Well, it was fun while it lasted.

I'm going to have to stop doing short stories for a while. There's just too much happening. For one thing I've got really important exams coming up. And for another after those I'm going to Borneo on a long expedition. It'll be fun, with orangutans, orphanages, jungle and sandy islands. What I'm not going to have is any time to write nor any place to upload it from. So I'm taking a holiday from all this and will start up writing short stories again in July. What I will be doing is the book reviews. I've had a fair number of views on them, they don't take long and frankly I think I'd go insane if all I did was revise. So they'll be going up.
I might also do a travelling blog of what's happening in Borneo. I'm not sure if I can do this and whether it'll be posted here on on the Ides of February blog. Probably both.
Anyway, that's it from me for a long while. See you in a few months.

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare, a review

It was less than a year ago that I first learned of the Mortal Instruments series. I remember it well, as I was writing a story about pink lightsabers and time-travelling gnomes at the time and the person who told me fell asleep straight after. But they sounded interesting and so I read them.

The series was made up of three book, City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass. And they were brilliant. I had finished them all in roughly two months and wanted more. The author published the first book, The Clockwork Angel, of another series, The Infernal Devices, which was set in the same world and I read it with great enjoyment. Then I learned that a fourth book was being written for the Mortal Instruments series.

To be honest I was a little worried about that. The last book had ended the series in a good way, tying up all loose threads and leaving you with a feeling of satisfaction. I wanted to know what happened next but I was afraid that the author wouldn't be able to continue it properly.

But of course I bought it. All the other books had been so good. I bought it and read it.

And it crushed my soul.

From what I can see there were three main reasons why the first few books were so good. There was a fair amount of good fight scenes, there was the dialogue and there was the romance. The person who first recommended the books to me points out that they all basically mean one of the main characters, Jace, but it doesn't sound right if I put it like that so I'll leave it as it is.

Let's start with the romance bit. In the preceding books the two main characters couldn't be together for complicated reasons but these were all removed at the end of the last book. So with that you'd expect them to be closer and having more romance scenes than previously. This isn't the case. There's yet another reason why Clary and Jace have to stay apart. He has dreams in which he kills her. I can understand the author wanting to keep the same sort of separation between them as she did in the other books and if it had been to the same degree as the other books that would have been fine. However it gets worse.

Then there's the dynamic between the two. The best way to think of Jace is probably as a bad-ass Edward Cullen. An Edward Cullen who would have kicked down the Volturi's door and pounded them all into the ground while telling them how much better he was than them. And Clary is no Bella. She's got tonnes of spirit when confronting her boyfriend and has pushed him around on a number of occasions.

So it's very disappointing that, when he eventually does tell her about the dreams, she isn't at all concerned and just meekly accepts it. This sort of thing winds on through the novel and peaks just about when she blames herself for everything that happened. Because, wait for it, she saved his life in the previous book. So everything that happened after is automatically her fault, in her eyes.

The fight scenes next. Some nice combat that should be at the heart of every story involving demon hunters. Only the first one occurs on page 217, almost half way through the novel, and it ain't that great. Until then we're treated to the life and times of Clary and all her friends. Honestly it was like some sort of supernatural tv soap. Which, come to think about it, I would probably watch, but it wasn't what I wanted here. While it was sort of nice to see their lives it just dragged on with two-timing, exs appearing from nowhere, a wedding looming. If they'd thrown in some demon slaying at the same time, or some real threat, then that would have been ok. If it had had plot, in fact. There was a few nice moments involving the Wrath of God when one of the characters was attacked but that was over quickly and the attacks themselves were so random and out of the blue they didn't really seem to have meaning. There were also other sinister things going on but they seemed somewhat distant from the characters and not really worth worrying about.

We got the dialogue, at least. There wasn't anything that wrong with how people were talking to each other. It's just that they didn't really have anything interesting to say.

It eventually wound up to the big confrontation. Again, the author must have faced problems. She killed off her big baddie in the last book. And laws of narrative mean that the new threat must be even worse.

Got to say, I think she over did it. Part of the plot was good and gave me what I wanted and expected, with the re-emergence of a past presence. But her main threat was too obscure to really be threatening. Too obscure and too powerful.

