Review: Ash Mistry and the World of Darkness by Sarwat Chadda

Ash Mistry is in a world of pain. A parallel world in fact, where another version of him seems to be living his life, and the evil Lord Savage – now all-powerful and adored by the nation – is about to carry out a terrible plan.

Worse still, Ash’s superpowers, invested in him by the Death Goddess Kali, seem no longer to be working.

Without Kali, can Ash defeat Savage and save the world?

*** Warning: contains spoilers for book 2 (Ash Mistry and the City of Death)

After that jaw dropping cliffhanger at the end of Ash Mistry and the City of Death, Ash and Parvati now find themselves trapped in an alternate timeline caused when Lord Savage used his newly gained magical powers to travel back in time and change the past. This parallel universe is not hugely different from his own, but the differences are significant as far as Ash is concerned. In this world, Savage is seen as a generous and benevolent figure who has used his fortunes to help solve some of the world's problems. However, Ash is convinced that this Savage is just as evil and egotistical as the one he thought he had defeated. 

More bizarre for Ash though is the fact that there is another version of himself in this alternate timeline. Ashoka is like Ash before the events of The Savage Fortress, i.e. geeky, awkward, unfit, overweight and with very few skills that could be of any use in the battle that is sure to come. However, it is down to Ashoka, Ash and Parvati to discover Savage's diabolical plans and, if at all possible, defeat him once and for all. Oh and did I mention that Ash's awesome, superhero, Kali-bestowed powers have disappeared?

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of Sarwat's writing, and I have loved every book he has written so far, from the brilliant pair of book featuring the young Templar, Billi SanGreal, to the first two books in the Ash Mistry trilogy. This third book, The World of Darkness, is no exception to this rule, and yet again Sarwat has delivered a fast-paced action-fest that will delight fans of his Indian mythology themed series.

I have to admit that the way Sarwat ended the second book left me with a few niggling doubts as to how much I would enjoy this finale to the trilogy. The sudden creation of an alternate timeline made me nervous as I have read a number of books where plot elements such as this were not at all handled well. Oh me of little faith! This is the mind of Sarwat Chadda we are talking about here, and those doubts were completely unfounded. Sarwat manages this jump and the action that unfolds in this alternate timeline with consummate ease, and it very quickly becomes a way of showing how much Ash has developed since he first encountered Savage. 

Every now and again throughout the story the author inserts a small chapter or a handful of paragraphs where Ash is in dreamsleep, 'remembering' some of his past lives, and using these to try to come to a solution to his current worries. These also show how the eons long love affair between Parvati and his past selves developed, and at times seemed so doomed and tragic. This complements the continuing development of their relationship in the current timeline, as the two grow closer and closer, and possibly even start to admit their feelings for each other.

This series is aimed at the 9+ age group, with both Sarwat Chadda and publisher HarperCollins understanding that kids do love (and can easily handle) darkness, violence, blood and horror in their stories. This book in particular does contain some pretty scary moments, and Savage's plans for the human race are especially gruesome. There will be a small handful of kids who might be frightened by some of the scenes in the book, but then again most of these will already know that they aren't comfortable with horror stories and will probably not pick the books up in the first place. However, those who take delight in a moderate dose of blood splatter and fantasy violence with love this end to the trilogy.

If you have not yet tried Sarwat's Ash Mistry books then you are seriously missing out on a great trilogy that is easily as good as any of the mythology based stories that Rick Riordan has written (in my opinion, Sarwat's books are even better). If my opinion isn't good enough for you then only recently Riordan himself tweeted that he had just read Ask Mistry and the Savage Fortress and thought it was great.

My thanks go to HarperCollins for sending me a copy of the book to read.

Review: Ash Mistry and the City of Death by Sarwat Chadda

Ash Mistry is leading a pretty complicated life. There’s school, his unrequited crush on girl-next-door Gemma… and then there’s the fact that he’s the reincarnation of the great Indian hero Ashoka, not to mention the small detail that he died last year, and came back as an agent of the goddess of death.

So when the demon servants of the evil Lord Savage come after Gemma in order to get to Ash, you’d think he’d be ready to take them on.

But Lord Savage still has some tricks up his sleeve. And with Gemma out of the picture, the English villain is closer than ever to finding a magical aastra of his own, and the power to rule the world. It’s time for Ash to go up against his enemy once again. Luckily, as the human embodiment of the Kali-aastra, Ash can find the weak points in any living thing and kill it. But the key word there is ‘living’. And little does Ash know that Lord Savage has mastered another branch of magic – one which allows him to create whole armies out of un-living stone…

Here starts the campaign to persuade Goodreads to have a six star rating system. Looking back over the year so far, and bearing in mind that we are not even a quarter of the way through 2013, I have already given fourteen five star reviews to books with a 2013 release date. This is not me being overly generous - there are simply that many great books being released this year. However, to hijack Orwell's famous Animal Farm quote: All five star reviews are equal, but some five star reviews are more equal that others. Thus the need for that extra star, perhaps only awardable after a month has passed since first rating a book. Does it still stick in the mind? Do you find yourself looking longingly at it on your shelf, wishing you had the time to re-read it? I am finding this with a small number of those five star 2013 reads, and Ash Mistry and the City of Death is one of them.

Long time readers of The Book Zone will know that I have been a fan of Sarwat's writing ever since I first read Devil's Kiss, and his second book, Dark Goddess, was my Book Zone Book of the Year in 2010 (trophy finally made a ready to be delivered). I also loved Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress, and it was one of my favourite books of 2012, so I have been waiting impatiently for the sequel to be published, and it was well worth that wait. This book is blinkin' brilliant from beginning to end!

My thoughts about the importance of Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress as a book are unchanged a year on from when I read it and there's not a great deal I can add to that, so please head on over to my review here to find out why I feel this way. However, for those of you who have arrived here looking for more information about the sequel then please read on. 

