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Title: The Hundred-Towered City
Author: Garry Kilworth
Publisher: Atom
Published: 01 May 2008
Review Copy

Synopsis

Jack, Annie and Davey have to go back in time to save their parents who’ve been arrested as alchemists and spies in Prague when their mum and dad set off to find more about the family tree.

There they get separated, have to cope with new and extreme circumstances, and then find each other again as well as meeting a few magical creatures along the way before trying to get home.

Analyse/Comments/Thoughts

I have to say up front that I am not the target audience for The Hundred-Towered City as it’s more a children’s title. Not that I read it any differently but I’m seeing it from a fantasy fan’s rather than children’s point of view.

Anyway, Kilworth mixes a bit of sci-fi (time travel) with a lot of fantasy with his re-imagined version of Prague, unless Prague of 1903 actually did have a very large Golem roaming about.

The thing that mostly sticks out is the strength of characterisation. The personality of each of the children is different. How they act, react and talk is individual.  Their personalities comes to the fore when the novel kicks up a gear when they are separated from each other and put to work in three different but insightful ways, solider, a maid and a puppet.

And one of its strengths especially for younger teenagers is showing them that children didn’t always have it so easy especially if they were orphans as Davey and co. find out.

I did find the first section of the book a bit slow going as even though a lot happens it didn’t raise my emotions. The children cope perhaps a little too well, are a bit too accepting of their new circumstances and seem to easily change from being protected modern day children to being in a foreign land speaking fluent German. And perhaps Kilworth makes it a bit too convenient for them to find help.

But when they get split up the pace, the emotions, and the story get going. Jack perhaps transforms the most as he has the hardest journey, but each of them get a time on the stage even Davey who’s the youngest gets his five minutes. The story though is between Jack and Annie and what actions they take.

Summary

Kilworth’s writing subtly mixes with myth with reality so everything seems normal even Gollum and he give a history and morality lesson that isn’t too obvious but a nice touch in a children’s story.  He also manages to throw in Arthur C. Clark and Kafka for good measure.
It’s all about showing not telling.

Kilworth’s time-machine and how time travel was achieved is a great invention and I’m going see if I can do something similar in my car next time I have a clear road.

8/10

Tags: 8/10, atom, review, teenage

Title: The Draining Lake
Author: Arnaldur Indridason
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 7 August 2008
Review Copy

Synopsis

A skeleton is exposed in a drying out lake. The skeleton has an old Russian listening device tied to it. This leads detective Erledur with Elinborg and Siguraur Oli into an investigation into the cold war and what happens to those that are left behind.

Analyse/Comments/Thoughts

I really should read more crime stories, especially if they are anything like The Draining Lake.  Indridason mixes the past and present easily and the effect is quite powerful as you trace the story of the murderer from the events that led to the crime and the solving of the crime itself. This isn’t a fast paced thriller. It’s more reflective and lives up to its tag line of, ‘What Happens to those Left Behind?’ especially when we visit the relatives left behind when people go missing.

The process of detection keeps you reading as Erledur’s obsessions with small details leads to some interesting places. We get to find out about Erledur’s complicated relationships with his son and daughter, his work colleagues, and a woman who hasn’t left her husband.

I enjoyed the mix of flashbacks and present day. In some ways the flashbacks were more insightful as they explored the characters involved in more detail as Erledur is left a bit more of a mystery from beginning to end. Though this could be that this is a part of series and more would be revealed in reading the other books. Not that this spoiled anything as it seems part of his character to be aloof.

It was a bit of a slow read as I’m a little rusty when reading books in translation especially when it came to the names of characters and it took a while to grasp who was who and if they were male or female. The other quirk is some of the more emotional angry scenes that had swearing in them didn’t quite ring true though this is more a quirk in the language/translation rather than something that ruins the scene.

The strongest point for me was not only seeing another country, Iceland, but also getting a small insight into the cold war and its affect.

Summary

The Draining Lake is a reflective and strong crime novel with a clever and thought provoking use of flashbacks, which takes the reader on a journey of a crime from both sides. It also keeps you guessing about who the person in the lake actually is and who killed them. Highly recommended. I’m looking forward to catching up with Erledur’s next investigation.

8/10

Tags: 8/10, Add new tag, crime, Vintag

Title: The Somnambulist
Author: Jonathan Barnes
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 10 Jan 08
Price: £7.99
Bought Copy

There is something intriguing about Victorian England. A place and time that has a personality all of it’s own. It’s that personality which Barnes draws on for The Somnambulist. Set in Victorian London we follow the latest and maybe last case of Detective and Stage Conjurer Edward Moon as he looks into the mysterious murder of Cyril Honeyman. But all is not as it seems. Something is afoot.

