Andy Graham's Blog

If you’ll allow me to mangle a well-known idiom with my unique grasp of math(s), this book is a book of two halves.

Approximately 90% of it holds some of the best writing I have come across.

The relentless increase in tension.
The ‘Oh sh*t, no! He’s not gonna do that.’ moments.
The breakneck speed and drama of the battle scenes.
The understated horror of what happens to some people.
The realisation that Zero has been playing them for years.
That prose, baby. The books got the kind of moves that’ll make a librarian sit up and damn well perspire in the aisles.

This 90% is phenomenal. (Just like in Book Two.)

Then there’s the 10%.

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Now, don’t get me wrong. The 10% is not bad, not by any stretch. If I could get near the standard of this 10% in anything of mine, I’d be happy. But compared to the rest of the book, it jarred.

Zero’s back story drags. It’s well-written, but feels almost like a long short-book within a short long-book.

His fate, too. It came and went. As did Alicia’s. (Peter’s, too, to an extent). I’ve reread these sections and still came away thinking: “What just happened?”

It’s a theme that recurs throughout the series, everything is so well written but every now and then something pops up which seems too fantastical: Peter dealing with the drac in the cage (Book Two); virals that were unstoppable in Book One get weaker as the story progresses – they no longer have just one or two ‘sweet spots’ (the sternum & palate) but can be killed as easily as humans. There were other moments where I had the same sensation of stumbling over a plot point. I feel like I’m being churlish as the series is SO good. But precisely because of that, what I may have glossed over in other books, stuck out here.

Similarly, the prose: It is sublime: pared down to the bare minimum in places and so effective for it; a throwaway sentence of beauty in others. But again when Zero is around, things tend to wallow. It suits his personality. Maybe, that was why. But it’s also the dosage. Like salt, a little adds flavour. A pinch more? Perfect. Dump in three more spoons (AKA sentences) and it’s too much.

Overall, though, I binge-read this book like I did the other two. That pretty much tells you my opinions about it and the series.

Buy it. Read it. Once you’ve read the others first.

You can pick up a copy here[image error].

 

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

Warning: If you want a well-written, critical review, stop now. I’m about to gush words all over the page.

I’m not sure where to start with this book – it’s epic. I’ll get that out of the way before I start nit-picking.

My issues, and they are minor, are similar to Book One (The Passage).

It jumps around a lot. I should have known better than to expect a simple continuation of where the story left off. Story arcs and characters were left hanging as they were between the two sections that make up The Passage. If you want your fiction served up in a straight line, this series is not for you.
There are a lot of characters. It was easier to keep track having read Book One, but even so, there were times when I struggled.
It dips a little in the middle as characters are being moved into place for the final push.
Would the chapters dealing with escalating viral problem be better in Book One? After all, The Passage skips the immediate issues of the virals/ dracs/ Twelve* and leaps almost 100 years into the future. I’m split on this. I think I would have preferred that overall, but it is also nice seeing the origins of First Colony already knowing what happens to them. Alicia’s ancestory, in particular, is nicely tagged on. (Almost like the literary equivalent of a post-credit scenes you get in certain types of overly-muscled superhero movies.)
Michael seemed like a new character rather than a development of Book One Michael. I know people change, but this guy was so different to ‘Circuit’ that it threw me.

That’s it.

Not many nits to pick, are there?

Now… the good stuff.

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The section that deals with the immediate problems of the virus hitting is superb. #istandwithlaststandindenver
The section that deals with the concentration camp is harrowing. Not so much for the red-eyes but the normal people who willingly go along with their evil.
The ratcheting up of the tension towards the end is compelling.
The prose is sublime: minimal descriptions that paint so much better a picture than books stuffed full of adverbs and adverbs; alternating sentence structures that have their own internal rhythm; and a use of language that is, simply, beautiful.
There is an attention to detail that doesn’t swamp the plot. (i.e. it doesn’t read like a Wikipedia page)
Some of the most effective horror is hinted at: a growing, luminescent green light; a clicking noise; tree-tops rustling (‘They come from above.’); and, worst of all, the inevitable terror heralded by waning daylight.
Characters that are so flawed and so real because of it. There’s not even a mention of a kick-arse heroine who can speak multiple languages, holds multiple black belts in multiple mystic martial arts (Including the Approach of Aggressive Alliteration) but suffers from a deep dark secret that only one person knows. As for hard-bitten detectives with marital/ drinking/ authority* issues but are good at their job? Forget it.
And how the author manages to bring all the disparate characters and arcs to the climax as he does, I have no idea.

