about getting drunk and smashing up the contents of his shop. As he does so, he catches a glimpse of a Chinese-looking box. A box that appears to change shape. Miles is somewhat freaked out by this, but does not have long to reflect on the matter before the loan shark and his hired goons turn up on his doorstep. Then Miles falls in the box. What he finds is a vast, sprawling Victorian mansion, filled with [[impossible rooms, impossible creatures and other people from other time periods who have also fallen into the box]]. Indeed, Miles quickly finds himself teamed up with a 1920s debutante and a Victorian explorer. There are others roaming the house, including a stripper, a jazz musician, an Edwardian sailor and a man who bears many different names. Fighting for survival and searching for a way out, these different groups of housebound individuals explore their new home and slowly piece together not only its true nature but also its place in human history.
With its airy prose style, short chapters, frequent changes of viewpoint, and unrelentingly quick tempo, The World House is clearly intended to be a no-nonsense thrill ride. [[A fast and furious romp through a big concept fantasy world filled with colourful characters and deadly danger]]. [[A heady cocktail of adventure and weirdness]] made by blending elements of Gaiman's wainscott fantasy TV series Neverwhere (1996) with ideas from the old Doctor Who serial Pyramids of Mars (1975). And initially at least, the splice seems to work.
Adams displays a real lightness of touch when it comes to characterisation. As we skip back and forth in time for our introductions to the book's sizeable cast of characters, Adams makes quick work of establishing the characters' personalities and giving them their own stylistic aura. An aura composed partly of the colloquial idosyncraties of the characters' speech patterns and partly of the language Adams uses when he first introduces the character. Consider, for example, the appearance of Tom, a martini-sodden hepcat with a thing for the shop-soiled showgirl Elise. We find him sitting in a diner on a wet night:
He would stop playing, pour himself straight up on to a barstool and graze on olives and punjabi mix until his tongue felt like a tramp's sock during a downpour. "It's, like, pure," he would burble, pointing at invisibles in the air between his and his audience and fixing them with an earnest stare. The sort of look that says that its owner knows . . . OK? He just fucking knows. (p. 71)
We then move on to a Philip Marlowe reference and Tom begins to speak in a tongue loaded with period detail:
"Knock me your lobes, daddy-o." (p. 72)
"Bad Jive, daddy-o." (p. 83)
Adams uses a similar combination of pastiched scene setting and colloquial dialogue to establish the Victorian adventurer Carruthers:
The man in the doorway was dressed in old-fashioned explorer's clothes: pale khaki jacket littered with pockets, long shorts, desert boots and a pith helmet. "My dears," he said, in a cultured voice richer than port-soaked stilton, "if you value your lives as you surely must, I beg you to heed me. The wildlife here is unpredictable and predominantly deadly. You dismiss it at your peril." At this he gave a jolly smile, his long bushy moustache rising like theatre drapes to reveal his shining teeth." (p. 93)
This pattern is then reproduced with a psychologically fragile American, a survivor of the Spanish civil war, an autistic girl and a 1980s yuppy. Adams turns on the style for the initial encounter and fixes the period (and genre) that birthed the character by sticking resolutely to their distinctive speech patterns. This means that, despite juggling a large cast and devoting very little space to character development, Adams manages to keep all of his characters distinct and memorable. However, this lightness of touch does wind up proving problematic in the long run.
While Adams' approach to characterisation allows not only the rapid introduction of characters but also their successful individuation, this success is largely due to a heavy reliance upon the associations that readers bring with them when they pick up the book. Indeed, when Adams writes about Tom and Carruthers, he is not creating unique characters out of whole cloth, he is effectively tapping into the audience's memories of similar characters introduced and developed by other authors in other works. As a result, if Tom and Carruthers come across as, respectively, a generic jazz musician and a generic explorer it is because that is precisely what they are. "Daddy-o"? A pith helmet? These props are carefully chosen. The individualised speech patterns may keep the characters separate from each other in our minds but our emotional link to them is forged by the literary pastiches that accompany their introductions.
Unfortunately for Adams, this approach to characterisation does come at a price as while stock characters require little work to introduce, they also fail to sustain much of an emotional bond with the reader. Indeed, despite the book moving breezily from one dangerous encounter to the next, it is difficult to really feel any tension or emotional involvement in the characters' plights because they are so utterly generic and two-dimensional. Simply put, Adams fails to develop his characters sufficiently to make us care about them and if one does not care about the characters in a thriller then all the chasing and fighting in the world cannot hope to generate any real excitement.
