Samuel's Reading Chair

Maximum Security - Robert Muchamore

2009-12-16T18:31:00.001+10:30

Title: Maximum Security
Author: Robert Muchamore
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 277
Published: 2005

When CHERUB agent James Adams is offered an alternative to the dull recruitment missions his friends have been assigned, he accepts without hesitation. With the help of his younger sister, Lauren, and an older agent named Dave Moss, his task will be to infiltrate a maximum security prison and befriend the incarcerated son of an elusive arms dealer, before breaking him out in the hope of following him back to his mother. The prison in question is only a young offender's institution, but James soon realises that he may have bitten off more than he can chew. He will need all his training to survive the dog-eat-dog hierarchies of Arizona Max, and to outwit the armed guards and police officers who consider him a real prisoner.

After getting off to an impressive start with The Recruit and Class A, Robert Muchamore's bestselling CHERUB series hits something of a stumbling block in Maximum Security. The first few chapters are particularly unimpressive. Muchamore's usual, punchy style is dragged down by extra padding, and our reintroduction to James – a rather unoriginal brawl at a bowling alley – is punctuated by clichés and exaggerations. Lauren's basic training, despite thrusting readers into a bleak Alaskan snowfield, seems to have none of the gruelling boot-camp charisma that James' ordeal did. By the time a suitably challenging task does present itself, the reader's interest will be somewhat dampened. Perhaps Muchamore's editor has adopted a more lenient stance following the success of his first two books.

Fortunately, the novel improves as it warms up. The standout, tried and true features of the series are more than enough to save this instalment, particularly the grit and authenticity imparted by Muchamore's research. This novel is probably worth reading just for its accessible insight into life in a young offender's prison. The usual grim glimpses into the characters' flaws and failings help to make it even more convincing, particularly where Curtis Oxford is concerned, and once the break-out gets rolling, there are enough twists and turns to make for an absorbing thriller.

Muchamore does not pull free from his flaws completely. Perhaps the most glaring problem is the ease with which the breakout occurs. If all 'maximum security' prisons in the USA are this easy to escape from, there is little wonder that crime is such a problem there. Then there is James' relationship with Vaughn Little, which might have tugged on the heartstrings if the exact same trick hadn't already been used in the previous book with Keith Moore. These faults are disappointing, but they are nothing that the momentum of the series will not sustain.

It may not be one of the stronger CHERUB novels, but Maximum Security spins a tight, engaging yarn in under three hundred pages, and the fans should have no trouble devouring it. Thankfully, Muchamore appears to be defying the common trend; so far, his books are getting shorter instead of longer.

The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters

2009-12-07T09:38:00.001+10:30

Title: The Little Stranger
Author: Sarah Waters
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 501
Published: 2009

When a country doctor is called to Hundreds Hall – a decaying mansion in Warwickshire – to attend to an ill servant, he finds her sickness to be merely a feigned reaction to her surroundings. Alone in the intimidating servants' quarters, she has almost become convinced that a supernatural presence inhabits the house. As Dr Faraday comes to know the Hall's inhabitants more closely, he sees that its ruin does indeed seem to be eroding their lives, especially that of Roderick, the young, crippled master of the house, who struggles with the burden of the estate's finances. Over the course of his many visits, however, Faraday is forced to confront the possibility that the many strange occurrences at Hundreds may be the result of something more sinister and elusive.

Is there a ghost at Hundreds Hall? This is the question left hanging over the reader at the conclusion of Sarah Waters' latest novel, The Little Stranger. I, for one, remain unconvinced; not fully prepared to accept the possibility, nor to dismiss it outright. Like Dr Faraday, I am determined to cling to my rationalist perspective and avoid jumping to conclusions. Many other readers, I am sure, will disagree, and this is perhaps the novel's greatest strength: its ability to tread the threshold of proof between the explainable and the supernatural, compelling its readers to wrestle with their own half-formed opinions and conclusions.

Unfortunately, the majority of this 'literary meat' is confined to the final two hundred pages of the novel, and even then, it is fairly thinly spread. To reach it – along with other interesting aspects, such as Faraday's mulish, almost treacherous determination in pursuing both Caroline and logical solutions to every mystery – readers will have to wade through an unbelievable amount of padding. Waters seems to enjoy hammering the decay of the house and estate to no end, robbing the novel of the brevity and subtlety it may otherwise have possessed. To an audience mired in endless text, this story can often feel like little more than an empty tragedy.

The Little Stranger is the kind of book that I would love to see reimagined as a novella: a potent experiment in how easily we are willing to suspend our disbelief when reading, and how we might apply our reasoning differently in a real world scenario. In this format – somewhere around the size of Alan Bennet's The Uncommon Reader, in my mind – I could see it as a volume I might pass on to friends in the hope of discussing their reactions, as well as all those literary touches that Waters would have reduced to sharp little references. One does not need to spend five pages exploring a building site, for example, to understand her point about the new England's plebeian multitudes breaching the gates of Hundreds. As it is, there is simply not enough material here to be spread across the epic, over-rendered novel that Waters has envisaged. The writing may be quite transporting, but it is easy to become fed up with the destination.

Class A - Robert Muchamore

2009-12-01T17:52:00.003+10:30

Title: Class A
Author: Robert Muchamore
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 295
Published: 2004

When James Adams fails a routine training exercise and becomes caught up in a fight with fellow agents Kerry and Bruce, his summer holiday in the Mediterranean islands is cut short. Fortunately, the rigid discipline at CHERUB – a covert, underage branch of British Intelligence – is eased after two weeks to allow James to prepare for his next mission. His task will be to befriend Junior Moore, the rebellious son of cocaine dealer Keith Moore. Despite the efforts of hundreds of police officers and agents, Moore has evaded prosecution for years. Now Britain's largest drug-busting operation has turned to CHERUB to dig out the evidence they need.

It's quite a relief, as an adult, to come back to the books you loved as a teenager and discover that you still enjoy them as much as you ever did – because quite apart from being pulse-pounding, page-turning thrillers, they're actually well-written. Reluctant and discerning readers alike will get a kick out of Class A: the second novel in Robert Muchamore's ever-expanding CHERUB series. Muchamore has clearly done his homework on this instalment; his fiction owes much of its grit and authenticity to the convincing foundation of facts that underpins it. The choice of subject matter – illicit drugs – is quite appropriate for this highly addictive series, and is skilfully handled by the author. Young readers are likely to come away genuinely discouraged from using cocaine, without feeling at all preached-at, as Muchamore manages to steer well clear of didacticism and preserve his protagonist's bad-boy charm at the same time.

James Adams, our thirteen-year-old hero, is a big part of what makes these novels so readable. His character is a deft balancing act between the guy every teenager can relate to and the guy every teenager wishes he was. As such, the mix of empathy and envy he evokes will keep readers riveted to the page for hours. Through James, they can dream themselves vicariously into Muchamore's irresistible world of cars, girls, martial arts and good old friendship and adventure.

As the characters of James and his friends continue to develop, Muchamore takes the opportunity to balance all the excitement and peril with a deepening exploration of their relationships with each other. The interaction between James and Junior Moore, for example, has moments of particular poignancy, which land where the exhilarated reader will seldom expect them. The final chapter may feel a little contrived, but until then, this story's emotional layer is managed with remarkable control, providing that last ingredient to round out the novel.

Readers who were enthralled by The Recruit will devour Class A, which is just as enjoyable, if not more so. Those who can resist going on to the next instalment will be rare indeed. After all, why stop at two?

The Recruit - Robert Muchamore

2009-11-28T08:03:00.002+10:30

Title: The Recruit
Author: Robert Muchamore
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 329
Published: 2004

Twelve-year-old James Choke looks all set to wind up in prison as an adult. Raised by a professional shoplifter and her abusive boyfriend, his propensity to violence and vandalism has only been aggravated by his mother's sudden death. His situation in a government home looks bleak – until he wakes up one morning a mysterious facility, to be offered a place at an organisation known only as CHERUB. If he can pass his entrance tests and survive basic training, he'll become one of two hundred and eighty agents, all under the age of seventeen, to take on undercover missions for British Intelligence. The premise of the programme: a criminal will never suspect that children are spying on them.

Aspiring teenage fiction authors take note: if you want to rake in the fans, this is how to do it. Robert Muchamore's CHERUB series has amassed a formidable worldwide following, and one need only open up a copy of The Recruit – the book that started it all – to see why. Muchamore plays shamelessly on every thirteen-year-old boy's closeted longing to be a secret agent. No matter how many times our protagonist, James, is battered, bruised, drowned or nearly killed in training or on missions, readers will still fantasise themselves into his boots, because to be him would be the coolest thing ever. From the descriptions of his former bedroom – so loaded with gaming consoles that 'it looked like a bomb had gone off in Toys R Us' – to the campus full of karate-kids whose job it is to break into terrorists' houses and smash up furniture, every aspect of this novel is hardwired to scream 'teenage guy's dream'.

As fast-paced thrillers go, Muchamore's writing is top-notch. He stumbles a little when it comes to realistic dialogue, but nowhere near enough to unglue his readers from the page. With the help of some convincing (but not cumbersome) background information, a cast of likeable supporting characters and a smattering of brisk humour – all delivered via bite-sized chapters packed with punchy sentences – The Recruit goes from readable to downright addictive without a moment's pause, especially where basic training and the CHERUB campus are concerned.

Once James departs on his first mission, the page-turning power wanes a little, but with so much momentum behind it, The Recruit is virtually unstoppable. What Muchamore gives us in the final few chapters is a somewhat sobering reminder of his novel's realism. For all its action-packed charisma, this miniature portrait of intelligence work is coloured with a complexity and depth that complete the book very nicely.

The hype is fully justified; Robert Muchamore's first CHERUB novel will grab you, thrill you and leave you eager for more. It's a good thing the series shows no signs of running out any time soon.

The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

2009-11-25T10:13:00.001+10:30

Title: The White Tiger
Author: Aravind Adiga
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 321
Published: 2008

When Balram Halwai, the 'White Tiger' in the jungle of modern India, hears that the Chinese Premier intends to visit Bangalore to investigate its entrepreneurial successes, his interest is instantly piqued. Sitting beneath the chandelier in his 150-square-foot office, he resolves to dictate a series of letters to the Premier, telling his own life story: how he escaped the abject poverty of his family's village to become one of the country's most skilful entrepreneurs. It is a tale of deception, betrayal and murder, and one that will expose the startling relationship between India's rich and poor castes. Only the rarest of men have broken free of this bond; a bond which Balram refers to as 'The Rooster Coop'.

Perhaps you've heard it said that India is the world's next superpower: a nation of economic and technological progress that will soon succeed Western countries on the world stage. If so, Aravind Adiga's debut novel The White Tiger might make you think twice. Winner of the Booker Prize in 2008, this novel is a vicious, literary exposé of the delusion of 'progress' in modern India. Our narrator, Balram, splits the country into two halves: an 'India of Darkness' and an 'India of Light'. While Adiga's evocation of the poverty in the former is brutally vivid, it is his portrayal of the latter that will really grab his readers' attention. The India of his novel is a society that functions with mechanical amorality, where rich and poor alike are so habituated to the dog-eat-dog corruption that nobody thinks to question the status quo.

For all its atmospheric bustle, the novel is filled with the empty promise of change; a feeling that our narrator only partially acknowledges. Having titled himself 'The White Tiger', he views his own rise to the top of the food chain with a satisfaction that Adiga quietly subverts. As the wheels of this society continue their foul cycles – crime, poverty, betrayal – the reader comes to realise that its progress is not progress at all, and that the jungle will always be just that: a jungle.

As engaging as the subject matter is, it is Balram's narration above all that gives this study of modern India its twisted charisma. His straight-to-the-bone comments about everything from religion to democracy to the behaviour of Westerners will elicit wry smiles from the toughest of readers. Somehow, these 'life lessons' manage to be amusingly oversimplified and remarkably incisive at the same time. Whether you love him or hate him – or an indecisive mix of the two, as is more probable – the way Balram keeps the novel speeding along is difficult to resist.

Eye-opening on so many levels, The White Tiger is literature as it should be: topical, memorable and completely readable. Adiga's densely packed portrait of Indian society unravels in the mind for days afterwards. If it is half the country he paints it to be, urgent intervention is definitely called for.

Hamlet: A Novel - John Marsden

2009-11-17T09:28:00.001+10:30

Title: Hamlet: A Novel
Author: John Marsden
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 228
Published: 2008

When Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is visited by the ghost of his late father, the king, he is unsure exactly what to think. The apparition has charged him to avenge its own murder at the hands of Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, who has now taken both the dead king’s throne and wife for himself. Perhaps, however, this ghost is a trick sent by the devil. How can Hamlet be sure of the right course of action? As he puzzles over the murder he has been instructed to commit, his friends and family begin to notice a change in his behaviour and manner. Perhaps he is losing his mind – but then again, perhaps he has always been a little different from other boys his age. Not even his best friend, Horatio, can be entirely sure.

In the style of Shakespeare’s most famous play, the very first words of John Marsden’s Hamlet: A Novel take the form of a question – but unlike its predecessor, this new adaptation prefers to cut straight to the chase. ‘Do you believe in ghosts?’ asks Horatio – and he may as well be asking the reader directly. Rather than plumbing the depths of Hamlet’s mind to resolve this puzzle of a prince, Marsden begins with the perspectives of surrounding characters, adding layers to his character study, and inviting us to find our own conclusions.

The true genius of this novel lies in Marsden’s portrayal of a Hamlet predating any encounter with his father’s ghost; a Hamlet that Shakespeare’s five-act dramatic snapshot cannot show us. Marsden’s Hamlet is a boy who has ‘always been strange’, one who has always pondered life and death and enjoyed baffling those around him, and whose madness might simply be the fabricated identity of a neglected teenager. Where is the line between philosophy and insanity? The original chapters of Marsden’s novel capture this ambiguity brilliantly. Construe Hamlet as you will; like the knife that he contemplates picking up, or the ‘to be or not to be’ dichotomy of his soliloquy, it all comes down to choice.

While the two Hamlets blend seamlessly, however, the voices of our two narrators do not. There are times where Marsden sets aside the originality of his own interpretation and resorts to merely translating the original text, taking whole speeches and conversations and simplifying them for the reader. Sometimes it works, but all too often, the words feel incongruous. Rephrased Shakespeare still reads like Shakespeare. The style, structure and expression of the dialogue remain too elaborate to mesh with the modern thought-processes that Marsden has given his characters: a Hamlet who plays football with his mates and a Horatio who fantasises about the palace servant girls. The mismatched prose divides the scenes in this book between two narrative voices – Marsden’s scenes and Shakespeare’s scenes – and though they may alternate, these two voices can never quite seem to blend successfully.

The stand-out sections, especially in the first sixty pages, belong to Marsden, even if they are hampered by such typical flaws as his failed attempts to show us how well he understands the adolescent mind. (Teenage readers are less likely to feel understood than creeped out at the explicit descriptions of Hamlet and Ophelia’s sexual urges.) As the novel progresses, however, Marsden’s voice becomes somewhat lost along the way, and the sum of his writing amounts, at best, to a decidedly odd and unique little book.

The Ask and the Answer - Patrick Ness

2009-11-10T11:41:00.000+10:30

Title: The Ask and the Answer
Author: Patrick Ness
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 519
Published: 2009

Struggling under the harsh regime of New World's self-appointed president, Mayor Prentiss, Todd and Viola find themselves separated, forbidden even from seeing each other. Todd is put to work as a slave driver, managing a workforce of imprisoned Spackle, while Viola is apprenticed to Mistress Coyle, a healer who seems quietly opposed to the president's tyranny. As supplies of the Noise cure are recalled, and segregation rules become stricter, Viola begins to notice curious changes in Mistress Coyle, as well as several of the other healers. An uprising is close at hand – but deciding right from wrong in the chaos to come will be even more difficult than staying alive.

To say that Patrick Ness has set a high bar for himself would be a mammoth understatement. His machine gun, stream-of-consciousness writing wowed readers and critics alike when The Knife of Never Letting Go hit shelves in 2008, partly because it was unlike anything else ever seen in its genre. To readers who have learned to expect the unexpected, The Ask and the Answer may elicit a feeling of 'Here we go again', as Todd's narration, which was so radically original a year ago, returns for round two. Ness wastes no time, however, in reminding us why he writes the way he does. For vividness, impact and readability, this prose is nigh on unbeatable. With its terse phrasing and rapid-fire paragraphs, it captures not only visual images, but pace and rhythmic imagery as well. Never before has there been such an effective way to describe a fistfight, or the aftermath of an explosion. As prose goes, it's sheer genius, and readers will wonder why all thrillers aren't written this way.

As if the writing were insufficient to make this book completely engrossing, Ness has packed the plot with the same amount of action and twists and, more importantly, the same thematic depth that captivated readers in the prequel. The Ask and the Answer is a fascinating portrait of society on the brink of chaos, where power is as tenuous as morality, and the greater good is often eclipsed by the means used to achieve it. Ness juggles right and wrong with impressive skill before seeming to throw them out of the window altogether. Ironically, the depth of ethical and political comment produces the novel's only flaw: it seems more than a little incongruous when Ness tries to find that rock of moral constancy in the middle of all the turmoil – because this is a children's book, after all.

Don't be fooled by its bulk; like the Noise of New Prentisstown, this is one page-turner you won't so much read as telepathically absorb. Every bit of Ness' storytelling goes straight to the head and stays there, punching out image after image of his gritty dystopia. I look forward to seeing the tension ratcheted up yet again in the trilogy's finale: Monsters of Men.

Hell's Horizon - D.B. Shan

2009-09-27T12:39:00.001+09:30

Title: Hell’s Horizon
Author: D.B. Shan
Genre: Crime/Horror
Pages: 389
Published: 2009

Al Jeery has learned to live with his job in The Cardinal’s personal army: a highly trained force known as the Troops. Working for an all-powerful crime lord has its ups and downs – Al has even killed a few times – but he has no desire to be promoted. The Cardinal, however, has other ideas. When Al’s girlfriend, Nicola Hornyak, is found murdered in a hotel room, he is unexpectedly assigned to the case. Knowing that to refuse The Cardinal would mean death, Al begins his search for the killer, and soon becomes too entangled in the mystery to ever return to his old, familiar life.

‘Crime with a difference’ would perhaps be an appropriate genre classification for D.B. Shan’s second adult novel, Hell’s Horizon. What begins as a fairly standard (albeit noirish) whodunnit soon evolves into a strange beast of a book, suspended somewhere between crime, horror and fantasy. Like its predecessor, Procession of the Dead, it drops only subtle hints at first of its own supernatural undercurrents, preferring to focus on sketching the bleak and bloodstained setting on which the action thrives. When the magic does hit, it can seem a little incongruous, but it certainly transforms this witches’ brew into something intriguingly unique. The prequel is a must-read before attempting this latest instalment; anybody unfamiliar with the mechanics of Ayuamarcans will probably be left scratching their head and wanting their money back.

Shan’s writing is as brutal as it is atmospheric. He offers little relief from the violence of his story, focusing as usual on the decay of his protagonist. The scene with the Fursts – a particularly memorable moment – is delivered so swiftly that it takes several pages to fully sink in, at which point the reader cannot help but feel slightly sick. Bleak though it may be, it is an undeniably skilful blow. I certainly found myself glancing behind my chair a few times while reading at night; I’ll give Shan credit for that.

Nevertheless, like its predecessor, this book does suffer somewhat from being difficult to endure. Nobody will guess all of Shan’s plot twists, and that may be partly because his plot is wildly unpredictable – but it will also be partly because his readers are too benumbed to make any reasonable attempts. This instalment falls a step short of Procession in the engrossing, page-turning department, and the slower-paced moments leave plenty of time for noticing that the prose is not the best in the world. To make matters worse, Shan has arguably overstepped the mark when it comes to his most intriguing characters – The Cardinal and Paucar Wami – neatly shattering the reverent atmospheres that previously made them such powerful narrative lures.

At the very least, Hell’s Horizon is an exceptionally plotted whodunnit. The twists and turns are breathtakingly complex. But how to become desensitised to the violence without becoming desensitised to the whole lot? That’s a question for a hardier reader than myself.

Jasper Jones - Craig Silvey

2009-09-19T12:37:00.000+09:30

Title: Jasper Jones
Author: Craig Silvey
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 362
Published: 2009

Charlie Bucktin has been warned about Jasper Jones: Corrigan’s no-good, half-Aboriginal scapegoat. Parents dread that he will lead their children astray, girls are secretly in love with him, and Charlie, at thirteen, regards him as an embodiment of the kind of manhood he can never seem to exhibit. So when Jasper Jones appears at his window in the middle of the night to ask for help, Charlie follows him, nervous but determined, into the bush outside Corrigan. It is there that he will discover the reason for Jasper’s visit; a secret that will weigh him down like a brick in his stomach, and shake his view of the world around him.

If you are a young Australian male about to read To Kill a Mockingbird, don’t. Read Jasper Jones instead. Or, if your English teacher insists, read both. This book does for Australia what Harper Lee’s classic novel does for America. It delivers the same plot elements – the young protagonist, the small town community, the dark-skinned outcast, the infamous recluse – and explores the same themes – racism, loss of innocence, courage, secrecy – all transposed into a quintessentially Australian setting and narrated with absorbing energy, authenticity and humour. There will be something in this novel for every Australian reader to relate to. Silvey’s prose captures the internal narrative of adolescence perfectly, right down to the last flutterings of anxiety and speechlessness when confronted with a member of the opposite sex. His characters are as realistic as they are charismatic, and their dialogue is read-out-loud, laugh-out-loud gold. Charlie’s best friend, Jeffrey Lu, deserves a special mention in this department.

