The Books I'm reading at the moment

The books on my night stand at the moment are:-

1. Fatal Revenant by Stephen Donaldson - The most recent book in the final tales of Thomas Covenant quartet. The first three books were recommended to me by a friend. I found them dull and heavy going. Despite not enjoying them, I struggled through the next three volumes and the first volume in the final chronicles. I started this book months ago and it will probably take me another few months before I finish it. I can only take a few pages of Donaldson's verbose purple prose at a time.

2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick - a classic from one of the greats. This book provided the inspiration for Blade Runner, but is not like the movie at all. Not the first time I've read it nor will it be the last, it is always fun to revisit old favourites.

3. Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin - I bought this book due to the amount of praise for the author on Amazon. I haven't started it yet. I like the cover, but the blurb doesn't entice me.

So what are you reading at the moment?

The Book I'm Reading at the Moment

The Books I'm Reading This Week

1. The Last Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

I was introduced to the Watch series when I saw the movie adaptation of the first book - The Night Watch. The film was sufficiently interesting to make me buy the book and I've been hooked ever since.

I really enjoyed Night Watch, Day Watch not so much and Twilight Watch became my favourite of the first three books because of its strong plot, magical scenarios and devious twists and turns.

The latest book - The Last Watch - has not disappointed. It is as strong, if not stronger than Twilight Watch and is full of magic, fast paced action, occasional humour and a very satisfying end.

It is nice to catch up with Anton, the hero of the series. He is still working in the Moscow Night Watch and is now a Higher Other. A young Russian has been killed in Edinburgh and a vampire is suspected. Geser sends Anton to Scotland to investigate - unofficially. However, Anton realises that a lot more is at stake than one murdered student and a potential rogue vampire. In fact, the existence of the Twilight - essential to Others - might be in jeopardy thanks to an object hidden hundreds of years ago by the wizard Merlin.

If you like fantasy and haven't read these books yet, then you should start reading them immediately! I would advise you start with Night Watch, however, to get to know the characters when it all started.

Random story - I read Day Watch while on set for a short film, while waiting for the cameras to be set up. One of my fellow background support approached me and asked if the book I was reading was Russian, which then sparked off a conversation. It turned out she was Russian and working in IT in Ireland. We got on really well and had a very fun day on set together.

2.Doctor Who: Ghosts of India by Mark Morris
Pinky very kindly gave me this book last Saturday. It is a Dr Who novel set during the days of the Dr as played by David Tennant with Donna as his companion. I have read a few Dr Who novels and adaptations before and found them to vary in quality. So far, Ghosts of India is good.

Donna has a craving for a curry, so the Dr takes her to Calcutta to sample the real thing. He means to arrive in 1937, but the unpredictable TARDIS deposits them a decade later, when the country is on the brink of civil unrest. Even more worrying, a strange illness is spreading through the city. Could the god Shiva be responsible?

Morris captures the characters of the Dr and Donna well, and creates a nice atmosphere for Calcutta. There is an ever so slight feel of a creaky BBC set about the action, but that actually endears the book to me. What does concern me, however, is that the blurb mentions the Dr meeting up with Gandhi. That makes me groan. Why does the new Dr ALWAYS have to meet up with a famous person from Earth history? Why does he never visit alien planets anymore? I can understand that budget might limit the tv series somewhat, but it would be nice to see more imaginative locals in the books.

Ghosts of India has given me little to complain about so far and it is produced in a very attractive A5 hardcover that makes me want to touch it and read it no matter what lies inside. I haven't got far enough yet to give a thorough review, but I'm enjoying it.

Now, what I want to know is - how do I get me one of these tv series tie in deals (or a movie novelisation for that matter?). Firefly or X Files books anyone? A Labyrinth novelisation perhaps? (apparently one was written, you can buy it here. Isn't it time for an update?)

Book of the Month

Spencer L Casey lives in Northern California and has been writing since he was in Primary School. ‘Dalia’s Fire’, his first full length work of fiction, combines his love of horror and thriller in a fast paced supernatural page turner reminiscent of Dean Koontz.