But perhaps I am being unfair.
The World House is, first and foremost, a story of exploration. The World House itself is the fantasy equivalent of a Big Dumb Object and while the novel may well be structured like a thriller, it ultimately stands or falls on the capacity of its central object to demand our attention. But this too proves to be problematic.
Big Dumb Objects are effectively inverted MacGuffins. When asked by François Truffaut to explain the concept of the MacGuffin, its originator Alfred Hitchcock told the following story:
"It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men in a train. One man says 'What's that package up there in the baggage rack?', and the other answers 'Oh that's a MacGuffin'. The first one asks 'What's a MacGuffin?'. 'Well', the other man says, 'It's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands'. The first man says 'But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands', and the other one answers 'Well, then that's no MacGuffin!'. So you see, a MacGuffin is nothing at all."
There are two partly overlapping ways of interpreting this story. The more concrete is that the second man has deployed a logical paradox as a way of telling the first man to mind his own bloody business. However, the second and more abstract interpretation of the story is that the actual contents of the package do not matter because the package exists only as a means of kick-starting a conversation between the two men. Indeed, a MacGuffin is popularly understood to be a fictional object that exists in order to drive a plot. Whether it is the Maltese Falcon, the Golden Fleece or the eerily shimmering contents of Marcellus Wallace's briefcase, the MacGuffin holds no inherent value or interest. Its inclusion in a story is purely a means to an end, the end that is human drama.
Big Dumb Objects are also objects that sit at the heart of a story, but rather than serving as a catalyst to force the plot and characters into the foreground, Big Dumb Objects tend to dominate the stories that feature them. In effect, they turn human elements such as plot and characterisation into methods for controlling the flow of information about the object. Excuses for moving the authorial camera. Reasons for misleading the reader. The ends of a Big Dumb Object story are always the object itself and the dramatic elements of the story are merely a means of exploring those ends. So while the dramatic elements of The World House may be threadbare and unconvincing, the book could still work if the Big Dumb Object is intriguing enough to support an entire novel. But therein lies the problem.
The World House tries so hard to be light and breezy that its refusal to get bogged down in any kind of exposition is annoyingly absolute. Its characters receive no real development but then neither does its central concept. Indeed, the House itself is actually quite dull: what weirdness there is comes from rather pedestrian attempts to exaggerate the characteristics of an otherwise quite normal house. So instead of a bathroom, we have a bathroom so huge that its bath is the size of an ocean. Instead of a library, we have a library so huge that it contains biographies of every person that has ever lived. Instead of a greenhouse we have a vast forest. The dullness of the House is not improved by the fact that the exposition dries up in the middle of the novel so as to allow Adams the opportunity to blow the reader's head off in the final fifty pages with a series of actually quite predictable but supposedly game-changing revelations that set the stage for the second book in the series. This is unfortunate, since if the House and its inhabitants are not substantial enough to support a single four hundred page novel then I have no idea how Adams and Angry Robot expect them to support two.
It is tempting at this point to suggest that The World House was doomed from the start as it tries to satisfy both the need for speed and lightness of the thriller and the need for detailed exposition of the Big Dumb Object yarn or secondary world fantasy story. However, this is an entirely artificial dichotomy. Works like Gaiman's Neverwhere (1996), Sedia's The Secret History of Moscow (2007) and even the early books of Stross' Merchant Princes series demonstrate that it is possible to tell exciting and swiftly-moving adventure stories that revolve around the exploration of an entire world. In fact, The World House's ambitions are entirely reasonable. It is simply that Guy Adams is not quite up to the challenge of satisfying them.
Jonathan McCalmont lives in the United Kingdom, where he writes, teaches, and edits Fruitless Recursion.
Sherlock Holmes and the Breath of God” by Guy Adams Review
Sean Canfield September 30, 2011 0 Comments
Taking on the biggest literary characters of all time and putting them into a story of your own creation has to be difficult. At the same time, Sherlock Holmes is an old school Batman, using little more than his brilliant deductive reasoning to solve even the most complex of cases. Author Guy Adams has done this, and I must say it’s an enjoyable experience. All too often, classic characters will get abused in unwanted sequels done for simple monetary gain. Adams proves it can be done properly, capturing the essence and themes of the works of Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle honestly while telling a new story in turn-of-the-19th century London.
