Review: Rewired by Alex Keller

Mandrake von Guggenstein has escaped!

Snatched on the day of his execution by a nightmare creature called Grilsgarter, the Terror of Beacon is loose again. The clock is ticking. Can brothers Ludwig and Hephaestus find him before their world is plunged into darkness again?

I really loved Alex Keller's Haywired when I read it last August, my only criticism of that twisted steampunk fairy tale being that it was just too damn short! Unfortunately the sequel, Re:wired, is just as short as its predecessor, but yet again that is the only negative thing I can say about this story. I loved it from beginning to end, and it was yet another read-in-a-single-sitting book from this author. 

I really enjoy steampunk stories, although I know some people now believe it to be past its peak as far as originality is concerned, but this is a comment that certainly cannot be levied at Alex Keller. Re:wired picks up where the previous book left off in that it is laced with a gloriously dark humour, its characters are fantastically imagined and the story is yet another riproaring old-school adventure story full of hideous, evil villains and brave and daring (thought slightly flawed) heroes. I think if steampunk had been around back at the time when the Ealing Studios were at their peak then this is the kind of story they would have had a great deal of fun with, starring the likes of Alec Guinness and Alistair Sim.

The story kicks off several months after the events of Haywired, with Mandrake von Guggenstein about to be executed for the crimes he committed against the people of Pallenway. Fortunately for Mandrake he is 'rescued' literally from the gallows by a machine/creature that could only have been born in the deepest, darkest corner of the author's imagination, the only clue to its origin being the departing cry of Mandrake: "Grilsgarter?" So begins a desperate search by the heroes of Haywired, desperate to find and recapture the evil despot, although this time young Ludwig is to be left behind as his grandmother deems it too dangerous for him this time. Yes, you guessed it, there is no way that Ludwig is going to go along with this, and so he manages to smuggle himself on board the good shop Kamaria, where he spends the voyage keeping his head down as a deck hand, and thus ends up risking life and limb again.

As with Haywired, this sequel is again very much about the characters and the story. We do find out a little more about the world in which they live, but this element of the book is most definitely not the driving force of the story. With only 170 pages to play with, lengthy descriptive passages about the world would obviously mean less story, and so Alex Keller rightly focuses his attentions on his characters. We are introduced to several new faces, but more importantly for me personally, we get to find out a lot more about The Captain, one of my favourite characters from Haywired. Unfortunately, to say any more would sadly create spoilers for those of you who have not yet read the first book in the series.

The ending of Haywired seemed somewhat rushed, and I am happy to say that this book is brought to a conclusion in a far more satisfying manner, although yet again another 30 or so pages would have allowed the author to lengthen some of the more important scenes in the story. In addition, although the story does not technically end on a cliffhanger, we are left with a small handful of questions that need answering, and this reader definitely wants more.

My thanks go to the generous people at Mogzilla for sending me a copy of Re:wired to review.

Review: I Am Spartapuss by Robin Prince

Rome AD 36. The mighty Feline Empire rules the world. Spartapuss, a ginger cat is comfortable managing Rome’s finest Bath and Spa. But Fortune has other plans for him. He’s arrested and imprisoned by Catligula, the Emperor’s heir. Released into a school for gladiators, he must fight and win his freedom in the Arena - before his opponents make dog food of him.

If I had to name one story element that is most likely to persuade me not to read a children's book it is anthropomorphic animal characters. I don't why it is, but they just leave me cold. It was then with some disappointment that a while ago I opened a package from Mogzilla Books to find these two books - I Am Spartapuss and one of its sequels, Cleocatra's Kushion. In fact, I think I even shuddered at the though of reading them, and if it hadn't have been for my godson's younger brother they may have stayed in a pile gathering dust before eventually being donated to a local primary school. However, I was trying to think of books suitable for this 9 year old boy as a Christmas present and so thought I would give them a go.

And I was pleasantly surprised as they are actually very enjoyable and rather cleverly written. I Am Spartapuss is written in the form of Spartapuss' diary, and the story it tells is fast paced, full of action and also very funny. Robin Price has a knack at using puns, and everything from Roman emperors to Roman Gods to ancient Roman locations have been given the cat-treatment. And so we have Augustpuss and Catligula instead of Augustus and Caligula, Mewpita and Purrcury instead of Jupiter and Mercury. Just the sort of thing that 8-11 year old boys find very amusing, although I have to admit nowhere near as special as the clever wordplay I grew up loving in the names of the characters in Asterix books.

The wordplay does at times make these books quite challenging and less confident readers may struggle at times with the puns that fly thick and fast throughout almost every page. However, if children are studying the Ancient Roman period at school then they may find the books a little easier, and also very enjoyable as there is a large degree of historical 'fact' in the books, albeit with feline characters. Despite the name changes and the fact that these characters eat food suitable for cats, the parallels with the real history of this time period and its people are very easy to draw. However, in order to retain an element of realism this also means that some of the scenes in the story that focus on the violence and suffering that the gladiators in these times faced may be a little too intense for more immature readers, even though the blood and gore levels are kept to a bare minimum.

