'The Assassin's Curse' - Cassandra Rose Clarke (Strange Chemistry)

Back in the day, when the blog was all new and fresh, I used to review a little YA here and there. As time went on though I found myself moving away from YA altogether and concentrating on regular genre stuff instead, just because there was so much of it that I wanted to read first. Nothing against the YA stuff you understand, well... maybe a little bit. I might have just been picking the wrong books up but it really wasn't grabbing me at all and sometimes life is just far too short for that kind of reading.
Fast forward a few years and YA has become more and more of a big deal across the boundless domains of the internet. You may love YA books, you may not be able to stand them but there's no doubt now there's a lot going on here that's worthy of discussion. I wanted some of that action and I was a little curious to see what I'd been missing out on in the meantime (if anything...)

Where better place to start then with one of Strange Chemistry's debut titles? No, I can't think of anywhere more suitable either. We're looking at a brand new publisher headed up by an editor (Amanda Rutter) who was a real champion for YA books back when she was blogging over at 'Floor To Ceiling Books'. I miss that blog by the way and not only because I could search my name and see lots of nice things said about me :o)
'Assassin's Curse' was the first book to head my way from Strange Chemistry then and while it wasn't a perfect read there was more than enough there to leave me looking forward to future instalments in this series (trilogy).

Blurb copied and pasted today as I'm kind of run off my feet with other things as well...

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan. But that only prompts the scorned clan to send an assassin after her. And when Ananna faces him down one night, armed with magic she doesn t really know how to use, she accidentally activates a curse binding them together. To break the curse, Ananna and the assassin must complete three impossible tasks all while grappling with evil wizards, floating islands, haughty manticores, runaway nobility, strange magic, and the growing romantic tension between them.

(Note: I think this is a blurb for the whole series. I can't remember seeing a single manticore, haughty or otherwise...)

‘Assassin’s Curse’ has an intriguing premise but it turned out to be one that failed to grip me in the way that I’d hoped for. Luckily for the book, and me, I found myself reading for other reasons entirely and I’m pretty much on board until the story reaches its end. I’m perhaps hoping for a little more from the next book but ‘Assassin’s Curse’ did the job that it set out to.

The reason I’m on board (no pun intended) is Ananna, a girl who was raised to be a pirate perhaps a little too well by her parents. Instead of behaving herself and settling into a political marriage Ananna basically decides to do what she was raised to do i.e. exactly what she wants. I loved Ananna’s forthright honesty about her situation and how this is all littered with swear words and ‘pirate talk’. Clarke may be telling the story but it’s all about Ananna and that’s the way it should be.

Or should it?

You see, it’s not just about Ananna; not really. There’s also a story going on here and a world that it’s set against. Clarke gives us a look into Ananna’s head that had me completely engaged and wanting to find out more. Books about romantic tension generally don’t do a thing for me but this time round I couldn’t help but feel for Ananna as her life becomes clearer yet more confused all at the same time. You can see the end, of the series, coming a mile off but I’m rooting for Ananna anyway, I reckon you just might as well.

The problem is that all of this comes at the expense of the world building and, to an extent, the plot itself. The reader can spend so long inside Ananna’s head that stuff happens almost without you realising it. I found myself having to go back and retrace my steps, just to get an idea of what was going on while Ananna was agonising over something. Great character then but not a story that flows well. This is a real shame as, like I said, the premise is a good one and Clarke also shows that she can really ramp up the action and suspense when she wants to (as well as develop Ananna and Naji’s relationship in a plausible manner). Hopefully the balance will sort itself out over the next few books.

I also found myself wanting to see Ananna’s world in more detail and being disappointed when I couldn’t. In a way this is a good thing but it was frustrating as well. We’re talking desert cities where assassins prowl the shadows (literally) and magic islands where anything could happen to you. This is a world brimming with possibility but a world that Ananna is too familiar with to let us really get to see. Again, I really hope that this resolves itself over the next few books.

Having said all that though, the measure of ‘The Assassin’s Curse’ lies in the fact that I’ll be back to see how it all pans out, make no mistake about it. The book feels unbalanced but all the ingredients are there for something really special to happen and I can’t see myself passing up on that.

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

‘Department 19’ – Will Hill (Razorbill)

The publication of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ always had me in mind of the fall of the Roman Empire in a way. Seriously, stick with me on this one... The Harry Potter books took over ‘Young Adult’ literature in a way that you don’t often see at all. Nothing could stand against these books and their influence could be seen in other books published at the same time. Everything comes to an end though and that was certainly the case here; Harry Potter did what he set out to do and there was nowhere else for the series to go after that. ‘Young Adult’ fiction suddenly had a great big hole in it, waiting for another series to assume pre-eminence and build a little empire of its own.

No writer appears to have stepped up to the plate (yet) and written a young adult series with the same universal appeal as ‘Harry Potter’; what we’re getting instead (at least as far as I can see and please correct me if I’m wrong here) are series targeted at a more specific audience. Will Hill’s debut ‘Department 19’ is one of these and I can see it doing very well in that regard. It’s a shame then that it didn’t quite work for me...

Jamie Carpenter always thought that his father died a traitor to his country; that’s certainly the stigma he has had to live with for much of his young life. The truth is far stranger though and it will take the kidnapping of Jamie’s mother for this truth to come to light.
When Jamie’s mother disappears he finds himself rescued from the clutches of a vampire and taken into the protection of Department 19, a top secret government agency that combats supernatural threats. The operatives of Department 19 are perfectly placed to keep Jamie safe and introduce him to a future that he never even knew existed. They might even be able to rescue his mother from her vampire kidnappers but that will prove a little trickier, especially when the true nature of the vampire threat begins to reveal itself...

‘Department 19’ is one hell of a read, no doubt about it; I tore through this one like you would not believe (up to and including using the baby as an excuse to stay up and do a little extra reading at the weekend). By the end though, that awesome rush was tempered by the fact that the whole thing felt a little hollow in maybe the worst possible way.

