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Title: Lost Boys
Author: James Miller
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 3 July 2008
Review Copy

Synopsis

At an English Boys Private School children are going missing, they are dreaming and then disappearing but no one knows where they’ve gone.

Analyse/Comments/Thoughts

I wasn’t expecting to like Lost Boys, coming of age stories aren’t really my thing. I was expecting a Lord of the Flies all boy camp bonding thing, if that’s what Lord of the Flies actually is, but that’s the impression I got from hearing about it.

There is a bond between the missing children and it’s a boy in their dreams. At the start of the novel we follow Timothy Dashwood as boys around him disappear and he dreams. We follow the effect that has on him and others around it until he too disappears.

But that isn’t really what this book is about. It’s about why he and the other boys, they’re mostly boys, have gone and what that leaves behind for their parents.

Anyone who is a parent, or is going to be a parent, should read this book. Miller explores the world we have created for our children and how a world of war, alienation and rejection separates children and adults and how that may mean they turn their backs, and weapons, on us.

This is a fantasy but one grounded in real conflicts. Arthur Dashwood, the father we follow, is powerless even to the end to save a child that doesn’t want saving. In fact his child and the other children are fighting against their parents.

Most of the conflict and exploration is internal as Arthur searches for his son and Miller cleverly takes the reader in directions and places that aren’t clear at the beginning as things are connected by links that are revealed in the telling.

The breakdown of Arthur both from internal and external events is extreme but fits the character and the story. The other characters, the wife, the au-pair, the brother and other supporting cast, feel real and rounded. Miller has drawn from a deepwell for this tale.

The only slight thing that jarred was with the sex as desire, lust, and animalistic exploration was missing from the equation for most of the novel but the stories tensions had there release in the final disturbing chapters. Though I don’t think it was about sex but more about power and loosing control of yourself and putting it someone elses hands.

Summary

Lost Boys by James Miller is a shocking and startling debut. It’s a powerful exploration on the world we are presenting and leaving our children. It’s a disburbing take on what could be. Well worth reading but don’t expect any happy endings.

Score

9/10

Links

Times Online Review
Big Dumb Object Review

Tags: debut, debut review, James Miller, Little Brown, review

Title: Scar Night
Author: Alan Campbell
Publisher: Tor
Published: May 2007
Price: £7.99
Bought It

Before I say anything else Alan Campbell’s debut novel Scar Night is an amazing creation. Not only does he create rounded characters, he creates a believable world for them to live. I enjoyed reading it immensely but it’s not without its problems. Though before I get into all that let me tell you what it’s all about.

Dill is the last of his line. A battle-archon whose role is to protect the faithful and the Temple of Deepgate. But he’s not a fighter. The role is now ceremonial as the battleships do the fighting and the flying. Dill is left to stand on the roof unable to fly and release the occasional bucket of snails from his room in the Temple kitchens.

The city of Deepgate is suspended by great chains that have been interlinked over the years by lesser chains and ropes. This combined with its industrial needs have created several districts but overlooking them all is the Temple of Ucis. Ulcis is the undead God who is gathering an army of Ghosts, the dead of Deepgate, to reclaim his place in heaven.

As events unfold it is Dill who has no choice but to descend below and find out what hell really looks like.
When I started reading I wasn’t sure what expect. I expected Dill to go for feeble boy to a warrior man and save everyone. But he doesn’t, well not in that Hollywood hero way and that’s a good thing.

Instead Alan Campbell presents an exploration of life, death and faith and how what we believe can build and build until its foundations are forgotten. He also shows that no one is as bad as they first appear.

The trouble is I’m not sure that Campbell always had the balance quite right. The bad characters have some qualities that strip away some of their nastiness, which is alright, but somehow made me pause and wonder about their motives.

Saying that though he does well to give individuality to the minor as well as major characters and my thoughts about some of the motivations didn’t distract or undermine my enjoyment of Scar Night.

In fact I couldn’t wait to see what Campbell did next. Somehow he kept managing to surprise me in terms of what happened in the story and how he got there.

And at the end he left me in no doubt that this was only the beginning.