In short this book is phenomenal, a classic example of ‘just one more chapter before I switch the lights out.’ It has played hell with my insomnia. Not only because I wanted to know what happened next, but because the shadows in my bedroom grew claws and teeth.

But despite that pace and prose, the masterful weaving of story lines and complicated/ real characters, despite all that brilliance, there was one line that grabbed me and wouldn’t let go for days: a moment of tenderness in a world beyond hope.

“I’ve got you,” he said, hugging Tim fiercely; and again, over and over, so that the boy would be hearing these words. “I’ve got you, I’ve got you, I’ve got you, I’ve got you.”

Last Stand in Denver

Read The Twelve[image error], you’ll see what I mean.

It is awesome.

*delete as appropriate

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

I’m not really sure where to start with this book.

It’s monstrous. In the best possibly way.

Did I like it?

Yes, absolutely. I’m half-way through the sequel already.

Is it easy to follow?

Yes & no.

The plot is the yes. Essentially, the military create ‘vampires’ by unearthing a long-lost disease. (I’m not sure if paleovirology is a thing but it sounds cool.) The army think they can control their subjects and the disease. Yeah. You got it. Guess what happens…

The no? That’s twofold: the cast of characters & the massive time jump about a third in.

I mentioned in a recent review of ‘Salem’s Lot how I was struggling to keep track of a town’s worth of people. (I’ll leave the comparison of Justin Cronin’s style to Stephen King to other people.*) I have the same numbers issue here. Except a lot of the people in The Passage[image error] are related and have similar names. There came a point where I had to roll with it and think that maybe character X was Y or possibly Z or actually Q’s sister in disguise as TBWJzjsi7aaQ’s brother. Kind of. And that’s before we add in first names and surnames and nicknames…

And the time jump? Did I mention that?

The book is essentially a long prequel and main story. The prequel sets the scene – where the virus is from, how it’s released into the wild and so on. The story then skips approx. 100 years into the future to a band of survivors in the ‘Colony’. It was a big break and left a lot of questions about certain initial characters unanswered, people I was ‘invested’ in. There were moments when I felt almost cheated by not knowing what had happened to them. As I struggled with the vast secondary cast, I occasionally felt I was reading purely to see what happened to the original people. Some of my questions are kind of addressed later on, but there’s a long wait for those half-answers.

[image error] [image error]

Otherwise…

The story is incredibly well-written. There are moments of poetic prose interspersed with sections that are brutally simple. The nastiness within the novel was the latter: it’s clean. There were no lengthy descriptions of monsters dripping in adjectives and doing things adverbily to their overly-described victims. The scare was all the more powerful for that.

Partly because of the quality of the writing, there were a few places were the story seemed to jump, almost like a stylus on a record. A motive that I didn’t get. An action that made no sense. A monster’s inability to do something which I thought they could. I’d be hard pressed to tell you what those moments were now, but I remember them jarring.

To wrap up…

For those interested in apocalyptic thrillers, there are a lot of staples here: the hunt for food/ weapons/ safety & surviving government f**k ups. (We’re due a major one at the moment, surely…) Then there’s the banding together of the people who have fled the relative safety of their home and the resourcefulness they need to survive. It’s well done and there’s enough realism, hard luck and fortune to keep it interesting.

For those interested in ‘vampires’ (‘virals’). You’ve got it all. With a twist. References to crosses, mirrors (reflections), hanging upside down, blood and so on.

Would I have changed anything? Yes. Filling in the gap between section one & two. Book two addresses some of that time lag (brilliantly) and it’s nice to see some of the pieces slotting into places, but I think I’d still have preferred the story in order. By the time I get to the end of the trilogy, I may have different view.

All in all – a great read.

