Review: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.

Let's start with a confession: of the books in the original Grisha trilogy I have still only read the first book, Shadow and Bone. It was a book that I didn't quite love, but really enjoyed nonetheless, and I honestly meant to find the time to read the remaining books in the trilogy. However, with my main focus being middle grade these days that time has still to be found. Damn it! There are just far too many great sounding books being published these days! It may seem odd to some then that when a surprise proof of Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo's new Grisha novel, arrived in the post I actually felt a frisson of excitement and it didn't sit on my TBR pile for long at all before I decided to read it.

It's easy for me to explain this excitement. First up, I attended an event that Leigh Bardugo did in London last year, and it was one of the most enjoyable single author events that I have been to in the past few years. At that event Leigh talked briefly about her next project, the book that is now called Six of Crows, and my interest was well and truly piqued. You see, I LOVE heist stories and despite their popularity on the big and small screens, there just don't seem to be enough of them around in book form. Apart from Jack Heath's fab Money Run and Hit List, and Peter Jay Black's brilliant Urban Outlaws series I can't think of any others. Unless that it just my poor, tired brain being uber forgetful.

And not only is Six of Crows a fantastic heist story, it is also a darn good fantasy novel as well. In fact, it is one of the best books I have read this year which is testament to Bardugo's skill as a writer as there are so many elements that could have made this all go wrong, and perhaps this is why there are so few heist stories out there. A great heist needs a strong team to carry it out (think Ocean's 11, Leverage), and novels with too many lead characters can often become confusing or plodding. Not in this case. Not only are there six main characters, but the chapters also jump between POVs. This is not a technique that I am particularly fond of but in this case it works perfectly. Each chapter is headed with the name of its focus character, and after the first couple of chapters following this becomes second nature.

Of course, readers want to know as much about their lead character(s) as possible, and this includes back story: the experiences, trials and tribulations that have made them as they are when they first appear in the story. With six characters to focus on any one or more of them could have easily faded into the background as little more than a bit player with no history, and yet this never happens. I found it very easy to become attached to each and every one of them, and if we are honest, in a good heist story we are always rooting for every member of the team to make it through to the successful conclusion of the caper. This attachment came partly through the way Leigh Bardugo drip-feeds us with their back histories, and as the story progresses their various motivations become more and more apparent and important.

And then there is the world-building. With a great plot and fantastic characters, would this be the element that suffered? Not at all. As I have said, I have only read Shadow and Bone with its Tsarist Russian inspired Ravka, and I have no idea if more of the world outside of Ravka is shown in the sequels. However, Six of Crows is initially set in a wonderfully Ketterdam, a city that to me seemed to have a hint of the Netherlands, before the action moves to the snow covered Scandinavian-ish Fjerda (apologies if I'm sounding ridiculously uninformed to all those huge Grisha fans out there). I'm no fantasy aficionado but I very quickly got sucked into the sights, sounds and smells of Bardugo's world and it stayed with me for some time after I had finished the book (which, by the way, ends with more than a few strands left untied, setting us up for what I hope will be an equally brilliant sequel).

I guess I've made it pretty obvious that you don't have to have read the Grisha trilogy to enjoy this book. Having read Shadow and Bone I was already aware of the Grisha 'magic' and I guess this did slightly enhance my understanding of some of the plot strands, but it certainly isn't essential. I've already said I enjoyed Shadow and Bone, but with it's mix of The Dirty Dozen, Leverage and The Lies of Locke Lamora I really, truly loved Six of Crows. Definitely one of my books of 2015.

Six of Crows was published in the UK today and my thanks go to those wonderful people at Indigo for sending me a copy.

Review: Demolition Dad by Phil Earle

This is the story of Jake Biggs and his dad, George. George spends all week knocking down buildings ... and all weekend knocking down wrestlers. He's the Demolition Man, and Jake couldn't be prouder. But when Jake hears about a pro-wrestling competition in the USA, and persuades his beloved dad to apply, things don't quite turn out the way he expected...

If you were a child (especially one of the male variety) in the 1970s or early 1980s then I can pretty much guarantee that you spent a number of wet Saturday afternoons sat in front of the television watching wrestling on ITV's World of Sport. In these times where the US version of the 'sport' has become a multi-billion dollar industry with fans in every corner of the globe, it is hard to believe that the wrestling heroes of we Brits came from towns such as Halifax, Prestwich and Stoke-on-Trent. And yet, Big Daddy, Giant Haystacks, Kendo Nagasaki et al were all household names in those days, before the WWF came laong and took the world by storm.

Phil Earle was obviously one of those World of Sport loving kids, if his debut book for younger readers is anything to go by. Set in the modern day, it is both an homage to those spandex leotard-wearing legends of UK wrestling and a tongue-in-cheek poke at the shallowness of the big money US version of the sport. I pre-ordered Demolition Dad months ago, as soon as I heard about it, in the hope that it would be another example of the cracking middle grade British comedy stories that I love so much, in a similar vein to Walliams and Dahl, and I certainly wasn't to be disappointed. It is laugh-out-loud funny and chock full of wonderfully engaging and endearing characters, elements that should make this a guaranteed  hit with young readers (aged 8+). 

On top of this it is also a fantastic father-and-son read, mainly due to the fabulous relationship between main character Jake, and his dad, the Demolition Man. Jake idolises his father - it is a relationship that is very reminiscent of Danny the Champion of the World, and it is great to read a book where the parents are caring and spend quality time with their children, instead of being the child-neglecting, self-centred villains of the piece. Jake has his father on a pedestal, and manages to persuade him to take up wrestling, as long as nobody outside of the family finds out. However, Jake is such a fan of his father's performances in the ring that he wants more for him - he wants millions of others to see him the way he does. Of course, this is the first ingredient in the recipe for the disaster that ensues.

