Number 26 - One Word kill by Mark Lawrence

This is the longest book I've read this year in just one day.  I read the first 50 pages on my lunch break at the day job, and the rest of the book while I was not allowed to go to sleep during the night job. I finished it at about 4:30 ish this morning. 

This is my first Mark Lawrence book. And the second book I've ever been sent for the express purpose of review for this blog.

The story concerns Nick, a boy genius and keen D&D player, recently diagnosed with a virulent strain of leukaemia, who encounters a mysterious stranger who enlists his help to save his new friend Mia. The stranger knows a lot about Nick and friends, and his past, and his future? And his future with Mia...

The fact that I read it in one day is a clue to the fact that this is an easy read and an enjoyable book. It's a very well written and well paced Young Adult novel which delves into some quite complex territory. My knowledge of physics has taken a quantum leap forward after reading this book. It also deals with some fairly grown up themes, drugs, and gang violence, and knife wielding psychpaths.


In some ways the story is fairly predictable.  The identity of the mysterious stranger wasn't difficult to figure out not too long after he first appeared, but as a genre literate adult, it's probably a lot easier for me to spot the clues.  The target audience will certainly appreciate the twists and turns - as did I.  Spotting a clever plot twist is a pleasure and I certainly won't denigrate a book for not managing to fool me.

I don't like dumb plot twists, but this book is pretty clever. The storyline through the D&D games they play throughout parallels nicely with the real events taking place. This is another standard device in stories that involve D&D players, but here it's handled better than I've seen it done for a long time.

The emotional side of the story works very well too. The early chapters with him coming to terms with the diagnosis and the scene where he tells friends about the cancer are particularly good. His relationship with his mother could be explored more, but there are two more books to do that in. Having said that, the emotional distance between the two family members is well portrayed and another source of sympathy for young Nick.

I believe I have picked up on some clues to how the wider story will pan out in the next two books in the trilogy and I'm seriously looking forward to reading on and finding out how wrong I am. I get the feeling that Mark Lawrence is more than capable of wrong-footing most of his readers any time he wants to.

This is available through any good bookshop and online.

For more information about Mark Lawrence and his other books, check out his website

http://www.marklawrence.buzz/

The first sequel - Limited Wish - is due out any minute.