What this book did do was provide some fairly epic foreshadowing for her next book, the Clockwork Prince, which will be released in December. All through there are references to some of the characters and what might happen to them. It sounds good and I will definitely be buying it.

I'll probably get the next Mortal Instruments book as well. There's bound to be another one; they way The City of Fallen Angels was ended heavily implies it. I can only hope that it's a lot better than this one.

I'd, regretfully, give this book a four out of ten.

The Amazon link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mortal-Instruments-City-Fallen-Angels/dp/1406328677/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_2

Scorpia Rising by Anthony Horowitz, a Review

Yesterday was a fun day. It involved hiking up mountains and quite a bit of adventure. I'd like to call it heroic, if only because no-one else has. I may even write a short story about it, though probably not as in involves other people and they might not be happy with my representation of them.

But then today came and I found myself lying on the floor of the living room, barely able to move. The bright side to all this was that I got to read Scorpia Rising by Anthony Horowitz.

This is the latest and last in the Alex Rider series and boy do they end it with a bang. Anyone who has read the series in the past, which should really be all of you, will know that it's the ninth book to be written about the teenage spy. I was slightly worried about reading it as, to my mind anyway, the last book had been weaker than the preceding ones, with less motive and a mixed-up way of getting Alex involved. But this one is better. Much better.

Alex is given the usual series of gadgets and sent off to Cairo. But this time it's different from the others. The book is split into two segments and Alex himself doesn't appear till the start of the second, page 129. The first part we come back to his old nemesis, Scorpia.

All great spy novels have their made-up, evil secret society, like Spectre in James Bond, and Scorpia is the one in Alex Rider. And at the start you find out that they're terrified of him. There's a slightly comical scene depicting all these terrorists round a table and they're all treating Alex like some sort of unlucky charm. As well they might, he's foiled them on two other occasions. But none-the-less they've got a new evil plan and Alex is at the heart of it.

So it starts with Scorpia making the plan and then continues with Alex walking right into it. The plot swerves all over the place. At first it seems Alex isn't going to fall for it, then it seems like his fate in inescapable. It does this several times in true Horowitz fashion.

There's a whole troop of characters from the past. As it is the last book there have to be a few familiar faces, though if you want something that references the series in a big way then I'd check out the previous book, Crocodile Tears, which did it to a much larger degree. The story of a lot of people is tied off and you learn some surprising things about them. I think one of the biggest emotional journeys you take is with Alan Blunt. You begin to feel sorry for him, then at the end it all changes.

It's not the biggest surprise but I don't want to spoil that one.

By the end of the book I was feeling quite sad. Not just because of the way it ends, which would be understandable, but because this really is the last. Anthony Horowitz said he'd stop when Alex reached fifteen and that time has arrived. Everything is wrapped up. All characters explored. There are no loose ends left. Show's over folks.

What else is there to say really? I give this book an eight out of ten. And we can only wait and see what gets written next.

The Amazon link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scorpia-Rising-Rider-Anthony-Horowitz/dp/1406310492/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302655656&sr=8-1

I've been told I whine too much. It's probably true.

Well, this is the second Sunday that I'm not going to be putting up a short story. The truth is, I've been really busy and just haven't the time. And truly, this Sunday is probably not going to be the last.
I am crazy busy right now. I've got exams coming up in less than a month which I have to revise for. I'm helping with another blog, Ides of February' and there's been a few difficulties with that. I'm entering as many competitions as I can before the exams hit. And I'm generally lazy, which doesn't help.
But I have done some reviews. Technically these take longer than short stories to do because I have to read the whole book but I'm going to be reading these books anyway, so in reality it feels like they can be done quicker. I also quite enjoy the reviews, so there will be more of those, at least two in the next week. They will be 'Pegasus and the Flame' by Kate O'Hearn, which I picked up because of a buy-one-get-one-free deal, and the latest and last Alex Rider book, 'Scorpia Rising' by Anthony Horowitz. There might be others, depending on if I get anywhere near a book store soon. Which is frankly the plan. I'm learning if I won or lost quite a big competition tomorrow so I'll be trying to keep my mind off it as much as possible.
I'm also considering doing some other stuff with my stories. The competition comes with some money so I'm thinking of putting a series of chapters of a story up on youtube, read aloud with pictures as we go. I'm also thinking of doing other reviews, namely TV shows. This may be tricky as my voice is less than melodious and I can't draw for toffee, so I'll need an illustrator. So we'll see how that goes.
I think that's about all that's been happening to me lately. I'm trying to build up a collection of short stories to see me through the exams but then again I've been trying that for about as long as I've had this blog so who knows what'll happen.
Watch this space, people. More will be coming.