And yet there is even more to this than just being a touching father and son comedy story. I don't think it is spoiling things to say that things don't quite work out for Jake's dad when he gets his chance to fight for the big money US World of Wrestling. On his return to his small hometown of Seacross, he struggles to deal with the overwhelming sense of failure he feels, and sinks into a deep depression. Phil Earle deals with this aspect of the story with great sensitivity, and it is this that raises this book from being a great read to being a Powerslam-DaddySplash-Piledriver of a read.

It would be criminal of me not to mention Sara Ogilvie's brilliant cover and interior illustrations before I sign off. They are the perfect accompaniment to Phil Earle's comedic writing voice: they add, in turn, to the humour, action and poignancy of the story as it progresses, and despite the brilliance of Earle's writing, it would be a far lesser book without them.

Illustration by Sara Ogilvie

I hope this is just the first of many books that Phil Earle will write for this age group. I have a strong suspicion that there will be more to come, and perhaps we will even see more of Jake and George Biggs in the future, as the book does finish with the tantalising "(Not) The End...". Demolition Dad is defintely one of my favourite books of the year so far.

Review: Gemini Force 1: Black Horizon by M.G. Harris

After the tragic death of his father, Ben Carrington's mother teams up with a wealthy entrepreneur to form an elite, top-secret rescue organisation - Gemini Force.

Ben is determined to become part of the team, but can he prove he has what it takes to face dangerous situations and save lives?

Impossible rescues. Maximum risk. This is Gemini Force 1.

I've already mentioned in a previous post just how much Thunderbirds and the other Gerry Anderson TV series meant to me as a child, and this love for all things Anderson has not diminished all these years on. I have box sets of DVDs of many of those series, and love to dip in to an episode of one series or another every now and again. I was therefore overjoyed when I discovered that M.G. Harris, the author of one of my favourite recent series of YA books, had been given the task of bringing one of Gerry Anderson's own planned projects to fruition.

As I've already mentioned, Gemini Force 1 was a Gerry Anderson project, and he had hoped to write a series of books featuring his new characters and their rescue agency. Unfortunately, due to the worsening of the Alzheimer's Disease he was suffering from, and then his untimely death in 2012, he was never able to complete the project. Fortunately, his son Jamie recognised the potential of the project and through Kickstarter he and MG managed to raise the necessary funds for the project to go ahead. However, it is still very much Gerry Anderson's concept and early story ideas that M.G. Harris has used as the foundations for Dark Horizon, and this is very evident throughout. In fact, if this had come from anyone other than Gerry Anderson then there may have been cries of foul and plagiarism for obvious reasons: a rescue agency that operates outside of government control; a secret mid-ocean base; a series of rescue craft, each with its own number and piloted by relatively young operators. And the similarities don't end there - like Thunderbirds, this first Gemini Force 1 book is also full of fast-paced action and adventure, and even more importantly it is a really exciting and hugely enjoyable read.

Dark Horizon follows the adventures of main character Ben Carrington, a 16 year old from what many would call a privileged background. His mother is an Austrian countess and his father, until his recent passing in a mountaineering accident, was a multi-millionaire businessman. However, it isn't long before we start to discover that Carrington senior's relationship with his son was not exactly one of loving nurture, with more attention devoted to his business empire than on Ben. His background also makes it quite difficult for readers to empathise with Ben - he comes across as an arrogant and self-centred public boarding school brat, quick to make rash and selfish decisions that could affect the safety of others. However, he is also brave and loyal and eventually readers will see that he is more than a product of the environment in which he has grown up.

As Gemini Force is a team endeavour there are naturally many more characters is this story. However, one has to remember that this is the first book in a planned series, and there has to be a lot of scene setting, and therefore many of these other characters are not as developed as some of the more demanding readers might (unfairly) wish. The only other character who is given a fair amount of wordage is young American pilot Addison Dyer, although nowhere near as much as Ben. However, there are enough teasing hints as to secrets from her past to leave us eager to find out more about her in future installments.

One of the things that I loved about MG's Joshua Files series was the realism and believability that came with her story, and this is very much the case in Dark Horizon. Although some of the technology initially seems a little fanciful and futuristic, a short time spent in the company of Google shows that pretty much everything that the Gemini Force team use is currently in development somewhere in the world, even the amazing 'invisibility' stealth technology used on Aquarius, Addison's amazing 'plane'.

Since reading Dark Horizon I have been struggling to decide exactly what age group the book is aimed out. Ben is 16 and for many that would suggest that it is definitely in YA territory. However, it read to me like a book that is perfect for upper Middle Grade kids, and I would be very comfortable putting this book into the hands of an 11 year old, although with a degree of parental advisory warning as it does deal with issues related to bereavement and dealing with the loss of a parent. I loved Dark Horizon and I know I would have loved it as a child. I feel that it is the kind of book that could get young people enthused about reading, and I am sure that there will be many adult Gerry Anderson fans who will be pushing this into the hands of their children.

Although the book initially came into being through Kickstarter, Jamie Anderson and M.G. Harris eventually managed to find a publisher who was interested in their story, without wanting to make too many changes, and there is now an initial three book deal with Orion, who published Dark Horizon in the UK last week. We also don't have to wait too long for the sequel, Ghost Mine, which is due for publication in September of this year.