The book centres on Dalia, a young woman, and her estranged father Jay. Dalia is pregnant, but can’t remember who the father is until he comes calling for his offspring. She disappears and Jay’s home in the mountains burns in a raging fire impossible to put out. Suspected of murder, and plagued by visions, Jay has to find his daughter - and soon to be granddaughter - before it is too late. Can this curmudgeon recluse get anyone to help him?

‘Dalia’s Fire’ starts strong and hooked my interest from the first page. The pace, apart from the occasional blip, rolls forward with gathering intensity, making it very hard to put the book down. The characters are likeable and well written and I cared about them, often shouting at the book to egg Jay on to action or worrying for Dalia in her hardship. I found the character of Dalia particularly appealing. She is a young woman who lost herself in drink, drugs and debauchery to escape the pain of life but, during the course of the novel, slowly wakes up to her behaviour and matures. The antagonist (who I won’t name here for fear of spoilers) was also one of my favourite characters. The pages sizzle every time he appears and he is evil, tempered with enough depth to make him human.

The supernatural elements, hinted at from the beginning, come into their own in the middle and latter parts of the book. As a fan of the paranormal, this extra string to the story line increased my interest in the novel. Spencer weaves the supernatural story into the plot well, without damaging the believability of the realistic modern day setting or reducing the story line to fantasy. The supernatural element itself is new and refreshing and while I did not agree with some of the rules of its universe, they were complete and well told.

By the end of the book it becomes obvious that the central theme is love – something that Spencer is quite open about in his books. Love a parent has for a child, love a man has for a woman, love we all have for our environment. This made the story stronger for me, and the ending is fantastic, wrapping up the threads with a satisfying, and emotional climax, leaving just enough of a hint about things that may or may not come in the future that you are left wanting more.

This was the first book of Spencer L Casey that I’ve read and he is an author I will look out for in the future. His fast paced writing, strong characters and emotionally satisfying plot are exactly what I look for in a book and once you find an author who delivers, it is good to hang on to them.

‘Dalia’s Fire’ is a highly enjoyable, entertaining piece of fiction. If you enjoy thrillers, and especially ones with a different edge such as the works of Dean Koontz or Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, then I think this book is for you. It is currently available from Lulu and Amazon. Its ISBN is 0557033470 and is 298 pages long. $1 from every book sold goes to fire relief or fire prevention in California. To learn more about Spencer L Casey, read my interview of him here.

Author of the Month

I first became aware of the work of Spencer L Casey earlier this year when I read his new novel, ‘Dalia’s Fire’. It is a thriller about Jay and his daughter Dalia, who must face adversaries of both the human and supernatural kind, set against the backdrop of a raging fire in the Californian mountains. I found it an absorbing read. He very kindly agreed to be interviewed for my inaugural author of the month.

Hello Spencer, it is very exciting interviewing you for my blog. I really enjoyed ‘Dalia’s Fire’. I’m interested to know how long you have been writing?
My first poem came out in the fourth grade. It's a funny story, actually. We had a writing contest to get into a book published by educators in our county. Probably 30 schools and 15,000 kids. So our teacher had everyone write a poem. I wrote mine and threw it away. She retrieved it - love this woman forever - submitted it and it was chosen for the book along with maybe a hundred other pieces.

More than twenty-five years later, after I had been married to my love for several years, we were digging through some old boxes and discovered that we were both in that same book. The poem she "wrote" at five years old from a school sixty miles away, two decades before we would meet was published on the page just before mine. Weird, eh?

My first short story was in my late teens and my first novel was about nine years ago.


How you describe your writing style?
When I wrote for the county's Scripps Howard paper I was told I had a friendly writing style. I think I write in the moment. If you know horror, Dean Koontz would be in the moment and Anne Rice would be in a more abstract state. I'm closer to Mr. Koontz. I write mostly complex, difficult, emotional, sometimes horrific stories in a very straightforward way.


