Alex Scarrow – Last Light

Oil engineer Andy Sutherland has bored his family for years with scare stories about how one day the oil supply could get cut off and disaster would follow. Following some unrest in the Middle East his predictions start to become true. Andy is stranded in Iraq at the time while his wife Jenny is in Manchester desperately trying to get home to their children who are in London surrounded by looters and lawlessness.

I love post-apocalyptic fiction and this book had been on my wish list for a while. It’s actually more apocalyptic than post-apocalyptic but that doesn’t matter, in fact I think it’s probably the better for it.

The narrative follows the Sutherland family who are all in different locations. Andy is working in Iraq, Jenny is in Manchester for a job interview Leona is at university and has to go and collect her brother Jake from boarding school and return to the family home in London, the chapters switch between the different family members. Leona and Jake’s chapters were my favourite although I did enjoy the whole book.

The book is quite disturbing as it is a potentially realistic situation that could occur. Having witnessed the riots across the country this summer it shows how fragile our society really is, so if there was some kind of major disaster that cut off the oil supply things could potentially break down pretty quickly if handled the wrong way by those in charge.

I liked the writing style and that fast pace of the book. I also liked that it was set (mainly) in the UK. The characters were interesting and the story engrossing. I’ll definitely be adding the sequel, Afterlight to my to read pile.

Right I’m off to stock up on tinned food …

Simon Morden – Equations of Life

It’s twenty years after Armageddon. Samuil Petrovitch is a Russian immigrant living in the London Metrozone and researching at the university. He tries to keep to himself to avoid any unwanted attention but when he intervenes to prevent a kidnapping he puts himself onto the radar of the police and two separate gangs which causes big problems.

I’ve had this book in my to read pile for a little while. My Dad lent it to me as he said it was really good but the cover blurb wasn’t really grabbing my attention. My Dad started to badger me for it back so I bumped it up the to read pile and I’m really glad I did.

One of the big things that I loved about this book was the imagery of a post Armageddon London. Clapham Common and Regents park piled high with shipping containers acting as housing for the millions of people crammed into the metrozone, the area within the boundary of the M25 and the only habitable city in the country.

The story itself was interesting and engaging and I was hooked almost immediately. The pacing is fast throughout and the characters are varied and well written. Samuil is a flawed but likeable protagonist with an interesting back story that is lightly touched upon. Sister Madeline is a rebellious nun. In the post-armageddon world the job of a nun is to protect her priest so Madeline is good with guns. The other supporting characters are also interesting.

I’m really pleased I read this book and am very much looking forward to reading the following two books in the trilogy (they are currently in my to read pile awaiting my attention).

Christopher Ransom – The People Next Door

When the seemingly perfect Render family move in next door to the Nash family strange things start to happen. Mick Nash quickly realises that all is not as it appears to be and starts to take steps to protect his family. But what is the Render’s secret?

I enjoyed Christopher Ransom’s previous two novels so I was looking forward to this one and it jumped up my reading pile. The premise was interesting and the story was fairly creepy. I liked the different viewpoints from the various characters. The pacing was good most of the time although there were a couple of places where it did feel a little slow.

Whilst the characterisation was pretty good I didn’t particularly like any of the characters which was a shame as it meant that I didn’t care too much what happened to them. This is probably what let the book down for me. I like to have some kind of emotional investment in the characters that I am reading about.

The cover and the book blurb mention a big twist to the book. I actually liked the twist and didn’t manage to guess it. My favourite part of the book was the ending, I thought it was well done and interesting and could make for a good sequel.

If you’re new to Christopher Ransom then I would advise against starting with this one (start with The Birthing House) as it is definitely not his best. I did enjoy it, just not as much as I enjoyed his previous work.

Russell Brand – Booky Wook 2: This Time It’s Personal

The second instalment of Russell Brand’s autobiography. Booky Wook 2 follows his rise to full on fame. From Big Brother’s Little Brother to the infamous Andrew Sachs incident to meeting Katy Perry.

