Number 40 - Born To The Dark - Ramsey Campbell

 The second book in Ramsey's Bricester Mythos trilogy and the follow up to The Searching Dead (which I wrote up here in February last year if you want to look up my thoughts on that volume)

Firstly, it has to be said that PS Publishing did an amazing job with these books, and Les Edwards (the cover artist and a bit of a legend in the horror field) is as great and eye-catching an artist as he ever was.

The story picks  up in the 80s, 30 years after the events of the Searching Dead.  Dominic Sheldrake is now a married university lecturer with a child of his own. He teaches film study, which allows Ramsey to ruminate on some of his favourite films and their meanings in the course of the book.

In the opening chapter he meets up briefly with Jim and Bobby, his friends from the first book for a long delayed reunion.  This is used to give a slightly clumsy recap of the first book as well as reintroducing us to the cast.

Unfortunately, in the political discussion that ensues in chapter one, we find that Dom is now a poster boy for Thatcherism, which made me dislike him quite intensely. I hope this is done to inject a feel of the 80's rather than further self insertion of the author into the text.

When he returns home to his wife and child (Lesley and Toby even though the blurb on the inside cover names his wife as Claudine who is actually one of Toby's friends). We find out that Toby suffers from seizures in his sleep and they've just been referred to a facility called Safe to Sleep. 

Of course, all is not well at safe to Sleep, and Dominic soon finds himself fighting to reveal the truth about the facility to his loved ones or anyone who will listen. The facility is run by Christian Noble, Dominic's ex-teacher, and the cult leader Dom faced in the first book. What is the Noble family doing in the clinic?  Can Dom do anything to fight?

The sense of paranoia that develops once the plot starts gathering momentum is masterfully done. How can he fight this evil if no one, including his nearest and dearest, believes a word he says?

It's all written in Ramsey's unmistakable style.  There's something insidious in the prose that slowly nibbles away at your sense of reality while reading a Ramsey Campbell novel. This one is no exception. despite my initial dislike of Dom in the early chapters, I soon sympathised with him and wanted to see him persuade the people around him what was really happening.

One of my pet hates in horror is when everyone just accepts what's happening without a problem. This book certainly doesn't suffer from that. It derives probably half the horror from the fact that only Dom knows what's happening and he just can't make anyone believe him.

It's not a perfect book. The opening chapter was a bit clumsy, and despite the number of times we're told Toby is advanced for his age, he never seemed to speak realistically as a 5 year old child. It was a damned good read nonetheless and those are minor quibbles.  

I have book 3 on my shelves, pulsating and calling out to be read. 

It shall wait it's turn.

Number 39 - Incursion - Alex Paknadel et al

 This was cheap, and has a pretty cool looking cover which is the entire reason I bought it.  I had no knowledge of this title or any of the characters.

Anyhoo... 

It transpires that I'm so out of touch with the comics world that i didn't know that Valiant is a third comics empire, competing with the big two (Marvel and DC) with it's own set of ongoing series and heroes.

They seem to have a more fantasy based mythos, as opposed to the more sci-fi trappings of most superhero faire.  This title is a big crossover event in the Valiant universe, pulling together several of their main characters into one story, an Avengers Assemble type of thing. Even the aliens in the opening pages look somewhat like the Kree.

This would all probably excite me much more if I was a follower of the comics in question.  However, as a casual reader encountering this universe for the first time, I feel some of the finer points of the story were probably lost on me.

The story follows a threat to the existence of life on planet earth when a creature from another world infects the Geomancer - a young girl linked inextricably to life itself. the creature has made a mistake because the girl is protected by an eternal champion who makes it his mission to save her by any means necessary.  The writing does a fair job in letting us know who each of these characters is.  At no point did I find myself wondering what was going on. 

It's all beautifully illustrated and inked.  Visually this is a remarkable piece of work.  The story is possibly less impressive. We're in very familiar territory here.  I know there are very few original stories out there, but at least try to dress your plot in unfamiliar clothes. 

It was entertaining.  It killed 45 minutes yesterday. Kudos to the art team for a great job. Otherwise it's a bit same old, same old. It's not entirely cliched, but I can't award it anything for originality either.

Number 38 - Black Mouth - Ronald Malfi

 

I read this book through Netgalley.  It will be formally released on July 19. 

