You Like Movies, Right?

Do yourselves a big big favour and take a look at the linked sites (to your right).
Go on - you know you want to.... :)

Summer Reading Challenge Book 1 - IF I STAY - by Gayle Forman

If I Stay – by Gayle Forman
Published by Back Swan
Paperback £6.99



Now, if all the novels I’ve selected for my Summer Reading Challenge by Transworld Publishers are as short and tightly written as this, my first one, then I could be done and dusted in a week.
Somehow I doubt that’ll be the case.

In fact, clocking in at just 271 pages, a quick flick revealed that the actual novel is only 250 of these, the balance taken up by extra goodies in the form of an interview with the author, plus insights into the writing and the music that plays a major part of the story.

The tale, to sum up briefly, is that of Mia - a seventeen year old Cello player and the aftermath of a car crash with her family, following which she is in a state of limbo, watching over herself and her friends and family whilst she lies in a coma in hospital.
From then on in, the novel takes the form of a mix of Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game – with the main character trapped alone in a bed, unable to communicate with anyone and alone in her thoughts – and movies like Ghost, whereby a character is able to see the reactions and actions of their loved ones to their situation without them being aware they are being watched and listened to.

In recent years, I guess another likely comparison would be The Lovely Bones.

I’m not sure if it was the cover image and design or the character of Mia, complete with her rock group boyfriend, that made me think this novel will most likely appeal to the ‘Twilight’ generation. Not really too much of a surprise then to find mentioned in the back of the book that Summit, the studio that make the Twilight movies, are interested in making If I Stay into a movie.

It’s a great quick read and, let’s be honest, it’s not really aimed at a forty year old male to form its readership.
However, I try to take something from everything I read and in If I Stay I was particularly touched by the details about Mia’s father and how he gave up his music life to be a Dad, risking losing the respect of his bandmates. Something that took a few years, until one of them also became a father, for someone to admit that they then understood perfectly why he’d changed.

In a novel which hinges on four family members being involved in a major car crash it’s difficult to say too much more without giving spoilers as to who survives and who does not – you’ll just have to find those details out by reading the book.

I didn’t find it as emotional as I’d thought it would be, and that may be down to the language used for its younger audience, but probably worth keeping a handkerchief close by if you are prone to shedding a tear or two whilst reading.

A perfect novel to pack for a day on the beach this summer, and one that you can whizz through in a day without pausing to look up at the sun.

Summer Reading Challenge

Okay, here goes.

Those lovely people at Transworld Publishers have set a challenge - one I'm hoping I can rise to...

Over the summer, they'll be sending me lovely books, I'll read them, blog about them, you then rush out and buy them so you can enjoy them yourself - as that meerkat says 'simples'.

I have not selected Mr Brown's latest (as seen in the chair above) as I think you've probably already read it, or if you haven't you probably have your own reasons for that too...

So, my first book is the intriguing 'If I Stay' by Gayle Forman.

I'm thinking 'The Lovely Bones' with a bit of 'Ghost' for the 'Twilight'-generation?

Anyway, 40 pages in and it's very good so far - check back soon for more news and comment.

The Passage - by Justin Cronin

The Passage by Justin Cronin

Published by Orion Books

I’m guessing that the only way I could say anything new or different in my review of the doorstopper of a book that is The Passage would be to say it was a bad book, that it was a terrible book.

But I can’t, because it isn’t, and so I won’t.

It’s also hard to say too much about its epic plot without creating too many spoilers (and I’ve read some reviews today which have done just that).

For that reason I was very pleased that I was able to get the chance to read the book before publication date to enable it to be unspoiled for me. I’d want everyone to have the same experience.

But, in truth, I think everyone will have quite different experiences in reading it.

By its very scope and size there is, as the saying goes ‘something for everyone’.

This is not a ‘Twilight’ but the mere mention of the V-word will have many a bloodsucker fan wanting to read it – and that’s a good thing, it will expand reading for a lot of younger readers into a bigger and more engaging book for this summer than they may have otherwise chosen.

The genre term ‘horror’ is something that would turn a lot of would-be readers off trying it, so the whole look of the book and the amazing campaign that its publishers launched was a superb piece of marketing – without having to resort to a drop of blood on the cover or the word ‘vampire’ on the cover.

The comparisons to other epic apocalyptic tales such as Stephen King’s The Stand are fair, as are the links to Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, but for me I’d also throw in Richard Matheson’s excellent I Am Legend and the fortressed new worlds we’ve seen in movies such as Mad Max 2:The Road Warrior.

If I had but one disappointment (and it was short lived I will admit) it was the first time shift between the book’s parts – when I suddenly despaired that a lot I’d fallen in love with in its theme and characters had gone.

But, as I say, it was a short lived feeling as the next stage of the book then continued to ramp up the action, the themes and add a whole new raft of characters to the proceedings.

Like many big genre books, it has its own language of sorts too, and I think I may start referring to my children now as the ‘littles’, and it’s to Cronin’s credit how few times the v word is actually used, with his use of substitutes of smokes, virals, walkers etc.

The whole setting of the new societies which have to spring up in the face of what is happening is well executed, and everybody likes forts and crossbows, right?

So, The Passage, a fantastical summertime blockbuster read that is most certainly not your typical vampire book and, as Stephen King has said, Cronin has ‘made vampires scary again.’

The fact that it’s nearly three times the size of an average book, didn’t stop me from reading it quicker than anything else I’ve read this year and, on closing the novel, could quite easily have started over again. It is that good.

Its not complex or heavily detailed writing, it is simply a good story and told as such.

And don’t worry it’ll all be too bleak – there are some moments of humour. My own favourite being ‘Movie Night’ – I’ll say no more here. Go read it yourself.

