Review: 'Spark and Carousel' by Joanne Hall

I like writers who stage several stories in the same universe. Raymond E Feist, Joe Abercrombie, and Iain M Banks come instantly to mind, and now I add Joanne Hall to that list.

Some people say it is lazy, but I disagree. It takes a lot of effort to create a universe, and I think using it more than once gives the whole world-concept, and the stories from it, more depth. 

If it is done properly.

Like those mentioned in the first paragraph, Joanne Hall can now firmly lay claim to ‘doing it right’. Her stories are separate enough that they don’t crowd each other, or feel too familiar, but still have a sense of belonging to them. A glimmer of ‘I remember that place’, or name, or pseudo-legal recreational narcotic. It’s a neat trick.

Another strength I see in all Joanne Hall’s books is that she has a knack for making her readers think; not in any way that disrupts the flow of the story, but with stuff that comes back to nudge you after you put the book down. Joanne has managed this in all her books, and ‘Spark & Carousel’ is no exception.

‘Spark’ is a young apprentice who is forced to kill his master, and has to come to terms with this, the misunderstanding of his master’s peers, and his inability to control his power. Carousel is a young woman, a circus performer, living and working in the criminal underground, looking forward to a new life and a new job, only to find being a whore wasn’t as glamorous as she expected.

The stories builds deliberately, weaving threads together until all Hell breaks loose and the reader is thrown into a maelstrom of action and revelation.

I very much devoured this, rather than just read it, and highly recommend it to lovers of fantasy fiction. Available from all the usual outlets.

Review: Red Knight by K T Davies

I almost put this book straight on the charity shop pile when I opened it and a slip of paper fell out exhorting me to post reviews if I liked it, or to keep my mouth shut if I didn't. After a moment's reflection I decided to believe the latter comment was meant humorously and ploughed on, but it was a risky gambit, in my opinion.

I am, generally, put off by meaty tomes, and this one clocks in at about 500 pages. They tend to be hidden or badly disguised trilogies. I dont like long epic fantasy series. Had my fingers burnt by Robert Jordan and they are still tender.

But, Davies pulled off a neat trick in that she not only got me to read it, but finish it. A rarity. These days I have so much lined up to read that i am unforgiving of books that don't keep hold of me. There were a couple of wobbles along the way, but we got there.

The Red Knight didn't turn over any new ground for me. It was well written, well paced, but a fairly standard fantasy novel; Brave Soldiers and Honourable And Attractive Princes, Troubled Realms, Uncouth Savages, Dark Magic, and Fey Of Dubious Intent. I do not mock. On the rare occasion I write fantasy, I use the same stereotypes, and most fantasy I read these days falls into the same trap. It's the jam in the porridge that makes a fantasy book stand out (see Art of Forgetting by Joanne Hall)

Whilst I applaud sexual equality in general, I found myself not quite able to believe in the universal equal-opportuity policy in the military and the casual way it was passed off made the female soldiers seem male, or homogenised them all to asexuality. Again, I recommend Art of Forgetting.

In fact, the whole military thing was what nearly made me put the book down a couple of times. I have a feeling that Ms Davies may be a practitioner of EMA (European Martial Arts), or someone in her creativity vortex is. I found the military passages over detailed, using many specialist words I wasn't familiar with (and couldn't be bothered to look up). Combat sequences tended to be over-long, and made me think of Military SF or Warhammer. For somebody who is interested in such things, though, a real treasure-trove.

What kept me going through the book, though, was the secondary characters, and the secondary interactions of the primary characters. The adventures of Garian Tain were compelling, and
I found hints of Hobbs assassins from the Farseer trilogy. I sensed a hint of Joe Abercrombie's 'Best Served Cold' in the conclusion to The Red Night, dark, sombre and unexpected. Not a bad end, but one you have to think about.

For all the points mentioned above, and enjoyable read, and I thank the author for making it self-contained (even though there are hints there may be more in the same universe).

An unexpected trip through time

At BristolCon this year, I harvested some very speculative books from the 'free' table, as well as a couple of gems. One of these was by Clifford D Simak, and was called 'Space Engineers'. What an eye opener.

Simak is one of the 'Golden Age' writers, although the definition of exactly when the golden age was is open to argument. The only thing I could remember reading of his was 'Shakespeare Planet' where a disparate group of travellers, mapping the apparently random star-tunnels, get trapped on a world were the tunnel has no controller. I figured I as in for a similar bet with Space Engineers. Did I ever get a surprise.

