Tales of Terror From the Tunnel's Mouth

Synopsis: A boy is put on a train by his stepmother to make his first journey on his own. But soon that journey turns out to be more of a challenge than anyone could have imagined as the train stalls at the mouth of a tunnel and a mysterious woman in white helps the boy while away the hours by telling him stories - stories with a difference.

Review: I absolutely love this series of books. They are just creepy and spine tingly enough to make me feel enjoyably scared and not so terrifying that I can't sleep at night or start looking for faces in mirrors or hands creeping out from under beds (because of course, they are meant for children .. having said that one or two always freak me out more than is comfortable.) I love the way in which there are lots of little stories within the story and how they all build to the final revelation. In this case, the central character is Robert and he is travelling to school by train. There are a number of people that get into his carriage .. he doesn't know their names but going on their appearance he nicknames them .. the Major, the Farmer, the Bishop, the Surgeon and the Woman in White. Apart from Robert and the Woman in White, all the occupants of the carriage soon fall fast asleep and when the train comes to a sudden stop, the Woman in White begins to tell Robert some tales in order to help pass the time. These stories all have a supernatural, creepy element and unsurprisingly they make Robert feel very uneasy .. and this is coupled with the fact that his stepmother awoke from a catnap just before Robert boarded the train and said she'd had a premonition about the journey and thought he should catch a later train instead.

The stories vary in creepiness, you can sometimes work out what's going to happen as you go along and it's fun guessing (as it helps relieve the tension). Alan and I read these to each other, a chapter each, and he managed to work out the outcomes of most of the stories before we got to the ending being far more clued up than me, though sometimes his guesses were wide of the mark. My favourites among the tales were 'Gerald' .. a story of puppets (which let's face it are always creepy .. along with clowns) and 'A New Governess' .. which is a favourite subject for terror. As Robert get's more and more freaked out, he starts to question more and more what is actually happening during this train journey .. why isn't the train moving and why won't the other passengers wake up.

I love David Roberts's drawings, they help make the books special .. I'm not keen on the new covers which have different artwork and no inside illustrations. I guess they are supposed to be the 'adult' covers .. I'm sticking with the children's one's, they're quirky, creepy and absolutely perfect.

I'm hoping Chris will do more tales of terror. I just love them.

The Undrowned Child

Synopsis: It's the beginning of the 20th century; the age of scientific progress. But for Venice the future looks bleak. A conference of scientists assembles to address the problems, among whose delegates are the parents of twelve-year-old Teodora. Within days of her arrival, she is subsumed into the secret life of Venice: a world in which salty-tongued mermaids run subversive printing presses, ghosts good and bad patrol the streets and librarians turn fluidly into cats. A battle against forces determined to destroy the city once and for all quickly ensues. Only Teo, the undrowned child who survived a tragic accident as a baby, can go 'between the linings' to subvert evil and restore order.

Review: This is a great adventure book for young adults and for the most part really enjoyable. It's 1899, Teodora lives in Naples with her adoptive parents, she's always wanted to go to Venice but her parents have been reluctant to take her (I know the feeling, I couldn't get my parents to take me anywhere more exotic than the Isle of Wight!) but then fate intervenes. Venice has been engulfed in a wave of strange and sinister events for months and the 'worlds greatest scientists' have been summoned there in order to try and get to the bottom of it. It's a stroke of luck for Teo that her parent's are amongst the worlds greatest scientists because let's face it, they could have been the worlds greatest estate agents. They try and fob her off with talk of leaving her behind, they mention schoolwork etc but it's to no avail, Teo is determined.

Venice is such a magical city that just to have the place described in all it's glory is entrancing, you can imagine all sorts of adventures happening there. It's everything that Teo has imagined and more, her favourite place is a dusty old bookshop and this is where all the excitement begins. She's rummaging around on the shelves, when a book falls and knocks her senseless. There are a few strange things about this book 1) It has no title 2) It has a pearly, fishy smell 3) It has a picture on the front of a girl, and she appears to wink at Teo 4) When examined in more detail later, the book has the following inscription on it's inside cover ...

'Welcome to Venice, Teodora-of-Sad-Memory. We have been waiting for you for a very long time'

... very odd!