Is 'Dalia’s Fire' your first published novel?
I've written six books. Two are short-story compilations published under a different name. The other three are, well, practice novels. They will never be seen by any eyes but my own. So, yes, this is my first published novel. I have three more in various states of composition and plan on releasing one a year.

Can you tell me a little about your inspiration for the book?
I grew up and live in the area where the book takes place. In my early 20's a blaze called Fountain Fire swept through the hills and trees I had known like friends since I was old enough to know, much the way Jack Bastion knows and loves the wilderness near his home. The fire was a devastating time. My grandparents lost their home of twenty years or so in Round Mountain, Rounders Mountain in the book. The story grew from there, fueled by my fascination with the power of the human mind to create beyond the boundaries of thought.

I notice that a percentage from each copy of your book sold goes to help people who have suffered from the recent fires in California, which is a lovely idea. How often do real life events influence your work?
Real life events almost always influence what I write, whether it's for a setting, a character, an emotion or an idea. Even the most fantastical creations are filled with pieces of my own life. Real life is the fuel that burns during the writing process and the resulting flames are the story.

I heard you say once that you find writing in different genres helps you keep your writing fresh. You likened writing in one genre all the time to being like only eating one type of food. With that in mind, which genre do you consider the staple of your literary diet?
It's horror, definitely, although I'm afraid that turns many people off. I've tried dressing it up with words like suspense and thriller. I believe when many people think of horror they picture "Friday the 13th" movies where everyone must die, save that one final victim. That is miles from what I do. But horror is the accepted term for what I write most often.


Do you have a writing routine that you would mind sharing with us?
It varies, certainly. With four kids, a full-time job and seemingly endless obligations, I have to find writing time where I can. I think it's that way with many writers these days. But I carry with me either my MacBook or AlphaSmart NEO almost all the time, so I can take advantage of unexpected bits of time.


They say every writer should first be a reader. Which authors are your favourites and why?
I read a lot. I think that's as important as writing to an author. Favorites are hard, but I think my top five right now would be Koontz and King for their style and fantastical stories, Terry Brooks for nostalgic reasons, Orson Scott Card for his pure brilliance and Christopher Moore for his blending of horror and comedy.


I really enjoyed 'Dalia’s Fire'. It gripped me from start to finish and I would like to find out more about the characters introduced in the book. Have you plans for a sequel?
There are five element novels. The second is called "Twin Waters" and I expect to complete it in 2010. Right now I have two others in process, a wonderful futuristic fantasy I conceived many years ago and am finally capable of writing and a pure fantasy which may or may not take precedence.


And finally Spencer, if you only had one paragraph to describe 'Dalia’s Fire' to potential readers, what would you say?
Well, that standard blurb is : In the beautiful mountains of Northern California, a young women is abducted and thought murdered by her estranged father. Now she must fight for her life and the life of her unborn daughter, a child who holds the key to the greatest power the world has ever known.

If I was just talking to someone I might say, "This book is a ride. It's about sacrifice and courage and the power of the mind. But in the end, as with nearly everything I write, this novel is about love, and what a human being can accomplish and endure simply because love exists. That theme is what I write and why I write it."

If you would like to find out more about Spencer L Casey and ‘Dalia’s Fire’, check out his blog, which he writes under the name George Coddard, a character in a D.H. Lawrence book, his Facebook Fan Page for Dalia’s Fire and Dalia’s Fire is also for sale on Lulu.com and Amazon.com.

Next week I will post a review of ‘Dalia’s Fire.’

The Books I'm not Reading this Week

I'm not reading a book this week. I've finished the ones I have with me and I haven't found a new one yet. So, to keep this post novel related, I thought I would write a list of some of my favourite books. This list is in no way exhaustive, is arranged in no particular order and doesn't include any books written by my family - you know you are top of my list guys.

Here are 11 books for the 11th of February.

Enjoy.

1. Dracula by Bram Stoker - as scary now as when it was first written, this classic was almost solely responsible for catapulting vampires into the limelight - and eventually into our beds. If you haven't already, you should read it.