Now, I have to admit (slightly shamefacedly) that my first affair with SF involved a gent by the name of E E 'Doc' Smith. He's famous principally for the seven Lensman books, or perhaps the four books of the Skylark series. I lived it. I all but memorised it. Only when I was quite a bit older did I realise that it was the most hackneyed, corny space opera ever written across decades from the '30s to the '60s. Having said he was corny, in 1966 the Lensman series was only beaten out of the  World Science Fiction Conventions 'Best All Time Series' by ............ Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series.

So here was the shock. 'Space Engineers' was terrible! Honestly. It was the worst of jingoistic American space opera, mixed with insubstantial science and huge doses of Deus ex machina. It was barely a novella in length, and had cardboard cut-out characters with square jaws and the right stuff, or coming over like a cross Barbara Bain in Space:1999 and Jessica Rabbit.

And still I read it from end to end and enjoyed every moment, spun back through time to a freezing cold bedroom, the blankets propped over my head, reading by torch after lights out and poking my head out when I started to run out of oxygen. Nostalgia is a funny thing.

Cyber-fest

No, nothing to do with the stompy silver fellows. I'm talking CyberPUNK.

I don't normally read two book of the same theme close to each other. It can give rise to unfair comparisons. In fairness, I did separate these two with a blast of Clive Barker, so any comparisons I think are reasonably fair.

So, on the menu we have 'Synners', recently relaunched by Pat Cadigan, and 'Artificial Evil' by Colin F Barnes, first volume in the Techxorcist trilogy.

Superficially, there is much in common between these books; runaway evil virus, urban breakdown, individuals with unexpected abilities, and lots and lots of data processing. But that's about as far as any similarity goes.

'Synners' was like a cool shower on a baking hot August afternoon. OK, not very helpful, but as soon as I started reading I sort of felt like I had come home in a literary sense. Synners was first published in 1991, and as a writer it burns deep inside me that this was only her second book. Also, it feels somehow older then 1991; more like ten years before. It took me back to the time when I was reading a book a day because there was so much to read and I just didn't have time to get to all of it.

The style is the most glorious fusion of William Gibson's 'Neuromancer', John Brunner's 'The Shockwave Rider' (both essential reads) and a just the zest from a 'Clockwork Orange'. Everything is edgy, counter-culture, with LA still hanging on the edge of meltdown and the big corporations sticking it to the public at every opportunity. It sparkles in your mind, with terms you've never heard that still make perfect sense, alien enough to be different and yet close enough to be uncomfortably feasible.

Cleverly, by design or accident, the technology Cadigan uses hasn't really aged, partly by not being too specific about what it is or its capabilities. Sort of hinting at what stuff can do without trying to tell you how. The result is that the story hasn't dated, even if the style is a perhaps a little retro. Having only recently discovered Cadigan through 'Tea from an Empty Cup', I am now a convert and consider Pat living contradiction of the current bull going around that women cant write good SF. I'll have satisfaction from anybody who says otherwise, rapier or pistol, lightsabre or blaster, at dawn.

Barnes offering is cheese to Cadigan's chalk, or perhaps Port to her Brie - nah, stretched that too far. Artificial Evil shares, as I said, some common threads, but the setting is much more Mad Max or Judge Dredd (Stallone version). The characters are very different, too, though no less engaging. Barnes is also a compulsive tale-spinner, and uses the confusion and disorientation of the lead character as he is thrown from a safe and comfortable existence into total confusion compulsively. The like all good writers, as soon as you think you know what's going on, he twists it again. I'm reliably informed all three books in the trilogy are complete and either they are all available or the third is due out momentarily.

Barnes style is much lighter than Cadigan's. Synners was a very dense read, without much space for humour longer than one-liners. Colin scatters little easter eggs through his books, even managing to slip in a 'once does not simply walk into...(Mordor)' line that made me chuckle so hard I woke the wife and got grumbled at.

The second and third Techxorcist novels are on my Christmas list [as are the 2nd thru 5th volumes of Abarat, and anything else by Pat Cadigan, if anybody was looking to buy me... no?... well, can fault me for trying :) ]

Review: Urban Occult(ed Colin F Barnes)

Horror is not my bag, yet. I’m still learning. I know enough to realise I don’t like spatter-gore, or horror that involves detailed explanation of the removal of body parts. Fortunately – for me -  Urban Occult, edited by Colin F Barnes and published by Anachron Press, has no truck with this type of horror.

