Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Blood Fever, Charlie Higson


This is the second of Higson's 'Young Bond' series, following last year's Silverfin, and this one's even better.

It's got a bit of a misleading cover ("death is contagious"), I assumed it was going to be about a plague of some sort, whereas it actually involves a worldwide crime syndicate, Sardinian bandits, sinister schoolmasters and a mysterious Mithras-worshipping cult.

James ships out to Sardinia during the holidays on a school run archaeological expedition, before jumping ship and going to stay with his cousin elsewhere on the island. He meets Count Ugo Carnifex, obsessed with cleanliness and ancient Rome, and before long the action switches to the mountains, with all the 30's based excitement and scrapes you'd expect. Midnight raids, rope based window rescues, underwater swims, stowing away on railway carriages, boxing honour matches. Like Enid Blyton for the 21st century really (ie with actual killing. Quite a lot of it, really).

The supporting characters are good too, especially the names in traditional Bond style: the bandit girl Vendetta, feisty schoolgirl Amy Goodenough, pirate Zoltan the Magyar.

Highly recommended, for a bit of escapist derring do.

Lirael, Garth Nix

First a word of warning - unlike Sabriel, the first book in the Old Kingdom series, this is not a stand alone volume, so make sure you've got the third (Abhorsen) waiting in the wings, because you will want to keep reading straight through (whereas I now have to go and buy it).

Set initially fourteen and then eighteen years after the events in Sabriel, it centres on Lirael, a daughter of the Clayr, the seers that live under a glacier in the far north. Saddened by the fact that she alone of all her peers has not yet come of age with the ability to See the possible futures, Lirael is given a job in the Library. This is a huge place, spiralling down in to the mountain, and full of dangers and treasures and knowledge locked behind various doors. With her companion the Disreputable Dog, Lirael sets about exploring, aided by her ability with Charter Magic.

At the same time, dark forces are once again threatening the Kingdom, and with the King and the Abhorsen away in neighbouring Ancelstierre, it is down to Prince Sameth, the reluctant Abhorsen-in-Waiting to try to keep events in check. Joined by Lirael (with newfound abilities to walk in Death as a Remembrancer), they approach the part of the Kingdom controlled by the Necromancer and hidden to the Sight of the Clayr. And that's where you have to go and buy the next one. Frankly, I'm off now.

This book was a definite case of can't-put-down, I read it in about two days and recommend it unhesitatingly (but read Sabriel first). And of all the books I've ever read, I think the place I would most like to go, and live, and work, is the Library of the Clayr.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Piratica II - Return to Parrot Island, by Tanith Lee


This is a great book, and not just for kids. The sequel to Piratica, where, in a parallel England, the teenage Art(emisia) Blastside took up piracy on the high seas, this sees her happliy married to Felix Phoenix (think Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean) and living the life of a lady. Before long however, events conspire to take her back to sea, with both old crew and new, as a government sanctioned priveteer. Her plan is to instead go looking for the Treasured Isle, with its maps showing all the buried treasure in the world (found and then lost in the first book). Things go awry however, she is seperated from Felix and then wrecked on the coast of Africa, before eventually ending up in the midst of a naval battle. She must contend with a lost Egyptian tribe, old enemies thought to be dead, and the ghostly ship of Mary Hell...

This was definitely a book I didn't want to put down - some of Tanith Lee's writing can go a bit wiggy on you, but her children's stuff is generally excellent and this certainly was. Similar in style to her Wolf Tower books (also recommended), the Piratica books are great fun - and unresolved elements of this story (such as the rebuilding of the ship to secret pirated blueprints) suggest there will be more to come - I certainly hope so.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Shadowmancer, GP Taylor


I really wanted to like this book. It sounded good, had good reviews, and indeed started off promisingly enough, as a tale of smugglers and black magic, children pitted against an evil vicar, and a mysterious object of power from Africa. However, about half way throuhg it goes all Old Testament on your ass. All types of magic, witches, tarot cards and so on are pronounced to be irredeemably evil, the devil (who turns up towads the end) claims he uses the name of earth mother to trap the unwary, and the only chance of salvation anyone has is through their acceptance of the "one true god".