The Dead by Charlie Higson, a review

I do love a good zombie story. As long as they are well told they can capture a lot of the thrill of reading adventure books, while making it a lot grittier. So I was delighted when I saw that The Dead by Charlie Higson was on a 'buy-one-get-one-free' offer at Tescos.

The second in the series The Dead is technically the prequel to The Enemy, which was set a year later. The basic premise of the books is that all the adults over the age of fourteen have been struck by a mysterious illness and have been either killed or turned into zombies, leaving only the children left to fend for themselves. Sort of like an even creepier version of the Pied Piper. While in The Enemy the kids have been around for a bit, have got organised and can generally look out for themselves, in The Dead the virus has only just struck a month before and no one really knows what's happening or how they're going to survive.

One of my favourite things about this series is that no one is safe. Higson is more than willing to kill off main characters if and when it's necessary. This is great. It keeps the reader on their toes, makes them more involved in the story and evokes greater emotion when someone that they've seen grow and struggle gets struck down as if by random.

The plot itself is immersive and fast paced. Higson puts a lot into his writing. There's drama, relationships, planning and religion, all set on the background of an apocalyptic zombie filled London. You run into some familiar faces from the previous book and you learn a little more about the disease, though there's still no-one who has a clue about it. In some ways their life is easier as there's more food lying around but they're still growing used to the new world around them and aren't really properly watching out for danger. It was released recently as well, on the 16^th of September last year, so there's a lot of references to modern things, like Lady Gaga. One of the characters is obsessed with books and at one point we find him reading Fever Crumb, which was the first book reviewed by this blog. It's little things like that which make it more realistic for me.

I heartily enjoyed the book. It was just what I was looking for, a little creepy and more zombie filled than the previous one. As I said previously it was easy to find a character you could connect with and the suspense was gripping. It wasn't really a scary book, though it had scary parts in it. But full of adventure and a plot that makes sense. I'd give it a six out of ten and recommend anyone buy it. You don't need to buy the previous book but if you read it out of order then you might get a shock at who you recognise.

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Charlie-Higson/dp/0141384654/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302457652&sr=8-1

Also included at the end is a preview of the next book, The Fear. Since it is part of the book I'll be reviewing that as well.

Well, it's creepy. The small segment you see is from the perspective of one of the zombies. At first it seems harmless enough, just living in a cellar surrounded by broken computers. You get the feeling that undeath hasn't changed it that much. Then it goes out and becomes a lot more sinister. The Fear is a good name. And it looks so be a good book, so you might want to get it when it comes out, which seems to be the 15^th of September of this year. So read and enjoy.

Sharpe's Trafalgar by Bernard Cornwell, a review

What's better than a book that costs a pound? Four books for that pound, which also helps a charitable organisation. It was with this philosophy that I picked up Sharpe's Trafalgar by Bernard Cornwell for a low price and spent a pleasurable afternoon reading it.

For those of you that don't know the Sharpe series follows the career of the fictitious soldier Richard Sharpe as he rises through the rank of the British Army in a period stretching from just before the Napoleonic Wars to their end. He is present at a series of historic battles and usually manages to acquit himself well. The battles and situations themselves are meticulously researched and their accuracy can be assured in all but the details concerning Sharpe, though Bernard Cornwell usually mentions in the back any changes made and also sets and relates the historical context.

This is not the first Sharpe novel I've read, it's about the fifth. It's not the fifth in the series, it's the fourth, but I've been reading them out of order. Though in all fairness, that's how the author has published them, putting new books in non sequentially.