The book, also known as 'The Key to the Secret City,' sets in motion a thrilling chain of events. To begin with Teo goes 'in between the linings' which means she is entirely invisible to adults. This of course sounds marvellous but in actuality is terrible, firstly she wasn't sure she was alive (until she found out that children could see her) and secondly her poor parents almost went out of their heads believing her to be missing for days and days. She soon meets her partner in crime Renzo .. or the 'Studious Son' as he is also also called. He dislikes and mistrusts her on sight, he knows (or believes) she is a Napoletana and therefore his deadly enemy. He doesn't think she should have the book, he thinks he should have it. They fight and argue but trials and troubles bring them closer together and by the end they are as thick as thieves. Also, amongst the 'goodies' are a bunch (I'm sure that's not the collective noun) of mermaids. Fairly conventional in looks, but fairly salty in language (having learnt a lot of it from sailor's). They say stuff like 'What a drivelswagger! Drags on like a sea cow's saliva!' and they eat curries. It's the mermaids that first call Teo the 'Undrowned Child' and this name relates back to an incident that happened in Venice some 11 years before .. something that we read about in the prologue and also in a verse that appears magically in the 'The Key to the Secret City' ...

'Where's our Studious Son? Who's our Lost Daughter,
Our Undrowned Child plucked from the water,
Who shall save us from a Traitor's tortures?
That secret's hidden in the old Bone orchard.'

The main 'baddie' is Bajamonte Tiepolo or 'Il Traditore' as he is also known, a man who actually did live in Venice in the 1300's. He had tried to destroy the Republic of Venice and kill the Doge, but was unsuccessful. He was believed to have died in exile but the fictionalised account here says that he was captured, murdered and thrown into the lagoon. Unfortunately, he's not resting in peace, he want's revenge, and if his disembodied spirit can find his bones .. with a bit of help from some 'baddened magic' he'll be back to full strength. Of course it is Teo and Renzo's job to stop him and mayhem ensues.

Towards the end I found it all a bit hectic and there were too many similarities with other fantasy books for me to entirely believe in the plot. Baddies that made the air chill, maps with tiny moving footprints, an upturned turtle shell where the past could be viewed, Venetian treacle which was a kind of cure-all rather like Lucy's vial in Narnia and a baddie needing bones and a spell to become whole again. There were books in the bookshop that would have been right at home in Flourish and Blotts ...

'Smooth as a Weasel and Twice as Slippery' by Arnon Rodent

'Lagoon Creatures - Nice or Nasty?' by Professor Marin

'The Best Ways With Wayward Ghosts' by 'One Who Consorts with Them'

.... and a cat that transfigures into a lady. But then they may not have been original ideas when I read them in other books and in any case the book is not really aimed at me, perhaps age has made me cynical. It's certainly not a book that is just a re-hash of past stories though, there are lots of new ideas here and placing all the action in Venice makes it extra exciting, sharks swim down the canals, stone statues come to life and as the city falls under the grip of 'Il Traditore' it begins to revert back to the 1300's with the buildings crumbling and the paintwork falling off in great scabs revealing the stonework underneath.

A story that I'm sure most 9-12 year olds would love, especially girls or anyone that loves reading about Venice.

Inkdeath (Audiobook)

Synopsis: Life in the Inkworld has been far from easy since the extraordinary events of Inkspell, when the story of Inkheart magically drew Meggie, Mo, and Dustfinger back into its pages.With Dustfinger dead, and the evil Adderhead in control, the story in which they are all caught has taken an unhappy turn.Elinor, left alone in the real world, believes her family to be lost - lost between the covers of a book. But as winter comes there is reason to hope - if only Meggie and Mo can rewrite the wrongs of the past and make a dangerous deal with death....Here is the fantastic finale to the epic Inkheart Trilogy from best-selling author Cornelia Funke.