Urban Occult is focused very much more on what I call (probably erroneously)  psychological horror, or Hitchcockian horror. It’s less blatant, less in your face, and more situational, suggestive.

I won’t pretend that I liked every story. I questioned the inclusion of a couple, and simply didn’t get a couple more, and some I thought were well written, but not particularly horrific. The majority, though, are snappy, compelling, and thought-provoking.

The anthology covers everything from creepy golem-children, through a people eating house, to moving tattoo jigsaw. In fact, Pieces by Julie Travis, for which the latter is the subject, is one of the outstanding stories of the collection. 

Other specific mentions are hereby awarded to James Brogden for The Remover of Obstacles  and The Strange Case of Mrs West and the Dead by Sarah Anne Langton

For me, though, Wonderland by K T Davies was the scream of the crop. Yes – I did mean to just that word. Wonderland skirts the edges of insanity and fantasy, both urban and classic, and kept me up far too late finishing it off.

Whilst I reviewed this anthology in return for an e-book copy provided by the editor, my comments are fair and impartial, Even so, I still recommend this book as a fine read.

Long time no post

Its been an interesting few weeks. Seems my partner's coping strategy for me no longer being in gainful employ is to find massive home improvement jobs for me to do on top of being a House Husband :) I'm not bitter. It all needs doing and I've probably been avoiding it.

Also, I've been working on a secret project, which has just come to a very successful and satisfactory conclusion - but I can't tell you anything about it. Well then it wouldn't be secret, would it :)

One thing I would like to tell you about is 'Human.4' by Mike A Lancaster, which I finished reading last night.

There seem to be fewer books that I feel stand out from the crowd, but there is something about 'Human.4'. It might be that its a really good 'boy book'. That's not to say that it wouldn't appeal to girl readers, but its unusually short, ultra-fast paced, and very well laid out. I had to fight not to read it in one sitting. Indeed, YALSA recommended it as a 'Quick Pick for Reulctant Young Adult Readers', and I wholeheartedly agree.

As usual, I'm not going to tell you anything about the book. Very difficult to do so without letting out a spoiler when a story is as compact as this.

I gave it five stars on Goodreads - which I haven't awarded for some time - and thoroughly recommend it, especially for boys 12 and up.

Kim Curran - Shift: Officially Awesome

This is rare: two books I've felt the urge to blog about in as many months.

Today I want to draw your attention to 'Shift' by Kim Curran (from Strange Chemistry books). Again, usual rules apply - I know both the author and the editor vaguely and I'm not trying to suck up to either of them. I'm also not doing to go into an in-depth on the story. If you want the outline, go look it up on Goodreads or Amazon.

So, I've had this book for several months now, sitting the the 'read next' slot on the shelf, and I kept skipping it. There is a good reason for that. I was writing and editing 'Amunet' at the time. Now, Amunet is a very different story, and before anybody points the finger no I wasn't worried I would be overly influenced by Shift.

See, what happened was I read the first three pages and realized it was a 'confidence killer'. By that I mean its one of those books I occasionally get that hit me in the 'how will I ever get that good' spot, and I think it was Kim's debut novel. I didn't need that while I was in the middle of my own work, and so I avoided it.

I'm glad I did, 'cos I was right. I devoured this book. This book cost me sleep. This book took me back to when I was young, free and single and spent more time each evening reading than doing anything else. The underlying concept of the novel, the ability to change things based on being able to go back to previous decisions and take the other path is very well thought out and feels original (although I'll bet someone else has used it somewhere if you dig hard enough). The setting was believable, and the characters wonderfully well constructed. OK, so there's the trope of the the slightly bewildered, gifted boy meets the more-than-slightly wild, gifted, spunky girl, but its handled in a fresh, bright way that sucks you in and makes you care about the characters (even some of the bit-parts)

The thing that got me most was the pace, which was pretty much flawless. No periods of angst-filled inward assessment, no 'issues' to be worked through, and no 'hand me the bucket' romantic melancholia: just a great adventure that really was difficult to put down each night.

Having read this outside of one of my own projects, its no longer a 'confidence killer', its an 'aspire to'. A full 5 stars, and a full recommendation to both the target YA audience and older readers

Review: Bryant & May and the Invisible Code

This book was really refreshing and original, especially as an audiobook (narrated by Tim Goodman). I know this is this latest in series (of seven or eight), but its the first one I have listened to, so new to me.

Messrs Bryant and May head up the Peculiar Crimes Unit, a shabby, ill-regarded unit of a half dozen or so officers and a gender-confused cat, reporting direct to the home office.