Whatever Silvey does, his short, sharp and distinctive narration brings his reader right up close to the action. His cricket game scene is recounted with such tension and excitement that even readers who couldn’t care less about cricket will be glued to the page. Every emotion is contagious, every idea is thought provoking, every trial and trouble is riveting. The blending of literary depth and narrative force is a rare joy. The entire novel just works.

While the material may not be new, Silvey’s writing manages to avoid any feeling of retreading old ground. Mad Jack Lionel, who might otherwise have been a familiar and one-dimensional character, is well presented in the few short scenes the plot can afford him. Even the inevitable feel-good moments are more complex than one might expect. Silvey treads the line between literature and popular fiction, but never lets the quality of his writing slip for a moment, defying any attempts to pigeonhole his work as a mere rehashing of familiar plot devices and themes.

Having just finished Jasper Jones, I am seized by an uncontrollable urge to read it again – which is a problem, as I have an equally strong urge to immediately lend it to everyone I know. I am still unsure which urge will win.

Wolf Island - Darren Shan

2009-09-09T12:34:00.000+09:30

Title: Wolf Island
Author: Darren Shan
Genre: Horror
Pages: 223
Published: 2008

The hordes of the Demonata are aligned behind the mysterious Shadow, poised to wipe out the entire human race. The only hope for survival lies in the Kah-Gash, a three-part weapon which has already demonstrated its ability to manipulate time itself. Fearful of its power, Beranabus has insisted upon splitting the three parts up, leaving Grubbs Grady on earth while Kernel and Bec chase the demon master’s trail. Grubbs’ mission is to track down and eliminate the werewolves who launched an attack on his uncle’s home in Carcery Vale – werewolves who were once members of his own family. He will soon discover the sinister truth behind the ‘research’ being conducted on his confiscated kin.

It has finally happened. Darren Shan, champion of page-turning action and self-styled ‘Number One Master of Horror’, has finally written a dud novel. The events of Wolf Island, the eighth instalment in his young adult horror series The Demonata, run parallel with those of the previous novel, Death’s Shadow, giving Shan a clear set of plot parameters to follow, and restricting his storytelling somewhat. His latest effort feels like it has been written to fill a predetermined gap in the series, rather than for any standalone merits.

The novel flounders through necessary padding for the first eighty pages, as though Shan himself realises the need to fast forward to the stronger material ahead. His leaping over plot obstacles at breakneck pace requires the introduction of several disposable minor characters, most of whom feel one-dimensional and exaggerated, including a computer hacker named Timas Brauss who can solve far too many problems with far too little difficulty. Perhaps more thorough editing would have pruned away some of the unrealistic moments, but as it is, even Prae Athim’s character oversteps the suspension of disbelief, becoming too cold and calculating for her own good.

Once the middle section is reached, Wolf Island starts to feel more like classic Shan: fast paced, non-stop action, perfect compromise between pace and description and, of course, the steady loss of all those annoying minor characters, one by one. Grubbs’ personal transformation is intriguing and lends the narration an unsettling coldness, taking the series into morally questionable territory reminiscent of Shan’s adult fiction debut, Procession of the Dead. The delicious mayhem lasts until we hit Juni Swan’s prophecy, at which point the Cirque du Freak fans will groan at the introduction of a plot device already used in Shan’s previous series. Just as the feeling of retreading old ground abates, Wolf Island ends with a disappointing set-up for the next Demonata book.

The novel’s saving grace is its utterly readable prose; even if it is mostly a gap-filler, it will be easy for fans to rip through and move on from. Here’s hoping Dark Calling will be worth the dithering.

Q & A - Vikas Swarup

2009-09-07T12:32:00.003+09:30

Title: Q & A
Author: Vikas Swarup
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 361
Published: 2005

When Ram Mohammed Thomas, an eighteen-year-old waiter from the slums of Mumbai, wins one billion rupees on India’s newest imitation of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, he is arrested almost immediately. Having offered a prize they are incapable of dispensing, the producers face bankruptcy unless Ram is convicted of cheating. A confession should be easy to obtain; after all, the odds against an uneducated orphan guessing twelve correct answers are astronomical. Even Ram’s lawyer, Smita, is sceptical at first – but behind each answer is a tale from Ram’s remarkable life, and as each tale unfolds, she comes to understand the luck he has made for himself.

If Oliver Twist had been born in twenty-first-century India, his life might well have turned out something like this. Vikas Swarup’s debut novel Q & A is a vibrant new take on the trials and adventures of a familiar heroic archetype – the penniless orphan – structured into an absorbing jumble of short stories. Each story stands alone as a snapshot of Ram’s experiences, complete with its own twists and revelations, but together, they paint an engrossing portrait of modern India, where rich and poor alike are swept up in the chaotic vicissitudes of life. With simultaneous frankness and feeling, Swarup captures not only the appalling conditions of India’s slums and chawls, but also the depth and humanity of the people who inhabit them – people with dreams and passions and senses of humour, rather than mere statistics to be pitied.

The narration is thoroughly readable, and the pages slip away with refreshing speed. Swarup has a storyteller’s gift; a talent for taking the reader to where he wants them and evoking his material in punchy snippets which blend seamlessly into each other. The style, fittingly, is reminiscent of memory, pushing strict chronology aside in favour of ideas and feelings, and swinging from scene to scene without dropping the reader for a moment. It is not a striking replication of our thought processes, but it is certainly a convincing one.

Admittedly, the realism wears thin in places – there are some yeah right moments and some clichés – a few of the twists and revelations feel contrived, and some of the prose seems amateurish. All of these flaws, however, melt easily into the hyper-real style of the piece. Once the reader has been swept up in this convincingly childlike and irresistibly big-hearted yarn, any overblown passages seem only to contribute to the extraordinary atmosphere.

Impressively plotted, absorbingly structured, powerfully paced and written with enough energy to carry it all off, Q & A will keep its readers turning pages right to the very last rupee. A thoroughly enjoyable book.

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

2009-09-02T12:26:00.000+09:30

Title: Frankenstein
Author: Mary Shelley
Genre: Classic
Pages: 225
Published: 1813

When Captain Robert Walton, a physicist possessed by the ambition of reaching the magnetic pole, sets out on a perilous voyage to the farthest reaches of the North Sea, he is astonished to find a kindred spirit there: a scientist by the name of Victor Frankenstein, stranded on a floating sheet of ice. Recognising something of his younger self in Walton’s impassioned demeanour, Frankenstein resolves to impart the cautionary tale of his own life. On the brink of death, he relates how he too once set out to plumb nature’s mysteries, even to the extent of creating life itself – until his own monstrous creation, spurned by its master and all of humankind, vowed a terrible revenge against everything he held dear.

The tale of Victor Frankenstein may be nearly two hundred years old, but as science continues to advance, its material only becomes more relevant. As a biblical and philosophical thought experiment, the essence of this novel makes for fascinating reading. What better way to experience it than to return to the original text? If only the writing lived up to the material . . .

Shelley opens in epistolary format; a sure-fire way to begin a plot-driven novel on the back foot. The letters from Walton to his sister require a not-inconsiderable measure of padding to maintain their authenticity, which nonetheless remains punctured by unrealistic exposition of obvious information. Readers should be able to plough through to the start of the real story without too much trouble, and will be relieved to find the plot moving along more quickly – until the idyllic perfection of Frankenstein’s childhood begins to wear irritatingly thin. The writing style, while always eloquent, is incredibly overblown, and careers without rest from nauseating utopia to risible melodrama.

It is in the dialogue of the creature itself that the novel reveals its strongest writing; not only thought provoking, but deliciously quotable as well. When the book switches to the creature’s point of view, we dare to hope that his more tempered narration may do his fascinating and emotive tale justice – and for a while, it does. Before long, however, Shelley’s melodramatic routine is re-established: one paragraph of substance is followed by three paragraphs of Victor’s feelings about it, and perhaps a description or two of the weather, which, infuriatingly, commands enough attention to be considered a minor character. Since there are only so many ways one can feel morose or woebegone or depressed, we find ourselves treading the same ground over and over, while the parts of the story that might make for the most interesting narrative meat – the creature’s construction, the saving of a drowning girl, Victor and Elizabeth’s wedding – are reduced to a few lines each. The realism, though thin in places, manages to stay intact, until Victor, out of the blue, decides to take a nap in his sailboat four miles off the Scottish coast at three in the morning when the breeze is rising, and winds up in Ireland.

Why has this story been adapted so endlessly? Because if you unwrap the essence of Frankenstein and throw away the prose, you are left with something truly special. In its original form, however, this story is bearable at best. Read at your own peril.

The Memory Room - Christopher Koch

2009-08-30T12:30:00.000+09:30

Title: The Memory Room
Author: Christopher Koch
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 432
Published: 2007

After years abroad as a foreign affairs worker, Derek Bradley has finally returned to Hobart where, as a university student, he met his lifelong friend Vincent Austin. In light of his own disappearance, Vincent has asked Bradley to visit his home in New Town and sort through the personal effects in his ‘Secret Room’: a childhood sanctum of obsessions and memories. As Bradley settles in to read Vincent’s diaries, an undiscovered dimension of his friend’s life begins to unfold around him, mingling with his own recollections to weave a tale of espionage, passion and inevitable loss. With these diaries, Bradley will trace Austin’s career as an intelligence officer back to its very roots, and perhaps even draw some meaning from his accumulated memories.

Christopher Koch’s The Memory Room is a peculiar creature of a novel. As its winding plot moves through memory after memory, one comes to realise just how appropriate its title is. Seen from a distance, it might reasonably be described as epic; the stories of its three protagonists span half a lifetime, spent in several different countries alongside a myriad of supporting characters. It is tempting at times to categorise it as an intimate study of these three individuals – but this would account for only a third of the book’s material, failing to recognise the equal weight given to the setting itself. Then there are the political discussions, interwoven throughout the novel as though the idea of their absence would be inherently absurd. Koch has created, in equal parts, a study of person, politics and place: three elements that coexist without detracting from each other, and, at times, without really supporting each other either.

Though each reader will be drawn to different aspects of The Memory Room, it is fair to highlight Koch’s characters as the novel’s strong point. Much of this book’s quietly engrossing power is due to the appeal of Erika Berger: erotic, volatile and beautifully complex. Far from progressing with the flow of the story, she seems to begin as a child in control and unravel before the reader’s fascinated eyes. Though her unpredictability is threatened by Koch’s sheer exposure of her, she still far eclipses her two male counterparts, even making Bradley seem flat at times.

As for place; it is hard not to be impressed by Koch’s evocation of Australian cities. He has a remarkable talent for turning familiar places into the landscapes of some lavish fictionalised world, endowing them with the kind of atmospheres only read about in novels. His descriptions will impress older, worldlier readers more so than younger ones, as will his frequent exploration of highbrow political ideas and events. For those uninterested in politics, these sections do little more than distend and hamper the novel.

It is not difficult to see how Koch won the Miles Franklin Award – the quality of his writing is undeniable – but The Memory Room’s readability is somewhat impeded by its breadth. Only a reader with Koch’s exact interests will appreciate every part of it.

Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson

2009-07-21T12:28:00.000+09:30

Title: Snow Falling on Cedars
Author: David Guterson
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 404
Published: 1994

On the 16th of September, 1954, Carl Heine is found dead in the nets of his own fishing boat, drifting near the shores of San Piedro island. At first, his death appears to be an accident, but further investigation leads to San Piedro’s first murder trial in decades. The accused, Kabuo Miyamoto, is an islander of Japanese descent, hardened by his military service against the very country to which his family belongs. Even this show of loyalty, however, will not save him from the islanders’ prejudice and mistrust. As the trial unfolds, so does San Piedro’s history – a history marked by lingering racial tension and injustice.

David Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars is as riveting as its title implies. It contains lots of snow. It contains lots of cedar trees. It is filled with symbolism, rich descriptions of the natural world, gently explored themes and patiently rendered characters. As beautiful as an island snowfall is, however, no sane person would stand and watch one for hours on end – and this, it seems, is what Guterson expects his readers to do. With a measured style that borders dangerously on monotony, he insists upon his audience wading through page after page of detail and description, offering little in return for their efforts but the consistently high quality of his language. Any suspense or pace which might have accompanied this murder mystery are utterly drained. By halfway through the novel, the reader will have lost any desire to know who actually killed Carl Heine.

Perhaps if this book had been three hundred pages or less, it would have been acceptable. Stretched as they are, however, over four hundred densely-packed pages, the fruits of Guterson’s labour are soured by a feeling of self-indulgence, and eventually wither from remaining too long on the vine. For four hundred pages, Guterson takes his reader for granted, and the result is a wholly unsatisfying epic; vivid enough, but easily forgettable.

As the reader tires, so do many of Guterson’s ideas and techniques. His exploration of racism covers little ground not already trod by Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird. Even the character of Judge Lew Fielding seems to have been cloned (with a measure of unconvincing tweaking) from Lee’s judge, John Taylor. The courtroom theatrics, while they may be the most readable parts of the book, are annoyingly incongruous; they would feel much more at home in a John Grisham novel than in Guterson’s scrupulously realistic world. The final chapter, while preserving that realism, manages to be both insubstantial and anticlimactic, foregoing any real resolution in favour of a vaguely uplifting moral.

Who has time for Snow Falling on Cedars? Certainly not me, and probably not you, either. If there truly is a moral to this story, it is this: nothing ruins good writing like too much good writing.

The Household Guide to Dying - Debra Adelaide

2009-07-04T12:21:00.000+09:30

Title: The Household Guide to Dying
Author: Debra Adelaide
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 386
Published: 2008

Delia Bennet, domestic advice columnist and author of the bestselling Household Guides series, is entering the final stages of terminal cancer. As a mother of two young girls, she is accustomed to being constantly occupied with a myriad of household tasks – all of which she performs to the highest standards – and death is no reason to diminish her workload. Determined to go down writing, she lays out the plans for The Household Guide to Dying: a book to guide the dying person (and their family) through all aspects of mortality, from purchasing a coffin to tying up any remaining loose ends. She soon realises, however, that before she can advise her readers on finding closure, she has some unfinished business from her own past to resolve.

I was quite amused when I saw the American cover for The Household Guide to Dying on the Internet. Debra Adelaide’s publishers, apparently out of fear that the title might put readers off, have added the cheery caption ‘A novel about life’ to counteract the macabre subject matter. The novel does, indeed, begin softly enough, as our narrator’s particular but gentle voice guides us through a visit to the family chickens. Adelaide, however, makes no attempt to hide the awful truth, which strikes without warning or euphemism, just as it did for Delia Bennet. While the writing may flow easily from page to page, with engaging personality and enjoyable wit, there are a number of quite confronting passages to remind us that death is by no means an easy subject. Like Delia, readers will have to accept that.

It is fortunate, then, that their guide to the ups and downs of dying is perfect for the task. Our picture of Delia does not form immediately, but Adelaide’s characterisation rings true throughout, creating a slightly obsessive, wry but still tender and very human narrator. As the quintessential Australian superwoman, she will have mothers across the country laughing and nodding in unison at her anecdotes of household chaos. These priceless passages are interspersed through chapters of reflection and storytelling, as three different time periods in Delia’s life run simultaneously, each contributing to the others and helping to balance life and death, humour and heartbreak. Then there are Delia’s written admonishments of hapless letter-writers, and the no-nonsense passages from her Household Guides, indicative perhaps of her meticulous personality, or perhaps of the professional façade she creates.

With its many narrative techniques, its control, its dignity and authenticity, Adelaide’s writing is a worthy addition to modern Australian literature. My sole criticism is for the lack of quotation marks, which hovers initially on the verge of pretentiousness, but is easily accommodated once the novel has gained some momentum. It is a thoroughly well-constructed look at a difficult subject, and one which never reduces itself to excessive or contrived sentimentality. Not too sickly, not too bleak – the balance, I think, is perfect.

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

2009-07-02T12:24:00.000+09:30

Title: Lord of the Flies
Author: William Golding
Genre: Classic
Pages: 288
Published: 1954

On a seemingly idyllic tropical island, a band of English schoolboys – survivors of an attack on their aeroplane – have become stranded. After their initial excitement at the rich, isolated surroundings, they realise that if they are to be found and rescued, they must build and sustain a signal fire to attract passing ships. Even this small task, however, may prove too difficult. As the boys succumb to the lures of exploring, playing and hunting, their hastily imposed government begins to fragment and fail. They become convinced that a fearsome beast inhabits the island – but few of them realise that the greatest dangers they face are, in fact, each other.

I am at a loss to explain how I made it through my secondary schooling without having Lord of the Flies handed to me by a single English teacher. Perhaps they all assumed I had read it? There does indeed seem to be a sort of automatic reverence for this novel, with its ability to lift the curtain on the ‘darkness of man’s heart’. My central criterion, therefore, from the moment I turned the first page, was ‘How well does Golding convince me of his scenario?’ In other words, how completely does he maintain the realism necessary to generalise his ‘moral’ to all men, everywhere? The answer: I am almost convinced.

I say ‘almost’ for a reason. From the moment Golding’s characters are introduced, they have the feel of stereotypes. Ralph the rebellious and daring protagonist, Piggy the overweight, visually impaired, asthmatic nerd who eats ‘ever so many sweets’, (a line that Golding’s editor should have scratched without a moment’s hesitation,) and, of course, Jack, the bombastic prefect. As the novel progresses and the characters become more familiar, the authenticity does improve, but there are still occasional moments where Golding oversteps and pulls free from realism rather than leading it along gently; for example, Ralph’s inability to remember the importance of the fire. To compound this, the writing has inevitably dated. Readers of fifty years ago might not have batted an eyelid at the bigoted similarities between Golding’s savages and the Native American peoples, but the readers of today certainly will.

That said, the quality of the writing is generally very high. Golding’s evocation of the island in all its humours is particularly skilful, as are his breadth of symbols and his subtle replacing of names to indicate the boys’ changing attitudes. His depiction of group psychology, though overly blunt at times, is interesting, and his exploration of the nature of power, in all its capriciousness and fragility, is a definite highlight. Between this richness and the reasonably brisk pace, Lord of the Flies might almost be called a gripping and absorbing read.

So, considering that this novel is almost convincing and almost a page-turner, I might almost recommend it. Almost.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

2009-06-28T12:17:00.000+09:30

Title: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Author: Stieg Larsson
Pages: 533
Genre: Crime
Published: 2005

Mikael Blomkvist, financial journalist and co-editor of Millennium magazine, has been sentenced to three months in jail for libel. He knows that his claims against businessman Hans-Erik Wennerström were accurate, but without the sources he needs, he can prove nothing. As Millennium struggles against the media backlash, Blomkvist is contacted by one Henrik Vanger, an industrialist who claims to have valuable evidence against Wennerström. In exchange, he wants Blomkvist to solve a seemingly unsolvable mystery: the disappearance of his great-niece, Harriet Vanger, in 1966. Under the guise of writing a family chronicle, Blomkvist begins to dig through files and photographs in search of the murderer, but soon becomes embroiled in more hidden conflicts than he had bargained for.

I’ll come straight out and say it: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is not worth the hype. Five million copies sold worldwide. Weeks on the Australian bestseller list. Critics raving and readers dashing out to buy the sequel. From all the press and publicity, one easily forms the idea that Larsson’s posthumously-published debut is a rip-roaring, page-turning, life-absorbing murder mystery. My favourite piece of praise so far, courtesy of Ali Karim of Shotsmag, reads, “This book took over my life the moment I cracked its spine.” Why is it my favourite? Because it’s so deceptively true. ‘Spine-cracking’ does not occur until halfway through a book – hence the attractive crease that runs down the middle of so many novels’ spines. Likewise, it is not until halfway through this book that any of the hype will begin to be justified. Until then, readers will be left thumbing bemusedly through pages, wondering, ‘Where’s my thriller?’

The fact of the matter is that this book begins on page 265. My sincere advice is to skip the entire first half of the novel – find a friend who can summarize it for you – and begin at that point. Up until page 265, hardly anything happens. It takes over a hundred pages for the investigation to even begin. The only interesting character is Salander; most of the others are merely detestable. The writing flows well enough, but the task of memorising so many Swedish names and family relations soon takes its toll, as does the rather graphic sexual violence.

Then, from page 265 onwards, everything happens. Without a doubt, it is for this half of the novel that Larsson has been eulogised by critics worldwide. The writing is every bit as absorbing, unpredictable and deliciously clever as the publicity would have you believe – but it all comes too late. To ruin 250 pages of compelling brilliance by preceding it with the same amount of tedious dawdling is unforgivable. Perhaps if Larsson had been alive for the editing process, his first novel might have been trimmed down to size. Perhaps the translator could have made some cuts here and there. Perhaps he could also have reworked the Australian dialogue, which, having been written in Swedish and translated into English, did not sound very Australian at all. Then again, perhaps it’s just my personal dislike of crime fiction. But one thing I know for certain: I will not be reading the sequel.

Nausea - Jean-Paul Sartre

2009-05-30T12:43:00.002+09:30

Title: Nausea
Author: Jean-Paul Sartre
Genre: Classic
Pages: 253
Published: 1938

How do you reconcile your own existence in a world without meaning or purpose? With the decline of religion in a modern world, it is a question that many non-believers will find themselves asking – and some may find answers in Nausea, an undisputed classic of modern philosophical fiction.

From atheism springs existentialism – the philosophical movement led by 20th-century French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre – and from existentialism springs Nausea, Sartre’s first major exploration of the ideas he became famous for. It takes the form of a diary; fittingly, a journal of philosophical ideas and their effects on the philosopher who realises them. As Sartre’s prose unfolds – at times measured and sure, at times frantic and epiphanic – we begin to build a picture of the novel’s protagonist, Antoine Roquentin, a historian living alone in the town of Bouville. He dines at the Café Mably, researches the Marquis de Rollebon at the library with his friend the Autodidact, observes his fellow citizens and reminisces about his past. The details of Roquentin’s life, however, are deliberately unimportant; as Sartre’s creation, he serves to explore ideas which are much more universal.

