Who & what do you read? Questions I get asked as a book blogger (Pt I) Michael J Richardson

For those of you who don't know me, I've been reading and writing since I was a teenager (properly reading that is, not force fed books I had no interest in at school, which excludes Stig of the Dump of course, which was my first serial reading experience), so that's a good thirty years under my belt, but what floats my boat, gets me going back for more?

Well, why don't we start with the classics. But wait, what is a classic? A book written over a hundred years ago? Over fifty? Harry Potter will be defined as a classic in the future if not already, so do I include them? Maybe it's Austin, Bronte or Dickens (of which I've liked but not loved - except A Christmas Carol, that will always be a 5 star book in my opinion), or Du Maurier, whose My Cousin Rachel is one of my all-time favourites. Looking further afield we have Jules Verne, not bad, Platonov, weird and Kafka - seriously, I think something got lost in translation like: plot and anything that actually makes sense - and I've never really enjoyed American classics either with Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, The Catcher in the Rye and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest all being a bit lacklustre - although I did like, The Great Gatsby and I am Legend is a masterpiece.

How about horror then? But again, what is horror? I recently read Roxane Gay's superb, An Untamed State, one of the most horrific books I've read recently but you'll only find it in the fiction section, as with Khaled Hosseini, who writes about the horrors of war torn Afghanistan in a way that pulls at your heart. I've also read The Girl with all the Gifts and its prequel (zombie apocalypse for those who don't know), but they're no more horrific than Stephen King epics' like The Stand and It, which are simply undefinable in genre. Then there are horror classics like Dracula (superb) Frankenstein (okay) and The Exorcist (seriously creepy) to consider, all having such great characters and depth that to simply call them 'Horror' would do them a great injustice.

I have always loved apocalyptic stories, too, from the short and punchy like, The War of the Worlds, I am Legend and The Day or the Triffids, to huge tomes like The Passage series and of course, the best of the best, The Stand - all fourteen hundred plus pages of it, and how the whole experience of reading books like these leaves you feeling lonely and apprehensive but with a fierce determination that if it were ever to happen to you, you'd be the good guy/girl, be on the right side and survive.

So where does that leave us? Well, this subject is far too long for one post so I'll blog part II in a few days' time and talk it through a bit more with you then. See you soon.

Don't forget to search my blog for your favourite authors and books and if I haven't read them, why not message me with your recommendations.

The City of Mirrors, book review. (Justin Cronin)

How do you review the third book in the trilogy of what is one of the greatest stories ever told? With great difficulty!
It is six months since Homeland was liberated and The Twelve destroyed (Carter being the only survivor). Amy - the new Amy - lives with him in the hull of a long forgotten ship and Alicia is pregnant, but her baby won't survive.
Twenty years on and the people have left the old fortress city and repopulated the surrounding areas. Farms have popped up, townships are thriving, life is far from back to before virus but the threat has gone - or so they think.
ZERO. Fanning. The first to be infected in the jungle and brought back to Greer's lab and tested, mutated, angry. For the last hundred years he has waited at Grand Central station for the return of his beloved Liz who, we discover by flashback, died way before the virus hit.
ZERO. Ready to finish what The Twelve could not. The extinction of the human race.
The build-up in this book is excellent, the flashbacks informative, (albeit a tad too long), but then we're back in the year 122 A.V (after virus) and Zero's army is coming, forged from the unfortunate people who moved to the outlining townships. Michael (Circuit) has spent the last twenty years rebuilding a ship he’s hoping to escape on, but will it be ready? The virals are massing, the gates to the Homestead are closed once again, Carter has woken and Amy walks amongst the people once more, but then . . . all hell lets loose.
The ground rumbles, the virals break through and panic ensues, and it is here, as the narrative flicks from one character's peril to another, that the book takes off, and as the pages pass in a blur, the tension builds, characters we have known since the beginning fall, Carter's army clashes with Zero's, Amy tries to save Alicia, and the rest of the human race fight their way to Michael's ship, that you realise that this story really is one of the very best you've ever read.
With only a few hundred souls on board the ship sets sail and Amy, Peter, Michael and Alicia take their leave, going in search of Zero, and compared to the frenzied battle that raged in Texas, New York is spookily quiet, but not for long.
So, a big fat five stars for the conclusion of this epic trilogy then? Er, no, not quite.
The ending, the very ending, was completely unnecessary. I won't give anything away here but having such a climatic conclusion and then continuing was never really going to work, so if you do read these books, and I thoroughly recommend that you do, skip the epilogue on this one and you'll be more than satisfied.
Four and a half stars then for, The City of Mirrors, but The Passage got five and that is all you really need to know to start reading.