When ‘Department 19’ takes off it doesn’t just take off, you can tell that Will Hill is flying with his story and having a lot of fun along the way. ‘Department 19’ may well be another tale of secret government agencies fighting the supernatural etc (and there are plenty of those) but it is also an adrenaline fuelled romp full of stand up fights with vampires, double crosses and stuff blowing up. There are also more than a few chilling moments that you find yourself having to get through in order to find out what happens next. This all throws the pace into overdrive and the book moves too fast for you to even consider getting off. Just enjoy the ride while it lasts.
You could accuse Hill of just throwing everything at the page (to see what sticks) and you wouldn’t be far off the mark here. I got the feeling that Hill was operating on the principle that more spectacle must make for a better reading experience and, to be fair, there is a case to be made for that. It certainly made the pages fly by here.

Spectacle will only get you so far though and luckily Hill appears to have taken this on board, paying real attention to his plot and background. The plot is well thought out with enough twists and turns to maintain interest over a book that is five hundred and thirty seven pages long (in the ARC format). Just when you think you have a handle on things Hill makes a mockery of your assumptions by asking pertinent questions and sending the ball rolling in a totally different direction. The setting is gorgeously realised as well with Hill taking elements from classic horror novels (I’m not telling you which ones but I’m sure you can guess...) and wrapping them up with a well thought out government organisation. Certain chapters in the book detail the founding of Department 19 and how events from the past have influenced what is happening in the present. I liked the way that these chapters were staggered across the book and give the reader a handy dose of information at exactly the right time.
Vampires may be the enemy but that doesn’t mean that they are treated any differently in terms of how they come across on the page. Hill pays equal attention to setting the scene with these guys and the overall affect is a fully immersive background that provides the ideal stage for the plot to play out against.

It’s a real shame then that the character of Jamie himself proves to be such a poor choice to hang the whole thing off. Given his circumstances you can expect Jamie to be a little obsessive about what he’s after (rescuing his mother) and how he goes about getting that. What got me though was the fact that Jamie’s character shows very little sign of developing as the story progresses. Jamie reacts to things but there’s never any thought behind that reaction and there’s certainly no sign of his character altering in any way as a result of those reactions; it’s just on to the next reaction and it all felt a little one dimensional to me (especially when there were far more interesting characters in the background). I wonder how the story would have turned out if Jamie had remained the focus but the perspective had shifted onto someone else?
The bottom line for me was that the gorgeously rendered background and supporting cast didn’t gel with the rather stolid and one dimensional lead and that often made the read a chore when it really didn’t need to be.

There is a lot to recommend ‘Department 19’ and I can certainly see it appealing to readers who are after a ‘high stakes’ read that will engage you right away. Unfortunately for me, the lead character didn’t offer that same level of engagement and that’s where things fell down as far as I was concerned. I’m pretty sure I’ll be around for the sequel though so we’ll see if things pick up there.

Eight out of Ten

‘Enclave’ – Ann Aguirre (Feiwel & Friends)

You would have thought that the merest mention of a fictional apocalypse would have people staying away from the book in question and looking to read something nicer instead; something that has ponies in it maybe. It’s one of life’s strange things then that we can’t seem to get enough of the stuff. If there’s an apocalypse going on in a book somewhere then it’s more likely to be picked up than passed over. I’m as guilty as the next man here with more than a few zombie books sat on the shelf.
Why the fascination with the apocalypse? Are we all looking to pick up tips on how to survive when it all kicks off? Are we looking for the thrill of experiencing the collapse of civilisation without actually being in the middle of it all? Or are we just so overloaded with all the bad stuff happening in the world that we’ve all become extremely morbid and are looking for safe ways to reconcile ourselves with our own mortality? There’s probably a little bit of all three going on there with added extras that vary from person to person.
I’ve never read of Ann Aguirre’s books until now but I’m told (by Amazon) that she is well known for her paranormal romances; this may be why I’ve never tried her work... ‘Enclave’ is Aguirre’s first foray into the realms of the ‘post apocalyptic’ (for young adults) and it’s worth a look if you’ve been missing your daily dose of civilisation collapsing...

Who knows what lies above the tunnels and passageways surrounding the ‘College’ enclave? And who knows what drove people to live down there in the darkness? Deuce certainly doesn’t, she has spent her whole life in these tunnels and, at sixteen, is a huntress tasked with finding food for her people and defending the enclave against the attacks of the mutated ‘Freaks’. When the Freaks start to show signs of cunning and strategy Deuce’s already hard life becomes a lot more difficult, especially when the elders of the enclave refuse to believe her. Life in the enclave is governed by strict rules and any deviation from these is punished harshly. It would appear that blind adherence to these rules could spell disaster for the enclave and everything that Deuce does to try and help only serves to push her further away. Deuce is soon looking at the worst punishment the elders can offer but even she could never imagine that it will take both her and her hunting partner topside...

‘Enclave’ isn’t without its issues but still remains a book that I tore through over the course of an evening and a commute to work the next day. On occasion ‘Enclave’ is a little lightweight for my tastes but was a lot of fun and a book that I reckon could appeal to adult readers as much as it would to the Young Adult audience that it targets.

‘Enclave’ weighs in at a ‘slight’ two hundred and sixty two pages and much of this is down to Aguirre stripping things right down and telling the story purely as it is without too much embellishment (if any at all). Not only does this approach propel the plot forward at great speed (at least to begin with, the plot meanders when Deuce and her friends don’t have a specific aim in mind towards the end of the book and these bits dragged) but it also proves to be a great way of giving the reader an idea of just how dangerous and spartan life underground can be. There is no time to flesh things out as that time could literally be the difference between life and death for one of the members of the enclave. Danger can spring from the shadows at any time and Aguirre doesn’t shy away from showing the grim and bloody consequences of this. I loved that approach and particularly how it was reflected in the attitude of the main character Deuce.

Deuce is focussed solely on fulfilling her role in the enclave, no matter what, and as she begins to find out more about what goes on behind the scenes (with the elders) her character is forced to react and develop accordingly. While I liked the outcome of this, the relative brevity of the novel itself means that a few corners are cut and the plot feels a little shallow as a result. A lot of what we have to go on are Deuce’s ideas and theories (as well as a brief revelation from her partner Fade) about how the elders maintain their power and there isn’t enough time to see if these are real or merely fanciful ideas on the part of Deuce. You could make an educated guess and probably get it right but it all felt a little too uncertain for me and not enough to hang a plot from. I won’t give away too much about the inevitable love triangle (you could see it coming) but while I wondered if it detracted from the impact of the apocalypse I did like the way that it was left unresolved at the end. I don’t know if there’s another book planned here but leaving things hanging like that made it feel a little more real somehow.