Roquentin suffers from attacks of what he calls ‘Nausea’ – a crippling sense of the utter superfluity and randomness of himself and the world around him. It is out of laziness, Roquentin supposes, that the world looks the same day after day. His world is one without order or rules, where anything could happen at any time. Turning his attention to the people around him, he analyses the myriad of meaningless constructs that humans create to facilitate a comfortable illusion of order and continuity. Past, future, memory, progress, wisdom, adventure . . . as these constructs fall away from him, one by one, the knowledge of his own unmitigated existence drives him slowly insane.

Nausea, then, is not only an exploration of Sartre’s existentialist ideas. It is a cautionary tale for would-be philosophers. Perhaps it is better, Sartre acknowledges, to be ignorant and happy, like the young people the Autodidact sees admiring paintings without any idea of their meaning, and appearing to enjoy themselves regardless. They must have been pretending, responds Roquentin – an injection of Sartre’s own dry, self-mocking wit.

Indeed, the debilitating angst of Nausea begs an inevitable question of the reader: how is it that these can be Sartre’s thoughts, Sartre’s beliefs, when Sartre himself was neither mad nor depressed? The novel carries all the marks of Sartre’s life and work. Its ideas are those of his later philosophical treatise, Being and Nothingness. Its port-town setting is strongly reminiscent of Le Havre in Haute-Normandie, where Sartre wrote Nausea in 1938. Connections can be spotted, here and there, between the novel and Sartre’s life – like the Autodidact, for example, Sartre spent time as a prisoner of war in Germany. Long passages of the novel are devoted to mocking and criticising the constructions and trivialities of bourgeois life, in accordance with the beliefs that led Sartre to decline the Nobel Prize for Literature when it was offered to him in 1964. (These passages form the most uninteresting sections of the novel, as the insipidity of bourgeois life threatens to carry over to Sartre’s prolix discussions of it.)

Yet, for all his links with the tormented Roquentin, Sartre remained content with his life to the end. In his own words: The only thing that I truly like to do is to be at my desk and write, especially about philosophy. Philosophy for him was not a source of angst, but a source of enjoyment. How did Sartre alleviate the pain of his own existence?

The answers may perhaps be found in the final few pages of Nausea, when the novel justifies not only Roquentin’s existence, but also its own. As he listens to his favourite record for the last time, Roquentin is struck by the permanence of the melody, which does not, in itself, exist, but which nonetheless endures, even despite the scratches on the vinyl. Through their creation of music, Roquentin realises, the composer and singer have cleansed themselves of the sin of existing. Inspired, he resolves to do the same by writing a novel, which will be beautiful and hard as steel and make people ashamed of their existence: the same novel that the reader now holds.

After all, what is literature but a medium for conveying ideas? Long after Sartre’s death in 1980, the ideas he conveyed will live on, and this is his justification for existing. Perhaps, then, Roquentin is not so far removed from Sartre after all. It is philosophy that has awakened him to reality, philosophy that has brought his world crashing down around him, and philosophy that will ultimately save him.

The Accidental Sorcerer - K.E. Mills

2009-03-24T12:12:00.000+10:30

Title: The Accidental Sorcerer
Author: K.E. Mills
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 442
Published: 2008

When Third-Grade wizard Gerald Dunwoody manages to turn a routine safety inspection into a three-mile-wide thaumaturgical explosion, he finds himself out of a job and virtually unemployable. At the encouragement of his best friend, Monk Markham, Gerald applies for a ‘no experience necessary’ position as Royal Court Wizard of New Ottosland, and is quickly hired by the colony’s flustered Prime Minister, Princess Melissande. It soon becomes clear, however, that Gerald may have bitten off more than he can chew. New Ottosland stands on the brink of financial ruin and a religious war – and King Lional’s grand ‘plans’ are about to make matters even worse.

One of the unfortunate truths of reading is that every reader will open a book with certain expectations as to what they are about to experience – expectations unavoidably communicated by the title, cover, blurb and any attached criticism. In the case of K.E. Mills’ The Accidental Sorcerer, my expectations were the result of a relatively solemn and dramatic blurb and cover, and a tacky sticker reading, ‘Hot Explosive Magic: $24.99’. Alas – if only this book had been marketed more perceptively. The Accidental Sorcerer is indeed a thoroughly enjoyable novel, though for completely different reasons than those indicated by the cover. Mills’ omnipresent sense of humour makes this book a wry delight; a stylistically exaggerated romp through a world of deliciously absurd characters. The slight melodrama may grate somewhat at first, (along with the missing commas here and there,) but once the reader opens up to Mills’ particularly verbose brand of nonsense, they are indeed in for a treat.

The dialogue is perhaps the best part of the novel – it charms and delights and screams to be read aloud. Had my family walked in on me reading this book, they might well have found me heartily vocalising Mills’ conversations, complete with silly voices and the appropriate measure of theatrical vehemence. It is this same dialogue which helps to make the novel so pleasantly readable. As other critics have already noted, there is more than a touch of Harry Potter about this witty, wizarding tale of good versus evil, and it will appeal to many of the same readers that Rowling’s books did.

It seems, however, that all good things must come to an end, including the lighthearted fun of The Accidental Sorcerer, which deteriorates somewhat during the latter half of the novel. As the plot takes a turn for the more tense, this book begins to take itself too seriously, and, as a result, falls just short of the maturity and realism which its audience must expect from a serious novel. It is by no means poorly written – but Mills’ flair for witty melodrama can seem a little out of place in her own deadly world of ‘Hot Explosive Magic’.

As a gripping tale of wizarding adventure, The Accidental Sorcerer is satisfactory. As a humorous tale of wizarding mishap, it is highly entertaining. I will certainly be reading the sequel as soon as I can lay my hands on it.

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

2009-02-23T19:27:00.000+10:30

Title: Never Let Me Go

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 282

Published: 2005

At the age of thirty-one, Kathy H. is coming to the end of her time as a carer – a milestone that prompts her to reflect on her unusual life. She begins, naturally, with her childhood at Hailsham, where she and her friends Kathy and Tommy negotiated the lessons and Exchanges set by their guardians, as well as the constant social pressures of school life. As her recollections progress, however, Kathy must take care not to delve too deeply into the tangled knot of her own emotions. The past holds no refuge for her; even since childhood, the knowledge of what the future holds has always been there, deep down – and some truths are too terrible to be confronted.

The title may seem odd at first, but as Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go unfurls its scrupulously guarded secrets, one comes to realise just how appropriate it is. Softly, subtly, the writing insinuates itself into the reader's mind, where it becomes something far greater than the sum of its quiet memories and musings. It is not until one sets Kathy's tale aside for a moment that one begins to appreciate the essence of this exquisite novel – and with this inevitable reflection comes the awareness that Never Let Me Go has indeed clung, with silent tenacity, to the innermost depths of the mind. Through every paragraph of every chapter, Ishiguro considers the input of his reader, and constructs his prose accordingly, exercising the utmost control. He considers how we will react, what we will feel, and how complete a picture of his world we will build from the information that he has given us. As though communicating on a subconscious level, he is able to plant knowledge, emotion and understanding without overtly communicating any of these things. Through subtle implication, repetition, withholding of information and a constant repression of the truth, this novel delivers a lingering and ultimately heartbreaking impact.

Though all the stages of life are dealt with in turn, it is the deconstruction of Ishiguro's characters, and therefore the deconstruction of the human mind itself, that forms the heart of this novel. The subject matter may lean towards science fiction, but the author's approach refuses to follow; the humanity of his protagonists is never called into question for a moment. They are simply too real for that. Such is the perceptiveness and complexity with which he brings them to life that all of us will find something of ourselves in them, and ultimately feel the atrocity of the wrong done to them with profound intensity.

Indeed, it is perhaps Ishiguro's refusal to examine the mechanics of his scenario – his persistent focus on its human, emotional aspects – that make the novel so universally engaging. It is a study of humanity that seems, itself, to be human; a portrait of repression that is, itself, repressed; a tale of careful avoidance that carefully avoids its own ideas. It is a novel realised through memories and feelings that is utterly memorable and heartfelt – and, as the title promises, its resonating after-effects will never quite let you go.

The Declaration - Gemma Malley

2009-02-17T10:05:00.000+10:30

Title: The Declaration
Author: Gemma Malley
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 301
Published: 2007

Anna does not have a last name. She has no right to one. She is Surplus – an unwanted burden on fragile Mother Nature; a child born after the Declaration which outlawed all children to control the rising human population. The most she can hope for in life is to Know Her Place and be a Valuable Asset to Legal humans, who stave off mortality with daily doses of Longevity drugs. At age fourteen, she has learned to accept her bleak fate – but then Surplus Peter arrives at Grange Hall, and turns her world upside down. Peter refuses to accept that he is Surplus. He insists that Anna has a family – and he plans to escape from Grange Hall to reunite her with them.

When it comes to compelling, thought-provoking fiction, few genres provide more fertile ground than dystopia. Like all dystopian novels, Gemma Malley's The Declaration starts with a simple 'what if?' – 'What if modern medicine advanced to a point where adults lived forever and children had to be outlawed?' – and explodes from there. Thus begins an absorbing and hard-hitting thought experiment which blends close, unflinching drama with big-picture philosophy. For a novel targeted at young adults, The Declaration certainly asks some very big questions – chief among which is that of how conflicting human rights can be weighed against each other. When push comes to shove, who is more deserving of life? How should we deal with those we deem to be less deserving? Perhaps the most chilling aspect of Malley's dystopia is its plausibility. Not only does it evoke connections with some dark moments in our history, but it also capitalises on dilemmas of our fast-approaching future to which there are, as yet, no clear-cut answers.

The plot and characters which support the thought experiment are equally well-drawn. The Declaration works on multiple levels; quite apart from its philosophical prowess, it functions beautifully as a young girl's tale of coming to terms with her own self-worth. Anna's personal journey from institutionalisation to independence is both absorbing and moving, and snatches of it are often reflected in the other, less central characters. The environment of Grange Hall is evocatively rendered and often confronting, particularly the Surplus children's treatment of each other, which speaks volumes about their own emotional states.

While it may be an impressive debut novel, however, The Declaration is a debut novel nonetheless, and the prose does suffer at times from what is probably a lack of experience. The style suggests a somewhat younger audience than the content, and there is a touch of the annoyingly melodramatic about the writing in places – flaws which will no doubt be improved upon in Malley's second novel, The Resistance.

Though not quite perfect, The Declaration is certainly memorable – a powerful and well-constructed novel that will spark many a lively discussion. Definitely a recommended read.

Of Love and Shadows - Isabel Allende

2009-02-03T16:18:00.000+10:30

Title: Of Love and Shadows
Author: Isabel Allende
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 298
Published: 1987

Irene Beltràn is no stranger to risk. As a freethinking journalist in a South American dictatorship, she must be prepared for encounters with the long arm of the military, which can strike anywhere, without warning and seemingly without reason. When she and her photographer, Fransisco Leal, visit a poverty-stricken family to witness the miracles their daughter can supposedly perform, the only miracle they encounter is one of rare defiance. The girl soon joins a hopelessly long list of desaparecidas, and her powerless family begin to lose hope of ever finding her. Emboldened by their growing love for each other, Irene and Fransisco set out to investigate the root of these terrible crimes – and stumble upon secrets that will shake the foundations of their country.

Imagine that you have been invited to a dinner party in a different country. You are not acquainted with any of the guests, but, upon arriving, you find them to be a most diverse and lively group, encompassing rich and poor, young and old, lovable and detestable. You seat yourself at the table among them and for hours they make conversation with you, allowing you intimate glimpses into their innermost secrets, fears and desires. Eventually, once night has long since fallen and you have begun to yawn and glance at your watch, your hostess finally remembers her obligation to provide some sort of food, and rustles up a brief, unremark-able meal before bidding you all goodnight. Imagine all of this, and you will have some idea what it is like to read Isabel Allende's Of Love and Shadows, which is all very well and good – if you like that sort of thing.

The book begins well enough, introducing a rich cast of characters and painting a lifelike picture of a South American dictatorship. The promising orientation is carried out with care and perceptiveness, delving deep into the lives of the characters and fleshing out their personalities convincingly. This, however, is about far as Allende goes towards writing a novel. It soon becomes clear that Of Love and Shadows is firmly stuck in orientation mode, and intent on staying there for nearly two hundred pages. In the absence of a plot, the novel languishes and meanders aimlessly through page after page of text, in thick, merciless slabs which are sure to try the patience of even the most resolute readers.

By the time the plot finally kicked in, it was too late. I had been switched off so completely that nothing Allende wrote could switch me back on again. I cannot fault the quality of the writing, (apart from the occasional paragraph of florid melodrama,) but reading it was still like wading through treacle, counting down the pages until I could move on and read something else!

If you can derive enjoyment from endless anecdotes and character descriptions, then congratulations; you are much more patient than I. If, on the other hand, you prefer books with storylines, then take my advice: steer well clear of Of Love and Shadows.

Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer

2009-01-24T08:42:00.000+10:30

Title: Eclipse
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 628
Published: 2007

Bella Swan's days as a mortal are numbered, and her troubles are rapidly multiplying. While she may have welcomed Edward Cullen back into her life with open arms, her father has not been so gracious. Neither has Jacob Black, whose family are the sworn enemies of Edward's kind. As Bella struggles to reconcile her vampiric future with the remains of her human life, a more sinister threat builds in nearby Seattle, and a familiar foe seeks her long-overdue revenge. Caught in the midst of a tangled web of conflict, Bella must prepare herself for the loss, in one way or another, of the people she loves.

It is by now a well-known and widely accepted fact that Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series is complete trash. With over 42 million Twilight books sold worldwide and counting, it seems that any further popularity will only strengthen this evaluation, since trashy books are, by definition, exceedingly popular. 'Trashy', it seems, is a term used to describe fiction which, despite being of low literary quality, is particularly readable or addictive. Amusingly enough, it is a term used mostly as a disclaimer: "Yes, I'm reading that Eclipse book – but don't think any less of me; I know it's just trash!" A word to critics: tell yourself it's trash if it makes you feel better about yourself. That won't stop you from devouring Eclipse uncontrollably in long, greedy sittings. Like it's predecessors, this book is ridiculously readable. Its 600-page bulk will melt away in your hands and leave you ready for more, and, if you pride yourself on your good taste in fiction, quietly aghast at yourself for it.

If there were a prize for stretching the least amount of plot into the longest possible novel, then Eclipse would be a shoe-in. Between pages and pages of unhurried dialogue, readers are treated to back-stories for Rosalie, Jasper and the Quileute werewolves. (Back-stories, I might add, in which Meyer demonstrates her decidedly irksome habit of using direct speech within direct speech!) Eclipse's languid style is often reminiscent of a soap opera. Through regular scenes of conversation, we are constantly made aware of how each character feels about the transpiring events – which is, of course, entirely appropriate. It may have scenes of action, but this book is a romance novel at heart. Feelings are what really count.

Indeed, it is perhaps Meyer's feelings about her writing that make the Twilight saga what it is. Hundreds of authors worldwide set out to write 'trashy' novels with the same compulsive readability, and yet none of them wind up with the legions of hysterical fans that Meyer now commands. The difference? Stephenie Meyer believes wholeheartedly that she is writing an epic tale of singular passion and significance. Perhaps it is this depth of feeling that brings Meyer's world so absorbingly to life, thus saving it from the fate of so many Mills and Boon romance novels. One thing is certain: as far as 'trash' goes, it doesn't get much better than this.

The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness

2009-01-18T16:13:00.000+10:30

Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go
Author: Patrick Ness
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 479
Published: 2008

Todd Hewitt has never known the sound of true silence. In Prentisstown, where he lives with his adopted fathers, the thoughts of every man spill forth into the stifling mass of Noise from which nobody can escape. All of the town's women have long since been killed by the Noise germ, and, one by one, all of the remaining boys have become men. Todd has been counting the days until he turns thirteen and joins them – but when he finds a patch of complete silence in the woods next to the village, his world is turned upside down. He is about to find out just how much he has been lied to – and when he does, he will have to run for his life.

With its edgy, striking cover art and scrawled mess of blood-red writing, Patrick Ness' The Knife of Never Letting Go is a book that promises its reader something different – something beyond the level of ordinary fiction. On that promise, it delivers. Creative, original and unconventionally brilliant, this book is a rare marriage of readability and depth; a novel that grabs the attention and refuses to let go. Ness takes an absorbing premise and executes it masterfully, revealing his unique dystopia bit by compelling bit. Elements are incorporated here from numerous genres, creating a novel that defies categorisation. One might call it science fiction, but its tone is like no other science fiction novel I know of. Likewise with ideas – this book has them in spades, refusing to let itself go stale by advancing only one or two.

Perhaps this book's greatest strength, however, is the way in which the stream-of-consciousness prose serves the story. What better way to introduce the concept of Noise than to give the reader Todd's unedited Noise in writing? Ness' raw, high-impact narration may take a little getting used to, but it soon proves the perfect vehicle to transport its audience completely into Todd's mind. His use of varying fonts is particularly effective, as is his superbly unconventional paragraphing. There are moments where Todd's tension and panic break free from the page and flow directly into the reader, creating some of the most powerful and absorbing scenes I have ever had the pleasure of reading. It is one thing to say that a novel has 'edge-of-your-seat' action, but quite another to be literally on the edge of your seat, frantically turning pages.

For some readers, Ness' abrupt cliffhanger ending may sour the novel – but this is very much a matter of personal taste, and a small price to pay for the promise of two more books of (hopefully) equal quality. Answers may be withheld, but there is still substance enough here to fuel a thrilling, emotionally charged, coming-of-age death race across themes of choice, religion and morality. I can certainly see myself rereading this book, and getting even more out of it than I already have.

If you are a teenager or young adult who doesn't mind a little violence, read this book. My thanks to the judges of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for an outstanding choice.

New Moon - Stephenie Meyer

2009-01-13T09:33:00.000+10:30

Title: New Moon
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 563
Published: 2006

Bella Swan has been dreading her eighteenth birthday; the day she turns one year older than the immortal love of her life, Edward Cullen. Human and fragile, Bella longs to become a vampire so that she may live forever with Edward – but he is determined that she should live a normal, untainted life. When a surprise birthday celebration for Bella ends in near disaster, Edward sees no option but to remove himself from her life completely, leaving her broken and aimless. Desperate to quell the pain of her loss, Bella turns to a forgotten family friend for help – and unwittingly places herself in even more danger than before.

Stephenie Meyer wowed the world when she spent 400 pages explaining to millions of enraptured teenage girls that Edward Cullen was simply too good to be true. It seems only reasonable, then, that the next logical step is to prove it by taking him away. New Moon, the second book in Meyer's mega-selling Twilight series, is probably the most popular teenage melodrama ever written – and I do not use the word 'melodrama' lightly. Since losing one's gorgeous vampire boyfriend is the worst thing that could possibly happen to a girl, comparatively insignificant issues such as death, alienation and suicide can be bandied about with casual indifference – and they are. It may sound like a lot of histrionic silliness, but once Meyer's readers have been swept up in her earnestly romantic prose, talk of dying for love will seem like the most reasonable thing in the world.

Twilight may have had its flaws, but in light of sheer readability, they were easy enough to overlook. A word of caution, then, to more analytical readers – New Moon's flaws are somewhat more insistent. The translation of Bella's emotional pain to physical pain is overstated enough to stretch the bounds of realism. Readers will have to wade through pages and pages of annoyingly Freudian suffering before Bella finally takes some initiative, and even then, there are significant motivational issues surrounding her actions. Perhaps worst of all is Bella's refusal to accept that Edward actually loves her, which goes from niggling to outright unrealistic to seriously annoying. For some readers, these flaws will be enough to spoil the novel. For many, ignoring them will require some effort.

Of course, none of this puts a dent in the fact that New Moon, like its predecessor, is utterly, irresistibly readable. Flaws or no flaws, this book will make astonishingly short work of your spare time. Meyer's feelings for her characters shine contagiously through the writing, and it is difficult not to devour the direct speech that sustains the greater part of the novel. As for the rest of it; fans will be pleased to discover that Meyer has not lost her gift for edge-of-your-seat suspense – and for those who know their Shakespeare, there are some especially satisfying twists thrown in.

From a critical perspective, New Moon is perhaps the weakest instalment in its series – but it's utterly compulsive reading all the same. Busy readers beware.

Berserk - Ally Kennen

2009-01-07T11:11:00.000+10:30

Title: Berserk
Author: Ally Kennen
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 312
Published: 2007

Fifteen-year-old Chas Parsons has a history of being on the wrong side of the law – but that's not why he wrote to a convicted murderer on death row. He just thought it would be funny to have a pen friend who had drowned a boy his age, not far from his own hometown. The joke ends abruptly, however, when a lorry-jacking jaunt lands Chas behind bars in a young offenders institute, and his new 'friend' is acquitted and released from maximum-security prison. Powerless and isolated, Chas must somehow convince his family that mum's new boyfriend is a dangerous criminal – before he exacts his terrible revenge.

Opening Ally Kennen's Berserk is a little like jumping into a freezing-cold river. From the very first page, the writing positively assaults you. The brisk, stream-of-consciousness-style prose is somewhat reminiscent of Paul Jennings – but with ADHD and without the descriptive language. Like a freezing-cold river, however, you eventually get used to it. Kennen takes advantage of Chas' conversational narration to keep the pace of the novel up, jumping from scene to scene with refreshing impatience. There are places where she fast-forwards as much as two weeks without even starting a new paragraph; perfect for a target audience of reluctant male readers around Chas' age. Kennen seems intent on pulling in the crowd who would much rather watch an action movie than read a 'boring' book, not only with her writing, but also with her choice of story.