The story has moved on a few months and Ash is living back in London with his family, trying to return to life as a normal school boy, with normal school boy problems, whilst also coming to terms with the fact that he is now the reincarnation of an ancient Indian hero. Ash has fallen badly for Gemma, one of the cool, popular crowd at school, and hearing she has split up with her boyfriend spurs him to make a move. Unfortunately, just as he seems to be making some headway, Parvati (demon daughter of Ravana) arrives on the scene with a favour to ask of Ash, and then soon after everything hits the fan, in the shape of Jackie, Lord Savage's right-hand she-demon. Nasty things happen, and instead of being seen as a hero, Ash sees fear in his friends' eyes when they look at him. 

With persona non grata status now firmly established and life in London totally unbearable Ash decides there is only one course of action for him to take: join up with Parvati, go back to India, kill Savage, get his revenge and save the world (again). After all, he is the Kali-aastra, master of Marma Adi and able to kill any living creature with the slightest touch of his little finger. Little does he know that his mission will not be quite so straightforward as Savage has managed to master a little more magic since their last meeting, and suddenly Ash is not as invincible as he thought. He also finds himself coming face-to-face with another old adversary, this time in the shape of Ujba, who now wants to continue the training that Rishi began with Ash. Add these woes to the fact that Ash still does not know what Parvati's true motives are, and whether he should trust her or not, and the stage is set for one hell of a second half to the book.

The climax to the book is typical of Sarwat Chadda - full of action, fights to the death, and more twists and turns than a Chubby Checker dance marathon, and you're left feeling pretty breathless come the end of the penultimate chapter. However, just as you thought you could relax Chadda plays the ace that he has kept hidden up his sleeve and leaves you with a jaw-to-the-ground-OMG-can't-believe-it final chapter that had me rushing to get online to check when the third book in the series is due to be released. Fortunately for Sarwat we only have to wait until July for this one - if we had had to wait a whole year then I may have been going fully tooled to his book launch to get all Ash Mistry on him until he revealed what happens next.

If you have/are a 9+ boy who loves Rick Riordan but has not yet discovered Ash Mistry then I simply cannot recommend the books enough. They are quite dark in places, and also occasionally gory (perfect for boys then), but also come laced with humour. The plot is super-fast paced, and I raced through the book, reading into the night as I couldn't put it down. Ash is a superb main character - even though he has muscled up since we first met him at the beginning of Savage Fortress, inside he is still a geeky, RPG playing kid from London, with all the insecurities that come with being that age, and I think kids will find it easy to relate to him, and also wonder how they would cope if suddenly they found themselves to be masters of ancient magics.

Ash Mistry and the City of Death was published on the 28 Feburary and my thanks go to HarperCollins for sending me a copy to review.

Guest Post: Mistry Monday by Sarwat Chadda

On Friday I journeyed into London to attend the 'not a launch' launch party for Sarwat Chadda's Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress. It was great to catch up with Sarwat, and a number of other authors and bloggerswho had ventured into the city to help Sarwat celebrate. Now Sarwat has very kindly written a piece for The Book Zone, focusing on the villain of Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress. if you haven't read the book yet then you really should have a quick read of my review and then go out and get your hands on a copy. Now, over to Sarwat:

Evolution of a Bad Guy by Sarwat Chadda 

A book is only as interesting as its bad guy. After all, how else can the hero be measured? There’re just so many cats Superman can save out of a tree before we need Lex Luthor ready to nuke the West Coast.

I probably had more fun creating the bad guy out of ‘Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress’ than I did the hero, Ash. Ash was easy. He was 13, a bit geeky, and bit cowardly and had the same interests as most 13 yo boys. Which is hanging out with mates, playing computer games, and trying to talk to girls. I think having been one myself made it a lot easier. Ash is easy to understand. He’s just a normal kid. It is what happens to him that’s extraordinary and why we’re interested in the book. We want our characters to be thrown in the shark tank and we want to see what happens. Sink, swim, get chewed to death in a vortex of limbs, fins and blood, or they bite back.

So, I needed to create my own, particular story shark.

I love sharks. They’re so basic, so primitive, so perfectly designed. Pure predator with no extra bits. You never look at a shark and think ‘gosh, how sleek and look at the pretty eyes’ you think ‘OMG, get out of the water!’. I wanted that sort of bad guy. Someone you would never, ever mistake for anything else.

So, allow me to present the guide to ‘Building a better bad guy’.

