THE HEART STONE by Judith Barrow

5 out of 5 stars

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How I discovered this book: I've read most of the author's other books, and was looking forward to this one.

In a Nutshell: Family/romantic drama set during World War I.

Jessie: sixteen years old, with a revolting stepfather and the boy she loves going off to war ... the stage is set.  I was thoroughly engrossed in this book all the way through, looking forward to getting back to it each time.  The aforementioned revolting stepfather, Amos Morgan, was so despicable that I was hoping for his comeuppance all the way through the first section of the book, and don't get me started on Bob Clegg....

What struck me most, throughout, was how hard life was for women in those times.  I questioned, now and again, why Jessie put up with all that she did, but you can't judge a woman of the second decade of the 20th century by even the standards of a woman, say, in the 1950s.  Especially not one who is poor, and not that well educated.  Then there's the First World War propaganda that sent all those young men off to almost certain death, and made them feel guilty when they didn't want to go—one of the biggest crimes against humanity in history.  Not to mention the fate of deserters. Words fail me.

My favourite characters were Clara, Jessie's educated, progressive friend, and Arthur, Jessie's love who went to war.  The chapters written in his point of view were stunningly good; Ms Barrow portrayed his haunted, disturbed mind so well. Although her main characters are usually female, it's her male characters that are often the most memorable—Bob Clegg's dialogue was masterful.  

This is definitely my favourite, all round, of all the books by Judith Barrow that I've read.  Previously, my favourite was A Hundred Tiny Threads, which tells me I like her historical fiction the most.  I think it's because her settings and characters are all northern working class of the, 'aye, love, I'll put the kettle on when you've filled the coal scuttle and boiled the cabbage for our tea, and that Ada Bloggs over t'road is no better than she ought to be' type, which I find slightly depressing in more modern times, but, pre-World War II, it's far enough away not to be so!

As with most books there were odd occasions when I was a little frustrated by a development, but much of this is just personal taste—if domestic wartime dramas are your thing, I guarantee that you will love this book!

THE RINGS OF MARS by Rachel Foucar

3.5 out of 5 stars

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How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In A Nutshell: Sabotage aboard a space ship

About a 500-strong crew on a year-long mission to Mars, to establish a society that will, it is hoped, be part of the solution for all the troubles on earth.  But there appears to be a saboteur on board ship...

I liked the premise very much, and Ms Foucar has a most readable, flowing writing style.  I was drawn in quickly; the beginning, with Jane Parker leaving a dying country, held great promise, and there is an excellent part early on in which a maintenance crew member gets killed.  Around a third of the way through, though, my interest began to lapse.  There are a lot of main and secondary characters, all with unmemorable names like Pat, Pamela, Jane, Mark, Frank, Beth, Sam, which wouldn't have mattered so much if the POV didn't change so often, and most of them didn't talk in the same way.  It was okay at first, and I had a clear picture of Jane, Mark and Pat, but after that it all got a bit hazy.  Having said that, most of the dialogue is basically good; natural, convincing.  

I wasn't sure how old they were all supposed to be, but they gave the impression of being in their early twenties, and sometimes seemed more like students running around a campus than people especially selected to go on this important voyage; I didn't get the feeling that they were on a ground-breaking mission into space.

For a scifi thriller, there was a lot of talking but not very much tension or drama.  I also felt that the plot itself wasn't very clear, as if there hadn't been enough thinking through, but, it didn't help that the mobi copy I was sent for review was badly formatted - on (literally) every other page there was a gap in the narrative thus:

ARC Not for Sale

*page number*

The Rings of Mars 

Rachel Foucar 

....filling a third of the page, sometimes breaking a sentence in two.  Obviously I would not mark down the book itself for this, and I tried not to notice and just read the story, but it became off-putting, and made me lose concentration.  Also, early on, there were a few punctuation errors - simple ones, like apostrophes in plurals.  

This is a first novel - the author definitely has talent, and this story is a great idea.  I would suggest a) working with a good editor to pull it into shape, b) instructing her publisher to make decent review copies before she sends out any more! and c) having a re-think about some of the character names - perhaps make some of them more unusual, and more 21st century.  To sum up - it's good, and has the potential to be very good, but it felt a bit 3rd-draft-ish, and needs more work to make it publication-ready, in my opinion.