Berserk's jacket is cleverly designed to communicate the key plot details as quickly as possible, to entice browsers to stop and read a few pages. Readers will be disappointed, therefore, to find that Kennen's killer premise (pardon the pun) plays a comparatively minor role for most of the novel. Berserk is not really a thriller – if anything, it feels more like an exposé on the harmful effects of prison life on the troubled youth of today. Our protagonist spends quite a lot of the novel incarcerated, which, plot-wise, doesn't amount to much. It would not surprise me if most of the targeted teenagers read less than half of this book before getting sick of waiting for the promised psycho-murderer mayhem, and throwing it away.

Berserk's main attribute, then, becomes its ability to empathise with its audience – which, truth be told, is not all that impressive. Kennen demonstrates only a blunt understanding of the workings of a teenage boy's mind. Chas has his moments of realism, but they are equalled (if not outweighed) by Kennen's mistakes; moments where Chas' thoughts or remarks are grounded in the wrong age group, or even the wrong gender.

Berserk may have some enjoyably tense and gripping scenes, but they come too late to turn this story into the thriller it purports to be. It's not a bad book, but it would be far from my first choice for a reluctant teenage reader.

'Salem's Lot - Stephen King

2009-01-05T18:30:00.003+10:30

Title: 'Salem's Lot
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Horror
Pages: 601
Published: 1975

All the citizens of Jerusalem's Lot have their dirty little secrets – some of them not so secret, thanks to the constant web of gossip that spans the small Maine town. The story of the Marsten House – an abandoned mansion that looms over the Lot – has been told countless times since its owner's grisly death in 1939. Benjamin Mears has never quite recovered from the childhood nightmare he faced in that house – so when he returns to the Lot as an adult to confront his fears, he is perturbed to find the house occupied once more. Before long, the steady, stagnant evil of the Lot will be supplanted by a much older evil – one that ventures out each night to quench its thirst for fresh blood.

Book-lovers, be afraid. The time of the vampire is at hand. These days, one needs only to walk into a bookshop to be practically assaulted by them – and yet, most of today's vampires are hardly vampires at all. Edward Cullen, for example, doesn't have fangs, doesn't drink human blood, and likes sunlight so much that he positively sparkles in it. To find traditional vampires, one has to return to the roots of vampire fiction, and 'Salem's Lot is undeniably among those roots. Granted, there are clichés aplenty here – King's splashing around of holy water is especially Hollywood-esque – but there's something to be said for a novel that wears its clichés so unabashedly, as if to say, "Baby, I'm a classic. I invented the entire holy water thing."

There's not much to this story, really. Vampire moves into a small country town and turns it into an outpost of the undead – not complex, not new. 'Salem's Lot is essentially a disaster novel. We all know how it will end; it's the telling of the tale that captures our attention – and who better to tell a horror story than Stephen King? The darker scenes radiate a palpable tension, and when the climaxes hit, they hit hard. There are some powerful moments here – images that will stay with readers long after they turn the final page – embedded in a protracted but reasonably pacy slab of prose. The only drawback is that readers will have to wade through the first third of the novel before the story really takes off.

Tedious though it may be, however, King's scene-setting is (generally) essential to one of his novel's strongest attributes: its ability to transcend its genre and be more than just a horror flick in print. 'Salem's Lot is an investigation into the very nature of evil itself. King fleshes out a powerful contrast between the evil of the night – of the bible, of childhood, and of the invading vampires – and the many-faced evil of the day – of the modern world, of adulthood, and of the townspeople. So what if King can scare me – what really counts is that he can scare me twice and make me contemplate the philosophical difference between the two fears.

It may drag a little, but for reasons I can appreciate, 'Salem's Lot is sure to endure as a vampire classic. Give it a go – but don't waste your money on the 'Illustrated Edition'.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer

2008-12-31T20:58:00.001+10:30

Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Author: Mary Ann Shaffer
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 268
Published: 2008

When Juliet Ashton, writer of wartime satire, receives a letter from one Dawsey Adams of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, she is surprised but intrigued. Now that the Second World War is over, she is in need of a new idea for her next book, and the more she learns about Guernsey, the more fascinated she is. Before long, the letters are flying back and forth – not just from Dawsey, but from all the Society members – and Juliet is packing her bags to travel to Guernsey and meet her newfound friends in the flesh. Little does she know that her casual visit to the island will change her life forever.

How do you recommend a book for a person you've never met? It's a challenge I faced a lot this year after joining the staff at my local bookstore, especially when December rolled around. Luckily, my manager had the perfect solution: a small, hardcover volume entitled The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. "Sell it to everybody," she instructed, holding up a copy reverently. "Boy, girl, young, old; everybody." When I saw how many she had ordered, I began to wonder how we would ever get rid of them all. Before long, however, they began to fly off the shelves almost as fast as the Twilight series, and I eventually decided I would have to read the book I was now recommending by default to every lost-looking customer in the shop.

It took me perhaps forty pages to fall completely in love with it. Epistolary novels are not usually my reading material of choice, but Shaffer's letter-writing is such a joy that it is difficult to imagine this story being told in any other format. The tone is as warm and light as a potato peel soufflé, and the humour is simply uplifting. It continues to amaze me that a novel with so little plot can be so utterly readable – but it is. The readability comes not from the storyline, but from the simple beauty with which Shaffer renders the world of her story, and the irresistible sincerity and emotion with which she colours it. Indeed; when Shaffer attempts to give the plot an Oscar Wilde-related boost around forty pages from the end, it feels more than a little unnecessary. The characters, and the relationships between them, are already more than enough to make the read worthwhile.

The joys of Shaffer's characters are twofold. First: their diverse and endearing personalities, in which readers everywhere are sure to delight – and second: the way in which Shaffer presents them. Not content simply to describe them, (as an epistolary format would make it all too easy to do,) she introduces them first through their individual narrative voices, as they contribute their own letters to the book. Readers are allowed to form their own impressions, and the characters are all the more lifelike and realistic for it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is an absolute delight; a novel that will make you want to run to the nearest bookstore and join the first book club you find. I would recommend it to everybody. Boy, girl, young, old; everybody.

Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox - Eoin Colfer

2008-12-29T19:27:00.002+10:30

Title: Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox
Author: Eoin Colfer
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 369
Published: 2008

Fifteen-year-old genius Artemis Fowl may have renounced his life of crime, but his villainous past is fast catching up with him. His mother has been taken ill by a deadly virus, and the only known cure disappeared eight years ago with the extinction of the silky sifaka lemur. With LEP Captain Holly Short at his side, Artemis must travel back in time to snatch the last remaining lemur from the person who killed it – his ten-year-old self. Along the way, he will encounter some familiar faces – both friendly and unfriendly – but outwitting his devious younger self will be harder than Artemis thinks.

It's book number six, and our favourite criminal mastermind has come a long way since Eoin Colfer penned his first adventure in 2001. For starters, he's no longer criminal. He's now devoted to doing what's right for his family, for the fairy people, and even for the environment! But let's face it; evil Artemis has so much more charisma than good Artemis. So, what does Colfer do about it? He brings evil Artemis back into the picture. Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox is everything its title suggests – a fast, clever and slightly confusing adventure through time, in the true style of an Artemis Fowl novel. By travelling back to the uncertain past, Colfer basically hands himself a blank canvas – a canvas which he takes full advantage of, filling in scores of pre-plot details and involving just about every character his fans have ever been introduced to.

The danger with this, of course, is that the novel turns out a little like one of those Zelda games, where each game is essentially the previous game fed through a blender. Every tried and true element of the Artemis Fowl series turns up somewhere, but the precise mechanics of the plot are mixed around. There are moments which conjure up images of Colfer sitting at his desk, ticking off a list of "things my fans like" which has been compiled over the course of the first five books. (Like the completely arbitrary kiss between Artemis and Holly. What's that all about?) Still, I suppose I shouldn't knock the Fowl formula too much; it does make for an enjoyable novel.

There is, however, one key Fowl element in short supply here. Action and humour may be fun, but my favourite part of an Artemis Fowl novel has always been the genius schemes, full of second-guessing and complex twists. With two Artemis Fowls on the loose, I expected plenty of these – but somehow, Colfer's premise doesn't quite elicit the level of highly intelligent mayhem that it should. Time Paradox is certainly clever – every time I found myself thinking 'this needs to be trickier', Colfer stepped it up a notch – but at the end of the day, it just didn't manage to get quite clever enough.

For Fowl veterans, Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox can be summed up in four words: more of the same. It may not be Colfer's best, but it's still good fun.

Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror - Chris Priestley

2008-12-27T21:00:00.002+10:30

Title: Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror
Author: Chris Priestley
Genre: Horror
Pages: 239
Published: 2007

It has become a habit of Edgar's to visit his Uncle Montague's house during the school holidays. Despite the dank and gloom, Edgar has come to enjoy these visits, because Uncle Montague does something Edgar's parents never do – he tells stories. By the flickering light of the fire, Uncle Montague recounts tale after tale, each accompanied by a peculiar object from his personal collection. As the tales grow darker, however, and the evidence grows more convincing, Edgar begins to wonder if these tales might not be fiction at all, but the remnants of Uncle Montague's own twisted past.

Would you (or your child) read a book of short stories? Probably not. You would most likely just flick through it, read a couple of the stories, and then set the book aside in favour of something else. But you would read Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror – from beginning to end - because Chris Priestley has created something quite ingenious. His latest work – a deliciously stylised and decidedly creepy read – is not quite a collection of short stories and not quite a novel, but something in between. The overarching mystery of Uncle Montague is used to segue between each story, and keeps the reader turning pages all the way through, just as they would with a novel, while simultaneously leaving them free to enjoy each story in its own right.

As with any collection of short stories, the quality of the tales varies. Some of them are clever, with a wicked sting in the tail – 'The Gilt Frame', for example. Some are not quite as impressive – like 'Jinn' – and some are just plain weird – like 'Offerings'. Whilst the overall quality is good, it is imperative that, in a book such as this, each and every story pulls its own weight – and not all of them do. Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror is perhaps the darkest children's book I have ever read, and at times it risks becoming a little too dark. Any story that further drags at the mood of the writing without giving something back – and there are a couple of these – would be better off cut from the book altogether.

At the end of the day, these tales are no more frightening than those which might be told around the fire at a school camp. I have complete confidence in the ability of young readers to cope with each and every one of them. What makes Uncle Montague so irresponsible is that he tells Edgar tale after tale after tale, battering him relentlessly with misery. This book then, should be read one story at a time – perhaps each night before bed over the course of eleven nights. In moderation, Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror will thrill and chill you – in excess, it will only numb and depress you.

Chris Priestley should be congratulated; he has taken a risk, and created an enjoyable and original book that will appeal to many (albeit not all) young readers. Don't read it all at once – but do read it after dark, under the covers, with a torch.

Higher Institute of Villainous Education - Mark Walden

2008-12-23T18:08:00.002+10:30

Title: Higher Institute of Villainous Education
Author: Mark Walden
Genre: Children's Fiction
Pages: 298
Published: 2008

When thirteen-year-old criminal genius Otto Malpense manages to hypnotise and publicly humiliate the British Prime Minister, he attracts the attention of the world's only school of applied villainy; H.I.V.E.. Before long, he finds himself forcibly enrolled, and virtually imprisoned on the school's island campus. The curriculum may be interesting, but there are some questions that Otto wants answered – and the staff seem suspiciously averse to answering them. Together with his fellow partners-in-crime, Otto devises a plan to escape from H.I.V.E. – but outwitting the evil Dr Nero will be harder than they think.

We have all have heard it a million times before, but it still rings true – never judge a book by its cover. At first glance, H.I.V.E. appears to be good read; snappy, humorous and exciting, with a fun premise and a pretty nifty acronym. It's probably somewhere in the vein of Artemis Fowl, and it's even won an award, (apparently courtesy of 'Richard and Judy'.) All in all, it looks rather entertaining. It is only when one actually opens the book that the truth becomes apparent – H.I.V.E. is the work of an amateur. The prose is barely publishable, dotted with run-on sentences and questionable usage of commas (or lack thereof). Three pages in and I was thoroughly puzzled – why had this not been addressed by an editor? Slowly but surely, the answer became apparent. The writing may improve minimally over the course of the novel, but reworking H.I.V.E. to a professional standard would still be too mammoth a task for any human editor.

But if the writing doesn't put you off, don't worry – there are plenty more flaws here. Walden's characters are among the most stereotypical and trite that I have ever come across. Far from being remotely villainous, they soldier through the novel with all the selflessness, teamwork and heroism of Harry Potter and his goody-goody buddies. It obviously never occurred to Walden that his original premise would require original characters – rather, he has dredged up the stock high-school cohort (the American cheerleader, the fat German kid and the nerd with inch-thick glasses, to name but a few.)

The plot is not quite as unimpressive as the characters, but it is still predictable, clichéd and disjointed. It almost feels as though Walden, having come up with the idea of a school for villains, suddenly remembered that he needed a story to go with it, and scribbled down the most obvious thing that popped into his head. Indeed, for a book that relies so heavily on its premise, it handles that premise quite poorly. The entire idea is clearly absurd and should therefore be presented with a great deal more wit and humour than Walden can muster. For the first 70 pages, he treats it with such seriousness that it just comes off looking like failed realism.

As for 'Richard and Judy' – they are clearly both deluded. The highest level of praise I will grant this novel is that it is bearable. (Just.) My advice: read something else. This book is not worth your time.

Death's Shadow - Darren Shan

2008-12-19T21:04:00.005+10:30

Title: Death's Shadow
Author: Darren Shan
Genre: Horror
Pages: 238
Published: 2008

After 1600 years of imprisonment, Bec MacConn has returned to the world of the living – but it is a strange and unfamiliar world, full of baffling new inventions and unfriendly people. Fearful of the power of the Kah-Gash, Beranabus has separated its three parts, leaving Bec in Carcery Vale to deal with Dervish's endless questions about Bill-E, whose body she now inhabits. Her reprieve, however, will not last long. The Demonata's imminent invasion has merely been delayed, not defeated, and at its helm is a force unlike anything humanity has ever seen before.

When you read a lot of Darren Shan, you learn to cope with the disappointment of having characters you love brutally killed. Indeed, Shan's bestselling children's horror series, The Demonata, has three narrators for this very reason; there is no guarantee that all three will survive to the end of the tenth and final book! To have a deceased narrator come back to life, then, is a decidedly pleasant surprise. Death's Shadow – the seventh and latest instalment – sees the return of Bec MacConn, who was killed off three books ago, (or so we thought,) and her narration makes a welcome change from the usual Grubbs Grady. Shan alters his tone just enough to suit a different narrative voice, without destroying the fast-as-a-movie fluidity that he has become famous for. The change in narration enables Shan to explore new complications and emotional content, making for a particularly enjoyable first third of the novel.

Death's Shadow is a very appropriate name for Shan's latest bloodbath – if you thought he was already killing off characters at top speed, think again. He describes this book as the start of the Demonata's 'real storyline' – a 'new beginning' of sorts which is matched by his writing. His use of Greek myths to provide background for Beranabus' character is especially creative, and adds depth to the story. There are new ideas, new mysteries, new characters, and, just in case demons and werewolves weren't enough, Shan even throws zombies into the mix this time around. (Hey – they work!)

But is it as good as its predecessors? Somehow, I just can't bring myself to say 'yes'. Perhaps I've become desensitised from reading two Demonata books in a row, but Death's Shadow seemed to lack that extra something that the other novels did – be it a great premise, a heartbreaking ending, or an extra splash of creativity, depending on the book. Somehow, this instalment feels like it has been cut just a little too methodically from the Demonata cloth, without that extra burst of inspiration to truly bring it to life.

Regardless; even on a bad day, Darren Shan still beats the vast majority of his competition hands down. Death's Shadow is a pacy and thoroughly enjoyable read that Demonata fans won't be able to put down. I look forward to reading the next instalment.

Demon Apocalypse - Darren Shan

2008-12-18T22:14:00.002+10:30

Title: Demon Apocalypse
Author: Darren Shan
Genre: Horror
Pages: 240
Published: 2007

Grubbs Grady is trapped on an aeroplane with his mortal enemy, Lord Loss, and an army of bloodthirsty demons. His situation looks hopeless – until he is rescued by a mysterious tramp known only as Beranabus. His salvation, however, is to come at a terrible price. The Demonata are massing for an all-out assault against humanity, and Grubbs' magical prowess is required for a series of deadly sabotage missions. He will soon have to make a terrible choice. Will he remain in the human world and live out the remainder of his life in cowardice and guilt? Or will he answer the universe's call and brave a lifetime of peril and nightmares in the world of the Demonata?

Demonata fans, strap yourselves in. Demon Apocalypse, the sixth instalment in Darren Shan's latest children's horror saga, is a fast-paced, action-packed thrill ride that will not disappoint. There may be four books still to come, but Demon Apocalypse still reads like the last book in a series. Shan has pulled out all the stops to deliver a novel filled with everything that fans have come to love about his writing. Newcomers will be absorbed by the frenetic pace and blood-and-guts mayhem, while veterans will appreciate Shan's familiar emotional themes, and the drawing together of his surprising and many-stranded plot.

Demon Apocalypse is perhaps Shan's fastest book yet. It seems to jump straight from one riveting action scene to another – and yet, its storyline works remarkably well. The realism is brutal – Shan is not one for rescuing his characters when death seems inevitable! – but the setting and premises are utterly fantastic. Add Shan's punchy, fluid writing into the mix, and you've got a frenetic, high-stakes roller coaster where readers are never quite sure what will happen next.

Parents who flip through the first few pages are likely to be shocked at the blood and gore they find there – but those who read more thoroughly will realise that it is not the physical guts, but the emotional guts that distinguish Demon Apocalypse from its peers. Heroism, Shan insists, has a terrible price, and no hero walks away from battle unscathed. His latest instalment focuses on difficult choices – situations where life seems brutally unfair, and the right thing to do is also the hardest thing. Even as the plot rushes towards its climax, the true focus of the novel becomes more and more introspective; a technique reminiscent of the tragedies of Shakespeare. Forget charming princes or teenage wizards – Shan's tortured protagonists are infinitely more engrossing, and demonstrate a powerful maturity that most children's books steer well clear of.

Demon Apocalypse is a rarity among fiction – a children's horror story that will entice reluctant readers without sacrificing depth and quality. In this, it is matched only by its prequels. Highly recommended.

Bombproof - Michael Robotham

2008-12-13T21:08:00.003+10:30

Title: Bombproof
Author: Michael Robotham
Genre: Crime
Pages: 275
Published: 2008

Sami Macbeth has just been released from prison, and his sister is missing. She’s not at her apartment, she won’t answer her phone, and she hasn’t turned up to work in days. Her trail leads Sami through London’s shady underworld, and eventually to a dangerous ‘businessman’ named Tony Murphy. Now Sami’s only chance to get his sister back is to help Murphy break into a high-security safe – which should be no problem, considering the impressive robbery Sami was convicted of. What Murphy doesn’t know is that Sami is innocent. He’s never cracked a safe in his life – but before the day is out, this amateur will turn the whole of London upside down.

Did somebody say ‘free book’? Being a bookseller, my ears invariably prick up at phrases such as these. Following the success of last year’s ‘Books Alive’ promotion, my fellow staff members ordered plenty of copies of Bombproof, expecting that the 2008 selection would be a hit. I had never read any Robotham, but had sold plenty, and thought him to be quite a good writer. My disappointment, then, was twofold. First; that the 2008 Books Alive selection was a flop. Our bookshop was left with boxes upon boxes of undistributed copies of Bombproof. The second disappointment came when I grabbed a copy and started reading it. Alas; like the promotion that failed to sell it, Bombproof is formulaic, mainstream and uninspired.

I was surprised at first. Surely, I thought, this can’t be Robotham’s best work. Then I found the little note in the front that explained it all: “Bombproof was commissioned exclusively for Books Alive 2008.” That’s how this book started. Not with any great inspiration on Robotham’s part, but with a phone call from the Australia Council for the Arts, ‘commissioning’ him to write something conventional. Something fast-paced, please, with lots of violence, a bit of sex, and a nice, cheesy, happy ending. That’s what people like. And so, while this action-farce may fill all of the above criteria, it still makes for quite an average read.

Sure, it has a great premise – but it dawdles for too long before reaching it, and lingers too long after finishing it. The result is that, apart from a tense and highly readable middle section, readers are left with a whole lot of gratuitous sex, violence and drug use. I am shocked to think that I gave this novel to purchasers of such children’s books as The Faraway Fairies: Quest for the Crown. To top it all off, sloppy editing has left disappointing typos in quite a few places, particularly in the second half of the novel. Bombproof may be funny, but I’ve read funnier. It may be fast, but I’ve read faster. And it may be sexy, but, (being only 17,) I am at least sure that there are sexier books out there.

Don’t believe what you read on the blurb – Bombproof is one novel you’ll put down and quickly forget. But, hey, it’s a free book. You get what you pay for.

Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

2008-11-17T13:01:00.001+10:30

Title: Twilight
Author: Stephenie Meyer
Pages: 434
Genre: Young Adult
Published: 2005

Bella Swan has always hated the town of Forks. It’s small, boring, and situated under a perpetual raincloud – the last place in the world she wanted to end up. Until, that is, she met Edward Cullen. With his indescribable beauty and unexplainable grace, Edward soon becomes the entire focus of Bella’s existence. Despite his obvious interest in her, however, Edward seems mysteriously averse to striking up a proper relationship. It doesn’t take Bella long to figure out his secret: Edward Cullen is a vampire. The real question is: is Bella his love interest, or his prey?

