Quick Reviews

After a stressful week and a half, I find myself with a handful of books that I've not yet reviewed, so I'm going to do some quick reviews of a paragraph or so, on the grounds that a short review is better than none at all !

Den of Thieves

Julia Golding's Den of Thieves is the third volume in her "Cat Royal" series. Young Cat finds herself homeless when her patron, Mr Sheridan, decides to pull down the Drury Lane Theatre in order to rebuild it. Having been found on its doorstep as an orphan, the theatre is the only home she's ever known. Too proud and stubborn to admit to anyone that she has made no other living arrangements, she watches her friend Pedro, the African boy who plays violin in the theatre orchestra, heading off to Europe. Her friend Sid the butcher is off on a boxing tour of England, and the family of Lord Francis, her wealthiest friends, is dispersing to France or the English countryside. Cat finds temporary accommodation and work with a fraudulent printer who passes her stories off as the work of his young male assistant. When Lord Francis and Mr Sheridan discover this, they are able to rescue Cat and Mr Sheridan offers Cat a job - a trip to Paris to find out more about the ongoing French Revolution. She naively accepts and heads off pretending to be a member of the Theatre's Ballet Company. Arriving in France under the protection of Lord Francis, she is nearly hung from a lamp-post as a traitor to the Revolution, then finds herself pursued by several suitors (much to her bafflement!) When the French Royal family flees Paris, Cat discovers the power of the people.

Pippi Longstocking


Astrid Lindgren's ever-popular character Pippi Longstocking is a nine year old girl who lives without any adult supervision in a house of her. She's very unconventional, assertive, rich and extraordinarily strong (she can lift her horse off the veranda that surrounds her house without difficulty). She frequently mocks and dupes the adults she encounters, although Pippi usually reserves her worst behaviour for the most pompous and condescending of the adults whom she meets. She makes friends with two children who live nearby and has a series of dramatic and adventurous escapades, usually with them in tow. This is a fun book and I can see why the character has remained so popular for so many years.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen


Paul Magrs' Mad Dogs and Englishmen was the 100th Classic "Doctor Who" novel to be published and it's an amusing and wild send up of English Literature's favourite fantasists. Reginald Tyler (a thinly disguised J. R. R. Tolkien) has devoted his life to the writing of his masterwork, "The True History of Planets". It is an almost endless story about elves, trolls, goblins, etc. At least, it used to be - and that's the book that the Doctor has always known. However, after arriving at a science-fiction convention in the early 21st century, the Doctor discovers that the book is no longer about such fantastical creatures, but is instead a book about the true events on Dogworld, a planet inhabited by poodles with hands who can talk. The Dogworld Queen has been overthrown and a new Emperor has taken over. To make matters worse, an acclaimed movie maker (a thinly disguised George Lucas) has made a movie of the book which will make the situation on Dogworld even worse. Thus, the Doctor, and his Companions, Anji and Fitz, have to figure out what's going on and how to stop it. They pick up some more temporary companions along the way and separate into the time stream in order to sort out what's happened. The Doctor and one poodle go to the 1940s and infiltrate the Smudgelings, Tyler's elite Cambridge writing group (the thinly disguised Inklings group of Oxford). Fitz and Flossie (another temporary companion) go to the 196's and fall in with the flamboyant torch-singer, Brenda Soobie, who is rather more than she seems. Finally, Anji and another poodle, go to the 1970s where work on the film of "The True History of the Planets" is just beginning. What follows is pretty bizarre but still amusing. There's even a comment on the decline of stop-motion animation and the rise of CGI in movies which is actually a major plot point of the story. And you may never look at Noel Coward in the same way again after reading this book as he's also a time-traveller - although he uses a rather different object to do his travelling to the Doctor's familiar TARDIS.

Barkbelly


In Cat Weatherill's Barkbelly a farmer finds a wooden egg in a field and takes it home with him. One cold and wet winter night, when he and his wife are unable to get the fire to burn, he throws the egg onto the fire, and they're very surprised when a wooden baby pops out of it. He and his wife, who are childless, adopt the child and name him Barkbelly.