I normally try not to compare to Stephen King when I review a horror novel as that just feels lazy, but in this case, there is so much Kingism going on it’s almost impossible not too. 

Small American town, a group of friends who bonded over childhood trauma are drawn back to their childhood homes many years later to fight the evil all over again. The flashback structure, juxtaposing present with past. Also- 800 plus pages on the file I read. It’s classic king storytelling territory.

 It differs on the  scale though.  Whereas King would have a huge cast of characters, each playing their role in the story, Malfi concentrates on just the 5 central characters for the whole book, and any other townsfolk are more or less walk on parts.  In a King novel, we'd feel like we'd lived in the town for years and knew everyone that lived there. In this book, we know our central cast and no  one else.

It’s written for the most part in a first person narrative, which limits the scope, but branches out into third person for alternate chapters. All the flashbacks are told by Jamie, our first person narrator.

Jamie Warren is a loser. As the story opens he’s in enforced rehab for his alcoholism, suffering some truly horrific hallucinations. Just after his release, he learns of his mother's death and has to hightail it back to Black Mouth to look after affairs, including his cognitively impaired brother Dennis.

Also on her way back to Black Mouth is his ex-best-friend and crush, Mia. She's had a strange encounter with a woman who knew far more than she should. She's also just seen the Magician, the mysterious stranger who came into their lives when they were children and changed them forever.  Completing the quartet is Clay, a social worker spurred on by the photo of the Magician to look into similar crimes to the one they were involved with.

Following them is Stull, another of the magician's ex-apprentices. in his first chapter he commits an act of animal cruelty that marks him out as one of the most reprehensible villains I've read in many a year. He's a remarkably scary character.

I loved the way Malfi slowly draws the various plot threads together, keeping the characters in the dark while we the readers can see the oncoming shitstorm. He really does know how to build the tension brilliantly. 

I also loved the way the characters react realistically to the situations they find themselves in. There's no sudden leaping to the far fetched supernatural conclusions, more scrabbling around trying piece together a natural explanation that isn't going to happen.

This was my first Ronald Malfi novel and certainly won't be my last. He takes on Stephen King in his own territory and easily holds his own.  He manages to stamp his own style and themes into the familiar formula. When physical copies of this are available, I will be adding this to my shelves.

Number 37 - Observatory Mansions - Edward Carey

 

As any regular readers of this blog will know, I fell in love with Edward Carey's writing style last year when I read Heap House (which I bought when I mistook him for Edward Gorey based on the artwork).

This is his debut novel, and more adult oriented than the Iremonger books.

It does feature a lot of the themes that run through Heap House. A run down building inhabited by a bunch of grotesques, an obsession with gathering objects other people see as junk etc. However it is still a very different novel.

It is narrated by Francis Orme, a,,, actually, I'm not sure what single adjective could possibly accurately describe him. He works as a statue on a plinth.  He's blessedly oblivious to everything happening around him even as he describes it to the reader.  He obsessively collects (steals) objects for his rather inappropriately named exhibition (which is locked in the basement and no one is allowed to even know of its existence). He has a narrative voice unlike anything else I can remember reading (including Heap House). he wears white gloves at all times and saves them to his own personal museum of white gloves when they get dirty (with a card explaining why they're discarded, including dates from start to end of wearing and the reason for their disposal). He is not your everyday narrator.

Observatory mansions is his home.  It used to be the stately home of the Orme family, complete with opulent furniture and paintings, attendant servants and acres of its own grounds.  Now it stands in the middle of a traffic island and all the grounds and all the luxury contents gone, including the servants.  it's been split into flats to try to raise money for its upkeep but most of the tenants have died or moved on and now there are only 7 residents in the building. Most of them are as strange in their own way as Francis.

Their insular existence is threatened when a new tenant arrives. She shakes up the lives of all the residents, but especially Francis's. 

This is one of those books that can make you laugh out loud and then cry and then laugh again... on the same page. The family secrets that are steadily revealed in the narrative are shocking and funny and tragic and completely unpredictable. 

The cast of almost grotesques is made completely sympathetic by the brilliant writing style. We accept their eccentricities and foibles and sometimes outright nastiness and still feel sorry for them.  

This isn't a happy book despite the number of laughs.  It isn't a depressing book despite the misery inflicted on the cast of characters. It walks that tightrope with consumate ease, performing backflips on the rope, just because Carey is so talented he can do that just for the hell of it.