You can pick up a copy of The Passage here[image error].

Andy

*They’re right.

 

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

I read this book exactly a year ago. I wrote a review then, too. ‘Bout time I posted it…

Heard of The Grey Bastards (TGB)? Nope? Well, here’s a bullet-point review.

Don’t like frequent swearing? Don’t read this book.
Don’t like violence? Don’t read this book.
Don’t like books where nasty things happen? Don’t read this book.
Don’t like books with multiple characters? Don’t read this book.
Don’t like plots that twist and turn but somehow come out making sense? Don’t read this book.
Don’t like sex scenes and/ or sexual references? Don’t read this book.
Don’t like a sense of humour which ranges from clever to crude to banter to juvenile? Don’t read this book.
Don’t like magic? Don’t read this book.
Don’t like disturbing, skin-crawling (literally in some cases) events? Don’t read this book.
Don’t like orcs or whores or shaven-headed elves or mad centaurs or devious humans and power-crazed wizards? Don’t read this book.
Do like all this stuff? Go read this book.

Now for the wordy version…

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The Grey Bastards is nice twist on the classic coming-of-age tale. In this case our protagonist is not a human but a half-orc. The book follows Jackal and his friends as they struggle to deal with the fate of their home and their ‘hoof’ against a multitude of enemies and, in some cases, friends.

The novel has plenty of twists and mashes up dark fantasy/ epic fantasy/ cowboy stories (cow-orcs?) and murder-mystery-suspense tropes. Friendships become enemies and enemies become allies. Those partnerships are made and broken seemingly from page to page. This, plus short chapters, makes for a fast-paced novel which is very easy to keep reading.

That pace, paradoxically, was one of the things that I found a little wearing at around the three-quarter mark. Ending each chapter on a cliff-hanger is a very effective way to keep people reading but I find it grates if used too much.

The other thing that niggled was the main character: Jackal. He’s nice. There were some utter reprobates amongst the ‘mongrels’, but Jackal and his friends are the half-orcish equivalent of whores with a heart of gold (who also crop up in this book). Jackal always strives to do the right thing and is always prepared to make the required sacrifice. I would have preferred him to be a bit more, well, orcish I guess. (Or human, depending on your view of humanity…) Jackal almost always gets the lucky escape, too – something else that I would have liked to vary a little more. Despite that, he is a solid main character and develops well, as evident by his role in his own fate.

My last mini-gripe would be to tone down the descriptions. Most of the prose is great and suits the book perfectly, but there are a few places where it felt forced.

I feel churlish pointing a lot of this stuff out as it is a very good book. Any fans of grimdark or dark fantasy will enjoy TGB. There are a lot of genre staples here dealt with in a refreshing way e.g. flipping the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ from human to orc, the centaurs, elves and wizards, etc. I particularly like the way the author manages the half-orc world: from the reason for the hoofs and their existence (that’s a great plot twist), their hierarchy and names, the hogs (I want one!), to their levels of orcishness: frailing/ half-orc/ thrice/ thick.

The other impressive feature is how it all comes together at the end. There are so many reversals of fortunes and loyalties and reasonings along the way, that I wondered at one point how the author would tie it all in. He does, and the book ends with a satisfying conclusion. It also leaves enough teasers dangling for book two – which has recently been released and looks as good as the first.

In conclusion, The Grey Bastards is well worth your time. But this recommendation comes with one final warning…

Don’t like the word c**t? DON’T READ THIS BOOK!

You can pick up a copy here[image error].

 

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

OK.

At the time of writing (Oct 2019), I’m forty-seven.

Remember that number, OK?

Right, the book: ‘Salem’s Lot[image error].

In no particular order.

It started slowly. Very slowly. It crawled. But, round about 15%

(Yes, I read on a Kindle so talk about % now rather than page numbers…)

of the way in, I realised that the crawling plot had, in fact, been tying loose knots around my imagination. And when the first few people disappeared, those knots started tightening. That didn’t stop until the end of the novel. And that’s the thing – no one and nothing is sacred in this story. From the initial, chilling sacrifice to the Lord of Flies to the final show down. People drop like, well, flies, I guess. They are there and then they’re gone.