Sherlock Holmes and the Breath of God is the latest book to star everyone’s favorite detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his ever-present sidekick, the fastidious Dr. John Watson. Doyle’s works, and the characters themselves, have help up over a vast array of different mediums, from their original novel form to early radio shows, numerous films and television shows, and now the circle is complete as new authors are taking a stab at the characters.
In this book, Sherlock and Watson get drawn into a mystery by Dr. John Silence, and later running into famous ghost hunter Thomas Carnacki. As with many books published by Titan Books lately, this book is set in time period of the original works, but with coy winks from an inside player with a knowledge of the literary past. When a mysterious wave of deaths involving members of the Golden Dawn Society, an upper crust secret society, Sherlock Holmes is one of a few names mentioned in a cryptic message. When Watson begins to have strange, possibly supernatural experiences himself, they come to the conclusion that they must band together and find Aleister Crowley, who is building a name for himself as a powerful occultist.
When Holmes grows weary due to disinterest and disbelief, he continues to investigate based solely on the stories described by his trusted aide Watson. As the story grows more supernatural, Holmes appears to lose some interest, but like classic Holmes, he of course will never let anything stump him, figuring out the impossible and explaining its possibility.
Here, he is figuring out the possible evil implication of “The Breath of God”, a legendary force that could possibly be used to take over the planet. When Silence, Holmes, Watson, and Carnacki finally come across Aleister Crowley, they find not a demon loving foe, but a brother in arms willing to try to help them defeat the powerful forces that have drawn forth the Breath of God.
Spawning from a complex series of mysteries, Holmes is able to deduct his way through a minefield of clouded judgments, unreliable information, and the emotions of his motley crew to seek out the real truth behind the power of The Breath of God, which Holmes doesn’t believe in any more than he does ghosts. A man of sound reasoning, he’s never found a reason to deduct in any other fashion, and as typically is the case, he is able to see past the farcical nature of the situation and find the loose threads, eventually pulling them loose until the whole thing falls apart.
Smartly written in the familiar Holmes style, the book has a[[ crisp wit, high adventure, knowing nods to literary fans]], and [[a well plotted mystery]]. With this case especially, Holmes is the [[19th century Batman, using only his resources, intelligence, and instincts to resolve the case]] as quickly as possible. Some classic Holmes fans may be put off by the supernatural nature of the plot, but purists need not worry, the resolution comes in classic Doyle fashion.
Sherlock Holmes and the Breath of God is out now from Titan Books in bookstores everywhere. You can buy it from Amazon here.
8.1/10
The Clown Service by Guy Adams
The Clown Service book cover
Read sample
Rating 9.0/10
Once I started to read this I just couldn�t put it down.
A Recommended Book of the Month
Toby Greene has cocked up one too many times in the eyes of his section chief, a man with a surly disposition and a healthy dislike of our hero. Toby is therefore transferred to the department within the British Secret Service, dubbed the Circus, where all doomed agents are consigned to die - section 37. This is the department which deals with supernatural threats to Britain and which the Intelligence Service regards as so ridiculous that it’s ‘...where we keep the clowns’, hence the title of Guy Adams’ first book in his supernatural spy series, The Clown Service.
Olag Krishnin is an ex-KGB agent, and Cold War era warhorse, with a knack for passing between realities. He’s also found a way to animate the dead by crossing magic with technology and plans to raise an army of the dead to wreak havoc on the UK.
It falls to Section 37 and our heroes: Toby Greene, August Shining, the head of Section 37 and Toby’s new boss, Tamar, August’s ‘bodyguard’, and April Shining, August’s sister, to find out why the loony Russian is hell bent on unleashing a horde of zombies on Blighty and to stop his madness.
Along the way Toby will learn the supernatural ropes of Section 37 and meet some weird and wonderful characters. He will also make some powerful new friends, not least of which is August, a man with Gandalf-like knowledge of all things supernatural.
The verdict: The book is a fantastic read; the action moves at a good pace and the story is engaging as Adams flits between narrative styles. At times the action unfolds through Toby’s perspective, first person, and sometimes in the third person, and the story is also well seasoned with a goodly dose of humour, for example, when Toby’s section chief expresses his hatred of our hero: ‘You work in intelligence – a fact so weighted by irony that I would be tempted to laugh, were it not for the bubbling disgust I feel for you robbing me of my mirth.’