I chose this book for my book group and I think it will make for an interesting discussion. I know thee are members of the group whose tolerance for weirdness is not as high as mine. I will find out in the next week or two.

Number 36 - The Cockroach - Ian McEwan

 

Before I start, I will apologise,  there will be slight spoillers in this review.  it's almost impossible to discuss the story and the themes of this one without giving away some plot details that can't be gleaned from the blurb on the book.

This opens brilliantly. The first few pages are an almost perfect takedown and reversal of the opening of Kafka's most famous work. 

A cockroach wakes from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed into a gigantic creature, with only 4 limbs (two arms and two legs), binocular vision instead of compound, his skeleton on the inside of a mound of pink flesh...

Yes the cockroach has woken as a human.

Not just any human. the Prime minister of Great Britain... The country is in a fragile state, it recently voted narrowly in a referendum to enact a totally ridiculous and disastrous piece of  legislation which will inevitably isolate the country and destroy the economy.

This is a distinctly unsubtle dig at British politics over the last few years. Can the cockroaches in command force through the results of the referendum regardless of the damage to the country? What starts as confusion into the knowledge the Roach has in his new role gives way to a mix of amusement and an icky disturbed sensation as the explanations become clear by the end of the book.

This book is a short exercise of concentrated chutzpah on McEwan's part. It's a vitriolic commentary on the state of UK politics. It also feels too close for comfort to a genuine explanation of the last 6 years. We now know who will actually benefit from the whole fiasco.

I loved this unreservedly even if some of the political machinations initially went over my head and I had to reread a section to understand what had just gone down.

For the cynically minded, this is a real treat.

Number 35 - All The Seas of The World - Guy Gavriel Kay

 

A new novel by Guy Kay is always going to jump straight to the top of my out of control TBR pile. They always reward their priority spot, and this one was no exception.

This is a sort of a follow on to his two previous novels, A Brightness Long Ago and Children of Earth and Sky.  Indeed it has several returning characters from each of those books. As per the earlier books, the fantasy elements are firmly on the sidelines and don't form the main crux of the storyline.  These are almost but not quite historical fiction/almost but not quite fantasy novels.  A writer of Kay's talent walks that tightrope with exquisite grace.

In this one, the world is still reeling from the fall of one its mightiest cities in the previous book. Political allegiances flow and sway with the tides, trades are made, killings ordered.  Some achieve their aims, others don't.

This is storytelling on an epic scale, as well as the intimate. We follow traders Rafel ben Natan and his associate Nadia bint Dhiyan from their dangerous commission in the opening of the book, and the repercussions of that mission throughout the lands of this almost Europe,

We also see into the lives of dozens of other characters, some with the power to change the known world, some struggling to keep their place, however influential they might be, others of low status but surprisingly important. 

The roles people play in events far beyond their ken is a continuing theme in this sequence of books, along with the power of stories and storytelling. Any book about the power of stories needs to be one hell of a story itself, and this doesn't disappoint on any level.

The story has a relaxed pace. Despite the ever enlarging ripples through the societies in this world, we never lose sight of the smaller pictures contained within. The frequent diversions into the impact of the larger events on the smaller people in the story are beautifully done and frequently deeply moving.  

This is all done in Kay's normal lucid and hypnotic prose.  I was reading this in a crowded pub yesterday and so completely absorbed I barely registered any noise around me.  

These aren't books to rush.  They should be savoured and enjoyed slowly.  There is real complexity and subtlety here that can't be skim-read without doing the world Kay has created a huge disservice. This whole series will reward multiple re-readings.

They will work well as stand=alone novels even though there is such a strong continuity. The returning characters are fleshed out anew for any fresh readers and the fallout from previous books described in detail.  I would still advise to read in order, otherwise you'll go into the earlier books knowing who lived and died and which cities were still standing at the end and spoilers are called spoilers for a reason..

Numbers 33 & 34 - Something is killing the Children vol 4 & Monstress vol 4

 

Two quick reads and once more, all the comments I've made in write ups of the previous volumes apply to these.

Something Is Killing the Children - This volume goes back to the beginning of Erica's story and we find out how she came to join the House of Slaughter.

The story is fast paced and action packed.  It adds extra layers to the story we read in the first three volumes.

The art continues to be functional at best, but it suits the story.

Monstress - The story is getting more convoluted with sides playing off against each other whilst the Old Ones lurk in the background preparing to resurface. 

