AIRMAN Eoin Colfer, Puffin, 455 pages, paperback, NZ$25
ISBN 978-0-141-38336-1
ARTEMIS FOWLE AND THE LOST COLONY Eoin Colfer, Puffin, 376 pages, paperback, NZ$19.95
ISBN 978-0-141-32079-3
SNAKEHEAD Anthony Horowitz, Walker, 398 pages, paperback, $?? NZ$20
ISBN 978-1-4063-1228-7
“I’m so sick of you smart kids,” moans a thwarted villain, "Why can’t you just boost cars or steal stuff like normal kids?”
This is a great time to be a young male reader. Eoin Colfer and Anthony Horowitz are producing a torrent of lively, readable adventures with bright young heroes overcoming insuperable odds. If that sound rather like those hefty volumes of boys’ stories presented as prizes in the mid-twentieth century, that’s because they share colourful characters, well-described settings and rattling good plots.
Colfer’s newest creation, Airman, is Conor Broekhart who is literally born in the air (in a crashing dirigible) and then becomes an early pioneer of manned flight. As always, Colfer’s imaginative plots and detailed descriptions overwhelm the reader. No sooner has teenage Conor improvised a hang-gliding kite to rescue his beloved Princess Isabella from a fiery death on a blazing turret than he is cast into an underground dungeon as a traitor.
Escape from slave labour in the diamond mines of Grand Saltee seems impossible but Conor’s inventive genius, and his knowledge of things aerial enables him to make a desperate attempt for freedom. Will he regain his lost love? Will he be able to return to his family? Or will the evil Marshall Bonvilain, high commander of the Saltee Army destroy them all? Packed with Colfer’s trademark imagination and dry wit, this is a magnificently readable story.
Even more interesting villains make their appearance in the fifth of the Artemis Fowl series. The Lost Colony of the title is Hybar, the home of imps and demons. Artemis, the 14 year old master criminal and tactical genius, continues his efforts to keep the existence of the supernatural world a secret but he faces a double challenge. The deeply confused demons have hopes of reaching Earth using a copy of Lady Hetherington Smythe’s Hedgerow as their guidebook, but their existence is suspected by Minerva, a 12 year old computer genius who intends to capture a demon in order to win a Nobel Prize. Artemis finds himself strangely attracted when he meets Minerva. “Young, quick and arrogant,” he says, "You remind me of someone.”
The usual larcenous gnomes, felonious pixies and hi-tech centaurs make their appearance but the most attractive character in the story is No1, an embarrassingly inept imp, who soon discovers he has special powers. On Earth No 1 rapidly acquires a new vocabulary, including pink, cappuccino and candy-floss. The plot is complex and fast-placed with carefully detailed settings and several witty twists, including a revelation at the end which suggests the next Artemis Fowle adventure will be three times as good.
Anthony Horowitz’s popular boy spy, Alex Rider, was last seen in an orbiting space station. In Snakehead his relief at being rescued from his re-entry module is short-lived, as the Australian SIS applies some unsubtle leverage. Lured by the promise of learning more about the death of his parents, Alex finds himself posing as an Afghan refugee in Thailand, working with his godfather. Their operation against a people-smuggling ring becomes entangled with an MI6 operation in Bangkok and also attracts the attention of Major Yu, the deadliest member of the Scorpia world crime syndicate.
While coincidences abound, the action is dramatic and the settings – Asian slums, a container ship, an illicit organ-transplant hospital, and an ocean drilling rig – are convincingly detailed. Events sometimes become grim but Alex’s best weapon is always his initiative. Snakehead is a well-researched and dramatic addition to the Alex rider series.
Trevor Agnew
This review was first published in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 29th March 2008.
Showing posts with label 2007. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2007. Show all posts
Sunday, 30 March 2008
Monsters of Blood and Honour Ken Catran
Monsters of Blood and Honour Ken Catran, Random House, 239 pages, paperback, NZ$19.99
ISBN 978-1-86941-938-7
Ken Catran’s latest book contains three novellas about the Second World War. In each a modern teenager learns of the experiences of an aged survivor. As always with Catran, the technical detail is rich and the emotional level is set high. In Mr Parkin’s Milk Run to Hell, Jase, a fast-driving hoon is surprised to find that old Fred Parkin had helped create a firestorm over Hamburg when he was only 18. Was burning civilians a war crime? Similar moral issues arise in Jooney’s Day at the Beach, when Sarah reads her Great-Aunt Jooney’s account of Japanese troops shooting nurses and patients after the fall of Singapore. Sarah is baffled by the way Jooney – the sole survivor – can feel sympathy for one of the Japanese involved in the atrocity.
The most controversial (and least successful) of the stories, Old Goodey and the Fortress of Dreams, brings an unrepentant old Nazi into contact with a disturbed teen, Robin, who has fantasies of using a tank to shoot everyone in their home town. Then he finds that an elderly local has concealed his past. Goodey is virulently anti-semitic, an SS member who fought in the great tank battle at Kursk and was then a concentration camp guard at Belsen. “I thought those things were right and I still do,” says Goodey before creating his own Gotterdammerung. Although Robin’s response to Goodey’s death is muddled, he does dispose of Goodey’s SS dagger with its “blood and honour” motto. He climbs down from his clifftop refuge, symbolically rejecting his earlier violent fantasies.
Catran is aware that it is always difficult for one generation to understand the experiences of another. These short and lively first person narratives certainly make a good starting point for young readers who are coming to grips with some of the human complexities behind the battles.
Trevor Agnew
This review was first published in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 15th March 2008.
ISBN 978-1-86941-938-7
Ken Catran’s latest book contains three novellas about the Second World War. In each a modern teenager learns of the experiences of an aged survivor. As always with Catran, the technical detail is rich and the emotional level is set high. In Mr Parkin’s Milk Run to Hell, Jase, a fast-driving hoon is surprised to find that old Fred Parkin had helped create a firestorm over Hamburg when he was only 18. Was burning civilians a war crime? Similar moral issues arise in Jooney’s Day at the Beach, when Sarah reads her Great-Aunt Jooney’s account of Japanese troops shooting nurses and patients after the fall of Singapore. Sarah is baffled by the way Jooney – the sole survivor – can feel sympathy for one of the Japanese involved in the atrocity.
The most controversial (and least successful) of the stories, Old Goodey and the Fortress of Dreams, brings an unrepentant old Nazi into contact with a disturbed teen, Robin, who has fantasies of using a tank to shoot everyone in their home town. Then he finds that an elderly local has concealed his past. Goodey is virulently anti-semitic, an SS member who fought in the great tank battle at Kursk and was then a concentration camp guard at Belsen. “I thought those things were right and I still do,” says Goodey before creating his own Gotterdammerung. Although Robin’s response to Goodey’s death is muddled, he does dispose of Goodey’s SS dagger with its “blood and honour” motto. He climbs down from his clifftop refuge, symbolically rejecting his earlier violent fantasies.
Catran is aware that it is always difficult for one generation to understand the experiences of another. These short and lively first person narratives certainly make a good starting point for young readers who are coming to grips with some of the human complexities behind the battles.
Trevor Agnew
This review was first published in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 15th March 2008.
Time of the Eagle Sherryl Jordan
Time of the Eagle Sherryl Jordan, Simon and Schuster [NZ agents: HarperCollins], 464 pages, paperback, $21.99
ISBN 978-1-41690-447-2
“Never lift your voice to me again!” the chieftain shouted, “From this time forth, you are a slave.”
Sherryl Jordan has returned to the world of Secret Sacrament (1999) to tell the story of the next generation in Time of the Eagle. The narrator Avala has become a Healer, just like her mother Ashila (of the Shinali people) and her late father Gabriel (from the Rome-like stone city of Navora). Since the Shinali have been defeated by the Navoran Empire, they have lost most of their land and live a nomadic existence. Now Avala finds that she has the power of seeing the truth about people – ‘the sight.’