2. The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien - I know this book so well I almost know it off by heart. It is an old dear friend I like to revisit on cold winter evenings.

3. The Abhorsen Chronicles by Garth Nix - I enjoyed the first book in this trilogy, Sabriel, but the second and third parts (Lirael and Abhorsen) blew me away. Oh, and Kelloggs gave me Lirael for free, so it was a double win situation.

4. I am legend by Richard Matheson - Thinking about this book still gives me shivers. It has become part of my brain chemistry. Good game to play - what would you do if you were Robert Neville?

5. The Sheep Pig by Dick King Smith - I think I cried the beginning of a large size garden pond because of this book. It got to the stage where my sister had to change the story so it wouldn't cause me any more heart ache. It's a classic.

6. The vet books by James Herriot - He inspired legions of fans to become vets and entertained millions of animal lovers with his sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant accounts of being a vet in rural Yorkshire.

7. The Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill - This book was like a waking nightmare for me. I could not sleep I was so traumatised after reading it. It was absolutely brilliant!

8. Stardust by Neil Gaiman - It has magic, whimsy and evil witches. What more could anyone ask for?

9. The Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child - They hit the right note of science, thriller and horror with their first joint outing and were never quite able to do it again.

10. Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz - I love Dean, and it is hard to choose a favourite among his works, but wow!

11. World War Z by Max Brooks - Finding a good zombie novel can be hard. Most are pure guilty pleasure, but this book is a real find. Building on his earlier novel - The Zombie Survival Guide - Brooks improves upon the theme and creates a book which should be a must read in every school and university.

The Book I am Reading This Week

This is the fourth installment in the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz. In the first two books Odd was a humble fry cook in a diner in Pico Mundo, haunted by Elvis and greeted daily by ghosts, bodachs (evil creatures) and bad guys. In the third book, Brother Odd, he moved to a monastery to find peace but instead found evil in a new guise as well as new friends and companions. In Odd Hours, he has moved again to a small town on the Californian coast called Magic Beach, where he cooks for an old actor and gets caught up in a web of mystery, magic and murder.

I love Dean Koontz and among all his works the Odd series is my favourite. I devoured the previous three books in one sitting. However, I am struggling to get into Odd Hours. I was very disappointed by Dean's last couple of books and it seems that Odd Hours is following the trend. All I can hope is that the next three books in the series (yes, he has said there will be seven) will improve and reach the heights that Odd Thomas and Brother Odd achieved.

The Book I am Reading This Week

The back of the book proclaims it 'attacks all the religious explanations of faith... undermines the idea of sexual relations based on jealousy... pokes a bitter satirical finger at the materialists and politicians.'

Sounds fun.

The front says (on my version anyway) 'the most famous science fantasy novel of all time.'

True.

I like Heinlein, I do (I have to say that or the League of Science Fiction Fans will get me) and I particularly enjoyed The Puppet Masters and Starship Troopers. However, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress I didn't like quite so much. The book was very well written but I felt that story line and character were pushed aside in favour of Heinlein's views and I am not a fan of books that do this. If there is a message - and really, what book doesn't have one of some sort? - I prefer it to be subtly written into the plot rather than the novel being used as a soap box for the author. And yes, I like action in books. If I want to read about philosophy and politics I will read a non fiction book, magazine or newspaper.

With that in mind, I feel I am obliged to read this book because it is so famous. I find the language quite dated and while I'm sure it was ground breaking in the sixties, parts of it seem quaint by today's standards. However, I am being entertained (so far).

The Book I am Reading This Week

Unless you've been living under a stone for the last thirty-something odd years you can't have missed hearing about Anne Rice and her vampire revolution in some shape or form. This book, about the life story of morose, pretentious so called vampire Louis introduced Ms Rice's most famous vampire - Lestat - and catapulted her into the public imagination.

Vampires have never been the same since.