Review: Shadow and Bone (The Grisha: Book 1) by Leigh Bardugo

The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.

Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom's magical elite - the Grisha. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free?

The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfil her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him.

But what of Mal, Alina's childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can't she ever quite forget him?

I have not read Twilight. In fact, I am not sure I will ever read any of the Twilight books. Nor am I ever likely to watch the films. Neither the books or the films appeal to me in any kind of way, and through many discussions with friends and students who have read and loved the books, I feel I know enough about them to know I would not enjoy the experience. That's not to say I would ever try to dissuade anyone, boy or girl, from reading the books as I would hate to think I could turn a reader away from a book that might turn them from reluctant to avid reader (also the reason why I rarely post negative reviews on The Book Zone). In fact, I have a huge amount of respect for Stephanie Meyer, in the same way I respect J.K. Rowling, for the impact their works have had on getting children and teens reading, and for laying the foundations for this golden age of children's and YA literature.

You don't need me to tell you that post-Twilight there have been thousands of Young Adult paranormal fantasy books published, and I know from my fellow bloggers that some of these have been outstanding and some have been terrible. However, and I am more than happy to face criticism for this, because of my distaste for Twilight I am not sure I have read very many of these, the whole paranormal romance thing leaving me completely cold. Yes, I have judged the blurb of a multitude of books by that 'little-bit-of-sick-in-my-mouth' reaction that one particular book instills in me. Thus, I have not read any of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments books, and nothing by L.A. Weatherley, Sarah J. Maas, Sarah Rees Brennan, or Maggie Stiefvater. And until very recently, nothing by Leigh Bardugo.

Shadow and Bone, the first book in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha trilogy, is yet another book that I was fully aware of but, when I received a blogger newsletter from those fab people at Indigo, did not jump out as a must-read book. Especially when I looked at my TBR pile. Nah, I really didn't need that one staring at me for months, making me feel guilty for leaving it unread. However, a few months ago I was asked if I would be interested in reading it in order to give a 'boy' opinion on the book. The person who asked me to do this felt it had great boy appeal, but had been sadly dismissed by male reviewers as yet another post-Twilight girly paranormal romance. As I have a great deal of faith in the person who made the request as far as books go, I glady accepted the 'challenge'. 

When the book arrived I started reading it pretty much straight away, although I have to confess that another book arrived soon after that I had been really looking forward to and Shadow and Bone ended up being put aside for a while. And then back in August I was invited to attend a special Leigh Bardugo event in London, and the guilt started to play heavily on my mind, and so I restarted it from the beginning. And, a little to my surprise, I really enjoyed it.

In fact, I'm not sure there is anything about this book that a teen male lover of fantasy stories would not like. Yes, it has romance, but then so does life, so do the majority of Hollywood blockbuster action films, and so do The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Romance is but one thread woven deftly amongst many others, including an incredible fantasy world, brilliant characters, intriguing political machinations, and a fast-paced, unpredictable plot. The world, in particular, is one stood out for me as one of the most appealing aspects of the story. I don't read much epic fantasy, so I'm not exactly an expert in this area, but I found the way that Leigh Bardugo used Russia and its folk tales to craft her Ravka both extremely appealing. Old Russia is a world away from the western world, both past and present, and makes a wonderful platform on which to craft a new, fantasy world. In much the same way as Amy McCulloch so successfully used elements of Mongolian tradition for her brilliant Knots duology, it works so well.

Shadow and Bone is the first book in a trilogy, and I am definitely interested in reading the next two books to find out how the story develops further, although it may have to be over time, occasionally slotted in between others in the TBR pile. I will also be pushing it at school to those boys who like fantasy stories, but want something a lighter and less time-consuming than George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice saga. Before I go, I would like to make one more suggestion: if you ever have the opportunity to attend a Leigh Bardugo event then I strongly encourage you to do so; the event I went to in London was one of the most enjoyable I have been to and Leigh Bardudo is an incredibly interesting and endearing speaker.

The Alcatraz Series by Brandon Sanderson

On his thirteenth birthday, Alcatraz - a foster child - gets a bag of sand in the mail which purports to be his 'inheritance' sent from his father and mother. The Librarians, of course, immediately steal the bag of sand from him.

This sparks a chain of events which leads Alcatraz to realize that his family is part of a group of freedom fighters who resist the Evil Librarians - the secret cult who actually rule the world. Alcatraz's grandfather shows up and tows him off to infiltrate the downtown library to steal back the mystical bag of sand. The ensuing story involves talking dinosaurs, sentient romance novels, and a dungeon-like labyrinth hiding beneath the innocent-looking downtown library.

Under 14s Only Month was great fun, but due to work (yes, same old excuse again) I didn't manage to review anywhere near as many books as I had planned. I have therefore decided to extend it a little into December, and at least get close to clearing the pile of books in front of me that require reviews.

Back in 2012 the lovely people from Gollancz emailed me asking if I would be interested in reading The Complete Alcatraz by Brandon Sanderson. A quick scan of the publicity material showed this to be a single volume collection of a quadrilogy of stories that had been published in the US between 2007 and 2010. However, that same scan also mentioned that there were 750+ pages in said collection, and as ever my TBR pile was already close to critical mass and I had to decline the offer. Fast forward to the beginning of 2013 and those fab people at Orion sent me a copy of Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians, with a great new cover design and with plans to release the three sequels as separate volumes, and I was hooked.