It’s being hailed as the next Harry Potter – but Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight is doing something that Harry Potter never did: it’s polarising people. Either you love it or you hate it; there seems to be no in-between. After having half my friends rave hysterically to me about it, and the other half decry it as utter garbage, it was a little difficult to know what to expect. The rough impression I formed was that Twilight would be shoddily written, predictable and trite, but completely readable; a Mills and Boon romance dressed in black. Imagine my surprise, then, when I opened it to discover that the prose was not actually shoddy. Granted, it’s no prizewinning material, but it doesn’t need to be. For the novel to work, the narration just needs to be good enough to avoid distracting the reader while the more notable aspects of Twilight work their magic.

For starters, there’s the flow. This book is a complete and total page-turner. Perhaps it’s all the direct speech, perhaps it’s our inherent fascination with vampires – whatever it is, it works. This is the kind of book that you can sit down to after lunch and not emerge from until late at night, and you won’t even notice the time fly. Then there’s the romance. Let me first say that I’m a guy – and I’m not about to turn gay for Edward Cullen – but it doesn’t matter. It’s not Edward that you fall in love with. It’s the idea of Edward and Bella being with each other. Somehow, Meyer has the reader holding their breath every time they are apart, and feeling relieved every time they are brought back together. By the end of the novel, all I wanted was for Bella to throw caution to the winds and become a vampire for Edward, because I could feel just how in love they were.

And finally, just when the reader gets used to the warm, fuzzy romance, Meyer brings in the suspense. The tension in the last hundred pages is thick enough to be cut with a knife. Sure, there are flaws – but unless you actively seek them out so you can whine about them on Internet forums, they’re not conspicuous enough to spoil the reading experience. Perhaps the worst of it are the descriptions of Edward’s beauty and perfection, and even these are limited to being vaguely irritating for a few seconds every forty pages or so.

So, if I had to pick a side, I would undoubtedly be in the pro-Twilight camp. Here’s hoping the sequels are just as good.

Lamplighter - D.M. Cornish

2008-11-15T08:28:00.001+10:30

Title: Lamplighter
Author: D.M. Cornish
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 717
Published: 2008

Rossamünd Bookchild may have arrived at the Imperial Fortress of Winstermill in one piece, but his adventures are far from over. As a prentice lighter, he now faces a dangerous future of winding seltzer lamps on the Conduit Vermis – a road increasingly beset by monsters with each passing day. When his lantern watch assists a group of calendars under attack by Horn-ed Nickers, Rossamünd strikes up a tacit friendship with the youngest of the group; a haughty young wit named Threnody. Together, the two lantern-sticks will confront nickers, bogles, and men more monstrous than even the monsters themselves.

Veterans rejoice; newcomers beware! D.M. Cornish has returned with the second book in his children’s fantasy series, Monster Blood Tattoo. He picks up right where he left off, making no allowances for those unfamiliar with his own brand of fantastical jargon. I struggled a little at first, but my memories of Foundling soon came flooding back, ready to remind me of the two types of lahzar, the terrors of pernicious threwd, and how exactly a sthenicon works. As if all this were not enough to confuse new readers, Cornish wastes no time in introducing a whole stack of completely new vocabulary. To describe Lamplighter as ‘creative’ would be an ettin-sized understatement. I sometimes wonder if Cornish has time to do anything else but dream up fascinating creatures, contraptions and characters for his books!

As MBT fans will instantly notice, Lamplighter is literally twice the size of its prequel. Its pace fluctuates (or should I say ‘vaoriates’?) to a substantial degree – Rossamünd’s battle with the gudgeon will have you glued to your seat, while his carriage ride to Wormstool will have you falling asleep in it – but overall, that tried-and-true rule of literature prevails: a thicker sequel is almost inevitably a slower one. The plot is, at times, merely an unimpressive scaffold for Cornish’s creativity to adorn, and is disappointingly predictable until the final chapter. Rossamünd seems to have retained his frustrating inability to recognise black habilistics when they are staring him straight in the face. Lamplighter’s bulk is ideal for hitting yourself over the head with when, after 400 pages, we finally find out that – shock horror – Grotius Swill is a massacar.

To compensate for these weaknesses, Cornish employs many of the same tactics that made the Harry Potter series such a hit. The school-like routine of prenticing keeps the writing flowing nicely. The characters are whimsical and colourful, and readers will respect some utterly while detesting others with relish. Even Winstermill, with its shadowed furtigrades and secret passageways, fills its audience with a decidedly Hogwarts-ian thrill.

It may have its flaws, but Lamplighter has held fast to its prequel’s key attributes: sheer inventive power, and a delicious style of narration and dialogue – archaic, but also strikingly otherworldly. Go ahead; read it. But for your own sake, read the first book first!

Superior Saturday - Garth Nix

2008-10-12T14:40:00.001+10:30

Title: Superior Saturday
Author: Garth Nix
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 263
Published: 2008

Arthur Penhaligon, Rightful Heir of the Architect, has freed five parts of the Will, claimed five of the Keys to the Kingdom, and defeated five of the seven sinful Trustees. Now he faces his greatest challenge yet. In her envious bid to reach the Incomparable Gardens, Superior Saturday has sabotaged the barriers that separate the House from the deadly Void of Nothing beyond. To save the House, and everything in it, Arthur must claim the Sixth Key – but the Upper House is guarded by thousands of sorcerers, and sneaking in undetected seems impossible. To make matters even worse, Arthur’s body is contaminated with sorcery to an almost irreversible extent. Even if he manages to save his home from destruction, he may never be able to return to the life he once knew.

Want to read some fantasy that doesn’t feel like The Lord of the Rings regurgitated? Look no further than Garth Nix’s The Keys to the Kingdom series – now onto its sixth installment and still going strong. Superior Saturday is definitely the fastest book in the series so far; the pace kicks off in the first chapter with a nuclear bomb threat and barely slows down from there! This book has all the qualities that made its prequels so successful, the most important of which are Nix’s signature humour and irresistible originality. Traditional fantasy may be enjoyable to read, but nothing says ‘fun’ like a novel that throws away the tried-and-true Tolkien mould in favour of some of the most bizarre and fantastic ideas ever put to paper. The more fantasy I read, the more I appreciate the delightful distinctiveness of Nix’s work.

As the penultimate book in the series, Superior Saturday resolves some of the mysteries left by its prequels, but not all. Readers will discover more about Arthur’s bitter archenemy, but the quick pace and succinct storyline leave little room for much else. The focus is on building the suspense for the upcoming Lord Sunday, so readers be warned: this one ends on a mean cliffhanger!

It would be all too easy to say that I ‘can’t wait’ for the next instalment – but after reading Superior Saturday, I hesitate to do so. In some places, there is an unfortunate feel about the writing of being rushed into publication; most likely a side effect of Nix’s impatient fan base. On close examination, the writing contains quite a few niggling minor errors and pieces of description that just don’t seem to gel – flaws that are no doubt present in every novel prior to the thorough assistance of an editor. Sadly, it feels a little like Nix’s editor was not allowed enough time with the manuscript to properly perfect it. Lord Sunday may be scheduled for release in less than a year – but I am more than happy to wait a few extra months if it will mean the difference between a rough novel and a polished one.

Minor flaws aside, however, Superior Saturday is a highly enjoyable novel that fans are sure to rip through without a second’s pause. A decidedly superior read.

Brisingr - Christopher Paolini

2008-10-06T10:20:00.001+10:30

Title: Brisingr
Author: Christopher Paolini
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 763
Published: 2008

The Varden’s bloody campaign to dethrone the tyrant Galbatorix has well and truly begun, and the fate of Alagaësia lies squarely in the hands of Eragon Shadeslayer and his dragon, Saphira. Before long, Eragon’s support seems to be required everywhere – from helping his cousin, Roran, rescue his beloved Katrina from the Ra’zac, to maintaining the unsteady alliances between the Varden’s various races. As the rebels grapple with the horrors of war, Eragon struggles to prepare for the inevitable confrontation with Galbatorix – but unless he can uncover the source of his enemy’s inexplicable power, his preparations will amount to nothing more than a waste of precious time.

Every time Christopher Paolini releases a new novel, his target audience seems to climb by eighteen months. Brisingr is the third book in his bestselling Inheritance Cycle, and it is thicker, darker and more adult than either of its predecessors. This isn’t just an adventure novel; it’s a war novel, and Paolini isn’t afraid to turn on the blood accordingly. Themes that were hinted at in previous books are now examined in more detail – the most powerful of which is that no one escapes from war unscathed. With his intriguing concept of true names as a guide, Paolini explores his characters as he never has before, throwing all manner of adversity at them, and showing readers that there are some experiences from which they will never fully recover.

The turning point for me was when I spotted the parallels that Paolini seemed to be drawing between Urgals and Native Americans. “Surely,” I wondered, “he can’t actually be making a social comment here!” But he was, and it was a social comment that emphasised a significant improvement in the overall quality of his writing. Paolini has come a long way since he first brought Eragon to life at age fifteen, and the depth and complexity of Brisingr reflect this. As an added bonus, the plot of the Inheritance Cycle finally appears be separating from that of Star Wars (although elements of the latter Harry Potter books seem to be surfacing instead!)

As to the pace; readers will have to accept that it will never again be as quick as it was in Eragon – and it’s difficult to call a novel a ‘page-turner’ when there are over 750 pages to turn. Luckily, the title contains a hint for impatient readers who want to lop off some of the novel’s excess flab; whenever the characters settle down beside a fire for a chat, feel free to skip ahead twenty pages or so. Brisingr, however, is still an improvement on Eldest; its multiple plot lines weave together nicely to ensure that there is always something happening. Whilst it may be long-winded, its prose flows quite well throughout, and it is by no means an uphill slog.

Paolini may have ditched his younger readers, but older fans are sure to appreciate how his writing has developed. This is Inheritance as you’ve never experienced it before – and it will leave you with high expectations for the final instalment. A must-read for Eragon fans.

Eldest - Christopher Paolini

2008-09-28T14:04:00.002+09:30

Title: Eldest
Author: Christopher Paolini
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 681
Published: 2005

Eragon Shadeslayer may have protected the Varden from the wrath of an army of Urgals, but his skills still pale in comparison to those of the mighty tyrant Galbatorix, who he must overthrow to restore peace to the land of Alagaësia. He and Saphira must venture to the elven city of Ellesméra in the far north, to complete their training as Rider and dragon. Eragon, however, still carries a debilitating scar from his battle with the Shade Durza, and begins to wonder if any amount of training can ever place him on equal footing with Galbatorix. Elsewhere, Eragon’s cousin Roran struggles for survival as the misshapen Ra’zac besiege his hometown, intent on using him to bring Eragon under control. As both cousins struggle against overwhelming odds, the king rallies his forces to crush the Varden – and with them, all hope of resistance.

Christopher Paolini’s bestselling Inheritance Cycle seems to be running away from him like a snowball down a mountainside. It started as a trilogy, but has now been extended to a quartet. With the release of Brisingr this month, Paolini’s books continue to become thicker and thicker as his story progresses. Eldest is the second book in that story, and is not only the size of a brick, but the colour of one, too. Perhaps Paolini’s editor was a little less brutal with her pen this time around, because Eldest just doesn’t seem to read as easily as its prequel. The description is thicker with padding, the gaps between plot developments are wider, and there are more pages filled with very little happening. By slowing his pace, Paolini has lost one of his most essential advantages over his peers, and taken a dangerous step towards a world of adult fantasy, where he is more easily bested by the likes of Robert Jordan and Brian Ruckley. Unfortunately, younger fans who enjoyed Eragon may now find their interest barred by Eldest’s meandering pace.

Eldest, however, does have one key edge over its predecessor – it is inspiring. The environment of Alagaësia may continue to grow richer, but this time, the focus is on the characters more than ever before, and the heart of the story is fuelled with raw emotion. It is a story about the people we can rise to become when faced with adversity – and Paolini fleshes out the personal struggles of Eragon and Roran with captivating force.

What’s more, (critics be damned,) there’s no denying that Paolini does have a way with words. Occasional slips in the realism of the prose are well outweighed by the expressive descriptive language, which is quite breathtaking in places. The battle scenes read with the same tension and excitement as their counterparts in Eragon did – if not more. The gems of Paolini’s skill are polished brighter than before; it’s just that readers will have to hew through more dull rock to behold them.

If you enjoyed Eragon, then Eldest is well worth a try. Some readers will find the differences to their liking; others will not. A snowball it may be – but it’s a good read all the same.

Eragon - Christopher Paolini

2008-09-05T16:45:00.001+09:30

Title: Eragon
Author: Christopher Paolini
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 518
Published: 2002

It has been one hundred years since the last of the legendary Dragon Riders was slain by the evil Galbatorix, whose tyranny now weighs heavily upon the vast land of Alagaësia. Only three dragon eggs survived the slaughter, and when one of these eggs hatches to a farm-boy named Eragon, Galbatorix dispatches his most fearsome minions to hunt the new Rider down. With his dragon to protect him, Eragon manages to survive the king's first attack, but his uncle is not so lucky. Before long, Eragon finds himself on a quest for revenge that will take him to the far ends of Alagaësia – but an epic power struggle rages around him, and he will soon come to understand the monumental weight of the legacy he has inherited.

With the long awaited release of Brisingr – the third book in the Inheritance Cycle – so close at hand, it comes as little surprise that Random House seems to have pulled out all the marketing stops. Before it had even crossed my mind to start refreshing my three-year-stale memory of Eragon, a stack of internet competitions, tantalising spoilers and even news of a simultaneous worldwide release had all landed in my inbox. The more I heard about it, the more cynical I became. Clearly, Paolini had gotten too big for his boots and decided that he would appoint himself as the next J.K. Rowling. "Surely," I muttered to myself, with an air of self-satisfied superiority, "his books can't have been that good in the first place."

Allow me to eat my words. I had obviously forgotten what a sheer delight Eragon is. Enthralling, epic and entertaining, this book plays shamelessly on every young reader's secret desire to have a pet dragon of their very own. If you're looking for a tale of magic and adventure, they don't come much better than this. Granted, five hundred pages is hefty, but the writing has a compelling flow about it, and the pages slip away without a hint of tedium. Parents take note – this is a very good way to shut your child up for a week . . . but for your own safety, be sure to have the sequel close at hand when they finish.

Of course, to say that Eragon is unoriginal is an understatement of dragon-sized proportions. The setting could have been pulled straight out of The Lord of the Rings, and the plot is so similar to Star Wars that I wouldn't be surprised if George Lucas attempted to sue Paolini for copyright infringement. The bottom line, however, is that readers just won't care. Eragon is simply too well crafted, too readable, and too much fun for that. It's not just a textbook fantasy; it's the textbook fantasy – a shining example of every cliché its genre has ever churned out.

While it may be nothing new, Eragon is certainly something special – a superb adventure tale sure to be read and re-read many times by fans the world over. And so, to use an appropriate cliché, I give this book "two thumbs up!"

Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut

2008-08-23T08:08:00.001+09:30

Title: Slaughterhouse-Five
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Genre: War / Science Fiction
Pages: 157
Published: 1969

Billy Pilgrim should never have wound up as a prisoner of war. He was never really a soldier in the first place. He should certainly never have witnessed the bombing of Dresden in 1945 – an atrocity that claimed tens of thousands of lives. The Tralfamadorians, however, believe that it is pointless to speculate about the purpose of the past. Free from the Earthling illusion that moments follow one another chronologically, they see past, present and future simultaneously. It is a viewpoint that Billy himself will learn to adopt when he is abducted by Tralfamadorians and placed in an exhibit on their home-planet's zoo. With any luck, it may even help him to recover from his traumatic experiences.

When your English teacher hands you a classic novel about the Second World War, the last thing you expect is a science fiction adventure involving time travel and a philosophical basis in determinism. This, however, is precisely what Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five is – a quirky, enjoyable and decidedly unexpected perspective on a very solemn subject. Even readers with little enough interest in history should find this book quite easy to enjoy – it is characterised not so much by its historical basis, but by its amusing and incisive comments about human behaviour. Its style is concise, witty and fluid, making it very easy to read. (It's good to see that not all classics have to be uphill slogs!)

To me, Slaughterhouse-Five is an example of everything science fiction should be. It presents an original and absorbing premise. It challenges the way we think about life. It pushes the philosophical boundaries of what we consider possible. It asks questions with answers too complex to comprehend. Through its exploration of the strange and unknown, it holds the mirror up to humanity, and makes us notice the things we take for granted. And perhaps most importantly, it does it all with skill, wit and creativity. Its attitude seems to resemble Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, but with a little more meaning and a little less absurdity.

Although Slaughterhouse-Five may read with a veneer of light humour and contentment, however, the core message that Vonnegut presents is a bleak and passive one which I found quite unsatisfying. To his credit, he manages to portray it in a convincingly positive light, but when I stepped back and analysed it dispassionately, I began to dislike it for its fatalism. It might not alter the quality of the novel, but it may well compromise the enjoyment that some readers are able to extract from it.

Slaughterhouse-Five is the kind of novel that you can read in a few days, and then think about for a few months. Apart from younger readers, who may be put off by the sexual references, I would recommend this book to just about anyone. At only 157 pages, why not give it a go? The experience will be well worth your short while.

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

2008-08-22T12:10:00.001+09:30

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Genre: Historical
Pages: 584
Published: 2005

Liesel Meminger is only nine years old when her younger brother, Werner, dies on the way to their new foster home. Haunted by memories of her family, Liesel must adjust to a new life under the increasingly harsh regimes of Nazi Germany – a life that only becomes harder when World War Two is declared. It is here, however, under the guidance of her caring foster father, that Liesel will develop her passion for reading, and her insatiable knack for book-thievery. It is here that she will learn the true value and power of words – a lesson that will give strength and direction to her life, even as her world begins to crumble around her.

Today's fiction market knows no shortage of books about the holocaust. From Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl to John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, readers have been invited to witness this tragic period of history from a myriad of perspectives – but never have they had a narrator quite like this one. His name is Death. His job is to collect human souls. He is just one example of the extraordinary creativity that sets Markus Zusak's writing apart from that of his peers. The Book Thief is a work of unconventional genius. It flows with the ease of a children's book, but strikes with the force of a classic. Its descriptive language is built almost entirely on metaphor, and creates images which are powerful if not precise. This kind of description is not read so much as it is soaked directly into one's consciousness – if one actually slows down and reads it too meticulously, it can sound very odd indeed.

The true value of this book, however, lies not in its style, but in its content. It is hard to imagine a novel that deals more masterfully and completely with the complex knot of issues surrounding Nazi Germany. Zusak deals with everything from persuasion and conformity to class divide, persecution and helplessness, interweaving different themes and symbols to provoke reflection and realisation in his readers. It is hard to say which theme is most prominent – but I like to think that this novel is, at heart, a story of struggle against adversity on many fronts, and Zusak depicts this struggle both realistically and engagingly.

Be warned: the end result resembles an emotional roller-coaster ride. Liesel's story moves readers through dynamic cycles of elation and despair, over and over again for nearly six hundred pages. Upon finishing, I felt emotionally exhausted – but it was worth it. Very few other books are powerful enough to evoke feelings like this one does.

The Book Thief is deserving of every bit of the praise and popularity it has gained from readers across the globe. Forceful, relevant and moving, this is a book sure to affect its readers in ways that few other books will. Highly recommended.

Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake

2008-08-08T18:51:00.001+09:30

Title: Titus Groan
Author: Mervyn Peake
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 396
Published: 1946

Titus Groan, 77th Earl of Gormenghast, has been born into a world of ancient and unusual trials. For countless generations, his family have commanded power over Gormenghast Castle and its bleak surroundings – but it is a fragile power indeed. His father, Lord Sepulchrave, is too melancholy to care about it. His mother, Lady Groan, is too distracted to wield it. His sister, Fuchsia, is too volatile to tolerate it. And his twin aunts, Clarice and Cora, are too dim-witted to seize it. Deep in the bowels of the heat-drenched kitchens, however, a manipulative teenager named Steerpike has his eyes set on that power – and he will do anything to attain it.

"Oh my God." Those were my initial thoughts when I opened Titus Groan and glanced at the first sentence – an extremely long and complex sentence with few words that I could actually understand. Luckily for me, the rest of the novel was a little more readable, but it was still quite a slog. Peake's novel may read like a masterpiece, but his target audience is clear – especially from the introduction, which is written by a fan even more verbose than the author! To read a novel like Titus Groan, a strong grasp of the English language is required. To fully enjoy a novel like Titus Groan, an exceptional grasp of the English language is required.

For those willing to grit their teeth and push through it, however, there is enjoyment to be had. The descriptive language flouts the very idea of pace in favour of utterly breathtaking detail, rendering the world of Gormenghast in phenomenal clarity. It is a bizarre and unique world of light and shadow, filled with mysteries, surprises and brilliant ideas. In fact, Gormenghast Castle is not too far removed from Hogwarts; they both share a wondrous, warren-like quality that fills readers with a desire to explore. The style is elaborate and quirky, with a dry, veiled humour lurking constantly in the wings.

At the very heart of this book are its delicious characters: a cast of vibrant, varied and vivid individuals who drive the novel along. All are exaggerated, but none are mere caricatures. Readers will love, hate, laugh at and pity them, from start to finish. Above all, they are really what makes this novel worth reading.

Unfortunately, it would be a blatant lie to say that the slowness and complexity of the writing does not detract from the reading experience. It does. The pace may pick up a little towards the middle of the novel, but it soon falls back again. Tense switching and time jumping, while they are interesting techniques, only exacerbate the problem. For most readers, enjoying this book on the same level that one might enjoy a mainstream novel will simply not be a possibility. The best they can hope for is a more sophisticated kind of enjoyment, quietly permeated by a lurking, peripheral impatience. If you're feeling brave, however, then I say 'go for it'. Rest assured, it will be unlike anything you've read before.