Review: Although I bought this in paperback I eventually decided to download the audio. The main reason for this was that I found reading 'Inkspell' a trial, I enjoyed it, but because I couldn't commit the time to reading it, I picked it up and put it down far too often and literally got lost in the story, but not in a good way. Anyhow, I'm glad I did because listening to Allan Corduner's reading of Inkdeath was an absolute pleasure. At first it was a bit odd, having read the first two books, I had my own voices for the characters and they weren't for the most part anything like Alan's but after a couple of chapters I forgot about my versions.I was glad to have a copy of the book to use for reference, it has a synopsis of both Inkheart and Inkspell at the start and a comprehensive A-Z list of characters and place names which came in pretty handy especially at the beginning.

click here for the rest of my review - possible spoilers

Back to the story then, since the death of Cosima the Fair, Ombra has been ruled by the decaying but immortal, Adderhead, and governed by his brother in-law, the Milksop. Farid is still mourning the death of Dustfinger, and now slaves away working for Orpheus, desperately hoping that he can persuade him to somehow read Dustfinger back into the story. Orpheus has started to put his own stamp on the story, he creates riches for himself and does his best to ingratiate himself to the Milksop. He conjures up weird and wonderful creatures that had only ever been heard of in fairy tales before. He finds all the right words to use from Fenoglio's original text, he rearranges and mixes them to suit himself. He finds himself growing rich on 'what he can entice from another man's word's'.

Fenoglio is living in Minerva's little attic room, he has turned to drink and lazes about in bed for most of the time, he is despondent and has given up writing, whatever his good intentions Inkworld has started to shape it's own story. Orpheus uses his glass man to spy on Fenoglio, he fears that he may take up his pen again and then he will lose some of the control and influence he has gained.

Mortimer, Meggie and Resa are living with the Black Prince and his band of robbers who are trying to protect the citizens of Ombra from the Milksop and his army. Mo has assumed the identity of the mythical Bluejay, an outlaw immortalised in verse by Fenoglio in Inkheart, strangely though it feels as though the Bluejay has always been a part of him, merely sleeping until Fenoglio's world had brought him to life. At the end of Inkspell, the Adderhead, using Meggie and Resa as bait, had forced Mo to bind a book for him which would make him immortal. He wrote his name in the blank pages but what he didn't know is that Mo had ensured that the book itself was dying. As the book begins to decay, so does the Adderhead, sunlight hurts his skin, his limbs are bloated, every step and every breath is painful to him, he emits a rotting stench so powerful and repellant that it is torture to be anywhere near him. And he knows that this agony will continue forever. He cannot sleep and he spends his time plotting revenge on the Bluejay, he needs to capture him and force him to bind another book that will restore him to full health, and then he will kill him.

Mo also knows that he needs to re-visit the Castle Of Night and write the three words in the book that will permanently rid Inkworld of the Adderhead. But it's dangerous, the Adderhead keeps the blood soaked book with him at all times, how will Mo ever be able to get hold of it? He is surprised when he is offered help in his quest from an unlikely source, the Adderheads daughter ... Her Ugliness ... Violante also want's to see her father destroyed. But can Mo trust her?

Meggie is in turmoil also, would they all be better off returning to this world?, can she persuade Fenoglio to take up his pen again and can she read his words to help keep the Bluejay safe? She's annoyed with Farid, who spends most of his time with Orpheus obsessing about Dustfinger. There is another boy that has caught her eye, the Strong Mans younger brother Doria, is it possible to love two boys at the same time?

I loved the twists and turns of the story, Cornelia manages to tie everything up together beautifully and she keeps the suspense building. The question I most wanted answered (or was most fearful of finding out the answer to) was 'will Dustfinger be brought back to life'?, he's got to be everyone's favourite character hasn't he? but I was also eager to find out whether the Folchart's would return to this world or stay in Inkworld. The quality of Cornelia's writing shines out. I still think that Inkheart was the best book of the trilogy, I just thought it was storytelling at it's most perfect, but I really enjoyed this one too. The ending won't be to everyone's taste, there's one outcome in particular that is disappointing, but it felt right for the story as it developed. I liked the way that she hints at adventures yet to come involving new characters, that we've only just met. We probably won't hear about these adventures, but they will be happening just the same.

The Wild Things

Synopsis: Seven-year-old Max likes to make noise, get dirty, ride his bike without a helmet and howl like a wolf. In any other era, he would be considered a boy. In 2007, he is considered willful and deranged. His home life is problematic. His parents are divorced; his father, immature and romantic, lives in the city. His mother has taken up with a younger man who steals quarters from the change bowl in the foyer. Driven by a series of pressures internal and external, Max leaves home, jumps in a boat and sails across the ocean to a strange island where giant beasts reign. The "Wild Things" is from Maurice Sendak's visionary classic. This is an all-ages adventure, full of wit and soul, that explores the chaos of youth while Max explores the chaos of the world around him.