Alcatraz is a walking disaster. He has moved from foster parent to foster parent, often leaving havoc in his wake as he has a habit of breaking things purely by accident. Unfortunately for Alcatraz no one ever believes these accidents are accidents and so he gets labelled as a problem child. On his 13th birthday he receives an unusual package - a less than exciting bag of sand, supposedly an inheritance left to him by his biological parents. The next morning his grandfather, who he has no recollection of ever meeting, suddenly appears on the scene, and before he knows it Alcatraz is drawn into an ancient battle of good versus evil librarians. 

It would appear that everything Alcatraz thinks he knows about his world is actually a huge pile of lies and misinformation, fabricated by the forces of the evil Librarians of the book's title. Grandpa Smedry also informs Alcatraz that his innate ability for accidental destruction is not a curse, but is in fact his Smedry talent, and a very rare one at that. All of the Smedrys have similarly bizarre talents, including always being late, getting lost and falling over, to name but a few.

I'm sure you've guessed by now that this is not your normal, run-of-the-mill fantasy story, and this is made very clear from the opening 'author's' foreword. The story is told by Alcatraz himself, and he does so with a heavy dose of sarcasm, a liberal sprinkling of jocularity, a soupçon of cynicism and an undercurrent of dry wit throughout. He also has a habit of playing storytelling 'tricks' on his readers, keeping them on their toes, and interspersing plot developments with (at the time) seemingly irrelevant rants on whatever subject takes his fancy. I found all of this quite unique, entertaining and I found myself regularly chuckling away. However, at the same time I was fully aware that some people might find the humor and style of narration more than a little irritating, and I have to say that these books are definitely not for everyone. I reckon they are a little like marmite - most adults will either love them or hate them, but these books were written for younger readers, and with this in mind I feel they are likely to be very popular with aged 11-14 kids who love off-the-wall comedy. Not only are they very funny, but they are well paced, full of great action and some cracking magical fight scenes, and the world-building is as accomplished as you would expect from a writer who has made his name writing adult fantasy.

Review: The Fate in the Box by Michelle Lovric

Fogfinger rules Venice. His Fog Squad and spies are everywhere. The Venetians fear him and obey him. Every year one of their children is lost in a grisly Lambing ceremony. The child must climb the bell tower and let the Fate in the Box decide their destiny. Most end their days in the jaws of the primeval Crocodile that lurks in the lagoon. Or so Fogfinger tells them. But a chance meeting by a green apricot tree between Amneris and Tockle may be the beginning of the end for Fogfinger.

Silk and sewing, a magical glass kaleidoscope, mermaids and misunderstood Sea-Saurs, talking statues and winged cats, blue glass sea-horses, a spoiled rich girl and a secret society are just some of the ingredients in Michelle Lovric's exquisitely imagined and superbly plotted fourth fantasy set in Venice.

Writer Michelle Lovric takes us back to her beloved Venice in The Fate in the Box, her fourth book for children set in this magical city. As with her previous book, Talina in the Tower, this is a standalone novel that can be read without first reading her other books, although fans of her previous stories will take great delight in spotting the occasional familiar character, and in particular those foul-mouthed mermaids that first entertained us so much in The Undrowned Child.

Venice is in trouble again. Or rather, as this is set more than one hundred years before Michelle's other three stories, perhaps that should just be Venice is in trouble. The evil and dictatorial Fogfinger rules over the city with an iron fist, and anyone who speaks out against his rule seems to vanish overnight, with only rumours between locals giving any indication of where they may have gone. When Fogfinger came to Venice he brought with him his wonderful clockwork inventions, and now the elite of Venice have become fat, lazy and pretty useless as they rely on these contraptions to do pretty much everything for them. They do not even wind the machines themselves - the desperate and hungry poor are tasked with carrying out this soul-destroying job every night whilst the rich sleep. Fogfinger's devices are everywhere - the aforementioned crime of being caught saying something against the state is a common occurrence, given that the walls literally have ears, devices known as Anagrammaticular.

Yet again, the heroes of Michelle story are a mixed bunch of children; kids who in other circumstances would probably never have been friends, but who come together to fight against evil. Amneris is from a family renowned for their needlework, and she is tasked with the fine embroidery. Every morning without fail Amneris turns a mysterious kaleidoscope seven times, and then replicates the pattern with coloured threads. These designs are incredibly popular and keep the family well away from the doorstep of poverty. Tomistocle is much further down the poverty ladder, his mother being a water seller. He is from a family of kaleidoscope makers, but his father is long absent and Tockle, as he is known, has no idea where he is. And then there is Biri, a young con artist who lives off the streets, both of her parents having been exiled to Serbia for being members of the Piccoli Pochi, a secret society dedicated to overthrowing Fogfinger. Together these three must fight the evil of Fogfinger's regime whilst evading the secret police and the horrific Lambing - the annual ceremony where a child of Venice is sacrificed to keep at bay the Primaeval Crocodile that the city folk believe lives in the depths of the canal.

Seriously? Do I really need to write a review of this book? I have totally loved every one of the three Venice-set books that Michelle has already written for children. In my review for Talina in the Tower I stated that "Each one of these three books has contained a story that I have luxuriated in reading, the kind of stories I never wanted to finish, but when they did they left me feeling complete" and this statement stands for The Fate in the Box as well. With this, her fourth book, surely it is time that Michelle is lauded by all as one of the current greats, along with the likes of David Almond, John Boyne, and even Neil Gaiman. I certainly enjoyed this a lot more than I did The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

Again, at the root of this story is the classic battle of good against evil, and Michelle Lovric writes evil very well indeed. Fogfinger is possibly her most devious and despicable villain to date, and his control of  Venice is absolute. He has cleverly managed to wheedle his way into the affections of the city's elite, and then though his mechanical creations has created a reliance amongst them stronger than any Class A drug. The Lambing Ceremony is a perfect example of just how much the people rely on him - they will even 'allow' children to be sacrificed because Fogfinger says that it is required. This, right from the very beginning of the book, we are left wondering just how the three children who are our heroes could possibly survive against such evil, and our hearts pound as readers as they experience peril after peril.

