Margrét Helgadóttir - The Stars Seem so Far Away - Book Review (Fox Spirit Books)

The author kindly sent me this book to read from Denmark. After really enjoying this book, I felt the need to tell you my thoughts and opinions. It's a fantastic atmospheric read which transports the reader to a post apocalyptic future. I love this type of story, but only if it has been written in the right way, which this one has. 

The book started out its life as one small story entitled 'Nora", which was picked as one of the winners of Fox Spirit Books International Talk Like a Pirate story competition. Subsequently, a number of short stories merged seamlessly to make one epic adventure that will have your pulse racing and your imagination engaged. 

The plot is deeply rooted in Nordic history and Scandinavian culture, which gives the story a European feel. This is very different to the mainstream books written from a UK perspective. The author has done a superb job of getting the narrative over to the reader.

There is an eclectic cast full of characters dealing with fragmented lives. Five very different survivors find themselves clinging on to the harsh life of raging wars, famine, plagues and a very harsh Arctic Icelandic landscape. Where humans find themselves fleeing the deadly sun, as they migrate farther and farther north. 

The book delivers a theme of loneliness which is written in beautiful prose and delivers a simplistic quality. It's just like the book title suggests, looking at the stars and working out how the encounters will connect up. It's very creative and I love the idea that we may need to travel into space one day, in the future, to seek a better planet. One that we have not damaged.

The landscape will leave you breathing in the atmospheric conditions and lung fulls of freezing air, whilst the plot will have you gripped to the frozen core. This is a great curl-up-in-a-ball read that will transport you into your own imagination. It is a cracking read and, even though it is only slim, there is a big story at the heart. A sci-fi fantasy walk into the unknown and back. 

I recommend that you seek out a copy and read it.... 

• Paperback: 164 pages
• Publisher: Fox Spirit Books (10 Feb. 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1909348767
• ISBN-13: 978-1909348769

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Mark Ryan - Tremor - Book Review

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Britain's Next Bestseller (22 September 2014)
• ISBN-10: 1906954836
• Age: 12+
• 
  
• Book Synopsis: life William knew has gone. His world has been left devastated by the Fossil War. All major governments have been wiped out and the land is now under the control of the company Terrafall. Although Terrafall's intentions seem honest, William wonders if the company will live up to its promises and stop the tremors, which have been plaguing the Earth since the end of the war. And can Terrafall really find out who is behind the recent wave of abductions? 

 When someone close to William disappears, he decides it's time to take      matters into his own hands. But in a land that is on the verge of tearing itself apart, is it a life worth fighting for? If your world was falling apart, how far would YOU go to save it?

Book Review: Is this Britain's next bestseller? In my opinion, yes it is. This is an exciting opener to a great new series known as The Tremor Cycle. It's a haunting dystopian dream that will have you hooked from the very first page. The storyline works really well; immersed in a world filled with devastating tremors and a futuristic vision of climate change bringing the world crashing down around it. 

Politically the world has changed forever. Real food is very scarce with some humans resorting to a cannibalism; this creates a rather unsettling ride. You'll follow the well-written characters on a journey to find more about Terrafall, the company which controls the country after the ravages of a Fossil war. 

This book is a compelling read and will keep you up all night. It's also very thought provoking - it makes you think more and more as you uncover the mysteries to what is really happening in the ever changing world. Crumbling into oblivion, the tag line on the front of the book is: If your world was falling apart, how far would you go to save it? Is life worth fighting for?

This is a great debut book; it has all the right ingredients. William, the main character, is particularly well written. His thoughts, feelings and emotions resonated with me. I instantly liked him and wanted the very best for him. The plot is very well constructed and organised in my opinion. It is full of action and includes some very chilling and dark moments. Whilst a feeling of originality also runs through different parts of the storyline. The more that I read, the more I felt I was in the shoes of the different characters. 

I would really love to see this book do really well. As a younger read, it is bang on trend and shows a future that could become reality if we continued to make bad choices. I'm very pleased to say that when you've finished the last page and finally get your breath back from the climactic ending, it will surely leave you wanting more.....

Allan Boroughs - Bloodstone ( The Legend of Ironheart ) Book Review

What is a myth but a truth retold many times over? Atlantis is real!