Whether you have read the book, seen the film or come in contact with the thousands of spin off clones (be it Laurell K Hamilton, Christopher Pike, Darren Shan, Stephanie Meyer or any of the thousands of vampire writers out there) you cannot have failed to notice that vampires are no longer the enemy. They have gone from demons that possess the bodies of the dead and use every trick in the book to not only suck our blood but steal our soul to a creature just like us - except stronger, faster, sexier and, er, immortal.

Vampire rights and calling for their integration into everyday society has become a strong trend in modern books and tv shows about vampires. Having a vampire boyfriend is now so common it is almost expected. The vampire has become our cuddly friend - ostracized, misunderstood and marginalised. In all respects they have become defanged, no longer a threat to our own immortality. A domesticated monster made fat and friendly by our fascination for the macabre.

As you can tell I dislike this tame kind of vampire who usually has long curly hair and wears crushed velvet suits with frilly shirts. I like my vampires to be monsters. They should be scary, lethal, unquestionably evil and attractive in the way that jumping off a cliff or sticking your fingers into an electrical socket can appear to be. I am reading this book because it is so famous and I thought it might help me to understand why the enemy has now become our best friend. I am finding it hard going however.

Review of March 2008

March started well for me with news that I had won the Dundalk branch of Curves 30 day challenge. Apart from a not too dodgy prize of a €55 token for Boots chemist, I lost 10lbs and 18 inches, which is the real prize. Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse after that high point and I suffered about three weeks of ill health which meant little to no writing, cancelled teaching days (hence loss of money) and exercising falling off the radar. I got two weeks holiday at Easter but was still picking myself up so I didn't get all the writing done that I had planned. My goal for March was to read 9 books. I completed five, which is up from last month but only half as many as January. Word wise, I wrote fractionally more than February with 11,400 compared to last month's 11,100. My aim was to enter 2 short story competitions this month and I exceeded it by two. I entered short stories into the Fish One Page Prize 2008, Tom Howard/John H Reid Short Story Contest, Aeon Award 2008 and the Invisible Ink Story Competition. I had also planned to enter a story to the Permuted Press Giant Creatures Anthology but failed to finish my story 'The Shark that ate Dublin' in time. Likewise, my entry to the Bristol Prize Short Story Competition 2008 was a non runner as I missed the post (imagine running a competition in this day and age without online entry as an option?). I had plans to submit my flash fiction 'Does Love Dogs' to AlienSkin but failed to edit it in time to submit it before March ended. There is always next month. Exercise was practically non existent this month, with no attendances to curves and only a few salsa slims and days where I played wii (highest fitness age 41, lowest 24). I did complete my achievement goal for the month in trying new things, which was climbing the Greater Sugar Loaf in Wicklow. I just scraped in at the last minute but I managed to get there in the end and it was a challenging but rewarding day. With my four submissions this month I have beaten my January curse - which is, I submit in January and then don't submit anything else all year until the January of the following year. I hope this trend keeps up. I promised to keep you updated on my stories from past months, so this is how my January entries are doing. My entry to Glimmer Train's Family Matters Competition, 'The Shadow Room' failed to be short listed and I am guessing that 'The Memory of Fat', my entry to the Maria Edgeworth Competition didn't get to the finish line either as the festival took place on Saturday and I was not invited to attend. I am still waiting to hear back on how my brave little stories are doing.

My hopes for April? To keep up submitting to competitions and publications. To increase my word count. To read more books. To think up and complete another new achievement. To have a successful Belly Dance workshop on the 19th and to have fun in Donegal with my sis's and dogs at the end of the month.

Book Review: Artemis Fowl and the Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer

This is the fourth outing of the highly successful series centering on criminal boy genius, Artemis Fowl written by Irishman Eoin Colfer. In the last book, Artemis and his bodyguard Butler had their minds wiped by the LEP recon (or fairy police - they live under the earth's core. Lord Boate anyone? X-Philes are probably the only people to get that). Without knowledge of the fairy world and his changing outlook on life, Artemis has returned to a criminal life but his past has not forgotten him. Opal Kobi, arch villain and uber intelligent Pixie, is seeking revenge on the people who put her behind bars. That means Artemis and Captain Holly Short, among others, are on her list. The usual crowd are reassembled in this novel from Foaly to the flatulent dwarf, Mulch Diggums.

