Review: Apocalypse Moon by M.G. Harris (Joshua Files Book 5)

Something is very wrong with the 2012 Plan. Is it really on course to save the planet from the gigantic Electro-Magnetic Pulse that's due to shatter civilisation at the end of the year? After a narrow escape from US government agents Josh decides to risk his own life on a daring mission - a leap forward in time to discover the truth about 2012. He's jumped ahead far enough to glimpse a post-apocalyptic world in collapse. And to realise - it could be his destiny to stay.

I'm going to start this review with a long overdue apology to M.G. Harris. Just over a year ago M.G. very kindly sent me a signed proof of the fourth Joshua Files Book, Dark Parallel. I read it, loved it, but never posted a review of it on The Book Zone. Believe me, I wanted to, and I lost count of the number of times I started to write something and then gave up. Dark Parallel really messed with my head - if you haven't read it then it sees Josh and Ixchel travelling through time, finding themselves in various parallel timelines. Not only did it mess with my head, but it also answers a number of the questions created in the earlier three Joshua Files books, and leaves many more for the final instalment, and I just could not come up with a review that did not contain a long list of spoilers.

I did however make a promise to myself that I would review Apocalypse Moon, come what may. However, having finished it yesterday afternoon I am still in something of a quandry. This is the final book in the series. It is the book that ties off all the loose ends and answers all the questions readers have been pondering for the past four years. So yet again I am left with the unenviable task of writing a spoiler-free review. With this in mind I have decided to make this brief, and bullet point the key aspects, as they come to me, in no particular order:

• I loved it. It is the perfect ending to a series that I was enjoying long before I started The Book Zone.
• The black gel sleeve is gorgeous. I have to admit, I initially had my doubts, but I take them all back. It is perfect!
• Every question is answered (at least every question I had was answered).
• We finally find out the identity of Arcadio.
• Josh travels into the future and we find out what happens to the world after the Electro-Magnetic Pulse hits. And it's scary!
• We finally find out the mystery surrounding the disapperance of Blanco Vigores.
• We discover the secret behind the Bakab gene and what that means for Josh, his friends, and the future of the planet Earth.
• We are treated to even more twists and turns, and shock revelations about secondary characters and the part they may have to play in the 2012 plan.

I would be absolutely amazed if there is a single Joshua Files fan out there who ends up feeling disappointed on finishing this book. I am a little sad that we have come to the end of Josh's story, but also elated that it ends with such a great final instalment.

Having started with an apology, I'm going to end this review with a note of thanks to M.G. for mentioning me in her acknowledgements at the end of Apocalypse Moon. I started reading the series long before I started The Book Zone, and when I first picked up that stunning orange day-go gel covered book in Bracknell Waterstones I never dreamed that four years later my name would be printed inside the last book in the series. I am very flattered, and rather humbled by this kind gesture by M.G.

Apocalypse Moon is due to be published on 5th April (in its lovely black gel sleeve). My thanks go the good people at Scholastic who sent me a copy to review.

News: New trailers for Apocalypse Moon & The Joshua Files series by MG Harris

In my first post of 2012 I mentioned how I was both excited and a little sad about the publication of Apocalypse Moon, the final book in MG Harris's brilliant Joshua Files series. Back in 2008 when I was still reading children's and YA books based upon their covers attracting my attention, rather than on press releases from publishers, I could not help but buy Invisible City, in its unique orange day-glow gel sleeve. I loved that story and the publication of each book that followed became an annual event in my diary. Now, with the publication of Apocalypse Moon just over two months away, there have been two new trailers released, one of the series as a whole and one for Apocalypse Moon. They are both brilliant - enjoy!