Mad Mike's writing blog, book of the year 2018

Welcome friends, bookbloggers, avid readers alike, to my annual book of the year post. This isn't about books written or published this year, this is about the books I have read this year, and with dozens to choose from, it's no easy task.

I won't bore you with a big long list of all my reads from 2018, for that you can check out my historic posts or look at Amazon/Goodreads for my reviews, so without further ado:-

In at number five is, No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy. Blog post 29/04/18
With its no nonsense approach to mass murder, a psychopathic hitman and the author's beautiful use of the Texan dialect, this action packed book is both fast and furious whilst quiet and threatening at the same time, and in spite of the sheriffs best efforts, you never stop believing that the hitman will win through in the end.

My number four is, The Twelve, by Justin Cronin. Blog post 25/06/18

Following on from The Passage was never going to be easy, but here, Justin Cronin takes things down a peg or two, goes back to where a dozen death row prisoners became the virals that go on to decimate the world. The world after the virus has moved on too, and the resulting climax, the build up to the gathering of The Twelve, where Amy makes her move, is soooooo good, the book just had to be in my top five.

In bronze position then: Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. Blog post 24/11/18
In this futuristic look back at the past, Cline takes us to a dystopian world on the brink of destruction. The oil has gone, the crops have failed and the world is hungry and poor, so people choose to live as avatars in the alternate reality of, Oasis, a computer generated world that some never leave. With its heavy nod to the 80's, murder, global corporate corruption and a clear, 'root for the underdog' thread running throughout, Ready Player One is one of the most unique books I have ready this year.

So, this year’s runner up: All Hell let Loose, by Max Hastings. Blog post 20/08/18

To humanise the death of so many under such depraved circumstances and make it actually readable, is a testament to the true genius of this author, and his mix of first hand civilian accounts along with the well documented military events of the Second World War, gives the reader a true sense of the horrors that befell the world during those six long years. A classic must-read five star book.

And my winner, my favourite book of 2018: IT, by Stephen King.
'A coming of age, thriller, horror, murder mystery, sci-fi, history book, all rolled into one,' was what I said at the time, and I stick by that statement. There aren't enough superlatives in the English language to truly express my feelings for this absolute classic and to put that into context, I have read all 1166 pages of IT three times now and dare say I will read it again someday, for it is without compare. As I said in my 15/10/18 blog post: Put simply, one of the greatest books I have ever read.

The Twelve, book review. (Justin Cronin)

So, The Twelve, Justin Cronin's sequel to his amazing The Passage (see blog post 30/11/17)

We're back at the beginning with this book, back at year zero, where we find a number of characters making their way in the world, a world that is falling apart.

There's Grey: ex caretaker of The Twelve, who, in 97 A.V (after virus) becomes Guilder's source of blood, food for his army of red eyes (oppressive guards that control the population of the city at the centre of this book) and there's Lila, Wolgast's ex-wife (Agent Wolgast, FBI, who took Amy to the mountains in The Passage) who is able to control the virals (vampire like creatures that have decimated the world’s population) and bend them to her will.

There's Guilder, who ran things in year zero and runs things again 97 years later, and has a plan, a plan that involves The Twelve and how, when they come, they will unite under him, start a new world order.

We don't lose touch with Sara, Hollis, Michael, Alicia, Greer, Peter and of course the girl from nowhere, Amy, either (all characters from the first book) and Alicia and Amy's stories develop a lot here, but will they switch sides as they both become less human? Will they see their old friends as food?

This book isn't as good as its prequel but then, The Passage did receive a five star review, which is a tough act to follow, so it's by no means a bad book, in fact it’s quite the opposite, it’s a great book, just not exceptional.

It has pace, it has intrigue, it has the supernatural and the damned right scary, as Peter and Alicia decent into the cave home of one of The Twelve, as virals spring for hard boxes (places for humans to hide if they get caught out in the open after dark) and decimate the populace in the field. We have the calm of Danny driving his school bus around a deserted town before driving hundreds and hundreds of miles further than originally planned, the serenity of Lila's deluded mind as she continues to shop for paint in a DIY store whilst the rest of the world is dying, and we have the ending, the huge big punch of an ending, and as usual, I won't spoil things here but as Amy becomes something new, something altogether different, Lila comes to her senses (only a hundred year too late) and Guilder gets what's coming to him, it is well worth the five hundred or so pages it takes to get there.

Four big fat juicy stars then for The Twelve and now, on to The City of Mirrors, the final instalment.

The Kiss. (A short story with bite, by yours truly)

It's been a long time since I shared any of my own work on here, which was half the reason for starting this blog in the first place, so for this post I thought I'd share a piece of flash fiction that I wrote last year, which was published in Graffiti magazine.