It has been a while since I read the last Artemis Fowl book. I enjoyed the first book, with the titular hero reminding me of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's character Special Agent Pendergast (and hence Sherlock Holmes). I found the second book somewhat dull but the third book in the series was, in my opinion, the best of the lot with a great storyline and more depth to it than the others. The Opal Deception did not come close to changing my mind on that matter. Is it just me or is Artemis wearing a bit thin? Perhaps I have finally got too old to read children's books. I found this installment a trite by the numbers affair with every other line a punch line and its tongue much too firmly in its cheek to keep my interest. Don't get me wrong, I do like Artemis, but I just couldn't get into this one. I had hoped that the fourth book would follow on from the third with a deeper more layered tale but instead it seems to have got even more frivolous. It's not that dark things don't happen in this novel - in fact something very serious and surprising takes place - but it didn't have any resonance with me. I couldn't believe in the world or believe that Mr Colfer was taking it very seriously when he wrote it. I can't fault his writing style or the way he builds tension and creates conflict but for me, in this book, everything was a little too contrived and the need to be amusing and clever claimed precedence over the characters and storyline.

I am the first to admit that the mood you are in when you read a book greatly influences your enjoyment of it, and perhaps I was simply in the wrong mindset to enjoy this book. I am sure that the leagues of Artemis Fowl fans would eagerly inform me of my errors, but The Opal Deception left me cold. I'll think twice before I read another. I give it 5/10

Book Review: The House of Thunder by Dean Koontz

This book was first published in 1980 under the pen name of Leigh Nichols. Its writing style reminds me of Robin Cook or Michael Cricthon's books of the same era. The story centers around Susan, who awakes in a small county hospital after receiving a brain injury in a car crash that left her in a coma. Her recovery is going well and she is even developing a romance with her dishy doctor when she starts to see the ghosts of the four men who killed her college sweetheart thirteen years before - or does she? The plot is clever in that nothing is quite what it seems and the writing describes skillfully some scary set pieces. It is an entertaining although not ground breaking read. I give it 5/10

Book Review: Voices by Ursula Le Guin

Ursula Le Guin is a well known author in fantasy circles for her Earthsea trilogy of novels. I read the Earthsea cycle several years ago and, while I enjoyed them, I have a very vague memory of what they were about. I'm not sure where Voices fits in with her more famous books, but I certainly enjoyed it a lot better. It is set in a town that has been persecuted because of its love for books, and told through the perspective of a seventeen year old girl. The prose is simple, the descriptions evocative and the situation very realistic despite its fantasy setting. I'm not really sure why it is called Voices, as the story is told from one person's point of view and voices don't seem to play a big part in the story (as in, she doesn't hear voices and she isn't always listening to different people and their opinions). There is also a woman with a lion which I liked. This story involved little to no magic, so if you like your fantasy stories very magical and unlike the so called real world, then this book isn't for you. However, if you are in the mood for a nicely told little tale, then you might enjoy this. I give it 6/10

Book Review: Year's Best Fantasy 5

It scares me when I think I bought this book 3 years ago and only got around to reading it this year. Yup folks, the year's best fantasy stories in question are for 2004 (the book was published in 2005) and if these stories are the best, I'd hate to see the worst! Most of these stories weren't even published in magazines, but other fantasy story anthologies, so I think the whole book is a bit of a con to get the editor's pals stories published. I hadn't heard of most of the authors apart from Neil Gaimen, whose story is particularly poor (both in writing and in taste). There were one of two stories I liked, several I am surprised qualified as fantasy and the majority I am amazed even got published in the first place. If these are examples of good short stories, then I am even further off the mark than I thought I was with my own writing. I give this collection 4/10

Review of February 2008

3 Books Read
11 thousand words written
One Short Story Competition entered

Not a great second month to follow up January, but my writing was severely disrupted this month by teaching.

