NextRead

After stalling on Martin Andrew’s The Necropolis Railway, I know it’s steam powered but good god get on with it!, I picked up the next title on my review copy pile and I’m engaged and reading every moment I can fit in.

What has me so excited? It’s the next title by Mark Chadbourn and his wonderfully inventive and playful fantasy series. The Burning Man takes out heroes away from where they’ve been before and puts them face to face with other Great Dominions (the Celts aren’t the only ones with gods after all). At this point their mission seems insurmountable but if their is one message from this series it’s that there is always light even in the darkest places.

Tags: Books, Gollancz, Mark Chadbourn, Novel, reading

This is always a hard choice for me. On the one hand I have books that have one the shelves for ages(read years) that I should give time to and then there is the pile of new releases that are shouting at me we’re new read me now! And usually I try and balance personal reading with review copies from publishers. The problem comes when I just can’t settle and pick a book. I think about it, put it down, read a couple of pages and then move on to the next one.

Reading for me has a lot to do with mood. Do I want to read something comforting by a writer I know or read something new that I might not like. Added to that is when my inner editor is front and centre and it takes quite a lot to impress him.

For example I’ve picked and put down two books that I’ve had sitting in the pile for a little bit. My problem is that that my inner editor is shouting and screaming as I read. “Show not tell! Show not tell!” I think I’m a bit of a snob. So this leaves me with a bit of a dilemma. Should I struggle and hope it’s a phase and that I won’t end up hating every second. Or should I move on?

I usually choose move on as I’m not enjoying it. Quality of writing I think is important for me even if I’m reading a genre that isn’t considered literary, which isn’t a fair comment to make as I’ve read more quality writing in genre fiction that I have in the literary books. Though I’ve also read some of the worse writing in genre titles as well.

Anyway, I’m hoping to find something I’ll like soon. Currently I’m trying Andrew Martin’s The Necropolis Railway. Fingers crossed.

Tags: reading

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