Aguirre has clearly done her research into just what an apocalypse entails, the aftermath as much as what had happened before. The landscape looks just like you would expect but it’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into what you could still reasonably expect to find in an abandoned store or salvage for use. Apocalyptic fiction cannot get away from being speculative at its heart but Aguirre’s apocalypse certainly has an edge of realism that really works to the book’s benefit.

Issues with structure got in the way of a smooth read and eventually stopped ‘Enclave’ from being the excellent book that it initially promised to be. There is a lot to recommend the book though; a fast paced adventure set against a sobering backdrop with a lead character that I was rooting for the whole way.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

‘The Enemy’ – Charlie Higson (Puffin)

One of the things that I’ve really come to look forward to, as far as running this blog goes, is that magical feeling you get when you pick up a book that you know nothing about and end up being blown away by what’s inside? Checking out something for the first time is always a risk but when it really pays off like that it’s always worth taking that chance. These days, what with one thing and another, I’m more inclined to stick with what I know but I still love the buzz I get from a ‘surprise read’ so you’ll still see me taking a chance on new stuff in the future.
Charlie Higson’s ‘The Enemy’, I have to say, is not one of those books.

I actually came to read ‘The Enemy’ as a direct result of picking up its sequel, ‘The Dead’, over Christmas and swiftly coming to realise that I had a ‘surprise read’ on my hands. As you know, I don’t generally tend to read ‘Young Adult’ books (nothing against them as such, there’s just a whole load of adult books that I want to read first) but I gave ‘The Dead’ a go and am very glad that I did. More on that when I review it in the next week or so. I didn’t hang around after finishing it and went straight out to find a copy of ‘The Enemy’. Perhaps I should have reviewed these books in the order that I read them but ‘The Enemy’ kicks things off so it seemed like the logical place to start...

No-one knows how it all began but that’s not the point anymore; no-one under the age of fourteen is safe anymore... All the adults got sick and some of them died but the ones that are left... they’re hungry and they’re coming for the children that are left on the streets.
Children hole up all over London in locations with varying degrees of safety but the end looks inevitable. That is until rumours appear of a place that is not only safe but offers children the chance to begin an entirely new life. One gang of children are about to start searching for this safe house; all they have to do is find their way across a London where even the most innocent looking doorway could prove to be a trap. And don’t even think about taking the underground...

I haven’t been entirely truthful here. The other reason that I don’t generally feature YA fiction here these days is that, well... I’m an adult but I’m not the kind of ‘Young Adult’ that this book is aimed at. How to approach a book like this then? Wouldn’t it be unfair to judge a YA book through adult eyes? The solution wasn’t hard to come by but a little difficult to implement so you’ll have to bear with me here.
Yes, the solution was to invite another reviewer onto the blog and let them say their piece about ‘The Enemy’. That reviewer was still me though; it’s just that I decided to see what I would have got out of this reading experience as a ten year old boy as well as what I got out of reading it now (I would have read this as a ten year old although it’s probably aimed at boys who are slightly older).

Not being the overly critical type (far preferring a hefty dose of action and gore), my ten year old self loved reading ‘The Enemy’, a fast moving book that’s punctuated liberally with shocks and gore. There’s always something happening and the pages are very easy to keep turning as a result. The whole ‘kids vs. adults’ thing has been done in a number of places before but there’s a very good reason for that (what child isn’t going to want to read a book where the grownups get their *cough* handed to them?) and Higson uses this approach to good affect, upping the stakes with the mindless acts of violence that the adults are capable of. Being a child is no protection here and Higson makes that abundantly clear with several graphic scenes of violence that my ten year old self loved but also more than justified the warning on the back of the book. In short, an unqualified success and a great way to keep my inner child happy.

As a thirty five year old reader though? I’m not so sure...

I can’t deny that all the cool stuff I would have enjoyed as a child still appeals to me these days and ‘The Enemy’ very much delivers, on that front, for all the reasons I’ve laid out (although I’m on the other side of the whole ‘children/adult’ divide now and would want that side to win!) This was very much a ‘polish off in one sitting’ kind of book.
What I found though is that the frantic pace of ‘The Enemy’ has the unfortunate affect of making it a book where style wins out at the expense of substance. You can’t blame the book for that as the demands of the plot pretty much demand that sacrifices are made to keep things powering forwards. It was annoying though to see character development pushed to one side in favour of sound bites that are used to distinguish one character from another; the children ended up merging into one ‘uber child’ after a while... The concerns that the children did have didn’t strike a chord with me at all but then, to be fair, they wouldn’t do would they?
Without wanting to give too much away about the plot, there were also moments that had me scratching my head and thinking ‘this doesn’t gel with what’s going on in the rest of the book...’ There’s at least one more book to come after ‘The Dead’ though so maybe things will make more sense then (they didn’t now though...)

I can see ‘The Enemy’ really appealing to its target male audience who would get a lot of enjoyment out of it. For me these days? It’s a fun and light read for the commute lacking the substance to take it to another level.
For the record... My ten year old self wanted to give ‘The Enemy’ top marks but then he would :o) I’d personally score it at a six. The true score lies somewhere in between...

‘The Toymaker’ - Jeremy De Quidt (David Fickling Books)

I know it’s hard to believe but every so often I get ‘book burn out’ and just recently it’s been a real pain in the... you know. I pick up a book with every intention of finishing it, get about fifty pages in and end up putting it down. It’s not the book’s fault (they all have the potential to be really good), more a case of my having read so much recently that not only am I tired but all the books seem to be merging into one ‘uber-book’...
What do you do when you find yourself in a similar situation? I wanted to keep the run going (I’m not doing too badly compared to previous years) so wondered if the best way round the slump was to pick up something completely different and see if that kick started things. I don’t normally read a lot of Young Adult stuff and Jeremy De Quidt’s ‘The Toymaker’ was waiting for me when I got home last night. Sometimes things just fall into place and you have to go with the flow.... I started on ‘The Toymaker’ and it was midnight before I knew it.

