War Horse

                                                             By Michael Morpurgo




      I seem to have avoided all the hype surrounding War Horse and the subsequent movie and stage play and only bought this for my wife after I was unable to get hold of her latest installment of the Vampire Diaries at our local town centre. She read it first and told me how incredibly sad and good it was and I read it a few weeks later.

      It is sad and it's a lovely little book. As with most childrens fiction it isn't really aimed at me but I still enjoyed it. It is told from the viewpoint of a horse sent to the front line during WW1 and it is a heart warming tale and a brilliant insight into a major event in world history. I think if I had read this as a 10 or 11 year old I would have absolutely loved it and it would have probably stayed with me into adulthood. I'm not 11, I'm 42 but it was a terrific read. Michael Morpugo's wife told him that she thought War Horse was his best book and he replied that he hoped not because he has written 80 more since!

     I think I will certainly make it my mission to find out, even if it takes me a long time. Good book.


      5/5

Young Men Shall See by Scott Thompson

     This is a coming to age story told through the eyes of Gus Ambrose, a teenager in River Falls, a small community in Georgia. A tale of love and heartache, excitement and horror, a group of teenagers struggle to make sense of a world where old fashioned attitudes and myths collide with  teenage boredom and a desire to have fun.

      I liked everything about this book. I don't think there's anything I didn't like. I really loved the main characters and the world in which the story is told, I loved the short chapters and I loved the way the story was told slowly and effortlessly without feeling forced in any way. But most of all ( and this is difficult to explain) I liked the whole atmosphere of the book, because some books do have an atmosphere. Some books get to you in all the right places, sometimes you really connect with the characters and it's almost as if you are there in the pages of the book yourself. I suppose that is what I am trying to say. I certainly had that connection with 'Young Men Shall See'.

      As far as debut novels are concerned this is incredibly well written and Scott Thompson certainly knows how to write. And the great thing is that given the opportunity his writing will hopefully continue to grow and blossom and even greater things will come in the future. A part of me thinks that maybe the story could have ended with Chapter 30 without the addition of the final chapter but maybe I'm just nick picking because I really liked this book. You know when you've really enjoyed a book because you just want to read it again and you don't want the story to end.

      A Superb Debut 5/5

Book 20 Night Of the Humans

                                                         By David Llewellyn



        Night of the Humans is part of BBC Book's collection of novels based around the TV Series and features the 11th Doctor and Amy. Landing on a junkyard in space they find themselves caught in between a battle between two alien societies, the Sittuum and a futuristic but savage version of Humans. A devastating comet is on it's way to cause imminent destruction and they face a race against time to save themselves and everybody else.

      This is a fun and quick read and I found it much more readable than my previous encounter with BBC Doctor Who books. I really liked the alien world of the Gyre and without being overly convoluted or boring the plot kept my interest and felt like a throwback to the classic series that I gew up with. There are lots of cool aliens and a good balance of action and humour that will probably satisfy many a Whovian. Lots of good characters abound and I particularly liked Dirk Slipstream who (in my mind at least) was definitely Ace Rimmer from Red Dwarf!

      I grew up with the old Target books and although as an old git I don't get as excited (as I used to) with reading this kind of thing, it was an average entertaining read. A good beginning, a good middle and a decent ending. What more could you want?

        


3/5

Book 19 Lulu looks For Love

                                                          By Katie Pfeiffer

                        Well it has always been my intention to read all kinds of books for my 52 book challenge and for review purposes so it was about time I read a childrens picture book. I am a 42 year old bald bloke so it's obvious that this book isn't aimed at me. 

    

      I don't know much about Katie but this little book is colourful and funny and I'm sure she will have a great future if she wants to continue to combine her art with childrens fiction. I'm not sure about the inclusion of a spirit guide type character in a story for young children, that is my only small niggle.This appears to have been written a few years ago now and I don't know if she has written anything else but hopefully she will go on to develop herself in these two areas and it will be interesting to keep an eye on her. Whether writing or Art or both becomes her chosen area, I wish her well, wherever her future carries her.

The War of the Worlds

                                                                 H.G Wells

                

            'The Chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one they said.'

      When I was growing up my sister had the War of the Worlds Album and I remember listening to it, maybe through my bedroom wall, and I remember that line well. I don't know if I ever listened to the album all the way through and I don't even know how close it was to the actual book.

      The War of the Worlds was definitely well ahead of it's time, it is imaginative and thought provoking. I was expecting it to be like a bad Sci Fi B-Movie but it was totally the opposite. There are probably more dead bodies in this than any modern book I have ever read and I'm sure it must have raised a few eyebrows at the time.