These words vividly conjure the image of a fat and balding, and well dressed, Whitehall civil servant. Adams does a wonderful job of creating a gallery of fascinating characters; August Shining is suave, debonair and charming and wise, Toby Greene is a bit gormless but a good lad and so utterly endearing, and Tamar is just sultry and alluring. April Shining is wonderfully introduced to us as, ‘…a hostile weather front in a cardigan and beads.’
Our villains, Russian or otherwise, are not caricatures but are believable and, in some cases, quite likable.
The Clown Service is[[ a delicious cocktail of all your favourite British spy icons]] - a dash of Bond, a sprinkling of the Avengers, [[with a twist of the supernatural for added flavour]]. So if you fancy a read that combines the best of British spy thrillers with humour and the supernatural, then you may find The Clown Service is your cup of tea!
Abbas Daya, 9/10
The Clown Service, a joke name for the never-mentioned Section 37 taken from the slang term of the ‘Circus’ for British spy intelligence services, is made up of one man in a smart suit, August Shining, who deals with the more supernatural side of crime. Toby Greene, a disgraced operative with post traumatic stress disorder, has been shunted sideways into the X-Files style basement division, in this case located in a flat in Wood Green in north London, and is introduced to [[a world of astral projection, geriatric KGB agents, time travel and the apocalypse.]]
Guy Adams has built a world which melds together John le Carre’s Cold War spy thrillers with Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next-style alternative London and a bit of Tom Holt’s sense of humour to create a really enjoyable start to what I presume will be a series focusing on The Clown Service’s supernatural investigations in a happily oblivious London.
August Shining is a relic of the 60s, stubbornly clinging on despite various deputies occasionally turning up before running away screaming after three days, and working on those cases which the top brass would prefer to ignore, in a very Fox Mulder-ish manner. Toby Greene has been ground down throughout his life, by his father and then by his job and superiors, and has finally been dropped into the supposed dead end of Section 37. However, this crash course into the world of the other side of London hiding all around us is exactly what he needs, and we are taken with him on a journey which will take him beyond our London to one that is patrolled by things which can destroy your soul, on a quest to prevent a diabolical plan, fifty years in the making, from being fulfilled.
Once I started to read this I just couldn’t put it down and read it straight through to the end. August and Toby are well fleshed-out and a good match for one another, and the supporting cast, which includes August’s delightful battle-axe sister called April (apparently their parents had better things to be doing than thinking up names), keep the action flowing. I always find London a great setting for books, and this is no exception with its crumbling warehouses, seething crowds and a very British way of doing things. I would highly recommend this book and look forward to the next.
Cat Fitzpatrick, 9/10
This The Clown Service book review was written by Abbas Daya and Cat Fitzpatrick
Countess Dracula
(2013) Guy Adams, Hammer, £6.99, pbk, 248pp, ISBN 978-0-099-55386-1
British Born Guy Adams (1976) first started off as an actor, a profession he both trained and worked in for twelve years before turning his hand towards writing about six years ago. He is responsible for the brilliant Zombie detective series 'Deadbeat' (2005-8) and other Hammer novels Kronos (2011) and Hands of the Ripper (2013). His other series include the 'Heaven Gate Chronicles' (The Good, the Bad and the Infernaland Once Upon a Time in Hell both 2013) also World House(The World House, 2010 and Restoration, 2011). Guy Adams has contributed to the Torchwood series in 'The House That Jack Built' (2009) and The Men that Sold The World (2011). As well as writing non fiction works such two official companions the series Life on Mars (2006 and 2007), The Rules Modern Policing – 1973 with Gene Hunt (2007) and Sherlock Holmes. His new series The Clown Service comes out in September 2013.
The Countess Dracula novel is based on the story of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, a sixteenth century noble woman (portrayed by Ingrid Pitt in the 1971 Hammer classic film). Known sometimes as the 'Blood Countess'. Whose legend included torturing young girls and bathing in blood.
The novel itself begins in the summer of 1971 on an open top tour bus of the homes of the rich famous. Business is slacking for tour guide come managing director Leo Hogarth. Only five people, two couples and very old guy. However two bubbly young girls (Brandi and Cheryl) join the tour and things look up for Leo. The tour gets under ways as the introductions are done. The two all American couples are Margaret and Tony Riggers as well as Jerry and Vonda. The old guy introduces himself as Gary Holdaway.