Enjoy.

The Kiss

Fever gripped me.

I had all the symptoms. Vomiting, which I put down to the drink - Shellie, Beth and I had been clubbing the night I fell ill - I had the sweats: I got so hot one night that my step-mother phoned the doctor, I got so cold the next that I couldn’t move for all the duvets blankets and clothes piled upon me. Then, there was the pain. It had started as a dull ache but got progressively worse.
My temperature rose from a rather unassuming 100.3 to a hyperpyrexian 103.4. I was delirious, I didn’t know what day it was, who my friends were.

My mother bathed me with a flannel and a bowl of cool water, but it didn’t work, so she placed me in a cold bath, but still the fever raged.

Then, on the fifth day, everything changed.

I woke with a hunger beyond any comprehension, in more pain than I could bear. I tried to eat, I wanted to eat, but everything felt coarse, alien in my mouth. Danny, my darling brother, he even bought me my favourite cake, but I didn’t want it. All I wanted was for the pain to stop.

I pushed Danny away; I pushed him with strength untold, and when I did the truth began to unravel.

An image appeared before me, the image of a face. I was lost, trapped in its beauty – just as I had been in the club that night - and I remembered now. The touch of those lips as they pressed upon mine, the cool of a tongue as we’d started to kiss, that faint metallic taste in my mouth, and with that recollection everything fell into place.

I looked at my brother all crumpled on the floor. He’d cut his hand on the shattered plate, his blood flowed freely and the smell was intoxicating. I was completely overwhelmed, there was nothing I could do to resist; the temptation was just too great. All I wanted, needed, to satisfy the hunger, to nullify the pain, was right in front of me.

In the blink of an eye I was sucking his fingers, feasting on his life, gorging on that rich delicious nectar. A second later and I had a hold of his head, tipping it back, exposing his neck, and as much as he wanted to struggle, he couldn’t; he was powerless, lost in my beauty.

The fear and wonder on his innocent face, his last gasp for breath, the smell and taste of his warm blood on my tongue, were all so enticing.

As my cold lips caressed his neck, I heard the pounding of his heart fill the room like a drum, and then, as a shudder of dread rippled through him, I sank my teeth into his exposed flesh, and we kissed!

Mad Mike's writing blog, book of the year 2017

Welcome friends, book bloggers avid readers alike, to my annual book of the year post. This isn't about books written or published this year; this is about the books I have read this year, and with dozens to choose from, it's no easy task.

I won't bore you with a big long list of all my books from 2017, for that you can check out my historic posts or look at Amazon/Goodreads for my reviews, so without further ado:-

In at number five: George Orwell's, 1984. This book is to dystopia, what, The Lord of the Rings is to fantasy, and it's got a lot more to do with modern society than we might care to admit. There’s constant war, a clear divide between the poor, the middle class and the elite (in wealth terms), and technology tracks your every move. Sound scary? Sounds like reality to me, and all dreamt up nearly seventy years ago. (Full review coming soon)

My number four is Justin Cronin's, The Passage; a sublime post-apocalyptic vampire epic, set in the not too distant future, and an eye opener to the possibilities of what could happen if you mess around with mother-nature. A superb blood drenched beginning to an epic trilogy. (Blog post 30/11/17)

In bronze position: The Green Mile, by Stephen King. Wow, what a world we humans have created, what horrors we perpetuate, some - as narrated here - done in the name of justice, legally. Part four, The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix, is where you'll find the true horror in this book and it's like a punch to the face; make it through that though, and the book as a whole is fabulous. (Blog post 25/12/17)

So, this year’s runner up: My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier. Tension and suspicion at almost every turn, exquisite characters, beautifully written and I said at the time 'I implore you all, fellow book bloggers, bibliophiles, bookaholics, all the lovely people around the world that might read this post, all who might have done as I have, and left this book to gather dust, read it now,' and over six months later, I still stand by that statement. An absolute gem of a book.
(Blog post 13/06/17)

And my winner, my favourite book of 2017: Air & Angels, by Susan Hill. (Blog post 08/12/17). Going by the dates of my posts you might be thinking that I've picked my top five from books I've read more recently, but you'd be wrong, for I read Air & Angels back in the summer, it's just that its eloquence, its subtle almost poetic prose has stuck with me for all that time and, as if any more evidence is necessary, it is the book that still languishes on my bedside table, the one I pick up from time to time, and read randomly.

'Five big fat gold stars', I said at the time.