News: The Joshua Files - Dark Parallel trailer

I've just this minute spotted a tweet from M.G. Harris about the trailer for the fourth Joshua Files book, Dark Parallel, and I just had to share it with you all. Long time readers of The Book Zone will already know how highly I rate the Joshua Files books and I am really excited about reading Dark Parallel very soon. The book is officially released on 7th April and my review will be posted sometime before that, but in the meantime here is the trailer:

** Interview with M.G. Harris (author of the Joshua Files series)

I think all of my UK readers need a bit of cheering up after the horrendous weather we have been experiencing over the past week. I can't think of a better way than this, so as promised in my recent review of Zero Moment, the third instalment in the Joshua Files series, here is the interview that I did with M.G. Harris. If this interview whets your appetite for more then you really should visit the official Joshua Files website, MG's own blog or the Official MG Harris Fan Site.
  
Zero Moment is the third book in the Joshua Files series, and you have said that there will be five books in total. Have you plotted out the storylines for these already?
 
I've written Joshua #4 already. I haven't plotted the final installment yet. The plot and indeed book itself will be better if I leave as much time as possible and maybe write something different in between.

Time travel is an integral part of Josh’s story, and you develop this even more in Zero Moment. How on earth do you manage to keep track of this element of the story? 

Timelines! I have timelines for the city, for all characters who've time travelled and for the Bracelet of Itzamna itself. I've worked out that it changes hands 10 times throughout the course of The Joshua Files. I might just add one more handover...

Capoeira is used increasingly as Josh’s story is progressing. How did you carry out the research into this martial art? 

I've watched capoeira performed quite a bit in real life, here and in Brazil. Then there's YouTube, the movie 'Only the Strong' and all those capoeira websites.

There are some new locations in Zero Moment, namely Brazil and Switzerland. Did you visit these places as part of your research?
 
Yes, some great friends of ours are Brazilian so we went for a joint holiday/research trip! The exciting day of dune buggies, river barbeque and zipwire fun that Montoyo promises Josh is one we actually enjoyed. Poor Josh, he never gets to have any proper fun! My brother and his family live in Switzerland so I'm there quite often. The Sustenpass alpine location in Zero Moment was a surprise discovery one summer. We ended up on the high mountain pass by mistake...mid August but up there, it was snowing!

Zero Moment also delves deeper into aspects of genetics and science. How has your background in biochemistry helped you develop your story?
 
Totally. If you have that kind of knowledge ready to hand, certain plot solutions easily come to mind.

Zero Moment deals a lot with Josh’s emotions and his confusion about his relationship with Ixchel. As a female author, have you found it difficult to write your books from a boy’s point of view? 

It's the most difficult part. I have to think about things for hours and remember the boys I knew when I was younger, listen to songs written by young guys, to help me judge if I'm on the right track. My natural sympathies often lie with his mother or Ixchel, so it's a matter of shifting the perspective, seeing things from Josh's point of view. I tend to ask my husband a lot of questions about how teenage boys feel about things. He's the touchstone there. Usually he confirms all my suspicions! I asked him if teenage boys spend much time dreaming about girls and he just laughed and said "That's ALL I thought about!"

Do you have a favourite author? What really appeals to you about their work?
 
Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote two of my favourite novels, including 'One Hundred Years Of Solitude' and 'Love In The Time Of Cholera'. The wisdom in those works, the language, vision, the understanding of the essential tragedy of life, stories just pouring out of him. Dazzling to achieve that in one novel really, but twice...

Do you have time to read any of the many books for children that are published these days? If so, are there any other books or authors that you would recommend fans of your books to read?
  
I'd say you're the expert there not me! I don't read many books 'like mine' because I'm afraid that it will inhibit my own writing. The best YA books I've read recently were 'The Book Thief' by Markus Zusak and 'Keeper' by Mal Peet. I'd highly recommend them, but they're not action adventure...

Like me, you were a big fan of the Tintin stories when you were younger? What was it about them that appealed to you? Are you looking forward to Spielberg’s film adaptation?
 
The exotic locations, the very traditional adventure plots. Tintin himself is a really appealing character for girls too. He isn't macho or aggressive, he's honourable and cares deeply for his friends. There are some terrific other characters too. Like Bianca Castifiore! Those books always made me laugh. In fact, finding one in the library was always like finding treasure.