The tour is abruptly interrupted by Holdaway and a detour is taken on the promise of forgotten Hollywood history. Holdaway then weaves an intriguing story around Elizabeth Sasdy a Hollywood starlet of Hungarian origin. He sets the scene for 1930s Hollywood at the end of the silent era. Elizabeth Sasdy takes centre stage with her English husband Frank Nayland. A seemingly perfect marriage, carefully stage managed to hide Elizabeth’s true origins and portray her as an all American star. Trouble is her looks are starting to fade and with the arrival of talkies she has had to work on her accent to survive. Until in an accident happens brought on by her violent temper when she discovers an answer to her problems. But at what cost?
This [[gruesome story of Hollywood debauchery, adultery and loyalty]] is both tight and well written. Guy Adams writing style is clear, easy to read and the book flows very well. Description of film reel is used in parts which is a nice touch. The authors experience of acting and writing both shines through with his depiction of the characters. As a result of this novel, this reader did go back and watch the film Countess Dracula which itself says something about Hammer films and Guy Adams.
Gory and in places quite sensual the book itself is not for the faint hearted. It may not appeal to all fans of just fantasy or science fiction, but horror and Hammer fans will greatly enjoy it.
Nadia Mook
Guy Adams ‘Deadbeat – Makes You Stronger’ Review
Posted on June 27, 2013 in Authors A-L // 2 Comments
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Written by: Matt Molgaard
A few weeks ago I had no idea who Guy Adams was. Today, I’m absolutely cherishing the man’s work. [[Adams is a phenomenal storyteller who understands all the intricacies a tightly knit mystery novel demands]]. And, that’s what Deadbeat – Makes You Stronger is (let’s get that out of the way right off the bat), a mystery novel, not so much an outright horror tale. Is it increasingly bleak, and does it indeed feature sequences that would fit perfectly in a genre novel? Absolutely, but I wouldn’t hesitate in calling Deadbeat a mystery/thriller first and foremost.
The story focuses on Tom and Max, two retired thespians who dig into their inner gumshoe after witnessing some strange happenings in a cemetery one night. Wait… was that corpse… breathing? What the hell is going on here? How about some detective work?
Deadbeat utilizes a basic story outline, but Adams’ execution, his fine attention to detail and elaborate twists and turns are completely opposing to that basic approach. This is an ornate read that asks an analytical mind and full attention of its audience. Yet somehow, it’s remarkably relatable, reading as much like an unbelievably entertaining diary as a professionally published novel. Readers can expect to immediately be drawn into the depths of this tale, and readers can expect to experience no desire to surface once waters get dark. There’s no longing to escape this one, as hairy as the plot becomes. This is the kind of novel that says, immerse yourself in me, get tangled up in my strands of algae, and surrender yourself to the impulse to stay… forever.
[[The comedic overtones of this tale are flat out spectacular.]] Guy’s knack for the funny is damned near unparalleled today. Read this novel and I guarantee you, you’ll make an ass out of yourself on more than single occasion. I’ve earned an assortment of interesting looks from my wife, followed by the predictable what’s so funny? while running through this one. You can’t help but get scrambled up in Adams’ humor. It’s spot on, well measured and impeccably timed. It also makes for perfect contrast in crucial segments of the story.
Deadbeat could probably be summed up in a single sentence. Try this on for size: You’ll laugh, you’ll cry… it’s better than Cats. Yes, I think that about nails it.
Deadbeat is the second best novel I’ve read this year, being outshined only be Stephen King’s, Joyland. If Joyland hadn’t seen release in 2013, I’m not even sure Deadbeat would have a shred of legit competition. This is the story aspiring authors want to write. This is the book that reminds you a genius mind is light years beyond a strong mind. Guy Adams is pitch-perfect, and he’s picked himself up a major supporter here across the pond (Adams is English, if you wondered).
Just can’t say enough good things about this novel.
Do yourself a favor and order it, right here!
Rating: 5/5
Deadbeat: Makes You Stronger by Guy Adams
July 23, 2013 • by Kirstie Haruta • in Archive, Book, Kirstie Haruta, Review
deadbeatTitle: Deadbeat: Makes You Stronger
Author: Guy Adams
Release Date: June 11, 2013
Publisher: Titan Books
Source: Titan Books
Genre(s): Mystery, Horror
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Review Spoilers: Very mild
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One only needs to read a few pages into Deadbeat: Makes You Stronger to see that Guy Adams has strength in writing the Holmes-Watson dynamic. Tom Harris is the Holmes of sorts, at least in that he has the eye to observe the strange occurrence of a breathing body being carted away in a coffin. And Max Jackson is his Watson, the long-suffering best friend who, once up to speed, is keen to solve a mystery as well. That being said,[[Deadbeat is something distinctly different, and totally fun in its own right.]]