1. There are no bad guys. Everyone is the hero of their own story. Whatever mad, world-destroying scheme they may have, there’s a reason for it. The reason may only be reasonable to their own twisted little minds, but it has to exist. Bad guys being bad ‘just because’ will not wash. Now I’m not talking about some childhood trauma, that’s fine but we’re wanting to go EPIC, so we need more. Give them grand plans with a twisted logic. Lord Savage is an archaeologist, a searcher for knowledge. He’s not satisfied with just what’s in books or stuff other people have discovered, he wants to push the boundaries and find out for himself. That’s a rather commendable trait, don’t you think? So, if the opportunity to learn from the greatest magician the world has ever known came up, of course he’d go for it. He wouldn’t let anyone stand in his way. Unfortunately that magician is the demon king Ravana, and freeing demons is generally BAD. But that’s not how Savage thinks. He’s dedicated to the endless pursuit of knowledge and has the arrogance to believe he’ll be wise enough to control it. The guys who invented the atom bomb probably thought the same way. 
2. Cool henchmen. Come on, what’s a supervillain without henchmen? Oddjob, Jaws, Darth Maul and even Spike had henchmen. I’m not talking about minions. Minions are faceless and have no credentials but their number. Like zombies. Nobody remembers an individual zombie. The appeal of zombies is quantity. Henchmen you remember. Often as good as the hero, but for a single flaw (usually arrogance). They provide the penultimate challenge before they face the Big Bad. Design them with thought and care; they have the potential to be legends in their own right. After all, Darth Vader is technically a henchman. So, if I’ve already got my villain, Lord Savage, what sort of henchmen would he have? Since he’s an archaeologist, characters with history. Since he deals with demons, then demons are good. The scarier the better (should there ever be any other kind?). BUT they must be heroes in their stories too. The demons in Ash Mistry are tragic outcasts in a world that hates them. So they return that hate tenfold. They were the losers in the ancient battle between human and demonkind and since then have been feared and despised. So, they relish the fear they generate. They revel in the horror because that’s all they have left. 
3. Location, location, location. Be it a hollowed out-volcano or Death Star, your bad guy needs a home. It has to be part of his personality and the setting for the book. You will not get Bond and Blofeld facing down in your local Tesco. My personal preference is something grand, operatic. I am writing fantasy so feel no urge to be restrained. Climactic battles should involve thunder, lightning, screaming hordes of demons and lava. Villains are never faced down in a meadow of spring flowers. Grand bad guys need grand digs. Locations should be exotic, and twisted. So, where to put Savage and his henchmen? Something old, decaying yet filled with ancient grandeur. I was extraordinarily lucky when I did my research for the book. I had planned for it to be set in India and India does epic like the Sahara does desert. I found a rundown maharajah’s palace on the banks of the Ganges. Crocodiles lurked in the river-side reeds while the dusty statues of gods and demons looked on from the battlements. I hardly needed to change a thing to turn it into the Savage Fortress. 

Of course there’s more to building bad guys, but the above are the top three. I’m pretty damn proud of Lord Alexander Savage. He’s a man of learning, culture and elegance. He’s a serial killer with demons at his beck and call. He made his fortune with slaves and opium during the dark days of the 18th and 19th Centuries and is not ready to quit any time soon. Do go and meet him for yourself.

*** Competition: WIN a pile of books from HarperCollins

I feel like I should be christening March 2012 as HarperCollins month as they have so many great titles being released, every one of them a potential contender for my book of the year. Thanks to their almost overwhelming generosity I have a copy of each of their big titles that are coming out this month to give away, and you could be the lucky winner of a copy of each of the following:


Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda
Department 19: The Rising by Will Hill
Freax and Rejex by Robin Jarvis
The 13th Horseman by Barry Hutchison
 

To enter all you need to do is answer the simple question below and add your details to the form. The first name drawn at random after the closing date will win all four books. Deadline for entries is 8pm GMT Monday 19th March. This competition is open to UK residents only.

Contest open to UK residents only.
Neither the author or I will not be held responsible for items lost in the mail.
I hold the right to end a contest before its original deadline without any prior notice.
I hold the right to disqualify any entry as I see fit.
I will contact winning entrants for their postal address following the close of the competition. Winners have 48 hours to reply. Failure to do so in this time will result in another winner being randomly selected.

Review: Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda

Varanasi: holy city of the Ganges.
In this land of ancient temples, incense and snake charmers…

Where the monsters and heroes of the past come to life…

One slightly geeky boy from our time…

IS GOING TO KICK SOME DEMON ASS.

Ash Mistry hates India. Which is a problem since his uncle has brought him and his annoying younger sister Lucky there to take up a dream job with the mysterious Lord Savage. But Ash immediately suspects something is very wrong with the eccentric millionaire. Soon, Ash finds himself in a desperate battle to stop Savage's masterplan – the opening of the Iron Gates that have kept Ravana, the demon king, at bay for four millennia…

One of my faults as a reviewer is that I can occasionally be prone to exaggeration. I can't help myself - if I have loved a book so much I want to shout about it and try to get everyone else just as excited about reading it. However, in my long list of reviews there are some statements that some may feel are exaggerations, but I still stand by them. These include:

• Department 19 by Will Hill is the best action horror book I have ever read (well it was until I read its sequel).

• Any new release by Sarwat Chadda is cause for celebratory street parties and church bells to be rung across the land.

And now I am about to add another one to this list:

• Sarwat's new book, Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress, could possibly be one of the most important children's books published in 2012.

How's that for a sweeping statement? Let me explain why I believe this to be so. Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress is a fantasy story in the tradition of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson stories, but set in India and focusing on Indian mythology. So far so good, but the really important bit is that Ash Mistry, the hero of the story, is a British Asian. What, I hear you cry in disbelief? And no wonder you are surprised - I have been trying to think of an action hero in a popular modern children's book that isn't white and it is difficult. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Valkyrie Cain, Jamie Carpenter, Alex Rider - all white. Where is the literary role model for the significant number of South Asian children that live in Britain? I feel that the world of children's books has been crying out for a non-white hero and now Sarwat Chadda has delivered him in the form of Ash Mistry.

Let me tell you a little more about Ash. He's 13, mad about history, pretty geeky and a little chubby (and certainly not athletic). He is also totally fed up with holidaying in Varanasi, India - the heat, the flies, the cobras... despite his initial excitement about visiting his archaeologist uncle, now all he wants to do is go home to cool, fly-and-cobra-free West Dulwich where he can eat MacDonalds with his mates and spend hours playing Assassin's Creed.

As the story opens Ash, along with his 10 year old sister Lucky, is being dragged along to what he feels will be a boring party organised by his uncle's patron, the wealthy English aristocrat, Lord Savage. With boredom turning to despair Ash asks himself how he is going to survive another four weeks in India? The events of the next few hours have us wondering just how Ash and Lucky might expect to survive the next four days, let alone four weeks, as an overheard conversation and a near-fatal accident lead to Ash's aunt and uncle being murdered and he and his sister on the run from the demonic forces controlled by Lord Savage.