An honorary mention must go to, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (and The Half Blood Prince). I've come to the conclusion that these two books together, are the end of this amazing seven book series, not just book seven, and together, they are just untouchable, but, because I read them so frequently that they would end up in the number one slot every year, (which could get a bit boring), I've given them this honorary mention instead.

The Passage, book review. (Justin Cronin)

With the release of book three, The City of Mirrors, I figured it was time to go back to the beginning of the story and remind myself what I'd forgotten.

It begins in the world we all recognise. There are cars and shops and people going about their daily business, there's Amy, a girl of six, who spends her nights sleeping in motel bathtubs whilst her mother earns what she can; there's Carter, a death-row prisoner, and there's agent Wolgast, FBI, who's been collecting death-row prisoners for experimentation, Carter being his twelfth.

The beginning of this book is excellent. I like the contrast between the calm peaceful life of the nuns who look after Amy, against the pain, death and horror of The Twelve, incarcerated deep underground. I like the back story of the tourists in the jungle, the spookiness of the day Amy goes to the Zoo, how Wolgast's actions turn him into a criminal. I love the pandemonium when The Twelve escape and infect the world, and the isolation that follows Wolgast and Amy as they flee to the mountains.

Then, nearly a hundred years later, a small colony, humans living behind high walls, but the batteries that keep the lights on, the lights that keep the virals (blood thirsty vampire like creatures) away, are failing. They have a year, two at most. Something has to be done.

When some of the inhabitants go mad and let the virals in, a small group make a run for it; grabbing what weapons they can. They hole up in a fortified garage, find an underground bunker chock full of weapons, get rescued from an ambush in Las Vegas (which is a superb scene) and get taken to an ex-prison colony (The Haven) which is super strange because there are no virals there!

The human sacrifices that keep Babcock (one of The Twelve) and his hordes away, is soon revealed, and is followed by an epic chase across mile upon mile of open countryside on a fortified train, and it's the juxtaposition between heart in the mouth all hell is breaking lose, shit we've just lost another main character and the peaceful backdrop of snow covers mountains, where Theo and Maus have their baby and Peter and Amy find Sister Lacey with eleven vials of anti-virus, that makes this book so riveting.

There is so much going on here, that you might think you'd get lost, but with such diverse characters and such superb writing, you don’t, it just all makes sense. Coupled with a convincing setting, both in the present, past and possible future (the University of New South Wales are still reading from Sara's diary in the year 1003 AV [after virus]) I'm betting you’ll jump straight into book two, The Twelve, as soon as you’ve turned the last page.
An easy and highly recommended five star read.

Let the Right One In, book review. (John Ajvide Lindqvist)

I wanted to like this book, I wanted to love it because it looked intriguing, but it wasn't all plain sailing.

This book is about friendship, where one can't exist, love where there is none, and fear, fear of the unknown.

It has the sort of atmosphere I've begun to crave recently, fabulous characters, against a cold, distant, almost characterless setting, which make Oskar and Eli stand out even more, like Technicolor people against a monochromatic backdrop.

Oskar is bullied at school and this is handled well, the swimming pool scene in particular deserves merit, and his anxiety is believable and heartfelt. Eli, is both beautifully, weird and frightening, in equal measure.

Hakan, Eli's father/guardian, is a bit weak, he has lots of money but lives like a tramp, and I definitely think he should have died when he fell from the hospital window. (I know this is fiction, vampire fiction, but still, I thought it would have been more realistic if he'd died from the fall).

I thought the sex with the young boy at the beginning was too graphic. I understand that it sets up Hakan's character and what he is capable of, but still, it was a little unnecessary.

Also, I have the first edition in English, and I think a few things might have been lost in the translation.

At one point, Oskar is in his apartment, (having stashed Eli's money in the basement), contemplating how the bullies at school get him to squeal like a pig for their amusement, but then, the next minute, he's at the school, setting fire to his tormentors desks. I thought this was a dream at first, that he'd fallen asleep, because it seemed to jump, but in hindsight, I think there was a page-break missing, and it's not the only time this happened, which was somewhat frustrating.

All told, this book hits the spot in some areas, and is well worth a read, particularly if you like to be chilled and made to feel slightly uncomfortable, and on that basis alone I would have given this book four stars, but there's one thing I just can't forgive: why, in spite of the atmosphere, some truly excellent characters, the swimming pool scene and more, did the author chose to reveal that Eli was a boy!!! Maybe he thought it would be a cool twist? A curve ball? Whatever the reason, for me, it let the book down.

Call me conventional, call me boring, but I liked Eli as a girl. As soon as I found out her/his secret, I sort of stopped caring, which is the last thing an author would want, but, there it is.

Three stars.

