English

So, my girls and boys, let’s get straight to it.

I liked this book. A lot. Why?

Various reasons

It’s a smooth read. The sections flow from one to another without any great leaps of narrative or time. The text isn’t cluttered by descriptions, info dumps or thickets of adjectives. The sentences don’t ramble. As a result, it’s easy to read. Also because–

–the story focusses on 2 main characters: Joron Twiner and Lucky Meas. In a genre infamous for extensive casts, often with similar names, it’s refreshing to find a book where the opposite is the case. Joron and Meas are well-balanced, arrive ‘solidly’ and rise from that moment. And, though the obvious character journey is Joron’s, Meas has her own path to tread. One I think we will see more of in coming books.

The other players are teased into the story and there’s plenty of time to get used to who is who. Also: not an apostrophe in sight in any of the names. Not one. Thank you.

Names lead to world building.

The book has a nice balance of the known and unknown. I wasn’t swamped with new races or places that I had to get my head round. There were a few nice twists on English words (sister/ sither, aye/ ey). The Hag and Her lore added a depth to the world. There are dragons both legendary and real. And the matriarchal society with rank based on an ability to birth healthy children was a great idea, one that was made more believable by the grim traditions that underpin it: what happens to the ‘imperfect’ children and the corpse-lights. (Yuck.)

Which takes us to the ships. Those of the Fleet and the Dead (I wonder if that was a deliberate twist on ‘the quick and the dead’?). And not just any ships but vessels made from dragon bones. Where does someone get an idea like that?

Wonderful.

I want my own 5-ribber so I can stand on the rump and yell orders at people as we sail the seas.

Which is where I’m heading with this part of the review: the sea. I grew up by it yet, strangely, don’t miss it until I am back by it.* I had a similar feeling with The Bone Ships. It reminded me how much I enjoyed Best Laid Plans (Rob Hayes) and Red Seas under Red Skies (Scott Lynch); it made me realise I like nautical fantasy, despite not knowing much more about ships other than they get wet. And this book combined the sea, dragons and a well-told story. What’s not to like?

Well…

(stop groaning at the back)

I did have a few minor issues…

SPOILER ALERT!!!

 

 

There were two things.

1.

The way Lucky Meas’s old crew wrangle a transfer to the Tide Child felt too convenient. What happened is possible, I guess, but I had a momentary, eyebrow-raised ‘really?’ moment.

 

2.

The story lacked a foil to Meas and Joron. The characters that were shaping up to be the person you love-to-hate or hate-to-love fell by the wayside. Indyl Karrad was stonebound, I get it. Coughlin looked to be a great villain but switched allegiances after his own betrayal and then kind of vanished. The other potentials (Cwell, Kanvey, Dinyl & Meas’s sister) never really got a chance to sink their teeth or plots into Meas or Joron.

I realise that there are more books in the series and those characters may well come into their own in time (Well, those that are still alive…), but I wanted someone who I could gnash my teeth at whenever they skulked onto the page. And I never really got it.

I realise they are minor points. But in such a good book, they niggled.

 

 

SPOILER ALERT OVER!

 

To sum up, if you like nautical fantasy and rare beasts, you can’t go far wrong with this book.

Like I said, my boys and girls, I like this book. A lot.

“Sequel rising!”

 

* That said, the sea of my childhood wasn’t filled with longthresh. Seriously… Who writes a book about the ships and sailors and then fills their sea with carnivores that have a hankering for human flesh? That’s all kinds of twisted.

My review in a nutshell: a slow classic that didn’t always work for me.

Want that with more feeling?

Here we go…

• It’s a great take on the vampire story, I particularly liked the cause of vampirism and the ponderous steps Robert Neville makes to working that out.
• It’s clever.
• It’s descriptive. (Too much so in some places.)
• I liked the contrast between hunter and hunted – a much more acute problem than many vampire books because Neville is alone.
• Ben Cortman is a nice touch.
• The scene where Neville realises his watch has stopped really got me going.
• The dog! Did you have to do that? That was brutal.

But apart from those moments, much of the first part of the book just seemed to pootle along.

Then Ruth arrives.

I don’t want to give anything away so won’t say much about her. But from this point on, the book picks up considerably. And that was what was lacking for me for much of the story: a second character.

Neville’s wife and daughter and a huge part of his life but only in memory. Ben Cortman doesn’t really count as a companion. I was missing the dynamics of more than one person on the page. Ruth gives the book, and Neville, what they needed.

Her presence also sets up nicely for the end – the new reason for Neville being hunted and what happens to him. It was a great twist that I didn’t see coming and leads up nicely to the last sentence of the story.

All in all, I Am Legend is a good, measured read but I feel it could have done with Ruth appearing earlier to balance out Neville’s solitary existence. I realise that evoking a feeling of loneliness was probably one of the aims of the book, but the lack of a companion, and some of the overly precise descriptions of what he was doing, took the warmth out of the novel

I’d still recommend it. After all, it’s a classic.

After reading Lancelot, I had high hopes for Camelot. But did it live up to the high standards of its father?

Short answer – yes, just.

Long answer below.

The book is set about a decade after the final battle that ends Lancelot/ Lancelot. It features many of the same people, has the same prose that is just the right side of purple, and has the same biting action sequences. It chronicles the life of Lancelot’s son as he is ripped from the sanctuary of a secluded monastery and thrust into a world full of blood, rage and love.*

There is a depth and colour to the world which is vivid and meticulous but occasionally overwhelming. (In Lancelot there were too many trees; in Camelot, birds. They were everywhere. Stands to reason given a lot of action was in a marsh but even so…)

There are parallels to its predecessor: a love interest, a quest (a cauldron this time, not a sword), a boy coming of age.