As I have already mentioned, these books really did surprise me, and I would guess that they are pretty unique; I certainly haven't come across anything quite like them before. I am pretty sure that my godson's brother will love them, as will many other readers of his age group.

Review: Haywired by Alex Keller

In the quiet village of Little Wainesford, Ludwig Von Guggenstein is about to have his unusual existence turned inside out. When he and his father are blamed for a fatal accident during the harvest, a monstrous family secret is revealed. Soon Ludwig will begin to uncover diabolical plans that span countries and generations while ghoulish machines hunt him down. He must fight for survival, in a world gone haywire.


There has been something of a back lash against steampunk in recent months, with some critics stating that it has already 'last year's thing'. Even the legend that is Philip Reeve has joined in by writing on his blog that steampunk is dead. It is certainly a bandwagon that many an aspiring author has attempted to jump on over the last few years, and I would imagine that for every excellent steampunk story published there have also been several poorer books released into the world. I personally love a good steampunk story, and I am currently waiting excitedly for the release of Scott Westerfeld's Behemoth, the sequel to his excellent Leviathan, and also The Society of Dread, Glenn Dakin's follow-up to the first book in his Candle Man series, both of which had many elements that the book-reading public now associate with the steampunk genre. I therefore did not hesitate to say yes when Mogzilla contacted me asking if I would like a copy of Alex Keller's debut Haywired. In fact, the cover itself was enough to garner a positive reaction to their proposal - illustrator Rachel de Ste. Croix has done a fantastic job on it (and for those of you for whom book cover design is important you can read more about the design process here at Rachel's blog).

Haywired is very different to the steampunk books I have read so far. The publishers are calling it a steampunk fairytale, and I cannot come up with a better phrase to describe it, as that is exactly how it reads. The fairytale feel to the story is there from the very first page and at times it is as if the Brothers Grimm were alive and well and writing for a steampunk loving audience. Like many fairytales it is also relatively short, weighing in at a slim 170 pages, but even so it still manages to pack quite a punch. Of course, most adults know that the Grimm fairy tales were exactly that - grim. In their original form they were often full of pretty nasty stuff, involving nasty and bloody endings for characters both good and bad, and they were certainly not the sweet and sanitised stories that we came to supposedly know well thanks to the Disney machine. Haywired is like this as well - the story is deliciously dark in places, people die and often in particularly nasty ways, and the main villain of the story would fit better in an adult horror fantasy story than in a Disney animated film, so much so that Mogzilla are marketing this book at the 11+ age group, despite it being significantly shorter than many of the books that are released for this age group.

The main character of the story is Ludwig von Guggenstein, son of Mandrake von Guggenstein, a kind of mad professor style inventor to most, but not in the eyes of his trusting son. Ludwig loves nothing more than working with his father on his various inventions, all of which seem to him to have great value in improving the lives of the local community in which they live. However, a series of unfortunate events lead to Ludwig making a discovery about his family that first of all makes him confused, then totally overjoyed, before suddenly turning his world upside down, at which point he finds himself running away from home, not sure whether he should be fearing for his life. Unlike many steampunk stories Haywired is not set in alternate London, New York or any other recognisable Earth country; instead, Alex Keller has opted to create his own world, although being a relatively short book the world itself takes something of a back seat.

The ensuing adventures of Ludwig and his companion (about whom I will say no more for fear of creating a spoiler) see them encountering a variety of colourful characters, both good and evil, and at times Ludwig is unsure about who to trust as the motivations of these characters are generally difficult for him to work out. However, he finds himself swept along by the now life-threatening events that become unavoidable for him, especially when he finds himself the hunted prey of his father's most sinister creations, the HELOTs (Heuristic Engine with Learning and Obedience Tailoring). Again, it is difficult to describe these without giving away too much of the story; suffice to say there is more than a little of the Baron von Frankenstein in Mandrake von Guggenstein.

As I said, Haywired is relatively short, and as such it faces the same criticism as I levied at David Gatward's debut The Dead. It really could do with an extra thirty or so pages as the climactic scene where Ludwig must finally confront his father was far too short (a mere four pages) and the book ended too suddenly for my liking, and I felt that his father's actions at the end were unrealistic given the preceding events. If this was a movie I think viewers at an early test screening would express displeasure, and the ending would be reshot to improve it. It is a shame that I was left feeling a little cheated after what had been a thoroughly enjoyable read up to that point.

This criticism aside this is still a hugely enjoyable addition to the ever growing list of steampunk type stories for young readers (and despite his misgivings about the steampunk genre I have even seen Philip Reeve mention on Twitter that he was enjoying reading it). A sequel, entitled Rewired, is planned to be released in the spring of 2011 and am looking forward to seeing what happens to Ludwig and his companions in the next instalment. Haywired is due to be published on 1st September.