      However saying all that it did take me a while to get into the story, and perhaps because I don't know anything about London or it's nearby areas I did find it quite difficult to picture any of the locations in the book. And for me the book only came alive in the final third. The ending is excellent though and kind of makes the whole thing come together. It kept my interest (just about) all the way through and it is well worthy of 4 stars out of 5, but not the most exciting thing I have ever read. Mainly due to the difficulty in picturing in my head any of the settings and London landmarks. That made it is tad difficult.

      Maybe I should take that trip to London like I've been meaning to.

      4/5

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

                                                   By Stieg Larsson

      Evil Shall

                           With Evil

                                               Be Expelled

      Henrik Vanger has spent decades trying to find out what happened to his niece Harriet who disappeared into thin air in 1966, finally in one last desperate attempt he enlists the help of Mikael Blomkvist, disgraced journalist.

       Blomkvist moves to sleepy Hedeby Island and soon realises that he is not just the hunter but possibly the hunted.

      I delayed reading this until now because of all the hype it generated along with the motion picture, I don't like to read a book when everybody is raving about it because there's always a danger that it won't live up to the hype. At 542 pages this is quite a big chunk of a book and I have since read a mixed bag of reviews. Some people think it's over complicated and convoluted and obsessed with mundane details. Yes, maybe it isn't the easiest book to read but that's what I love about it. It's a thinking man's novel, it's in many ways an unconventional thriller. I like the fact that it makes your brain work a little harder, I like the fact that the Author goes into lots of small details, I like the fact that I needed two bookmarks instead of one!

      When I first started reading I admit I was a tad weary because I was straight away hit with lots of maps and a complicated family tree on the first few pages. Hence why I needed the multiple bookmarks so that I could keep referring back to them! 

      But there's lots to love in this novel. I love the location, a fictional island off the coast of Sweden, I love the characters and I love the general atmosphere of the story. Because it's hard to describe but some books do have an atmosphere and the atmosphere of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' gets under your skin in a good way. 

      Without wanting to give away the ending, the main story ends with about 90 pages to spare and then we have what can only be described as an 'add on' or a 'wrap up' where all the loose ends are wrapped up. This isn't liked by everyone who has read the book but I kind of liked it, even though it is unconventional. Because this whole novel is unconventional, but in a great way.

       Sadly Stieg Larsson never lived long enough to see his books in print and because I don't speak Swedish I won't ever know how much this translation by Reg Keeland differs from the originally penned story. So we have to give some credit to Reg for bringing 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' to the public's attention. Now I just have to watch the movie and read the rest of the books in the Millenium Trilogy. I'm not a big thriller fan but this one is good.

       Fantastic 5/5

Book 16 All In The Mind

                                                         By Jenny Twist

       

 

      The war is over and as the train pulls into the station he catches a glimpse of the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. As he sets foot on the platform he knows he has to have her and needs her in his life. She is a nurse and is helping the injured soldiers onto stretchers to take them to the hospital.

       Her name is Tilly and she is in love. Invited down to his parents home she is terrified and excited in equal measure. Her life is about to change completely, she has no clothes and no money but she has Johnny. He is all she needs.

      Tilly wakes up in a strange room, she is scared, the room is unfamiliar and there is something missing.  She is old and He isn't there. 

What is happening?

 

       I really enjoyed the beginning of this one, I loved the atmosphere of war time England and the excitement of first love. It is romantic and I found myself wanting to journey more into this time and place.

      Then the story moves on and our main character finds herself in the present day in a nursing home, an old woman who has alzheimer's. Unknown to her she has been part of a scientific experiment and she is getting better and younger!

      To be honest I found myself wanting to remain in the past, to find out what happened when Tilly started a new life with her lover. But then the story changes and we are catapulted into the future and for me the plot didn't quite gel. The twist in the story just didn't work for me and it kind of lost its way towards the end when it changed yet again. I really wanted to love this book because I received a free copy for review purposes but I have to be honest and true to myself. The idea is a great one and I loved the two main characters, Tilly and Johnny, but I found myself wishing Tilly had stayed in wartime England instead of waking up many years later in a nursing home bed. Jenny Twist has a great imagination and lots of potential but for me this one didn't quite work.  Maybe it's just me because 'All In The Mind' has got some great reviews, I'm really sorry I couldn't follow suite.

     I do think there is more to come from this Author, maybe her writing will mature and we will see the best of her in the future. I read another of her books 'Away With The Fairies' earlier on in the year and I loved it. I would love to see her write something along similar lines or maybe a historical romance.

      

                  3/5