The Revenant, book review. (Michael Punke)

Okay, so you've seen the film right?

No? Yes? Well, that doesn't really matter because this is quite different. No less dramatic mind but different all the same.

Along with, Eowyn Ivey's, The Snow Child, this is the book you read if you want to know what it feels like to be cold, really, really cold. It is also the book you read if you want to know what it's like to be truly alone. Not sitting alone in a room, or walking the streets at three in the morning alone but I-could-be-the-last-person-on-earth alone, and that feeling of loneliness, of isolation, envelopes you about halfway through this book and wraps you in its cold blanket all the way to the bitter end.
I recently read and blogged about Birdbox, (26/10/19) which makes you feel alone, I've read John Wyndham's, The Day of the Triffids, and Robert Matterson's rather excellent, I am Legend, which leaves you utterly desperate as it concludes, and this book runs it a close second; truly isolating you in ice and snow until you're in need of some good company, a warm fire and a large measure of your favourite tipple.
Based on true events whilst the Americas were still being mapped and discovered by the Europeans, the story centres around the fur trade, animal pelts, and on one expedition in particular, where Hugh Glass and his group of men are attacked by a tribe of Native Americans and are lucky to escape with their lives.

Then, there's the bear attack, superbly written as is the film shot, and you get so much from Punke's writing you almost feel the animal's claws ripping through your own flesh, and then the book is off, decisions are made, promises are broken and Hugh Glass finds himself alone and as close to death as one can be without passing.

Those first few hours, those first few days, the hopelessness of it all encompasses the reader in a way that you just have to keep going, keep turning those pages, 'cause let's face facts, everyone loves an underdog. So you start routing for him, willing Glass on, wanting him to push through the pain, both physical and psychological. There are other attacks, too, more Native Americans to outwit, more rivers to cross, bears to avoid, and how Hugh Glass actually managed to do what he did, survive what must have seemed un-survivable, is I suppose why this book makes for such good reading and why the film was made. Isn't it in our hearts, humans, in our very core, to survival, whatever the odds?

Four ice-covered stars for, The Revenant then and heartily recommended.

Wolf's Blood, book review. (E.L.Johnson)

Confession time.

I know the author of this book personally, so I am going to start by conveying my greatest respects to her in managing to do what so many of us dream of but have yet to manage: getting her book published. Congratulations Erin.

Okay, that aside I can now tell you all what I thought of the book and being objective in the face of the above is no easy task, but I need to be, as all writers (myself included) need to hear the good the bad and the ugly if we're to improve on our craft - if improvement is necessary of course.

Set in England at a time where women are persecuted as witches and either drowned or burnt alive, we have a missing girl, a boy who appears to have lost his genitals, a reluctant monk, a man parading as a Priest and our hero of the piece, the witch-hunter Harold Eastman.

The book is mainly set in a small village presided over by a powerful landowner, but with stories of his deceased wife and his hasty union with the relative stranger that helped nurse her in her dying days, floating around, along with slander, a general distrust of strangers and a frightful fear of God, the scene is never dull.

Having been attacked by a wolf on their journey from the monastery to the village, Harold is taken in by a local medicine woman whose gentle herbal remedies raise suspicions amongst the villagers, but she soon has him back on his feet, and with a sham priest to expose, a house of God to repair and a witch to be found, not a minute too soon one might say.

The fast-paced nature of the wolf attack, the harvest festival celebration and the exposure of the witch at the end, balances nicely with the otherwise calm peaceful and very believable view of what life might have been like in rural England, circa eight hundred years ago.

The choice of language felt right, as did the tools and implements people used, along with their clothing, even down to the way the ladies and girls wore their hair, and with Teeth, Harold Eastman's trusty steed, being a character in his own right, it made for a very convincing story.

I rarely read novels set in this time period (Ishiguro's, The Buried Giant, being one exception) but I'm glad I read this one and can recommend it to all, even more so if you like historic fiction.

Three and a half stars for Wolf's Blood then, and I understand there are more to come so I'll keep you folks posted when they do.

An Officer and a Spy, book review. Robert Harris.

  

If I wanted to sum up this book in one word it would be, riveting.

Paris in the late 1800's, spying, espionage, a huge miscarriage of justice and Robert Harris. What more could one ask for?

To think that it's all true too, makes it even harder to believe, but it happened and Harris has woven it into a most excellent book. I knew nothing about this historic event until a friend told me he had pre-order a copy, so within days of its release I had mine, and what a story.

I'm sure it's all out there on the internet if you want to know what went on, but don't bother browsing the web, just read Robert Harris' excellent, masterful epic.

Harris has taken an extreme miscarriage of justice and woven a tense, action thriller, that forces you to just keep on reading. Never, have six hundred pages turned so quickly. 

I have recommended this to several members of my family and I recommend it to anyone who reads this review. If you like historical novels, from any era, I'm convinced you will like this.

Five big fat well deserved stars.

Hearts of Darkness, book review. Harry Lytle III (Paul Lawrence)

I love Harry Lytle. (He even has his own website with a Goodreads link)

Set in the dark devious, depressing destitute and deprived depths of seventeenth century London, this, the third chronicle of Harry Lytle, finds our unlikely and unwilling protagonist, fighting against his most deadly of enemies to date, the black death; bubonic plague.

In order to avoid a long and agonising death on some rather barbaric medieval torture device, Harry and his best pal are tasked (forced) to travel to Essex and once there, to gain entry to one of the most plague infested towns in the country, all to detain a wanted criminal who might be innocent.

There is a familiarity between the characters and some mention of what went before, but this volume can still be read as a standalone novel, and won't disappoint.

So, under treat of death our two key characters pursuit their quarry with foolhardy poise, having little clue about what lies around the corner.

They fight, they lose, they are captured they escape, they are surround by death, they find a dead cow!

There is much to like about Paul Lawrence's books and ever since the first one (The Sweet Smell of Decay) crossed my path back in 2010, I've been a fan. 

So a good, well deserved four stars. When can we expect the next one?