The problem is, most of these people come back. After dark. And these are not nice vampires. They don’t sparkle. They don’t come armed with comedy accents and cliches and dress in cloaks. They are unpleasant and, in some cases, tragic. But the nastiness doesn’t stop there. There’s a house – The Marsten House. Its cellar is almost as scary as some of the monsters. As the author says in the foreword: ‘it’s one of the scary ones.’

But, outside of Barlow and his vampires, and the Marsten House and its cellar, and the superb depictions of some very messed up people there were a few things that jarred.

1 – the vast number of peripheral characters was hard to follow. We’re talking about a town’s worth. Many appear and disappear then reappear and I wasn’t always sure who was who. Are you the useless cop? The horny (pervy) dump manager? The wifebeater. And so on…

2 – the ending was over too quickly. The set up to the final moments were chillingly good, but the final resolution? Over too soon. Maybe it’s better that way rather than turning the last pages into a B-movie gore schlock fest?

3 – where are the rats? They exist in the deleted scenes at the end of the book but were culled from the finished version. I’d have preferred they were kept as some of those scenes are terrifying.

All in all, though, this is another one of those books where I found myself wondering why I had never read it before.

[image error] [image error]

So. Back to my age. You remember how old I am, right? Go check it you’ve forgotten. I’ll wait.

Back already?

OK.

I read the bulk of this book whilst staying in a largish flat in London. I was on my own. Reading late in the evening. Suffering from insomnia. One night – I think it was near the end of the book when things had really gone belly up for the inhabitants of the Lot – I couldn’t sleep. Not because of my insomnia, but because a doubt had crept up on me, rat-like, whiskers tickling the toes of my imagination. Who, or what, was in the other rooms in the flat? I was there on my own, right? Of course I was. Just me. No one else. Not a soul. Only little old me…

Yup.

A forty-seven year old man got out of bed to check there were no monsters in the closet, under the bed, in the other rooms or hiding on the landing.

Are you laughing at me?

You should be…

Now go read the book. It’s scarily good.

PS Ben Mears (the protagonist) is an author, a ‘serious-minded person’. At one point he meets a young woman’s parents for dinner. After a few beers he goes home while the evening’s young because he wants to write. The reason he gives the woman’s dad is that he owes his current book some pages. I’m paraphrasing (badly), but I think it’s a great idea: an author owing their book words. Guess where I’m going now.

 

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

There’s a belief amongst some musicians that the notes that you don’t play are as important as the ones you do. It might be fun to play more more more (with your amp cranked to 11), but space is important. You have to let the music breath. The same thing applies to books: what’s left off the page is important as what finds its way onto it.

This collection of short stories is a classic example of that principle. There are no wallowing descriptions that suck the life out of the plot. Kormak, his friends and enemies, and the world they live and die in are not served up with lashings of adjectives and adverbs. The text is clean.

It’s an approach to writing common to a lot of great books I have read recently: Carrie, ‘Salem’s Lot, The Road. It’s a stark contrast to some less experienced authors (*coughs and looks at feet*) who have a tendency to choke their story with words. (Even if some of those words do go up to 11.) I don’t want an author to spoon feed me their imagination, I’d rather fill in the gaps myself.

From that perspective, these short stories are worth reading. The sparse descriptions are effective and a good reference for authors looking to improve what they do.

 

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One of the stories that features.

But what’s the book about?

It’s a collection of old school sword-and-sorcery stories featuring a world-weary protagonist, Kormak, who fights and thinks his way through a series of ever more fantastic encounters. There are a few unpleasant twists; there’s a dash of humour. The setting is well-fleshed out with a rich history, which stands to reason given the author’s experience and the amount of time he has been writing in this world. They’re a good read. They’re an easy read, too. (I mean that positively.) But, one of the things I really liked about these stories is that they’re short.

I love a good epic as much as the next reader but I also enjoy shorter formats. Especially for a slow(ish) reader such as me, there’s something satisfying about finishing a book in an evening or two. And in fantasy (AKA The Genre of Escalating Page Counts), quality short stories are a rare beast.