The death of your only relative is bad enough but when Mathias becomes the owner of a mysterious piece of paper his life becomes even worse. The sinister Doctor Leiter appears on the scene with a doll that can tell if Mathias is lying and a coachman who’s not afraid to use torture to ensure that Mathias reveals a secret that he knows nothing about. Mathis must uncover this secret if he is to stand any chance of survival but where is he to start? He can’t hang around either, time is running out...

‘Even little dolls with sparrows’ hearts sometimes remember they were sparrows once...’

‘The Toymaker’ is one of those books that had me wondering why I don’t give Young Adult books more of a chance (to be fair, there are a lot of adult books that I want to read first!); very much a book that I would have loved when I was a lot younger and one that I am glad to have discovered now.

I did have initial misgivings though. A boy with a mysterious past on a quest to find out a secret that he doesn’t know? Call me cynical but I’m pretty sure that I’ve heard that one before. That’s what I thought anyway but De Quidt had other plans in mind. Here’s an author who’s not afraid to string his readers along and then cut that string just when people are starting to get comfortable. De Quidt is good at it as well; in the space of a few pages everything suddenly changes and you find yourself reading a different story to the one that you thought. This new tack works as well, while there’s no denying that element of the fantastic the way it all plays out (especially the incredibly bleak ending!) just seems so much more likely. Things may work out in the end but when you’re up against the forces of evil you’re always going to be messed up by the time you cross the line... De Quidt really puts his characters through the wringer and seems to know not only what young readers can take but also what they want to hear about. If you’re reading this to a very young child though then you might want to think twice as the ending is harrowing for one character in particular...

The backdrop to ‘The Toymaker’ is a deliciously brooding gothic affair, full of dark forests and grimy back streets where evil lurks. Our heroes not only have to find their way through this maze of darkness but must also negotiate the boundaries of their tenuous alliance. Everyone is out for their own interests and the outcomes of this can (and do) send the plot in interesting new directions.
Killer dolls are always welcome in my reading and De Quidt comes up trumps on this score. His creations blend seamlessly into the dark background and De Quidt is equally adept at using these automatons in scenes of violent action as he is at using them to rack up the tension and horror. When I do my Christmas shopping, there’s one toymaker that I definitely won’t be visiting!

If I had one complaint it’s that slow journeys through woodland always slow plots right down; especially when none of the characters are in the mood to talk to each other. This is very much the case in ‘The Toymaker’ and there were points when I wanted things to move a little faster. This is a very small complaint though. I was enthralled by ‘The Toymaker’ and the blurb certainly wasn’t exaggerating when it said the story would ‘haunt you’. I don’t know if ‘The Toymaker’ has given me back my ‘reading mojo’ but I had a great time reading it anyway. Very much a contender for surprise find of the year.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

‘My Rotten Life’ – David Lubar (Starscape)

This isn’t so much a review as it is a ‘mini-review’, the book weighs in at an almost unhealthily slender one hundred and forty eight pages long and it only took me a couple of hours to get through. This mini-review is also proof of the fact that I will read pretty much anything if there is the promise of zombies inside. As it turned out, ‘My Rotten Life’ was by no means ‘Night of the Living Dead’ but it wasn’t ‘Hard Rock Zombies’ either so that was ok...

Nathan Abercrombie is one of those school kids who are always getting picked on and he’s sick of feeling so low about it all. An experimental serum offers him an escape from these feelings but an accidental overdose sends things in completely the opposite direction. Our ‘would be hero’ has become one of the living dead...
Nathan discovers that this isn’t such a bad thing with a new found athletic ability and cool video game playing skills more than compensating for the fact that bits of him are now liable to drop off at inopportune moments. He would rather be human though, can this ever happen?

There are some children’s books that transcend the age gap and become books that adults will quite happily be seen with on the morning commute. You know the ones I mean. ‘My Rotten Life’ is not one of those books. A great concept (more on that in a bit) is smothered by a cloyingly sweet message about how being yourself will mean you are accepted by your true friends. This is great stuff if you’re a school kid like Nathan (who wants a hero to identify with) but it makes things really stodgy if you’re a guy who picked up the book because it had the word ‘zombie’ on the front. To be honest, I think this would make stodgy reading for anyone who has left their childhood behind them. Once you know how it’s going to end (and there’s no other way it can end) then you end up wondering whether to continue. Kids would love it though :o)

Having ‘paid my zombie dues’ on more adult fare, I thought it could be fun to take a fresh look at the genre through a younger perspective. I liked the way that Nathan becomes a zombie; particularly because of the scenes that it gives rise to when Nathan is searching for the ingredients to his cure. While ‘My Rotten Life’ isn’t a ‘laugh out loud funny’ book, there were moments that definitely made me chuckle.
The book didn’t do an awful lot to hold my attention though; I kept finding myself thinking thoughts such as ‘What would happen if Nathan bit Abigail or Mookie?’ and ‘Won’t too much video game playing make his fingers fall off?’ I guess I’m just used to reading different kinds of zombie books...

It’s always good to read something that you wouldn’t normally pick up; as well as discovering new books that you like it’s also a good way of reminding yourself of the good reasons why you stay away from other stuff. ‘My Rotten Life’ does its job well enough but the feeling I came away with was that I wouldn’t be missing out on much if I never went back for a re-read...

