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cyphomandra Maddigan’s Fantasia.
I tend to like Mahy’s picture books and YA, and dislike her standard children’s books, but this is probably a classification largely in my head. I’m counting this one as YA, because I did like it, even if I didn’t love it the way I do the The Tricksters and The Changeover (both brilliant, in my unbiased opinion). Maddigan’s Fantasia is set in a distant future, following a travelling theatre troupe/human circus from one fading town to another, along paths that are subject to change… It gets a lot done without going on about things for pages, and messes with time (and character) effectively. I’m not all that taken with the main character, but I don’t feel that she needs me to like her for the story to work, and I can deal with that.
The landscape is definitely New Zealand – even excepting the totara, the trek through bush with detours to volcanic and earthquake-prone areas is pretty classic, and the only odd omission is any coastline, although there is a very large lake with what appear to be some Australian refugees, clinging to the last remnants of their “Golden Coast” culture (“a barbelay […] complete with stubbies”).
Double or Die.
I liked Silverfin a lot more than I expected to, and Blood Fever less than I hoped. This one’s back on form (and also back in Britain, which I think helps – the villains are more limited, and hence more effective in many ways) and has a lot of very enjoyable moments, not least of which is the cameo by Alan Turing, studying at Cambridge. There are cryptic crossword clues (far better than anything in that atrociously anagrammed and/or obvious Da Vinci Code), suitably evil villains, a supporting cast who are distinguishable (even if James’ messmates give me Frank Richards flashbacks) and not one but two characters from the East End who do not speak in appalling phonetic Cockney, so it’s all good. And James is likeable while having a very cold streak in him, and a disturbing capacity for violence – not without cause, but when he does attack he goes all out.
Apparently the next two books are outside the UK, so I’m a bit dubious, but I am being so in the hope of being pleasantly surprised again. Oh, and the title is atrocious, but it won the most votes in an on-line competition.
Quote, for no other reason than that I liked it:
“And are they Flemish?” asked Pritpal.
“There’s no ish about it,” said Perry. “They’re totally Flem…”
First two Sid Halley books. I bought these in a 2-in-1 and they’ve put them in in the wrong order, so the second one’s first – how difficult can it be to check copyright dates? Anyway, I got halfway through the second one (Whip Hand) before realising this, and then jumped back and (re)read the first. These are both competent thrillers, but Whip Hand is a little more than that – in it, Sid is threatened by someone who knows exactly what will break him – and it does. He runs away, shutting down and failing to do his job, and the second half of the book does not so much fix him as set out to show how it is possible to keep going, in pieces.
I tend to like Mahy’s picture books and YA, and dislike her standard children’s books, but this is probably a classification largely in my head. I’m counting this one as YA, because I did like it, even if I didn’t love it the way I do the The Tricksters and The Changeover (both brilliant, in my unbiased opinion). Maddigan’s Fantasia is set in a distant future, following a travelling theatre troupe/human circus from one fading town to another, along paths that are subject to change… It gets a lot done without going on about things for pages, and messes with time (and character) effectively. I’m not all that taken with the main character, but I don’t feel that she needs me to like her for the story to work, and I can deal with that.
The landscape is definitely New Zealand – even excepting the totara, the trek through bush with detours to volcanic and earthquake-prone areas is pretty classic, and the only odd omission is any coastline, although there is a very large lake with what appear to be some Australian refugees, clinging to the last remnants of their “Golden Coast” culture (“a barbelay […] complete with stubbies”).
Double or Die.
I liked Silverfin a lot more than I expected to, and Blood Fever less than I hoped. This one’s back on form (and also back in Britain, which I think helps – the villains are more limited, and hence more effective in many ways) and has a lot of very enjoyable moments, not least of which is the cameo by Alan Turing, studying at Cambridge. There are cryptic crossword clues (far better than anything in that atrociously anagrammed and/or obvious Da Vinci Code), suitably evil villains, a supporting cast who are distinguishable (even if James’ messmates give me Frank Richards flashbacks) and not one but two characters from the East End who do not speak in appalling phonetic Cockney, so it’s all good. And James is likeable while having a very cold streak in him, and a disturbing capacity for violence – not without cause, but when he does attack he goes all out.
Apparently the next two books are outside the UK, so I’m a bit dubious, but I am being so in the hope of being pleasantly surprised again. Oh, and the title is atrocious, but it won the most votes in an on-line competition.
Quote, for no other reason than that I liked it:
“And are they Flemish?” asked Pritpal.
“There’s no ish about it,” said Perry. “They’re totally Flem…”
First two Sid Halley books. I bought these in a 2-in-1 and they’ve put them in in the wrong order, so the second one’s first – how difficult can it be to check copyright dates? Anyway, I got halfway through the second one (Whip Hand) before realising this, and then jumped back and (re)read the first. These are both competent thrillers, but Whip Hand is a little more than that – in it, Sid is threatened by someone who knows exactly what will break him – and it does. He runs away, shutting down and failing to do his job, and the second half of the book does not so much fix him as set out to show how it is possible to keep going, in pieces.