A good writer gets the reader to suspend their disbelief and brings them into the story’s reality. It feels like if you take a wrong turn you might run into The Somnambulist writing on his chalkboard as Edward Moon waves his hand dismissively.

The Somnambulist is a strange tale. We follow Moon as he traipses around London following leads and taking us to some weird and wonderful places like establishment of Mrs Pugsey and the butchers shop in Limehouse. The places are nothing compared to characters like Mr Cribb, who can’t possibly knows what he says he knows and Madame Innocenti whose prediction makes the investigations of Edward Moon even more urgent.

The story isn’t wholly logical and it isn’t meant to be. It’s phantasmagorical, teasing, and imaginative. The characters are extra-ordinary sometimes grotesque but quite believable in this setting. A combination of the personality of the narrator and skill of Barnes makes it strangely believable and quite compelling.

There are some oddities even in this strange tale. In part it comes down the to limitations of the point of the view of the narrator (quite cleverly chosen BTW) and partly it is the tale as a whole. It doesn’t quite all fit but no matter the journey is highly enjoyable entertaining and it doesn’t spoil the tale being told.

I’m looking forward to sampling more of Barnes’s formidable imagination in The Domino Men where characters from The Somnambulist are trapped in a chalk circle under Downing Street, a manuscript brings together every conspiracy theory about the Royal Family and explains where the power of Number 10 really lies.

8/10

Tags: 8/10, debut, debut review, Gollancz, Jonathan Barnes

Title: In The Woods
Author: Tana French
Publisher: Hodder
Published: 14 November 07
Price: £6.99
Bought It

You can never escape your past or so they say. And Tana French plays with this idea in her debut novel, In The Woods. Rob Ryan retells the investigation into death of a small girl found in the same woods where he, but not his two friends, had a lucky escape twenty years ago.

French hasn’t created a conventional detective novel. Ryan’s past comes back to haunt him during this investigation. She pitches it right. Ryan unravels as the case gets tougher. And as you read you wonder if he can solve it before he unravels too far.

It’s a very emotional read. French keeps you reading by playing with you. She builds the connections between the main characters and sparks them off each other. It’s a small world after all.

The strengths of this novel is how well French sets everything up. As I was reading I thought I had a good idea of who did it, if not why, and I was wrong. French, through Ryan’s eyes, gives a lot of leads and clues but these are muddied by Ryan own biases and obsessions. Another strength is how she explores the effect the investigation has on the relationship with his partner DI Cassie.

French foreshadows a lot of the major events, sometimes a little too heavily, and this gives a drive to find out the truth. And it is truthful and a bit brutal in its honesty. It’s an interesting balancing act between keeping plot moving in terms of finding the killer and showing us the emotional tensions surrounding it.

In The Woods keeps you reading as Ryan recounts and explores this investigation from beginning to end. French has created a well-crafted story with a believable, if highly fictional set events, told with strong compelling voice. A strong performing and haunting debut. I’m looking forward to seeing what she does next.

Tags: 8/10, Bought it, crime, debut, debut review, Hodder, New Writers, review

Title: Never the Bride
Author: Paul Magrs
Publisher: headline review
Published: 3 May 2007
Price: £7.99
Bought it

This is one book that after I read the blurb and just had to read.

Never the Bride is set in Whitby, which is also a setting in the original vampire novel Dracula, so it’s no stranger to scenes of weirdness and Paul Magrs has made it very strange indeed. B&B landlady Brenda and her best friend Effie like mysteries. And with age reversing beauty salons, more than perfect guests, psychic investigators and games of bingo at the Christmas Hotel there is more than enough to go round.

It’s a gentle humour filled adventure that’s split into seemingly unconnected episodic chapters. Each slowly reveals more about Brenda and shows that Effie is more than a pensioner who has taken a judo class last summer.

Magrs draws on old myth and monster tales and adds a big dollop of unique twist. The strange characters he’s created seem at home and normal in the company each of them keeps. He also makes it seem that this tale could be happening in Whitby right now.

They are a quirky couple, in a quirky place, in a wonderfully entertaining tale that’s only just begun.  Even though we meet a few strange characters this time there are other residents of Whitby who maybe more than they seem.

Paul Magrs has set himself up for a series with a lot of potential. I can’t wait to see what trouble Brenda and Effie get into next and how they manage to get out of it.

Tags: 8/10, Bookshelf, horror, reading, reading list, reading lists, review, Whitby