Spielberg is the king of old-fashioned, romantic action-adventure, in my eyes. But I worry a bit about whether those stories have what it takes to transfer to the big screen. The stakes - personal above all - must be very high for a movie. Tintin often goes off exploring on little more than a lark, curiosity or a whim. That won't work. Spielberg understands this better than most, so hopefully he'll make the changes we need.

In addition to Tintin, what were your favourite books when you were younger?
 
Other comics like Asterix and Roy of the Rovers, also E. Nesbit, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein's juveniles, most of all the William stories of Richmal Crompton.

Can you recommend one book that you think every boy should read at some point?
 
"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. It's about a boy who's picked to go to a special Battle School where kids are trained to fight an alien force that is on its way to eliminate humanity. It's not written as a book for children but all the main characters are children or teenagers. It was published when I was 18, and I really enjoyed it but I would have loved it madly and deeply if I'd read it aged 13.

On your blog you have mentioned the recent disaster movie “2012” a number of times. What did you think of it?
 
It was daft but fun. Who knew watching the world fall apart could be enjoyable? I think the 2012 factor was pretty incidental to the plot though. "Avatar" is much, much better!

Can you give us any hints as to what we can expect from your next book in the Joshua Files series?
 
"Dark Parallel" is the big time-travel episode. I had to have at least one! So I tackle the bigger questions of causality...if someone changed history, what could happen on a personal scale? To the world around you? Then there's the question of Josh and his unrequited feelings. Is he ever going to 'man up' and confront Ixchel?

If you could time travel when/where would you go to and why?
 
Purely for nostalgia purposes, I think it would be Mexico City in the 1970s. I once found an old travel guide from the seventies in a hotel room in Mexico and it said, "Muggings are very unusual in Mexico". Can you imagine? Even in the eighties that was laughable. I was (very politely) mugged in Mexico City, in 1986. Now they sometimes kidnap you and worse. It's terribly sad. I still love Mexico City, it's the most exciting place I know. But you need your wits about you. And of course I'd be able to meet my parents when they were in their 20s! They both died aged 46 so I haven't seen them for a while.

You can still find that old Mexico if you get away from the big cities and from the tourist zones. Maybe that's why I take Josh to those parts of Mexico. In a way I am time-travelling - in my mind. 

Back to your blog again..... you have hinted at a Quite Secret New Thing you are developing. Care to share any more hints with us yet?
 
Let's see, I need to be careful. My agent thinks I've already said too much. It's a kind of historical conspiracy thriller, with a young action hero. Set in a very dark period of England's past...

Is there anything else you would like to say to your readers?
 
Late childhood (10-14) is an amazing time for your brain, before it's finished developing and before the serious hormonal stuff starts. That's the time to hit your imagination...what sticks then will stay for life. So, read at least one amazing book or series and get your parents to take you to Disneyland before it's too late for you to enjoy it as a child.

Thank you for your wonderful answers MG. I can't believe it is a whole year until Dark Parallel is published.... I am already looking forward to it! And your QSNT sounds very exciting too.

Review: Zero Moment by M.G. Harris

Josh thinks that he has discovered the key to time travel. Should he use it to save his father? Ixchel knows what he intends to do. Should she stop him? Before they can decide, Ixchel is kidnapped by the people who want to see an ancient prophecy predicting the end of the world in 2012 come true. It's up to Josh to save Ixchel and possibly save the world. Time is running out . . . 

This may sound a little melodramatic, but I struggle to express in writing how happy I was to receive a copy of this book a few weeks ago as I am a huge Joshua Files fan. As I have mentioned previously in my blog, I was first attracted to Invisible City, shortly after its publication, by its brilliant neon-orange plastic slip case. Some books are not as good as their covers, but Invisible City is not one of these - it hooks you from the very beginning with its combination of traditional prose and Josh's revealing blog posts. The second book in the series, Ice Shock, was even better and now we have the third instalment in The Joshua Files.... Zero Moment.