I dont do descriptions of the book itself: I hate when people accidentally print spoilers. Also, there are lots of places where you can see what the book is about.

What I loved about this book was the characters, particularly Bryant, and an undercurrent of humour. Imagine a pensioner with the curiosity and education of Holmes, with a tendency to drift towards the paranormal. Quite happy to play with Machiavellian skill on the supposed frailties of his post-retirement age, and as sharp as a bucket of best quality nails. Goodman gets the voice for Bryant perfect.

The other characters are as beautifully rendered. Even those with quite peripheral roles have great depth, and Fowler is wonderful at both avoiding stereotypes, and yet almost parodying them when he does use them.

This is a real 'appeals to all' type book, and I heartily recommend it.

Right, now- off to Audible to wishlist the rest if them

Help! Wanted: Review

I'm relatively new to horror, at least horror for its own sake. Its growing on me, though, and I'm even writing some myself - which is a surprise. Help! Wanted is right in the niche that I like. Not into slash/gore fests, and not really into Lovecraftian stuff. I guess I like my horror a little more psychological, thought provoking.


Help! Wanted pretty much delivers there. In any antho there are some stories you just skip across; its the nature of the beast. Having said that, there was more than enough variety to keep me reading through my lunchbreak as well as at home (thank you Kindle Reader for PC). However, anthos dont give you much scope for detailed review as its too easy to drift into spoilers.


Special mentions to Lisa Martin for 'Face out' and Gary Brandner for 'Words,words,words', to Gregory L Norris for 'Carpool', and Adrian Chamberlain for 'The Interview'

Want to be a reviewer?

I recently found out that Goodreads they have a program where members can get free copies of books just for doing a review on them. Seems a great idea to me. There's an index for different genres.

Of course, I signed up for this straight away, so if anybody is interested in reviewing my SF story 'Aphrodite's Dawn' click here. If you might be interested in a different story, or different genre, you can still use this link and work your way up the menus to something that tickles your fancy. Lots to chose from, nothing to lose but your inhibitions.

Go on, give it a try :)

Forbidden?

There is a movement, or at least I've heard it said, the YA has to be non-stop, pacey, because its for the teen market. There is some truth in this, and 'Variant' by Robison Wells is a good example of that. Apart from periods of slightly over-repeated internal angst by the main character, the pace is pretty relentless. The guy cant even pause for a snog without getting smashed by a pipe-wielding maniac.

But just what is 'pace'. Does pace equate to action? I don't believe it does. I just finished 'Forbidden', the second book in the Demon Trappers trilogy, by Jana Oliver. Now, this is the second book of the trilogy, so I was prepared to accept a little 'part 2 slump' ( and if you don't know what I mean, think about 'Empire Strikes Back' and 'Matrix: Reloaded') and it was not, frankly, as good as the first book.

But it was still a damned good read. The action was more spread out, and there was a lot of 'positioning' for the third book,  but it was still thoughtful and engaging, and to me that's what is important. So long as what is going on is relevant, and still moves the story forward, that's fine. There are no infodumps, no passages that are boring, so in my opinion Jana Oliver has done a dmaned good job again. The last half dozen chapters led up to an unexpected climax and a superb end-twist in the last few paragraphs.

Excellent job, and I'm really looking forward to the last book. 4 stars on Goodreads

Curse of the Trilogy

I just finished listening to 'Variant', by Robison Wells (narrated by Michael Goldstrom) As this book came to an end I was so furious I could have spit nails, and I actually swore at my phone. Seriously.

Why?

Another damned TRILOGY. Worse, there was nothing in the description on Amazon or Audible to suggest it was a damned trilogy. If there had been, I wouldn't have bought it. I am, at the moment, fed up with trilogies, and I am fed up with publishing houses making sure we all pay £25 for a story rather to £8 or £10.

The conclusion had been working up nicely, then there's an odd twist, and with a growing sense of horror I hear the cheesy hook-line: "tune in next week, folks". Worse, if thats possible, than a Dan Brown chapter-end cliff-hanger

But what makes it really, really, really annoying is that it was a damned good story. OK, the main character was a little monomaniacal, and now I understand why he kept repeating the same rant over and over in such depth (padding), but it was essentially excellent. The pace was good throughout, original storyline, very believable characters. If it hadn't been for the trilogy/cheesy hookline I really would have given this five stars

(Note: I fully expect this to come back and bite me on the butt when somebody finally bribes me into writing a trilogy :). I don't have an issue with trilogies per se, but I hate trilogies that are not self contained in their parts)

I'd still recommend it as a read, though

ARIA trailer

My good friend and mentor Geoff Nelder has a new book out. Take a look at the trailer here , then drop over to his blog 

Tea From An Empty Cup

This was my first Pat Cadigan book, and although I know its a teeneager now (first published 1998) I enjoyed it so much I felt I had to say something.