Michelle's imagination is up there with the very best of writers around at the moment (and yes, I do include the aforementioned Gaiman in that statement), and she is writing stories that nobody else is producing for children at the moment: wildly imagined fantasy stories, with a firm grounding in the historical Venice, but with the city reimagined so well that readers will struggle to spot the fine line between what is real history and what is the product of the author's sublime imagination. 

These stories are so unlike the majority of books that I read and yet I really, really love them. As a history buff I naturally can't help but love that aspect of the story. Venice is also one of my favourite cities out of those I have visited and so I love this element as well. I also adore Michelle's characters - I cheer on the heroes and I love to hate the villain(s). I also love the way that Michelle plots her stories so expertly - there are twists and turns and red herrings aplenty, and I love trying to guess how the plot will unravel.

I could wax lyrical about The Fate in the Box, and its predecessors, for some time, but I appreciate that I am beginning to ramble (again) and if you're not going to pick up one of Michelle's books based on what I have written so far then you probably never will (and it will be your great loss, I tell you). Somewhere I have a must used book mark that bears a quote by the great Mark Twain. I think it goes something like: "My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. Fortunately everybody drinks water". Yes, I drink a lot of water, but every now and again I like to partake of a fine wine, and Michelle Lovric's books are among the finest of fine wines available.

My thanks go to the ever lovely people at Orion for sending me a copy of this book to read.

Review: Seconds Away by Harlan Coben (Mickey Bolitar Book 2)

This action-packed follow-up to international bestseller Harlan Coben's striking young adult novel, Shelter, follows Mickey Bolitar as he continues to hunt for clues about the Abeona Shelter and the mysterious death of his father - all while trying to navigate the challenges of a new high school.

When tragedy strikes close to home, Mickey and his loyal new friends - sharp-witted Ema and the adorably charming Spoon - find themselves at the centre of a terrifying mystery involving the shooting of their classmate Rachel. Now, not only does Mickey need to keep himself and his friends safe from the Butcher of Lodz, but he needs to figure out who shot Rachel - no matter what it takes.

Mickey Bolitar is as quick-witted and clever as his uncle Myron, but with danger just seconds away, it is going to take all of his determination and help from his friends to protect the people he loves, even if he does not know who - or what - he is protecting them from.

I will start off this review by saying that I have not read any of Harlan Coben's adult crime thrillers. These days I don't seem to read a great deal of crime, even though ten years ago my shelves were filled with the likes of Jeffery Deaver, J.A. Kerley, Mark Billingham, Val McDermid, Richard Montanari.... The list could go on and on, but at some point, somewhere along the line, I seem to have stopped reading crime (although from the above you will be able to see that I was fond of a particular type of crime novel). However, when the lovely people at Indigo sent me a copy of Harlan Coben's first YA crime novel, Shelter, sometime last year I started reading it immediately. And I loved it. I've looked back through my blog looking for the review I thought I had written for Shelter, but either I imagined posting it or, like one or two other posts seem to have done recently, it has just disappeared.

Seconds Away picks up straight after the events of Shelter, and you really have to have read the  first book in the series for this one to make a great deal of sense. For those of you who read Shelter a year ago and may have forgotten key elements of the story have no fear - Coben cleverly weaves enough reminders into the opening chapters to refresh your mind of the events in that first book, and also the bombshell he dropped at the close of the book that has left fans begging for more ever since.

I know that there have been some readers who were left a little confused at the end of Shelter, as there seemed to be two very different elements to it. For the most part it was a gritty crime thriller, with Mickey Bolitar and his new friends being drawn into a thrilling and deadly mystery rooted firmly in modern crime. However, there also seemed to be something of a supernatural element to the series spanning story arc, an element that seemed more than a little out of place in a straight crime story. Ninety year old ex Nazis who still look young, anybody? In Seconds Away Coben gradually reveals more information behind this element and by the end readers will have a much better understanding of this, and like me they will also be just as hungry for the next instalment.

As with Shelter then there are two stories going on in this sequel. There is the standalone element - Mickey's friend Rachel is injured and her mother killed in a shooting at her house, and Mickey, Ema and Spoon set out to solve the mystery - and then there is the greater mystery: that surrounding Mickey's life, the death of his father, the Bat Lady, the Butcher of Lodz and the Abeona Shelter. Coben uses all of his writing experience and expertise to craft a story that has you racing through the pages, desperate to get to the solution to both mysteries. And there is no point second guessing either - the plot twists and turns like an Alpine giant slalom, and just as you think you have guessed 'whodunnit', somthing else is revealed and you find yourself staring open mouthed as the letters W.R.O.N.G. flash teasingly through your brain.

Crime is a genre that has huge adult appeal, with book stores having ranks of shelves dedicated to authors of these books. However, it is only in the last eighteen months or so that it has crossed over to the YA market, with the likes of Harlan Coben, Colin Mulhern, Niall Leonard and Peter Cocks writing for this younger age group. I know some of the boys at school much prefer these kind of stories that are grounded in a realism that they can relate to, as opposed to fantasy and horror stories. Seconds Away was published in hardback by Indigo earlier this month and my thanks go to the publishers for sending me a copy to review. 