One day at school Barkbelly, who is immensely strong and almost indestructible, accidentally kills one of his school mates in a boisterous game of Bull Run. Convinced that the towns people will kill him, he flees and has a series of adventures, including working in a jam factory and joining a travelling circus. During his travels he discovers that there is an entire island full of other wooden people and he becomes determined to make his way there in order to find his family, from whom he believes he was stolen as an egg since Ashenpeakers (his people) are often sold into slavery as eggs. However, when Barkbelly discovers his mother, he also discovers that life is often more complicated than he had supposed.

Hybrids


David Thorpe's Hybrids was the winning entry to the Harper Collins/SAGA magazine nationwide competition to find a new author over the age of 50. A dark SF tale, its two protagonists are teenagers Johnny Online and Kestrella, who are hybrids - victims of a pandemic called Creep that is sweeping the UK and causes victims to merge with items of technology when over-exposed to their use. Kestrella, who has a mobile phone for a hand, persuades a reluctant Johnny, who merged with a computer and has a screen instead of a face, to help her find her missing mother, but the Gene Police have other plans for him. This compelling narrative is told alternately by Johnny and Kes, and questions the First World's dependence on technology, and our reactions in the face of a nationwide panic. Helen Dunmore, one of the judges for the HC/SAGA competition notes: "The writing is sharp, the dialogue good, and the action pacey and page-turning. But there's a real depth to this story, too. Like all good fiction it makes the reader see the world in a different light." A view I can endorse whole-heartedly.

The Ship Between the Worlds - Julia Golding

I mentioned, in my review of The Mines of the Minotaur that Julia Golding seems to have turned into a one-woman storytelling phenomenon lately. Her stand-alone novel The Ship Between the Worlds is the second of the books she's published this year that I've read.

The Ship Between the Worlds marks something of a departure for Golding - it's the first novel she's written from the point of view of a male protagonist, not a female one. Young David Jones (whose father went missing one day, resulting in him and his mother moving to a new area where he's bullied at his new school) loves ships, especially ships in bottles and his latest, the "Golden Needle", is a fine pirate vessel that he's been making for some time. So when David finds himself being press-ganged on board the "Golden Needle", he just assumes it's a dream. The only thing is, he isn't asleep! The "Golden Needle" is crewed by an astonishing assortment of fiendish pirates, not many of whom are actually human, who are led by the once-terrifying Captain Fisher. The only thing the pirates have in common is a desire to atone for past misdeeds, oh and a lot of gold thread! The pirates are desperately attempting to stitch together the many worlds - including our own - that are sliding towards obliteration into Inferno Rim. However, not every pirate in the dimension Between the Worlds is good. Some of them still have a yearning for gold and the "Scythe", crewed by pirates who live only to steal the golden thread anchoring the worlds, is in hot pursuit of the "Golden Needle". Soon the Golden Needle will run out of both time and golden thread, and then her crew will have to turn and face the "Scythe". What will David do when the day of battle dawns and who will win this fight to the death? If it's the "Scythe", who will take on the role of trying to save the worlds?

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm a big fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (I'm eagerly awaiting the third movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End which is out at end of this month), and pirate tales definitely catch my imagination. This one, like The Wave Runners by Kai Meyer, is great fun and should appeal to both boys and girls.

Mines of the Minotaur - Julia Golding

Julia Golding's Mines of the Minotaur is the third in the Companions Quartet.

Connie is almost unique. She is a Universal, which means she has immense power. The problem Connie has is that she doesn't really know how to use her power, and neither does anyone else in the Society for the Protection of Mythical Beasts because it's been so long since they had a Universal in their midst. Only one person understands Connie's potential and that's the evil shapeshifter, Kullervo. What Connie doesn't know is that he has started infiltrating her dreams, causing her to sleepwalk and raise a devastating storm. And when she's awake, the darker side of Connie's power is beginning to feel increasingly attractive, especially if she's angry or upset. When her best friend, Col, discovers what's happening, he begs Connie to seek help, so she turns to the Society, the group of people and mythical beings who are meant to protect her. But they're so terrified by what she tells them that they expel her. Feeling abandoned and scared, Connie visits an old abandoned mine where she finds she isn't alone as the mine's full of sick mythical creatures that the Society has forgotten. They are led by the once-proud Minotaur who, having been blinded in a fight, is now a broken, nameless creature. However, he gives Connie the courage to face her dark side, and in so doing begins to heal himself. I like this series, but the books still seem very didactic, especially on the issue of environmentalism. Somehow it feels too in-my-face (which I find distracting), moreso than the anti-slavery themes of the Cat Royal series.