Although she believes that the time has come to fulfil the prophecy of ‘The Time of the Eagle’, with a tribal uprising against the cruel Navoran Emperor Jaganath, Avala is unable to act. Instead she finds herself a slave among the Igaal people. Sherryl Jordan is better at describing the actions of a few people than large groups, so the story of how Avala succeeds in escaping, using her talents to unite the various tribes and then leading them to battle against Jaganath contains a few logical gaps. (A comparison with Maurice Gee’s recent novel Salt makes the point.) Nevertheless this is a stirring tale of a triumph over great odds, and Avala is a plucky heroine. Her final confrontation with Jaganath (who has special powers of his own) makes exciting reading. There is even room for a romantic subplot.
Sherryl Jordan has drawn the map and internal illustrations as well as creating a useful list of tribes and main characters.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 16th February 2008.
ISBN 978-1-41690-447-2
“Never lift your voice to me again!” the chieftain shouted, “From this time forth, you are a slave.”
Sherryl Jordan has returned to the world of Secret Sacrament (1999) to tell the story of the next generation in Time of the Eagle. The narrator Avala has become a Healer, just like her mother Ashila (of the Shinali people) and her late father Gabriel (from the Rome-like stone city of Navora). Since the Shinali have been defeated by the Navoran Empire, they have lost most of their land and live a nomadic existence. Now Avala finds that she has the power of seeing the truth about people – ‘the sight.’
Although she believes that the time has come to fulfil the prophecy of ‘The Time of the Eagle’, with a tribal uprising against the cruel Navoran Emperor Jaganath, Avala is unable to act. Instead she finds herself a slave among the Igaal people. Sherryl Jordan is better at describing the actions of a few people than large groups, so the story of how Avala succeeds in escaping, using her talents to unite the various tribes and then leading them to battle against Jaganath contains a few logical gaps. (A comparison with Maurice Gee’s recent novel Salt makes the point.) Nevertheless this is a stirring tale of a triumph over great odds, and Avala is a plucky heroine. Her final confrontation with Jaganath (who has special powers of his own) makes exciting reading. There is even room for a romantic subplot.
Sherryl Jordan has drawn the map and internal illustrations as well as creating a useful list of tribes and main characters.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 16th February 2008.
Zillah Penelope Todd
ZILLAH Penelope Todd, Longacre, 183 pages, paperback, $18.99
ISBN 978-1-877361-73-9
“Zillah suddenly ached for the simple, lovely stupidity of childhood.”
The Watermark trilogy, which now concludes with Zillah, began when Zillah, a troubled young girl, first came to Roimata, on the West Coast, as part of a personal challenge. Those who have read Penelope Todd’s Watermark (2003) and Dark (2004) will be pleased that Zillah, now 20, has returned to the bush and river of Roimata. This time, instead of the peace she expects, she finds landing-craft and gunfire; a film is being made on the beach and river.
Zillah heads into the bush, anxious to purge herself of troubling memories from her OE in Spain.
Eventually she manages to meet up again with Joseph (Joss) but a troubling encounter with a pair of crass hunters and Martin, a deeply troubled conspiracy theorist, make Zillah’s attempts to rekindle their love seem in vain.
This series has always had a dark, uneasy side and it takes a united effort for Zillah and Joseph to achieve the emotional tranquillity that has always seemed to elude them. Older teens will find this novel, which can stand by itself, a rewarding conclusion to a sometimes uncomfortable series.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 16th February 2008.
ISBN 978-1-877361-73-9
“Zillah suddenly ached for the simple, lovely stupidity of childhood.”
The Watermark trilogy, which now concludes with Zillah, began when Zillah, a troubled young girl, first came to Roimata, on the West Coast, as part of a personal challenge. Those who have read Penelope Todd’s Watermark (2003) and Dark (2004) will be pleased that Zillah, now 20, has returned to the bush and river of Roimata. This time, instead of the peace she expects, she finds landing-craft and gunfire; a film is being made on the beach and river.
Zillah heads into the bush, anxious to purge herself of troubling memories from her OE in Spain.
Eventually she manages to meet up again with Joseph (Joss) but a troubling encounter with a pair of crass hunters and Martin, a deeply troubled conspiracy theorist, make Zillah’s attempts to rekindle their love seem in vain.
This series has always had a dark, uneasy side and it takes a united effort for Zillah and Joseph to achieve the emotional tranquillity that has always seemed to elude them. Older teens will find this novel, which can stand by itself, a rewarding conclusion to a sometimes uncomfortable series.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 16th February 2008.
Missing Toby Jill Harris
Missing Toby Jill Harris, Longacre, 182 pages, paperback, NZ$17.99
ISBN 978-1-877361-90-6
“I haven’t got a name. They just called me ‘Hey you.’”
In Missing Toby, her second novel, Jill Harris has moved her attention from talking birds (Sil, 2005) to talking dogs. Harriet, who is desperately missing her brother (the Toby of the title) slowly emerges from her grief, as she becomes aware that a secret world of dogs operates within her neighbourhood. In this novel dogs understand each other perfectly but find humans often incomprehensible.
Gus (a “small, shaggy, gingery” dog) and Max (an elderly black labrador) have made it their mission to see to the welfare of local dogs. “Hardly any water in his bowl. No shade. Nothing to do,” complains Max, when he checks on a mistreated local dog. Their conversations, especially their interpretations of human behaviour, are always entertaining. Harriet soon finds herself opening up to dogs – and people - as she learns to care for an abandoned pup, and then discovers that she has a secret benefactor. Missing Toby has an interesting plot which draws its threads together nicely in a mixture of mystery and action.
Gus and Max capture the reader’s attention as they make sacrifices to achieve their canine goals. And everyone learns the importance of dogs.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 16th February 2008
ISBN 978-1-877361-90-6
“I haven’t got a name. They just called me ‘Hey you.’”
In Missing Toby, her second novel, Jill Harris has moved her attention from talking birds (Sil, 2005) to talking dogs. Harriet, who is desperately missing her brother (the Toby of the title) slowly emerges from her grief, as she becomes aware that a secret world of dogs operates within her neighbourhood. In this novel dogs understand each other perfectly but find humans often incomprehensible.
Gus (a “small, shaggy, gingery” dog) and Max (an elderly black labrador) have made it their mission to see to the welfare of local dogs. “Hardly any water in his bowl. No shade. Nothing to do,” complains Max, when he checks on a mistreated local dog. Their conversations, especially their interpretations of human behaviour, are always entertaining. Harriet soon finds herself opening up to dogs – and people - as she learns to care for an abandoned pup, and then discovers that she has a secret benefactor. Missing Toby has an interesting plot which draws its threads together nicely in a mixture of mystery and action.
Gus and Max capture the reader’s attention as they make sacrifices to achieve their canine goals. And everyone learns the importance of dogs.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 16th February 2008
Taking Off Janice Marriott
Taking Off Janice Marriott, HarperCollins, 207 pages, paperback, NZ$16.99
ISBN 1-86950-637-5
Janice Marriott never writes the same novel twice. Taking Off is an original story about the importance of vision. For some, vision is simply eyesight. Alana is about to find out whether she has inherited the condition that left her father, Dave, blind as a young man. Tommy has no eyesight problems but he can’t see a way out of his difficulties; his alcoholic mother has brought him to a small coastal settlement where he feels detached from everything except the birds.
After a disastrous first encounter involving a stroppy swan and lots of mud, grumpy Alana and truculent Tommy fall into an armed truce, which makes very humorous reading. Both are writing private journals so we also learn of Tommy’s obsession with wings, kites and flight and Alana’s love of the estuary (based on the area around Foxton Beach) and its birdlife. She has more trouble appreciating humans, especially the luckless Tommy and her Uncle Brad, the Cessna pilot who flies her to the hospital where she will learn the truth about her eyesight. Then disaster strikes and Alana has to face a challenge even greater than blindness.
Janice Marriott (who has been blind herself) makes Alana’s predicament utterly convincing but she has also created a witty story with a richly described natural landscape and characters who are likeable despite their scratchiness. Taking Off may be the best teen novel of the year.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 12th January 2008.
