The Season is Coming : 20:08:2013

Published 20 August 2013
Bloomsbury

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

Welcome to Scion: No safer place

Set in 2059, in a dystopian future where London is a hot bed of intrigue and moral turpitude, nineteen year old Paige Mahoney, is a dream walker and clairvoyant, working as part of an elite criminal underworld in the notorious Seven Dials area of Scion London. On a rainy day, and due to a catastrophic error of judgement, Paige is kidnapped, drugged and taken to the secret city of Oxford, where she is assigned to a Rephaite, who becomes her master, and who is as mysterious, as he is deadly. In this whole new world, complete with its own syntax and idiom, Paige must learn to curb her natural instincts, or risk the consequences.

The Bone Season is unlike anything I have ever read before, and so far out of my comfort zone, that I am at a loss to know where to start to evaluate the story, but I can’t do the author or the story a disservice by describing all that happens. Heck, even after finishing the book, I still don’t know half of what happens, but what I do know, is that this is a remarkably good debut novel. The strength of imagination needed to control a world within a world is finely explored, and the inspired use of original and highly inventive terminology adds authority to a story which ultimately takes you by surprise and leaves you, in the end, wanting more. Thankfully, there is a wonderful glossary which reveals a vocabulary which gets to be so utterly familiar, you find that you want to drop the vernacular into your own life; I mean who can resist a good Flash House?

There are going to be the inevitable comparisons made between The Bone Season and recent trends in popular fiction, and yes, it does have some of the magical elements of Rowling’s Harry Potter, the otherworldliness of Pullman’s His Dark Materials, and some of its own shades of grey in the relationship between keeper and voyant , but ultimately, what’s important is that you should read the book on its own merits, and judge it against none – merely enjoy a good story, settle in and take your seat for a ride to Scion London.

My thanks to Chloe at thinkjam.com and Bloomsbury for my ARC of this book and to the author for an introduction to a whole new world. 

More about the Author

Samantha Shannon wrote this novel when she was nineteen. The Bone Season has already been sold into 18 languages and Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings) and Jonathan Cavendish (Bridget Jones’s Dairy) have optioned film rights through their British production company, the Imaginarium Studios.

I have one copy of The Bone Season for one lucky UK reader in this great giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Through my letterbox this week.

.....This fine selection of books to read and review have arrived since the beginning of August....

I think that there's enough to keep me going for the next week or so

and this doesn't include an equal amount of e-books which have been downloaded onto my kindle from indie authors and NetGalley..

Thank you  for trusting your work with me .

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty 

~ with thanks to Penguin~

*

Dance the Moon Down 

~ with thanks to the author R L Bartram ~

*

The Night I Danced with Rommel by Elisabeth Marrion

Princes in Exile by Richard Denning

~ with thanks to the Historical Novel Society~

*

Never Coming Back by Tim Weaver

~with thanks to Real Readers~

*

Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield
~with thanks to Lovereading,co.uk~

*

The First Blast of the Trumpet

~ with thanks to the author Marie MacPherson~

*

The King's Exile by Andrew Swanston

~with thanks to Transworld~

***

The Knitted Teddy Bear by Sandra Polley

Anova Books
Collins and Brown
This edition 29th July 2013



Who could be uninterested in this picture of two adorable teddy bears?

They just scream "knit me". 

The book is divided into several different projects which range from patterns suitable for those with minimal experience, to those bears which need time, patience and a whole heap of know-how. The bears range from heirloom bears with moveable joints, to those teeny tiny bears which can be made from scraps of wool over the space of an afternoon. 

Some have wardrobes of clothes to get to grips with; whilst others are happy to wear just a sweater. In all the patterns, the instructions are clear and concise and each step is well explained. There also some nice pictures which really bring the bears to life. 

As terminology varies between the US and the UK regarding wool type, it’s nice to have a combination of instructions regarding the type of yarn. All the wool used is fairly standard and should be available from good wool stockists. 

There are also instructions about creating bears from recycled yarn as “Teddy bears aren’t fussy and can be made from oddments left over from other projects”. 

