Thirteen years in the writing
according to the publishers, and they offer a money-back guarantee if you don't "love" the book.
I really wish that I did - thirteen years is a long time to commit to telling a story, but I am not sure that this one is quite as epic, or deep, or meaningful as its gestation period might suggest.
A family wins a lottery. Two feckless young men decide to get themselves a big slice of that pie. One of them develops delusions of religious grandeur. A semi-retired cop suspects.
I know that there are probably some big themes, and that the author has something to say. Sadly, for me, the characters are underdeveloped, or too crudely sketched, or lack a coherent sense of purpose and personality. There is no moral centre. Tension is largely absent; will the old cop get fired or will he uncover the truth? Will the blackmailers get away with it all? This reader didn't really care one way or the other. I kept reading, but more to find out whether things reached a satisfying conclusion or not.
Unputdownability : Thirteen years to write; I suppose I had better give him a chance.
Don't let the stickers put you off.
The ones that say "Channel 4 Book Club" and "Bathtub Best Read Award" and "HobNobs Recommended Teatime Novel". OK, I might be making some of them up, but it did take me about ten minutes to scrape all the various shouty stickers of the front of this one. The "Man Booker Shortlist" blurb can also be a bit off-putting - is this going to be a "worthy read" or a populist?
Neither. Funny, touching, sad, happy, the Oddessey of the two brothers, Eli and Charlie Sisters (murderers for hire), across America in pursuit of their nominated victim is highly episodic but always driven towards the final confrontation (and beyond). Eli begins to dream of a different life but cannot turn his brother from the path of relentless violence. They gain fortunes. They lose fortunes. Eli falls in love. Repeatedly. He even waxes affectionate about his broken down old nag. Eventually they catch up with their intended victim. And that's where the fun really starts.
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| They're gunna get you! |
I doubt that I shall read a better book in the rest of 2012.
Unputdownability: I read from page 1 to page 325, and went straight back to Page 1 again.
So many recommendations and good reviews so I thought I would give this one a spin, and it probably falls under the heading of "biggest disappointment of the year". Michelle Paver is a children's writer, and I'm sorry to say that it really shows. It is as if she has set out with a warning from her publishers not to frighten anybody too badly, and there's no chance of any bad dreams being initiated by this novel.
An amateur research team set out for the Arctic wilderness, and a string of misadventures reduces their number to one who carries on the project while waiting for the others to join back up with him. He feels lonely. He thinks he sees a ghost. Someone tells him the place is haunted. He does see a ghost. He runs away from the ghost.
The research is thorough and unfortunately, it tends to show - Paver doesn't miss many opportunities to shoehorn in a brand name, or a contemporary reference. But good research doen't necessarily make for good storytelling, and not for good adult storytelling. There is insufficient tension, the pace is frightfully slow, there is little real sense of menace, the "reveal" is in a dream, and even then only fitfully related so that the true horror is
so concealed as to be almost Lovecraftian, and not in a goosd way - you know how HPL was fond of saying that things were so gruesome that he couldn't describe them? Well, a bit like that.
Unputdownability : I only didn't put it down because I so dreaded having to pick it back up again.
that Meg Gardiner went for so long without an American publisher, especially with the likes of Stephen King singing her praises.Her Evan Delaney series was a terrific five novel series full of suspense and great writing, and with Evan's story pretty much told, Gardiner has now turned to a newer character (I say "newer" but this is already the fourth in the series), the forensic scientist Jo Beckett.
Jo gets tangled up in a kidnapping that has her beset on all sides by opposing parties of evil-doers as well as the weather that threatens the lives of the teenagers she is doing her utmost to save.
Taut writing, bags of tension and plenty of "He's behind you" moments.
Unputdownability : The page-turning gets faster and faster...
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| Not a good representation of the contents |
was the US title of John Christopher catastrophe-survivors novel. As with "The Death of Grass", Christopher telescopes time to show us the descent into feudalism and lawlessness that follows a natural disaster, in this case world-wide seismic activity.
It might be possible to suggest that earthquakes of the magnitude Christopher describes would cause much more damage, and that the effects would not be a few mere aftershocks, but instead a continuous upheaval that ensured that no life survived, but at the end of it all the science doesn't matter. What counts is his depiction of people at the ragged edge of civilisation, some of them intent on making a niche for themselves as rulers of new micro-kingdoms, some intent on create a more harmonious communal existence.
This was one of the first "science fiction" books I ever read and, of course, it isn't "science fiction" at all, but a story of people under extreme conditions. And forty five years after that first reading, I still remember vividly so many of the scenes and incidents; a tribute to John Christopher's writing powers.
Unputdownability : desperate for the hero's salvation, but afraid to turn the page in case something nasty happens.
When you think that no-one could find a fresh angle on the Arthurian myths...
Philip Reeve finds one. This is a the story of a servant girl caught up in a raid carried out by the war chief Arthur, and used by his fifth century spin-doctor cum PR man Myrddin to create the myth of the Lady in the Lake. This is no fantasy world of swords in stones, fulfilled prophecies and magical powers. Instead it is a group of all too real humans, with their politics, lusts and weaknesses, being manipulated by a single man who wants to see the Britons united and opposed to the saxon invaders.
Reeve's strengths are many - great plotting and pacing, and distinctive voices for his characters. And his ability to write from the standpoint of a young girl (a strength also demonstrated in the "Mortal Engines" and "Fever Crumb" series) is quite remarkable - never mawkish, infantilised or patronising.
Unputdownability : I was up at four o'clock reading the final chapters.