The Angel's Game, book review. (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)

I've been having a foreign affair (evidence to the left), and what a ride.

It goes to show just how important it is for books to be translated and shared around the world, because these three are great.

This post is about my favourite one though, Carlos Ruiz Zafon's, The Angel's Game.

Where do I start with this book? It's one of the few books I've read that doesn't fit into a given genre. It is thrilling, sexy, frightening and spooky, in equal measure. It is pacey, has excellent and very memorable characters; there is love and loss, and all wrapped up in the atmospheric backdrop of early twentieth century Barcelona.

So, where better to read a book that is set in the fair city of Barcelona, than Barcelona!

No I didn't arrange my summer holiday around my reading habits, (I'm not that sad), but I did wait for Barcelona before I started the book, and it added to the experience.

The novel follows the life the loves, the ups and downs, of the main character, David Martin, as he fights his way out of poverty, start to write under a pseudonym, fall desperately ill, only to be saved by the mysterious Senor Corelli, with a book deal to end all book deals: One hundred thousand Francs, for a single book to be written over a twelve month period. (I'm still waiting for my letter, Senor Corelli).

The deal is struck and Martin's illness wanes, but there is skulduggery abound. His previous employers are killed in an arson attack, his beloved Cristina, is betrothed to another, (his benefactor) only to be driven to despair and . . . (no spoilers here I'm afraid). His muse, a young girl by the name of Isabella, is thrust upon him one night, and I couldn't tell whether she was going to be a distraction, a love interest, or fill his world with further anguish!!

A shockingly good read then, and all the better I think for being the middle book in a three book series, that was so good as a stand-alone novel, that I didn't realise it had a prequel and a sequel, until after I'd read it.  

As near to a five star book as I've got this year and I feel certain that it will be in my top five books of 2016.

Highly recommended

Dracula, book review. (Bram Stoker)

Dracula, one of the best and most influential books I have ever read!

Quite a statement that, so let’s look at it in a little more detail.

The book is written as a series of diary and journal entries in the first person, and from several different perspectives. The characters are both male and female, one being a solicitor, one, a Doctor who runs a lunatic Asylum, and then there's Dr Val Helsing from Amsterdam.

Mina Murray and Lucy Westenra's diary entries, add both intrigue and passion, we have the somewhat delicious English language, (as it was in late Victorian England), a love quadrangle, rather than a love triangle, desperation, sadness and remorse, but above all, we have Count Dracula.

We all know the story of course, or do we?

I first read this book over twenty years ago and in that time I'd forgotten most it, remembering just the bare bones.

I had a vague recollection of Renfield and the asylum, the predicament in which Johnathan Harker found himself in, in the depth of the unforgiving Carpathian mountains, but I'd forgotten the pace of the book, the shear depth of fear the poor souls experienced, as they battled their way to Carfax Abbey, and then across Europe, to confront what must be, one of literature's most revered villains.

And let us not forget one of the all-time best chapters in literary history, chapter 7, where the description of the storm and the landing of the Demeter, (Dracula's ship), at Whitby Harbour, is told as a news article in a local newspaper.

Reading this book again, got me thinking about how many stories, films, television programs, cartoons, and comics there must be out there, that have been influenced by this book? Hundred, thousands maybe, who knows! From the obvious like, Salam's Lot and the Twilight saga, through Richard Matheson's sublime, I am Legend, to Justin Cronin's less obvious but equally exquisite, The Passage, to count (pun intended) but a few. (My own short story, Lycanthrope, would never have materialised without this book).

So, a solid five stars for Bram Stoker's Dracula then, and what a better time to start reading it, than on All Hallows’ Eve.

Enjoy my fiendish friend, read deep.

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King.

Well, well well. 

According to the author, people have been asking him about what happen to Daniel 'Doc' Torrance after that fateful night at the Overlook hotel, (that was the climax of one of his best books, The Shinning, in case you didn't know), for a while now.

And now we know. Or do we?

I have a sneaky suspicion that Daniel Torrance and his new companion, Abra, will appear in a few more of his books before to long, particularly Abra, and I can't wait.

What a great character. We first meet her when she's a baby and as the book moves on and Dan Torrance's sobriety lengthens, Abra's strength grows, and then they finally meet. 

The baddies are a little less convincing in what they are, (a sort of vampiric sect living of the essence of dead kids with the shinning) but there character development is just as good as the others, insomuch as you hate the ones your supposed to hate and sympathise little as they meet their individual demise. 

I love this book, but having gone off of the supernatural element a bit recently, I didn't think is was as good as 11.23.63, which was simply sublime, so I'm going to give Doctor Sleep a four and a half star rating. 

One of his best.