It felt 'old school', and in the best way possible. Even the physical book, which is quite slim, made me nostalgic for the days when books didn't all come in trilogies and you could hold them in one hand without flirting with tennis elbow.

Conceptually, the book was right up there with the best of Gibson's cyberpunk, but - perhaps in keeping with the Japanese theme - some of the more philosophical discussion in the book reminded me of Masamune Shirow's 'Ghost in the Shell'

With the basic outline of the story involving two individual but linked investigations inside a virtual environment, there was an option for the virtuality to be either ridigly policed or anarchic, and I'm glad to say Pat chose the anarchy, and the 'Alice Down the Rabbit Hole' mutable logic and reason of the place comes over really vividly.

Nice to see more of Pat's eariler works seem to be about to re-release, and I will be looking out for 'Synners' eagerly

Random act of kindness

I'd like to nominate S. Spencer Baker for a 'Random Act of Kindness' award.

Cant go into details about what, but he recently showed a generosity of spirit to a total stranger (me) that left me slightly at a loss for words, and wondering how I could repay his kindness.

Guess the best thing I can do it this. Go buy his books. I have read the first of the 'Slabscape' series already. It is good, and it made me chuckle at several inappropriate and inconvenient times. You can find his book on Facebook here

Don't ask if you don't want to know...

Most writers brave enough to give their work to somebody else and ask for comments have a vague idea of what's coming back. The depth of the comments and feedback will always depend on the experience of the person you asked to dissect your precious child and, intellectually at least, you are prepared to get back comments and suggestions that feel as though somebody has ripped out several of your internal organs.

Then you read them again the next day, and the pain is (usually) less, and you see which comments you agree with, which ones you don't, and you send back a nice note to the friend who ripped out you heart, thanking them for their help and maybe asking for a clarification or two. Sometimes they are painful, but they are necessary and we learn to take them in the spirit they are intended.

Then there are the writers who ask you for comments, but who are really looking for a mutual back-patting society, where everyody tells them how talented they are and that they are bound to sell this one because its so ground break/innovative/etc/etc. Its often branded as 'being supportive'. I guess it has its place. But then, people can be supportive and honest.

A quick aside, here, to establish my bona fides. I am an active member of the BSFA's 'Orbit' community of mutual critiquers, and I am the co-ordinator for Orbit-4. So I'm used to being on both ends of crits, on a regular basis.

I had a situation recently where somebody was asking for people to look at a published book and comment. I thought that was a bit odd. You normally ask that sort of question before publication. Now, to make this easier to write, I'm going to say this person was a lady, but she may not have been, in the sense of preserving anonymity.

So I read the free bit from the Amazon page, and while I was there had a look at the comments. The sample looked as though it had not had the benefit of a professional editor, the publisher was not one I had ever heard of, and the eleven 5* reviews all consisting of two words, like 'good read' and 'excellent book'. I pointed out how fake that looked (in the kindest way), asked about the editor, and made a few fairly gentle comments about things I saw as potential issues with the book.

Not a word back, not even a thank you. And I guess that's OK if you think what some authors have vented into the cybersphere when they've had negative comments made. Still, its made me think twice now about extending a 'helping hand' in the future. I guess the moral is be sure what you ask for is what you really want. And even if what you get back isn't what you expected, at least say thanks.

Review - "Demon Trappers: Forsaken" by Jana Oliver

Right, lets get this out of the way here and now. Up front. Before we get in to anything else. I refuse to let jealousy taint this review. Got that? Fine, then I'll continue.

I finished this, literally, thirty minutes ago. It impressed the hell out of me. It pushed every button, and I have just ordered the next volume and downloaded it to my Kindle. That I have to wait until March for the third volume is intolerable - but at least Jana seems to write quickly and Pan-Macmillan are churning them out with only a six month gap.

This story has everything a YA story needs (at least, in my opinion). Riley is a wonderfully strong female lead, instantly visualisable and you identify with her before the middle of page 2. The male supporting characters are all believable and extremely three dimensional and, despite being surrounded with eye-candy and potential relationships, Riley doesn't descend into gooey-heartthrob-land. Don;t get me wrong, the boys are most certainly not ignored - it just romance isn't the main focus. The threat's are all very real, and the tension high.

