Early Review: Black Feathers

Black Feathers

Jospeh D’Lancey

Publisher: Angry Robot – Released 4^th April

Black Feathers is a modern fantasy set in two epochs: the Black Dawn, a time of environmental apocalypse, and generations into the future in its aftermath, the Bright Day.
In each era, a child undertakes a perilous journey to find a dark messiah known as The Crowman. In their hands lies the fate of the planet as they attempt to discover whether The Crowman is our saviour… or the final incarnation of evil.

This is a story of two parts woven together like a piece of rope, strengthening and complementing each other. One element focused on a young boy, Gordon Black set in the recognisable future where everything is breaking down as the world seems to be coming to an end. Certainly the world as we know it! The other thread is on a young girl, Megan in the distant future, where humanity lives much simpler lives, close to the land. They are both on a journey to find the Crowman, but whether he is real or not, good or evil no-one is quite sure...

Gordon’s story is the more disturbing and compelling one for me. The breakdown of society, the Ward’s rise to power and one small boy’s attempt to come to terms with the world has a wonderful mix of secrets, revelations, action and thought provoking conundrums. Not to mention destiny and magic! It was tense, intriguing and involving – I really wanted to give Gordon a hand at times! Megan’s story is also interesting, but much more sedate following a traditional apprentice learning about her powers story. She is a gentle character at heart, if a little impatient and I did like her. However, the story in the future didn’t have the same intensity or urgency that the current day scenes had.

While both stories focus on young people coming into their powers, this is definitely NOT a YA book. There is a lot of extreme violence and the end of the known world does not occur without a fight. The writing was involving and descriptive painting two very different worlds without overloading the background. This was very much a case of the author showing us the world rather than telling us – and that slower exploration of the world builds into a wonderful panorama of humanity. This worked as an apocalyptic novel, a fantasy novel and one that I want to read the sequel too as soon as possible!

Recommended for fans of Peter V Brett and Jennifer Fallon. 8.5 out of 10

The Hallowed Ones Review

The Hallowed Ones

- Laura Bickle

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community?

Wow. My heart was beating so hard while reading parts of The Hallowed Ones that I think my neighbours thoughts I had taken up bongo drums! Katie has been brought up as one of the Plain people, the Amish who live off the land and keep technology to a minimum. She is weeks away from her Rumspringa, a chance to explore the outside world and decide whether she wants to choose the Amish lifestyle for herself. However, before Katie and her best friend Elijah can leave something starts to happen to the outside world...at first news is patchy, but soon it becomes clear there is something wrong, some evil outside their community...

Katie is curious about the outside world and is looking forward to seeing what else is out there in the world even though she assumes she will be returning to the Amish lifestyle eventually. Her main fault is that she thinks before she obeys the orders from her parents, the Bishop or other adults – an admirable trait to me! She follows her heart even if it’s not always the safest route and while not street-smart, she is intelligent and curious. I don’t know much about the Amish lifestyle (there aren't any in England as far as I know!), but her world feels real and natural. I assume there has been a lot research to make this world come to life so easily! I don’t to spoil anything but the events outside the Amish community, which start to encroach on them, are creepy and disturbing. The discovery of the empty town or the horse with one show still in the stirrups, are images that will stay with me for a long time.

As with her adult novels, Laura Bickle has a fantastic command over the atmosphere in her novels managing to build tension and keep you on edge. I was so tense at some points that when someone sat beside me on the train I jumped a mile! There is also tension created as Katie’s relationships with those around her changes – there are some twist and turns which just makes the world feel so realistic. I also enjoyed the spiritual element and how that impacts the characters interpretations of the situation. It’s rare that the apocalypse happens in YA literature with some philosophical musings.

Overall, this is an atmospheric and tense story which explores coming of age during the end of the known world in a completely different way to any story I’ve read before. Heartily recommended.

Recommended for fans of Veronica Roth and Jennifer Barnes. 9 out of 10

Audiobook Review: Good Omens

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Written by Neil Gaimen and Terry Prachett

Read by Stephen Briggs

According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter--the world's only totally reliable guide to the future--the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea...

Neil Gaimen and Terry Prachett and two of the most popular and inventive British writers and this come through in spades. Good Omens is essentially the story of the Apocalypse and the end of the world. But somehow it’s so much more fun, thrilling and imaginative than that suggests. Set in Britain we follow a demon and an angel, a witchfinder and a descendant of a witch as well as the son of the devil himself as they all orbit the end of days. With everything from Atlantis rising to aliens landing thrown in as well there is no end of unusual and unexpected elements which will have either laughing over the sheer absurd or wondering how you missed something so obvious!