Review: Although I loved 'The Road' I wanted my next read to be something light hearted and fun and this fitted the bill perfectly.This book is an adaptation of Spike Jonze's film, 'Where the Wild Things Are', which itself was an adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic book of the same name. I haven't seen the film or read the original picture book, so I came to this new adaptation without any pre-conceived ideas.
It's about Max who's seven, he lives with his Mum and sister Claire. His parents are divorced, and his Dad lives in an apartment in the city. His Mum has a boyfriend called Gary, Max does his best to get rid of Gary, he plays tricks on him, hides his coffee and replaces his muffins with stale one's, but Gary is not very quick on the uptake, and is not at all suspicious, in fact he thinks that Max is his friend.Max is feeling pretty frustrated with life, his sister's friends have tried to kill him during a snowball fight, and his subsequent revenge (which involved buckets of water and Claire's pretty pink and powder blue bedroom) has made his Mum angry with him. And then there's frog faced Gary, lounging about, taking coins from the dish in the foyer, and calling Max 'bud'

It's more than a seven year old can stand, and after another huge row late in the evening, Max, dressed in his beloved furry wolf suit, runs out of the door (with Gary in pursuit) and into the night.He soon outstrips Gary and reaches the woods, where he finds a small boat, at the edge of a vast lake. Max climbs in and decides that he can sail the boat northwards, until he reaches the city and his Dad's apartment. But although at first he can see the twinkling lights of the city, they seem to be getting farther and farther away, until he appears to be sailing in the open sea.

Eventually Max's boat finds an island, a very strange island with brown and yellow striped earth (like peanut butter and cinnamon) and rocks that have embroidery like red moss clinging to them. He hears a strange mix of sounds, crashing, destructive noises but laughter too. He follows the noises, and comes across some four inch high cat's which is very odd, but they aren't making the noise so what is?. A hundred yards later he finds out. Huge animals, ten or twelve feet high, four hundred pound each or more, like enormous bears but bears with the quickness of deer or small monkey's, and they are all different too, one has a horn, one has string hair and one looks like a goat etc.

Thus we are introduced to Douglas, Carol, Judith, Ira, Alex, Bull and Katherine, seven incredibly wild things. In order to avoid having his flesh and brains devoured, Max persuades them that he is their king. They have a celebration and he's given a crown. The beast's look at him expectantly and Max says the first thing that comes into his head 'Let the wild rumpus begin!'

I found the first two thirds of the book really easy to read and extremely funny in places, but it did seem to lose it's way a bit and the final outcome seemed rushed. It was throroughly enjoyable though, the 'wild things' themselves were endearingly odd and funny. I must put the film on my rental list now.

Fever Crumb

Synopsis: "Fever Crumb" is a stunning, stand-alone prequel to Philip Reeve's brilliant science fantasy quartet. It is set many generations before the events of Mortal Engines, in whose dazzling world huge, predatory cities chase and devour each other. Now, London is a riot-torn, ruinous town, clinging to a devastated landscape and hiding an explosive secret. Is Fever, adopted daughter of Dr Crumb, the strange key that will unlock its dangerous mysteries?

Review: I hadn't read any of the 'Mortal Engine' books so I had no idea what to expect from this prequel. It's a story set in futuristic London, a story about Fever, an orphan, abandoned at birth and brought up by scientist Dr Crumb. She is the youngest member and only female of the Order of Engineers.

Fever has had a practical, unemotional upbringing and is very realistic and serious. She has a shaven head, hair is .. 'just a vestige of our animal past and provides a home for lice and other parasites'. She drinks boiled water .. 'it is deeply irrational that dried leaves should be transported halfway around the world aboard ships and land barges simply to flavour water. Besides tea is a stimulant, which leads to nervousness and irrationality' and she cannot see the purpose of jokes.

London had once been ruled by The Scriven, who were brilliant, cruel and not entirely human .. they liked to call themselves 'Homo superior'. However, like most mutant strains, they hadn't thrived for long. Largely unsuccessful in breeding and held in contempt by native Londoners they were sought out and slaughtered in an event known as the 'Skinners Riots'.