The pattern designer, Sandra Polley, is an experienced crafter and has used this knowledge to create some truly special bears. This is a lovely book for anyone who loves knitting teddy bears, and is equally lovely for those who like to look at good-looking bears, and then maybe persuade someone else into making them. 

My thanks to NetGalley and Anova Books for my ecopy of this book. 

The walk in my week...

My view of history is largely influenced by the imagination of those talented authors who bring history to life in the books I love to read. Whenever possible though,  I like to visit areas of historical interest, and luckily the area I live in has an abundance of historic sites.

This is Whalley Abbey in Lancashire, and the walk in my week led me to explore the remains of this beautiful  thirteenth Century Cistercian Abbey, and also to walk along the meandering banks of the River Calder.

River Calder

The Cistercian Abbey of Stanlow, in Cheshire, moved to Whalley in 1296. The Church was built between 1330 and 1380.

Only the foundations of the church remain. The remains of the former monastic buildings are more extensive. The west range, which was the lay brothers' dormitory, consists of two stories, and is roofed.

The Abbot's lodging and Infirmary were not completed until around 1440

The first stone was laid by Henry de Lacy in June 1296 and at least part of the site was consecrated by the Bishop of Whithern in 1306. Building proceeded slowly and the foundation stone was laid in 1330. Stone for building the abbey was obtained from local quarries. 

Supporting Pillar

A royal licence to build a crenellated wall round the site was obtained in 1339. The church was completed in 1380 but the remainder of the abbey was not finished until the 1440s. In 1480 the North East Gatehouse, which provided a new entrance to the abbey, was completed. In the 16th century, John Paslew, the last Abbot of Whalley, reconstructed his own lodgings and added a Lady Chapel. The abbey closed in 1537 as part of the dissolution of the monasteries. Also that year Abbot Paslew was executed for high treason for his part in events connected with the Pilgrimage of Grace the previous year.

After the dissolution of the Monastery in 1537, the property passed into private hands, and it was adapted to make an Elizabethan Manor House. It remained a private residence until 1923, when the Church of England acquired possession.

The ruins of the abbey have been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

It  is still a sacred place and an area for quiet reflection.

Book Beginnings on Fridays...

Hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader

Book Beginnings on Fridays as stated by the host was started:

 "to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires."

You can share on Google + and social media , please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings

and there's also a Mr Linky on the host's blog.

 Book Beginning : Once Upon A River by Bonnie Jo Campbell

October 2012
4th Estate
An imprint of Harper Collins Publishers

Chapter One

The Stark River flowed around the oxbow at Murrayville the way blood flowed through Margo Crane's heart. She rowed upstream to see wood ducks, canvasbacks, and ospreys and to search for tiger salamanders in the ferns. She drifted downstream to find painted turtles sunning on fallen trees and to count the herons in the heronry beside the Murrayville cemetery. She tied up her boat and followed shallow feeder streams to collect crayfish, watercress, and tiny wild strawberries. Her feet were toughened against sharp stones and broken glass. When Margo swam, she swallowed minnows alive and felt the Stark River move inside her.

**

......This opening paragraph is so descriptive, I can sense the river as it meanders along, and the wildlife on the bank of the river is so tantalisingly close, I feel like I can almost reach out and touch the ferns and watch the ducks as they glide in the water. 

I yearn for the creaminess of the crayfish, the pepper of the watercress and the explosion of sweetness as the tiny wild strawberries shatter in my mouth, but more than anything, I want to know about Margo Crane ....

**

A Bit of Book Blurb..

..thanks to Goodreads..

Bonnie Jo Campbell has created an unforgettable heroine in sixteen-year-old Margo Crane, a beauty whose unflinching gaze and uncanny ability with a rifle have not made her life any easier. After the violent death of her father, in which she is complicit, Margo takes to the Stark River in her boat, with only a few supplies and a biography of Annie Oakley, in search of her vanished mother. But the river, Margo's childhood paradise, is a dangerous place for a young woman travelling alone, and she must be strong to survive, using her knowledge of the natural world and her ability to look unsparingly into the hearts of those around her. Her river odyssey through rural Michigan becomes a defining journey, one that leads her beyond self-preservation and to the decision of what price she is willing to pay for her choices.