Neander: Exploitation by Harald Johnson @AuthorHarald #RBRT

5 out of 5 stars

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How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

In a Nutshell: Time travel between the near future and 40K years ago

I read the first book in this series, in which Tom Cook first ends up back in Neanderthal times, and of course his first realisation about what had happened was so good to read, but I actually liked this book more.

In Neander:Exploitation, Tom has a family back in those ancient times, but must travel back to the 21st century to get medical help for his daughter.  The book just flowed along, all the way through, with no dreary bits to wade through, and was oddly convincing despite the subject matter being so bizarre!  I constantly found myself unwilling to put the book down because I was so looking forward to seeing what happened next.

The elements of this book that interested me, in particular, were the idea that a time traveller could enter another era only to find that time has moved more quickly, and the way in which Tom's actions back in prehistoric times alter the world for millennia to come.  I would love to see more of that in book 3, which I notice is being written at the moment, and about how Tom feels about the 21st century versus his pre-history life, which was touched on at the end.

Anyway, top stuff.  Looking forward to Book 3, and if you're a time travel addict, get it now!

  

EVER WINTER by Peter Hackshaw @HackshawPeter

4 out of 5 stars

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How I discovered this book: Amazon browse.

In a Nutshell: Post-apocalyptic survival/scifi/fantasy.

A hundred or so years after the big freeze fell over the earth, Henry and his family live on the now frozen Atlantic ocean.  They escaped from a community called the Favela (which I assumed to be in Brazil), and now live completely alone, seeing no one else.  Their trouble begins when, out hunting one day, Henry and his father find a man who has recently died in the snow.

This tale of survival under brutal circumstances had me totally absorbed at first, and I enjoyed the parts when Henry and his family find relics from the past, not knowing what they are.  The suspense builds in a slow, sinister fashion, as they begin to believe that they are not safe in their new home. 

Other reviews mention this being a book of two halves, and it is.  The first one is a post-apocalyptic tale of danger, survival, loss and the desire for revenge, and I loved it.  It's gritty and violent (warning: contains instances of cannibalism).  The second half introduces a robot medic from an abandoned ship - don't want to say any more because of spoilers, but I liked his scenes a lot, too; the interactions are great, and it's all well thought out and feasible.  As it goes on, though, the tone of the second half felt like more of a fantasy novel.

There were a couple of aspects I wasn't so keen on - the long dream sequences, which I've always found pointless in books and on TV.  Then, later on, Henry's younger sisters turn into Game of Thrones characters:  'I thank you, my husband, for bringing me to this place.  But Mister Lanner's presence upsets me.  I want his head.  Serve it on this table with the lobster, if you will'.  Where would they have learned to talk like this?  I also thought the editor could have lost some unnecessary dialogue tags (which dulled the impact of some lines of speech), and some sentences in which the author has told the reader how the character is feeling, though this has already been illustrated by his dialogue and actions.

To sum up: I liked it, and Mr Hackshaw certainly has talent; it's a most respectable debut novel and I'm sure he will go onto bigger and better.

TOKYO MAYDAY by Maison Urwin #RBRT

4.5 out of 5 stars

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How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member. 

In A Nutshell: Dystopian future, England and Japan

'The human race.  Migrating here and there for centuries, back and forth, whilst objecting to the influx of others.  Like migrating birds.  Like herded sheep.'

I love to read other authors' view of the near future, and Tokyo Mayday is a clever and inventive slant on the subject.  In the 2050s, climate change, political/civil unrest and technological advancement have turned the US and the European states into third world countries, with poverty and lack of jobs.  The world's greatest superpower is now Japan.  Outside the cities, economic migrants are kept in holding camps, hoping for work, but now many of these migrants are white Europeans and Americans.  

Jordan May and his family are offered the chance to live in Tokyo, which means a good job for Jordan at Matsucorp, the top car manufacturer in the world.  When they arrive there from England, however, they discover that all is far from utopian.  They are to live in a shared house, and both Jordan and his son, Alfie, immediately become aware of the opposing factions in the country - the far right who want to keep Japan for the Japanese, headed by the mysterious Yamada, and the movement for better treatment of migrants, more equal wages and fairer treatment for all, which grows in popularity amongst idealistic young people and the low-paid workers from the West.  As a skilled worker, Jordan sits between the two.

Manipulating all players is the mysterious Stepson Struthwin, advisor to the owner of Matsucorp.