Six and a Half out of Ten

‘Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror’ – Chris Priestley (Bloomsbury)

There’s no better time to read ghostly tales of terror than when there is no-one else in the house, the wind and rain are howling outside and the sky is pitch black… Okay, I did read ‘Tales of Terror’ at about nine o’clock this morning (when the sky wasn’t dark at all!) but the wind and rain were howling and I was all on my own…

When I wasn’t reading sci-fi and fantasy at school (primary school and high school) I would invariably be drawn to the horror section in the library. There was just something about books with rotting skulls on the cover that made me have to pick them up (I was that kind of child)! More often than not these books scared the life out of me and one particular story had me cowering in bed convinced that something was lurking on top of my bookshelf…
It’s been a long time since I’d read any young adult horror and the arrival of ‘Tales of Terror’ seemed like a good opportunity to find out whether it still has the power to make me jump and look nervously over my shoulder.
It does…

Edgar doesn’t really get on with his parents, preferring instead to spend his time at his Uncle Montague’s house listening to his Uncle’s stories. One day though, Uncle Montague tells Edgar a particularly chilling set of tales, all of which are connected to objects in his study…
What is the connection? Edgar is about to find that the answers to his questions might just be in the woods outside rather than in the study with his Uncle…

As you have probably guessed by now, ‘Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror’ is a collection of the very tales that Edgar is told by his Uncle that night. The mood is already set by Montague living in a forbidding looking house in the middle of a dark forest and this is built upon in a set of tales that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Really, they did…

If you’re a child in one of Priestley’s short stories then it’s very likely that something terrible will have happened to you by the end of the story. None of these children are innocent (and perhaps this meant to serve as a moralistic cautionary note for younger readers) but there is still something deeply unsettling about seeing young children fall foul of supernatural occurrences. And they do, they really do… Priestley draws the reader in with every story, telling us all about the main character and dropping very slight hints about what is to come. Just when you’re least expecting it, Priestley pulls no punches with what finally happens to the children (whether they die or merely go insane). ‘The Demon Bench End’ and ‘Offerings’ are really nasty examples (in a good way) of a descent into insanity through terror and these were the stories that appealed to me the most. The stories that resulted in a chilling end weren’t bad either, ‘Climb Not’ shocked me with an ending that I never saw coming…

As with any collection of short stories not all of them worked for me, I didn’t quite see the point of ‘The Path’ which wasn’t as clearly told as the others. This was a shame particularly because the final story (which promised to reveal the terrifying truth behind it all) came across as a bit of an anti-climax when compared to the others. It just wasn’t that scary…

‘Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror’ was a particularly creepy read though. Thinking about it, I’m glad I didn’t read this one when it was dark…

Eight and a Half out of Ten

‘Odd and the Frost Giants’ – Neil Gaiman (Bloomsbury Press)

For someone who loves books as much as I do, I always seem to miss World Book Day when it comes around… As part of the fun, a number of small books are printed which you can either pick up for a pound or get your kids to buy with a book token. I love book tokens but that’s a post for another day…
I was walking back from a meeting when I happened to notice there were still some of these books for sale in a bookshop. Not only that, one of these was Neil Gaiman’s ‘Odd and the Frost Giants’…
I find Neil Gaiman’s books to be a little hit and miss for my tastes (‘Neverwhere’ great, ‘American Gods’ not so great…) but there’s always enough there for me to get my wallet out every time I see a new book of his. Seeing as you can’t go too far wrong on a book that only costs a pound I thought I’d see what ‘Odd and the Frost Giants’ was like…
The story is simple. Odd is a crippled Norse child who runs away and ends up meeting a fox, an eagle and a giant bear. These are no ordinary animals though, they’re Norse Gods who have been exiled from Valhalla by a Frost Giant. The upshot of this is that the world of man is now trapped in a permanent winter and it appears that the only person who can solve this problem is Odd.
‘Odd and the Frost Giants’ is very obviously a book for children. Apart from the fact that it’s only a hundred pages long, the plot is very simplistic and linear. It can be summed up as ‘boy runs away from home, boy meets talking animals, boy saves world…’ Despite this, ‘Odd’ turned out to be a very entertaining (if short) read purely because of the little ‘extras’ that Neil Gaiman adds. While Gaiman can certainly write a children’s book he doesn’t treat his readers like children. While the conclusion may never be in doubt, there’s a grey area to the plot that certainly made me question the motives of certain characters. If Loki is involved then you just know that nothing is as simple as it first appears! It’s this kind of thing that turns a simple children’s story into something a little bit more and I was left wanting to see how this would end (even if I already knew).
If you’re a fan of Neil Gaiman then you should pick this up if you get a chance. It’s not the greatest thing he’s ever written (which for my money is ‘Stardust’) but there was plenty there to keep me entertained for half an hour.

Seven out of Ten

‘Truancy’ – Isamu Fukui (Tor Books)

When I was fifteen I wanted to write a book. Unfortunately, not only had Tolkien got there first but also others were copying him. That was that for me… If I’d thought about it though, I could have done what Isamu Fukui did. You see, there was a lot about school that I absolutely hated but it never occurred to me to write a book about it. However, it did occur to a fifteen-year-old Isamu Fukui and ‘Truancy’ was born.
A nameless city serves as an experiment in human conditioning where children are subjected to endless schooling by sadistic teachers. Outside the system; former students have banded together to form the ‘Truancy’, a group dedicated to overthrowing the regime. Fifteen-year-old Tack is about to find himself caught up in this struggle through the most harrowing of circumstances and will have to question who he really is as the violence spirals out of control.
I’ll admit that the first thing I thought was, “a fifteen year boy who hates school is writing about a fifteen year old boy who hates school, did someone have a couple of bad days at school and want to moan about it? Is this the equivalent of someone being told off by their parents and then writing a story about how horrible fathers are?” Well, yes and no…
Some of the school scenes are very black and white in how the characters are depicted, all the teachers are evil (and don’t care about how unfair the homework is) while the students are hard done by and resentful. I can appreciate why the scene is being set like this and the target audience (teenagers who hate school) are going to lap it up. I’m not part of the target audience though and these scenes just left me cold. I ended up thinking, “I had to deal with school, stop making such a fuss and get on with it…”
However, I think Fukui really comes into his own when the story moves out of the classroom and onto the streets. The story itself is fast paced with plenty happening and loads of twists and double crosses. I really got into it and pretty much tore through the book to find out what happened next.
The character of Tack is used to explore themes of honour, friendship and revenge and while it doesn’t come across particularly subtly there was some real hard hitting stuff going on that made me stop and think. While Fukui denounces violence he accepts that it has a part to play in the tale and doesn’t hold back. A young adult audience will love scenes of missile attacks etc on schools and I’ve got to admit that my inner teenager wanted to be the person pulling the trigger.
If I was a teenage reviewer then I’d be giving ‘Truancy’ top marks but I felt that a lot of what Fukui was trying to say passed me by purely because I was too old to really get a feel for it. It is an entertaining read though and good fun, a ‘Battle Royale’ for a younger generation.