The storytelling is as ambitious as in any prose novel, with the added benefit of some of the most beautiful artwork you'll see in a graphic novel.

The contrasting takes on how to deal with monsters are worthy of a separate discussion by itself. 

  Both feature very strong female characters up front and centre.  These are badass women you don't want to mess with. I've always said that, rather than change existing characters from male to female, create strong and compelling woman characters in their own right instead. It seems less patronising somehow.

Hopefully these will be optioned for the screen at some point. And hopefully, they'll do a good job.

Number 32 - State of Terror - Hillary Clinton & Louise Penny

 

This review will contain some spoilers.

I'll start with the positives.  It was a fast read. The story has the potential to be interesting. I also found a really interesting bookmark in it left by the previous owner.

That's that bit over and done with.

The back cover proclaims this to be the most authentic political thriller I'll ever read. I'm sorry but if Dr Seuss wrote one it would feel more genuine than this. The last Carl Hiaasen felt a lot more realistic than this - and it was well written - which gives it a huge advantage over this farrago of a novel.

This is by far the worst written book I've read in years.  The prose can charitably be described as clunky. if I wasn't feeling charitable, I'd go for frenetic, irritating and just plain bad.

The writers seem to think that action sequences are best done with ever shorter sequences featuring different characters finishing by cutting away from what the final character sees without telling the reader what that was.  

At some point in the next chapter, one of the other characters will talk about what happened. 

The lead character Ellen is the newly appointed secretary of State for the USA, appointed despite being a huge political rival to the newly incumbent president. We might as well call her Mary Sue as she is the most obvious self insert by Mrs Clinton. She's almost impossibly astute, fluent in a dozen languages, and utterly flawless in personality.  Despite her perfection and intelligence though, she fails to recognise the villain of the piece when he's stood right next to her and talking to her, even though she once spent two years making a documentary about him...

That's just one plot hole out of many in this badly edited, badly written attempt at literature. When I say badly edited, you can't give a better example than when we get this direct quote from the book  (Pages 360 &361 in my copy)

"The second wave took off, the helicopters filled with precious cargo. The sons and daughters of parents who would be terrified to know what their country was asking of their children. The young men and women clutched M-14 rifles and stared across the aisle at each other.

The young men and women clutched M-14 rifles and stared across the aisle at each other."

Apart from the repetition of an entire sentence, this section shows just one of the thousands of sentence fragments to be found in the book.

Constant use of incomplete sentences for no reason.

Sentences without verbs. Scattered all through the book.  At least 5 to a page. In action sequences, probably twenty per page. And no payout at the end of it. Because of cutaways. 

It becomes very wearing, very quickly. There are several deaths in the book. But all off screen with a cutaway immediately before it happens.

If it was better written I could forgive some of the flaws. If it hadn't promised "the most authentic - and gripping - political thriller I've ever read" on the back cover, I might be willing to accept the scene where she blackmails the Russian leader by photoshopping him into child porn and threatening to release it to the world unless he tells her where the bad guy is hiding, or where she follows the US version of the SAS on a raid into the villain's house, or where she seems to be able to travel halfway around the world in a couple of hours, or any of the other places where it's slightly less realistic than the Tiger who Came to Tea.

But it isn't. 

This is a dreadful book on nearly every level. It's the closest I've come in a long time to not finishing.  The only reason I did was because it's this month's book group read. I forced myself to finish it, and I'm sorry that I did.

The last two pages are the most cliched pile of nonsense in the book.  It's all over, the threats gone... Or is it? Mwa ha ha ha ha.

Don't waste your time with this book. My copy will be going to mulch down somewhere for compost.  I don't see any justification for inflicting this on anyone else. I have no one I hate that much.

Number 31 - Locke and Key the Golden Age - Hill & Rodriguez

 

Since the original series came to a natural end, Hill and Rodriguez have been filling in some of the blanks from the history of Key House in a number of smaller stories.

In this collection, all those smaller stories are brought together, culminating in the crossover story with Neil Gaiman's Sandman - Hell and Gone.

I already have the Small World and the Heaven and Earth volumes (I believe I may have reviewed both of them on here a few years back, but I don't have the energy at the moment to check). 

I'd forgotten how moving heaven and Earth was.  Once again it brought a small tear to my eye. That was nothing compared to the impact that the previously unread stories had. 