This is mythology, but not as the majority of children in the Western world know it. British kids are brought up with a fairly good knowledge of the Ancient Greek myths, and perhaps a smattering of the legends of Ancient Egypt. But Hindu mythology? These truly fascinating Indian legends go back much further than the Greek, Roman or Egyptian mythology and are littered with all of the things that kids love in books - great heroes, nasty villains, more demons than a whole series of Buffy, death, destruction, war, action, adventure. Sarwat Chadda has now taken these as his building blocks and created a fantastic story to rival any of Rick Riordan's.

I am a huge fan of Sarwat's Billi SanGreal books, and I guess I had expected something similar to them, but set in India. I couldn't have been more wrong. There is the same sublime quality of prose and the perfectly paced plotting, and the same array of great characters and extreme action scenes, but also a previously unrevealed talent for writing comedy. Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress is aimed at a younger audience (9+) than Sarwat's previous stories, and has given him the chance to inject his sparkling (and wonderfully geeky) sense of humour into his writing. I have met Sarwat on a number of occasions and he has always come across as a (occasionally mischievously) funny guy, and this is now reflected in his written work.

Despite this being written for a younger audience than Devil's Kiss and Dark Goddess were, this book is still chock full of nasty moments that will have children wanting to hide behind cushions. Lord Savage and his demons are very nasty, and there are some moments (spiders!!!) that made my skin crawl. Again, kids will love it!

I remember talking with Sarwat over a beer and food following the Crystal Palace Children's Book Festival back in 2010. Sarwat told me about his labour of love, a story based on Indian mythology that many of his friends claimed he was mad for writing. Who is going to buy that? they asked him. That labour of love is now called Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress and full credit goes to Sarwat for persevering with it and HarperCollins for publishing it. This could finally be the book that puts Sarwat on the hot list of children's authors, where he so deserves to be. I have done a little research in writing this review and come up with the following (some of it is from wikipedia and therefore obviously accurate):

"According to the 2001 UK Census, there were approximately 2,331,423 South Asians, constituting 4.0% of the population of the UK. Those who of Indian origin numbered 1,053,411."That's a lot of British kids who have been waiting patiently for a British Asian hero.

And there's more. There was also a recent article on The Bookseller daily newsletter about the Indian book market that stated:

"The Children's, Young Adult and Educational sector has also shown growth, up 27% in volume and 38% in value over the first half of 2011. The number one slot for the bestselling title was taken by Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney (Puffin) which sold more than 17,000 copies, followed in second position by Inheritance: Book Four: Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini (Doubleday Children's) which sold more than 16,000 copies. The third, fourth and fifth positions in the chart were also taken by Wimpy Kid titles."

I do not know if Sarwat has an Indian publishing deal yet but it can surely only be a matter of time?

I predict big things for Sarwat Chadda over the next few years. in the UK Puffin Books christened Rick Riordan The Myth Master. Rick had better watch out as there is a new master of myth in town and he fully deserves that crown. Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress is published in the UK by HarperCollins on 1st March. My thanks go to the publisher for sending me a copy to review. Keep watching this space as Sarwat will be joining us in a few weeks for a special guest post.

Coming Up In 2012 #8: Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda

Any new release by Sarwat Chadda is cause for celebratory street parties and church bells to be rung across the land. His Dark Goddess was a truly worthy winner of The Book Zone Book of the Year 2010, and I have been waiting very excitedly ever since to read whatever Sarwat wrote next. In March that next book will hit the book shops and libraries of Britain (start ringing them bells!), and it is a corker. I consider myself very privileged to have read it already, and Rick Riordan had better watch out - there is a new 'myth master' in town and he means business. Here's Sarwat to tell us a little more about Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress:

Holidays in Hell by Sarwat Chadda

My new book, ‘Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress’ is your average tale about a boy during his summer holidays. You know, the type of holiday where the boy meet an evil sorcerer planning to raise an ancient demon king and his army of demons and it’s totally down to the boy to save the day and kick everyone in the arse, pretty damn hard.

I’m sure you’ve had summer breaks just like it.

The book’s set in India and is all about Indian mythology and history. We all know and love the Greek myths, our days are named after the Norse gods so I though it about time we brought in some eastern deities, they’re quite unlike anything you’d have come across before.

Take Kali, the goddess of death and destruction. The hero, Ash, finds something very valuable of hers, a divine superweapon that was lost on a battlefield thousands of years ago. This weapon is the only thing that can stop the demon king but Ash is not your usual hero. He’s not a hero at all. He’s 13 but the kind of boy who still might sleep with the light on. Fortunately he teams up with Parvati, a half-human half-demon girl who’s the world’s greatest assassin. Ash must learn the ways of Kali if he’s going to stand a snowball’s chance in Hell of surviving the rebirth of the demon king and beating Lord Savage, the sorcerer behind the resurrection.

It’s not a story for those with tender hearts. It’s a story about blood, sacrifice and death. You see how far Ash is willing to go to do what’s right, even if he’s terrified almost every step of the way. A true hero is not the one who’s unafraid. He’s the one who, though filled with fear, conquers it and acts in spite of it. Ash Mistry takes the darkest path, the path of Kali, and I hope you’ll come along for the journey. It’ll be like no other.

