Enervation: book 3 in the Shadeward series (and yes, there is going to be a book 4)

Enervation by Drew Wagar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Enervation is the 3rd in Drew Wagar's Shadeward series. A must-read for anyone who has been following the stories since book 1. If you haven't read the earlier books, I recommend that you get them and read them in order. You won't lose the adventure and excitement if you read out of order, but the drama will have much more depth for knowing how the characters developed and what shaped them.

Kiri and Zoella remain key players, as do the crew of the Mobilis. In this book strands come together in ways that are surprising and dramatic, but satisfyingly inevitable once all the pieces settle together. No spoilers - it's hard to know quite what to write about a 3rd book without giving away anything to spoil the reading of the earlier two - but this book, like the rest, is very cleverly constructed. And it is hard science-fiction throughout. You can find yourself forgetting that as the story unfolds through the eyes of the different characters.

The main thing though is that the story will pick you up and sweep you along from start to finish. I was very pleased to learn that there will be a book 4.

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The Star Protocol - science fiction at breakneck speed

The Star Protocol by Ramon Marett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's not often that passions for space adventure, science fiction and archaeology join forces in the same book, but that's clearly what lies behind The Star Protocol.

Protagonists Dash and Will are professional soldiers, special forces with special skills and training, and the adventure they are thrown into tests their professionalism to its limits (and sometimes beyond). They have some staunch allies along the way, but frankly, without their rock-hard attitude of 'deal with the problem first and then worry about what the hell's going on' no one else would make it through - not even the MI6 agent who turns out to be nursing quite a secret of his own (but no spoilers), and certainly not the father-and-daughter archaeologists looking for ancient artefacts in the Iraqi desert, unaware they'd wandered into a war zone.

This is science fiction at breakneck speed.

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Gravity's Arrow - be careful what you wish for

Gravity's Arrow by Jack Mann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a young adult space adventure. The protagonist is 12-year-old Fhiro who thinks of his life as pretty mundane - hemmed in by parental rules, envious of an older brother who has so much more freedom, and pestered by a younger sister who is as irritating as only a younger sister can be. He yearns for adventure.

Fhiro has no clue that his whole family has been living on a knife-edge, a hair's breadth from calamity. When the axe falls, it falls suddenly and hard, and they are all running for their lives. When Fhiro wished for adventure, this was emphatically not what he had in mind.

Gravity's Arrow is fast moving and wide ranging with plenty of drama.

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In this month...

9 years ago: Fay Weldon in Brighton https://pennygrubb.blogspot.com/2010/10/fay-weldon-at-pavilion-theatre.html

8 years ago: the word ‘be’ looms larger than it ever should https://pennygrubb.blogspot.com/2011/10/to-be-or-not-to-what.html

6 years ago: at Hull Fair https://pennygrubb.blogspot.com/2013/10/and-all-fun-of-fair.html

2 years ago: seven authors and at least as many genres https://pennygrubb.blogspot.com/2017/10/looking-at-few-of-oddities-of-fiction.html

August extravaganza in the making

This is where I'll be mid August, by the sea, looking out over one of the East Coast's biggest expanses of sandy beach. Both a popular destination (for those in the know) and also something of a hidden gem.

And in a quiet corner amidst the drone racers, the virtual reality gamers, the retro board gamers, the escapers, the nerf warriors and large contingents from the casts of Star Wars, Dr Who, Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen, will be a crop of newly hatched fiction - five brand new titles, I'm not allowed to say which (but must remember to edit this blog as soon as authorised) plus several titles launched before the event. Mostly Sci-Fi and Fantasy for the FantastiCon launch of course, but a gripping mix all in all.

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#fantasticon #onwards

The Dark Side of the Modern Student

Chasing an Amazon link for someone who wanted a copy of Preparing for Higher Education Study, I couldn’t help noticing the “Customers who bought this item also bought” section. I know that the book has sold a good few copies, yet only one book sits in this section. Why might that be?

1. Students don’t buy books from Amazon – unlikely.

2. Students buy textbooks one at a time, thus their other purchases don’t show up in this section – maybe, but who knows? I certainly don’t know how Amazon’s background processes work, but I rather hope this is the answer.

3. Reason no 3 requires exploration of the link between those wanting a higher education and their choice of reading matter.

Preparing for Higher Education Study … The Dummies’ Guide toSerial Killing. OK, let’s just not go there and assume the solitary book-buying habits behind reason no 2.

The Rocking Horse Diary

The Rocking Horse Diary by Alan Combes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Alan Combes tackles a key 21st century topic in this one. Told through the diary of an 11-year-old boy, it charts the gradual decline into dementia of his beloved granddad. Sounds bleak but it's actually full of laughs. It has had a lot of reviews from schoolchildren. The general view averages around "Sad but funny, and I loved the bit where..."
The author says people, especially children, need to know about dementia. It is becoming a large part of our 21st century world, and he's right. This is something that a lot of young people will be forced to confront, and knowledge will counter fear.
The illustrations are superb.

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