Space Blasters

You have to love Philip Caveney’s cinema books! Here we are again, all ready to pop into the latest ‘Star Wars’ film. Or not.

Kip, whose Dad runs this Stockport cinema with a difference, has decided once and for all that he will not go into any more films, however much Mr Lazarus tries to tempt him. And Mr Lazarus, the 120-year-old projectionist, respects his wishes. Things went wrong last time. And the time before that.

Dad is happy, because his cinema is finally doing well. He has no idea why, though, which could be the reason he is stupid enough to talk to the press. So, Stephanie from the Evening Post works out all is not as it seems. Kip has to try and deflect her interest in Mr Lazarus and his putting-people-into-films machine.

Unfortunately that doesn’t go well. Unfortunately, Mr Lazarus has a younger brother, who at a mere 117 is a little boisterous. Unfortunately, Kip ends up having to sort out what goes wrong between these two old men, leaving his girlfriend Beth holding the fort.

Meanwhile Stephanie’s curiosity leads to an unexpected meeting with Zeke Stardancer, while Emperor Zarkan also has various unexpected things happen to him.

Thank goodness for bratty little sisters! Kip’s, not Zarkan’s. And Dad can work out how his projectionist managed to grow a beard in a few hours. Or maybe not.

It’s a slice of fish, really.

(I believe this is the last cinema book by Philip. That’s good, insofar that it’s often best to leave a party when you’re having the most fun.)

Walker Books and a witch with wet hands

As usual it was a case of waving your hands (or in this case, my hands) under the drier for absolutely forever, wipe them on your clothes, or go wet, hoping there’d be no hands to shake. You can guess which I chose, and what happened next, can’t you?

I was at the presentation of Walker Books’ and Constable & Robinson’s Autumn Highlights in Manchester on Wednesday evening, when I came face to face with Jo for the first time, and had to quickly get out of the handshaking she had in mind. This flustered me so much I forgot to mention my name. (But everyone knows me, right?) Besides, I’d already got the decrepit old woman treatment. Staff at the venue saw me negotiating the steps outside (which had NO handrail) and quickly bundled me into the lift before I caused more trouble.

Super-Jake was there, but I forgot to check his footwear. Representatives of our local LitFest and bookshops and that most Wondrous of blogs could also be seen. I was quite restrained prior to the talk, as I noticed there were partybags in one corner, which meant I did no stealing or anything beforehand.

Constable & Robinson went first, and I’d not realised that books on prescription, which I have heard of, is for non-fiction self-help type books, rather than patients being made to feel better after a dose of Pride and Prejudice…

They are big on halogen oven books. (Don’t ask.) They are the leaders in cosy crime. You can have books on WWII pets for Christmas. Obviously. C & R have begun offering children’s books, and they had an instructive video on how to fight zombies. (Head removal is recommended.) Gross. Shaun Ryder on UFOs. (It would have helped if I knew who Shaun Ryder is.) Joan Collins is nearly 80, in case you wanted to know. They have a book titled Going on a Bar Hunt. Droll.

This being very much a presentation for booksellers, I now know a lot more about which books are commercial, something I rarely consider in my narrow little world. There will be joke books for Christmas. And they have just begun a relationship with Brian McGilloway, who I am very interested in.

On to Walker Books, who are planning a picture book party. I think that means they have lots of picture books to offer. Vivian French has something new going; Stargirl Academy. Looks good. Pink. Anthony Browne is a Marmite author, which I can understand. That gorilla still scares me.

Cassandra Clare was there last year, before she grew so big that she doesn’t do this kind of talk. She has a film on the way. Nice for her.

Walker have travel guides, and there is new stuff for fans of GHMILY (Guess How Much I Love You books). Mumsnet have done a story collection. In fact, I reckon there is one thing parents want more than anything else. They want their children to fall asleep. Lots of books for that purpose.

Manatees and bears. A book about someone pecking (I’m thinking – hoping – woodpecker) all the way through.  Going on a Bear Hunt is out again. Michael Morpurgo will be 70, and four of his books are being re-issued, including one about funny old men who are famous artists.