It's clear that the author is well-versed in Japanese culture; the detail provided by his insight is an added point of interest while reading this highly original and probably plausible look at the future.  His writing style is spare, which I liked very much, and the characterisation works well, throughout.  The picky might complain about a certain amount of 'telling not showing', but my view is that if it works well, who cares - and in Tokyo Mayday, it does.  

The book held my interest all the way through, with some good twists near the end that I hadn't anticipated.  No complaints; this is a definite 'buy it' recommendation, for anyone who loves this genre as much as I do.

THE LIFELINE by Deborah Swift @swiftstory

5 out of 5 stars

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How I discovered this book: Deborah Swift is one of my favourite writers, so I bought this as soon as it was available.

In a Nutshell: Dangerous escapes from Nazi-occupied Norway

I enjoyed this book immensely - there is never a dull moment, with a sense of spine-chilling danger throughout.  The action picks up as the book goes on, making it a real page-turner; I read the last 40% in one go (just finished it!).

The book is set in Nazi-occupied Norway in the early years of WW2.  The main characters are a Resistance worker, Jørgen Nystrøm, and his girlfriend, Astrid Dahl.  Jørgen's cover is blown early on, and the two are separated. Astrid is a teacher who becomes involved in low-key rebellions against the Nazi regime, but soon finds that she has bitten off more than she can chew, and her only chance of evading transportation to the camps and almost certain death is to join some others in their escape from Oslo.

The story follows Jørgen's hazardous path to the Shetland Islands, where he carries on his work with the British against the Nazis, and Astrid's terrifying journey through Norway, during which there are so many setbacks and dire turns of fate that I was gripped throughout.  It is clear that the author's research into the time and place has been extensive, and every aspect of these dangerous few years is completely convincing.  Incidentally, I was interested to read that until five or six hundred years ago, Shetland was part of Norway.

If you're a fan of WW2 dramas and nail-biting stories of brave escape, you will love this book - and a round of applause to Ms Swift for not making the romantic minor sub-plot turn out predictably! 

 

The Other Mrs Samson by Ralph Webster #RBRT

4 out of 5 stars

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How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member. 

In a Nutshell: Family drama covering WW1 and WW2

This book, for me, went from nicely readable and moderately interesting, to absolutely unputdownable, and back to moderately interesting.  The first narrator, in the present day, finds a secret horde of papers belonging to his recently deceased, ninety-five-year-old friend Katie Samson, from which he surmises that her husband had been married before.  At this point, although not enthralled, I thought, well, this is certainly no chore to read, being nicely written and with the possibility of a great story to come.

...and whoosh, there it was. I turned the page to the POV of Hilda, the first wife, and the book bloomed, opened up, emerged from black and white into glorious technicolour.  Hilda's story went back as far as her grandparents' experience in San Francisco Gold Rush days, and on to the making of that city, the role of women in the Victorian era, life in a small Bavarian village, changing times and growing problems in Europe, to do with Germany's place in the world - I was gripped, all the way through.  Hilda and her grandmother were so alive, and aside from being a great story with wonderful characters, it was historically informative.  Fascinating.  Loved it.

Next came Katie's POV, and at first I still liked it a lot, as I read about her family tragedies, the aftermath of WW1 and Berlin's 'Roaring Twenties', the effects of American's Great Depression on the rest of the world, the Nazi party's growing control, and her and lover Josef's route out.  Then the lead up to the WW2 ... and I'm afraid it all went a bit flat for me, lacking in emotion.  The threat to Josef, a Jew, was described as 'very unsettling';  I read of an escape into the woods when Nazis arrive at their door, and their luck at being able to move from one place to another just in time, before the Gestapo established travel restrictions, but there was no drama or sense of danger.  Hilda told her own highly compelling story with the history as the backdrop, as did Katie at first, but the latter part felt impersonal, as though she was just listing events.

I was disappointed by my disappointment, if you know what I mean, because I loved the book so much earlier on; for instance, Katie's only brother, Karl, joins the Nazi party and gains a position of authority, but that's all—we never hear about him again; I'd hoped for a storyline about this.  There was a twist at the end, but it felt a little rushed.  

Four stars on Amazon because Hilda's part was absolutely 5* plus, and because the author writes in an extremely accessible fashion, so that even the parts I liked less were no effort to read.  I would recommend it to readers who like a family drama and are interested in reading about the history of the times mentioned - and it's worth getting just for the middle section.