The story is tight, very well paced and expertly balanced between action and introspection. Riley is confronted with the boss from hell, a new school and a new bitch-squad, family problems, boy problems, and still wants to catch demons in between. Only, it seems the demons have something similar in mind for her, and that's not good.

Wouldn't say I couldn't put it down, but it was real easy to pick it up again and I read it in a week. Five stars, and more, please :)

Review: Hard Magic by Larry Correia

I don't often review stuff. If you aren't just a reviewer, its so easy to offend friends and colleagues by giving their books anything but glowing praise. I should know. Even through we all say 'tell me the truth', there is a part of us that still doesn't like to be told our latest baby isn't perfect.

This, though, is an exception. 'Hard Magic' blew me away almost as soon as I started listening to it (I consume a lot of audiobooks). With audiobooks, the narrator is hugely important. Who is reading it and how can make or break the best book in the world. All it needs is a screechy voice, or an irritating odd pronunciation of a word, and the book is lost. You could call it a limitation.

Bronson Pinchot narrates Hard Magic, and he is masterful. He easily passes between an eighty year old man dying of a wasting disease to a teenage Okie and all points in between, making you believe each voice, and is a one man theatrical experience.

Correia is a force to be reckoned with, and can I first point out how deeply annoyed I am at how many really good ideas he has consumed in this book - and I wish I had used them first. The story has 1930's Steampunk, Alternate reality, Urban Fantasy and even elements of science fiction bound together by one of the most original interpretations of magic I've seen for a while, with a kind of Micky Spillane tone over the top of everything.

All right, the overall shape of the story is a fairly well used 'team of slightly under-powered supers taking on the invincible bad guy', but Correia twists it just enough to make it feel almost fresh, and it actually gives the story a somehow comfortable frame to hang in while he does all the other clever bits.

One of two of the characters lack dimension, but they tend to be minor, and the depth of the half-dozen or so prime movers more than makes up for this slight. Shining above them all is Fay (or Faye) who is one of the most masterful pieces of characterisation I have seen in a long time; starting as an almost co-incidental nobody in the first chapter, and ending up as the one person you really care about by the end.

It's not for the younger reader, and there is bad language and violence. But it was simply too good not to say something.

"This is the quickest way down" by Charles Christian - Review

Christian has put together an intriguing collection of stories here. Its a short book, with eleven stories, but its a classic example of quality over quantity.

Particulary worth noting are "Waiting for my Mocha to Cool", "Already Gone" and "Empire State of Mind", but I'm not going to tell you anything about them. Its too easy to accidentally give out spoilers on short stories, but the book is a great collection of ghost stories, supernatural and sci-fi.

What I will say is I love the way Christian writes. Its smooth and elegant without being overly literary. Sometimes it feels as though literary authors can be shoving how clever they are down your throat, but Christian eases you along and makes it very difficult to put the book down.

If there is one slight smudge on the shine, its the last story. "By the Steps of Villefranche Station" is not a bad story, but it doesn't quite have the polish of the others. It feels as though it might have been written some time before the others. 


Not enough to stop me giving this a full five stars, though. Nice work, Mr Christian :)

Review: Mrs Darcy vs the Aliens

Mrs Darcy vs the Aliens, by Jonathan Pinnock (Proxima, 2011)

This book will make people look at you. It will make you make a fool of yourself in public places. Your life-partner will ban you from reading this book at bedtime. You will be glared at on public transport.

This is one of the funniest books I have ever read. It is a book that makes you laugh out loud, uncontrollably. Consistently.

Unusually for outright comedic novels, there is actually a storyline rather than just a skeleton on which to hang the jokes. There are aliens, they are trying to take over the world, and Mrs Elizabeth Darcy is at the middle the effort to prevent this happening. That the aliens are shape shifters serves to throw confusion into the bona fides of some of the rest of the cast, and to top it off there are strong hints of temporal anomalies.

The greatest appeal of the book, though, is undoubtedly the humour; at times delicate, at others brutish, Pinnock even makes use of the delayed punchline; dropping an amusing seed, then slapping you with a guffaw when you had almost forgotten it. To me, this was a blend of Douglas Adams and Jasper Fforde.

Thoroughly recommend it if you don't mind standing out in a crowd, or disturbing the bucolic paper rustlers on the 8.15 into work.