Rule 34 - Book Review

DI Liz Kavanaugh: You realise policing internet porn is your life and your career went down the pan five years ago. But when a fetishist dies on your watch, the Rule 34 Squad moves from low priority to worryingly high profile.

Anwar: As an ex-con, you'd like to think your identity fraud days are over. Especially as you've landed a legit job (through a shady mate). Although now that you're Consul for a shiny new Eastern European Republic, you've no idea what comes next.

The Toymaker: Your meds are wearing off and people are stalking you through Edinburgh's undergrowth. But that's ok, because as a distraction, you're project manager of a sophisticated criminal operation. But who's killing off potential recruits? So how do bizarre domestic fatalities, dodgy downloads and a European spamming network fit together? The more DI Kavanaugh learns, the less she wants to find out. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

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Okay, so I’ll admit that part of the reason I wanted to read this book was to see if it really was written in the style of an internet puppy. For those baffled by that comment, see Priestgate 2012. However, that’s not the only appeal of the book. It’s a detective story set in the very near future, with minimal but incredibly interesting science fiction elements. It’s also not set in the USA or London, which makes a nice change. The story takes place mainly in Edinburgh, and the culture, the people, the language, etc, were all quite familiar to me, bringing back happy memories from four years at university in Scotland (I was 1 hour from Edinburgh by train). So, lots that grabbed my interest.

The Alchemist of Souls - Book Review

The Alchemist of Souls is a fantasy alternate-history by Anne Lyle. Set in Elizabethan England, it follows two characters: the down-on-his-luck swordsman Mal, and Coby, a girl masquerading as a boy, who is working as the tireman of a theatre company. When Mal is hired to protect the Skrayling ambassador during his stay in London, and Coby’s theatre company is to act in a competition in the ambassador’s honour, their lives are drawn together. Meanwhile, something very strange and sinister is going on, something that involves the Skrayling creatures of Viking legend discovered in the New World. As Mal learns more about the Skraylings’ powers, he realises that England’s alliance with the Skraylings may be under threat, and that his own soul is in jeopardy.

White Cat - Book Review

 
White Cat, by Holly Black, tells the story of Cassel Sharpe, a teenage boy from a family of curse-workers. Cassel has always felt alienated, neither curse-worker nor ‘normal.’ His mother is in prison, his brothers either absent or indifferent, his father dead, and the fellow boarders at his school mistrustful. Worse than this, he lives with a terrible secret and struggles every day to face the crushing guilt it causes. When he begins sleepwalking and a strange white cat visits him in dreams, he starts to unravel a sinister plot, as well as some shattering truths about his family and his past.

White Cat is a dark, witty and entertaining story set in an alternate universe in which a form of magic known as ‘curse-working’ exists openly. Those who can’t curse-work are suspicious of those who can, and the curse-workers are considered dangerous – little more than criminals. Laws have been put in place prohibiting curse-work, which do not distinguish between the bad (killing, injury, manipulating memory, etc) and the good (bestowing good luck, using emotion-work to help heal people, etc). This means that the curse-workers are often manipulated or threatened into a life of crime, or driven into it by desperation.

Zoo City - Book Review

Zoo City also has one of the best covers I've seen

Zoo City is an Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning urban-fantasy book by Lauren Beukes. It tells the story of Zinzi December, an ex-journalist and recovering drug addict who became ‘animalled’ after her actions led to her brother’s murder. Now she carries around a sloth, as well as a nasty drug-money debt and a lot of guilt. The day she gained Sloth she also developed a new, magical talent for finding lost things. When she is hired to locate a missing girl, one half of a famous teen pop duo, the case begins to lead her to darker and more dangerous places than she had expected.

Zoo City was not quite what I was expecting, but then, I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting. Perhaps something in which the fantasy or science fictional element was more prominent, not necessarily the focus of the plot, but at least more central. In this, the animals, the magic, the strangeness, are all just there, while Zinzi gets on with things. But you know what? This is a large part of what makes Zoo City so brilliant. Not only are the magical elements never fully explained (which I often prefer anyway), they are not even really important. Except that they are, just not in the ways the reader might think. Animals and the consequences of being animalled are vital to the characters and their world, as well as allowing the author to explore ideas of prejudice, guilt and the stigma attached to rehabilitated criminals, amongst other issues, without ever becoming preachy or heavy-handed. Each element that makes the world strange – the animals, the undertow, the mashavi – is revealed almost as a mundane detail in the background while the missing-person mystery takes centre stage. And then, suddenly, all these little details become vital as the plot takes a darker turn, and the existence of the animalled becomes central to the story after all. This seems like a risky approach, but it is a risk that really pays off.

The Sewer Demon - Book Review

Euge! I won a signed copy of The Sewer Demon by Caroline Lawrence in a Twitter competition from the Big Book Babble! This sent me into slightly unreasonable levels of excitement. Partly because I’ve never won anything in a prize draw before, but mainly because The RomanMysteries series has been a favourite of mine for a long time.

But, aren’t they children’s books? Yes, of course they are, but like Disney cartoons, they’re absolutely delightful for grownups too. I would class them as ‘family books.’ They’re funny, clever, exciting, and historically accurate. I think they are some of the best stories set in the Ancient World in either adult or children’s fiction. Besides, I’m fairly sure I never actually grew up...