 

 

Roald Dahl Day 2011

Today is Roald Dahl Day so let the celebrations commence! As legends from the world of chidlren's fiction go you don't get much bigger than Roald Dahl and so last year I wrote this post to celebrate. Obviously being nothing but a mere blogger I thought at the time I would turn to a few of the super-talented friends of The Book Zone to share their thoughts about the man himself and what his work meant to them. Reading their pieces gave me so much enjoyment that I thought what better way to celebrate in 2011 than do it all over again? And so today I am joined by three authors who between them have written some of my favourite books of the past two years: Ivan Brett, Sarwat Chadda and Will Hill. Another of my favourite recent authors, William Hussey, is such a huge fan of Roald Dahl that he wrote a super-long piece for me and so I am going to give it the hnour of its own spot here on The Book Zone later today, so please come back, I guarantee you will not be disappointed. And so, without further ado, let me hand you over to the experts:

Ivan Brett (author of Casper Candlewacks: Death By Pigeon) 

When I was at school, Roald Dahl's books had become such a staple that 'discovering' him was impossible. Of course he inspired me, and the likes of George's Marvellous Medicine and The Witches constantly pop up in my mind when they're not supposed to. But Roald Dahl made his biggest impression on me a decade later when I started reading his adult short stories. The economy of writing is superb: every word is necessary. Add to this the macabre plot twists and irreverent use of language, he's absolutely perfect the art. I'll contend that nobody can ever beat him when it comes to short fiction. I'd recommend the short story collections 'Someone Like You' and 'Kiss Kiss' to newcomers, but there's plenty else around, none of it what you'd expect. (On that note, read them alone before reading them to your kids.)

Three years ago, I started writing short stories because of Roald Dahl. Two years ago, I switched to Children's fiction, probably because of the same guy. What's next? (I'll probably steer clear of mimicking the style of 'My Uncle Oswald', if you're wondering.)

Sarwat Chadda (author of Devil's Kiss and Dark Goddess) 

My latest encounter with Mr. Dahl was listening to his narration of the Fantastic Mr. Fox. I’d seen the movie recently and thought, hey, this will be one for the kids to listen to as we drive around on holiday.

By the end of the journey there were tears and trauma all round.

 
Have you read the Fantastic Mr. Fox? I've never suffered an anxiety attack before but that probably was the closest. It comes across as the book Hannibel Lecter should have written. Mutilations, brutality and in one scene, Mr. Fox's children ask their parents in anxious, timid voices if there will be dogs set on them.

Setting DOGS ON CHILDREN?

What modern author could get away with that? What modern author would even think of it?

His figures are grotesque, macabre and magnificent. Dahl doesn’t care who gets upset and has nightmares, Dahl never let anything stand in the way of his story. That’s what I love about him. By all accounts he wasn’t a nice man at all and maybe that’s why he’s the GREATEST CHILDREN’S AUTHOR EVER.

I think we’ve become more guarded about what we feed our children, like those Victorians who sanitised those nasty, sexual fairy tales. We ‘age band’ and shelve according to tastes while childhood should be all about exploring the widest worlds possible, not tucking books into ‘For Teens’ or for ‘Mature Readers’. Dahl’s stories were utterly immature and utterly without fear. No-one wrote more frightening, edgy tales than he and then (stroke of genius or what?) fed them to us when we were tiny and impressionable.

Will Hill (author of Department 19) 

While I don’t believe that a writer has to live an interesting and exciting life to write interesting and exciting stories, it certainly couldn’t hurt to have lived the life that Roald Dahl brings beautifully and joyously to life in my two favourite books of his, Boy and Going Solo.

The seeds of the novels with which he would later spellbind generations of children (and adults!) are there for all to see – the larger-than-life cast of eccentric adults, the sense of adventure lurking around every corner, the plots children hatch, often to get even with injustices committed by the grown-ups that surround them, are all wrapped up in the fierce sense of love and loyalty that clearly filled the Dahl clan.

Boy covers his time at Llandaff Cathedral School, St. Peter’s School and at Repton, the three institutions that act as the backdrop for his formative years. He encounters triumph (the boxes of chocolates that Cadbury’s ask him and his classmates to review, a gloriously wicked revenge against a local sweet shop owner) alongside his first understanding that the adult world can be unfair, and even cruel (I still find his account of being given ten strokes with the cane very hard to read) before he joins it for himself in the pages of Going Solo.

The second volume chronicles a life that seems almost too full of adventure and derring-do to be real – the young Dahl is shipped out to Tanganyika (as was) to work for Shell, and finds himself surrounded by an astonishing cast of utterly bonkers ex-pat colonials, local tribesmen, snakes, scorpions, lions, and every other conceivable joy. Until the late 1930s, when war comes to the continent, and Dahl joins the RAF as a fighter pilot.

That’s right.
The man who would later devote himself to words, to quietly writing masterpieces of children’s literature in his shed in Great Missenden, spends many months of the Second World War throwing Tiger Moths and Hurricanes around the skies over Egypt and Greece, dogfighting with German fighters and chasing bombers to their targets, experiencing the euphoria and terror of combat, and sustaining terrible injury along the way. It’s almost unbelievable. But it happened, every word of it.