Face the music is an amusing and gruesome little short short story.

To Pale Battalions Go is one of the best storylines in the L&K history. Young John Locke decides he wants to join the army and use the keys to fight the Germans. He tricks his way into the army and wreaks havoc for a while on the enemy forces.  Of course, things don't go his way for too long and tragedy strikes. 

If I was wiping a small tear at the end of Open the Moon, I had a little cry at the end of this one.  It was heart rending, and led beautifully into Hell and Gone. As previously mentioned, this is a crossover with Neil Gaiman's Sandman.  It's a long time since I read any Sandman (I think I may need to collect that set of graphic novels next) but it didn't matter.  The characters are just as engaging or terrifying as they were under Neil's auspicious penmanship and no prior knowledge is necessary to follow the story.

The artwork is spot on throughout without even one subpar panel. You can spend ages looking at the detail in the full page spreads. This may well be the best of the L&K titles so far and that is high praise indeed.

Number 30 - The Tomb - F Paul Wilson

 

This is listed on Wilson's website as part two of the series begun in his novel The Keep that I  read last year. However, I see no links whatsoever with that novel.

Unless my memory is completely wrong, that book was vampires attacking Nazis in an ancient keep in Transylvania.  This one is a man investigating the disappearance of an old woman and finding ancient Indian demons in 80's New York.

It also doesn't feature a Tomb.  

However, despite not being an obvious follow on to The Keep, and despite not having any relevance to its own title, its a brilliant piece of 80s horror history that I'm only disappointed I didn't read decades ago.  

Wilson would have been right up there in my list of top horror reads along with King,  Campbell and Somtow years ago and I wouldn't have the game of catch up on his works that I now find myself with.

 This book follows Repairman jack (who has his own series of books separate to the series started by the Keep) in his first battle against the supernatural. Jack lives outside of the legal system. He "fixes things" for people to earn a living. Sometimes those things involve violence, which jack enjoys.

He's asked to help in two separate incidents here.  First is when his ex girlfriend phones and asks him to find her missing Aunty who vanished from her locked third storey room in the middle of the night.  The other is when an Indian diplomat asks him to track down a necklace stolen from his grandmother in a mugging the night before. There's extreme urgency and a lot of money in it for Jack.

The two cases intersect in the most horrific ways. Jack needs all his wits about him to survive and to save the life of his ex-girlfriend's family members.

This book starts quickly and never lets up.  The fast pace stops you thinking too closely and looking for plot holes. I'm sure there are some, but I didn't spot them because I was enjoying the rollickingly good adventure story going on far too much.  Part detective, part human drama, part supernatural thriller.  This book has it all. Some of the shock reveals were a bit obvious, but at least one I only spotted two pages before when one of the final jigsaw pieces was hinted at.  It's good going to hide a secret as openly for nearly 300 pages. All Credit due to Mr Wilson.

The Rakoshi are brilliant demons and superbly drawn.  They're genuinely creepy.  (and the subject of one of the biggest shocks in the book). They're easily as nasty as the vampires from The Keep (and they were the best type of scary vamps).

Repairman Jack is a great creation and I'm going to have to track down all his books too, on top of the Keep series. I just hope I can get as many as possible in these gorgeous N.E.L. covers from the 80s and early 90s. 

Is it a carefully considered, thoughtful masterpiece written in delicious prose that sings off the page and resonates in my soul? No.  Is it a damned good fun riot of a book that kept me enthralled for 380 pages and gave me a few surprises and scares along the way?  Hell yes! This is a cracking good read and you all should track down a copy for yourselves.

Number 29 - A Spider on My Tongue - TM Wright

 If you were to ask me for a list of the best horror novels ever written, A Manhattan Ghost Story by TM Wright would be close to the top every time. It was followed a couple of years later by a sequel, The Waiting Room.  And many years later by this slim volume.

Abner Cray, lead character in the first book, and object of the search by his best friend Sam Feary in the second, is now living, or maybe not, in a house in the woods with a legion of unwanted guests.

His reality has fragmented almost completely.  This book takes the form of a journal detailing his current existence and flashbacks to what led him here, with musings on life and death and the differences between the two states.

It's a weirdly compulsive, totally fractured and not 100% sane narrative. It bounces from subject to subject, flashback to present to nightmare fuel at the drop of a hat.