Anyway, back to the actual book.

We join Sharpe when he is in the position of an Ensign, returning to England from India to take command of a regiment stationed there. He travels by boat, of course, and when his ship gets taken by the French a chain of events are set in motion that sees him taking an active part in the battle of Trafalgar, the famous naval engagement where Nelson crushed the might of the French and Spanish navies. This book is different to the others that I've read in that Sharpe is on a ship, whereas before he was in the Army and walking. This means a vastly slower pace. Instead of a couple of battles in the space of a few months and lots of running about in between, those couple of months are just spent drifting through the waves. While this might make it boring otherwise, Cornwell manages to keep you engaged with various other threats and activities aboard the ship. This keeps us suitably entertained until we reach the big fight at the end.

You do obviously know what the eventual outcome of the battle will be but unless you're a history buff you probably don't know the facts behind it and how the battle was won. You learn them here, after watching the daring plan that seems like it's not going to work. The whole battle itself is conducted in two parts; one with you being aware of the fire and death issuing from the ships and another confrontation which has been gradually built up over the whole book. Of the two I'm not sure which is the more tense, as one of them is much more dramatic, while with the other you're more uncertain as to what the outcome will be.

The detail in this is amazing and gives it the necessary edge of realism that you need from a historical novel. I wouldn't call the descriptions beautiful or breathtaking but more gritty. You learn possibly more about the life aboard a ship than you might have wanted.

All-in-all, a good read. You get an interesting voyage, enjoyable characters and a big battle at the end. The plot is slightly slower then some others in the series but that's to be expected. I would recommend buying this book but you might want to read the previous novels, as they are alluded to in this book. The first in the series is Sharpe's Tiger, followed by Sharpe's Triumph and Sharpe's Fortress. The last one is a book I'm planning on getting myself, as it's not one of the ones I've read and from some of the description it sounds good. And reading more Bernard Cornwell can never be a bad thing.

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sharpes-Trafalgar-Richard-Sharpe-October/dp/000723516X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302390508&sr=8-1

Worst Case by James Patterson, a review

I'd had a reasonably tough weekend camping and when I got back I just wanted to relax. I've been watching episodes of a tv show called Castle so I was in a crime kind of mood. And so I picked up Worst Case by James Patterson.

It's not a bad book. It's not the first James Patterson I've read, though the others were all from his Maximum Ride series so it's the first crime novel. At the middle point of the Maximum Ride series he seems to have got environmentally conscious and this is carried on here.

The book follows police Detective Michael Bennett as he follows a case where rich teenagers are kidnapped and made to answer questions about the environment and world affairs. If they get too many wrong, they get shot. Backing him up is FBI agent Emily Parker. Both are single parents, both are good at their jobs so there's some nice chemistry between them.

Now this book is in the middle of a series so I don't think I have the full picture about his life. You learn the basics but there's still more hinted at. Which is perfectly natural and expected. Yet it all seems slightly hollow. You see the surfaced of everything but none of the emotion underneath.

There's another thing. They don't seem to spend that much time working on the case. At the end you see them working with fingerprints and stuff but before they just don't seem to care that much. Bennett spends a fair amount of his time with his kids, while not seeming too concerned about the case and Parker goes shopping at one point. They get a description of the person they're trying to find and then seem to leave it on a desk or something as nothing happens after that.

They do eventually catch up with the criminal, after he's left a trail of bodies behind him. To be honest I was kind of rooting for him. He had everything planned out so well and his intentions were sort of honourable. And the police seemed so inept. It was only at the last, and I truly mean last, moment that they managed to work out what he was doing and how all his victims were connected. At times you see things from the criminal's perspective so maybe I'm being too harsh, as the reader would naturally know more. But really, he was beaten by luck more than anything else.

However it was, all in all, a good book. You should probably read the preceding books in the series first, as I think you get a better idea of who Detective Bennett is as a person. But as it is it's still a good read if you want to just sit and admire the blood patterns for a while. I've included the Amazon link below, as I've only just thought of doing that. And in a rating out of 10? I say I'd give it a six.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Worst-Case-Detective-Michael-Bennett/dp/009952533X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302047170&sr=8-1