I recommend this for anyone who likes their fantasy to break and twist conventions and who likes their stories dark with a light at the end of a tunnel. I’m eager to read the just released Iron Angel.

8.5/10

Tags: Alan Campbell, debut, review, Tor

Title: The Pools
Author: Bethan Roberts
Publisher: Serpent’s Tail
Published: 29 August 2007
Price: £10.99
Review Copy

Bethan Roberts has started her literary career with a disturbing tale of Middle England, mid-1980s when the death of a teenager, Robert, is the inevitably conclusion to the paths of many lives.

This is a hard book to pin down. Beth rebuilds the events that lead up to Robert’s death but she goes further than that. She dismembers them. She gets under the skin of the narrators as she retraces the steps.

This is not a who dunnit. It’s not even a why dunnit. It’s story of life and how our characters might be natured as well as nurtured and how we can’t escape from what is in our hearts.

I wish that Roberts wasn’t so honest in her portrayal. I was she’d been more writery so that the story isn’t as brutal as it is. But she doesn’t flinch and she doesn’t pull her punches. She confronts the confusion we experience as we find out who we are and maybe face the realisation that we can’t escape what we done or perhaps the effect that our parents have on us.

Overall, Bethan has created a challenging novel that delves deep into the pools inside each one of us and it makes you question your own decisions. It also makes you thankful that you still have choices. An outstandingly insightful début.

Tags: reading lists

Title: The Electric Church
Author: Jeff Somers
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 20 September 2007
Price: £9.99
Review Copy

Normally I put down books that I don’t enjoy, stick it on the little list on the sidebar and move on. But there has been a lot of hype for The Electric Church so I can’t really just let it drift off.

It all comes down to a question of style (examples of Somers writing can be found here and here) and a matter of taste (mine and not Somers). And Somers prose style is not to my taste. I found it a little cold and more tell and little show.

But it’s probably just me because as mentioned in a previous post it has already got some good reviews.

I’m afraid I didn’t get past the first 30 pages so I there is not a lot more I can say but it’s not for me

Tags: noir, Scf-Fi

Title: HeartSick
Author: Chelsea Cain
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 3 August 2007
Price: £10.00
Review Copy

I said in a recent review that plotting takes practice and I want to know where Chelsea Cain took her lessons. Heart Sick is more than a catch-the-killer detective story. It plays with your mind.

What would happen if the serial killer you were chasing captured you and then tortured you for ten days before calling 911 and giving herself up just in time to save your life?

How would you cope if after two years a reporter shadows you and asks you questions about secrets that only you and your torturer share as another person is killing young girls and you’re running out of time?

I’m seriously impressed by how Cain explores these ideas. Not only does she put the reader in minds of the Archie, she also shows us him through the eyes of a reporter, at the same time as keeping up the pace on an investigation into a serial killer.

It’s just one more chapter reading until you come to the twisted end, which isn’t even where the ending should be. You need to know what comes next. Cain is a perfect poker player laying out the right cards at the right time but giving nothing away.

Cain has left plenty of scope to explore the strange (sick) relationship between Gretchen and Archie in a sequel.

It can’t all be good right? If I was being picky I could say something about the lack of development time for the secondary characters but that only because the pace doesn’t let up and Cain has made them interesting enough to want to know more about them and I hope they appear again in a future book.

Cain’s kicked off her career with a sky high performance. They don’t get much better than this.

Tags: 10/10, reading lists

Title: Murder Most Fab
Author: Julian Clary
Publisher: Ebury Press
Published: 16 August 2007
Price: £16.99
Review Copy

The first thing you notice about Julian Clary’s debut novel, Murder Most Fab, is the bright pink cover. It lights up shelf. If you want a book to standout then this is the way to go and as its author isn’t known for being subtle it suites him perfectly. The question is how does the cover match the contents of the book?

I have mixed feelings about MMF. It wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought it was going to a light-hearted, joke-ridden-romp through the life of a TV star from rising star to fallen angel. But instead we have an outrageous exploration of fame that sucks the life out of someone who can’t escape his first love and has no way out of the life he lives.