I was introduced to the Roman Mysteries books by my cousin’s daughter, who a) was in love with the series, and b) was amazed and overjoyed that she had written to the author, Caroline Lawrence, and Caroline had actually written back! Not all authors will do this, mainly because they are so busy, but I remember having a similar experience when I was younger and it really does make such a difference to a child. Anyway, I was studying Classics at university at the time, so “it’s about Romans” was (and still is, if I’m honest) enough on its own to get me excited. A combination of ‘Romans’ and ‘friendly author’ meant they were a must-read. I borrowed one from the library, reading horribly out of order (The Sirens of Surrentum), and on the strength of that one book alone I bought a set of all the books written to that point, with the beautiful second generation covers. Every single one was good, and I’ve been collecting them ever since.

The Sewer Demon is a companion book to The Roman Mysteries series, moving away from the Roman Mystery children to focus on a new main character, a boy called Threptus. Readers of The Roman Mysteries books might remember Threptus, who popped up in The Man from Pomegranate Street, and in ‘Threptus and the Sacred Chickens’ in The Legionary from Londinium and other Mini Mysteries. Threptus is an eight year old boy living in Ostia, once a beggar, but now working for Floridius, who is a prophet, soothsayer, amulet-seller and dealer in sacred chickens! This is the first in a new series called The Roman Mystery Scrolls, which seems to be aimed at slightly younger readers, with shorter books and ruder humour.

The same easy-going and humorous style of The Roman Mysteries series is found in this book, with plenty of jokes that both young readers and their parents can enjoy. The curses (Pollux!) and exclamations like ‘Great Juno’s Beard’ always make me laugh out loud. Because the story is set in Ostia, familiar faces and places appear. At one point Threptus is forced to crawl through the town’s sewers, and learns why the local magistrate Bato should never eat cumin-dusted eggs. The mystery is intriguing and solving it is fun, with the usual variety of fascinating Roman facts and titbits incorporated into the story. I’ve never noticed anything un-historically accurate in a Roman Mysteries book, and the same goes here (makes sense – the author really knows the Ancient World).

Caroline Lawrence has a wonderful ability to conjure up places and people so well in so few words, and her characters are always so alive they jump off the page. (The little illustrations that accompany each chapter pick up on this brilliantly. Here’s my favourite.) The pacing is spot on, there are no boring bits, and no scene is wasted or ‘filler.’ It’s a very easy read. This would make it a perfect book for younger readers or less confident readers, before diving into the more complex mysteries and plotting of the Roman Mysteries stories. It’s also a great companion book for readers who are already fans of the Roman Mystery world.

2 Weeks of Movies - Tintin

Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn - 6/10

(some small spoilers)

I loved Tintin when I was younger, so I was quite excited about this one. Great characters, so many fantastic stories to choose from, and Spielberg directing. The chances of it being something great were pretty high. Unfortunately, while there were parts of it that I thought were done very well, overall this was slightly disappointing.

I found some of the characters spot on. Haddock was brilliant, and Thompson and Thomson were perfect. Villains and side characters had just the right mix of personality and slightly Victorian melodrama. Snowy was snowy. Tintin, however, just... lacked something. And I can’t quite put my finger on what. His animation was good, his look was just right, he had the right sort of ageless feeling about him, Jamie Bell did a truly excellent job with the voice acting... so, what was wrong? There was just something missing, something of the Tintin charm, something that made this Tintin slightly irritate me whereas the real Tintin never would. Something almost sarcastic in his expressions that was perhaps the result of the 3D style animation. Did I simply have impossible expectations? Maybe. But it was slightly off-putting, nevertheless.

The humour in the film was generally good, particularly when Haddock was involved (though burping into the plane’s engine was a little much), and at first the atmosphere managed to find the right mix of exciting and intriguing. Escaping from Haddock’s ship was probably the best part of the film. After this, the film perhaps suffered from one chase scene too many. Yes, Tintin is pretty much adventure personified, but that doesn’t mean the film needs to resemble a Prince of Persia video game. After all, he is a reporter, and this is a Tintin movie. Audiences do expect investigation. In the face of what felt like a slightly desperate attempt to keep action up at all costs, I began to lose a sense of where the plot was going, and I lost interest in the mystery. It even became a bit boring at points. It’s not a good sign that the Thompson and Thomson wallet-stealing sub-plot was probably more compelling than the actual movie’s storyline. The film really began to get tedious with the introduction of the giant crane fight – unnecessary, over-the-top, and eye-rollingly stupid. Thankfully, it wasn’t far from here to the end.

What started as a clever, intriguing and enjoyable film worthy of the great Tintin name quickly lost its umph. The film wasn’t bad, but a film about Tintin should have been so much better. It should have been magical, it should have been charming, it should have winked at and grinned at and amazed the audience the entire way through. I would have liked it to have that same certain something that Indian Jones films possess. I should have emerged in a little bubble of nostalgic joy. I didn’t. I wouldn’t say the film was bad, or that it wasn’t worth seeing. But it was disappointing.