Speaking of funny, Tommy Donbavand has a new series called Fangs. Walker are really really really really thrilled to be working with Anthony McGowan and his new book Hello Darkness. Patrick Ness wasn’t there except on video, where he did his best to sound interesting while not giving too much away about his new novel More Than This. His Chaos trilogy, meanwhile, is being revamped for old people.

My notes say ‘spider skeleton.’ I think there’s a book about things like spider skeletons. Kate DiCamillo and her dog spoke to us all the way from their Minneapolis dining room. While the dog made dog noises, Kate told us about her mother’s obsession with her 1952 vacuum cleaner and what would happen to it after she died. Kate’s new book Flora and Ulysses also features squirrels.

Anthony Horowitz has finally come to the end of his Power of Five books, so has had time to write Russian Roulette, the Alex Rider prequel he has had in mind for absolutely ages. He is quite satisfied with it.

Lizzy Bennet (I apologise for sounding so informal) wrote a diary in her pre-Darcy days, which will give us an opportunity to find out all kinds of stuff.

Finally, Walker are publishing the Little Island imprint, which is foreign fiction. I spied a Swedish title in among the covers they showed us, and think it’s high time there are more books from other countries.

As you can see, they had a lot to tell us. They hadn’t rehearsed, so were surprised to find it took them so long. But at the end there were canapés and more drinks and even a few authors; Steve Tasane, Sarah Webb and Katy Moran. Someone else, too. At least I think there was.

I grabbed my partybag and hobbled away home. There was NO handrail on the way out either…

Like Clockwork – the bitter end

Nah, only joking. It’s sweet and sunny all the way through. No, it’s not. (Damien M Love knows how to keep his fans on their toes.)

Alex and the adventure his grandfather set in motion by running off to Paris, continues in the cold and the snow, and mostly in the dark. I lost touch with how many days and nights they had to fight robots and other machinery, but I believe it was only something like three days. It just felt like more, as the reader shivers along with Alex in the Continental pre-Christmas weather. And then you shiver a little more when those creatures are after you. I mean, after Alex.

The grandfather is charming, but quite a slippery sort of customer, when you stop and think about it. You don’t always think when sliding off some roof or other, or those little robot things have a go at you, but the man always changes the subject!

You – and Alex – want to know who The Tall Man is. Why does Alex feel as though he knows more than he can remember? And those funny ‘feelings’ he gets. What exactly are they?

This is an exciting dash through several countries, in classic thriller chase mode with plenty of fight scenes. Nothing terribly deep anywhere, and until they also become too clichéd, I’ll take robots over vampires/zombies/etc any day. Good old-fashioned entertainment. (Although at some point I did wonder if Damien’s rather rubbish at maths, but I realised there was method in the confusion.)

——-

You can buy it here. Parts one to six. Great stuff. Although it is cheating if you buy them all at once, with no waiting and no suffering for a week as Alex hangs on yet another cliff. But go on. You may, just this once.

Light

Bloody hell! If you’ll pardon my French.

When Michael Grant called his last book in the Gone series Light, this is not exactly what came to mind. I imagined it would be a slightly more hopeful ending to the ‘adventure.’ We would see the light and understand why and how it all happened. There would be a slow but secure path to the outside and we would cry a little over previous deaths, and all would be well. Essentially.

Hah! Not light, and certainly not lite. SPOILER,

but Michael has gone on a killing spree to make books one to five look like a picnic. One were the characters weren’t always the food.

Gross and revolting (but then I am an adult) and so very, very exciting and so well written that even though we wanted to get to the end, we didn’t really, and why did it have to end? After a while I wondered if Michael had a new kind of book series ending in mind. The sort were there isn’t a single character left.

But, some people did make it. And I won’t name names, but one survivor I was almost never in any doubt about. I felt Michael wouldn’t do that. I kept wondering if he’d take the advice of some fans and get rid of Astrid, who’s been surprisingly unpopular. And Sam, and Caine; why should we expect the main characters to pull through?