I won’t say any more, as to give away any of the wonders in these two fabulous books (written, as always, in Dahl’s inimitably witty and caustic style) would be a crime for which I can’t think of a suitable punishment. But as pieces of autobiography, as insights into the perennial question of where a writer gets his ideas, and as works of brilliant, effortless storytelling, they succeed on every level, and I defy anyone who reads them to feel otherwise.

~~~

Huge, huge thanks to Ivan, Will and Sarwat for taking the time to do this for The Book Zone. I hope all the readers of this blog have a wonderful Roald Dahl Day and don;t forget to come back later for William Hussey's fab guest post. Last year I celebrated by reading The BFG; this evening it is going to be the turn of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Anyone for some Whipplescrumptiousfudgemallowdelight?

News: Book Cover - Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda

Last October I went to the Crystal Palace Children's Books Festival, and once all the workshops were over I ended up in the pub with some blogging friends and a handful of authors, one of which was Sarwat Chadda. I am a huge fan of Sarwat's two books featuring his kick-ass modern day Templar heroine Billi SanGreal, the second of which, Dark Goddess, was my Book of the Year 2010. Whilst we ate in the pub Sarwat was telling me about his labour of love - a book with an young Indian protagonist and with a heavy dose of Indian mythology. He explained how many people had told him he was crazy for wanting to write the story as it would be very difficult to market. Sarwat perservered and then back in March, much to the delight of everyone who knows Sarwat, it was announced that he had secured a publishing deal with the wonderful people at HarperCollins.

If Sarwat's previous books are anything to go by then I think that this book, Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress, and those that follow in the series, could be one of the big successes of 2012, especially with the brilliant marketing and publicity department at Harper promoting it. It may just do for Indian mythology what Percy Jackson did for the legends of Ancient Greece. Sadly it isn't due to be published until March 2012 so some time to wait, but in the meantime feast your eyes on this stunning book cover, and a few brief details about the story:

Varanasi: holy city of the Ganges.

In this land of ancient temples, incense and snake charmers…

Where the monsters and heroes of the past come to life…

One slightly geeky boy from our time…

IS GOING TO KICK SOME DEMON ASS.

Ash Mistry hates India. Which is a problem since his uncle has brought him and his annoying younger sister Lucky there to take up a dream job with the mysterious Lord Savage. But Ash immediately suspects something is very wrong with the eccentric millionaire. Soon, Ash finds himself in a desperate battle to stop Savage's masterplan – the opening of the Iron Gates that have kept Ravana, the demon king, at bay for four millennia…

Sarwat is going to be running a competition on his blog where one lucky winner will receive a very early proof copy of Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress, so head on over to http://sarwatchadda.blogspot.com/ and bookmark the page now!

My Book of the Month - July

I can't believe it is the end of the month already, and with this in mind it must also be time for me to announce what for me was my favourite of the books whose official publication date fell in July. This was a really difficult choice to make this month as my shortlist consisted of three very strong contenders, and funnily enough all of them could be classified as horror. The books that made the cut to the final shortlist were Witch Breed by Alan Gibbons, the fourth book in his Devil's Underground series; Dark Goddess by Sarwat Chadda, the sequel to his debut novel Devil's Kiss; and last but by no means least, David Gatward's excellent debut horror book The Dead. On any other month every one of these would have destroyed the competition, so it is unfortunate that they were all released within days of each other. However, a decision has to be made as I promised myself earlier in the year that I would never cheat and name more than one, and so after much agonising I have decided that my Book of the Month for July is Sarwat Chadda's Dark Goddess.

There is little more I can say about this book that hasn't already been written. Since is was released it has garnered a number of outstanding reviews from professional critics and book bloggers alike. For me, I think Sarwat's greatest strengths lie in the development of his main character Billi SanGreal, but also in the quality (and use) of his research material. Sarwat Chadda has a great imagination and is able to take snippets of folk tales and give them a twist to create his own mythology. I really liked Devil's Kiss but it did have its weaknesses; it is astounding how Mr Chadda's writing has matured in short a short space of time so that none of these weaknesses are present in Dark Goddess. If you're a boy who despairs at the way your sister or female school friends wax lyrical about Twilight then give Dark Goddess a chance - it is the perfect remedy!

*** Dark Goddess Contest Result

The lucky winner of a copy of Dark Goddess by David Sarwat Chadda is:

Abbie Poole

Well done and thank you to everyone who entered (there were almost 200 of you). I will now endeavour to contact the winner through by email. Please reply within 48 hours or I will draw another name out of the hat. Many thanks to Mr Chadda for providing this fabulous prize.

(Note: all names were drawn randomly using a nifty little freeware programme called The Hat)

** Guest Post: Sarwat Chadda (Author of Dark Goddess)

On Sunday I posted a review of the brilliant Dark Goddess by Sarwat Chadda. Dark Goddess was officially published yesterday and Sarwat is currently on a blog tour in celebration of this. I was very flattered when Sarwat approached me asking if he could visit The Book Zone on this tour, and I think his choice of topic for this blog post is perfect.

~~~~~~

I’ve written a book that the Guardian called “mythic, funny, violent and fast-moving”. It’s part of an action series about a teen who’s been trained as a Knight Templar. It’s about facing down devils, vampires, ghouls with swords and axes and it’s about as bloody as it can get.

The protagonist’s father is ruthless, single-minded and the Templar Master. He’s brought up his child to be his replacement. The child, if anything, is harder, tougher, more deadly that he could dream of being. It’s all in the classic ‘child inherits the mantle of the father’ tradition. You’ve had it in Star Wars. You’ve got it in Harry Potter. Percy Jackson. Alex Rider. You’ve got it in Conan the Barbarian.

It’s perhaps the biggest tradition in boys’ action series.

That’s what I’ve got for you. Interested?

Except...

Except my hero’s a heroine.

What? You’ve stopped reading?

That’s what they say. Boys won’t read girl leads. No matter what.

So, you guys who’ve read Phillip Pullman, please put your copies in the bin. The same with those of you who’ve read Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines. And Skulduggery Pleasant (book has his name on the front but the lead’s Stephanie, sorry). The list goes on and on. No-one with X and Y chromosomes should be watching Buffy. Heaven forbid they should play Tomb Raider!

I know, I know. You don’t want to read about girls whining in their bedrooms because their boyfriend doesn’t call and why can’t they be more skinny and beautiful and all that. Neither do I. I want to read stories where the lead goes out and makes a difference. A story where the hero’s pushed beyond their limits and somehow, through guts, blood and tears they beat the odds. That’s what I read and that’s what I write.

Who came up with this crap anyway? Some librarian in the 1930’s who had one shelf of Jane Austen and one shelf of Tarzan and noticed the boys went to the Tarzan shelf? Well, who wouldn’t? Tarzan is insane! The books are brutal, primitive and beautiful. What happens in Pride and Prejudice? They sit around moaning for 400 pages and get married and live happily ever after. Not a single elephant stampede anywhere!