Seven and a Half out of Ten

'The Doomsday Machine' - Catherine Webb (Atom Books)

After finishing 'The Metatemporal Detective' I was in the mood for more tales of nefarious goings on in dank alleyways being solved by heroic detectives. I was also in the mood for something that had a little hint of the supernatural and it seemed that Catherine Webb's new book had it all there for me. Unfortunately it wasn't to be...
As fans will already know, Horatio Lyle is a man of science in the London of 1865. He is also an occasional special constable of the sort that is known to save the world from all sorts of menaces and 'The Doomsday Machine' sees him fight to save the magical Tseiqin (a race of people with green eyes) from an act of genocide...
I got this much from the blurb and the first couple of chapters, a crafty look at the last couple of pages shows that everyone appears to live happily ever after. I didn't read the big bit in between though.
Why's this? Well, I never got into Sherlock Holmes and 'The Doomsday Machine' seemed to be turning out to be much the same kind of thing (with added mystical bits). I'm not interested in a detective smugly explaining why he's right all the time and I'm certainly not after a gradual meander through suspects and clues leading up to a final conclusion. I'm after something a bit more (well, much more) snappy than that, especially now it's Christmas and I've got a lot more time to really get into what I'm reading. I want gunfights, car chases and cackling villains but I wasn't interested in seeing if I could get far enough to find any. The last thing I wanted to find was another 'pick pocket with a heart of gold' as Lyle's companion...
Don't get me wrong, I think there's a lot here to recommend this book to anyone who's either a fan of Webb or into this type of book. The subject matter wasn't interesting me so I stopped reading, simple as that ;o)

‘Dragonhaven’ – Robin McKinley (Penguin Books)

Through some strange coincidence the books on my ‘to read pile’, for this week, all seem to involve dragons in some shape or form. How has a randomly thrown together book pile come up with this anomaly? Who can tell…? It certainly had nothing to do with me trying to come up with a ‘dragon theme’ this week (ahem!)
First up is Robin McKinley’s new novel for young adults. I don’t read a lot of young adult stuff but according to the blurb McKinley has won many awards for her work. Having read ‘Dragonhaven’ I can understand why, in terms of her ideas at least.
Jake Mendoza is a teenager living with his father on a wildlife park that is dedicated to preserving some of the last surviving dragons on Earth. This is a thankless job for all concerned, especially when the government is cutting back on the budget and looking at selling land to developers. Things are about to get much worse though when Jake is out hiking and discovers a dead poacher lying next to a dead dragon. If this wasn’t bad enough, there’s a new-born baby dragon lying there too. A dead poacher is trouble enough but it’s also illegal for a human to care for a baby dragon. With this being a young adult book you can guess what Jake does next…
‘Dragonhaven’ is an entertaining read for the most part. The trials and tribulations of rearing a baby dragon are explored in great detail and the fact that Jake has no idea what he’s doing makes things a little more endearing so you want to read more. It’s not just dragons that are alive; there’s mention of griffins and more than one Loch Ness monster as well. This background information lends substance to Jake’s world but, for reasons I’ll come back to, it ended up making me want to read about other monsters instead of the ones who are supposed to be the focal point of the story. The plot itself is probably a little light on the ground for an older reader but I’d say it pushes the right buttons in terms of its target audience. There’s a cute animal in danger and an angsty teenager with issues; I don’t really need to say much more than that!
Unfortunately, what killed this story for me was the character of Jake himself. This isn’t good as the whole story hinges around him! I never really like reading stories where teenagers exhibit all the typical teenage stereotypes, I just want to give them a clip around the ear and send them to their room! Jake isn’t too bad in this respect but he has one annoying habit that spoilt the book for me. Right at the start Jake tells the reader that he’s not good at telling the story and will go off on a tangent regularly. And he does. This wouldn’t be too bad if he would finish his thread of conversation but sometimes it just tails off into nothing and he’s back to whatever he was talking about in the first place! The end result is a sometimes stilted read where I would sometimes find myself skipping the odd paragraph in a quest to get to the point. This approach may work for the target audience but it didn’t for me.
‘Dragonhaven’ is a great idea that I felt was let down by the inadequacies of it’s main character. Having said that though, any book that can make me want to fly on a dragon can’t be all bad…

Six out of Ten

‘The Last Days’ – Scott Westerfeld (Atom Books)

I am officially the least musical person I know; in fact the only thing I can play is my stereo (Get it? No? Oh well…). So when I’m sent a book about five teenagers and their band I automatically find myself at a disadvantage right from the start. I’ve got no idea about chord changes, melody or drum rhythms and these all take up a large part of the book. It’s a good thing that the rest of the story is something that can really be enjoyed whether you’re into music or not…
Scott Westerfeld set the scene for all of this in ‘Parasite Positive’, a tale of New York teetering on the edge of a supernatural apocalypse. As the reader ventures into ‘The Last Days’ it becomes clear that the problem has only worsened and is looking like it could soon be a global issue. Pearl, Moz and Zahler don’t really care though; all they are worried about is making their new band a success. But with a vampire singer and a drummer suffering from strange hallucinations, our band find that their music may have more of a part to play than they thought…
I’ve already mentioned that the parts of the book concerning the music really didn’t do anything for me. I skimmed them but I can imagine certain teenagers (learning to play the guitar for the first time) are going to get a lot out of it. What I personally enjoyed was the sense of creeping fear and paranoia that Westerfeld created over the course of the book. He handled the breakdown of society so convincingly that I’m half wondering if he was a vampire, in a post-apocalyptic New York, in a previous life. The band member’s almost blithe dismissal of what was happening in the background (preferring instead to concentrate on the music) somehow threw events in New York into sharp relief, leaving the reader in no doubt of the significance of various portents.
We meet a couple of familiar faces from ‘Parasite Positive’ which really established some continuity but I felt that although it was a short book, some characters could have done with more development. I’m thinking of the drummer Alana Ray, a lot was made of her in the blurb but you don’t really get to find out much about her visions in the book itself.
The ending suggests that there won’t be any more of these books and I’m glad I got a chance to read them. ‘The Last Days’ is a fun read that is brimming with atmosphere, it’s just a shame that I’m not the sort of person to fully appreciate the ‘music bits’.