ISBN 1-86950-637-5
Janice Marriott never writes the same novel twice. Taking Off is an original story about the importance of vision. For some, vision is simply eyesight. Alana is about to find out whether she has inherited the condition that left her father, Dave, blind as a young man. Tommy has no eyesight problems but he can’t see a way out of his difficulties; his alcoholic mother has brought him to a small coastal settlement where he feels detached from everything except the birds.
After a disastrous first encounter involving a stroppy swan and lots of mud, grumpy Alana and truculent Tommy fall into an armed truce, which makes very humorous reading. Both are writing private journals so we also learn of Tommy’s obsession with wings, kites and flight and Alana’s love of the estuary (based on the area around Foxton Beach) and its birdlife. She has more trouble appreciating humans, especially the luckless Tommy and her Uncle Brad, the Cessna pilot who flies her to the hospital where she will learn the truth about her eyesight. Then disaster strikes and Alana has to face a challenge even greater than blindness.
Janice Marriott (who has been blind herself) makes Alana’s predicament utterly convincing but she has also created a witty story with a richly described natural landscape and characters who are likeable despite their scratchiness. Taking Off may be the best teen novel of the year.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 12th January 2008.
Duet David Hill
DUET David Hill, Mallinson Rendel, 199 pages, paperback, NZ$17
ISBN 978-1-877423-06-2
“My whole body quivered with the noise…The sound blazed and thundered.”
A keen guitarist, whose interests are moving from classical to blues, Kallum is stunned by his first experience of orchestral music in David Hill’s Duet. Coaxed into the Youth Orchestra to play a Manuel Castella flute and guitar duet, Kallum soon becomes enraptured by the power of music. He also finds himself falling in love with Paige the fluteplayer. Kallum is an engaging narrator and the story of the young lovers’ growing intimacy and the orchestra’s preparation for their performance are neatly intertwined.
When Paige becomes pregnant it is a shock and the pair have to face up to the consequences. David Hill has created a believable group of young people and Duet is an impressive account of people gaining maturity and sharing in a common purpose. The music is great too.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 12th January 2008.
ISBN 978-1-877423-06-2
“My whole body quivered with the noise…The sound blazed and thundered.”
A keen guitarist, whose interests are moving from classical to blues, Kallum is stunned by his first experience of orchestral music in David Hill’s Duet. Coaxed into the Youth Orchestra to play a Manuel Castella flute and guitar duet, Kallum soon becomes enraptured by the power of music. He also finds himself falling in love with Paige the fluteplayer. Kallum is an engaging narrator and the story of the young lovers’ growing intimacy and the orchestra’s preparation for their performance are neatly intertwined.
When Paige becomes pregnant it is a shock and the pair have to face up to the consequences. David Hill has created a believable group of young people and Duet is an impressive account of people gaining maturity and sharing in a common purpose. The music is great too.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 12th January 2008.
Josefa and the Vu, by Tulia Thompson
Josefa and the Vu Tulia Thompson, Huia, 179 pages, paperback, NZ$20
ISBN 978-1-869693-00-8
(Reading age: 10-14)
Josefa Naibula, an Onehunga schoolboy, is astounded when he is confronted by a huge Fijian warrior wielding a club. “I am your Vu. I am your ancestor spirit. I am here to protect you.” The youngest of his family, teased by his brothers and bullied at school, Josefa needs all the supernatural help he can get. When the bully, Jack Bucksworth, steals a precious family relic, a whaletooth tabua, Josefa finds out why he has been chosen by the spirit of his ancestors. Other supernatural creatures (including some louche Scottish brownies) become involved and Josefa is soon facing powerful enemies. The dramatic and exciting confrontation includes a bushfire in the Waitakeres, where Josefa and his friend Ming have to risk their lives.
As a first novel, Josefa and the Vu has minor flaws. The idea that epidemics are caused by evil spirits is simply silly. The unctuous principal, Mrs Bulls, and the odious Bucksworth family who make life so difficult for the Naibula family are caricatures as stereotyped as their surnames. Nevertheless, Tulia Thompson has created memorable characters and fast-moving action.
She also provides her young readers with a painless introduction into the family life of Pacific Islanders living in New Zealand. The warm family ties and the mutual support of relatives are well portrayed. This is also the first New Zealand novel to feature Fijians as the principal characters. A sequel seems likely.
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 12th January 2008.
ISBN 978-1-869693-00-8
(Reading age: 10-14)
Josefa Naibula, an Onehunga schoolboy, is astounded when he is confronted by a huge Fijian warrior wielding a club. “I am your Vu. I am your ancestor spirit. I am here to protect you.” The youngest of his family, teased by his brothers and bullied at school, Josefa needs all the supernatural help he can get. When the bully, Jack Bucksworth, steals a precious family relic, a whaletooth tabua, Josefa finds out why he has been chosen by the spirit of his ancestors. Other supernatural creatures (including some louche Scottish brownies) become involved and Josefa is soon facing powerful enemies. The dramatic and exciting confrontation includes a bushfire in the Waitakeres, where Josefa and his friend Ming have to risk their lives.
As a first novel, Josefa and the Vu has minor flaws. The idea that epidemics are caused by evil spirits is simply silly. The unctuous principal, Mrs Bulls, and the odious Bucksworth family who make life so difficult for the Naibula family are caricatures as stereotyped as their surnames. Nevertheless, Tulia Thompson has created memorable characters and fast-moving action.
She also provides her young readers with a painless introduction into the family life of Pacific Islanders living in New Zealand. The warm family ties and the mutual support of relatives are well portrayed. This is also the first New Zealand novel to feature Fijians as the principal characters. A sequel seems likely.
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch NZ, on 12th January 2008.
The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld Terry Pratchett
The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld Terry Pratchett, Doubleday, 2007, 304 pages, hardback, NZ$40
ISBN 978-0-385-61177-0
“Limited wossname. Doodah. Thingy. You know. It’s got words in it,” said the parrot.
“Dictionary?” said Rincewind.
Terry Pratchett is one of those authors whose Discworld books are so funny that you carry them around quoting gems in order to get other people reading them and then the blighters borrow your copies and never return them. This book solves one problem. By collecting lots of the best bits from the 35 other books, Stephen Briggs has saved us lugging them all about. Unfortunately he has created a new problem: another Pratchett book that’s going to be pinched. Best to give copies away for Christmas in a pre-emptive strike.
Some of the quotations are brief - “Ridcully was good at doing without other people’s sleep.” - while others are long enough to convey the full flavour of the best moments, like Granny Weatherwax’s duel with Death. My favourite is Death’s response to being offered a job as a teacher. “Death’s face was a mask of terror. Well, it was always a mask of terror, but this time it was meant to be.”
In case, you’re still puzzled the word the parrot was groping for was ‘vocabulary’. In this book’s splendid index, the relevant quote is listed under ‘wossname’.
Trevor Agnew
This review was first published in The Press, Christchurch, NZ on 15th December 2007.
ISBN 978-0-385-61177-0
“Limited wossname. Doodah. Thingy. You know. It’s got words in it,” said the parrot.
“Dictionary?” said Rincewind.
Terry Pratchett is one of those authors whose Discworld books are so funny that you carry them around quoting gems in order to get other people reading them and then the blighters borrow your copies and never return them. This book solves one problem. By collecting lots of the best bits from the 35 other books, Stephen Briggs has saved us lugging them all about. Unfortunately he has created a new problem: another Pratchett book that’s going to be pinched. Best to give copies away for Christmas in a pre-emptive strike.
Some of the quotations are brief - “Ridcully was good at doing without other people’s sleep.” - while others are long enough to convey the full flavour of the best moments, like Granny Weatherwax’s duel with Death. My favourite is Death’s response to being offered a job as a teacher. “Death’s face was a mask of terror. Well, it was always a mask of terror, but this time it was meant to be.”
In case, you’re still puzzled the word the parrot was groping for was ‘vocabulary’. In this book’s splendid index, the relevant quote is listed under ‘wossname’.
Trevor Agnew
This review was first published in The Press, Christchurch, NZ on 15th December 2007.