Review: Bloodline by James Rollins (A Sigma Force Novel) (adult book)

Please click on the link below and head on over to my adult book blog - The Book Zone (For Boys) Big Brother - to read my review of Bloodline, the eighth book in James Rollins' brilliant Sigma Force series.

http://bookzonebigbrother.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/review-bloodline-by-james-rollins-sigma.html

Review: The London Stone by Sarah Silverwood (Book Three of The Nowhere Chronicles)

The prophecy has come to pass.

The London Stone has been stolen and the Dark King rules the Nowhere. Only Mona and the new Seer dare to stand against him, leading an underground rebellion in the frozen wasteland... but what chance do they have, against both the Army of the Mad and Arnold Mather's soldiers?

There is still hope: if they can recruit a banished race to their cause, maybe Fin and his friends can force a final battle against the Dark King. But that aid will be hard-won, through an almost impossible quest, and even then there are no guarantees.

It will come down to three friends, standing together against all odds. And fulfilling their destinies, whatever the cost...

I loved Sarah Silverwood's The Double-Edged Sword, the first book in her The Nowhere Chronicles trilogy, and it was one of my favourite books of 2010. Its sequel, The Traitor's Gate, was just as enjoyable a read, but when I came to try to review it I found it very difficult to a) say anything that would not spoil the story and b) say anything that didn't just sound like a rehash of my review of the first book. Middle books in trilogies are something I often find difficult to review, as they invariably end on a cliffhanger, with the story far from finished, and The Traitor's Gate was no exception to this. In fact, it left us with multiple cliffhangers, a number of key characters looking as if they were about to shuffle off this mortal coil and more unanswered questions that week's worth of Newsnight politician interviews.

And so I have been waiting impatiently for the final instalment in this thrilling fantasy trilogy, and having finished the book last night I am happy to report that it was well worth the wait. Unfortunately, it is also no easier to review than the previous book, although not because of an unsatisfactory end to the story (far be it - the author finishes her tale brilliantly, although she doesn't pull any punches in doing so and it is certainly not the and-they-all-lived-happily-ever-after that some people might prefer). No, it is difficult to review in detail as so much happens in these 300 pages, and to go into detailed explanations would spoil not only this book but also the two that preceded it (just in case you have not yet read them).

I can tell you that before things improve for Fin and those of his friends that remain, things go from bad to much, much worse. Justin Arnold-Mather was nasty enough before he got his hands on some magic, but once he does the power corrupts him completely, and he becomes a vicious dictator who doesn't think twice about killing any citizen of The Nowhere who dares speak out against him. At the end of the second book we saw Fin and Alex Currie-Clarke heading back to the Somewhere, on a mission to track down the traitor in their midst. Unfortunately, what takes place in the Nowhere in their absence is the stuff of which nightmares are made. 

In order to defeat Arnold-Mather, Fin will have to first risk his life by crossing West Minster Bridge and into The South, and then face even greater dangers in the Middle of Nothing as he journeys to beg the Magi to help him save. not only the Nowhere, but all the other worlds as well. Meanwhile, Mona, a new Seer and a small handful of Knights are left behind to continue the fight against the Dark King and his followers. Will Fin's journey be worthwhile? Or is he too late to prevent the destruction of the Nowhere and everyone he loves with it?

I have already mentioned that readers should not expect a happy ending for every character, but that is not to say that there are not many moments in this story that will have readers buzzing or even shouting with excitement. One such scene sent a tingle up my spine and I was hit my a wave of joy, and I know that many other readers who have come to love the band of aged Knights will experience something similar when they come to that part of the story.

If you love well-written, intelligent fantasy then you really should get your hands on this trilogy. It is one of those series that is probably even more rewarding when read back-to-back as the story is so rich in detail it took me a little while to pick up where things left off when I read both the second and third books, Fortunately, the author very helpfully includes a 'The story so far' piece to help remind us of the preceding events.

The London Stone is due to be published on 12th July and my thanks go to the nice people at Orion Indigo for sending me a copy to review. Its author, Sarah Silverwood, is better known as Sarah Pinborough, author of a number of adult books, and I hope she return to writing for young adults again sometime in the future.

Guest Post: Hidden London by Allan Jones (author of Codename Quicksilver)

Today is the release date for the first two books in a new series of action adventure stories for the 9+ boys by author Allan Jones. The Codename Quicksilver books follow the adventures of Zak Archer as he finds himself drawn into a world of government secrets, enemy spies and teen undercover agents. As many of you will already know, I love London and think it makes a great setting for stories for children, so I am really chuffed that today we are joined by Allan who has very kindly written a guest post about Hidden London.

Hidden London by Allan Jones

When I was 11 years old, I was a huge fan of the James Bond movies and spy series on TV such as The Man From UNCLE, not to mention super-sci-fi spy comics like Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD (you may know him from the recent Marvel superhero movies like The Avengers, Thor, Iron Man and Captain America).

I came up with a spy organization of my own. SWORD: Supreme World Organization For Retaliation and Defence. Their headquarters was in a big underground bunker on wasteland at the bottom of my garden. The agents each had a small remote device that they clicked so that a hatch in the ground disguised as a lump of grass would rise up on a hinge. A stairway would take them down to the high-tech SWORD bunker.

What I didn’t know at the time was that bunkers exactly like that actually existed under the streets of London. Most of them were dug out during World War Two so that the war effort could carry on even during the worst of the Blitz – the bombing of London that went on for 57 nights in a row between September 1940 and May 1941.