At the start of 2015, I find that my reading pile is the strongest that it has ever been with a really exciting selection of reads. While everyone is talking about young adult books at the moment, I personally think that middle grade books are being very overlooked by reviewers. Especially as some of the best books that have already been published this year fit into the middle age reading category. However, without further ado let's move on to talk about Allan Borough's book 'Bloodstone'.

This is the second installment in The Legend of Ironheart series. In the first adventure, we were flung into the far reaches of Siberia as part of an epic and exhilarating adventure inspired by Allan's extensive travels. In 'Bloodstone' we are catapulted into a further escapade in the Antarctic with India Bentley.

The story starts with another mission across the globe with Verity Brown, who is known as a notorious tech-hunter scouring the lands for long-lost technology. However, after an unfortunate turn of events, and a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the reader is entertained by the striking descriptions and unique settings that introduced. India and Verity have many choices to make, but can they save humanity?

The story is full of explosive moments that will rocket you to different worlds in the blink of an eye. It's a classic no-nonsense, dystopian adventure that has been written with both passion and perhaps an overactive imagination. It introduces a collection of crazy characters that are very interesting to read about. I was particularly drawn to Professor Moon, a man absolutely obsessed in finding the Bloodstone. The plot is brought together by his crazy contraptions and a whole host of gadgets. 

The ending was inspired and brought about a different feel to the end of an active plot. It was certainly not what I was expecting, but it should enable the next book in the series to enter another dimension. This book was five star entertainment and one of my favourite reads of the year so far. I hope that the next book will be coming very soon, in the meantime, I might just revisit Ironheart. If you've not read any of the previous books, then I would recommend that you do so now.....  

This is another cracking MG read. Thank you Macmillan for sending it to me - your support is very much appreciated. Don't forget to look at my book review for Garth Jennings 'The Deadly 7' which is also by Macmillan. 

Book Review: Roger Davenport - Wanderer - Published by Sky Pony Press

The best introduction that I can come up with for this book is that it is a big time story with lots of heart and soul. It is published by Sky Pony Press in New York who sent me this review copy. I'd like to thank them for sending it over and giving me the opportunity to read it.

I was very keen to read this book when I found that the story portrayed a post-apocalyptic world. I have to say that this theme is difficult to get right when it is featured in books, but when it works it is amazing. So did this book and story live up to my expectations? Well, I have to say yes, in the main it did. This book has a great vision - the author paints the picture in full colour with some great fantasy elements that work particularly well. 

The story takes place in a lost valley in which society has been split into two: the Wanderers and the people who live in the pyramid city of Arcone. The Wanderes, by in large, have a very difficult and turbulent life - they have to battle against the elements, the arid desert landscape and each other. Whilst the people, who live in the pyramid city of Arcone, have a closed environment with a tightly controlled society which enables them to maintain a more civilized basic existence in the face of an environmentally devastated planet. I really did enjoy reading this book; it's highly imaginative and very well written. It is a fast-paced easy to follow story aimed at the 13-17 year old market but it also has a strong pull to older readers, just like myself!   

The characters are varied and very interesting; they are mostly likeable and take you along on a hair raising adventure. One of my favourite parts of the story involved the gas propelled balloon journey which took me on a breathtaking ride. It was really engrossing and set up the vision for the rest of the book. I loved the small attention to detail that you will find throughout this book - it really does make the story stand out from some of the other books within this genre.

The action intensifies the further that you travel into the story. However, it then very abruptly stops leaving the outcome, for me, to end too early. Perhaps the author took a little too long to set up the story for the next book and then made the story feel like two adventures in one book. That was my only gripe about this book really - I would have liked a stronger ending.

I really would like more people to find a copy of this book as it had a really good pace and rhythm to it. It has a gripping, fantastical world element that will have you engaged by following the characters' hardships, friendships and survival. There were some particularly great scenes and epic battles involving the survival of the main characters that will keep you immersed in the story. I really did enjoy reading this book as it was easy to follow, well written and really engaging from the start. The story included many great ideas which were well thought out and all told with a twist of mystery and a sense of adrenaline. I would recommend reading this book, so track down a copy if you can......