Because it’s customary? Michael doesn’t do ‘the done thing.’

And I can only say that adults and authorities are idiots. There were few surprises there. (I happened to read a piece by Desmond Tutu, describing what people no longer seem capable of doing, and how that’s why we have no future. My thoughts immediately went to Quinn, for some reason.)

After all the non-picnic stuff in Light (not to mention some awful actual picnicking) the book ends with the best epilogues I have ever come across in a novel. They are so often nothing but disappointments, but this was perfection.

I am so glad I didn’t stop after Gone. (But certain images are ones I will attempt to erase from my mind.)

All you need is love.

—

For anyone who wants to read some of the best pre-Light musings, along with a fantastic review, go visit Cynical. She beat me to it, and she did it so much better. My only contribution was – I think – to introduce her to the books. The she did the rest.

Rat Runners

What a marvellous film Rat Runners would make! It’s a great book, but I spent my time reading it seeing the film it could be turned into. Daughter won’t like me saying this, but it’s precisely the kind of thing she likes watching on television. (So read the book!)

This must be Oisín McGann’s best book to date. I have enjoyed all the ones I’ve read, but do feel Rat Runners has that little bit extra. Set in a slightly futuristic London, it’s much as we know the place, except for the way everything is policed and what people can do. They have a kind of robotic – but live – watcher who can see everything, bar your thoughts. Possibly.

Nimmo is under age and isn’t allowed to live on his own, but he does anyway, having made a deal with the scientist Brundle who owns the building. When Brundle is murdered Nimmo wants to find out who did it and why. He also ends up having to search for something that Brundle had, which it turns out all the crooks in London want.

He is made leader of a group of three other adolescents – Scope, Mannikin and FX – and their job is to find this item. The four each have special skills, taken straight from your favourite thrillers. The youngest is twelve, and they all have something that their ‘boss’ can use as leverage to force them work for him.

Very exciting, and I am more than ready for the next one. I can’t see that we are done yet.

Silent Saturday

I loved Silent Saturday. I also loved Helen Grant’s earlier German novels, but something tells me I love this one even more. Silent Saturday is the first of Helen’s new Belgian trilogy, and if a horror thriller can be described as comfortable, then this is it.

Set in and around Tervuren on the outskirts of Brussels, it begins with seven-year-old Veerle seeing something which scares her very very badly. It was so bad that ten years later she has forgotten all about it. But then her past seemingly comes back to haunt her, and her childhood friend Kris, who was with her when whatever it was happened.

Now she is in love with Kris, and she happily joins him and his group of associates in breaking into people’s houses when they are away. They only do this for the thrill, to see something new and, supposedly, to ‘put something back’ by doing simple repairs.

Before long, things start to go wrong. Members of the group disappear. Dead bodies are found in various places. And they only have one thing in common. The housebreakers.

What to do? If you are breaking the law, you won’t be so keen on talking to the police.

Veerle has problems at home, too. Her mother is extremely clingy, and sees monsters everywhere. The thing is, there could well be monsters, and close by…

Great – and different – setting in what feels like ‘the real Belgium,’ featuring the language gap between the two official languages. Good use of Flemish swearing, or at least I believe it is.

Go find a sofa to hide behind. Not that it will help, but you’ll be under the impression that you’re in control.

Helen Grant, the interview

We ended up talking about languages a lot. And what it’s like living in somebody else’s country. To join in, or not?

But that’s not surprising when you meet Helen Grant. She’s lived in more countries than your average person, and insists on speaking to the locals in their own language. (Some locals, in certain countries, would insist on that as well…)

While you are waiting with baited breath for Helen’s marvellous fourth novel, read my interview with her to find out how she became such a scary lady.

For some reason Silent Saturday took me right back to my childhood, and I think that’s why the sepia photos of Helen work. (Actually, the lighting at our ‘venue’ made Helen a lot more yellow than would be considered normal. So I have resorted to borrowing some of Helen’s own, which means we get to see Flanders and everything.)