Seven out of Ten

‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ – J.K.Rowling (Bloomsbury Books)

Some of us have been waiting for this since we were children and now the time has finally come. It’s already grossed millions of dollars world-wide and the money doesn’t look like it’s going to stop coming in just yet. One of the most eagerly anticipated events of its kind, now it’s arrived things will never quite seem the same again… But that’s enough about the new ‘Transformers’ movie (can you tell how excited I am?), J.K. Rowling’s final instalment of the ‘Harry Potter’ series hit the shops this weekend to predictable scenes of fans queuing up outside bookshops dressed as wizards etc. I wasn’t in one of those queues preferring instead to get a good night’s sleep and pick up my copy while doing the grocery shopping on Saturday morning. I did have other books on the go but there’s something about a Harry Potter book that makes you pick it up the first chance you get (after my wife had finished with it)…
The first thing that struck me was that Rowling had taken it upon herself to tie up every single little tiny loose end from the last few books, considering how hefty the last three books were that’s a lot of loose ends to pack into 607 pages! A sign that there won’t be any sequels? Maybe… The end result though is a book that’s absolutely crammed full of information, heaven for the die-hard Potter fan but (at times) like trudging through molasses for this reader. Being far more interested in the actual story, rather than the intimate details of wand mechanics and horcrux manufacture, I’ll admit that I skimmed certain passages where it didn’t look like I’d miss out by not reading them…
‘Deathly Hallows’ will go down as the bloodiest of the ‘Harry Potter’ books. It’s the wrong book for any of the characters to have a connection with Potter as the resulting odds of them dying, or being tortured, shoot through the roof! I’ll play a quick game with you. Name a supporting character. Named one? They’re dead. However, Rowling’s ruthless cull of the supporting cast only serves to highlight her unwillingness to go for the emotional jugular and ‘off’ more of the main characters. Without mentioning names, two of the big characters bite the bullet but I think Rowling missed a great chance here to really go out with a bang.
It’s not all bad though, Rowling does what she does best and delivers a book full of humour and pathos that reaches the standards set by her earlier work. You can tell that she really cares about all her characters (even ‘you know who’) and has worked her hardest to do them all justice on the page. The ‘not quite a love triangle but still awkward for all concerned’ between Harry, Ron and Hermione is captivating and really makes you feel for all concerned. Harry himself also becomes the character we were all rooting for in the earliest books rather than the whining teenager he’s been recently.
Rowling may have ultimately bitten off more than she could chew in this final chapter but I don’t think too many of her fans will be complaining. A fitting end to the journey but a bumpy ride along the way.

Six and a Half out of Ten

‘The Good People’ – Steve Cockayne (Atom Books)

The blog has been up and running for a few months now and I’ve read quite a few books in the meantime. I’ve read some great books and I’ve read a few books that were absolutely useless (I even took one of these and burnt it in the back garden…). Out of all the books I’ve read though, none of them have left me feeling quite so disturbed as ‘The Good People’ did…
Kenneth Storey and his brother are teenagers in the Britain of World War 2. They are fighting another battle though; through a gate in the garden wall lies the land of Arboria and an ongoing conflict between the Arborians and their barbarian enemies. As World War 2 draws to its conclusion; other teenagers will discover Arboria and then leave it behind but not Kenneth though. Kenneth is the Lore Keeper of Arboria and will use the knowledge, gathered by children before him, to keep the land safe at any cost. However, the conflict between Kenneth’s teenage emotions and his desire to protect Arboria will have severe repercussions both in Arboria and our world…
This is a poignant ‘rites of passage’ book that will strike a chord with both teenagers and anyone who was once a teenager, we’ve all been in the situations that Kenneth deals with and you almost hurt on his behalf when you see what is coming. A sense of loss also pervades the book as various characters leave childhood behind and move onto a more adult life, Kenneth is unable to do this and you feel the loss doubly so as his childhood friends desert him. Finally, there is a sense of tragedy as Kenneth’s inability to reconcile Arboria and the real world lead him to cover up something terrible and then commit a monstrous crime. As a character study this book is compelling and so well written that Kenneth’s descent into madness stayed with me for a long time afterwards (hence being disturbed). Where it fell down for me though was Cockayne’s treatment of the more magical elements in the story. The inhabitants of Arboria were very much seen out of the corner of the eye, this is how it should be seeing as the emphasis was on it being a world of make believe. But then Cockayne introduces the ‘Good People’, a mysterious fairy race who have lived in the forest since before the Romans. Kenneth’s state of mind doesn’t really allow the reader to make much sense of the ‘Good People’, are they real or bought on by delirium? This in turn made this reader question Arboria instead of just accepting it for what it was. Perhaps the story would have been better with just one of these elements instead of mixing the two in together, maybe it needs another read to fully appreciate it. On this read though, it took the edge off what was otherwise a gripping tale that leaves you thinking about it long after you’ve finished reading.

Seven out of Ten

‘Jigsaw’ – Garry Kilworth

I enjoyed reading ‘Attica’ (by the same author, reviewed this month) so was looking forward to reading ‘Jigsaw’, another Atom book for young adults. In hindsight though, I would say that ‘Attica’ is definitely the better book…
Max Sanders travels the world with his adopted brother (Hassan) and their archaeologist father, their latest trip sees them on a deserted Malaysian island where the father carries out secret experiments that he will not let them see. Told through Max’s blog, what starts off as just another field trip becomes a story of pirates, spies and mythological beasts and ends with a revelation that could have earth shattering consequences…
‘Jigsaw’ is an engaging read that kept me interested until the end. It’s a good old-fashioned ‘boys own’ adventure, with plenty of cliffhangers and suspense, but for me its flaws outweighed the positives.
The ‘blog/diary’ format was an original idea that was perhaps not best suited to this kind of tale, especially when the island’s power generator failed and the computer could not be used! Maybe Max kept notes, he never said though… The blog posts also struck me as far too detailed for a teenage boy who has spent the whole day having adventures on a tropical island and is trying to compete with his brother for the attentions of a beautiful American girl, where did he find the time to post? It's very clearly the authors voice that we hear, not Max's.
The ‘earth shattering secret’ may surprise the target audience but I saw it coming a long way off and the bit where Max inadvertently makes his father a laughing stock by posting everything in his blog (while his father wants to keep it a secret) is either a great insight into woolly teenage thinking or something that Kilworth maybe didn’t think of.
A fun read that, for me, doesn’t stand up to closer inspection.

