vivdunstan

I've just finished this contemporary fantasy book, a debut publication by a new novelist. Who lives near Edinburgh of all places! I liked a lot about it. It's a combination of a tale of magic books / contemporary fantasy / time travel / thriller and I'd say memoirs in a strange way. But I did have problems, and that's why I've rated it just 3/5 overall.

The plotting is intricate, right through to the very end, and admirable. But I found the mass of characters being introduced early on and the chopping and changing of points of view tricky to keep up with, and hard to stay engaged with. However when it reached about halfway through something happened that was so very clever as writing. I was rather wowed. And then from there it careers towards the finale. Again densely plotted.

Beware it gets very violent in places. Very violent. This is not what I would term a young adult read for that reason. It's closer in some respects to crime fiction in that respect. It also strangely reminded me of the TV scifi series Heroes, with the many protagonists in there. But it was a bit overwhelming to read in book form. Though on plus it's very cinematic, and I could easily imagine this book adapted to a movie version.

However for fans of contemporary fantasy who aren't deterred by violent bits in places I'd recommend this. Just maybe beware going in that it is going to be a bit choppy in narrative, especially earlier on, and you may need to give it more time to get hooked.

I would definitely read another book by the same author, but would prefer one with a fresh plot and concept. I am also looking forward to seeing the author chat about this book at the Cymera book festival in Edinburgh in the summer. I have an online weekend pass for that whole festival, and will be watching - mainly on catchup - with interest.

In a brief awake spell managed to play another IFComp game (my 21st so far this year), a horror/thriller set in 1970s Venice. Enjoyed a lot about it, but the implementation wasn't thorough enough. Too many instances of fight the parser, including during tight timing sections. I wrote a detailed review of it on the intfiction forum, including helpful notes for the author. But hey, Venice in the 1970s, based around a film too. It felt like revisiting Don't Look Now ...

Trying to pick my movie viewing choice for this weekend, if I stay awake for long enough. And despite the calls of D&D and new Indy etc. I think this might win. As I always say about it, the best Hitchcock film that Hitchcock didn't make. And it has my all-time favourite piece of movie music in it, which I recently arranged to play on my accordion. It is also appealingly under 2 hours long!