The Empty Throne - once more into the shield wall dear friends, once more!

Uhtred, the central character of The Last Kingdom series by Bernard Cornwell, is starting to feel his age. He is in constant pain from a less than fragrant wound inflicted during the battle described at the end of the previous book. The wound just will not heal, and Uhtred is starting to think that death will be a happy release. His son, Uhtred (not at all confusing for us readers!), is coming along nicely in terms of becoming a rough and tough fighter, but is he ready to take on the heavy burden of responsibility from his once fearsome father? In The Empty Throne, the eighth book in this epic series, Uhtred's life seems to hang in the balance but he is determined to battle until the end, especially when the future of the kingdom of Mercia is threatened by the death of the estranged husband of King Alfred’s daughter, Aethelflaed. Somehow, Uhtred manages to foil a plot to bring in a de facto leader who is in the pocket of the neighbouring kingdom. Can he bring about the election of Aethelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians (and his former lover) to become ruler instead? Will the Mercians accept a woman as their leader? Oh, and also on his to do list is stopping a threatened invasion by the dreaded Norsemen, which could completely derail the whole scheme if he's not up to the job. And finally, can he NOT end up dead in the process? This is an absolute tour de force of a book. Full of political intrigue, action and revenge, intermingled with some humour and tenderness ... and not forgetting the odd shield wall to contend with. Bernard Cornwell is so at the top of his game that it's enough to make me go giddy with excitement whenever I pick up one of his books. I thought it couldn't get any better than his Sharpe novels, but in this Saxon versus Norseman, Pagan versus Christian epic, it actually has. The BBC have just produced a TV Series based on these novels which starts tonight in the UK ... happy days!!! If you haven't yet ventured into The Last Kingdom, and you like the action to come thick and fast, and feel like you are learning a bit of history too, then please take the time to do so. I would recommend this book in any format, but I found the audio edition (my first in this series), which is narrated by Matt Bates, to be a particular treat.

My STAR rating: FIVE.

Length: 352 print pages.
Price I paid: Free, borrowed as an audio book from local library.
Formats available: print; audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

The Peculiar Life Of A Lonely Postman - Haiku Heaven!

I stumbled across The Peculiar Life Of A Lonely Postman, by Denis Theriault, completely by accident when browsing through the ebook offerings from my local library. And what a happy accident that turned out to be! Set in Montreal, we are introduced to shy and lonely Bilodo, a postman who is living his life vicariously through the letters he steams open to read every evening. After which, he reseals them and delivers them to their intended recipients the following day. Of particular fascination for him are the letters from Segolene, a young teacher from Guadeloupe, who sends and receives haiku from scruffy academic, Grandpre. Through reading her poetry, Bilodo falls in love with Segolene, and his quiet life bumps along until one fateful day when Grandpre is knocked down and killed while trying to post his latest haiku to Guadeloupe. Unable to face the prospect of no more correspondence from Segolene, Bilodo decides to step into Grandpre's shoes ... which means he has to learn more about haiku and how to write them! The deception works and the postal exchanges become more frequent and more intimate. As Bilodo retreats further and further from real life, is he in danger of losing his own identity and sanity for the sake of his perfect dream world? This book almost has a fairy tale quality about it, helped enormously by the presence of many haiku strewn throughout the prose. It holds a stark warning about losing sight of reality, but also has a reassuring twang about the circle of life. There is much to enjoy in this short book, with the heartstrings being pulled which leaves you rooting for the unfortunate Bilodo despite his less than admirable methods of finding the girl of his dreams ... or does he? Worth a few hours of anyone's time!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 128 print pages.
Price I paid: Free, borrowed from library as an ebook.
Formats available: print; ebook.

Nemesis - keep your wits about you!