It has a very similar feel to the TM Wright I reviewed a couple of months back.  It seems like his later books became quite samey, with a lot of repetition of the same verbal tics and narrative trickery, and legible story coming in in second place behind the style. 

The style is very readable and very creepy when it works.  It insinuates itself into your brain without you noticing. The horror comes in quietly at an existential level rather than being immediately frightening.  I still prefer his books that had more conventional narratives along with the existential terror.

This is one for Wright completists like me I think. It's difficult to find online for a reasonable price.  For the casual fan, read Strange Seed, Manhattan Ghost Story, The Woman next Door, The School, the Playground or any of his books from that sort of era. They're more satisfying reads than this one as good as this one is.

Number 28 - Monstress Vol 3 Haven - Liu & Takeda

 This series continues to impress. The artwork continues to amaze.

The worldbuilding continues apace. It's a fascinating and, in my experience, unique mix of feudal Japan, human/animal hybrids, magical necromantic cats, cyberpunk, and eldritch ancient gods.  What's not to enjoy?

We learn more about the ancient ones and the creature living inside Maika Halfwolf. Can Maika trust it? Does she have a choice? Or even a say?

The political scene becomes more and more fraught and war is on the horizon. 

Our heroes have reached a safe haven, but is it? With the forces chasing Maika, trouble is not on the horizon, it's right there.

I have part 4 all lined up and ready to read. Looking forward to it.  

The problem with writing up these continuing series is that, if the quality stays consistent, i'm going to end up repeating myself.  It's not easy to give any plot details without spoilers for the earlier volumes.

I will say though, that this series is as satisfying as a prose novel and I truly recommend you all seek it out.

Number 27 - Nothing But Blackened Teeth - Cassandra Khaw

 

I picked this up because of that gorgeous cover, and word of mouth on social media.  That plus quotes on the back from several of the brightest stars in modern horror which claim it to be the absolute cat's whiskers and best new thing since Hill House...

I went in therefore with expectations set at very high...

That might have been a mistake. Although I can see the quality of the writing and it did move me in the final chapters, I was a little underwhelmed.  I don't think it completely lives up to hype. 

It tells the story of a group of friends who pitch up at a haunted mansion in the depths of rural China for the marriage of a pair of them.  The bride has always wanted to get married in a haunted house (as you do) and this place certainly fits the bill.

A lot of time is spent detailing the past love lives and interactions between the friends. The bride is so opposed to the narrator, it's hard to believe that she would have agreed to allow her to come along since there are so few in the group.  A wedding party of 20 or 30, maybe, but only 6? It's not like she's a plus one to a fully welcome guest. In fact, for a close knit bunch of friends willing to travel to a remote (500 miles from the nearest hospital we're told at one point) part of China for a wedding, there seem to be a lot of underlying resentments. That might be the ghosts dragging their worst feelings out though. 

The atmosphere is built nicely. the legend of the house is suitably nasty and the style of writing is mostly very good. Despite the short length of the book (a shade over 100 pages) this is a slow burn until the terror kicks in.

There's some meta style commentary going on too.  "This is the part of the story where this happens" sort of dialogue.  That was a weak point in the writing for me I will admit. If it was meant as comic relief, it wasn't.  It it was meant to heighten tension, it lessened it.  IMHO.

I think I probably need to set aside a couple of hours uninterrupted reading to properly appreciate this.  Over the last few days I've only managed to catch a few pages here and there, which isn't ideal for this style of horror.

Overall, it's mostly fairly well written and atmospheric, but I wasn't 100% won over, and I'm not sure why. There are some stylistic tricks she overuses which become very noticeable and dragged me out of the story. That's one reason. But it wasn't so much that it's unforgivable. 

One for a reread... This is the sort of book I usually love.  I'm disappointed I didn't like it more.

Number 26 - Simon Says - Frattino & Lee

 

I hope Blogger.com doesn't have automated algorithms that will object to that picture.

This is apparently based on Simon Wiesenthal, a Nazi hunter after the second World War. Here he's depicted as a "Nazi-hunting 007" to quote the Forbes review on the back cover.

It's a graphic novel drawn almost entirely in black and white.  The only colour used is red. the artwork is very good throughout but not exceptional. The use of colour is the only standout in the art department here.