Saturday, 29 March 2008
WITH HONOUR Richard Wolfe
WITH HONOUR: Our Army, Our Nation, Our History Richard Wolfe, Viking/Penguin, 140 pages, hardback, NZ$59.95
ISBN 978-0-14-330335-0
This is a beautiful book creating a history of our land forces told through the Army Museum’s collection. Richard Wolfe has used his unusual combination of literary skills and museum display experience to produce an enjoyable large format volume with attractively presented illustrations. The text summarises the New Zealand military experience from taiaha to Steyr.
The story of land combat begins with Tumatauenga and tribal warfare, then proceeds through the New Zealand Wars to the South African War, the World Wars, Jayforce, Kayforce and Vietnam to engineering in Iraq and mine-clearing in Cambodia. Apt quotations from documents, letters and diaries add life to the story. The time-line is useful and the index is great.
The pictures are, as you would expect from the Queen Elizabeth II Army Memorial Museum’s collections, a fine array of military memorabilia - from housewife to pocket warmer - with excellent captions (except for the Kiwi Concert Party on p.129). Some items, like the sniper’s dummy-head decoy, are surprising. If you stare slightly cross-eyed at the stereopticon picture on p. 64, the NZ Mounted Rifles ride out of the dust in three dimensions. And there on p.155 are all nine of Charles Upham’s medals, which were stolen from the museum just four days after the book was published.
Meanwhile there is also a need for an illustrated history of the Army Museum itself; I cannot imagine a better suited author than Richard Wolfe.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand on 22nd December 2007.
ISBN 978-0-14-330335-0
This is a beautiful book creating a history of our land forces told through the Army Museum’s collection. Richard Wolfe has used his unusual combination of literary skills and museum display experience to produce an enjoyable large format volume with attractively presented illustrations. The text summarises the New Zealand military experience from taiaha to Steyr.
The story of land combat begins with Tumatauenga and tribal warfare, then proceeds through the New Zealand Wars to the South African War, the World Wars, Jayforce, Kayforce and Vietnam to engineering in Iraq and mine-clearing in Cambodia. Apt quotations from documents, letters and diaries add life to the story. The time-line is useful and the index is great.
The pictures are, as you would expect from the Queen Elizabeth II Army Memorial Museum’s collections, a fine array of military memorabilia - from housewife to pocket warmer - with excellent captions (except for the Kiwi Concert Party on p.129). Some items, like the sniper’s dummy-head decoy, are surprising. If you stare slightly cross-eyed at the stereopticon picture on p. 64, the NZ Mounted Rifles ride out of the dust in three dimensions. And there on p.155 are all nine of Charles Upham’s medals, which were stolen from the museum just four days after the book was published.
Meanwhile there is also a need for an illustrated history of the Army Museum itself; I cannot imagine a better suited author than Richard Wolfe.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand on 22nd December 2007.
THE TOOTH Des Hunt
The Tooth, Des Hunt, HarperCollins, paperback, 176 pages, $16.99
ISBN 978-1-86950-638-4
Des Hunt’s lively action novels for boys always feature a tech-savvy lad meeting an interesting creature during a quest in dramatic scenery, and The Tooth certainly puts horse-loving Tim into the Hawkes Bay hill country to seek dinosaur remains. Yet, there is something new in The Tooth – verse!
Tim’s great grandmother writes songs, so the prologue to this adventure is told in ‘The Ballad of Wee Timmy Thomas’, while Tim gets to sing another of her ballads – about the Kaimanawa horses, which play a part in the story. The rest of the story, told more conventionally, follows Tim and his friend Mits as they apply scientific logic to his childhood memories of a fossil tooth to deduce its location. They’re in a race against time because a dam is being filled, and some rough types are horning in. There are those horses as well. A perfect book for boys who don’t like reading.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand on 28th December 2007.
ISBN 978-1-86950-638-4
Des Hunt’s lively action novels for boys always feature a tech-savvy lad meeting an interesting creature during a quest in dramatic scenery, and The Tooth certainly puts horse-loving Tim into the Hawkes Bay hill country to seek dinosaur remains. Yet, there is something new in The Tooth – verse!
Tim’s great grandmother writes songs, so the prologue to this adventure is told in ‘The Ballad of Wee Timmy Thomas’, while Tim gets to sing another of her ballads – about the Kaimanawa horses, which play a part in the story. The rest of the story, told more conventionally, follows Tim and his friend Mits as they apply scientific logic to his childhood memories of a fossil tooth to deduce its location. They’re in a race against time because a dam is being filled, and some rough types are horning in. There are those horses as well. A perfect book for boys who don’t like reading.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand on 28th December 2007.
The Sea-wreck Stranger Anna McKenzie
The Sea-wreck Stranger Anna McKenzie, Longacre, 204 pages, paperback, NZ$18.99
ISBN 978-1-877361-88-3
Ness and Ty are orphans, living on their uncle’s isolated farm. The daily round of farm labour is heavy work; cows are milked by hand, wood is cut with an axe and a tinderbox is needed to start a fire. A strange feature of Dunnett Island is that all the islanders have turned their backs on the sea – fishing is strictly banned and items cast ashore are regarded as evil. Under the authoritarian spiritual rule of Colm Brewster, there are bans and book burnings. “Books make good fuel for the Cleansing Day fires.”
Everything changes for Ness when an unconscious stranger is found, washed up on the beach below the farm. Suspecting the islanders might kill him, she helps keep him hidden in a cave while he recovers. The man – named Dev – is soon improving and asking question Ness can’t always answer. At this point in the story Anna Mackenzie has skilfully placed an amazing surprise. Readers will suddenly realise that their preconceptions are wrong and all that has taken place now has to be looked at from an entirely different perspective. What follows is exciting and unexpected. Dev poses new hope for Ness but sufficient concerns remain to justify a sequel.
I look forward to it.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand on 8th December 2007.
ISBN 978-1-877361-88-3
Ness and Ty are orphans, living on their uncle’s isolated farm. The daily round of farm labour is heavy work; cows are milked by hand, wood is cut with an axe and a tinderbox is needed to start a fire. A strange feature of Dunnett Island is that all the islanders have turned their backs on the sea – fishing is strictly banned and items cast ashore are regarded as evil. Under the authoritarian spiritual rule of Colm Brewster, there are bans and book burnings. “Books make good fuel for the Cleansing Day fires.”
Everything changes for Ness when an unconscious stranger is found, washed up on the beach below the farm. Suspecting the islanders might kill him, she helps keep him hidden in a cave while he recovers. The man – named Dev – is soon improving and asking question Ness can’t always answer. At this point in the story Anna Mackenzie has skilfully placed an amazing surprise. Readers will suddenly realise that their preconceptions are wrong and all that has taken place now has to be looked at from an entirely different perspective. What follows is exciting and unexpected. Dev poses new hope for Ness but sufficient concerns remain to justify a sequel.
I look forward to it.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand on 8th December 2007.
RUNEMARKS Joanne Harris
Runemarks Joanne Harris, Doubleday, 504 pages, 2007, paperback, NZ$34.99
ISBN 978-0-385-61131-2
[NZ agents: Random House]
“It isn’t easy being a god, you know. You have to take responsibility. It isn’t all about golden thrones and castles in the clouds.”
This is a marvellous novel for young and old alike: richly inventive, witty and constantly surprising. Young Maddy Smith, who feels herself an outsider in her village, “always blamed and never thanked,” becomes involved with Outlander, the mysterious one-eyed wanderer who teaches her to read the runes. Searching for her destiny and the guidance of the oracle known as The Whisperer, Maddy tunnels into the eye of a hillside horse-carving and enters the Underworld. What follows is the rambunctious, funny, sad and above all readable saga of a young girl’s journey into the world of the Norse gods.
Five centuries have passed since the old gods were defeated in the Winter War, and fire and ice cleansed the world, but the runes still have supernatural power and Maddy finds she can make use of them. Others – goblins, humans and even pigs - are interested in the flickering remnants of the gods. Nat is a member of The Order, a group that is determined to create the rule of absolute Law and Order by destroying the gods. Followers of The Order believe that by removing the uncertainty represented by the supernatural, they will ensure the triumph of order over chaos. Will this mean the final end of everything?