In summary, if you’re into dark fiction & fantasy, the stories are worth your time. They work on their own and also serve as a good introduction to the longer Kormak books.

Here’s the catch.

I’m not sure where to get hold of this collection online.

I got my copy as a subscriber to Bill King’s newsletter. I’m not sure if this particular offer will come around again. At present, he is offering a free omnibus of full-length Kormak novels on his website.

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You’ll need to sign up to his readers’ group to claim it (here), but he writes great newsletters, too. Descriptive and to the point. Like Kormak.

To finish, I’ll quote Mr King himself:

‘As always, thanks for your time.’

Andy

 

You can read more about the man behind the words here.

One Book Interview #13 – William King (Author)

 

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

I don’t do many reviews. I should, knowing how helpful they can be. But I’m not sure a book like this really needs another review. It won the Pulitzer Prize! But here’s my brief take on it.

I wasn’t convinced at first. Despite the stunning writing, I didn’t really think it was going anywhere. But the more I read, the more desperately beautiful it was, and the more the sense built that something terrible was lurking on the next page.

Some of the throw away lines about what people do to survive, what and who they eat, are possibly better glossed over. I’ve returned to a few of these sentences and actually thought about what is being said. When put in relation to my life (and my kids…), it is horrific.

And any author who can describe a trout as ‘polished and muscular and torsional’ deserves attention.

In short? It’s tragic, touching and brilliant.

Read it.

[image error] [image error]

 

You can pick up a copy of The Road[image error] on Amazon US by following the link.

 

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

I keep promising more reviews. I rarely live up to that promise. (They seem to take me so long to write.) This week, however, is different…

[image error] [image error]

A classic 1920s science fiction novella — with a 21st century twist. Ex-boxer Harry Stubbs is on the trail of a mysterious legacy in South London. A polar explorer has died, leaving huge debts and hints of a priceless find. Harry’s informants seem to be talking in riddles, he finds that isn’t the only one on the trail — and what he’s looking for is as lethal as it is valuable, leaving a trail of oddly-mutilated bodies. The key to the enigma lies in an ancient Arabian book, leading to something more alien and more horrifying than Harry could ever imagine. Harry is not be an educated man, but he has an open mind, bulldog persistence and piledriver fists — important assets when you’re boxing the darkest of shadows.

The story of mystery and horror draws on HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and is inspired by Ernest Shackleton’s incredible real-life Antarctic adventures.

 

My thoughts?

Short version:

The Elder Ice[image error] is an enjoyable book – quick to read, well written and entertaining. If you’re interested in a London mystery set in the early 20thcentury, with a supernatural twist, a dash of gore, and a few left hooks dropped into the mix, this one’s for you.

Long version:

What starts out as a straightforward mystery novel, complete with a cast of chancers and lovable rogues, becomes something a whole lot stranger. (Think ‘From Dusk til Dawn’ but with bowler hats, fist fights, antique dealers and ‘fug.’) Not everyone will appreciate the transition from ‘normal’ to ‘odd’, but for others not enough will be made of that final weirdness.

There were a few things that stood out.

The opening is fantastic. It grips you, sets the scene and the ending of it leaves a nice chill.

The main protagonist. Harry is the classic pugilistic gentleman, the type of fellow to give you a broken-nosed grin while reminding you ‘not to confuse kindness with weakness’. (He may even crack his knuckles as he does so.) His back story, his hopes and dreams, his good nature and stolidly reliable presence. I like Harry. It’s also refreshing to have a character who doesn’t have a Dark Secret (normally alcoholism) crowbarred into the pages.

The boxing! Love it. Just the right amount of detail. Some books get too technical in their fight scenes, this was nicely done. The street fight cut a fine line between genteel and the Hollywood style of ‘let’s all politely line up to get clobbered one at a time’, but that’s a minor gripe on my part. Using ‘round’ instead of ‘chapter’ is also a nice touch.

The highlight was the language. The author’s prose and dialogue is very evocative. Combined with historical details and a smattering of unobtrusive facts, it captures the period of the drama superbly and makes for a great setting.