With the film rights already bought by Ridley Scott, I am nervous of what a movie could do with this material. Scott was superb at holding back the reveal of his Alien in that movie, but The Passage demands that he keep the full horror of the virals reined in for about 400 pages. I just fear that it could be a great novel spoiled.

So, what are you waiting for? Seek out The Passage now and discover it for yourself, because……

‘Flyers’, Justin Cronin has two more books to come in this series.

Keith B Walters

Pan Horror is coming back !

Back from the Dead

The return of

THE PAN BOOK OF

HORROR STORIES

Selected by

Herbert van Thal

Returning after fifty years (its first edition – as pictured here – published on 11^th December 1959) Pan are re-releasing this classic series of horror story books back onto bookshelves on 1^st October 2010 in time for perfect Halloween-time reading.

I didn’t know the history of these classic collections, so the introduction by Johnny Mains (Super fan and horror expert) was very welcome.

I was shocked at the fact that it may have well been a certain Stephen King that led to the demise of the series. A decision to reprint some of his short stories, including The Lawnmower Man, might have seemed a smart move, but it had a negative effect on sales as many readers already had his tales in his own published collections and so were actually ‘less’ likely to purchase the latter editions of the Pan collections.

If the taster copy I have read, which features just one story from the original first collection, is anything to go by, then I will be buying these with an almost vampiric hunger.

‘The House of Horror’ by Seabury Quinn was written for the original first book, but I found it a nastier read than a scene in many a current serial killer book you could pick up in a bookstore today. Its ascending level of horror as the central characters descend into the lower levels of the house in question and the steady reveal of the horrors within are handled and paced so well. The final result something akin to discovering the horrors of The Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre all in the one basement.

Its theme of personal revenge being taken out on those not even responsible for what originally angered the aggressor are not new, by any means, but Quinn got here a long time ago – a long time before our current crop of horror writers.

A recommended blast from horror’s past and something I am looking forward to afresh later this year.

Keith B Walters

Stories - Edited by Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio

How chuffed was I to win a copy of the new short story compilation just published by Headline - answer: VERY VERY.

Haven't had a chance to dive in just yet, but with Joe Hill, Michael Marshall Smith, Peter Straub and loads of other favourite authors, it's going to be a great read I'm sure.

Many thanks to Sam Eades for arranging the competition and the subsequent twitter Q&A with @waterstones by Mr Gaiman @neilhimself (where I was fortunate to get in with the last question, asking him if he had plans for a second volume, to which he replied that he'd love to, as there were so many other great writers who didn't make it into the first volume.

And the competition I had to enter to win this beautiful book?

Well, I got very carried away, so here are some of my entries below...... :)

#stories – 9 entries of 131 characters, plus the #stories hashtag, to win a copy of ‘stories’ edited by Neil Gaiman.

1.

#stories, I love stories. Stories your father used to read me, the stories he made up, but the very best one will be your story.

2.

I don’t believe you, there was no monster, no demon. You made the whole thing up again didn’t you, eh? You and your crazy #stories.

3.

He’d always loved #stories – listening to them, reading them and now, writing them. What he didn’t know was they were now coming true

4.

He was risking everything, he knew that. He had a job, one that paid the bills, but he also preferred just to write his #stories.

5.

They were just #stories, right? The killer didn’t really live round this way. It didn’t help though – the shadowy figure was there.

6.

He stood and watched in silence. The dark shape moved in the trees above. He didn’t want to believe that the #stories might be true.

7.

He told us #stories – they came true. Whatever the stranger told of, it appeared. Was it a magic? Or was it something darker & evil?

8.

Just your flippin’ #stories again! Never believe you anymore. The boy looked back at his mother, then held up his bloodied hands.

9.

There are rhymes, poems and fictions, but all are just #stories, stories to be told and, what’s more, to be lived out by us.

Time's Legacy - By Barbara Erskine

[Time's Legacy]

This was my first Barbara Erskine novel and, I have to admit, as it didn't feature a detective or a murder in the opening chapters I wasn't sure it was really going to be my thing. That said, I am now so pleased to have read it - it's a great and interesting read and has shown me that there is certainly nothing wrong with breaking out and reading unfamiliar genres to keep an interest in reading going. I was hooked - the superb trailer on Harper Collins' author website certainly fired up my interest before I got to read the novel - it's mix of modern day mysticism, the possibility of the occult and witchcraft in a modern Glastonbury based society and the vision-like tale of ancient Rome that runs alongside and crosses back and forth across the timelines made for a very interesting read. The characters, particularly those of young priest Abi Rutherford and the mysterious Rector Kieran Scott, are all well rounded and I enjoyed my time with them for the duration of the novel. The Roman age characters are also interesting and the theme of how much of Christianity was brought to Glastonbury, and by whom, in years past was very intriguing. I have just returned from an event where stones and crystals were on display on a stall and, until reading Time's Legacy, their possible power meant nothing to me. Now, however, maybe they do....

Harrogate Crime Writing Festival 2010

I will be back at Harrogate for the entire event this year - so stand by for full report of the whole thing - likely to be posted in episodes in the week after the event, whilst I take a week's holiday to get over it all and do some reading.....

London 2 Brighton

Scary to think, but only a few weeks now till I cycle London to Brighton for the British Heart Foundation.

54 miles !

Please drop by and sponsor me at:

http://original.justgiving.com/keithbwalters2010

I thank you (and so do the BHF).

Back again....

Okay - it's been a while since last blog, but I am back again.

Quick post here to send yo over to another great blog where I have just uploaded my 1996 interview with F Paul Wilson, to check that one out, go to;

http://hagelrat.blogspot.com

More stuff will start appearing here anytime soonish.