Having read the book in the past, I was aware of what to expect, but one of the joys of this audio is the life given to the characters and events by Stephen Briggs. He seems to throw himself fully into the story telling, and your ears become glued to the ups and downs of the anti-christ. I loved how some of the elements felt so British and yet universal – from cold calling salesman (and women) making the world a worse place to every tape in car turning into a Best of Queen album after 2 weeks. (Although these days it could equally be a best of Michael Jackson album!)

Little side stories build up to one big finale where everyone gets a chance to shine. In fact having been rewatching Supernatural season 4 & 5 recently, I have to say it reminds me a bit of these book – but with much less deliberate humour! This is a fun audio book that will distract and entertain and leave you wishing these authors would collaborate more often.

Recommended for fans of Tom Holt and Jasper Fforde. 9 out of 10.

On My Wishlist #79

This is a meme from Book Chick City. There are so many books out there that I want to read that this is the only way I can keep track! I have a bad feeling this week that the end may be nigh...

Monument 14 - Emmy Laybourne

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (June 2012)

Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong. A huge store isn’t the worst place to be stranded. There’s food and water, bedding and books. But what if it’s not safe to leave? 
Six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids are trapped together in a chain superstore. Together they build a refuge for themselves inside, while outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapon spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

I think we all wonder occasionally where the best place to hole up during a disaster is - and a superstore can't be too bad! I like the sound of this - how will teenager survive the apocalypse, if in fact they do...?

Unravelling - Elizabeth Norris

Publisher: HarperCollins (June 2012)

Leaving the beach, seventeen-year-old Janelle Tenner is hit head on by a pickup truck.
And killed.
Then Ben Michaels, resident stoner, is leaning over her. And even though it isn't possible, she knows Ben somehow brought her back to life…
Meanwhile, Janelle's father, a special agent for the FBI, starts working on a case that seems strangely connected to Ben. Digging in his files, Janelle finds a mysterious device – one that seems to be counting down to something that will happen in 23 days and 10 hours time.
That something? It might just be the end of the world. And if Janelle wants to stop it, she's going to need to uncover Ben's secrets – and keep from falling in love with him in the process...

Ever since I saw the first season of 24, I can't resist a ticking clock. I don't think I've seen it done this quite openly before, but I still want to know what will happen at the end of the countdown!

White Horse - Alex Adams

Publisher: UK - Simon & Schuster (April 2012)

Thirty-year-old Zoe wants to go back to college. That's why she cleans cages and floors at GeneTech. If she can keep her head down, do her job and avoid naming the mice, she'll be fine. Her life is calm, dull even. Until the end of the world is nigh. She's listening when a preacher with a big mouth and a cable TV show declares the deadly virus White Horse will mark the end of life as we know it. She's watching the day the President announces that humans are no longer a viable species. She starts running the moment she realizes everyone who matters to her is gone. When her lover Nick, fearing he's contracted the virus, leaves to find his family in Greece, Zoe discovers shortly thereafter that she's pregnant. And so begins her trek across the desolate world to ensure a possibility of life for her baby and to unite her nascent family. In her post-apocalyptic quest to guard and protect her unborn child she encounters characters who epitomise not only the extremes of good and evil, but also an inner strength and discovery of what it means to be human in a world where all that is left is a fight for survival.

I love the sound of a pregnant woman want to find her husband - emotional overload!

So if the world is coming to an end, what book will you want to read? :)

Audiobook: World War Z Review

World War Z

Written by Max Brooks

Performed by a full cast
The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years. Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?”

Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.

This audiobook wasn’t read by one person but actually performed by a full cast who acted out the interviews within. As the book was originally an oral history of the first zombie war, it lent itself perfectly to this format and while it is described as an abridgment there were no obvious places where you could tell parts had been left out. The performers were uniformly excellent investing emotion into their tales of survival against the walking dead. The interview format ensures that you hear stories from all over the world, not just America which really gives the story a global scope. Especially frightening are the different methods used by various governments for dealing with the threat.

Listening to this book gave me shivers up my spine at times and did truly make zombies frightening. If the numbers of zombie books, films and TV shows have left you rather blasé about the living dead, this is one book that could get you to keep biting distance away from strangers and stockpiling water and gas. The only element that stopped this from being perfect was due to the retrospective story element. As each person was telling their story of how they survived the uprising, you knew that they would survive so the jeopardy for that person was lessened. Even though, the picture built by these tales is chilling and excellent. Definitely one of the best audio books I’ve ever listened too.

Recommended for fans of The Walking Dead and Sophie Littlefield. 9 out of 10.