The length (all 100 pages of it) makes this a quick read. As a result, some of the sections feel rushed and some of the characters a little underdeveloped. E.g. I would have liked more made of Harry’s legal employer and the scientists who study the little critters that underpin the plot. These people were there. And then gone.

There were a few moments which didn’t add up. The first was when Harry seemed to go from being under potentially-lethal suspicion to innocence in a matter of heart beats. I know this can happen, but the manner in which it happened didn’t quite make sense. Similarly, when Harry finds out who has been pulling the strings, the nature of the reveal and Harry’s reactions were underplayed & under-described. (The person who has been pulling the strings was a nice twist, though. I didn’t see that one coming.)

A few moments made me feel like I was Being Explained To. Some action (or more of that evocative prose) to balance out the dialogue would have been welcome.

The big scene at the end of the novel was, unfortunately, the weakest section. Personally, I would have preferred a lot more ‘mortal peril.’ I realise that in doing so the book could quite easily have slid too far into flat-out horror. Maybe this is why the author didn’t go that way, but the tension never really grabbed me when I really wanted it to. The survivor of this scene seemed to get through with good, old-fashioned grit and gumption and not much else. I would have preferred the author to bring in some of the drama found on the other pages (e.g. earlier in the same scene, in the derelict shed) to up the ante.

Harry’s ultimate fate in this short novel, however, is nicely done.

All in all, this is a good book but one which may have benefitted by simmering for a little longer and boiling a little harder. I would happily read more by the same author.

My rating?

Four stars.

You can check out the book on Amazon The Elder Ice[image error].

And you can read about the man behind the words here.

One Book Interview #50 – David Hambling (Author)

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

I keep promising more reviews. I rarely live up to that promise. (They seem to take me so long to write.) This week, however, is different…

[image error] [image error]

A classic 1920s science fiction novella — with a 21st century twist. Ex-boxer Harry Stubbs is on the trail of a mysterious legacy in South London. A polar explorer has died, leaving huge debts and hints of a priceless find. Harry’s informants seem to be talking in riddles, he finds that isn’t the only one on the trail — and what he’s looking for is as lethal as it is valuable, leaving a trail of oddly-mutilated bodies. The key to the enigma lies in an ancient Arabian book, leading to something more alien and more horrifying than Harry could ever imagine. Harry is not be an educated man, but he has an open mind, bulldog persistence and piledriver fists — important assets when you’re boxing the darkest of shadows.

The story of mystery and horror draws on HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and is inspired by Ernest Shackleton’s incredible real-life Antarctic adventures.

 

My thoughts?

Short version:

The Elder Ice[image error] is an enjoyable book – quick to read, well written and entertaining. If you’re interested in a London mystery set in the early 20thcentury, with a supernatural twist, a dash of gore, and a few left hooks dropped into the mix, this one’s for you.

Long version:

What starts out as a straightforward mystery novel, complete with a cast of chancers and lovable rogues, becomes something a whole lot stranger. (Think ‘From Dusk til Dawn’ but with bowler hats, fist fights, antique dealers and ‘fug.’) Not everyone will appreciate the transition from ‘normal’ to ‘odd’, but for others not enough will be made of that final weirdness.

There were a few things that stood out.

The opening is fantastic. It grips you, sets the scene and the ending of it leaves a nice chill.

The main protagonist. Harry is the classic pugilistic gentleman, the type of fellow to give you a broken-nosed grin while reminding you ‘not to confuse kindness with weakness’. (He may even crack his knuckles as he does so.) His back story, his hopes and dreams, his good nature and stolidly reliable presence. I like Harry. It’s also refreshing to have a character who doesn’t have a Dark Secret (normally alcoholism) crowbarred into the pages.

The boxing! Love it. Just the right amount of detail. Some books get too technical in their fight scenes, this was nicely done. The street fight cut a fine line between genteel and the Hollywood style of ‘let’s all politely line up to get clobbered one at a time’, but that’s a minor gripe on my part. Using ‘round’ instead of ‘chapter’ is also a nice touch.

The highlight was the language. The author’s prose and dialogue is very evocative. Combined with historical details and a smattering of unobtrusive facts, it captures the period of the drama superbly and makes for a great setting.