The first two books in the Companions Quartet are The Secret of the Sirens and The Gorgon's Gaze. Julia Golding seems to have turned into a one-woman story-telling phenomenon lately as she's also published Den of Thieves, the third in her Cat Royal series, The Ship Between the Worlds a stand-alone pirate tale, and in June Ringmaster, an African adventure story, is out. I'm hoping to get both Den of Thieves and The Ship Between the Worlds from the library soon.

Nestle Children's Book Prize Winner

Julia Golding, a former UN campaigner and ex-diplomat, has won this year's Nestle Children's Book Prize for her debut novel, The Diamond of Drury Lane (Egmont Press) (Review). It's the second time this book has won a literary prize, as it was also the winner of the Ottaker's Children's Book Prize 2006.

The award was made today at the British Library in London, in front of an invited audience of some of the schoolchildren who were this year's judges. The Nestle Children's Book Prize, now in its 22nd year celebrates the nation's best children's books as voted for by children themselves.

(Thanks to Kelly for the heads-up - I'd forgotten this was being announced today ! Migraines are bad for the memory !)

Cat Among the Pigeons - Julia Golding

Julia Golding's Cat Among the Pigeons is the second book in her historical Cat Royal series. In this adventure, Cat's friend Pedro, a violin-playing slave boy, is wanted by his former owner, the nasty Kingston Hawkins. Hawkins claims that Pedro was sold by a man with no ownership rights over him, and therefore Pedro's apprenticeship to Signor Angelini is invalid. He wants Pedro back and isn't interested in what Pedro wants. Cat steps in to attempt to save her friend, telling Hawkins that the boy he's just seen playing Ariel isn't Pedro at all because Pedro died of a fever the week before. The celebrated actor, Mr Kemble arrives and backs up Cat's story, but Hawkins doesn't believe them. He threatens them with the law before stomping off. Cat and Pedro go to their friends Frank and Lizzie, the children of the Duke of Avon, for assistance and are introduced to the local Abolitionists. They decide to get the public who go to the Theatre Royal on Pedro's side, and print fliers for just that reason. In the meantime, Cat is sent to Brook's club with some tickets and finds herself trapped by Hawkins and his cronies. They put her up on the billiard table and start inspecting her as if she was a slave too. Cat escapes, but in doing so she causes a lot of havoc and soon she finds herself wanted by the Law.

Will Cat escape a prison sentence ? Will Pedro be dragged back to Jamaica by Kingston Hawkins ? And where do three sisters from the Society of Friends fit into everything ? Read this book and find out !

Golding has created some lively and engaging characters who will keep you entertained with their wild adventures. This book is highly recommended.

The Gorgon's Gaze - Julia Golding

Julia Golding's The Gorgon's Gaze is the second book in the Companions Quartet.

Mallins Wood is under threat from developers as the Axoil company wants a new, faster access road to its oil refinery. However, unknown to everyone but the members of the top secret Society for the Protection of Mythical Creatures, Mallins Wood is the home of the last gorgon, the creature so deadly she can kill just by looking at you. The gorgon's Companion (ie. the human that has a special bond with the gorgon) is Col's mother, and she's determined to save it. So determined is she, that she is willing to take aid from the evil shape-shifter Kullervo, even if it means having to sacrifice her son to him. But Col's mother doesn't realise that Kullervo wants more than to just help the gorgon - he also wants universal power, and to achieve that he needs Col's best friend, Connie.