Introducing Raining Fire

Whether it’s lack of time, or just that I’m a wimp, remains to be seen. But while my nerves are debating Alan Gibbons’ new novel, Raining Fire, I’d like to introduce you to Alan introducing his book. There are four equally watchable YouTube clips for anyone wanting to know what the book is about.

I have to admit that my pulse went up while watching, and I feel wimpier than ever.

Here is the blurby bit: ‘Ethan is a promising footballer, and when he is selected to go on a training programme in the US, he feels sure that he has found his chance to escape the gangs that dominate his streets. But as life spirals out of control for his brother, Alex, and things unexpectedly take a turn for the worse for Ethan, he finds himself drawn into the midst of an explosive feud with the gun at its heart.’

And here is Alan reading from his book:

What surprises me the most, is that Alan writes books at all. I don’t think I know any author who travels so much or who puts quite such a lot of his time into things for ‘the greater good,’ like the Campaign for the Book to save our libraries, or just plain book event travelling. Hull, or Hong Kong (I’m partly making this up), it’s all the same.

It’s marvellous that he does, though, and I believe Alan’s books fulfill an important role for boy readers. Crammed with boy stuff, and written by someone with the right ideas about things.

(And the piratical ‘eye patch’ makes a bit of a statement too, doesn’t it?)

With ♥♡♥ to you

from Nick Green. (Yes, you might have come across his name here a few times in the past.) He has decided to do a Valentine’s thing, and offer The Storm Bottle on Kindle for free today. And tomorrow. So maybe it’s just me making it into some Valentinian happening…

But anyway, here is your opportunity to get a good read for free, while helping Nick hoist his great book a little higher on Amazon. I understand it’s the kind of thing that really helps. A sudden surge. A bit like what happens in the Bermuda triangle, but in reverse.

The Resident IT Consultant assures me you don’t need a Kindle for this (which would have made the free offer a little less good value). You just go here, and you click in a ‘buy this’ kind of way, and you can then choose how you would like your new free ebook.

You could obviously get copies for friends and family, too, or tell them to shop while it’s free. The book is suitable from around age ten, and there is absolutely no upper age limit!

Go click!

Deviant

Phew! Adrian McKinty’s usual adult crime novels with the swearing and the sex and the violence are nothing compared to this YA novel of his. It proves what I always say; take away the adult aspects and you have to work so much harder to make a book really good.

There is little quite as frightening as the religious and rightful people of Colorado and the weird goings-on in a closed community. The Colorado set-up in Adrian’s adult Fifty Grand was nowhere as scary as Cobalt in Deviant.

14-year-old Danny moves to Cobalt with his mother and his stepfather. He is given permission to join the downright strange school in Cobalt. Students are not allowed to talk. They have to wear gloves. And among the one hundred students there are several groups that meet outside school, and they are anything but normal.

Someone is killing the cats of Cobalt, in an unpleasant, ritualistic way. The various groups compete to solve the mystery, while Danny’s stepfather works with the local convicts in a chain-gang. Old scientist Nikola Tesla plays a small part in what goes on, having left something to the school.

It was surprisingly easy for me to work out who was behind the killings, but I hadn’t bargained for a couple of little extras. Remember what people say about ‘the quietest waters’ and add to that a community where half the population seems insane, and where they don’t lock their doors.

I’d seen some bad (reader) reviews of this book, and Adrian has been resigned over the lack of worthwhile and positive interest in Deviant. I suspect early copies went to the wrong readers. This is a great book. Chilling (and I don’t mean the snow) and scary in a way you don’t see often enough. It doesn’t fit a pattern. Maybe that’s what those readers had a problem with? The writing is definitely up to Adrian’s usual high standards.

This is a quiet thriller, made all the more frightening because of it. The interesting twist near the end means I can’t stop thinking about it.

It’s dark, but this is no YA noir, as it has been labelled. It’s much darker than noir.