The length (all 100 pages of it) makes this a quick read. As a result, some of the sections feel rushed and some of the characters a little underdeveloped. E.g. I would have liked more made of Harry’s legal employer and the scientists who study the little critters that underpin the plot. These people were there. And then gone.

There were a few moments which didn’t add up. The first was when Harry seemed to go from being under potentially-lethal suspicion to innocence in a matter of heart beats. I know this can happen, but the manner in which it happened didn’t quite make sense. Similarly, when Harry finds out who has been pulling the strings, the nature of the reveal and Harry’s reactions were underplayed & under-described. (The person who has been pulling the strings was a nice twist, though. I didn’t see that one coming.)

A few moments made me feel like I was Being Explained To. Some action (or more of that evocative prose) to balance out the dialogue would have been welcome.

The big scene at the end of the novel was, unfortunately, the weakest section. Personally, I would have preferred a lot more ‘mortal peril.’ I realise that in doing so the book could quite easily have slid too far into flat-out horror. Maybe this is why the author didn’t go that way, but the tension never really grabbed me when I really wanted it to. The survivor of this scene seemed to get through with good, old-fashioned grit and gumption and not much else. I would have preferred the author to bring in some of the drama found on the other pages (e.g. earlier in the same scene, in the derelict shed) to up the ante.

Harry’s ultimate fate in this short novel, however, is nicely done.

All in all, this is a good book but one which may have benefitted by simmering for a little longer and boiling a little harder. I would happily read more by the same author.

My rating?

Four stars.

You can check out the book on Amazon The Elder Ice[image error].

And you can read about the man behind the words here.

One Book Interview #50 – David Hambling (Author)

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

I haven’t posted any reviews for a while. I keep meaning to do it but my good intentions are constantly being battered by my to-do-list. Today, however, I’ll make an exception with I Was a Teenage Weredeer[image error].

Before we get to the book, what’s it about?

[image error] [image error]

Jane Doe is a weredeer, the least-threatening shapechanger species in the world. Blessed with the ability to turn furry at will and psychically read objects, Jane has done her best to live a normal life working as a waitress at the Deerlightful Diner. She has big dreams of escaping life in the supernatural-filled town of Bright Falls, Michigan, and her eighteenth birthday promises the beginning of her teenage dreams coming true.

Unfortunately, her birthday is ruined by the sudden murder of her best friend’s sister in an apparent occult killing. Oh, and her brother is the primary suspect. Allying with an eccentric FBI agent, the local crime lord, and a snarky werecrow, Jane has her work cut out for her in turning her big day around.

Thankfully, she’s game.

My thoughts?

I Was a Teenage Weredeer[image error] is a fun read – snarky and sarcastic with a (vaguely) serious undercurrent.

The basic premise is of vampires, shape shifters and other supernatural beings now living in the open along side normal humans.  They, as we do, have their own factions, prejudices, hierarchies, infighting and quarrels.

This story is told from the perspective of a young woman/ deer (Check out the title of the book if that confuses you.) as she struggles to resolve one bloody bout of vengeance.

The world within a world is not a new idea but it’s well done here and the authors do a nice job of were-dovetailing them into our world.

(See what I did there? You did. Right. I’ll get my coat…)

The text is chock full of references to popular culture. These occasionally felt forced but should resonate with a broad church of readers. As well as some of those references, I’d have preferred to lose some of the banter and tighten up a few of the scenes. (There were some events that seemed to stretch reality too far, even for a book which is about doing just that.) A smaller cast of characters would also have suited me better as I occasionally found it hard to keep track of who was who. A list of characters at the back would be another option. I have a feeling that if that was done, the descriptions would be ‘creative’, to say the least.

There was one scene (By a lake. With a water spirit.) where the silliness was put on hold for a few pages. That scene was compelling reading and I think the book would have benefitted from more writing like that for the added depth, balance, and darkness.

If you’re looking for a light-hearted read with plenty of cheek, you can’t go wrong. And if you appreciate puns, especially puns about deer, you won’t find many other books on the market that grab that particular genre by the antlers like this one does.

On that appalling dad joke. I’m out.

My rating?

Four stars.

 

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Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.