Tom is a lover of music, and the backseat owner of a jazz club called Deadbeat. His days in theater are behind him, but his flair for performance never died. Max is also a theater veteran, but is all dry wit with a hint of cynicism. Both men enjoy a night of drinking, but it was something more unbelievable that first drew them together.
Yes, this is a crime novel, but with a supernatural twist. A supernatural twist that is refreshingly unromantic. Max and Tom (and a small number of others, to their knowledge) exist with the same, unexplainable condition. Too vague? Let’s just say that if you feel compelled to use a particular “z” word, don’t. It’s not polite.
But as long as they don’t draw too much attention to themselves, no one would know they were at all different. Which is why Tom and Max investigate the suspicious case of the breathing corpse on their own, without involving the police. And they’re not half bad at the detective work, until an enormous oversight gets Max kidnapped. Though Tom thinks nothing of dragging Max into his antics, he reacts in true “Garridebs” fashion when his friend is in danger, assembling his club staff as a rescue team.
It’s a merry band of misfits versus a rather sinister underground operation, but don’t fret. After all, there is a second Deadbeat book to come, so without giving too much away, you do have to figure that Max and Tom get out more or less intact. Then again, don’t get too comfy. You’ll certainly laugh, but there are reasons this book is classified as horror. There’s darkness in Max’s past and questions of morality in terms of self-preservation for those like him. These revelations cut sharply into the story’s humorous tones and make the narrative all the more interesting.
So imagine my surprise when a visit to Adams’ Deadbeat webpage revealed that when Deadbeat was originally pitched (as a novella), the publisher disagreed with his mixing of comedy and horror, as well as the decision to write the story from multiple perspectives. But what good would the story have been if the humor had been sucked from our leading men? And in regards to the switching perspectives, while I liked being in Max’s head the most, seeing Max and Tom through each other’s eyes was great fun. This structure also allowed Adams (or Max, really) to tell the story in the order of his choosing, and to withhold certain information until he was ready to reveal it.
My only true gripe with Deadbeat is one that you’ve got to expect from a female reader: it’s a total dude-fest. The only women are the victim, the church cleaner, Tom’s fleetingly mentioned ex-wives, the memory of the woman who broke Max’s heart, and a bartender whose breasts are noted as a distraction. This book is set in modern times. If Max can play a game of Angry Birds on his phone, we can have an indispensable female character, can we not? Adams does at least take care to include queer characters. Douggie, the big, campy bouncer with bright red hair is certainly my second favorite character to Max.
All-in-all, Deadbeat is good entertainment with a hooking mystery, and with questions to be answered, I fully intend to read the next installment. Pick up this book, stick it in your purse, and knock it out on your next long train ride.
Guy Adams’ Sherlock Holmes: The Army of Dr Moreau Review
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By: Carrie Hildebrand August 5, 2012
Book Reviews book reviews, Books, Guy Adams, Mystery, Science Fiction, Sherlock Holmes, The Army of Dr Moreau
Sherlock Holmes: The Army of Dr Moreau follows the eccentric genius and his loyal companion, Watson, as they investigate a series of mysterious deaths seemingly caused by ferocious beasts exotic and wholly unknown to London. After a visit by Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft, Holmes and Watson are informed that the deaths are possibly linked to Dr Moreau, who at one time was under Mycroft’s employ. Though Dr Moreau was presumed dead by all accounts, his experiments have apparently continued and resulted in the mutilated remains recently attributed to gang violence which lead Holmes and Watson on an adventure into the underbelly of the city to discover the culprit and stop him from his experimentations before more deaths occur.
While Adams incorporates characters and ideas outside the realm of typical Sherlock Holmes mysteries, he does it well. He presents [[an interesting twist to an age-old tale, seamlessly intertwining a fascinating mix of science fiction and logical deduction]] that was hard to put down.
As a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, I was a bit skeptical about what to expect from the pastiche perspective about some of the most beloved characters known and I was pleasantly surprised. Guy Adams has been able to capture the essence of Doyle’s characters in this new adventure as well as incorporate the imagination and wonder from the works of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Though true Holemsians may find fault within the investigation and conclusions presented, Sherlock Holmes: The Army of Dr Moreau is well written and pays great homage to the characters borrowed from literature’s past. Guy Adams clearly shows his respect and appreciation of those characters and the writers that inspire his work.