Four out of Ten

‘Parasite Positive’ – Scott Westerfeld

This is another book from Orbit’s ‘Atom Range’ for young adults although you wouldn’t necessarily think it after reading the blurb on the back. Cal Thompson made the mistake of sleeping around in his freshman year and not only was he turned into a vampire parasite ‘carrier’ (by one of the ladies he slept with), he also inadvertently passed on the parasite to every girl he slept with afterwards. Employed by a shadowy agency, he now has to track them down before they create even more of their kind. Young Adult novel or plot for a 1970’s porn film? You decide…
The story begins with Cal just needing to find Morgan Ryder, the girl who infected him to start off with, before he can say that he has cleared up the mess that he made. Tracking down Morgan isn’t that easy though and in the course of his investigation Cal begins to realise that there is more going on than he has been told about…
At only 270 pages long ‘Parasite Positive’ is a very quick read and one that I really enjoyed. Westerfeld keeps the action ticking over but doesn’t rely on it to drive the plot, he also uses Cal’s naivety (about his condition) to throw a lot of questions into the mix and this is ultimately what keeps the pages turning. A character that is hamstrung by his constant sexual urges will strike a chord with the target audience and ring a few bells for those of us who are a bit older.
The only issue that I had with this book was that everything seemed to wrap up a little too neatly at the end. ‘Parasite Positive’ is the first book in a series and it would have felt better if there were a few loose ends to run alongside the main story arc. All in all though a very good read, if you liked Charlie Huston’s ‘Already Dead’ (and fancy some more of the same but lighter) then you could do worse than pick this up.
And remember kids, if you think she might be a vampire then the safest kind of sex is no sex at all!

Eight out of Ten

‘Attica’ – Garry Kilworth

This book is from Orbit’s ‘Atom’ range for young adults, thanks to George Walkley for sending me a copy to review!
Jordy, Chloe and Alex have moved to a new house in a new town. It all seems really boring to begin with until the day that their parent’s elderly landlord asks them if they wouldn’t mind going into the attic to fetch his old watch… What they find at the top of the ladder is no ordinary attic but a magical landscape where everything that’s thrown into an attic (and forgotten) takes on a new and dangerous aspect. However, perhaps the most dangerous situation they will encounter is not the Ink Imps or the dreaded Removal Firm but whether they will actually want to leave the attic when the time comes for them to go home…
Despite some flaws; ‘Attica’ is a very engaging read (much like a ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ for the 21st century). The three children have greatly differing characters meaning that the book is three times as likely to appeal to it’s readership. The world of Attica is beautifully realised on paper and despite it’s dangers, I too was a little sad when it was time to put the book down.
To begin with, the plot was perhaps a little aimless but I’d put this down to the children’s indecision about where to go in the attic. As they gained purpose, so did the plot and I was certainly gripped by the end. The only other problem I had with the book was the author ‘info-dumping’ big chunks of prose about what was going on in each child’s head. Although this approach was probably taken with a young adult reader in mind I think it could have been done more effectively using the ‘show but don’t tell’ method of writing.
The ending is never in doubt but the landlord’s reaction to the children’s tale leant a small sense of anti-climax to the story.
All in all though, a quick entertaining read for the commute to work and a book that a younger reader will certainly be engrossed by.

Six and a Half out of Ten

'Twilight' - Stephanie Meyer

Bella Swann's mother has a new boyfriend, who travels a lot, so Bella makes the decision to leave the sunshine of Phoenix to live in the town of Forks (where her father is the police chief). It rains there all the time (sunshine is a rare thing indeed!) but Bella knows what Forks is like and reckons she can settle there for a while at least. Then, on her first day at high school, Bella meets Edward Cullen. Edward and his siblings keep themselves to themselves but he makes it very clear right from the start that he cannot stand to be anywhere near Bella (which is awkward as she finds him very attractive). The reason for this soon becomes clear, through some detective work on Bella's part, Edward and his family are all vampires and their world can be very dangerous for an unwary human. However, against Edward's better judgement, a relationship develops between him and Bella and things get very dangerous indeed...
As a rule I don't read books for young adults; I've got nothing against them, it's just that there lots more adult books out there that catch my eye and I want to read them first. Therefore I was suprised at how engaging this 'young adult' book (Atom Books) was. Although it was fairly obvious that Bella and Edward would get together, it was handled such that I wanted to know how it happened. The characters were well drawn as well, I particularly liked the involvement of the Indians from the Reservation (I wonder if we'll see werewolves in future books?). The dynamics of Edward's family were also interesting to observe although the fact that each of them have a 'special gift/power' seemed slightly contrived in a deus ex machina kind of way.
The other thing that jarred was the fact that, at times, Bella and Edward's courtship seemed just a little too perfect. Bella is portrayed as a clumsy teenager (who doesn't think much of her own looks) and an outsider but despite all this still manages to get herself a hundred year old (great looking!) perfect physical specimen of a vampire. And he will do absolutely anything for her! This is more than likely simply down to the book being written for a particular audience (teenage girls) but a more cynical reader (me!) would wonder if the author has got a wish fulfilment thing going on...
Conclusions? Teenage girls will absolutely love this book (and secretly wish they could find someone like Edward) and I can see it being a bit of a 'guilty pleasure' for adult readers as well. Despite it's problems, I'd be interested to see where the story goes from here. Thanks to George Walkley (Orbit Books) for supplying me with a copy of this book.

Six out of Ten