Joanne Harris (author of Chocolat) knows how to create strong characters, so Maddy and Nat become vivid personalities; we really want to know what they will do next. The result is a steady series of exciting revelations and discoveries.
As a final terrible confrontation threatens, the reader becomes aware that some of the characters are reflecting the attitudes and behaviour of the old gods. Maddy soon realises that Odin and Loki the trickster may be present in disguised form – and they’re not the only ones. Many of the people (and beings) that Maddy encounters are not what they appear to be.
Readers who know their Norse mythology will gain extra pleasure from this richly detailed story but helpful diagrams and a list of characters ensure there is no confusion. Even those who have never heard of Thor will be intrigued by his response when he faces ten thousand living-dead warriors on the plains of Hel: “Uh-oh, here it comes.”
In all senses of the word, Runemarks is charming.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand on 1st December 2007.
ISBN 978-0-385-61131-2
[NZ agents: Random House]
“It isn’t easy being a god, you know. You have to take responsibility. It isn’t all about golden thrones and castles in the clouds.”
This is a marvellous novel for young and old alike: richly inventive, witty and constantly surprising. Young Maddy Smith, who feels herself an outsider in her village, “always blamed and never thanked,” becomes involved with Outlander, the mysterious one-eyed wanderer who teaches her to read the runes. Searching for her destiny and the guidance of the oracle known as The Whisperer, Maddy tunnels into the eye of a hillside horse-carving and enters the Underworld. What follows is the rambunctious, funny, sad and above all readable saga of a young girl’s journey into the world of the Norse gods.
Five centuries have passed since the old gods were defeated in the Winter War, and fire and ice cleansed the world, but the runes still have supernatural power and Maddy finds she can make use of them. Others – goblins, humans and even pigs - are interested in the flickering remnants of the gods. Nat is a member of The Order, a group that is determined to create the rule of absolute Law and Order by destroying the gods. Followers of The Order believe that by removing the uncertainty represented by the supernatural, they will ensure the triumph of order over chaos. Will this mean the final end of everything?
Joanne Harris (author of Chocolat) knows how to create strong characters, so Maddy and Nat become vivid personalities; we really want to know what they will do next. The result is a steady series of exciting revelations and discoveries.
As a final terrible confrontation threatens, the reader becomes aware that some of the characters are reflecting the attitudes and behaviour of the old gods. Maddy soon realises that Odin and Loki the trickster may be present in disguised form – and they’re not the only ones. Many of the people (and beings) that Maddy encounters are not what they appear to be.
Readers who know their Norse mythology will gain extra pleasure from this richly detailed story but helpful diagrams and a list of characters ensure there is no confusion. Even those who have never heard of Thor will be intrigued by his response when he faces ten thousand living-dead warriors on the plains of Hel: “Uh-oh, here it comes.”
In all senses of the word, Runemarks is charming.
Trevor Agnew
This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand on 1st December 2007.
Horseradish Lemony Snicket
Horseradish: Bitter truths you can’t avoid Lemony Snicket, HarperCollins, 2007, hardback, NZ$22.99
ISBN 978-0-06-124006-5
Nobody ever has enough aphorisms and Lemony Snicket has provided an anthology of wry ones. “Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them,” is particularly apt, coming from the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events.
His book is intended to sustain people unable to locate a wise man at the moment that they need apt (and sometimes bitter-tasting) advice. Lemony Snicket claims to have coined these truths at dinner parties and anarchist riots to remind people of inescapable doom. Although, he adds, “Sometimes words are not enough.” The book is a charming little insight into the author’s mordant wit.
If somebody gives you a copy, remember, “Never look a gift lion in the mouth.”
This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch on 17th November 2007.
ISBN 978-0-06-124006-5
Nobody ever has enough aphorisms and Lemony Snicket has provided an anthology of wry ones. “Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them,” is particularly apt, coming from the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events.
His book is intended to sustain people unable to locate a wise man at the moment that they need apt (and sometimes bitter-tasting) advice. Lemony Snicket claims to have coined these truths at dinner parties and anarchist riots to remind people of inescapable doom. Although, he adds, “Sometimes words are not enough.” The book is a charming little insight into the author’s mordant wit.
If somebody gives you a copy, remember, “Never look a gift lion in the mouth.”
This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch on 17th November 2007.
Three Fantasies
The Shadow Hunters Linda McNabb, HarperCollins, 2007, 224 pages, paperback, NZ$18.99
ISBN 978-1-86950-654-4
The Moonbirds Jenny Jackson, Reed, 2007, 161 pages, paperback, NZ$17
ISBN 978-1-86978-008-1
The Druids of Time Book 1 of The Keeper of Secrets, Marie Manderson, Reed, 2007, 286 pages, paperback, NZ$17
ISBN978-1-86978-037-1
Fantasy is alive and well and living in New Zealand. Here are three examples. The Shadow Hunters is the seventh novel that Linda McNabb has set in her alternative medieval fantasy world, which has interesting echoes of our own. When King Lewas suspects elves of seeking to assassinate him, he tries to drive them all from his kingdom.
Rhonan, a 12 year old half-elf, is one of many with elvish blood who have been living among the humans. Easily identified by their lack of a shadow, the elves can use magic elfstone pendants to disguise their true appearance. Now Rhonan and his sister Dyahn must journey to Shaldo (the Shadowlands) home of the elves, to see if they can obtain life-saving elfstones. Hampered by having to care for Tryx, a baby dragon, they find that Shaldo has its own problems and little time for “half-breeds.” But then an unexpected adventure, in Lewas’s own court, brings everyone, elf and human alike, to an awareness of the perils of prejudice.
This tale will please Linda McNabb’s loyal readers.
“Ellie looked about her and gasped when she saw that all the tree branches on the edge of the clearing were full of possums.” In Jenny Jackson’s first novel, The Moonbirds, Ellie (10) has to move to the West Coast, where she sees the dense bush and flax surrounding her new home as menacing. To add to her alarm, she thinks she can hear children’s voices, and strange birds (the moonbirds of the title) seem to be summoning her at night. Paths through the flax appear and vanish, while Ellie’s Gran Morrissey recalls tales of an ancient tragedy involving seven young children.
It comes as no particular surprise when Ellie and a local boy, Drew, are guided into the bush by an army of local birds and discover seven little graves. What follows, however, is unexpected, as Drew and Ellie find that the past is connected to the present and that the future of the bush and the birds depends on them. The conservation element of this supernatural thriller for the young is rather loosely attached but the plot keeps galloping along to its explosive conclusion.
Part of The Druids of Time is set in Karamea where moa roam the bush. Readers won’t be surprised because Marie Manderson’s fantasy novel contains a wide range of extinct and mythical creatures, plus a few like the deadly sizzlewing which seem to have strayed in from Hogwarts. These creatures are only a few of the challenges facing Zac, a Palmerson North boy Zac who discovers that he is a Druid who has been selected as the Keeper of Secrets.
Untrained, but with a lively personality and plenty of brains, Zac is expected to rescue the stolen Emerald and protect the world from The Forgotten Ones. (There are lots of capitals in this book.) He is assisted by Tobias, a shape-changing American Indian and Viveka a gypsy girl, not to mention an army of Celtic, Samurai and Maori warriors.
While the mythology is mixed and the language ranges from slang to sub-Tolkien, the three young characters are interesting and they move quickly enough to keep disbelief at bay. There is also plenty of humour. This is Book 1 of The Keeper of Secrets series, so it seems that series of fantasy novels may also be alive and well in New Zealand.
This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch on 24th November 2007.