On My Wishlist #43

This is a meme from Book Chick City. There are so many books out there that I want to read that this is the only way I can keep track! This week I feel the end is coming...apocalypse time!

Nightfall - Ellen Connor

Publisher: Berkley

Growing up with an unstable, often absent father who preached about the end of the world, Jenna never thought in her wildest nightmares that his predictions would come true. Or that he would have a plan in place to save her-one that includes the strong, stoic man who kidnaps and takes her to a remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest.
The mysterious ex-Marine named Mason owes a life-debt to Jenna’s father. Skilled and steadfast, he’s ready for the prophesied Change, but Jenna proves tough to convince. Until the power grid collapses and mutant dogs attack-vicious things that reek of nature gone wrong. When five strangers appear, desperate to escape the bloodthirsty packs, Jenna defies her protector and rescues them. As technology fails and the old world falls away, Jenna changes too, forever altered by supernatural forces. To fight for their future, she and Mason must learn to trust their instinctive passion-a flame that will see them through the bitter winter, the endless nights, and the violence of a new Dark Age.

Ellen Connor is actually two people - Ann Aguirre and Carrie Lofty and I have to confess I love Ann Aguirre's writing. That's enough to get me interested but add to that the story line and the fairly hunky man on the front and I'm there! :)

Robopocalypse - Daniel H. Wilson
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Roughly twenty years from now, our technological marvels unite and turn against us. A childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online...and kills the man who created it. This first act of betrayal leads Archos to gain control over the global network of machines and technology that regulates everything from transportation to utilities, defense, and communications. In the early months, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans - from a senator and single mother disconcerted by her daughter's "smart" toys, to a lonely Japanese bachelor, to an isolated U.S. soldier - but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is far too late. Then, in the span of minutes, at a moment known later in history as Zero Hour, every mechanical device in our world rebels, setting off the Robot War that both decimates and - for the first time in history - unites humankind.

This is another cool looking book which has been gaining positive reviews. If like me, you've always been slightly wary of the Terminator vision of the future, this may the book for you!

The First Days - Rhiannon Frater
Publisher: Tor Books

The morning that the world ends, Katie is getting ready for court and housewife Jenni is taking care of her family. Less than two hours later, they are fleeing for their lives from a zombie horde.  Thrown together by circumstance, Jenni and Katie become a powerful zombie-killing partnership, mowing down zombies as they rescue Jenni’s stepson, Jason, from an infected campground. They find sanctuary in a tiny, roughly fortified Texas town.  There Jenni and Katie find they are both attracted to Travis, leader of the survivors; and the refugees must slaughter people they know, who have returned in zombie form. 
 
You can't have a list of apocalypse books without there being at least one zombie book! I like the idea of having two women as the main characters in a zombie plague as well.
 
So what are you wishing for this week?

Feed Review

Feed (Newsflesh 1)

- Mira Grant

Publisher: UK – Orbit

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED. Now, twenty years after the Rising, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives - the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will get out, even if it kills them.

I am now a zombie convert! No, I’m not going to try and eat your brains or shamble around moaning softly (actually I do the shambling already, but the brains thing is definitely out!). I’ve read books about vampires, werewolves, witches, psychics, telepaths and other miscellaneous supernatural creatures for years but I’ve avoided zombies up until now. Partly because they weren’t that many on the shelves I liked the look off and partly because they didn’t interest me. The other creatures explore humanity and what it means to be human but zombies tend not to have much to say about the human condition. I will hold my hand up and say I was wrong. And if you’re not convinced than I recommend Feed by Mira Grant.

Feed isn’t really about zombies but it is set 26 years after the zombie rising became a reality and George Ramano’s horror films became survival guides. The world didn’t end. We learned to adapt. The zombies and the way world is portrayed after this disaster is superbly done. A lot of thought has gone into the world and you can see the basis for it all is based in our world today – everything from the rise of blogging (something I can now relate to!), the fear of terrorism and the giving up of freedom for safety.

It’s not just the world building that is great but also the characters - Shaun, George and Buffy are relatable and I could emphasise with them easily. Add in a political race and conspiracy and I was hooked. I didn’t want to get of the train on my way home so I could read what happened next. There are some great action scenes involving zombies as well as some thought provoking musings on the truth and family. The ending is very moving and I had gulp back tears. This is one of the best books I've read this year and I highly recommend that you give it- and zombies - a try!

Thanks to Graeme at Graeme Fantasy Book Review for pulling my name out of a hat and Orbit for sending me a copy. I can’t wait for the next in the series!

Recommended for everyone! 10 out of 10.