The characters never become especially three dimensional: Raphah (which I never could decide how to pronounce, so that annoyed me all the way through), hot on the trail of a missing religious object from Africa spends most of his time being offended at how eighteenth century villagers react to an irritatingly sanctimonious black guy appearing in their midst. The evil vicar never seems to be consistent in his character and when dealing with the sumggler Jacon Crane there seem to be huge leaps between his intent in different scenes, without it being clear whether he's being treacherous or just confused.

The end comes suddenly, to the extent that as the number of pages left dwindled I was wondering if it would actually be left on a cliffhanger and I'd have to struggle through another book. However, no, it all ends in a rather rushed scene in Whitby, but leaving lots of things unresolved (such as the fate of the Azimuth, who Crane had sworn to help, Thomas' mother, Kate's father, or the people of Baytown whose houses have just fallen into the sea).

While he does work in some nice elements of mythology, both local Yorkshire and Eastern Christian, all it really suceeds in delivering is a plot full of holes and characters that never become more than symbols for religious allegory that's rammed home with the subtlety of a poker. I won't be bothering with any others by him.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

The River of Adventure, Enid Blyton


The Adventure series was always my favourite Enid Blyton set, and I've just got hold of a 1956 hardback copy of this one with the original Stuart Tresillian line drawings, which are lovely and bring back a lot of childhood memories. People say that Blyton books are too dated or racist or sexist for a 'modern' audience, and cherry-pick quotes as appropriate, but personally I feel that's a load of rubbish if you actually read them through. Ok, so a few bits date them, such as "the air hostess brought them a tray full of most delicious food. 'Why is the food always so super on a plane'..." - and very possibly: "Philip was giving his snake an airing". Ok, so in the 1950's people's minds probably weren't as filthy as they are now (well, mine, anyway)...

The River of Adventure sees the four children (Phillip, Jack, Dinah and Lucy-Ann) and Kiki the parrot off to foreign parts and warmer climes as they convalesce from the flu - additionally acting as a smokescreen for Bill, who's keeping an eye on shady character Raya Uma for the British government. Needless to say, the baddies intervene, the children get separated from the grown-ups and fall headlong into adventure, including snakes, waterfalls, underground tunnels and hidden treasure...
Enid Blyton books give good treasure, always of suitably spectacular proportions, and can also be counted on for plucky children and a variety of exciting scrapes and well described locations. Recommended for readers of any age that want a couple of hours' escapism.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Night Probe! by Clive Cussler


No, it's not as dodgy as it sounds, although the title's not explained until nearly the end and the exclamation mark was probably a bit uneccessary. This isn't the most dramatic of the books, lacking as it does any actual threat to the whole world. In fact the tension here is between the USA and Canada/Britain, so reading it as a Brit there's a bizarre sense of divided loyalties. Especially as one of Pitt's adversaries is a certain British secret agent recalled from retirement - which I think would have worked a lot better without the final-scene namecheck for the thick members of the audience who hadn't worked it out yet.

Anyway, the upshot is, a treaty involving Canada was drawn up between the USA and Britain a hundred or so years ago, and both copies promptly lost, one on a sunken liner and one on a train that plunged into a river. Pitt has to find a readable copy before a forthcoming presidential address, and, as usual, various people want to stop him. There's a bit of a political sub-plot involving Canadian separatists too, but it doesn't really get in the way.

I liked this one, actually, even though there was no great peril and you couldn't help feeling you didn't actually care if he found it or not. There's a good bit with a ghost train too...

Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman


"If you need to see him, tell a spider."

Mr Nancy is dead, and in the act of death has managed to embarrass his son Fat Charlie just one more time. Travelling back to America for the wake, he learns of a brother he didn't know he had, and when he turns up, it's Fat Charlie's life that turns upside down. To make him leave again, he strikes a bargain with the Bird woman in return for the Anansi bloodline, and that, of course, is when things really start to go wrong.

It's in the same vein as American Gods, although not a direct follow-on: the old gods, the animal gods, walking as men, and affecting the world, and the stories that make the world. It's got humour, horror, romance, crime and a goodly dollop of magic and myth. Recommended - even if you don't like spiders.

It also comes with 'extras' - including a deleted scene, scans of the notebook he wrote it in, and reading group discussion questions. And I especially liked the chapter headings - "In which Fat Charlie does several things for the first time" and so on.