Jo Nesbo is a master at the type of thriller that grips you within the first couple of paragraphs and lets you know that you are in for a good time. In Nemesis, the fourth outing for Harry Hole, we find that our troubled detective is not only off the booze, but is actually in an adult relationship with the lovely Rakel. She, however, is in Russia, trying to prevent the dodgy father of her son from taking him away from her. Harry misses his new little family, and is continuing to brood over the death of his partner, Ellen, a year ago. He is not convinced that the whole truth has been uncovered and wants to keep investigating. However, when a bank robbery ends up with one of the female tellers being shot dead, he is assigned the case. Joining him is Beate, a young police officer whose father was killed in the line of duty by a bank robber, and who has the ability to remember every single face she has ever seen. At the same time, Harry happens to meet an old girlfriend and stupidly accepts her invitation to a drink in her apartment. When Harry wakes up the next day, he cannot remember a thing, but has got the mother of all hangovers! Unfortunately for Harry, the girlfriend turns up dead and he is not entirely sure that he didn't do it. And so begins an incredibly complex novel, full of twists, turns, revelations and dead ends. Just when you think you know who did what, you are thwarted once again. To keep all these threads going and keep the surprises coming is an epic feat. Very well written and full of great characters, in which it is never safe to assume which side anyone is on. I found this book to be highly imaginative, but you do have to keep your wits about you in order to make sure that you keep up! I was confused a couple of times but was able to get back on track and I found Nemesis to be an edge-of-the-seat tale that kept me guessing and then guessing some more right up to the last page. It's only a matter of time before I turn back to Harry Hole!
 

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 706 print pages.

Price I paid: Free, borrowed from my husband.

Formats available: print; audio cassette; unabridged audio download; ebook. 

My Dear, I Wanted To Tell You - More WWI drama!

It is a bit unfortunate that I had started to read this book at the same time as Toby's Room, because not only is this set during World War I, but it also features artists, a facial injury and even two of the same characters!!! However, this did not deter me from continuing with My Dear, I Wanted To Tell You, by Louisa Young ... Riley Purefoy comes from humble beginnings, yet finds his way into the rarefied life of artists by first becoming a model in his youth and gradually making himself indispensable to this artist and finally becoming his pupil. Also being tutored is the very well-to-do Nadine Waveney. They become firm friends and that friendship turns to love, but with the class divide between them, Riley never vocalises his feelings. The war starts and Riley joins up, and finds that he is a remarkably good soldier and works his way up the ranks under the guidance of Peter Locke, his commanding officer. One time on leave, Riley and Nadine meet up and their love can no longer be hidden. Meanwhile, Peter is slowly falling apart, as is his wife, Julia, who is desperately trying to hang onto her beauty, convinced that unless she does so, Peter will never want her when he returns from the war. When Riley receives a terrible facial injury, he is shipped home and decides that he will not be a burden to Nadine, and ends their relationship with a cruel letter. Distraught, she heads to France as a nurse, and experiences the horrors Riley had been protecting her from. Will the war ever end, and can there ever be a happy ending after the inhumanity it has wrought ... This book is a love story, but also encapsulates the ceaseless determination of the human spirit to triumph over adversity despite all attempts to grind it into submission. The dreamy idyll of life before the war is juxtaposed by the senseless destruction of human life in the trenches. It's the story of those who are left at home as much as those who go to war, with each fighting their own personal battles. There is much to recommend in this story, though the ending will not be to everyone's taste. I read the audio edition, narrated by Dan Stevens (pre Downton Abbey fame), and he does an excellent job in conveying all the characters. Worth a punt!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 33 print pages.
Price I paid: Free, it was a gift.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story - Still fresh!

Almost everyone knows a bit about The Jungle Book, although maybe mostly, like myself, through watching the fabulous Disney cartoon ...Get with the beat Bhaggy ...! Could the original work by Rudyard Kipling be as good? In a word ...YES! In The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story, all the tales of the young Indian boy are brought together in one edition. We first meet our hero as a toddler, who is saved from the jaws of the tiger, Shere Khan, by the timely intervention of a pack of wolves. Amazed at the lack of fear shown by this man-cub, they take him into the pack and raise him as one of their own, giving him the name of Mowgli. As he grows, he is given lessons on the law of the jungle by Baloo the bear, Bagheera the black panther and Kaa the python. We follow Mowgli through his childhood, which include a kidnapping by Monkeys and several near misses with Shere Khan. But all too soon, his wolf mother and father feel that the time is right for him to go back to live with his own kind again, but Mowgli struggles to fit in and cannot help but return to what he calls home. Will Mowgli ever be able to feel human, or will he always want to swing around in the trees with his adopted family? And will he ever be able to escape the threat of his stripy nemesis? This is a book that can bring you back to your childhood within a few pages. It is full of the growing pains we all experience in our youth, with both dark and light moments, but always, there is an immense amount of love.  I thoroughly enjoyed the slightly dramatized version from Audible which included Tim McInnery as the narrator and Bill Bailey as Baloo. I found it an evocative and touching book with themes as relevant today as they were when it was written, but then maybe I'm just a sentimental old Hector. Maybe this is why Disney are producing a new live action version as we speak!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 160 print pages.
Price I paid: Free offer from Audible.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; unabridged audio CD; ebook.