I know boys read girl heroes. My biggest events are at boys’ schools. Blimey, my biggest sales are at boys’ schools. They can’t all be buying them for their mother.

What do you want in a book? I know what I want. Action. High stakes. Intense drama. Violence and the ‘all or nothing’ victory. Bad guys. Conflicted anti-heroes (no white-hats please). You might be surprised a lot of them are of the female persuasion. Isn’t it a shame to miss out?

Here’s five of the best that fulfil the above criteria and I guarantee you adventure that’ll boil your blood and freeze your heart.

1. Lyra out of Phillip Pullman’s Northern Lights trilogy.

2. Hester from Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines saga.

3. Josie, knife-thrower extra-ordinaire from John Mayhew’s Mortlock.

4. Scout from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird. Hey, I needed to put one classic in the list, didn’t I?

5. Katniss in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Get them. Read them. Lend them to your mother. You’ll thank me later.

~~~

A big thank you to Sarwat for taking the time to write that article for us. If you want to find out more about the man and his books please do visit his website and his blog and don't forget to enter my contest to win a signed copy of Dark Goddess.

*** Contest: WIN a signed copy of Dark Goddess by Sarwat Chadda

A few days ago I posted a review of Dark Goddess, the brilliant second book from author Sarwat Chadda featuring Billi SanGreal. Yesterday morning I received an email from Sarwat offering a signed copy of Dark Goddess as a prize. So, in order to win a copy of this book all you have to do is fill in the form below with the answer to a simple question and your details.

The first name drawn at random after the closing date will win a signed copy of the book. Deadline for your entry is 8pm Tuesday 6th July. This contest is open to UK entrants only.

Terms and conditions

Contest open to UK entrants only.

I will not be held responsible for items lost in the mail.
I hold the right to end a contest before its original deadline without any prior notice.
I hold the right to disqualify any entry as I see fit.

I will contact winning entrants for their postal address following the close of the competition. Winners have 48 hours to reply. Failure to do so in this time will result in another winner being randomly selected.

Review: Dark Goddess by Sarwat Chadda

Billi SanGreal is a Knight Templar and has thrown herself utterly into their brutal regime, shutting herself off from everyone and everything. But when Billi finds herself at the heart of a savage werewolf attack, she knows their target – a young girl – must be rescued at all costs. For this is no ordinary girl. Vasalisa is an avatar with an uncontrollable force within – and it’s not just the werewolves who want her.The Dark Goddess wants to sacrifice Vasalisa and use her powers to unleash unimaginable catastrophes and devastation. Can Billi protect Vasalisa from the ancient goddess – and at the same time stop her from destroying the world?

Back in April I posted a review of Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda, the first book in his series about Billi SanGreal, a teenager living in modern day London but part of an ancient war between good and evil as a Templar Knight in training. I loved Devil's Kiss and its kick-ass heroine and I have been looking forward to reading the sequel ever since; but would Mr Chadda be able to produce a second book worthy of the first? The answer is a resounding yes - I enjoyed every moment of this, and if I hadn't have been fighting a cold over the last few days I am sure I would have read it in one sitting.

As with Devil's Kiss Mr Chadda does not waste time easing us into his story; he kicks it off with Billi slap bang in the middle of another terrifying scene, this time up against a couple of werewolves. How we love werewolves at The Book Zone - none of your glamorous vampires with smouldering eyes and rakish good looks for us boys, thank you! We much prefer the animal ferocity of the wolfman. But it is here that Mr Chadda delivers his first knock-out surprise - his werewolves belong to an all-female pack known as the Polenitsy, who roam the forests of Russia and worship the dark goddess of the book's title, the terrifying Baba Yaga. But don't go thinking that because they are female they are any less deadly than your sterotypical male werewolf - these creatures are every bit as ruthless and violent, and it is not just their bite that can turn someone into one of their kind either, their claws are just as deadly.

One of the things I love the most about Mr Chadda's stories is the effort he obviously puts into research, and then the personal spin he twists into this to create his own plot elements. The Polenitsy appear in Russian legends as formidable warrior women - the Chadda twist makes them werewolves. The Bogatyr appear in Russain folk epics as protectors of the realm - twisted around Chadda-style and they become the Russian equivalent of Billi's Templar Knights, Christian warriors fighting against evil for even longer than the Knights themselves. And then there is Tunguska - site of a devastating meteor strike more than a century ago, and now....... no, that would be giving too much away. It takes an inventive mind to pick these elements out of hours and hours of research and then mould them into a story like Dark Goddess, and yet Sarwat Chadda manages to do this seamlessly.

Having just used that word, I fear that I have no choice but to use it again, but this time to describe Mr Chadda's plotting, for there is no better word to describe it than seamless. Devil's Kiss, whilst being a superb debut novel for the author, had a fairly linear plot with only a handful of twists throughout. Dark Goddess is a far more complicated work, and is even better for it. Few of the new characters are what they initially seem, what is perceived as evil at first may surpise you later in the book, and vile actions such as the slaughter of innocents are sometimes reasoned and believed to be for the greater good by their perpetrators. This book really will keep you guessing until the end, but this end is ultimately very satisfying in that the various twisting plot threads are neatly brought together and resolved with a skill usually seen in far more experienced authors than Mr Chadda.

At the end of my review of Devil's Kiss I stated that "Devil's Kiss finishes on a particularly harrowing note for Billi and I am intrigued to find out where the story will take her next as she "throws herself into the brutal regime of Templar duties with utter abandon"." Without giving too much away, that book finished with Billi being hurt both emotionally and physically, and we are reminded of these moments throughout Dark Goddess (you really must read these books in the correct sequence in order to get the most out of them). Mr Chadda uses this sequel to really develop Billi's character even further, partly through her slightly warmer relationship with her father, but more through her interaction with Vasilisa, a small girl that Baba Yaga wants to devour in order to gain her incredible powers, and then through Billi's growing relationship with Ivan Alexeivich Romanov, Bogatyr and descendent of the princess Anastasia Romanov (yet another Chadda twist-on-fact). Ivan is another troubled teenager who has had to confront and fight evil on an almost daily basis, and in many ways is a male version of our Billi, and Sarwat Chadda skilfully develops their inital mistrust of each other into a relationship where they will risk their lives for each other (ok... so they kiss as well, but boys, it really is only a very small element of the story.... there's none of this Twilight rubbish from Mr Chadda).