The whole book is Jonny D’s retelling of his rise and fall. His life as a country boy who turns to prostitution in London and then finds fame on children’s TV. This though cannot be done without the help of enough coke to keep his audience high for life, lots of man-on-man sex and a few unfortunate deaths alone the way.

It’s a fun read. The voice of Jonny is enjoyable and easy to get on with. The writing is clean and crisp giving enough information to keep everything moving along, not lingering on the sticky details, with just enough of a flavour so you know what’s going on.

For me it’s let down slightly in some of the stranger plot twists and turns but I’ll forgive that for the emotional journey that Clarey took me on. And I’m always more forgiving of first novels than ones by more seasoned writers. Plotting takes practice.

It’s not going to win any literary prizes but it’s a surprisingly fun way to spend an evening or two. It’s also an interesting commentary from the other side on the realities of celebrity as what you see isn’t really what you get. And if I was Jonny I’d have pushed Catherine off a bridge round about page 181.

As Mr Clary can definately write and has a way with words I have high hopes that he’ll florish even more with his next book.

Tags: 7/10

Title: Blood Kin
Author: Ceridwen Dovey
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Published: 12 July 2007
Price: £10.99
Review Copy 

Blood Kin is a depressing novel. The story starts from the view points of a President’s barber, chef and portrait artist who are being held captive in the President’s Summer Residence after a coup in an unnamed country where the President has been has been replaced by the Commander. 

None of the characters are likeable from those mentioned above to his barber’s brother’s fiancé, his chef’s daughter and his portraitist’s wife, each of whom tells a part of the story from their own point of view. 

The technique of interweaving chapters from varying points of view makes for an interesting exploration of the situation, which is not as simple as it first appears. They are more than a barber, chef and portrait artist. Their lives are intertwined with the President though not in ways that you’d immediately imagine.

Because it is such a dark novel it’s hard to find any enjoyment from it. It is a not a novel read for entertainment. This is a novel of exploration. It is a novel of power and corruption and those who are attracted to it, their motivations and the lies they delude themselves with. 

For all it’s bleakness it’s still worth reading as Dovey manages to build a story where each of these characters is revealed as creatures to pity as well as despise. They are in some ways victims of circumstances who seem to have no choice but to follow the path laid out for them.

Though if I do have one reservation it does seem a little too fantastical in parts especially some of the ways their lives come together. But then people of power aren’t that grounded in reality.

Overall, Dovey is an intelligent storyteller who delves a little too deep into darkness to make this entertaining though it is a thoughtful and haunting novel which makes me think of Evita without all the singing and dancing.

Title: The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam
Author: Chris Ewan
Publisher: Long Barn Books
Published: 2007
Price: 12.99
Bookshelf

I’ve been meaning to get my hands on this book for quite some time. Any book that can survive the fire of Susan Hill has got to be good, right? Yes, definitely. Is it a big blockbusting bestseller? Not really and I don’t think it’s meant to be.

Charlie Howard writes crime novels about a career thief; a career he also dabbles in from time to time. So when someone asks him to steal two monkey figurines he can’t turn it down can he?

Chirs Ewan has created a wonderfully entertaining character in Charlie Howard. He has an English whit and good manners for someone who breaks into houses for a living. And in any detective novel a good main character is a must. The other essential is a mystery and Ewan’s storytelling is compelling and compulsive.

It’s not a blockbuster thank god as there are no big car chases, fire-fighting shootouts, or explosions. Instead he’s built a complex tale from a few simple building blocks with enough false bait to keep you hooked even when you find out you’ve been pulling on the wrong line for quie some time. It harks back to tales where it’s brains that count like the tales of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Colon Doyle and the detective stories of Agatha Christie.

I’d usually be wary of a writer writing about a character who writes but in this case it allows some interesting conversations and some insight into both the main character and the unfolding events. Ewan also manages to capture the spirit of Amsterdam making the city a vital character of the story.

I’d whole heartedly recommend this book for anyone who loves detective stories with a definite English twist and for anyone who loves a great read I’d say you should buy this too. There is loads of potential for a sequel and I personally hope it’s not going to take too long to come. I guess the only to make sure there is is for enough people to go out and buy this book first. What you waiting for?