The entrance to the Cabinet war rooms

A small part of this vast underground complex has been opened to the public. If you go to Clive Steps off Horse Guards Road in Whitehall, you can take a tour of the offices from which Winston Churchill’s Government worked. They have been reconstructed to look exactly as they would have done during the war with dormitories for staff, private bedrooms and offices for typists and switchboard operators. There is even a small room that houses the Transatlantic Telephone, where the British Prime Minister could make encrypted phone calls to the President of the United States of America. To make these rooms extra-safe from bombs, they were roofed over with a 1.5 metre thick layer of concrete known as ‘the slab’.

Inside the Cabinet War Rooms

But the Cabinet War Rooms are just a few of the over 200 rooms and offices that honeycomb the clay underneath London – and they all still exist. It wasn’t much of a leap for me to imagine that British Intelligence would make use of this hidden city.

Apart from the offices under Clive Steps, there were four other large complexes. One is called Bastion and lies under Covent Garden. Another is known as Citadel and was dug out under St Paul’s Cathedral. The third is known as Rampart and lies deep under Waterloo Station. The fourth is named Fortress and is beneath Moorgate Station in the City of London.

These complexes are all linked together by an elaborate network of tunnels. One of these aims for the Duke of York’s Steps. If you go there, you will see a small dark doorway with a doorbell. Unless you know the secrets of this bell, you will not get a response when you ring it – but if you have the codes, the door will open and let you into this whole hidden complex.

Door at the Duke of York’s Steps

As soon as I started writing the first Codename Quicksilver book I knew that I wanted the specialist department of British Intelligence to have its headquarters in Fortress. So, I imagined the old World War Two rooms being updated to include the most modern high-tech facilities in the world.

From Fortress tunnels spread out to every corner of London: the young agents of Project 17 come and go covertly across the entire city and no one realizes when they see an ordinary teenager appearing suddenly from an alley that they are looking at one of Colonel Hunter’s highly-trained secret agents.

Boudicca statue at Westminster Bridge

Speaking of tunnels, there is an impressive statue at the north end of Westminster Bridge. It depicts Boudicca and her daughters in a chariot drawn by horses. But few people notice as they pass this statue that there is a small door in the stone plinth. The door is locked, but if you could get through it, you’d find a stairway that would lead you down to a long tunnel. The tunnel travels east along the Embankment of the River Thames until it comes up, a mile away in Threadneedle Street – home of the Bank of England. In olden days, ships loaded with gold would dock at Westminster and the gold would be taken secretly to the Bank through this tunnel. Nowadays, the Agents of Project 17 use this same tunnel to move secretly beneath the streets.

Door in the Boudicca plinth

But a word of warning – it would be illegal and dangerous for anyone to investigate these entrances into the world under London. Do not try to get in there – these hatches are protected by the latest high-tech surveillance systems and you will be caught and prosecuted, no matter what age you are!

Fortress entrance with sensor and electronic surveillance box

Here’s some other underground facts you may not know…

• More tunnels have been dug under the Thames than under any other river in the world.

• In the 18^th Century, seventeen small rivers flowed through London and into the Thames. Some have famous streets or areas names after them. Fleet Street, for instance, named after the River Fleet. And Tyburn – a place made infamous for public hangings – is named after Tyburn Brook. These rivers were all paved over and many now form part of the elaborate London Sewage System.

• There are 14 unused tube stations under London, and the existence of these can sometimes be shown at street level. For instance Down Street Station can be glimpsed from its red-tiled façade. Maroon tiled entrances reveal the location of Brompton Road Station near Cottage Place.

So the next time you’re in your nearest city, take a look around. There could be more to it than meets the eye…

www.codenamequicksilver.com

Codename Quicksilver: In the Zone and The Tyrant King by Allan Jones are out on 5 July 2012.

*** Competition: WIN a pair of Sam Silver: Undercover Pirate Books

Last Thursday I posted a review for Sam Silver: Undercover Pirate, the fun new series for 6+ kids from Orion Children's Books.

Now, thanks to the generous people at Orion you have the chance to win a set of the two books, simply by filling in your details in the form below. What's more, I have three sets to give away. 

The first name drawn at random after the closing date will win a set of three books. This is a one day competition - the deadline for entries is 7pm BST Friday 29th June. This competition is open to UK residents only.

Contest open to UK residents only.
Neither the publisher or I will 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: Sam Silver - Undercover Pirate by Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler

Book 1: Skeleton Island

Sam Silver finds a gold doubloon which whisks him back in time to 1706. Suddenly he's on board a pirate ship - the Sea Wolf - with her fearsome captain and crew and sailing the Caribbean Sea. If Sam can't think of a very good reason why they should keep him alive, he'll be forced to walk the plank!

Book 2: The Ghost Ship

When Sam Silver and the crew of the Sea Wolf board a galleon looking for Spanish gold, they find it's already been stolen - by a ghost ship! Can our pirate heroes outwit a ghostly crew or is the treasure gone for ever?

Kids love pirates. Fact! Although I teach at secondary level many of my friends have kids in the 6-10 age range and nearly every one of them, boys and girls, is fascinated by pirates. Their parents tell me they are often getting non-fiction books about pirates out from the library, and they are always on the look out for pirate fiction. It is not an area I am expert on, although for the younger kids I have lost count how many time I have  recommended Jonny Duddle's The Pirate Cruncher and The Pirates Next Door to friends. Recently I received an email from the lovely people at Orion, asking if I would be interested in reading and reviewing the first books in their new pirate series, Sam Silver: Undercover Pirate, and I felt that it would be letting down my friends and their kids if I said no.