44 Scotland Street - Alexander McCall Smith

2008-07-18T17:20:00.006+09:30

Title: 44 Scotland Street
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
Genre: General Fiction
Pages: 326
Published: 2005

After her first gap year ends in disaster, Pat decides to start afresh. She finds employment at a local art gallery, and moves into a flat at 44 Scotland Street – an intriguing building full of intriguing people. There's Domenica Macdonald, the slightly eccentric anthropologist across the hall. There's Irene Pollock, whose five-year-old son Bertie is a victim of her fascination with psychoanalysis. Then there's Bruce, Pat's roommate – an intolerable, self-absorbed, arrogant narcissist who Pat most certainly does not have feelings for. Well . . . not really.

Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street is not really a novel. As its preface explains, it wasn't written as one, either. Each of its one-hundred-and-ten chapters was published individually, day by day, in the Edinburgh-based newspaper The Scotsman. As such, it exists not so much as a cohesive novel, but as one-hundred-and-ten individual titbits of light amusement – exactly the kind of thing that one might be in the mood for when one sits down to read the paper on a lazy Sunday afternoon. McCall Smith has created a cast of peculiar and familiar characters, exaggerated just enough to fuel his dry, relaxed humour. His technique is quite reminiscent of the Australian mockumentary Summer Heights High, (but done in much better taste!)

While it may be enjoyable, however, 44 Scotland Street suffers from a lack of something every novel needs: a plot. After finishing this book, I reread The Herald's quote – 'Cliffhanger endings, intrigue, romance, comedy . . . McCall Smith is incapable of being dull' – with more than a little scepticism. There may be comedy and romance here, but intrigue is somewhat lacking, and there are hardly any 'cliffhanger endings'. In fact, 'dull' is exactly what McCall Smith often comes dangerously close to being. The trouble with putting one-hundred-and-ten pieces of light amusement so close to each other is that they tend to roll together into one large piece of meandering tedium. There is simply not enough development, nor enough cohesion, to hold a reader's interest for any extended period of time.

On the other hand, when it is read in short doses – as was originally intended – 44 Scotland Street is quite an enjoyable book. With its gentle philosophy, subtle humour and occasional poignancy, it is a perfect way to unwind and de-stress for a few minutes each day. McCall Smith spends pages and pages developing rich and detailed characters that readers will come to love (and hate!)

As a novel, it leaves something to be desired, but as a newspaper serial, it is an undeniable success. Recommended especially for those who have lived in Edinburgh – locals will get an extra kick out of this book.

Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr

2008-07-14T15:43:00.001+09:30

Title: Wicked Lovely
Author: Melissa Marr
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 332
Published: 2007

Some humans spend their entire lives chasing faeries. Aislinn has spent her entire life ignoring them. Contrary to popular belief, the fey are dangerous, volatile creatures, and if they perceive Aislinn as even the slightest threat, they will not hesitate to blind her – or worse. Aislinn's problems, however, do not end there. She is being stalked by none other than the Summer King himself: a seductive, powerful faery who seems determined to make her his queen. If Aislinn is to have any chance of retaining her humanity, she must somehow force him to leave her alone.

How does one describe Wicked Lovely? Officially, it has been labelled 'fantasy' – a genre probably attributed after a cursory glance at the blurb and maybe the first few pages. Those who read further, however, will discover that Wicked Lovely is not the Artemis Fowl-esque action-fantasy that they may have expected. Instead, it is more of a romance novel set against a fantasy backdrop. Marr's continuous focus on the emotional interactions of her characters brings their complex love-quadrangle to the foreground, while Aislinn's actual predicament is reduced almost to subplot status. Despite its moments of suspense and excitement, Wicked Lovely feels, for the most part, like a soap opera.

One can still call it fantasy, however – especially in the sense of readers fantasising about Marr's lead male. Rarely, if ever, has so much Prince Charming been packed into one literary character. His name is Seth. He's tall, dark and handsome – with a sense of fashion to match – lives in his own private train carriage with his pet boa constrictor, and, most importantly, has a steadfast commitment to his girlfriend that does not waver once throughout the entire book. While young female readers are likely to fall all over him, he can seem slightly unrealistic at times.

Then again, perhaps a Prince Charming character is entirely appropriate. One of Wicked Lovely's greatest strengths is its retainment of classic fairy tale devices – the wicked ice queen, the curse to be broken by true love – to produce a contemporary fairy tale with a traditional premise. Where novels such as Artemis Fowl have picked out the fairies and discarded the rest, Marr has done the opposite. She has delved deep into classic faery lore to bring us a novel which, despite its occasional corniness, is actually quite enjoyable. Marr's description is strong, her vocabulary effective, and her writing style fluid. Her creations are perfectly characterised; 'Wicked Lovely' seems an ideal choice of words to describe their passionate, volatile grace. She reveals her plot with patience and skill, letting readers speculate and theorise about the workings of her world, before unveiling a few small twists towards the end.

It may be a soap opera – but it's a very well written soap opera, and it will certainly be enjoyed by many teenagers. Recommended for the girls, but maybe not for the guys.

Procession of the Dead - D.B. Shan

2008-07-09T17:13:00.013+09:30

Title: Procession of the Dead
Author: D.B. Shan
Genre: Horror
Pages: 312
Published: 2008

When Capac Raimi arrives in the city, ambitious and determined, he has one goal only: to become a ruthless gangster and gain as much power as possible. Like everyone else in the city, he has heard the stories about The Cardinal – the merciless, all-seeing mastermind who controls his empire of sin from the fifteenth floor of Party Central. Capac knows that if his dreams are to be realised, he will eventually have to cross paths with The Cardinal. He knows that this meeting will change his life – but he has no idea just how irreversible that change will be.

Procession of the Dead is the first book in Darren Shan's newest (and oldest) horror series: The City Trilogy. It is a rework of his very first novel – Ayuamarca – and his first ever book for adults. Being an enormous fan of Shan's children's novels, my expectations of Procession of the Dead were very high. By the time I was a third of the way through, however, those expectations had been turned upside down.

The book may read with Shan's usual, fluid, punchy style, but it is something totally different to his previous work. The magic has been drained away, leaving a bleak crime-noir style in the place of the usual enthralling monster mayhem. Don't be fooled by the title; Procession of the Dead is not about zombies. It is about people – evil people who do evil things. The plot's subtle flirtations with magic realism are not enough to sustain the writing, which soon loses Shan's signature place and plot drive. The story becomes a string of cold, vile deeds and emotionless characters, which rob the reader of happiness and give little in return.

Fortunately, however, the bleakness does not last. Soon after the 120-page mark, the plot begins to feel more like traditional Shan. Our protagonist finally undergoes some emotional development. The subtle, veiled magic solidifies and becomes more and more pivotal, until the engrossing heart of the book is finally revealed. Like a sliding scale, Procession of the Dead goes from gloomy to exhilarating.

So, while this novel may have entertained me, it has also left a bad taste in my mouth. Who can I recommend it to? Most people I know would find it nearly unbearable. The violence may not be gratuitous per se – it all contributes to painting Shan's thick atmosphere of monochrome corruption – but this atmosphere itself is not worth the onslaught that readers are subjected to. There is enjoyment to be had from this novel, but only for the most desensitised of readers.

I strongly caution any teenager who is a fan of Shan's children's books: think twice before attempting Procession of the Dead. If you have managed to enjoy such films as Sin City, then it may be for you. Otherwise, stick to regular Darren Shan; an author so good that nobody can beat him. Not even himself.

Sabriel - Garth Nix

2008-06-12T15:59:00.001+09:30

Title: Sabriel
Author: Garth Nix
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 367
Published: 1995

For countless generations, necromancers of the Abhorsen bloodline have braved the Nine Gates of Death, safeguarding the Old Kingdom from the horrors that periodically break through into Life. Sabriel, despite being next in line to inherit this grim responsibility, knows very little of the trials which await her. She has lived nearly all her life on the other side of the Wall, where most of her fellow Ancelstierrans deny the very existence of magic. When her father becomes trapped in Death, however, Sabriel must take up his bells and sword, and venture out into a land of dark and unfamiliar perils. She will soon discover that there are far worse forces than Death set against her.

When the prologue of Sabriel first grabbed my attention and refused to let go, it was with a tinge of surprise that I thought, "Hey . . . this is really good . . ." By the time I had read three or four chapters, I was practically kicking myself. This book had been sitting on my shelf for two years, patiently waiting, while I read every other book that was thrown at me. Why, why, why had I not opened it before now? If I had known it was going to be this good, I would have devoured it the moment it was given to me!

So here's note to my past self: this book is absolutely riveting. Ingenious, vivid and suspenseful, Sabriel is a fast-paced fantasy with a decent splash of horror and a thoroughly engrossing premise. The writing maintains a high quality throughout, the characters are believable and interesting, and the action is fast and gripping. This book has everything – even a touch of romance and a take home moral. What more could a reader want? (On second thoughts, perhaps a free watch would be useful – reading Sabriel is a very easy way to lose track of the time!)

Garth Nix is one of the most original fantasy writers I have ever come across. Where he gets his brilliant ideas from, I shall never know. He siphons off the best bits from well-loved fantasy stereotypes, and overlays them with his own brand of ingenious creativity. His monsters are a good example. We're all familiar with rotting flesh and burning eyes, but what about skin made of flaming oil? We knew that the dead couldn't cross running water, but whoever thought that they could be repelled by the sound of bells? Nix leaves his own unique mark on every idea he borrows – even the idea of magic. The only fantasy novels I know of which match Sabriel's originality are Nix's more recent Keys to the Kingdom books, which are nearly as good. I say 'nearly' because, for all their ingenuity, they simply cannot match the pace and excitement of Sabriel.

Now that I know just how good this book is, I wish I had a time machine. I wish I could send my past self a note, instructing him to read Sabriel immediately! I would be careful, however, about how far into the past I sent it; this book is probably not suitable for most readers under 13 years of age.

The Stone Crown - Malcolm Walker

2008-05-31T14:28:00.001+09:30

Title: The Stone Crown
Author: Malcolm Walker
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 509
Published: 2008

When Emlyn Sylvesterson trespasses on the ancient ground known as Sleeper's Spinney, he finds himself pursued by a medieval horseman that he alone can see. At first, he is determined to ignore his pursuer and the voices in his head, fearing he will meet the same fate as his mentally ill father. It soon becomes clear, however, that the horseman is more than just a ghost – and that it is not the only one of its kind. If Emlyn is ever to be rid of it, he and his new friend Maxine must solve the mystery of the spinney; a mystery that stretches back to the time of King Arthur himself.

If you thought you knew the story of King Arthur, think again. In his imaginative debut novel, The Stone Crown, Malcolm Walker puts his own, darker spin on Arthur's classic legend. It starts like any other fantasy novel starts: a prologue with a bit of confusing action, followed by an introduction to our teenage protagonist, who inexplicably sees an intruder from another world. This heralds the start of a danger which only he can resolve, as foretold, of course, by an ancient prophecy. Soon enough, however, the plot begins to deviate from the usual formula – and the farther it deviates, the better it gets.

For starters, Walker has eschewed the clichéd Middle Earth mould in favour of good old Scotland; a tactic that makes the novel more accessible, more original and easier to connect with. (Not to mention the benefit to the dialogue, which resonates with the wonderful Scottish accents!) The chapters are short and the plot is pacy, with parallel narration by both Emlyn and the horseman to keep readers interested. The characters are lively, rich and realistic. The descriptive language is strong throughout, with occasional moments of brilliance. Best of all are the maps: carefully constructed, meticulously detailed drawings which help to orient the reader in the drizzly highland village of Yeaveburgh. After all – where would fantasy novels be without good maps to support them?

Despite the overall quality of the novel, however, there are numerous hiccoughs that threaten to puncture the reading experience. All are relatively minor – a grammatical error here, a poorly motivated character decision there – but, annoyingly, they always seem to crop up just when the reader has settled into Walker's writing. The prophecies, for example, should never have made it into the book – they add little to the story but a cliché. Emlyn's father's insanity occasionally threatens to become too stereotypical, especially for a man who does not actually have a diagnosed mental disorder. And while the short chapters may be effective in the body of the novel, they make the ending seem protracted and fragmented.

Minor flaws aside, however, The Stone Crown is an enjoyable read – a creative and entertaining fantasy that readers will easily lose themselves in. Recommended for fantasy fans aged twelve and older.

The Runaway Jury - John Grisham

2008-05-15T11:52:00.002+09:30

Title: The Runaway Jury
Author: John Grisham
Genre: Crime
Pages: 484
Published: 1996

Since the day his name was selected from the electoral roll, Nicholas Easter has been watched by a private army of lawyers and jury consultants. He is one of 196 prospective jurors in a civil liability trial – and not just any civil liability trial. On one side: the widow of a lung cancer victim, demanding hefty compensation. On the other: a coalition of four tobacco companies who cannot afford to lose the case. A verdict for the plaintiff will mean a disastrous cascade of litigation – so the tobacco companies have hired Rankin Fitch: a ruthless expert on juries who will do anything to win. Victory, however, will not be easy. As Fitch will soon discover, he is not the only crook trying to manipulate this jury.

Readers, leave your morals at the door. There is something oddly satisfying about carefully-planned crime – the cleverer, the better. So, in the vein of Ocean's Eleven and Artemis Fowl, Grisham gives us The Runaway Jury – an absorbing, quick-paced tale of justice gone awry. The novel's premise of jury-rigging is utterly engrossing, and will grab readers' attention from the moment they figure out what's going on. Once Grisham has that attention, he holds it with ease. Nearly everything about his writing is short and sharp, from the punchy sentences to the many brief chapters. The pages practically turn themselves. If you're into losing track of the time, then this is the book for you.

There is always some level of suspense in The Runaway Jury. Grisham has a compelling knack for throwing readers into the middle of a puzzle and then feeding them the pieces, one by one – a knack which is established right from the very first page. He meticulously manages how much readers know, and how much they should be able to figure out at any given stage of the plot. The overall outcome is disappointingly predictable, but there are plenty of smaller twists and turns to keep readers guessing away in vain. Even more difficult is the task of pointing out right from wrong – Grisham's characters are all so deliciously crooked that readers won't know who to cheer for!

Much of The Runaway Jury takes place in a courtroom, so Grisham's experience as an attorney lends itself well to the narration. Having taken Legal Studies at school, I enjoyed the extra layer of realism, and found that it added a professional edge to the novel. Those with less interest in the law, however, may find the legal jargon confusing at times, and might need a few chapters to settle into the jury box.

With its intriguing ideas and energetic storyline, The Runaway Jury is a highly readable example of just how much fun the crime genre can be. Recommended especially for those with an interest in the justice system.

Through the Tiger's Eye - Kerrie O'Connor

2008-04-18T18:05:00.002+09:30

Title: Through the Tiger's Eye
Author: Kerrie O'Connor
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 280
Published: 2003

Lucy and her little brother, Ricardo, have just moved into their new house; an old, run-down building with a backyard that snakes away into the scrubland of the escarpment. Her mother and grandmother seem quite happy with the house – but Lucy has noticed things that they haven't. Why, for instance, does the old rug in her room seem to get brighter every time she looks at it? Why does Lucy keep having dreams about smiling soldiers and starving children? And who owns the mysterious tiger-like cat that seems to appear everywhere? The greatest mysteries of all, however, do not lie inside the house – they lie in the backyard, where the Tiger-cat is waiting to take Lucy and Ricardo on the adventure of a lifetime.

Move over, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe – make room for the tiger, the Bull Commander and the time tunnel. Kerrie O'Connor's Through the Tiger's Eye may be reminiscent of C.S. Lewis' children's classic, but her jungle land of Telares has more pythons, monkeys and bats than Narnia ever did! This book certainly meets all the criteria for a successful children's novel – quick-paced, easy to read and ingeniously creative, with two young, adventurous protagonists and (of course) a splash of magic. This is, in fact, exactly the kind of book that I used to read by the truckload when I was in primary school – the kind of book that first instilled me with my enduring love of fantasy.

While the fantasy genre encompasses millions of books across a range of styles and age-groups, they all have one thing in common: magic. All fantasy novels, old or new, have used magic to add power and intrigue to their stories – but not all novels have used it the same way. While recent authors such as Rowling and Paolini have laid magic bare, analysed it, explained it, and drained nearly every drop of mystery from it, O'Connor has opted for a much older, more mysterious style of magic. Her novel reminds us that magic isn't meant to be explained – the mystery is what makes it magical. After seeing magic too often reduced to a cold, exact science, it is wonderful to see it restored to the subtle enigma that it used to be.

While O'Connor's writing has its moments of brilliance, however, it also has its moments of weakness. The descriptive language is clunky in places; (while the moon may 'sail' or 'glide', it definitely does not 'march'.) The dialogue is unrealistic at times, particularly where the exaggerated character of Grandma is concerned. The third person limited narration fluctuates indecisively – at times we hear Lucy's thoughts narrated casually by Lucy, while at other times we hear them narrated formally by O'Connor. While these flaws are easy enough to ignore, they are still disappointing in a novel of such creativity.

Through the Tiger's Eye is an enchanting adventure story that is sure to delight young readers of fantasy. I would not hesitate to recommend it to my younger siblings, and I look forward to reading its sequels.

Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight - Nick Earls and Rebecca Sparrow

2008-04-14T18:09:00.002+09:30

Title: Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight
Author: Nick Earls and Rebecca Sparrow
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 244
Published: 2007

Ever since Year 10, Joel Hedges and Cat Davis have hated each other. It's worked fine for the last fifteen months - they simply haven't spoken to each other at all - but when they both wind up in the same Year 12 English class, they are forced together by their teacher to work on a 'Tandem Story' assignment. At first, they try ignoring each other, e-mailing paragraphs back and forth without saying much else, but even those paragraphs soon degenerate into all-out, cross-genre warfare. Worse still - unless they can learn to co-operate, their problems are about to get a whole lot bigger. Fate has a few more ugly coincidences up its sleeve.

A guy and a girl writing a story together about a guy and a girl writing a story together. You've got to admit: that's a pretty good idea. Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight is a 'tandem story' between Nick Earls and Rebecca Sparrow. They take it in turns - Earls writes one chapter for Joel, and then Sparrow writes one chapter for Cat, and so on. The novel opens strongly enough, but the pace soon hits an inevitable snag. Having two narrators means having two separate orientations, which slows the proceedings down a bit. The 'main complication' doesn't actually occur until halfway through the novel, (which, on the plus side, gives readers time to grapple with two different sets of characters.)

Once we get settled in, however, and Earls and Sparrow get warmed up, things start to look a lot better. There's plenty of storyline to sustain the novel while we wait for the halfway point, and plenty of humour to keep readers amused. Without a doubt, the highlight of the novel is watching Earls and Sparrow pull each other's writing to pieces with vindictive gusto - these sections are nothing short of hilarious. Earls and Sparrow are clearly also very tuned in to teenagers; they use plenty of familiar locations, products and situations to create humour that teen-readers can relate to. The characters are so realistic that they could have been pulled out of just about any high school in Australia. (The similarities between Cat Davis and my best friend are scary.)

Inevitably, however, having two writers in one book invites comparison between them, and this comparison reveals . . . well, not much. The only noticeable difference between the two authors is that Sparrow's writing is slightly wittier. Joel and Cat are characterised well, but their characterisation unfortunately does not extend to their writing style. This is a shame - I was very much looking forward to seeing Earls and Sparrow experiment with stylistic contrast.

It may not be extraordinary, but Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight is clever enough to keep readers interested and funny enough to keep them smiling. If you are a teenager, and you get a kick out of really being able to relate to your reading, then this is the book for you. Thanks to Earls and Sparrow for a highly enjoyable read.

Our Little Secret - Allayne Webster

2008-04-10T14:53:00.002+09:30

Title: Our Little Secret
Author: Allayne Webster
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 217
Published: 2007

Edwina Saltmarsh is only fourteen when her best friend's sister, Anne-Marie, is raped. Before long, the whole of Wattleton is abuzz with the news - but it is something that few of them really understand. How can something that terrible ever be fully explained? As Anne-Marie retreats into a silent depression, Edwina develops an interest in her father's work-colleague, Tom. Tom is friendly, handsome, and more than ten years older than Edwina - and he has more than friendship on his mind. Before long, Edwina and Anne-Marie will have secrets in common - secrets that no girl should ever have to endure.

It seems like every other day that we hear about sexual assault on the news, or read about it in the paper. Unless one has directly experienced it, however, it is a difficult issue to fully comprehend. Therein lies the power of Our Little Secret; a remarkable novel that goes far beyond the cold summaries of the media. This is a book on a mission: to bring its reader to a deeper understanding of the complex issues surrounding sexual assault - and this it achieves with eye-opening realism, poignancy and subtlety. Webster bravely tackles the issues in society that most of us avoid talking about - not only sexual abuse, but also drugs and suicide. Whilst her novel is quite confronting and vivid at times, it does not exaggerate or sensationalise its subject matter at all. Realism is the name of the game - clear, uncompromising realism. To write realistically from a teenager's point of view is a difficult task at the best of times. To hold that realism through the tangled emotions of a rape victim would be even harder- but to Webster's credit, she somehow manages it.

The plot of Our Little Secret is quite predictable at times. Indeed, we are all familiar with Edwina's story from newspapers and television. Where this book really shines is not through its storyline, but through how that storyline is used to create a novel. The writing style is comfortable and fluent, the dialogue believable, and the description evocative. When the theme of sexual abuse is first introduced, Webster cleverly juxtaposes it with the more innocent sexuality of young adolescents. The characters are realistic, but still diverse and interesting. In short: the writing is everything it needs to be to create a fluid and memorable novel.