Sherlock Holmes: The Army of Dr Moreau is definitely a book I would recommend and is well worth reading.
Guy Adams’ Sherlock Holmes: The Army of Dr Moreau
Sherlock Holmes: The Army of Dr Moreau by Guy Adams – Book Review
Posted by Katharine Stubbs On October 23, 2012 0 Comment
sh_Army MoreauSherlock Holmes: The Army of Dr Moreau is Guy Adams‘ second novel in the Sherlock Holmes ‘verse, and he does well with the tone and character voice – possibly the most important part when taking on the beloved character. Rest assured, Sherlock Holmes fans, Guy Adams is a worthy writer of the beloved fandom.
Holmes and Watson come into the case when several corpses start appearing over London. Probably not out of the ordinary in those times, except they seem to have been killed by wild animals. Through this, they discover they are the result of experiments by Doctor Moreau – determined to prove the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin – but now uncontrollable. In this chaos, Doctor Moreau is trying to gain control of the government, and unless Holmes can do something, he may just succeed.
The novel in general has a bit of moral depth to it as Sherlock considers the ethics of what they’re dealing with, and whether it’s right or wrong depending on who’s wielding the needle.
Most (but not all) of the original Sherlock Holmes tales were told by Dr John Watson. This novel is told mostly from his point of view, with a small part at the end from Sherlock Holmes and then a few other characters. While Sherlock’s parts were done well, I thought the others jolted the tale out of its pace and feel somewhat, and probably would have preferred they weren’t part of it.
Lestrade makes an appearance, as does Mycroft (as he’s the one who gets his brother on the case after all), and we see Sherlock Holmes taking on a few assistants in this tale, as he usually did in the original stories – something that parts of the general fan group seem to forget.
In addition to Doctor Moreau, characters from other classics also appear. Hopefully this will also encourage readers to hunt down a copy of the H.G. Wells classic, The Island of Dr. Moreau. Professor Lindenbrook from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth is also present, but at all times I think we can safely say this is of Sherlock Holmes fandom and no other.
Thanks to the crisp writing, quick-witted and amusing dialogue and steady pace, this book is a fast and enjoyable read. It is quick, but overall realistic – although sometimes action scenes happen a little too smoothly to be entirely believable. It shows off London well, including parts of London the usual tourist may not see, and the ending is very satisfying. Overall, Sherlock Holmes: The Army of Dr Moreau is a worthy and recommended addition to the Sherlock Holmes universe.
Book review: Sherlock Holmes, The Breath of God by Guy Adams
jamesstewart13 / March 18, 2013
1 Vote
The Breath of God, by Guy Adams
The Breath of God, by Guy Adams
It is a well known contradiction in Holmesian circles that whilst Holmes espoused his disdain for the supernatural, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was busy being sucked deeper into an ectoplasmic nightmare which robbed him of some credibility at the time.
The Breath of God is set as Victorian England approaches the 20th century and sees ACD’s intrepid duo fight demons, mysterious forces and a handful of wicked criminals. A nice wee paradox.
Of course, the key question all throughout the story is: is the supernatural real or is it a trick?
Holmes is brought in on a case after a young man is killed while running away from an invisible force which leaves the victim’s battered body left with nary a bone intact – the breath of god. Then rumours of a cultish group (Golden Dawn) seeking to bring darkness to the world comes out and the clock starts ticking before all hell breaks loose, literally.
The case sees Holmes and Watson joined by Carnacki, Silence and Crowley – names which may be familiar to some. Author Guy Adams explains the recycling of these characters well in a series of notes at the end. The group journey from London to Inverness and back again in search of answers and only Holmes seems immune to the chaos being wrought. His logical mind and approach is in stark contradiction to the supernatural scientists and even Watson seems to have been won over as the undeniable presence of demons and djinn crash around him.
A thrilling finale in London’s growing underground system on New Year’s Eve sees Holmes and Watson stare death in the face once more and that question asked earlier hangs over the closing battle: is the supernatural real or is it a trick?
8/10
James A. Stewart
Book Review: “For a Few Souls More” by Guy Adams
December 4, 2016 robertmcgrath 1 Comment
For a Few Souls More by Guy Adams
After reading The Clown Service and The Rain Soaked Bride by Adams, I decided to try an older novel by the same author.