In the meantime, Connie has her own troubles. Her parents have heard about Connie's escapades regarding the Axoil refinery nearly a year ago and they've decided that Connie's membership of the Society is endangering her. They send Connie's Great Aunt Godiva and Great Uncle Hugh to look after her, instead of her aunt Evelyn (who's a Companion to Banshees). Godiva is determined to "stamp out" the nonsense (shades of the Dursleys, methinks !) and claims that the Society is some sort of cult that has brainwashed Connie into thinking she hears voices. Connie thus finds her intended training as a Universal Companion won't be taking place as she is locked up at Lionheart Lodge (Godiva and Hugh's old home). But there's something more to Godiva than she's admitting. Why are there no wild plants, trees or wild animals in her garden ? Why does she know so much about the highly secret Society ? And why won't she have anything made of wood near her ?

The Secret of the Sirens - Julia Golding

Julia Golding's The Secret of the Sirens is the first in a series of four books, the Companions Quartet.

When 10 year old Connie is sent to live with her aunt Evelyn, shes convinces this is going to be just one more place where she doesn't fit in. However she soon discovers she's wrong as the seaside town of Hescombe is full of adults and children who have strange links to creatures and animals, just as Connie does. She learns that Hescombe is the heart of a secret Society for the Protection of Mythical Creatures, a group of people who have sworn to ensure that mythical beasts such as dragons, Pegasi, water sprites, etc., are kept safe. Normally the creatures and their chosen humans (Companions) work in harmony. But something abnormal has been happening in Hescombe. The Sirens, who have kept their deadly song to themselves for generations, are once again luring humans to their deaths. It doesn't take long for Connie to realise that the victims are oil workers at the new Axoil refinery. The Sirens are fed-up with their seas being polluted, but should the Society protect the Sirens or the men working for the oil refinery ? Connie doesn't think she has a role to play, until it becomes clear that she's a Universal Companion - the first in over a century, a Companion who can communicate with every type of beast on earth, in the water or in the air. Her power is immense. Unfortunately though, her power makes her more susceptible to the power of another Universal Companion who went to the "dark side" and he's heard about Connie, so he's coming back to Hescombe. And he'll use any means he can, be it violence or the power of the terrifying Storm Giants, to turn Connie to the dark side with him.

This book is somewhat more didactic and less assured than Golding's first novel, The Diamond of Drury Lane (which I reviewed here).

Julia Golding has her own website, which includes a non-interactive (ie. you can't leave comments) Blog.

The Diamond of Drury Lane - Julia Golding

Julia Golding's debut novel, The Diamond of Drury Lane was the winner of the Ottaker's Children's Book Prize 2006, and it seems to be well deserved.

The book's protagonist is Catherine (Cat to her friends) Royal who lives and works at Mr Sheridan's Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London around 1790. As a baby Cat was abandoned on the doorstep of the theatre and Mr Sheridan adopted her; Cat has grown up backstage amidst the exotic artistes, the hammy actors, the musicians, scenery and backdrops of the theatre, avoiding its riotous audiences. The performers and stagehands make up her family and friends; her education was undertaken by the stage prompt, who has recently retired.

The book opens with Cat overhearing a conversation between Mr Sheridan and another man about a diamond that Mr Sheridan is going to hide somewhere in the theatre. She agrees to look after the treasure for Mr Sheridan when he catches her eavesdropping. Shortly afterwards, a talented young violinist named Pedro, who is a former slave, joins the company orchestra, hoping to earn enough money to become truly free. Her new teacher is the new stage prompt, a young man named Johnny, who seems to have a mysterious background.

Golding's narrative is set wholly in London and includes the rival street gangs of Covent Garden; boxing matches between her friend Syd the Butcher (head of one the Covent Garden gangs) and a youth intimidatingly named "The Camden Crusher"; a riotous theatre audience; a spectacular stage production that includes a hot air balloon; and encounters with young nobles such as Lady Elizabeth and her irrepressible brother. And all the time, there are people looking for the diamond that's hidden in the theatre, hoping that if they can find it, it will make them rich.

This was a fun and enjoyable book that was hard to put down. The historical setting is very well researched as Golding used material from her post-doctorate on the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, to create an authentic setting.

The sequel, Cat Among the Pigeons came out earlier this month and I must check the library for this one !