ISBN 978-1-86950-654-4
The Moonbirds Jenny Jackson, Reed, 2007, 161 pages, paperback, NZ$17
ISBN 978-1-86978-008-1
The Druids of Time Book 1 of The Keeper of Secrets, Marie Manderson, Reed, 2007, 286 pages, paperback, NZ$17
ISBN978-1-86978-037-1
Fantasy is alive and well and living in New Zealand. Here are three examples. The Shadow Hunters is the seventh novel that Linda McNabb has set in her alternative medieval fantasy world, which has interesting echoes of our own. When King Lewas suspects elves of seeking to assassinate him, he tries to drive them all from his kingdom.
Rhonan, a 12 year old half-elf, is one of many with elvish blood who have been living among the humans. Easily identified by their lack of a shadow, the elves can use magic elfstone pendants to disguise their true appearance. Now Rhonan and his sister Dyahn must journey to Shaldo (the Shadowlands) home of the elves, to see if they can obtain life-saving elfstones. Hampered by having to care for Tryx, a baby dragon, they find that Shaldo has its own problems and little time for “half-breeds.” But then an unexpected adventure, in Lewas’s own court, brings everyone, elf and human alike, to an awareness of the perils of prejudice.
This tale will please Linda McNabb’s loyal readers.
“Ellie looked about her and gasped when she saw that all the tree branches on the edge of the clearing were full of possums.” In Jenny Jackson’s first novel, The Moonbirds, Ellie (10) has to move to the West Coast, where she sees the dense bush and flax surrounding her new home as menacing. To add to her alarm, she thinks she can hear children’s voices, and strange birds (the moonbirds of the title) seem to be summoning her at night. Paths through the flax appear and vanish, while Ellie’s Gran Morrissey recalls tales of an ancient tragedy involving seven young children.
It comes as no particular surprise when Ellie and a local boy, Drew, are guided into the bush by an army of local birds and discover seven little graves. What follows, however, is unexpected, as Drew and Ellie find that the past is connected to the present and that the future of the bush and the birds depends on them. The conservation element of this supernatural thriller for the young is rather loosely attached but the plot keeps galloping along to its explosive conclusion.
Part of The Druids of Time is set in Karamea where moa roam the bush. Readers won’t be surprised because Marie Manderson’s fantasy novel contains a wide range of extinct and mythical creatures, plus a few like the deadly sizzlewing which seem to have strayed in from Hogwarts. These creatures are only a few of the challenges facing Zac, a Palmerson North boy Zac who discovers that he is a Druid who has been selected as the Keeper of Secrets.
Untrained, but with a lively personality and plenty of brains, Zac is expected to rescue the stolen Emerald and protect the world from The Forgotten Ones. (There are lots of capitals in this book.) He is assisted by Tobias, a shape-changing American Indian and Viveka a gypsy girl, not to mention an army of Celtic, Samurai and Maori warriors.
While the mythology is mixed and the language ranges from slang to sub-Tolkien, the three young characters are interesting and they move quickly enough to keep disbelief at bay. There is also plenty of humour. This is Book 1 of The Keeper of Secrets series, so it seems that series of fantasy novels may also be alive and well in New Zealand.
This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch on 24th November 2007.
BILLY AND OLD SMOKO Jack Lasenby
Billy and Old Smoko Jack Lasenby, Longacre, 216 pages, 2007, paperback, NZ$17.99
ISBN 978-1-877361-86-9
There are lots of ratbags, ruffians and rapscallions in our young people’s literature, most of them created by Jack Lasenby, so it is only fair that Jack has now created a dignified, refined, and well-spoken character that every young Kiwi can look up to. That this polite paragon is a Clydesdale farm-horse called Old Smoko is a bonus. When young Billy gives him a brush-up and polish, Old Smoko declares himself to be, “Ineffably better. Words cannot express my thanks.”
Since various domestic disasters, familiar to readers of the Brothers Grimm, have just befallen Billy and his dad, they need all the help a tree-climbing, talking Clydesdale can give them. Wicked witches disguised as stepmothers, a queen disguised as the Rawleighs Man, cannibal eels and man-eating Captain Cookers cannot prevail against a brave lad and his horse, especially when they have both read the mythology section of the School Journal.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable, very funny, read-aloud yarn, guaranteed to bring our heroes to a world safe for roast pork sandwiches. With crackling. And lashings of apple sauce.
This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch on 10th November 2007.
ISBN 978-1-877361-86-9
There are lots of ratbags, ruffians and rapscallions in our young people’s literature, most of them created by Jack Lasenby, so it is only fair that Jack has now created a dignified, refined, and well-spoken character that every young Kiwi can look up to. That this polite paragon is a Clydesdale farm-horse called Old Smoko is a bonus. When young Billy gives him a brush-up and polish, Old Smoko declares himself to be, “Ineffably better. Words cannot express my thanks.”
Since various domestic disasters, familiar to readers of the Brothers Grimm, have just befallen Billy and his dad, they need all the help a tree-climbing, talking Clydesdale can give them. Wicked witches disguised as stepmothers, a queen disguised as the Rawleighs Man, cannibal eels and man-eating Captain Cookers cannot prevail against a brave lad and his horse, especially when they have both read the mythology section of the School Journal.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable, very funny, read-aloud yarn, guaranteed to bring our heroes to a world safe for roast pork sandwiches. With crackling. And lashings of apple sauce.
This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch on 10th November 2007.
Humour and History for Young
My Life of Crime Fleur Beale, Mallinson Rendel, 138 pages, paperback, NZ$17
ISBN 978-1-877423-05-5
Archie’s Adventures Leonie Thorpe, HarperCollins, 144 pages, paperback, NZ$16.99
ISBN 978-1-86950-656-8
Shadows in the Ice Des Hunt, HarperCollins, 224 pages, paperback, NZ$16.99
ISBN 978-1-86950-673-1
Dead Dan’s Dee Phyllis Johnston, Longacre, paperback, NZ$16.99
ISBN 978-1-877361-75-3
These four good novels have a common theme of adolescents achieving self-reliance in the face of difficult events. They are also completely different from each other.
Leonie Thorpe, a Lyttelton author, has gone for the humorous approach in Archie’s Adventure, where Archie Roach seems to be a failure at everything he tries. Arriving in Port Collerden, he finds fulfilment by learning to fish, whistle and join the activities of the local sea scouts. His encounter with Theo Sussex, a former TV personality eager to be elected Mayor, is particularly funny. (“You wouldn’t know him, dear. He used to be famous,” says a local.) As Archie battles his way through a fishing contest and a regatta he gains self-esteem and his readers gain some cheerful moments.
In Des Hunt’s Shadows in the Ice, the sequel to Frog Whistle Mine (2006), young Tony still fancies himself as an amateur detective but is soon out of his depth when he returns to the West Coast. At Fox Glacier he encounters the mystery of a corpse – the wrong corpse - emerging from the ice after a seven year journey. Tony also befriends the intriguing Murray ‘Simple’ Kimpel, a gentle giant who disposes of cattle carcasses and cares for injured birds.
Tony is resourceful in gathering evidence but, to his embarrassment, it takes his indomitable friend Rose to help him clear up the mystery. She also provides his first kiss. The conclusion is dramatically exciting. This novel also contains enough gruesome humour and painful puns to make it a sure hit with young male readers.
My Life of Crime is a readable and witty personal confession. Anthony, the narrator, admits he was a “useless, whinging, snivelling, moaning blob” and tells how he became Ant, a self-reliant and confident young man, able to outwit his enemies and even win some of them over as friends. Ant’s first-person narrative is very amusing especially when it becomes clear that his plans for the future still include the life of crime of the title. His dreams of instant wealth through a little kidnapping and ransom are never achieved but some surprising events do occur and Ant finds himself facing a major personal challenge. Fleur Beale has created a witty story that also offers some helpful tips for people who want to better themselves
“You must be Dee. You look like your father.” Historical novels for the young continue their growth in popularity. Phyllis Johnston’s Dead Dan’s Dee is a moving recreation of the problems faced by the soldiers of World War One, both on the battlefield and in later life back in New Zealand.
Dee’s father, Dan, had died on the Somme, so when her mother and aunt develop tuberculosis, she has to live first in a grim orphanage and then on a backblocks farm near Rotorua with her father’s best friend Joe and his wife Essie.