For a Few Souls More is the third and maybe concluding novel in a series called the“Heaven’s Gate” trilogy. I haven’t read the first two stories, so I came to this story with out all the background. It didn’t matter too much.
This story is a crazy fantasy set in a weird “Wild West” in which “the uprising in Heaven is over and Paradise has fallen, becoming the 43rd state in America”. The (confusing) action involves the numerous implications of this sudden mixing of heaven, hell, and the mundane Earth. And, by the way, god appears to be dead, assainated, if you can believe that.
If the plot sound nuts, don’t worry about it. While nothing makes sense in the story, its partly because things really couldn’t make sense, could they? In any case, the story seems to mainly be an excuse for a series of disconnected scents, visiting interesting heavenly, hellish, and in between sites, populated with weird and wonderful folks.
One of the themes of the story is “we’re all just folks, however different.” The demons are often very human (in the ways that count), paradise isn’t that swell, and, of course, hell is other people. There are good folks and bad folks everywhere.
Along the way, Adams plays around with Inferno-like visualizations of eternal punishments and interesting demonic creatures. He has some ideas about the “business model” of the domain of circles (AKA “hell”). He brings a certain rationality to the ideas of the infernal regions, and points out that tormenting the damned for all eternity is not necessary an interesting occupation, at least for most demons. Why should we have to spend all eternity chastizing these mortals, who have offended god, not us?
Most of the folk in ‘the circles’ are just out to live their life (however peculiar it might be by own mundane standards). Only a few are really into torture and abuse.
Adams has a wonderful imagination, so many of the scenes are quite memorable. Very Dante. Crashing the cultures of heaven, hell, and Earth together makes for interesting learning on all sides. Introducing a money economy to hell will be an interesting social experiment, and for mortal humans, intuitions about what is “normal” will never recover.
Unfortunately, for all the great imagery and imaginative situations, this story is mostly incomprehensible, confused, and not that interesting. I like his later work much better.
Guy Adams, For a Few Souls More, Oxford, Solaris, 2015.
Restoration by Guy Adams
a review by Ant, in the genre(s) Fantasy, Urban Fantasy . Book published by Angry Robot Books in July 2011
Restoration is the second part of the duology that began with the quite brilliant The World House, written by Guy Adams.
None who enter the World House leave it unchanged. The purpose behind the reality bending dimension has finally become clear but in the same way that you can't observe an event without effecting it's outcome, this knowledge has come at a price. The infinitely evil being known only as "the stranger" has been let loose into the real world and unless recaptured could spell the end of everything.
The World House novel was an incredible work of fiction, I was lucky enough to review it way back in February 2010 and found it utterly compelling - so much so that it became Book of the Month. Since then I have been very eager to continue the journey of the unlikely hero's (my personal favorite being Carruthers, the intrepid Victorian explorer extraordinaire) and I am happy to say that Restoration doesn't dissapoint.
Picking up right where the first book ended, much of the story takes place outside of the house with lots of time travel and continent jumping which ties in with a number of events from the World House and replays some from a different perspective. I would seriously recommend reading these books in order as otherwise you will miss out on a lot of whats going on in Restoration.
I just love the convoluted time travelling escapades and the strange separate identities of Alan / Ashe / Chester, which are explained in more detail along with the characters purpose (simply brilliant idea by the way). The way that the house interacts with our own reality is also one of the highlights, but the sinister presence of "the stranger" has to be the star of the show, the creepiness and general evil nature is somehow reinforced by his mundane appearance, the casual violence and the very "toybox" view of the world - it feels almost like looking into the mind of a (not very nice) god.
The book is very fast paced and wastes little time in moving the quite twisted story forward whiled the quality of the prose is beyond reproach. Adams has such a friendly and easy reading style that really lifts the text off the page and keeps the reader stuck to the pages better than a bottle of super glue.
As far as the actual story goes its [[full to the brim of twists and turns]], action and adventure [[with a high body count]] and a general dark feeling which is alleviated in places with some nice humour (Carruthers experiencing modern America being very amusing but slightly underplayed).
[[There are some real genius ideas here]], Sally's role is just perfect and as mentioned above the whole concept of Alan's life being used to further the goals of the house / Stranger is just brilliant while the powerful ending is completely surprising.
Restoration is an incredible conclusion to an astounding duology with [[smart dialog and wonderfully rich characters, a truly mind bending experience.]]
Written on Saturday 4th June 2011 by Antony.