Sam Silver is like any typical boy. He lives in Backwater Bay, where his parents own a chip shop, and like many kids of his age he has a collection of found items. When he finds a bottle on the beach with a note rolled inside he assumes it to be a cry for help, and imagines the fame he would achieve if his discovery led to the rescue of a stranded person. However, on opening the bottle he finds a note written in 1705, and signed by Joseph Silver, Captain of the Sea Wolf. Excited at the thought he might be descended from a pirate, his elation is raised even further by the letters mention of  buried treasure. Also in the bottle is a gold doubloon, but when Sam shakes this out of the bottle it looks like just an old dull brown coin. On rubbing it though Sam  is given the surprise of his life as his world begins to spin, and when he lands again he finds himself back in 1706, on a genuine pirate ship, surrounded by genuine pirates.

Being a suspicious bunch the pirates are about to make Sam walk the plank because of his strange clothes and way of speaking, but his is saved by this fate as he stutters out his name, and the pirate captain proclaims him to the the grandson of Joseph Silver, a highly respected pirate who went missing a year earlier. So begin the piratical adventures of Sam Silver as he starts to win over the mistrusting pirates and they set of in search of the treasure mentioned in the letter.

Skeleton Island, and its equally enjoyable sequel The Ghost Ship, are perfect stories for pirate-fixated kids aged 6 and above. At about 140 pages each they are just the right length for children of this age, and they are littered with images that help fire young imaginations even further. Naturally, they wouldn't be proper pirate books if they didn't have maps printed in the front, and we all know how much kids love maps.

The stories are full of action and adventure, with Sam being thrown in at the deep end and having to evade rival bloodthirsty pirates, or navigate his way safely through Tortuga (anyone who knows anything about pirates has heard of Tortuga), whilst in between the action having to carry out his pirate duties like swabbing the deck and manning the crow's nest. With Sam being a 21st century boy sent back in time, this adds another layer of discussion for younger readers who will be able to relate to him very easily, and will probably daydream about what they would do if they were ever lucky enough to find a magic gold doubloon that sent them back in time.

Orion tell me there are more adventures planned for Sam Silver in the future, and there are currently a total of seven books listed over at Amazon, so if you have kids of this age I suggest you buckle your swashes, shiver your timbers and go out and get your hands on these first two adventures. Or you could come back here later this week and have the chance of winning one of three pairs of books that I will be giving away.

Review: The Hunting Ground by Cliff McNish

When Elliott and his brother move into the old and crumbling Glebe House they don't expect to find themselves sharing it with ghosts. But soon sinister events are unfolding. An old diary reveals glimpses of the mansion's past - and of a terrible tragedy. An old woman talks to ghosts - but is she in fact being controlled by them? And what of the sinister East Wing - a hideous labyrinth devised by a truly twisted mind? Can Elliott and his family escape the clutches of Glebe House? Or will they end up trapped in the endless maze of corridors, forever hunted by the dead?

Tired of vampires? All zombied out? Not a fan of gore? If you love horror and can say yes to any or all of these then The Hunting Ground by Cliff McNish might be for you. With the success in cinemas of The Woman in Black is would appear that the more traditional ghost stories are gaining in popularity again. Already this year I have reviewed Michelle Harrison's Unrest and James Dawson's Hollow Pike, both of which rely heavily on the creep factor rather than blood splatter, and The Hunting Ground is another book in this vein.

The Hunting Ground was first released in 2011 by Orion's Children's Books, but was re-released earlier in 2012 as part of Orion's new YA imprint, Indigo. It certainly sits better in my mind as a book for teens as it is the kind of book from which nightmares are born.

I'm trying to think of a way to describe the plot without giving too much away, as much of the impact from this book comes from the tension that Cliff McNish skilfully builds as the story progresses, with the reader constantly guessing (and fearing) what might happen next. Too put it as concisely as possible, two boys and their father move into a run-down country mansion that is in dire need of renovation. Naturally, this being a ghost story, the house has quite a nasty history. A previous owner, Cullayn, was a vicious beast of a man, and unfortunately for boys the despicable atrocities he committed have left a mark on the house that could have dire consequences for them many years on.

The pace of the story was absolutely spot on in my opinion. Cliff McNish has pulses racing with his more terrifying scenes, but knows exactly when to pull back and give the reader a little respite, before ratcheting the fear actor up all over gain. In doing so the tension in the story builds constantly throughout the book, so that when we come to the climactic closing scenes we are little more than gibbering wrecks, jumping at the smallest noise.

Cliff McNish has again proved that he is a master of dark storytelling, and I am a little saddened that he is not as widely known as the other current masters of teen horror. Much as I enjoyed Hollow Pike by James Dawson I found The Hunting Ground to be a much scarier read and I have been pushing it with the horror fans at school ever since. McNish is able to tap into a reader's psyche and seem to take great delight in playing around with their primal fears. I am not easily scared but having read this well into the night I did then experience uncomfortable dreams where I was being chased through long, empty corridors by an unknown entity.

For confident older teen readers The Hunting Ground could make the perfect entry into some of the classic ghost/horror stories by the likes of Edgar Allen Poe and M.R. James or the brilliant The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. My thanks go to the lovely people at Orion for sending me a copy to review.

Talina In The Tower Competition Result

The lucky winner of the copy of Talina in the Tower by Michelle Lovric is:


Michelle Williams 

Well done and thank you to all of you who entered. 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 Orion Children's Books for providing the prize.