Before I read Our Little Secret, there were so many things that I didn't understand about sexual abuse. I didn't understand how victims can feel responsible for the abuse, or why they might want to keep it secret from people who could help them. I didn't understand the lasting emotional trauma that it can cause, or how this trauma can lead to problems such as eating disorders. As confronting as this novel may be, I am very glad to have read it, and would definitely recommend it to others who want to understand the issue of sexual abuse on a more complex level. The blurb of this book isn't far wrong when it says that this is 'a story every girl should read.'

Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs - Michael Gerard Bauer

2008-04-05T20:03:00.002+10:30

Title: Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs
Author: Michael Gerard Bauer
Genre: Humour
Pages: 295
Published: 2007

Ishmael Leseur, long-time sufferer of 'chronic stupidity on a massive scale', has returned to St Daniel's College for another year, and Year Ten promises to be even more eventful than Year Nine was! His too-cool English teacher, Miss Tarango, has her heart set on teaching love poetry. The too-beautiful love of his life, Kelly Faulkner, might just be starting to reciprocate his feelings. His too-crazy best friend, the Razzman, is determined to make sure he and Kelly end up together. And his dad's too-popular high school band is thinking about getting together for a reunion performance. Getting through the year in one piece is not going to be an easy task.

In 2004, Michael Gerard Bauer published his debut novel, The Running Man. In 2006, his writing took a very different tone with Don't Call Me Ishmael - and though The Running Man was outstanding, I am secretly pleased that he picked Don't Call Me Ishmael to continue with a sequel. How do you top a year of chaotic, feel-good fun, all crammed into a story that practically bounces off its pages at you? With more of the same, of course! Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs is more crazy fun, more laugh-out-loud wit, and more zany surprises from our favourite vibrant characters. Sure, at times, the plot may be a little formulaic, the dialogue a little unrealistic, and the characters a little clichéd, but all of these drawbacks are swamped by a tidal wave of sheer hilarity.

Bauer has gone out of his way to make sure that Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs is even bigger, brighter and funnier than its prequel - and it shows. For starters, he seems to have cottoned on to the fact that everybody loves the Razzman, so Orazio can now be found putting his 'wicked plans' into action on nearly every page. Bauer seems determined to challenge our views of nearly every character in the story, from debating-hero Scobie to maths-geek Prindabel. This novel never slows down for a moment - there are enough crazy surprises thrown into the mix to keep the plot running at top speed all the way through.

Inevitably, however, Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs suffers from 'sequelitis' as a result. There are times when the dialogue degenerates into clichéd drivel, particularly where the school bullies are concerned. The slightly exaggerated style of the writing sometimes threatens to become dangerously exaggerated. Any subtlety associated with the character of Barry Bagsley is unfortunately obliterated by one of the most overused plot-devices in the world of teenage fiction. These weaknesses are not prominent enough to spoil the fun of the novel, but they are prominent enough to be noticed and frowned at every now and then.

If you have ever read a Michael Gerard Bauer book, be it a serious or a silly one, then you will know that the best thing about them is the feelings they create - feelings that stay with you even after the book is closed. Rarely, if ever, will you find a children's book that makes you feel as good as this one.

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

2008-04-01T12:31:00.002+10:30

Title: The Name of the Rose
Author: Umberto Eco
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 502
Published: 1980

It is the year 1327, and Christendom is riven with cries of penitence and heresy. In towns where the poverty-stricken peasants are close to starvation, new brotherhoods seem to arise every day, preaching freedom and chaos. The delicate bond of tolerance between the Pontiff and the Minorities has been worn down to breaking point. In the midst of all the tension, a young novice named Adso of Melk, and his master, William of Baskerville, stop for seven days at a small abbey famed for its library. The abbot immediately enlists William's help. One by one, in increasingly grotesque and mysterious ways, the monks connected with the library are found dead. With only a few clues to guide him, William must unravel the murders, and piece together the secret of the library that somebody is killing to possess.

I have heard The Name of the Rose described as 'The Da Vinci Code written by somebody with brains'. The author of this description is not far wrong. While it may have all the elements of a typical Dan Brown novel, The Name of the Rose is infinitely deeper, richer and more thought-provoking. This really is the book that has everything - murder, action, religion, sex, philosophy, suspense, and even a dash of well-placed humour. Though it took me a while to read, it has challenged my reasoning, stretched my mind and extended my vocabulary. (I had to read it with a dictionary to properly understand it!)

The pace will probably infuriate all but the most patient readers at some point or other. Our narrator, Adso, feels that 'there is nothing more wonderful than a list, instrument of wondrous hypotyposis', but I found it difficult to share his passion. The first hundred-and-twenty pages or so are filled with too much description, too many lists and too much discourse for my liking. It was not until I had read nearly a third of the novel that it started to get really interesting - and even then, the 'interesting factor' continued to ebb and flow. Be warned: those who read The Name of the Rose simply as a mystery or thriller novel will be frustrated by the omnipresent philosophy. ("Why yes, Mr Eco, I would love to stop all the excitement for a fraternal debate on the poverty of Christ.") Instead, it should be read as a work of philosophy, where the mystery and thriller elements are simply the icing on the cake.

While the pace may cripple the excitement, however, it gives Eco plenty of time to paint vivid pictures of the abbey in the minds of his readers. The descriptive language in The Name of the Rose is always exceptional, and sometimes breathtaking. (Ironically, its brilliance is probably due in part to Adso's annoying list-making!) There are very few books that manage to capture the world of their story as perfectly as this one does. Truly, Eco is a literary master.

It may be hard to read at times, but for those willing to turn the pages, the experience is well worth the effort. This is one book that I won't easily forget.

Montana 1948 - Larry Watson

2008-02-19T21:56:00.002+10:30

Title: Montana 1948
Author: Larry Watson
Genre: Drama
Pages: 175
Published: 1993

It is the year 1948, and Wesley Hayden is serving his second term as sheriff of Mercer County, Montana. His family, led by his dominating father, Julius Hayden, has been in control of the region for decades. His twelve-year-old son, David, is oblivious to the ties of loyalty that bind the Haydens together. His cocoon of childhood innocence, however, will not last long. When a Sioux woman named Marie Little-Soldier makes a shocking revelation about David's uncle, Wesley is torn between loyalty to his family and his duty to uphold justice. Caught up in the conflict, David soon finds himself forced to deal with concepts and complications that will scar him for the rest of his life.

At only 175 small pages, you might expect that Montana 1948 would be a simple novel of limited substance, designed to tell a brief story that could be relatively easily forgotten. You would be wrong. David Hayden's tale of a childhood irreparably destroyed packs a hefty punch, and gives readers plenty to think about, even after they have turned the last page. I have been fortunate to be able to study this book closely in English lessons, and have been impressed by the amount of depth and complexity that Watson manages to cram into such a concise novel.

To me, Montana 1948's real strength lies in just that - its conciseness. While it is reminiscent of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird in many ways, it is infinitely more compact and engrossing. While Lee's writing meandered (dare I say lazily?) at times, relying on the reader to press on through the story, Watson grabs the reader's attention right from the word 'go'. There is always something happening - if there isn't, the story progresses immediately. No time is ever wasted. In short, Montana 1948 could be called To Kill a Mockingbird for less patient readers.

Watson's style, however, sacrifices nothing for its succinctness. Most authors conjure up characters in a few words, describing them simply, as though from a position of relatively superficial understanding. Watson writes about his characters as though they are real people with whom he has lived for twelve years. There is something incredible about the way he breathes life into them, describing their idiosyncrasies, values, personalities and vices, as only someone who has observed them over a long period of time can do. I have come across very few authors who can flesh out characters the way Watson does.

Most of the time, choosing a book to read involves some kind of sacrifice. If you want a good page-turner, you have to sacrifice some depth. If you want a deeper read, you've got to be prepared to turn those pages yourself. Montana 1948 is a wonderful example of the rare middle ground - easy to enjoy and hard to forget. Definitely a recommended read.

Erin and the Urchinints - Mark Reid

2008-02-03T15:09:00.000+10:30

Title: Erin and the Urchinints
Author: Mark Reid
Genre: Adventure
Pages: 182
Published: 2007

When Erin and Rory stumble upon a secluded rock pool at a beach near their homes, they discover that its water is as easy to breathe as air. Below the surface lies a network of underwater caverns, where they encounter the Urchinints - intelligent alien life forms resembling coral. The leader of the Urchinints thinks he has finally perfected a cure for every disease on the planet, and is happy to hand it over. All he wants in return is to 'experiment' on Erin and Rory. Erin accepts, enticed by the Urchinint's promises of being reunited with her father, but Rory isn't so sure. Perhaps the Urchinint isn't being entirely honest about its intentions.

According to the brief autobiography at the front of the book, Mark Reid has always been interested in the paranormal - a sure source of good ideas for his first novel. Erin and the Urchinints, however, is an example of what happens when a good idea is poorly handled.

The general concept of the book, (super-intelligent coral from outer space that genetically engineers crustacean servants to do its bidding,) works fine. As we progress to finer levels of detail, however, it rapidly begins to fall apart. The novel is riddled with hundreds of little plot holes that quickly pile up. How, for instance, are our protagonists able to so easily overcome their biological instincts and inhale water? Why do they later regurgitate that water after we know that it is in neither their lungs nor stomachs? And how, when confronted with situations that should have any normal person quivering with fear, are they able to continuously spout forth godawful clichéd 'witty' quips? On top of all this and more, characters frequently know and do things without adequate motivation. Someone needs to tell Reid that 'I can feel it in my bones' does not cut it as an excuse.

The writing is amateurish throughout, riddled with clichés, dialogue that doesn't work and incorrect use of commas, apostrophes and homophones. There is a fair amount of descriptive language, but it is often unoriginal, and feels like a regurgitated mix of frequently used phrases from books Reid probably read as a child.

Granted, Erin and the Urchinints is a children's book, but even youngsters will be able to notice that the average children's book is much better written. Reid also seems confused about his target audience - his style of humour suggests younger readers, while his attempts at 'hair-raising' action, (his words, not mine,) as well as occasional profanity, suggest older readers.

If you are a child looking for a good read, then do not look to Erin and the Urchinints. Look to the rest of Australia's wonderful mainstream fiction market, where you will find many books of much higher quality. Mark Reid may have big ideas, but he needs more practice at turning them into novels.

Northern Lights - Philip Pullman

2008-01-30T21:46:00.001+10:30

Title: Northern Lights
Author: Philip Pullman
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 399
Published: 1995

In a universe somewhat like our own, children are beginning to disappear from cities around England. For Lyra Belacqua, a half-wild orphan girl living at Jordan College, Oxford, the kidnappings are just another excuse for games, battles and tall stories - until her best friend Roger is reported missing. Vowing to rescue him, Lyra embarks upon a journey to the savage North, where physicists and theologians alike are conducting controversial research into the nature of something known only as 'Dust'. Apart from her friends the gyptians, her only guide is a curious golden instrument called an alethiometer. If she is to survive her ordeal, she will have to learn to interpret its cryptic and peculiar messages.

When The Golden Compass hit cinemas in December of 2007, I opened Philip Pullman's Northern Lights for the first time in years, thinking to refresh my memory of the book before seeing the film. I had quite forgotten what a masterpiece it is. Inventive, perceptive and captivating, this book deserves every bit of the rapturous praise that fills its first four pages. I can now understand the novel on a more sophisticated level than I could when I was twelve or thirteen, but I still feel as though I could extract much more from many subsequent reads. I envy the Year Seven students at my school who will soon have a chance to study this book in depth.

At the heart of the story is the enchanting character of Lyra, masterfully brought to life by Pullman's writing. His third-person-limited style provides the perfect balance between childhood and maturity - as readers, we are both amused at Lyra's mischief and swept up in her limitless energy and emotion. With its powerful characters, big ideas and gripping excitement, Northern Lights is never dull. The writing flows effortlessly from start to finish, and turning pages is as easy as losing track of the time. (I now feel tired after many nights of reading for too long.)

Pullman also deserves to be commended for his ingenious creativity. The world of Northern Lights is mostly similar to ours, but with many small differences. Electricity, for example, is called anbaric energy, churches dabble in 'experimental theology', and zeppelins are a popular mode of transport. Instead of wasting time explaining all these things to us in detail, Pullman simply acknowledges them briefly as Lyra would, and leaves us to piece together our own picture of her world. Every reader's picture will be slightly different, but all of them will reflect the originality of Pullman's writing.

Northern Lights is sure to delight readers of all ages for many more years to come. I look forward to reading it again when I am an adult, and hope the film manages to capture the genius of Pullman's work.

Master of the Books - James Moloney

2007-12-30T12:07:00.001+10:30

Title: Master of the Books
Author: James Moloney
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 402
Published: 2007

Marcel, Nicola and Fergus may have regained their places as the heirs to the throne of Elster, but their troubles are far from over. Fergus has stolen Gadfly and flown to distant lands to exact revenge on the traitor, Damon. Nicola, as future queen, is being pressured to choose from a growing line of suitors, none of whom she feels any affection for. Marcel, who has replaced Lord Alwyn as Master of the Books, must study for hours each day, but unless he learns to trust his own magic, he will never realise his full potential. Their own troubles, however, pale in comparison to those of other kingdoms beyond the borders of Elster, and the three siblings will soon find themselves far from home, caught in a deadly struggle for their lives.

Master of the Books picks up right where its prequel, The Book of Lies, left off. All the serious problems the kingdom of Elster have been solved, so, in search of another adventure, Moloney turns to the lands beyond Elster, greatly increasing the stage for the story. In typical fantasy style, Marcel, Nicola and Fergus are all soon on quests in faraway lands, which become tied up in stopping an tyrant who is trying to take over the world with his evil magic. Despite being a little formulaic, however, this fantasy is skilfully written, well thought out, and filled with the same magic and excitement that kept readers turning pages in The Book of Lies. Anyone who liked the prequel should enjoy the sequel.

There are, however, a couple of areas in which Master of the Books fails to live up to its predecessor's standard. Firstly: plot twists. The Book of Lies was filled with revelations about characters that kept the plot twisting and turning so that nobody could predict what was going to happen next. In Master of the Books, Moloney doesn't have many of these cards left to play. There are a couple of surprises, but not as many as there were in The Book of Lies, so readers who loved the first book for its unpredictability may not enjoy the sequel as much. Secondly: mistakes. Surely I can't be the only reader to notice that Damon's hair colour has changed from blonde to black? Perhaps this is because the man in the opening passage of the book is supposed to be Damon - even though he is clearly described as having Sir Thomas Starkey's ruby-hilted dagger. There were plot holes in The Book of Lies, but they were not as big as the holes in Master of the Books!

It is also interesting to see that the formula of the third quarter of the novel, (in which the teenage protagonists must convince simple-minded crowds of their innocence, while a deceiving antagonist insists on their guilt,) is quite reminiscent of Lemony Snicket's work. Personally, I enjoyed this part, but some readers may feel that its formula is better suited to Snicket's heavily stylised writing, and does not work with Moloney's realism.

Overall, however, Master of the Books is an enjoyable read that should succeed with its target age group. Ignore the flaws and dive in.

The Book of Lies - James Moloney

2007-12-11T11:16:00.000+10:30

Title: The Book of Lies
Author: James Moloney
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 402
Published: 2004

Marcel has no recollection of life before he came to live in Mrs Timmins' Home for Orphans and Foundlings. It is only through the quick thinking of his best friend Bea that he even remembers his own name. Lord Alwyn, an ageing wizard who lives in a tower above the orphanage, has used his sinister Book of Lies to steal Marcel's memories away, and keep him hidden from public view. When a stranger named Sir Thomas Starkey arrives, however, Marcel sees hope. He is about to discover that he has a pivotal role to play in the future of the kingdom of Elster - but escaping from Lord Alwyn's web of sorcery is next to impossible, and even the Book of Lies may not be entirely trustworthy.

If I were asked to sum up The Book of Lies in one word, that word would be 'intriguing'. Even without the mystery and complexity of the plot, the title is intriguing by itself. The central concept of the novel - a magic book that records only lies, and glows when the truth is spoken - draws readers in, and keeps them turning pages out of an inexplicable desire to find out more. Combine this with Moloney's fluid and descriptive style, and a fair amount of traditional fantasy action and adventure, and you have a book that will easily entertain young readers. What is it about magic that we love so much? Whatever it is, Moloney harnesses it expertly to drive The Book of Lies along.

As the title would suggest, this book's strongest attribute is its clever use of deceit and deception to create a plot that continually twists and turns. Moloney leaves so many questions and loose ends to be tied up that the whole final quarter of the book is practically one large denouement, interspersed with a bit of action and excitement where appropriate. All readers will guess some of the twists, but no reader will guess all of them. This is an excellent book for those who whine about storylines being predictable - and although the plot may be complex, Moloney makes sure nobody is left behind. Most people should manage to stay a few steps ahead of Marcel and his companions, who are usually a little slow to catch on.

As a fantasy novel, it measures up reasonably well against other fantasy novels. At times, it can seem a little clichéd and formulaic, and there are disappointing holes in the plot when it comes to the functioning of the Book itself. The dialogue is convincing for the most part, but occasionally degenerates into an infuriatingly formal style that would never be heard from the mouth of any real person.

Although Moloney could probably use a little more experience in the fantasy genre, he has managed to create an exciting, intriguing, unpredictable and altogether enjoyable novel. Bookworms aged ten and older should love it. I look forward to reading the sequel, which I hope will be just as much fun.

The Messenger - Markus Zusak

2007-11-27T21:12:00.000+10:30

Title: The Messenger
Author: Markus Zusak
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 386
Published: 2002

Nineteen-year-old Ed Kennedy is the epitome of pathetic mediocrity. He drives a cab, lives in a run-down shack with his malodorous dog, and plays cards with his friends Ritchie, Marv and Audrey. His life is completely devoid of purpose or significance - until he manages to foil a botched bank robbery, and someone, somewhere, decides that it's time for Ed to become the messenger. Guided by playing cards left in his mailbox, he must venture from his shack to help people the rest of the world has abandoned. Not all of Ed's tasks are easy, however, and the true purpose of his messages may be more than it seems.

Markus Zusak's The Messenger is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. The writing is powerful, the story is powerful, and the messages are powerful. Through a methodical but constantly surprising tale of suspense, drama, mystery and action, Zusak shows us the true value of random acts of kindness, and puts life nicely into perspective. This is very much a book driven by its themes and messages - so it is good to see that Ed, our protagonist, has been painted as the kind of anti-hero that readers can relate to. The more we can put ourselves in Ed's shoes, the more impact the messages of the novel have.

Zusak's descriptive style is vivid, unique and strong - perfect for the story it upholds. There are no clichéd phrases here; readers are handed similes and metaphors that confuse directions, colours, sounds and senses, carrying us along on waves of images and feelings. The paragraphing is sharp and succinct, and often used unconventionally to support the style. Some readers may find all of this hard to sink into at first, but for others, Zusak's distinctive voice will be one of The Messenger's most memorable attributes.

In addition to the language, the recurring theme of playing cards is cleverly used to hold the novel together. The chapters are numbered from ace to king in each suit, the plot is driven by tasks written on different aces, and Ed's friendship with Ritchie, Marv and Audrey seems at first to be sustained entirely by regular card games. The four suits are even used as themes for the four parts of the book. This 'pack of cards' motif helps to give readers an idea of exactly how far through the plot they are, and always keeps them wondering what the next ace will be.

The ending of The Messenger is especially interesting. Most of my friends condemn it, but I rather like it. Zusak has a refreshing habit of breaking the rules of writing for the sake of creativity, and it shines through especially in the final part of this novel. Not even the most perceptive of readers will see this twist coming.

The Messenger is a book to share with as many people as possible - a forceful, page-turning read that will leave you pondering your life ambitions. Highly recommended.

Blood Beast - Darren Shan

2007-11-21T11:46:00.001+10:30

Title: Blood Beast
Author: Darren Shan
Genre: Horror
Pages: 262
Published: 2007

Following the horrific events of Slawter, Grubbs Grady has managed to settle back into a relatively normal life - hanging out with friends, avoiding the school counsellor, and trying to impress girls. When Uncle Dervish leaves for a weekend to farewell a friend, Grubbs seizes the chance to throw a much-needed party. The moon, however, has other plans for him. He has seen his sister and his half-brother both fall victim to the lycanthropic curse that has plagued his bloodline for generations. Now it's Grubbs' turn to experience headaches and nausea around the full moon - symptoms that are just the beginning. Worse still is the fact that Lord Loss will almost certainly refuse to cut a deal. If Grubbs changes, he'll be on his own.

Blood Beast is the fifth brutal instalment in Darren Shan's latest children's horror series The Demonata, and it drips with the same grisly chills, the same unrelenting pace and the same merciless dispatching of characters as its prequels. Fans of the series will be pleased to find that Shan has brought back familiar faces from Slawter, as well as managing to tie in locations from Bec. Once again, his latest novel manages to equal the excitement of the rest of the series, but not quite surpass it. I am still waiting for the one book that will blow all the others away - hopefully the upcoming Demon Apocalypse will be it.

It is interesting to see that Shan has made increasing forays into the world of regular teenage problems. As well as demons and werewolves, Grubbs now has to deal with peer pressure, the opposite sex and choices between social groups at school. This is a difficult task for any adult author to manage, but Shan pulls it off very well. His work isn't the best out there - young readers won't be blown away by how well he understands them - but he does a good enough job to support the novel.

For Demonata-wise readers, the ending of Blood Beast will unfortunately be slightly predictable - but that doesn't make it any less fun! Shan throws everything he has at readers, and then leaves them hanging by ending the novel right in the middle of all the excitement. Some critics may view this as a cheap trick to increase the sales of the next book, but I think it works extremely well. It's yet another way for Shan to build cohesion between novels, and make sure that the pace of the series never slows down for too long. I would definitely buy the next book even if Blood Beast had not ended the way it did - I am a huge fan of all of Shan's writing.