Slaughterhouse 5 - oddly fascinating

I have been sitting here, looking at a blank computer screen for some time now, trying to work out what to say about Slaughterhouse 5, by Kurt Vonnegut. I am not sure where to start ... I think I need a bit more thinking time ... (some 15 minutes later) ... okay, here goes! This book is unlike anything I have ever read before. It may be relatively short, but it packs so much in that, like the central character of Billy Pilgrim, I found myself disorientated and not always 100% sure about where or indeed when I was. The author, who witnessed the horrific bombing of Dresden during the Second World War, and has taken that experience as his inspiration, using the life and times of Billy Pilgrim as his vessel. We travel with Billy through space and time, where he jumps between the key events in his life. This includes the time when, he believes, he was abducted by aliens who have subsequently instilled in him the philosophy that both time, and more importantly, death is irrelevant - if you existed at one point on the time line, then you will always exist, and death just happens to be a different point on that time line. So it goes. Billy can be on his honeymoon and in the blink of an eye, back in Dresden surrounded by his fellow prisoners, but already knowing what is going to happen to each and every one of them. Billy seems to take some kind of comfort in this heightened self-awareness, and tries to keep his focus on the good things he is, has, or will soon be experiencing - taking guidance from his alien abductors. The book is written in a short, clipped style - not dwelling for any length of time in one place or time. It tells the story of the Dresden bombing, but in short snippets. Is the author protecting us, or himself by using this technique? Could anyone tell, or hear, the full blown version in one uninterrupted sitting without falling into despair? Slowly, and surely, we go back to Dresden, but the horror is broken up by the other events from Billy's life, the banal, the joyful, the proud and the ludicrous moments too. Which of these events are fact, and which are just protective constructs of Billy's mind is not always easy to determine. It is a book that is hard to put down, but, at the same time, can be hard to pick up again. It's not always an easy read, with the style taking a bit of getting used to, but it is definitely worth the effort ... So it goes. So it goes. So it goes.

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 192 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from local library as an ebook.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; ebook.

Grave Peril - revenge is a dish best served by ghosts!

In this third outing for the deeply caustic wizard/private-eye, Harry Dresden finds himself thrown from one perilous situation into another. Grave Peril, by Jim Butcher, opens with Harry fending off a violent ghost in the maternity wing of a Chicago hospital who seems determined to harm the babies. By his side is a new character to us, Michael, a man with the strongest faith in God who wields a powerful sword on His behalf to combat evil in the world. Together, they send the ghost back to the Netherworld, but find that she was under a powerful torture spell ... no wonder she was so full of anger. It soon becomes apparent that there is a dark force at work, and that the barrier between the worlds has become dangerously thin, thus allowing far too many ghosts to return "topside" to take revenge on those who wronged them when they were alive. Into this mix come some lusty, and very hungry vampires, who seem intent on luring Harry to his death, and, as if that wasn't enough, Harry's Godmother - a powerful Faerie named Leah - also has designs on him. Harry thinks he knows who and what is pulling the strings, but is shocked to his very core to find that he was wrong, in the process of which, he is badly weakened when some of his magic power is ripped from him. Around him, Harry's friends are becoming targets and he knows he has to fight with everything he's got left to protect those who have had his back in the past ... This book is a great addition to this series and, if you didn't know that there were more books to come, you might well believe there's no way Harry can escape from the mess he's soon in. The action is full on, the atmosphere dark, the future unsure, but the sarcastic comments of Harry bring little pearls of humour into what could otherwise become a relentless assault on your senses ... particularly if you read the audio version with headphones, which is what I was doing. Superbly narrated by James Marsters, the audio will not disappoint. This story is a great romp if you like your action supernatural. While it cleverly wraps up this particular adventure, it has also sown the seeds for the future ... and for Harry, you just know that the future won't be a walk in the park! Oh, and take a tip from me, NEVER make a bargain with a Faerie!

My STAR rating: FOUR.

Length: 384 print pages.
Price I paid: £5.84.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; MP3 CD; ebook.