It is difficult to define exactly which genre this book belongs to as there are so many competing elements. It is a fantastic action story, with the fight scenes even better than those in Devil's Kiss. But there are also moments of extreme horror - some of the werewolf attacks are very ferocious, and there is one scene where Billi is shown a lorry container full of bodies which is particularly gruesome. Action? Adventure? Horror? One thing it isn't is a Romance!!!

On the evidence of first Devil's Kiss and now Dark Goddess I believe that Sarwat Chadda is here to stay and although I am sure it is some way off I can't wait to find out what he has in store for Billi in the future. Sarwat is embarking on a blog tour in this coming week and he has written a great article for The Book Zone which will go live on Friday 2nd July. As part of his tour he is being interviewed on at least one blog so maybe we will find out a few hints about the next instalment in Billi's saga in one of those - head on over to Sarwat's website or his blog to find out more details about this tour.

Dark Goddess is published by Puffin and is due to be released on 1st July, although I notice that Amazon already have copies in stock. My thanks go to the generous people at Puffin for sending me a copy of this book.

Review: Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda

Fifteen-year-old Billi SanGreal never meant to make history. Dragged at the age of ten into the modern-day Knights Templar by her father, the Grandmaster, Billi's the first girl ever to be a Templar warrior. Her life is a rigorous and brutal round of weapons' practice, demon killing and occult lore – and a lot of bruises. But then temptation is placed in Billi's path – an alternative to her isolated life. But temptation brings consequences. In this case – the tenth plague – the death of all first borns and so Billi must choose her destiny. And as she soon discovers, death isn't even the worst . . .

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to the London launch event of Jon Mayhew's debut novel Mortlock. A friend had told me that another author, Sarwat Chadda, might also be present and a quick look at Amazon suggested that his first novel, Devil's Kiss, was a book I really should have read. And then I forgot all about reading it until that day so I popped in in my bag so I could read some of it on the train. By the time I got to Waterloo I had to force myself to put it down I was enjoying it so much.

Fifteen-year-old Bilqis (known as Billi to pretty much everyone) is the daughter of a white British father and a Pakistani mother. All sounds pretty normal so far. However, Billi's life is anything but normal - her father is the Master of the order of the Knights Templar, and Billi is a Knight in training (and the only female one at that). The books starts with her Ordeal, a rite of passage that all 'trainees' must successfully pass in order to become a squire and move up the next rung of the ladder on the climg towards becoming a full-blown Knight. This Ordeal is a nasty and pretty terrifying episode and certainly gets the story moving with a bang, and the pace doesn't slacken until the very last page, and even then you are left wanting more.  

Sarwat Chadda obviously has a great interest for the history and legends surrounding the Templar Knights, but he is also more than happy to play around with these stories to create one of his own. Centuries ago, before falling foul of a paranoid King and a jealous Pope, they were medieval protectors of the Holy Land, and their Order has been mentioned in connection with the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, or some other powerful holy treasure.  Fast-forward to a modern day (but pretty spooky) London and now Mr Chadda has them as protectors of all that is good, and fighting a seemingly never-ending battle against the Unholy. 

Perhaps the idea of being an ass-kicking, sword wiedling heroine (or hero) might appeal to some teenagers, but Billi is a reluctant participant in this war. She has been forced into this hard life by her father and his not-so-merry band of Knights, and has none of the luxuries enjoyed by her peers - no friends, no social life, no chilling out after a busy day at school, nothing but a brutal regime of hard physical training in armed and unarmed combat. However, like most teenagers forced into doing things by their elders Billi harbours thoughts of rebellion, thoughts that are further compounded when she meets the mysterious Michael. And this is where things really begin to get nasty for Billi and the rest of the Knights.

Billi's character is devloped well throughout the book; at no point do we question her actions or motivations. Some of the other characters are less well detailed, perhaps deliberately so, as Mr Chadda wants his readers to dislike these Knights, despite their noble cause, and thus generate more sympathy for Billi and her situation. This is especially the case for Billi's father - as a reader I really did begin to strongly dislike him. However, this does mean that we hardly blink as some of these characters come to a sticky end.

Again, like other books I have reviewed such as Hattori Hachi and Heist Society, this book has a female main character, and as such some boys may not pick up this book. However, they would be doing themselves a disservice as this book is fast paced, full of particularly nasty demonic creatures and has many great action scenes. It is also a great book for horror fans - there are some scenes set in a hospital that are particularly disturbing and the author is not worried about scraing his readers. He also builds nicely on the history of the Templar Knights - not too much to make readers lose track of the story but enough that they get a real feel for these 'men' and their mission in life. As for the romance? Boys shouldn't be deterred by this - it is a small part of the plot, and by no means its central theme.

Obviously, with a premise like this it is impossible to avoid drawing parallels with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, this is certainly no Buffy rip-off, although fans of the series will really enjoy this book. This is the first in a series featuring Billi and I look forward to seeing what the author delivers in his next book, Dark Goddess, which is due to be published in July of this year. Devil's Kiss finishes on a particularly harrowing note for Billi and I am intrigued to find out where the story will take her next as she "throws herself into the brutal regime of Templar duties with utter abandon". You can find out more about Mr Chadda and his books at this website.