Life is hard, with low dairy prices and the threat of bush sickness, but Dee has the added difficulty of being haunted by the secrets that surround Dan’s death. She eventually learns the truth and finds happiness but at a cost. This richly detailed story brings the past alive for young readers and links Dee’s discovery to more recent events.
This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch on 3rd November 2007.
ISBN 978-1-877423-05-5
Archie’s Adventures Leonie Thorpe, HarperCollins, 144 pages, paperback, NZ$16.99
ISBN 978-1-86950-656-8
Shadows in the Ice Des Hunt, HarperCollins, 224 pages, paperback, NZ$16.99
ISBN 978-1-86950-673-1
Dead Dan’s Dee Phyllis Johnston, Longacre, paperback, NZ$16.99
ISBN 978-1-877361-75-3
These four good novels have a common theme of adolescents achieving self-reliance in the face of difficult events. They are also completely different from each other.
Leonie Thorpe, a Lyttelton author, has gone for the humorous approach in Archie’s Adventure, where Archie Roach seems to be a failure at everything he tries. Arriving in Port Collerden, he finds fulfilment by learning to fish, whistle and join the activities of the local sea scouts. His encounter with Theo Sussex, a former TV personality eager to be elected Mayor, is particularly funny. (“You wouldn’t know him, dear. He used to be famous,” says a local.) As Archie battles his way through a fishing contest and a regatta he gains self-esteem and his readers gain some cheerful moments.
In Des Hunt’s Shadows in the Ice, the sequel to Frog Whistle Mine (2006), young Tony still fancies himself as an amateur detective but is soon out of his depth when he returns to the West Coast. At Fox Glacier he encounters the mystery of a corpse – the wrong corpse - emerging from the ice after a seven year journey. Tony also befriends the intriguing Murray ‘Simple’ Kimpel, a gentle giant who disposes of cattle carcasses and cares for injured birds.
Tony is resourceful in gathering evidence but, to his embarrassment, it takes his indomitable friend Rose to help him clear up the mystery. She also provides his first kiss. The conclusion is dramatically exciting. This novel also contains enough gruesome humour and painful puns to make it a sure hit with young male readers.
My Life of Crime is a readable and witty personal confession. Anthony, the narrator, admits he was a “useless, whinging, snivelling, moaning blob” and tells how he became Ant, a self-reliant and confident young man, able to outwit his enemies and even win some of them over as friends. Ant’s first-person narrative is very amusing especially when it becomes clear that his plans for the future still include the life of crime of the title. His dreams of instant wealth through a little kidnapping and ransom are never achieved but some surprising events do occur and Ant finds himself facing a major personal challenge. Fleur Beale has created a witty story that also offers some helpful tips for people who want to better themselves
“You must be Dee. You look like your father.” Historical novels for the young continue their growth in popularity. Phyllis Johnston’s Dead Dan’s Dee is a moving recreation of the problems faced by the soldiers of World War One, both on the battlefield and in later life back in New Zealand.
Dee’s father, Dan, had died on the Somme, so when her mother and aunt develop tuberculosis, she has to live first in a grim orphanage and then on a backblocks farm near Rotorua with her father’s best friend Joe and his wife Essie.
Life is hard, with low dairy prices and the threat of bush sickness, but Dee has the added difficulty of being haunted by the secrets that surround Dan’s death. She eventually learns the truth and finds happiness but at a cost. This richly detailed story brings the past alive for young readers and links Dee’s discovery to more recent events.
This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch on 3rd November 2007.
SALT Maurice Gee
SALT Maurice Gee, Puffin, 224 pages, paperback, $17.95
ISBN978-0-14-330335-0
“They took ninety men, some from their hovels, some from the ruins, and prodded them, howling, to the raised southern edge of People’s Square, where the paving stones had not yet slipped into the bog.”
It is a marvellous moment when you read the first page of a new book and realise that you are holding a classic of the future. This is the third time I’ve been asked to review Salt, the first time in New Zealand, and my third reading simply confirms that Maurice Gee has written his best fantasy novel. Salt is a stunning mix of action and ideas.
In the collapsed ruins of Belong, a former civilisation (which I like to think of as a Wellington of the future – it even has a sector called the Ceebeedee), guards use electric whips to round up forced labourers. Branded, they will be sent to the farms and workshops of the Company which destroyed their world. Young Hari watches as his defiant father, Tarl, is sentenced to the Deep Salt, a dreaded mine from which nobody returns. Rebellion seems futile against the overwhelming power of the Company and its guards. Yet Hari has a special mental power which enables him to escape the guards and flee to the wastelands.
Radiant Pearl of the Deep Blue Sea, usually called Pearl, is the daughter of one of the elite shareholding families who live in the security of the Compound, above Belong. Refusing to be handed over in an arranged marriage to the sadistic and ambitious Ottmar of Salt, Pearl is helped by her maidservant Tealeaf to escapes from Belong. Tealeaf (who has her own secrets) has developed Pearl’s special mental powers so they can both to flee to the wasteland.
When Pearl and Hari first meet in the barren wilderness, they try to kill each other but fail – their mental powers are too well matched. It is the disregarded Tealeaf who breaks the fatal impasse, by offering them both a focus for their mutual resentment. Hari and Pearl must work together. Yet Gee is far too skilful a storyteller to trot out yet another tale of two teenagers overthrowing a corrupt regime. Instead a much more sophisticated political and military battle is fought out, even as Hari enters the Deep Salt in search of his father. When he and Pearl learn the sinister truth of what Ottmar is producing from the Deep Salt, they are forced to return to Belong in an effort to avoid catastrophe. They face the battling factions in an exciting conclusion which is also cynically realistic.
As well as being a crossover fantasy, accessible to both adults and teens, Salt also presents an array of interesting and well-drawn characters in a powerful parable which can be interpreted as a sharply satirical sketch of the dehumanising effect of the market economy. Others will simply enjoy it as a fast-moving action novel. It is also Gee’s fantasy masterpiece
The language of Belong is spare and powerful. “I had to eat the scraps out of your rubbish tins,” says Hari in defiance of the tyrants, “But I pissed in your fountains.” There is also rich detail worked into the story. Tealeaf’s real name it emerges is Xantee; it tells us all we need to know about life in the Compound that Pearl would re-name her servant Tealeaf.
The dramatic conclusion of Salt leaves plenty of scope for a sequel. Readers will also want an explanation of the mystery of Tealeaf’s people, the Dwellers, who have three fingers, cat-like pupils and those special mental powers. Meanwhile we have the pleasure of reading the work of a master storyteller at the peak of his powers.
This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, on 1st September 2007.
Trevor Agnew contributed 26 biographies, including that of Maurice Gee, to the recently published Continuum Encyclopaedia of Young Adult Literature (USA).
ISBN978-0-14-330335-0
“They took ninety men, some from their hovels, some from the ruins, and prodded them, howling, to the raised southern edge of People’s Square, where the paving stones had not yet slipped into the bog.”
It is a marvellous moment when you read the first page of a new book and realise that you are holding a classic of the future. This is the third time I’ve been asked to review Salt, the first time in New Zealand, and my third reading simply confirms that Maurice Gee has written his best fantasy novel. Salt is a stunning mix of action and ideas.
In the collapsed ruins of Belong, a former civilisation (which I like to think of as a Wellington of the future – it even has a sector called the Ceebeedee), guards use electric whips to round up forced labourers. Branded, they will be sent to the farms and workshops of the Company which destroyed their world. Young Hari watches as his defiant father, Tarl, is sentenced to the Deep Salt, a dreaded mine from which nobody returns. Rebellion seems futile against the overwhelming power of the Company and its guards. Yet Hari has a special mental power which enables him to escape the guards and flee to the wastelands.
Radiant Pearl of the Deep Blue Sea, usually called Pearl, is the daughter of one of the elite shareholding families who live in the security of the Compound, above Belong. Refusing to be handed over in an arranged marriage to the sadistic and ambitious Ottmar of Salt, Pearl is helped by her maidservant Tealeaf to escapes from Belong. Tealeaf (who has her own secrets) has developed Pearl’s special mental powers so they can both to flee to the wasteland.