Here is to March being a more creatively balanced month (plus it is holiday month, so loads more time for writing).

Book Review: One Door Away From Heaven by Dean Koontz

Anyone who has read my blog before will know that I am a fan of the Koontz-miester, especially of his work from The Face onwards. This book predates The Face and, while the writing style is more like his later work, the length is reminiscent of his earlier novels. Various reviews on Internet sites praise this book for its frank depiction of Bio-Ethics. For those of you who don't know, Bio-Ethics says that all people are equal, but some are more equal than others. What that means is that those of us who are sick, old, mentally or physically disabled should be murdered to let the healthy and the strong have access to the resources of the earth. It is a mode of thought that has become more popular in the last hundred years and has some popular followers including Hitler. It is insane, inhuman and barbaric. I can understand that Dean wanted to write a book exposing such evil but, at 800 pages, this book is heavy handed, preachy and boring. I struggled to finish this book and it took me four months to complete it. The set up is long and overdrawn, the ending is rushed and overly sentimental. I found it hard to be interested and invested in the characters as so little happened in the first 600 pages and the characters were randomly connected with little driving force. I suppose when you are as prolific at writing as Dean, you are bound to hit a bum note once in a while.

Book Review: Spreading the News by Lady Gregory

This short, one act play is a hilarious comedy showing how bad things can happen when a deaf woman indulges in gossip. For sheer laugh out loud brilliance I award it 7/10

Book Review: A Dark Night in Toyland by Bob Shaw

This is a collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror short stories by Bob Shaw. I had never heard of him until I picked up this book in the library and got it out because it looked short and easy to read, but apparently he has written several genre novels. This book is a collection of about a dozen of his previously published stories with a few new ones thrown in. The title story, A Dark Night in Toyland, is about a Minister who's son is dying from cancer. Other stories deal with wizards, fat that has a mind of its own and space explorers. They are easy to read, simply told and have original if not complex plots. Each story is also quite short, with the longest story 'Shadow of Wings' coming at the end. I can't say that I was blown away by any of these stories and already they are fading from my memory, but it was an enjoyable read. My rating is 5/10.

Review: The Five Muses, An Anthology

Bee Gears with the Five Muses

I had a wonderful birthday today, with fantastic presents and great company. One of the highlights of the day was receiving this wonderful book of short stories. It contains seven stories by different authors and is introduced with a foreword by children's author Geri Valentine. The first story, A Fragment of Time, charts man's history with dragons after the flood. Dragons feature again in the second story, Flower, where an old man teaches his grand daughter about the beauty of life and is rewarded for his faith. In A Very Happy Birthday, Rags the dog describes her plan for the perfect day, and in Lily we meet an accountant who leads people back to God. Rubies are Dangerous is a haunting gothic tale twined with romance, set in Paris and concerning curses and the ballet. A Turgid Tale is inappropriately titled as it is an exciting and chilling story about druids and animal sacrifice. Dragons crop up once more in the final story, Falcon, which is a fantasy that will leave you wanting to delve deeper into its world.

I devoured the entire book in one sitting. Each story is engrossing and the threads of fantasy and horror that weave through the book give it a cohesive theme and make it a satisfying collection. I hope that this is the first in many such anthologies and I eagerly await more editions of The Five Muses.

The lesson I have learned

Is that you should always bring your book with you. I went for lunch with a friend the other day and I brought my book with me, but left it in the car once I arrived at the meeting point, because I thought I would hardly need it while eating lunch. How wrong I was. Half way through eating, my friend popped out for a few seconds and didn't return for fifteen minutes. That was precious reading time lost because of not being prepared. And then, this morning, I was waiting for my mum while she went into the shop and AGAIN, I didn't bring my book with me and lost out on minutes of reading. In future I am going to keep a book on me at all times. I might have to strap it to my body to achieve this, but if it must be done, it will be done. Maybe I could invent the first book holster.

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