So is it any good and does it live up to the quality of the preceding two books I hear you ask? And the answer is a very definite YES! Yet again, MG Harris pulled me into the story at the very first chapter, kept a firm hold on me through every one of the 356 pages, and then didn't quite let go at the end by teasingly providing me with a brief excerpt at the back of the book for the next in the series enititled Dark Parallel. Several weeks on and I am still finding my thoughts being occasionally drawn back to the story and wondering where it will go next, just as I did after reading each of the Harry Potter books for the first time.

And the parallels with Harry Potter don't stop there. I liken Zero Moment in no small way to Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix. In Order, JK Rowling was criticised by some for the time she spent dealing with Harry's teenage angst; the confusion he was experiencing regarding his feelings for his friends (and girls in particular) and the concerns he had regarding his future and the fact that he questions why he is being kept in the dark by Dumbledore and others. I have always felt this criticism to be unfair.... Harry was a boy in his mid-teens and boys do go through these phases and MG Harris has had to do something similar with her main character, Josh Garcia. In Zero Moment Josh is confused about his relationship with Ixchel - is she a friend or do his feelings for her run deeper than that? Are there things that Montoyo and Vigores aren't telling him? What should he do with the knowledge about his father and time travel that he discovered during the Ice Shock story? And just who is the mysterious Arcadio? I hope that readers and reviewers alike will understand the necessity for some of the slower passages in this book, and also the fact that not all of these questions will be answered in this instalment. With Zero Moment MG Harris is certainly setting the scene for a brilliant final two books in the series.

Zero Moment, then, is definitely slower in places than its predecessors, although as I have already said this is not a bad thing, and it certainly keeps the tension building. However, in order to reward us for our patience in these deeper moments, MG treats us to a number of white-knuckle ride chase scenes that certainly make the wait worthwhile. The dune buggy chase near the beginning of the book and another chase involving several modes of transport towards the end are brilliantly written and will have you torn between wanting to read every word or wanting to speed read through the pages as quickly as possible to see whether our heroes manage to escape this next great test of their abilities and endurance, or is it time for one of them to be killed off?

Zero Moment really is as captivating a read as the first two books in the series, and takes The Joshua Files story to its next level. The detail that MG Harris puts into her writing continues to make the reader empathise with Josh's confused emotions completely (as opposed to Order of the Phoenix where occasionally I really did want to give Harry a slap and tell him to pull himself together). She also very cleverly keeps us guessing at every moment with her plot twists - there really is no second guessing where the story is going to go next, yet at all times she manages to maintain the believability of her characters and their actions.

Zero Moment is scheduled for release on 1st February 2010 but I wouldn't be surprised if it starts to creep onto store shelves a little earlier than this. Watch out for the limited edition signed copies in neon-green plastic slip cases that will also be found in a number of select stores around the country (but don't ask me which ones - I'm not important enough to know lol). Next week I will also be publishing on my blog an interview with MG Harris that we did by email shortly before Christmas - she has provided some very interesting answers to my questions so please watch this space! 

Happy New Year to you all.... I hope you have a fantastic 2010!

News: Zero Moment by M.G. Harris

Zero Moment continues the story a few months after Ice Shock. Josh Garcia and Ixchel have been keeping in touch via the Internet and now she's got some pretty intriguing news to share with him.What Ixchel has learned could enable Josh to realize his most fervent dream – to travel in time and change what happened to his father.But the world has become a much more dangerous place for Josh and his friends. Maybe he should have listened to Montoyo when he warned Josh and his mother to move to the “invisible city” of Ek Naab. So when Josh leaves Oxford to travel to the World Capoeira championships in Brazil, the risk is higher than he can possibly know... (from the Joshua Files website)

No review of this yet.... just a quick post to say that there is new content on the Joshua Files website with a great sample chapter download, as well as the promo video below. 2010 is going to be a great year for boy friendly books!