I had been looking forward to reading the second instalment of Russell Brand’s autobiography as I very much enjoyed the first one and I enjoy his television, film and stand up a lot (Ponderland Crime is possibly one of the funniest things I have ever seen).

The book contains lots of little anecdotes about Russell’s life many of which are amusing and some are insightful. However, I feel that the book was only scratching the surface. Booky Wook 1 felt a lot more personal. Most of the tings contained in Booky Wook 2 were things that were already in the public domain. Now I’m not suggesting that an autobiography should bare the soul of the person writing it but I do feel that it should give a little more than this book did.

That said, I did enjoy the book. It made me laugh out loud in places and it was an interesting read, it just didn’t quite live up to Booky Wook 1.

Rachel Caine – Fade Out

There are no spoilers for the book being reviewed but there may be spoilers for previous books in the series.

Book seven of the Morganville Vampires series. Things seem to have settled down a bit in Morganville and the inhabitants are returning to something resembling normal life. Eve is excited as she is cast in one of the leading roles in the town’s annual play but when one of her co-stars goes missing Claire and her friends need to find her fast. This is not helped by Ada, the vampire computer who has taken a strong disliking to Claire.

This book had a slightly slower pace than the other books in the series so far and it’s a bit more stand alone than many of the other books since the Bishop storyline ended in book six. That’s not a bad thing though it feels like to characters have a chance to get their breath back a bit (but not much, this is Morganville after all!) after the relentless action of the previous three books.

This book sees the introduction of new character Kim, another goth who immediately gets on Claire’s bad side by becoming super pally with Eve and having some kind of history with Shane. It’s interesting to see how Claire reacts.

The storyline was interesting and quite different to the previous books. It’s actually quite nice to be away from the Bishop storyline (even though I did enjoy it). There are some very interesting developments towards the end of the book so I’m looking forward to seeing where they go over the next few books.

Andrea-Maria Schenkel – Bunker

When Monika is abducted from work she is kept locked up in a bunker. Her kidnapper looks a little familiar, reminding her of a past she has tried to forget. As her time in captivity continues she tries to work out the motivation behind her kidnapping.

This was actually more of a novella than a full novel, coming in at well under 200 pages. The narrative is (purposefully) quite disjointed and is split between the viewpoints of Monika who has been abducted and her captor along with a some smaller sections from the viewpoint of the emergency services. I quite liked this style, it was always clear whose perspective we were in and it was interesting to get both sides of the story.

The story was a bit confusing at times as there were so many questions such as who is the kidnapper? Is he who Monika thinks he is? Why has he kidnapped her? What is the significance of the bunker, What is the significance of their pasts? I could go on but you get the idea. Most of the answers do become clear as the story progresses although there were still a few things left vague.

I thought the translation was well done, I didn’t notice any mistakes (the book was originally written in German). The pacing was good and the story an interesting twist on a kidnap tale.

Rachel Caine - Carpe Corpus

There are no spoilers for the book being reviewed but there may be spoilers for previous books in the series.

Book six of the Morganville Vampires series. Carpe Corpus picks up a few months after the events of Lord of Misrule. Bishop has taken control of Morganville and life is pretty miserable for Claire and her friends. A small uprising is forming against Bishop but will they be able to defeat him?

This book has been my favourite of the series so far. As normal it’s fast paced and full of action. The battle with Bishop is finally coming to a head and the characters have to go through a lot.

This book sees the death of one of the characters which I really liked as I felt it added to the book. Up until now everyone had been coming out of really dangerous situations pretty much unscathed which was a bit annoying, so I felt this added something to the story and brought back a real sense of danger to the characters because they can die and the author is willing to kill them off.

No Cliff hanger ending this time. I believe this book was originally planned as the last in the series so everything is tied up pretty nicely.

My edition of the book included the short story Murdered Out at the end. The story focuses mainly on Shane and was enjoyable. It’s nice to get a little more insight into Shane without the usual fast pace and huge amount of danger!