When Pearl and Hari first meet in the barren wilderness, they try to kill each other but fail – their mental powers are too well matched. It is the disregarded Tealeaf who breaks the fatal impasse, by offering them both a focus for their mutual resentment. Hari and Pearl must work together. Yet Gee is far too skilful a storyteller to trot out yet another tale of two teenagers overthrowing a corrupt regime. Instead a much more sophisticated political and military battle is fought out, even as Hari enters the Deep Salt in search of his father. When he and Pearl learn the sinister truth of what Ottmar is producing from the Deep Salt, they are forced to return to Belong in an effort to avoid catastrophe. They face the battling factions in an exciting conclusion which is also cynically realistic.
As well as being a crossover fantasy, accessible to both adults and teens, Salt also presents an array of interesting and well-drawn characters in a powerful parable which can be interpreted as a sharply satirical sketch of the dehumanising effect of the market economy. Others will simply enjoy it as a fast-moving action novel. It is also Gee’s fantasy masterpiece
The language of Belong is spare and powerful. “I had to eat the scraps out of your rubbish tins,” says Hari in defiance of the tyrants, “But I pissed in your fountains.” There is also rich detail worked into the story. Tealeaf’s real name it emerges is Xantee; it tells us all we need to know about life in the Compound that Pearl would re-name her servant Tealeaf.
The dramatic conclusion of Salt leaves plenty of scope for a sequel. Readers will also want an explanation of the mystery of Tealeaf’s people, the Dwellers, who have three fingers, cat-like pupils and those special mental powers. Meanwhile we have the pleasure of reading the work of a master storyteller at the peak of his powers.
This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, on 1st September 2007.
Trevor Agnew contributed 26 biographies, including that of Maurice Gee, to the recently published Continuum Encyclopaedia of Young Adult Literature (USA).
Swashbuckler Trilogy Complete
The Silver Swan Kelly Gardiner, The Swashbuckler trilogy, Vol 3, HarperCollins, 2007, 176 pages, paperback, NZ$16.99.
ISBN 1-86950-587-5
“The dungeons!” he called out to us, pointing to a grim-looking staircase descending into darkness just inside the gate. He flashed a wicked smile.
Never was a series better named than The Swashbuckler Trilogy, which has now reached
completion with The Silver Swan. Lily Swann first bursts on to the literary scene in Ocean Without End (2006) when she is captured by pirates. With her enthusiasm and initiative she rises through the ranks, serving as an assistant sea-cook, reluctant surgeon and part-time pirate before her navigation skills bring her a share of the proceeds and her own cabin. “I’d never had a room to myself.”
Lily’s original aim was to rescue her father Rafael, perhaps a pirate himself, one of the many characters in these books who have had to adopt a false identity. Even Carlos the cabin boy turns out to be the son of Maltese nobility; Lily enjoys a debate with his mother, the Duchessa de Santiago, on the rights of women and whether a life at sea is a suitable career choice for a young girl.
Lily’s cheerful first-person narrative keeps the action moving, as she continues to evade the revenge-seeking Captain Diablo. Even when the evil Diablo traps Lily in a sea-cave and
leaves her to die, in The Pirate’s Revenge (2006), she bravely escapes and finds a fortune in pearls while she is doing it.
As Lily and her piratical companions become involved in various conflicts between the French, Ottoman and British navies (not to mention other pirates) Lily makes no bones about the dangers of sea-battles: “A cannonball just minces people to bits.”
Having already survived being cast adrift, Lily now finds herself in another sea battle in The Silver Swan, as well as leading a rescue mission through the sewers of Valetta to save Carlos. She even
faces Diablo in a final duel, before receiving the ultimate compliment from Nelson. “Then the greatest and bravest admiral in the world winked at me.”
This bouncy trilogy has shown that Kelly Gardiner is capable of excellent plotting and writing. It will be interesting to see what her wide-ranging interests lead her to write about next.
Note: Don’t miss Kelly Gardiner’s website for the series at www.swashbuckler.co.nz.
This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, on 14th July 2007
ISBN 1-86950-587-5
“The dungeons!” he called out to us, pointing to a grim-looking staircase descending into darkness just inside the gate. He flashed a wicked smile.
Never was a series better named than The Swashbuckler Trilogy, which has now reached
completion with The Silver Swan. Lily Swann first bursts on to the literary scene in Ocean Without End (2006) when she is captured by pirates. With her enthusiasm and initiative she rises through the ranks, serving as an assistant sea-cook, reluctant surgeon and part-time pirate before her navigation skills bring her a share of the proceeds and her own cabin. “I’d never had a room to myself.”Lily’s original aim was to rescue her father Rafael, perhaps a pirate himself, one of the many characters in these books who have had to adopt a false identity. Even Carlos the cabin boy turns out to be the son of Maltese nobility; Lily enjoys a debate with his mother, the Duchessa de Santiago, on the rights of women and whether a life at sea is a suitable career choice for a young girl.
Lily’s cheerful first-person narrative keeps the action moving, as she continues to evade the revenge-seeking Captain Diablo. Even when the evil Diablo traps Lily in a sea-cave and
leaves her to die, in The Pirate’s Revenge (2006), she bravely escapes and finds a fortune in pearls while she is doing it.As Lily and her piratical companions become involved in various conflicts between the French, Ottoman and British navies (not to mention other pirates) Lily makes no bones about the dangers of sea-battles: “A cannonball just minces people to bits.”
Having already survived being cast adrift, Lily now finds herself in another sea battle in The Silver Swan, as well as leading a rescue mission through the sewers of Valetta to save Carlos. She even
faces Diablo in a final duel, before receiving the ultimate compliment from Nelson. “Then the greatest and bravest admiral in the world winked at me.” This bouncy trilogy has shown that Kelly Gardiner is capable of excellent plotting and writing. It will be interesting to see what her wide-ranging interests lead her to write about next.
Note: Don’t miss Kelly Gardiner’s website for the series at www.swashbuckler.co.nz.
This review by Trevor Agnew first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, on 14th July 2007
Jane Blonde series, Jill Marshall
Jane Blonde Spies Trouble Jill Marshall, Macmillan, 198 pages, 2007, paperback, NZ$17.00
ISBN 0-330-43825-5
The first book in this series Jane Blonde Sensational Spylet (2006) established demure schoolgirl Janey Brown’s secret identity as a lycra-clad superspy. This sequel, Jane Blonde Spies Trouble, might have been a tiresome repeat of a well-worn spoof but fortunately Jill Marshall, who now lives in New Zealand, has an effervescent imagination that keeps events unpredictable and amusing.
Even as our platinum-haired heroine struggles to become a fully qualified spylet, she finds herself pitted against scientists who plan to use the nine lives of her cat, Trouble, to achieve immortality. Armed only with chewing gum that lets her breathe underwater, Jane Blonde dives to the rescue. Jane Blonde Spies Trouble is for everyone who loves puns or has ever dreamed of owning a weapon called Alfie’s Boy-battler.
This review appeared in The Press, Christchurch, on 7th April 2007
ISBN 0-330-43825-5
The first book in this series Jane Blonde Sensational Spylet (2006) established demure schoolgirl Janey Brown’s secret identity as a lycra-clad superspy. This sequel, Jane Blonde Spies Trouble, might have been a tiresome repeat of a well-worn spoof but fortunately Jill Marshall, who now lives in New Zealand, has an effervescent imagination that keeps events unpredictable and amusing.
Even as our platinum-haired heroine struggles to become a fully qualified spylet, she finds herself pitted against scientists who plan to use the nine lives of her cat, Trouble, to achieve immortality. Armed only with chewing gum that lets her breathe underwater, Jane Blonde dives to the rescue. Jane Blonde Spies Trouble is for everyone who loves puns or has ever dreamed of owning a weapon called Alfie’s Boy-battler.
This review appeared in The Press, Christchurch, on 7th April 2007
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