The story follows Simon as he initially works with the Americans to hunt down assorted officers of the 3rd Reich still at large in Germany.  When the unit is closed down he becomes a vigilante and discovers a group of high ranking officers assuming more power again. It's up to him and his partner Bruno to stop the rise of the 4th Reich.

The story is exciting, filled with tension and action set pieces.  I'm not sure how much of a liberty they've taken with the "inspired by" heading. Some of it seems as unlikely as the action sequences you find in an actual 007 flick. If you're going to say that it's based on reality, maybe it should feel more realistic.

There are no notes from the author at the end to answer any of my questions about the veracity of any of the events or characters in the book, which is slightly annoying.

It finishes on a bit of a cliffhanger and as far as I can see there's not a volume 2 out yet. That's slightly more annoying. 

A good way to kill an hour or so.  If vol 2 pops up anywhere, I will be certain to buy it.

Numbers 24 & 25 - Soldier from the wars returning - David Campton - At Midnight I steal Your Soul - John Probert

 

I don't want to waste an entire entry on the David Campton book.

In this one, a barman and barmaid reduce a returning soldier to a quivering ruin of who he was. 

Despite the fact that he's one of my favourite playwrights, this just didn't work for me. It's very short - only 16 pages.  It's described as a grotesque comedy, which I thought was a great sign. His comedies of menace like Little Brother Little Sister are amazingly good.  

I didn't get this one though.  I just couldn't tune into it at all which is unusual for me with Campton. I actually read it twice and still didn't get it. Normally with his plays, i can see it happening as i read it, hear the characters talking.  Not this time, and I don't know why.

A rare misstep.

Next up was another cheat read. John Probert's gloriously titled "At Midnight I steal your Soul". It actually says on the front cover a quick read - so it was ideal.  I read it at lunchtime today. Its a short story in large print and double spaced to make it dyslexic friendly.

A young woman attends a choir rehearsal at an unusual location - a local mental hospital. However, something is stalking the corridors that's more frightening and more vicious than any human.

It's a good fun read. It's atmospheric, weird and, occasionally laugh out loud funny.  I loved the cameo appearance of two of Mr Probert's fellow horror writers on the British scene, the two Gary's, Fry and McMahon, both of whom sounded very like the real thing.

If you're looking for a quick easy read with a gleeful nastiness behind it, this will suit you admirably.

Number 23 - Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell

 

Another book with an incredibly bland cover.  I ordered the psychadelic cover from World Of Books but this is the one they sent me.  More than a little irritating.

However, the contents are the important part. This is a semi contemporary novel so I had high hopes for it (I find Mitchell's forays into distant history to be very tedious, but his writing set in times of living memory tend to be great)

And I wasn't disappointed.  Mitchell well and truly hit it out of the park with this book.  At nearly 600 pages it's a bit of a doorstop but it reads so easily it felt half that length.

I might be a few books behind on my total from last year, but my word count must be a lot higher. This is the 4th book so far that exceeds 500 pages by a distance.

It tells the story of a brief flash in the psychadelic music scene in the late 60s. We start with Dean, a down on his luck bassist who, on the worst day of his young life to date - lost his job, his money and his home - he runs into Levon, a music producer/manager, who takes him to watch a band playing at a venue nearby. Here he first meets Jasper de Zoet and Peter Griff Griffin a guitarist/singer and a jazz drummer respectively. They form a band together under Levon's guidance and are soon joined by Elf Holloway, a folk singer/guitarist/keyboard player.  thus the new band on the block - Utopia Avenue is formed.

The book follows them through the ups and downs of musical life - from a first gig that couldn't possibly go worse to breaking into the American music scene.  They run into many prominent figures of the late 60's scene.

The time period is drawn fantastically. It feels completely real. The characters are drawn equally well.  When their personal lives turn bad, we feel for them.  

On top of all this there are many nods to his other books, some more subtle than others.  Spotting the Easter eggs adds a whole new layer of fun into the book. 

I wasn't 100% certain that Jasper's storyline fitted the overall tone of the novel - especially when it became unapologetically supernatural in nature.  As brilliant and as tense as it was in the final segments, it sat oddly with the realism of the rest of the book.

That was a minor quibble though. I raced through this in just under a week. It's compelling, it's funny, it's sad, it's a fabulous portrait of 50's England seen through the eyes of a very different set of characters, a psychadellic head trip through the late 60s music scene.. What more do you want? 