Tags: 10/10, Bookshelf

Title: Gods Behaving Badly
Author: Marie Philips
Publisher: Jonathon Cape
Published in Hardback: 02 August 2007
Price: 12.99
Review Copy

I hardly know where to start with this stunning debut so let’s start with the illustration. The dust jacket, endpapers and the first few pages all contain wonderful illustrations by Suzanne Dean. They really set the tone for this book. She’s reimaged the art of Ancient Greece for a modern age, which is exactly what Marie Philips does in Gods Behaving Badly.

The Gods of Olympus have been living in North London for the last few hundred years. It’s not easy being a God. Their house is overcrowded and in need of a lot of TLC. They have modern-day jobs (Artemis, Goddess of Hunting/Professional Dog-Walker; Apollo, God of the Sun/TV Psychic; Dionysus, God of Wine/Night Club Manager) and even then they are struggling to make end meet. This is all until they employ a cleaner and that’s when things so wrong.

There is much to admire about GBB. It’s funny for a start. I mean laugh out loud funny though the first time was out of shock so it might have been more of a giggle. It’s clever. Marie has really thought out the storyline. There are so many links and parallels that it leaves wonderful ‘oh’ and ‘ah’ moments. It’s sweet. The characters of Alice and Neil are just the right mortals to show up how ‘bad’ some of the Gods are. There is more but I don’t want to spoil it.

I really can’t think of anything I didn’t like about it. It was a wonderful easy read that managed to be both entertaining and thought provoking. The characters are wonderfully imagined, though I would have liked to have seen a bit more of a few of the Gods as there was so much more I wanted to know about them.

I’d love to see if Marie can manage a sequel – she’s created a wonderful cast and there are so many Greek myths she could draw on. If not I’m looking forward to what she writes next.

This is going to take some beating for Gav’s ‘Entertaining Read of the Year’.

Tags: 10/10

Title: Sharp Teeth
Author: Toby Barlow
Publisher: William Heinemann
Published in Hardback: 02 August 2007
Price: 12.99
Review Copy

Before I get into the book itself I have to say that I would buy more hardbacks if they were made like this.  It doesn’t have a dust jack only a striking illustrated cover with a slight bit of texture to it. And it’s that new compact size that’s becoming more and more popular. Much more reader friendly as I don’t have to worry about ripping the paper cover and it fits nice in my hands.

That’s not the only thing unique about this book. It’s a novel-in-verse. No don’t stop reading it’s not what you think. We’ll I’m not sure what you think but if you are imagining some Shakespearean-esque poetic purple prose you’d be wrong.

 To quote Toby Barlow:

‘…I tried to write to the way my eye, a somewhat lazy and easily sleepy eye, tends to work through a page’

And it works; the words just flow as if it’s written in a kind of novelist short hand. Another reviewer suggested that Sharp Teeth ‘is closer to Raymond Chandler, another chronicler of the underside of L.A., than to any poet’ and I’d tend to agree.

The poetic leanings come from the structure and the way story slips into your mind and as with any engine you don’t need to see how it works, you just need to hear it roar.

On top of this engine is a hardboiled crime novel with an animalistic twist:  packs of werewolves’ flight and scheme as a dog-catcher falls for a woman who can’t escape her blood. It has everything you need guns, girls, and a mystery to solve. Oh and blood though blood doesn’t bond these animals. Loyalties change when the wind is no longer blowing in the right direction.

Barlow, has thought this tale through. He sets up the game but the players and their hands remain hidden until the end. There aren’t that many flaws either at least any that wouldn’t count as nitpicking.  

These are no clichéd moon-howling-hounds – they are myths made real.  As with the best urban fantasy, this highly original novel-in-verse grounds itself in reality. So much so you might not look at a stray dog the same way again. You are going to be hard pressed to find something as complete and compelling as this for a while. My only doubt is how Toby Barlow is going to top this. If Sharp Teeth doesn’t win a few awards I’d be highly surprised.