One day Fever is sent on a placement to archaeologist Kit Solent's house, he has specifically requested that she help him study some artefacts. But her odd coloured eyes and shaven head evoke suspicion in some of the native Londoners, and it isn't long before the Skinners get wind of this odd looking traveller and set about trying to track her down.

She expects to be taken by Kit to some ancient site, but instead he takes her to a secret passage that runs underneath his house. The passage leads to a chamber in which there is a door, with no handles or hinges .. just a 'lectronic keypad'. It requires a code to break it and for some strange reason, Kit expects Fever to know that code and even stranger than that is that Fever thinks she does remember that code.

She starts to find her stay at Kit Solents house unsettling, she begins to have thoughts and feelings that she's never experienced before. She wonders about her past, who were her real parents?. She begins to remember things, memories of other yesterdays which could not possibly have been hers for she has always lived at Godshawk's Head with Dr Crumb.

And all the while a huge army makes it's way South, tribes of people from the North who have been set wandering by the plagues and firestorms. Travelling in gigantic wagons and traction castles, huge cities moving ever onwards towards the 'Moatway' gates and London.

I thought the writing was fantastic, if Dickens had ever written a futuristic novel for children then it would be very much like this one .. with the Skinners, the Scriven and the Patchskins .. The Mott and Hoople Pub, Pickled Eel Circus, Cripplegate, Stragglemarket and St Kylie. Clearly Philip Reeve is a David Bowie fan as there is graffiti saying 'This ain't genocide, this is rock'n'roll' and there is also a pub called 'Scary Monsters and Super Creeps' (also Fever has mismatched eyes as Bowie has). Central to it all is Fever, and though she is a weird little unemotional thing, you can't help but be interested in her and anxious about her welfare.

Apparently, though this is a prequel, it's best if you read it last. I haven't done that but I'm still interested to read the others because they sound even more fantastic.

Enter The Dragons!

Synopsis: Naomi Novik's stunning series of novels follow the global adventures of Captain William Laurence and his fighting dragon Temeraire as they are thrown together to fight for Britain during the turbulent time of the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Will Laurence has been at sea since he was just twelve years old; finding a warmer berth in Nelson's navy than any he enjoyed as the youngest, least important son of Lord Allendale. Rising on merit to captain his own vessel, Laurence has earned himself a beautiful fiancee, society's esteem and a golden future. But the war is not going well. It seems Britain can only wait as Napoleon plans to overrun her shores. After a skirmish with a French ship, Laurence finds himself in charge of a rare cargo: a dragon egg bound for the Emperor himself. Dragons are much prized: properly trained, they can mount a fearsome attack from the skies. One of Laurence's men must take the beast in hand and join the aviators' cause, thus relinquishing all hope of a normal life. But when the newly-hatched dragon ignores the young midshipman Laurence chose as its keeper and decides to imprint itself on the horrified captain instead, Laurence's world falls apart. Gone is his golden future: gone his social standing, and soon his beautiful fiancee, as he is consigned to be the constant companion and trainer of the fighting dragon Temeraire!

Review: A really enjoyable book to read, the characters were engaging, especially the dragon 'Temeraire'; I loved his relationship with Laurence (he is almost always called Laurence though it is his surname). Usually dragons in fiction are either fierce or impossibly cute, this was a rather pleasing mixture of the two (erring on the right side in both cases).

I loved the notion too that during the Napoleonic wars, dragons were in the Air Corps with crew, very much like the fighter planes in WWII. There are some sensational aerial battles, really edge of the seat stuff and I'm not in the least surprised that Peter Jackson has bought the film rights. If executed well the films should be fantastic and he's probably the man to do it.

There are a couple of glitches, Laurence's relationships with his family and his, soon to become ex, fiancee aren't really fleshed out. Perhaps we'll learn more about them in the sequels (I think there are three so far). A couple of the plotlines, like the one involving the french deserter Choiseul, were fairly predictable. But that didn't really get in the way of what was, on the whole, a highly enjoyable read.

It was really reminiscent of those old swashbuckling adventure stories ... but with the added bonus of dragons too!! There were a couple of situations or words that were fairly 'adult' .. which just prevents it from being suitable for 9 year olds and above .. nothing at all graphic, just words mainly, but that's a bit of a shame because I think they would enjoy it immensely. I will read the first sequel at least. I hope it continues in the same vein.