All in all, another triumph from the acclaimed 'Number One Master of Horror'. I couldn't put Blood Beast down! It easily lives up to my expectations, and I'll be counting the days to the release of the next instalment.

The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

2007-11-18T20:47:00.000+10:30

Title: The Historian
Author: Elizabeth Kostova
Genre: Horror
Pages: 704
Published: 2005

In 1972, in a small European café, a father begins to tell his daughter a story. It is the story of a historical legacy that began in the fifteenth century, and has haunted him since he first stumbled upon an ancient and enigmatic book as a university student. As his daughter digs deeper and deeper into the past, Paul becomes ever more reluctant to persist with the tale, because every individual who has ever pursued it has known only tragedy and fear until they leave it alone. Soon enough, however, history will rear its ugly head, and Paul's family will become just as involved in Vlad Dracula's legacy as they were eighteen years ago.

Elizabeth Kostova is one clever woman. Her complex, 700-page achievement The Historian reads with the same archival feel that the original Dracula did when it was first released in 1897. The tale of everyone's favourite legendary vampire is beautifully recreated in historic style. Stoker would either be very proud, or very cross about the serious competition. I can only speculate as to how many long hours Kostova spent piecing together the amazing breadth of research that has been incorporated into this novel.

Although 700 pages is hefty for a book of this plot type, it is not a chore to read. The writing flows well, and readers will find themselves sinking easily into Kostova's soft style. In addition to being an interesting story, The Historian is a great way to see all the hidden splendour of Europe without even leaving your comfortable chair. It seems that in every chapter, our main characters settle down in a different picturesque European landscape, all of them described in vivid detail by Kostova. Prepare to see churches you have never heard of, speak languages you have never appreciated, and taste food that you have never experienced.

While Kostova's style will suit some, however, it will not suit all. I may describe it as 'leisurely', but others will label it 'slow'. Hastier readers will tap their feet impatiently while characters spend pages and pages analysing extensive historical documents that yield only small pieces of a very large puzzle. It took me nearly three months to read this book, which unfortunately did not have the forceful page-turning power to compete with schoolwork, drama rehearsals and exam revision. As a horror novel, it scores moderately - I've definitely read much scarier stories. Most of the scenes where we actually meet Dracula only seem scary because the rest of the book meanders along gently by comparison. The novel is helped greatly, however, by Kostova's thorough research, which helps to blur the line between fantasy and reality.

On the whole, The Historian lives up to its name very well - it is historical in feel and historical in content, and draws readers in with its relaxing intrigue. Recommended for historians and bibliophiles of all backgrounds.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

2007-08-23T18:46:00.000+09:30

Title: To Kill a Mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee
Genre: Classic
Pages: 309
Published: 1960

The small town of Maycomb, in the Deep South of the USA, is home to many families; some white, some black. For Scout and Jem Finch - two young children growing up in the thirties - the entrenched racial prejudice that runs through the veins of the townsfolk is a far off problem; insignificant compared to their attempts to catch a glimpse of their reclusive neighbour, Boo Radley. Before long, however, they will be dragged right into the middle of it. When their father, Atticus, is called on to defend a Negro named Tom Robinson on trial for the rape of a white girl, Scout and Jem begin to learn some valuable lessons about hatred, injustice, and judging other people.

If there is an unwritten list of books that everyone in the developed world should read at least once, then To Kill a Mockingbird is definitely on it. Through the eyes of Scout and Jem, Harper Lee explores the seething racism of Maycomb County, and the story of one man's inspiring struggle to dispel it. The writing is helped along by a warm, childlike humour that prevents the story from becoming too depressing. The characters are well thought out and constructed, and Lee portrays them colourfully and realistically. I don't think I have ever admired and respected any fictional character as much as I now admire and respect Atticus Finch.

The messages this book carries are thoughtful, relevant and very well conveyed. It is only from the point of view of Scout, whose reasoning skills have not yet been tainted by the town's prejudices, that we are truly able to explore the injustice of racial intolerance. Lee calmly analyses racism on a number of different levels, each time delivering a valuable message that will stay with readers long after they finish the book.

While reading To Kill a Mockingbird, I was fortunate to be able to discuss it with many of my classmates, who were also reading it for English assignments. A number of them lamented that it was one of the most boring books they had ever read. While I don't agree with their complaints, I can definitely see where they are coming from. At times, the novel is in danger of being too slow. Lee takes far too long to get to the actual storyline, and even then, the plot is a little like butter that has been scraped across too large a piece of literary bread. Fragments of the story are interspersed through the everyday lives of Scout and Jem, and at times we are in danger of having too much everyday life and not enough story. The 309 pages that Lee has given us are wonderful, but her work could have been accomplished in 250 pages or less, and would be a better novel for it.

For those patient enough to let Lee take her time, To Kill a Mockingbird is an enduring classic that will touch readers' hearts with its sincerity and warmth. Without a doubt, this book is worth a read.

Bec - Darren Shan

2007-08-10T12:33:00.000+09:30

Title: Bec
Author: Darren Shan
Genre: Horror
Pages: 262
Published: 2007

Life in a demon-besieged fort is far from easy for Bec; a young priestess-in-training. Her mentor and mother have long since died, and her magic is weak and raw from lack of instruction. She sees nothing in her own future but a hopeless struggle against the hordes of demons that have already destroyed many neighbouring forts. Fate, however, has other plans for her. When Bec accompanies a small party of warriors to investigate a message from a western crannog, she and her companions become part of a quest to foil the Demonata's invasion of earth. The leader of the mission seems noble enough - but has he been entirely honest about Bec's exact role in the proceedings? If Bec isn't careful, her first adventure could well be her last.

Darren Shan, the self-styled 'Number One Master of Horror', serves up another helping of blood-fuelled mayhem in Bec, the fourth instalment in his children's horror series The Demonata. While his first three novels have been set within thirty years or so of the present day, Bec takes readers back to fifth century Ireland, when the dreaded Saint Patrick and his Christian followers were converting everyone they came across, and when, Shan insists, early settlements were under constant threat from otherworldly demons. This bygone era creates a medieval, Lord of the Rings-ish fantasy feel; mixed in, of course, with Shan's usual horrific atmosphere. The monsters in Bec only come out at night, so most of the terror is fuelled by good old fear of the dark - not a new tactic, but still a scary one.

Scattered throughout the story are clever little links to the other novels and the overall plot of the series. Fans of previous books will recognise recurring themes, such as chess, lycanthropy and magic, as well as the familiar faces of Lord Loss and his minions. On the other hand, they will also notice that while Bec has its shining moments, it unfortunately does not quite manage to outstrip its prequels. At the moment, the four Demonata books are all just as much gruesome fun as each other - which, considering the exceptional standard of Shan's writing, is more of an advantage than a drawback.

Without a doubt, the most outstanding part of Bec is the ending. In the final few chapters, Shan delivers the best (and longest) action scene in the entire series so far - a fast, bloody, full-on climax that will grip and shock readers right to the very last page. Once again, he demonstrates his prowess at perfectly balancing vivid description with relentless pace. Expect the unexpected - the inside of a demon tunnel is unlike anything you have ever imagined.

It goes without saying that Bec is a must read for Demonata devotees - a fresh new instalment that promises not to disappoint! Highly recommended for brave fantasy fans aged thirteen years and older.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling

2007-07-31T17:31:00.001+09:30

Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Author: J.K. Rowling
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 607
Published: 2007

Harry Potter cannot escape his fate. He and the Dark Lord Voldemort are destined to face each other in a duel - a duel that only one of them will survive. To even stand a chance, Harry must seek out and destroy Voldemort's four remaining Horcruxes: the fragments of his soul that bind him to the mortal world. Professor Dumbledore, however, is gone, and in his place lies a myriad of rumours and unanswered questions. Unable to rely on anyone but Ron and Hermione, Harry embarks upon a journey that will push his courage, trust and magic skills to their limits.

The queues outside bookstores around the world spoke for themselves; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been one of the most eagerly awaited books of our time. In the first twenty-four hours alone, it sold an incredible eleven million copies, making it the fastest selling book in history - and fans will be pleased to know that it is every bit as magical as its sales record suggests.

Deathly Hallows is definitely the darkest of the seven Harry Potter books. Readers can expect more deaths and more tragedies as Voldemort continues to ravage the magical world. Because Harry, Ron and Hermione decide to leave Hogwarts in search of Horcruxes, the story unfolds differently to those of the previous novels. Although the overall pace continues to vary, there are many more sections of fast-paced excitement, which help to make Deathly Hallows the most gripping and action-packed book in the series. Rowling also throws in fragments of hints which will test fans' knowledge of previous books - names and faces that have been mentioned or seen only once or twice throughout Harry's journey - but still manages to hit readers with a multitude of shocks and surprises, right to the very end.

Not only is it an exhilarating read, it is also an unusually meaningful one. No longer can critics dismiss these novels as mere children's entertainment. Harry Potter has been transformed into a series of tales that fans can read and reread to extract a greater understanding of the multiple layers of the plot. Carefully interwoven into the story are powerful messages about racism, leadership, ethics, slavery, power, faith and death. It is vital, however, that readers do not rush through the books for the sake of bragging about how quickly they can finish them. Those who take the time to savour Rowling's creations will inevitably derive much more enjoyment and understanding from the experience.

When asked which Harry Potter book is my favourite, I have always had trouble deciding. Now that I have read the final instalment, I will answer without hesitation. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is an achievement that will be treasured by Muggles the world over. It is an absolute must-read for any fan of fantasy novels. Thank you, J.K. Rowling, for a truly magical ending to a brilliant series of tales.

Ice Station - Matthew Reilly

2007-07-26T17:34:00.000+09:30

Title: Ice Station
Author: Matthew Reilly
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 611
Published: 1998

Wilkes Ice Station, a remote institution near the Antarctic coastline, is about to become the setting for a brutal conflict. When several of the station's divers transmit reports of what appears to be an alien spacecraft buried in a subterranean cavern, only to be slaughtered minutes later, the USA sends in a team of twelve hardened Reconnaissance Marines. Their assignment: to protect the ship from enemy forces at all costs. As the greedy superpowers of the world grapple for control of the spacecraft, Lieutenant Shane Schofield, the team's leader, must fight desperately for his life. What he doesn't know is that his team was marked for death from the moment they accepted the assignment.

Looking for thrills, chills and surprises? Looking for action, adventure and pure, non-stop mayhem? Looking for a story that throws punch after punch without stopping to rest? Look no further than Matthew Reilly's Ice Station: a smart, pacy confined-space thriller with a dash of well-timed humour. This book has no chapter numbers - they'd just get in the way of the excitement, which all takes place over a twenty-four hour period. The characters are well constructed, (albeit a little stereotypical,) and help to drive the plot along. Their introductions are cleverly timed - Reilly realises that readers can't absorb the names of twelve Marines all at once, so he introduces them one and two at a time. His habit of dispatching characters without hesitation also makes remembering names much easier.

The sad thing is that Ice Station will probably find itself on the receiving end of much literary snobbery: "Oh, I'm not going to read that. That's airport fiction, a cheap thrill written for a quick buck. I'm going to go read some Tolkien - something worthwhile." It is pointless to judge Ice Station using the same criteria that The Lord of the Rings might be judged against. Ice Station excels because it rises above the competition in its own genre.

For starters, it flows like the Nile. A thriller of this sort needs to be easy to read - Ice Station practically jumps off the page and reads itself to you. Secondly, it is brimming with research about weaponry, diplomatic relationships and polar geography. I'm no expert on guns and grenades, but I was still very impressed by this novel - Reilly has obviously done his homework and clearly knows what he's talking about, which adds quality to the book. This in turn helps Ice Station to have far fewer clichés than you would expect from this kind of thriller. Instead of killer sharks, Reilly uses killer whales; instead of a car chase, there is a hovercraft chase. Fresh new ideas such as these are used to eliminate the clichés, while retaining the tried-and-true excitement.

It may be a little farfetched at times, and it may not win prestigious literary awards, but those who read Ice Station with a 'why not' attitude will enjoy themselves immensely. Call me blasphemous, but I think I'd take Reilly over Tolkien any day.

The Coming of Dragons - A.J. Lake

2007-06-20T14:08:00.000+09:30

Title: The Coming of Dragons
Author: A.J. Lake
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 240
Published: 2006

When the trading ship Spearwa is wrecked off the coast of Dunmonia, the only survivors are Edmund and Elspeth: two children far from their homes in Kent and Sussex. Washed up with them is an ancient chest, which only Elspeth manages to open. Inside is a legendary magical weapon - the crystal sword - which binds itself to Elspeth, merging its destiny with hers. Before long, she and Edmund are on the run from Orgrim, King Beotrich's treacherous advisor; the very man the sword is fated to destroy. Orgrim's reach is long, his armies formidable, and his sorcery powerful - and Edmund and Elspeth are soon faced with more danger than they could ever have imagined.

Dragons have terrorised our legends for centuries, and are fast becoming one of the most popular elements of children's fantasy novels. So what better place to set The Coming of Dragons than historic England - the very place where the legends originated? The story takes place near the English coast in the 9th century, (as far as I can discern,) which makes a refreshing change from the fantasy genre's many fictional lands. Lake shows us that tales of magic and mayhem work just as well in our own world as they do in any other, right from the very first page.

The Coming of Dragons certainly opens with a bang. There is virtually no orientation - instead we are thrown straight onto a sinking ship in the middle of a violent storm, and all the background information comes in pieces as the novel progresses. After the first few chapters, we begin to recognise all the signs of a textbook fantasy. The main characters are two youngsters with magic powers who occasionally have future-foretelling dreams, pitted against the King's evil advisor and his pet raven. The characters are basic and a little cliché - (the wise-old man, the enigmatic, roaming traveller) - and Edmund and Elspeth, despite coming from different backgrounds, are practically behavioural clones. There are no real criticisms to be made of this book - nothing is substantially disappointing about it - but the number of excellent fantasy novels on the market is always increasing, and The Coming of Dragons simply lacks the brilliance to distinguish itself from the rest.

Despite these failings, however, the novel is still an enjoyable read, particularly in the first and last few chapters, where Lake displays her full skill at writing fast-paced action scenes. The actual writing style is very readable, and flows well throughout the novel. The description is efficient and effective, and the dialogue lively and interesting.

Because The Coming of Dragons is the first in a series, the real test of its quality is: 'Would I read the sequel?' After consideration, the answer is 'Yes, I think I would.' It wouldn't be at the top of my list, but I would read it. It may not be the next Eragon, but I'm sure it will be enjoyed by many young readers.

Lady Friday - Garth Nix

2007-06-13T21:28:00.000+09:30

Title: Lady Friday
Author: Garth Nix
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 278
Published: 2007

Arthur Penhaligon, Rightful Heir to the House and Secondary Realms beyond, has been systematically freeing the seven parts of the Will of the Architect and wresting the seven Keys to the Kingdom from the sinful Trustees. Now he must find the fifth part of the Will and claim the fifth Key. Lady Friday, mistress of the Middle House, has publicly abdicated, and is now hiding in her retreat in the Secondary Realms, fulfilling her endless longing for mortal experience. She seems willing to give up the Key to whoever reaches her Scriptorium first - but is it all just a trap? As Arthur races to assume control of the Middle House, his friend Leaf is trapped in the retreat itself, desperately trying to save her Aunt Mango from the lust of Lady Friday.

Lady Friday is the fifth adventure in Garth Nix's blockbuster fantasy series The Keys to the Kingdom, and it promises more of everything that made the first four novels so successful. Nix continues to unveil worlds full of surprising creatures, extraordinary people and very original devices and landscapes. While most modern fantasy authors tread the path of Tolkien, Nix reminds us why we venture into the endless possibilities of the fantasy genre: to tread paths that have never been trod before. He constantly pushes the boundaries of what we are used to in a fantasy novel. Perhaps this is the reason his series has been so successful.

Like its latest predecessor, Sir Thursday, Lady Friday follows two different plotlines - one for Arthur and one for Leaf - and alternates between the two. We see the main characters of Arthur and Dame Primus developing in interesting directions, as Arthur becomes more assertive and gets used to his authority, and Dame Primus becomes more power-hungry and judgemental. As well as familiar faces, there are more new characters; some friendly, some not. All of this helps to make Lady Friday just as creative and complex as Sir Thursday, and even more exciting and fast-paced. It is also commendable to see how Nix has dealt with the issue of lust without making his novel inappropriate for children - (each Trustee embodies one of the seven deadly sins.)

While I can picture all of Nix's creations in my mind, however, it does often require a bit of effort. Sometimes the structures he tried to describe were too huge and abstract for him to effortlessly communicate, and I often felt like I needed him in front of me to help clarify things. It would also have been helpful for him to establish the sizes of his creations by comparing them with familiar objects, rather than give readers their exact dimensions in feet - especially as he is an Australian author, and we use the metric system!

Overall, Lady Friday is a good, mind-stretching read for all lovers of fantasy. It may be necessary to concentrate and read slowly in places, but the experience is well worth the effort!

My Big Birkett - Lisa Shanahan

2007-06-03T21:25:00.000+09:30

Title: My Big Birkett
Author: Lisa Shanahan
Genre: Young Adult
Pages: 333
Published: 2007

In Gemma Stone's family, when someone's emotions run out of control into a dramatic outburst, they call it a 'Birkett', in honour of Gemma's sister Debbie's last boyfriend. This time, however, Debbie thinks she's found the love of her life, and is now happily engaged to him. His name is Brian, and his family are a rigid, military bunch that will cause the Stones no end of frustration. Meanwhile, Gemma has problems of her own. Having joined her school play at the advice of her Romeo, Nick, she finds herself befriending the delinquent Raven DeHead - but he wants to be more than just her friend. Gemma isn't known to chuck Birketts, but this year could be her first.

My Big Birkett is Lisa Shanahan's first full-length novel. She has previously written picture books for young children - and it definitely shows. This book resonates with the kind of delightful, heart-warming humour that all my family's favourite picture books are fuelled by. Shanahan manages the emotions of her readers effortlessly, making them laugh one minute and nearly cry the next. Without question, the best thing about My Big Birkett is that all its emotions are perfectly balanced - never too much of anything, never too little, and nothing too quickly. The more you react emotionally to your reading, the more you will enjoy this novel.

It took me a few chapters to get used to Shanahan's characters. Most of them are mere caricatures, with one defining attribute that is exaggerated to create the humour. Gemma's dad is overly stupid, her mum is overly embarrassing, and her best friend Jody is overly gossipy and girly. Only the characters of Gemma, Raven and, to some extent, Nick, are fleshed out in any great detail. Until I settled into this slightly melodramatic cast of characters, I found the action in the novel somewhat unrealistic. After twenty pages or so, it turned from unrealistic to funny, and I was able to enjoy the rest of the book.

The take-home message from My Big Birkett seems to be that 'life is an emotional roller-coaster, but the ride is always a precious and worthwile thing.' This book is all about the ups and downs of life that make living so special, and the unexpected joys and sorrows of people who are more than they seem. Be warned: if you read only to experience the thrills and chills of Matthew Reily or Eoin Colfer, then this book will be completely lost on you. If you are open minded and light-hearted, then it might just fill you up with the same warm, fuzzy happiness that it filled me up with.

My Big Birkett is for all those who love to read the odd picture book from the bookshelf of their younger sibling or child. It gets a thumbs up from me - a worthy candidate for this year's shortlist. I look forward to reading Lisa Shanahan's future work.

Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy

2007-06-03T21:19:00.000+09:30

Title: Skulduggery Pleasant
Author: Derek Landy
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 366
Published: 2007

Twelve-year-old Stephanie Edgely has just inherited her Uncle Gordon's estate - and with it, the interest of some dangerous criminals. When she is left home alone, she is saved in the nick of time from a fire-impervious thug by a mysterious skeleton named Skulduggery Pleasant. Within hours, she has been whisked away into a world of magic and mischief, sorcerers and secret wars. A dangerous mission lies ahead of her. Skulduggery believes that necromancer Nefarian Serpine is searching for the fabled Sceptre of the Ancients - and if he finds it, it could spell doom for everyone.

Skulduggery Pleasant is the action-packed debut novel of former screenwriter Derek Landy, and publishing company Harper Collins have certainly gone to great lengths to sell his new book. In their biggest ever global deal, they have thrown significant marketing weight behind Stephanie Edgely's adventures. So have they chosen the right book?

The novel certainly has all the key elements of a popular children's fantasy - magic, mystery, action, and, of course, a strong pre-teen protagonist. It is not, however, simply a mindless clone of every other children's fantasy novel in existence. Landy brings some genuinely creative new ideas to the genre, and embellishes it all with a crackling humour that relentlessly drives the book along. The style is fast and exciting, with lots of direct speech to make it flow easily. Landy himself has a black belt in karate, so his fight scenes are realistic, well thought out and a whole lot of fun. This novel has the right balance of everything - the right amount of violence, action and thrills, without being inappropriate for its age-group. Yet another book that reads like an action film!

The plot of Skulduggery Pleasant is not to be sneezed at. A rich cast of lively and surprising characters help to create a storyline that is gripping and unpredictable. No time is ever wasted in this book - there are always places to go, monsters to slay! The further you get into the story, the better it gets. Especially notable is the way characters and plot elements are nonchalantly introduced near the start of the book, and then reintroduced near the end of the book to become key parts of the action. Some people may find the story a little unrealistic at times, but there are not a huge number of plot holes, and I found that I was able to enjoy the book unhampered by the few that there were.

Putting myself in the position of an eight to twelve-year-old, I can definitely see myself really enjoying this book, (not that I didn't enjoy it reading it at age 15!) It's a whole lot of fast, wicked fun. At the end of the day, the critcs will probably say it's nothing special - but it's exactly the same kind of 'nothing special' that made Harry Potter a worldwide hit. Maybe there's a chance that Skulduggery Pleasant is destined for the same fate.