Missio

by Tim Roux

'A magical journey that sparkles with wit and shimmers with intelligence', Genevieve Graham, author of 'Under The Same Sky' and 'Cold Hands'.

Walking the rundown streets of his dockland neighbourhood searching for his cat, Stevie meets The Great Macaroni, a children's magician who spends his time trying to persuade his young audiences that his real magic is mere trickery.

He teaches Stevie that nothing in this world is as it appears, that teaspoons can fly, and that the future is never set even if it has already happened.

What he cannot tell him about are the two years of his life that Stevie will spend in absolute darkness.

262 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 21, 2009

About the author

(That 'date of death' category threw me. What if you don't know yet?)

I am a writer, editor and publisher. I have written ten books, the most acclaimed of which are 'The Dance of the Pheasodile', 'Missio' and 'Girl on a Bar Stool'. The least acclaimed is 'Fishing, for Christians' (I still like it), and then there is one in-between 'The Blue Food Revolution' which is me in flat out magical realist mode and which is met with either absolute love or absolute suck-on-the-end-of-this-barrel hatred.

I have allowed my quill to blunt and my inkwell to dry while I run Night Reading (a community for independent authors with 400+ members) and Night Publishing (the associated publishing house with 50+ signed authors).

However, I do have a couple of books planned, so should the Internet go down globally for about 6 months, they will probably get written (so long as there is still electricity - I am not writing them by hand or typing them).

Reviews

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of coming of age novel with an interesting style, which meanders along.

[Charlotte Castle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I often hear people complaining that there is an identikit trend in publishing these days. Everything is a re-hash of something else. We have the sparkly vampire trend, the miserable childhood trend, the religious conspiracy trend (that Dan Brown has a lot to answer for) - but somehow, amongst all the guff and dribble out there, I managed to come across 'Missio' by Tim Roux. In the interests of lyrical writing, I'd have liked to have said it 'bucks the trend' here - but the truth is, it's simply unique.

I was particularly drawn to it because of the suggestion of whimsy and magic - and I was not dissapointed. Roux creates a gritty grey world - the mean streets of Hull - and then introduces a fantastical layer of wizardry, mediumship and simple old fashioned magic. Don't worry - this is no Harry Potter for grown-ups, but like HP, it will rip you out of the mundane reality of HERE and whisk you into the darkly amusing land of THERE.

I must say that I found the blurb didn't give the best impression of this book. The trawler connection is somewhat incidental - the protaganist (who is written in the first person and so well, that I entirely forgot for about the first two chapters that it wasn't an autobiography) is the last of a tragic trawling dynasty and this is painted realistically and endearingly. However,for me, the parts of the novel that I will remember will most certainly be the astonishing characters that Roux paints - each so vivid, so demanding of your attention, that they leap at you in trompe l'oiel. The Hanging Judge, The Great Macaroni, King Codd, Stevie's mum - each has great poignancy and depth and each stays with you for days after - popping up when you're washing up, or slinking into the back of your mind whilst you're in the bath.

In short, this is a literary work which deserves great accolade. If I was forced at gun-point to make a comparison, I might think of Will Self's 'How the Dead Live', though it is much lighter in both spirit and style. Roux really is a very skilled and articulate writer.

Missio is witty, whimsical, warm, down to earth and yet entirely bonkers...all at once. I loved it.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A word with nine letters describes this book best……..brilliant!! I have not had the pleasure of reading any of Tim Roux’s work before but I will be making an effort to read more of it in the future. Roux is a very skilled writer. I did not want to put this book down. It is a different kind of book but in the best possible use of the word. Honestly, I would like to leave my review at ‘brilliant’ but I guess I had better try and put together a little something more. Please be warned, this in no way will do justice to the works of Roux.

Missio’s main character is Stevie Francis. Now, Stevie develops a gift of being able to see into the future. Sometimes this ‘gift’ is most unpleasant. A great character by the name of The Great Macaroni aids in Stevie’s development of said gift, but he also teaches much more. The Great Macaroni dabbles in trickery and helps Stevie to understand that nothing in this world is as it appears. This alone set my interest sky-rocketing because I tend to believe in these things myself. A lot of Missio made sense to me and I guess this is why it appealed so much to my literary inner self.

I won’t give away anything about the story, you will have to read it yourself – and I suggest you do! I will say there are quite a few ‘interesting’ characters in Missio, each reaffirming the talent of Mr Roux. Felicio the cat is an absolute favourite of mine, as is The Hanging Judge. The recipe for Missio is clearly full of well thought out imaginings, engaging characters and a plethora of intelligent and creative words combined together to make the end result of a brilliant piece of work. This recipe definitely makes me want to go back for another serving of Roux!


A big thank you to Tim Roux for providing me with a copy of Missio, without doubt one of the best books I have read this year. Thank you, Tim! I look forward to reading more of you work in the future.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Missio begins with a history of Hull trawlers that have sunk over the years. The narrator Stevie Francis should know – this is how he lost his father and grandfather. The key figures in Stevie’s life are his mother, grandmother, Danielle and Felicio, a stalwart of a cat (and I am always a sucker for cats). Stevie discovers he has access to another world when his deceased father appears to him at nights. Stevie’s furtive imagination and extra-sensory perception is further roused by a morbid fascination with the former ‘hanging judge’s’ house, situated between his gran’s and his mother’s house. The creepy portrayal of this house as seen through the child’s eyes is superb. When Felicio goes missing, Stevie enlists the help of the Great Macaroni, the magician who has had the ‘hanging judge’s house bequeathed to him. Soon Stevie is being versed by both the ghost of the hanging judge and the Great Macaroni: the judge teaching him facts and the Great Macaroni conjuring and to question reality and things start to get delightfully surreal. By the time he hits puberty, Stevie’s mind can’t cope with too much reality causing a mental breakdown and the loss of a couple of years of his life. Our hero ‘recovers’ by playing the ‘normality’ game but the gift for predicting the future sometimes proves to be a curse, especially where his wife Danielle and her family are concerned.
The book's strengths: Tim Roux's light touch of humour, economic style and sense of the surreal ensure this is a story to remember.
The book's weaknesses: I wasn't sure that the present day interjections by Macca and George added anything but I didn't let it detract from the overall enjoyment of this charming and witty story.

[Isadora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mission is the first book I've read where the main character is in the middle of writing/telling his autobiography, not to the readers (as in that sense every fiction novel is a biography) but to other characters.

I cannot begin to describe exactly what it is about this book that causes the sensation that burns my chest even now. Maybe it's the way this book seems to repeat the age-old adage "ignorance is bliss". Stephen lives knowing every joy and tragedy that will enter his life and there's little he can do to act upon them, even if it means watching others suffer and taking secrets to his grave.

This book is half science fiction and half time-worn autobiography. Read it. You will NOT be disappointed.

[Colin Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very original.