Number 22 - Killer's Choice - Ed McBain

 

An accidental reread for me.  half way through i suddenly realised I'd read it a few years ago.  On checking my Facebook "books read in" albums i read it in 2017 and at the time was my first Ed McBain novel.

It's very much a product of its time. If someone tried to publish this today there would be a storm about the casual sexism displayed by pretty much everyone including the women.

However, that aside, this is a damned good police procedural. It's the 4th in the 87th precinct series, but they all work as standalone novels so no prior knowledge is necessary.

I would love to see an ongoing tv series made of these books, set in the same time as the books. They could do three or four of the books per series and they'd take years to get to the end of the source material.

This one follows the investigation into the death of a young woman, Annie Booth, shot to death at her job in a liquor store. It wasn't a robbery since the cash was all still in the register.

Every person who knew Annie seems to describe a different person.  But which of them had the motive means and opportunity to gun her down?

There's also a subplot with another killer being chased down. McBain managed to squeeze a lot of story, and description, into the scant 150 pages of this book.  It's not perfect, but it's solid and good enough that I now pick up the 87th Precinct novels any time I see them going cheap.

In summary, some dated attitudes but a good read.

Number 21 - The Dragon's Child - Janeen Webb

 

A nice little cheat read. Janeen Webb was a complete unknown quantity to me before reading this book that I received as part of a mystery bundle from PS2 Publishing.

It was a very pleasant surprise indeed.

The plot involves shapeshifting dragons who disguise themselves as human and run significant portions of the world economy. After accidentally eating a baby (these things happen), a particularly powerful dragon switches one of her eggs for the deceased infant.

The child learns human feelings, something no dragon has done before.  This can only mean trouble.

Janeen Webb keeps everything in a morally grey area and I was never quite sure which side I should be cheering on. I don't think that's a bad thing though. 

The writing is beautifully done.  I breezed through this in a couple of hours. The characters are sketched as well as they can be in a narrative this short. The world-building is amazing considering the fact it's less than 100 pages.

If I was to make any criticism it would be that this feels like the opening section of a much longer work and not a one off. I was left wanting more, but mainly because it felt like she was abandoning us in mid-story. The fact that I want to know what happens next tells you that I really enjoyed it. I will be looking out for future installments.

Number 20 - Maus ii - And Here My Troubles Began - Art Spiegelman

 Maus I finished where Vladek Spiegelman, after evading the Nazis for years, was captured and sent to Auschwitz.

This volume completes his story, with a detailed rundown of the atrocities he witnessed and his almost miraculous survival.  The first version of that sentence said miraculous escape. but that's the wrong word.

In my write up on volume 1, I said it was powerful and disturbing. Compared to this, volume 1 is mild. 

If this was pure fiction I would say that it was impossible. Humans aren't that vile to each other.  This is unbelievable.  But this is a true story, even it it has been anthropomorphised into animals. It's an eyewitness testimony of the most disgusting crimes against humanity in living memory.

The meta part of the story, where Art himself interviews his father, is deeply moving and scarily honest. Art shows us all his own and his father's faults as people. How much of his father's personality can be excused by what he went through? Art clearly shows his exasperation at his father, and his guilt for not wanting his father living with him despite the amount of help he clearly needs. 

This being a true story, don't expect pat answers to any questions raised. Do expect to be shaken to the centre of your existence. The descriptions of the atrocities at the Auschwitz and Dachau camps are worse than any horror story. I was thankful that the characters are all drawn as different animals.  It makes the horror of what happened a bit easier to process. Until of course, the moment that it did process and then... 

This is one of the most important books about the holocaust. The artwork makes it so much easier to digest without diluting the power of the story or the horrors humanity is capable of inflicting on each other.

It's a genuinely traumatic read.  But we have to learn the lessons from history. This is one bit of history that cannot ever be allowed to repeat itself. 

 I bought book one when it first came out and struggled to find an affordable copy of book 2 recently. However its easily available as an omnibus version of both books. There's no excuse to not go out and buy it.

Number 19 - Outcast Vol 8 - Kirkman et al

 

After the marathon that was GNTC, a quick sprint through the long awaited final volume of this series. 

Compared to a few graphic novels I've been reading, the artwork is really quite basic, as is the storytelling.

It's still an enjoyable little morsel to read. It''s a good ending to a pretty good series, no matter how basic it might be.

Sometimes a light snack is what you need instead of a banquet, and this is a tasty snack.