There is tragedy, senseless loss, depictions of the brutal life of those times, moments of loyalty and devious trickery (Take a bow, Merlin.)

There is the same vast array of characters and places with unsayable names.

(Another shout out to the proofreaders who must have been put through the red-line wringer by their spellcheck machinery.)

All in all, it is a worthy follow up to its predecessor. (In his Author’s Notes, Giles Kristian calls it a companion novel rather than a sequel.)

But, it falls just short of the high standards of Lancelot. This doesn’t make it a bad book. Not by any means. It is worth reading, preferably directly after Lancelot so the events of that book which are referenced in Camelot are still fresh. If there are so many parallels between the two, why is there a discrepancy?

At first, I thought it was the action sequences. They are good, but are a shade slower, not quite as bright. I wondered if that was deliberately done to reflect the age of many of the warriors. But ultimately, they are not the reason this book is not quite the equal of its father.

It’s the protagonist.

Another stunning cover.

Lancelot burned. You could feel it in him from the moment he stepped onto the page. Though his devotion to his hawk, his adoration of Pelleas and his rivalry with Melwas. To his love for Arthur and, of course, Guinevere, who consumed his dreams and days and, ultimately, his life and death. Lancelot’s ferocious personality drove the book forwards to its bloody conclusion. He was a lord of war and a lord of the page.

Galahad was forever in his father’s shadow. Arguably, he makes a longer, harder journey that his father: from his time as a monk to his role as a fearsome warrior on the vulnerable right-hand side of the shield-wall. But he didn’t have the passionate depths of his father and that, I think, is where the book doesn’t shine as much.

That said, I’ll repeat myself:

Camelot. Is. Not. A. Bad. Book.

But Lancelot is better.

Buy both. Read both. You’ll enjoy them.

*I don’t see the point of giving you a blow by blow account of the plot. Read the book if you want that. Mr Kristian tells the story much better than I do…

I don’t generally read crime fiction but I took a chance on The Whisper Man because it came highly recommended. Without giving away too much, it combines elements of The Sixth Sense and The Silence of the Lambs, throws in a young boy and his father, and then puts them dead centre of every parent’s worst nightmare.

Did I enjoy it?

Essentially, yes. The opening 25% (Yes, I read ebooks) was genuinely chilling, to the point that I wondered if I’d be better reading it at day rather than last thing at night.

The last 15% or so is also an incredibly quick read as everything comes to a head.

But the middle section felt flat. Maybe it was because the opening and ending were so good, but the story seemed to lose its way. There were too many points-of-view and one co-incidence too many. All of a sudden there were a host of characters and revelations. The big reveals about the parents (and grandparent) I found a little hard to accept e.g. who they are and where they lived. The identity of the son’s imaginary friend was a nice touch and his supernatural abilities were explained at the end. But, initially, I couldn’t work out if this book was a creepy crime thriller or whether there was something more unreal to it.

That said, the author gets a lot into a relatively short space and does it well. (Bear in mind I’m not a regular reader of this genre so am not aware of the tropes and cliches.) There are copycat killings, complex family relationships that have a myriad of consequences (both good and evil), regret and hopes, and some implied moments of horror that happen ‘off-screen’ that are gruesome to imagine. All in all – worth it.

Just make sure you lock your doors and windows at night while you read it. Especially if you have kids.

It’s a stunning cover, especially when you look at it close up.

This is a good book – a classic slow-burn thriller that combines elements of sci-fi (genetic engineering), horror (characters include the Outsider and ‘Vince’), romance (ahhhh…), and a relentless increase in tension (ohhhh….).

If you’re unfamiliar with the story, it essentially follows four main characters: a socially-repressed young woman (who goes on the biggest personal ‘journey’ throughout the pages), a professional assassin, an ex-special forces soldier struggling to find a reason in life, and a government agent. Their stories seem unconnected at first but slowly coalesce around the hunt for two genetically engineered creatures: a dog (good) with human-level intelligence and something else: the Outsider (bad). On that level, it has shades of a classic good vs evil fairy tale but it is not that simplistic.

Most of the individuals sit comfortably in their pigeonholes of right or wrong. But, without giving away too much, the true monster in the story is not the Outsider (as horrific as ‘it’ can be) but the professional killer. Vince is one of the most loathsome individuals I have come across on the page: evil wrapped up in a twisted belief that what he does is almost a divine right. He is superbly written. As are all the others. So to, the locations and scenes.

The prose is beautiful. Evocative. It switches between the simplicity that I see as the hallmark of many great writers, then throws in some sublime descriptions that take their time over a scene or a moment. That brings me to my first gripe. Some of the latter got a little too long-winded for me. There were some instances when I thought the author was going to describe each plant and flower in one of the protagonist’s gardens.

My second gripe relates to the main villain of the story: Vince. As despicably wonderful he is as a character, his fate was a let down.

MINI-SPOILER ALERT!

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He is so proficient at what he does, is always well-prepared, that what happens to him in the end felt rushed. Yes, he was facing opponents that knew what they were doing, but it seemed too easy. That said, I’m glad what happened happened. The guy was vile.

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MINI-SPOILER ALERT OVER!

As for the non-human characters: Einstein and the Outsider. They are wonderful. There is a depth to both of them, more so to the latter (the ‘baddie’) that makes them worthy of their own sequels. The idea of having a dog with enhanced intelligence and a Mickey Mouse obsession is utterly endearing. But as mentioned in the novel, such a creature would undoubtedly be used by the powers that be for nefarious ends. (I’ll stop that line of thought here before it gets too bleak…)

All in all, Watchers is a book to take your time over.

Highly recommended.

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