I picked up this book this week in one of my cheap book shops and was primary intrigued by the cover of the beautiful girl pointing a gun at something or someone, and was tempted to read more...

Please let me know if you would be tempted by this book.

Thanks for looking at my Friday Book Beginnings.

Review ~The Humans by Matt Haig

Canongate Books
May 9 2013

There's No Place Like Home

I have a fridge magnet which reads “I am diagonally parked in a parallel universe” and this is exactly how I felt whilst reading this latest offering from the pen of talented author, Matt Haig. There is no doubt that he is the master of the slightly quirky story, and effortlessly creates a whole set of scenarios which in reality shouldn't work, but which invariably do work very well.

In The Humans he has created a brave new world which is seen through the eyes of an unnamed alien who has been sent to earth to take over the persona of Cambridge mathematical genius Professor Andrew Martin, who has recently cracked the elusive Riemann Hypothesis, the outcome of which will change the human race forever.

As always, the story draws you in from the beginning, and before long you are laughing out loud at some of the one liners, most of which are inspired - there’s are so many to choose from, but my favourite has to be:

A cow is an Earth-dwelling animal...which humans treat as a one-stop shop for food, liquid refreshment, fertiliser and designer footwear.

To write any more about the story would be to do the book a great disservice. It’s one of those books which deserves to be read in one sitting with no misconceptions. It will make you laugh, it will make you smile, and ultimately it will make you feel good.

Read it.

More about Matt Haig

Review ~ The Ways of the World by Robert Goddard

Transworld
Bantam press
July 4 2013

The blurb

1919. The eyes of the world are on Paris, where statesmen, diplomats and politicians have gathered to discuss the fate of half the world’s nations in the aftermath of the cataclysm that was the Great War. A horde of journalists, spies and opportunists have also gathered in the city and the last thing the British diplomatic community needs at such a time is the mysterious death of a senior member of their delegation. So, when Sir Henry Maxted falls from the roof of his mistress’s apartment building in unexplained circumstances, their first instinct is to suppress all suspicious aspects of the event.

But Sir Henry’s son, ex Royal Flying Corps ace James ‘Max’ Maxted, has other ideas. He resolves to find out how and why his father died – even if this means disturbing the impression of harmonious calm which the negotiating teams have worked so hard to maintain. In a city where countries are jostling for position at the crossroads of history and the stakes could hardly be higher, it is difficult to tell who is a friend and who a foe.  And Max will soon discover just how much he needs friends, as his search for the truth sucks him into the dark heart of a seemingly impenetrable mystery.

My Review

It is the spring of 1919, and in the aftermath of the Great War, delegations meet in Paris to determine the outcome of the peace process. Sir Henry Maxted, a British diplomat, who has come out of retirement for the conference, falls to his death from an apartment in a salubrious part of the city.  When Henry’s sons, Ashley and James arrive in Paris, to determine the truth about their father’s unexpected death, they are met with bureaucratic indifference, which creates a series of unanswerable questions. Determined to get to the cause of his fathers’ death, James ‘Max’ Maxted stays on in Paris, and is determined to leave no stone unturned in his quest for the truth.

After an initial slow start, the book starts to gain momentum about a third of the way through, when the narrative seems to take on more energy and becomes more focused. What then follows is a cleverly constructed espionage novel, which takes in, not just the whole conniving world of intelligence and counter intelligence, but also the slightly risqué and decadent Paris of the early 1900s. There is no doubt that Robert Goddard is the master of this type of historical narrative, he carefully blends factual history alongside fictional situations in such a seamless way that you actually believe that you are walking the same streets, and drinking in the same bars and cafes. Max is a worthy narrator, brave, pragmatic and with a degree of stubbornness which no doubt hails from his time as a fighter ace during the bombing campaigns of WW1. His drive and ambition are exemplary, and yet it is his tenacity in the face of extreme danger which gives the book its core strength.

Overall, I thought the book was well written and found that it delivered enough convoluted threats , double crosses and triple twists, to keep me entertained until the very end.

****

My thanks to Transworld/ Bantam Press for my review copy of this book.

I read this book as part of the Historical Reading Challenge 2013