Susanne Winnacker - The Other Life - Book Review

The Other Life: who we were before the virus. How we'll never be again. It's been 3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since Sherry has seen daylight. When things went wrong up above, she was sealed off from the world in a bunker with her family. But when they run out of food, Sherry and her dad must venture outside. There they find devastation, desolation...and the Weepers: savage mutant killers. When her dad is snatched, Sherry joins forces with gorgeous but troubled Joshua - an Avenger, determined to destroy the Weepers. But can Sherry keep her family and Joshua safe, when his desire for vengeance threatens them all?

At the start of the book, the author quietly builds up the tension and the curiosity levels by introducing us to Sherry and her family, who are locked in the bunker in the basement of their house. It has been three years since they last saw daylight and lost all contact with the world. At this point, everything has just got too much and the family are at boiling point, especially when they run out of food. This is when the story becomes really interesting and exciting as Sherry and her father leave the bunker to find food. . . . As a result of this action, we suddenly become thrown into a post-apocalyptic world with rabies-infested humans known as Weepers. Whilst they are perhaps described with vague detail, the very vicious nature of them certainly allows the magic to spark in the imagination department. 

I have to say that I did find Sherry (one of the main characters) slightly annoying. I did try really hard to overlook this and felt that I just about managed it. It was not her OCD traits, in fact I found this element fascinating, it was actually the dialogue that she engaged in. At times, I found this confusing - she asked too many questions and, like all of the other characters, she appeared to be rather too stereotypical. Whilst the little snippets of her former life weaved throughout the story were clever, I'm not sure that they really worked.

This book has a real emotional depth to it - the feelings portrayed through the characters make the story more convincing. The supporting characters all portray a different story with different feelings as they learn to cope and survive. This worked amazingly well as it is often difficult to get the balance just right.

I think that this is a great debut book. It is very readable and will certainly have you, in parts, hiding behind the covers and wanting to read faster in order to find out more. The ending was great - it sets up the next book to be even better. Perhaps the characters may have more to fight than just the Weepers . . . .  If you love dystopian and zombies, then this will be a book just for you and if you don't, then give it a try anyway.

The Life Beyond will be the next book and I just can't wait.

Isobelle Carmody - Obernewtyn (B.k 1 Obernewtyn Chronicles) - Book Review

This review has been a long time coming. I have read a number of other books by the Australian 'Queen of Fantasy' but have never expressed my public view on some of the other titles that I have read. However, I am now going to put that right with this review, for Obernewtyn. It's really hard to believe that it has taken this long to be published in the U.K.

This is the first book in the series and has been kicking around the fantasy world since 1987, after selling over 270,000 copies in Australia and gaining a huge fan base in the U.S.

Finally, this best selling series is going to be published in the U.K for the first time in June, by Bloomsbury. Further books are due to be published in the next year or so including book two, The Farseekers, which should be available in August.

I expected this book to be set within an over-the-top fantasy world and comprise of a lot of Sci-Fi terminology. However this did not happen, and as a result, this story actually felt a little more original and stood out due to the post apocalyptic world which has been used. This still pulls the reader towards the Sci-Fi world but the way in which Isobelle has adapted it, enables her to make the storyline her own.

Carmody has a great way of portraying emotions which are developed and shown through the many different characters. They connect with the reader in so many ways and on so many different levels. The writing cleverly draws the reader into the intriguing and mysterious world. From start to end Isobelle creates an underlying feeling of oppressiveness, which compels the reader to endure it until the end,  when the story finally comes to a halt. 

In a world struggling back from the brink of apocalypse, life is harsh. But for Elspeth Gordie, born with enhanced mental abilities, it is also dangerous. Survival is only by secrecy and so she determines never to use her forbidden powers. But it is as if they have their own imperative and she is brought to the attention of the totalitarian Council that rules the Land. Banished to the remote mountain institution of Obernewtyn, she must throw off her cloak of concealment and pit herself against those that would resurrect the terrible forces of the apocalypse. Only then will she learn most truly who and what she is ...Elspeth is determined to uncover the plot and so, accompanied only by her cat, Maruman, embarks on a terrible adventure full of danger, the conclusion to which promises not just uncertainty about her safety but also that of many around her.

With many more books to come . . . .  us lucky people in the UK have a great new series of books to enjoy. For me, this book is for readers who want more from a book, and also for the casual reader who has a limited amount of time. I am really looking forward to the next book in the series - in fact I have already ordered a U.S copy. Once gripped, I am the type of person who can't wait too long for the next book!